Intelligence as it leads to Power

Today in class we spoke about power, all of the different ways someone gains power, as well as all kinds of different types of power. However I found that every kind of power, as well as every means to gain power all linked back to one thing; intelligence. In order to have any kinds of skills that leaders possess one must be an intelligent being. For example in order to be a coercive leader a leader must be intelligent enough to outsmart the people he is wishing to coerce. Intelligence was defined as the ability to think things through in a way that others cannot, by definition alone it is a quality every leader must posses. Even the trait of being charismatic requires intelligence. A charismatic person is someone who can think about things in a different light than others, that is what gives them charisma and draws people to them, because they are unlike you, you are attracted. This parallels the very definition of intelligence. We also briefly spoke about practical versus analytic intelligence. While practical was defined as the ability to read social situations I think it is really what most people refer to as "street smarts". On the other side the analytic does well on S.A.T.S and carries a high G.P.A. I think both types of intelligence are important for a leader, because both outline different qualities mandatory to think through things in a way others cannot.

Stimulation

The stimulation debriefing in class raised a lot of questions and also brought about a lot of defensiveness. I tried to be a mediator in the entire situation and really was looking for everyone to get the most out of it. When we started to run out of time and everyone got flustered I admit I was a bad manager because I took a step back and just watched the rest unfold. I was trying to help both top management and my bottom group, but everyone else was looking out for their own interests above all else.
I thought it interesting that Dr.Goates proposed that students with higher G.P.A's are less likely to defy authority in this exercise. To me this makes complete sense. We discussed this in my accounting class. If you think about it, those with high G.P.A's have grown accustom to performing to a standard. This standard is set by the professor. For example if a professor comes into class the first day and says that attendance is 50% of your grade, any person with a high G.P.A, and wishing to maintain that, would not miss one class. Whereas if the professor came in and  said that attendance counted as 0% of the grade then students would be more inclined to miss class. A better example is that if a professor says that there will be tests questions directly from the reading and text book assigned most students will make a point to do the readings; in the same way if the professor assigns readings that are not directly related to tests or other assignments students will be less inclined to read.

Book Report Segment #5

The final section of my book, Global Women, is about how countries around the world survive through globalization. Specifically services that are extracted from third world countries to fulfill needs in the first world. Especially through women's work in domestic ways. The trafficking of women has become a large way to provide income to these under developed countries. One story recounted is of a 15 year old girl from Thailand who was sold to a brothel by her parents. One morning upon waking she is reminded of the 15 men she had slept with the previous night from the soreness in her body. This particular brothel houses 25 women and one pimp. Because this 15 year old girl looks particularly young she can be sold at a higher price because she looks "new" due to her young appearance. When she first entered the brothel she tried to run away however now they have broken her spirit and she seems to accept this horrible fate. Any debt incurred by a Thai family often results in selling daughters into prostitution or servitude. With the country's transition into industrialization has increased the amount at which this has happened. Slavery and prostitution have increased as a result of these changes. Parent's feel the need to keep up with the changing economy and buy more consumer goods. The sale of a daughter can help provide the funds needed for these purchases. The brothels needs for these girls also increases because this economic boom has also increased the amount of money laborers and workers have earned, and they want to purchase prostitutes with this new cash flow.

Another way that women are used for economic gain is through mail order brides. More than 40 percent of women who enter the U.S are marriage migrants. Men often pick highly educated women who come from their own countries (once they are already citizens). This usually happens through the two parties parents. The grooms parents will contact the brides and set up the proposal and the marriage. After this happens the brides family receives a "gift" or money amount for their daughter. This also helps the man who will receive a wife who can contribute to his own income.

Globalization has produced a new need for labor and changed the economic process as a whole. The number of highly paid professionals in third world countries are growing and they in turn are maintained by a low-paid service workers. The demand for these workers, especially servants and prostitutes has increased in conjunction with the economy. Women have emerged as crucial economic actors. The connection between countries through migration enables local practices to become global. These dynamics produce a strong need for migrant workers, servants, prostitutes on a global scale.

The biggest connection that I have drawn between this book and class is through culture. The culture of third world countries has been globalized along with it's women. The women who migrant from all over the world to our country each bring with them different artifacts, values, and beliefs. The end of my book also connected directly with motivation. The motivation of the 15 year old prostitute from the book can be outlined by Maslov's Hierarchy of Needs Model. Her deficiency needs, once sold into the brothel, had been changed. Her physiological needs for food, air, sleep, etc are all met minimally by the pimp at the brothel. Her need for safety and security in her eyes was not being met until she they broke her spirit and after that point she prayed she would not extract HIV because she would be thrown out on the street to starve. Her safety and security needs change and are then met because she finds the brothel as her new security. Her need for loving and belonging also changed in a similar way . Intimate relationships with clients comes to fulfill her needs for loving and belonging. Similarly her esteem needs are met because she is seen as a prize. Because of her young appearance she is chosen first by most men and can be sold for a higher price. This helps her to gain the recognition and acceptance needed to fulfill her esteem needs. All of these things that come together to meet her deficiency needs meet her utmost priorities. Because all of these needs are met she is motivated to fulfill her growth needs of self actualization to make the most out of herself. She is able to do this through accepting that she is stuck in the brothel and realizing it is a better alternative to starving she becomes motivated to make the most out of her abilities and be the best prostitute she thinks that she can be.

Application of classroom material?

I usually think that what i'm learning in my classes is somewhat unrelated to the real world. However this week has shown me differently about the skills we've learned in this O.B class. I have used the negotiation skills, that I learned from the article required for class a few weeks back, in two of my other classes application projects.
 In my labor relations class we were put into groups, both union and management and told to negotiate a new contract. Thanks to the skills I learned about negotation I felt I could actually compete and I was able to have some leverage. We used starting, resisting, and target points to ensure that our demands were met. We also used a starting point that was well above what we actually wanted in hopes of anchoring the management team.
In my accounting class today we were also asked to negotiatie. I used similar tactics as in the above exercise and my partner and I were succesful. We started at almost double our target point, and the other team was floored that we would ask for that. This made them reconsider their numbers and gave us the upper hand. Ultimately we decided not to make a deal because neither side could come to an agreement but because of what I learned in O.B we held our own and knew what to look out for in opponents. We bluffed them, as well as calling their bluffs to ultimately save ourselves from losing money.

Management

On Monday in class we did an activity that split us into groups. This activity gave management much of the power, or so they thought. Being in the middle level group for this activity made me aware of what was really happening. The top managers thought they had the upper hand with information, but when the company came down to speak with the bottom level employees they quickly lost their upperhand. The workers under me realized that they could sell their slogans directly to the company, and take the entire profit, rather than going through two levels of managment with their ideas and splitting the profits. I urged them to play fair but told them that the decision was ultimately theirs. Management was unorganized in their attempts to get the slogans in time so my workers took matters into their own hands and took the direct profit. They also split some of this with me. I am interested to see how we debrief this activity.

Book Report Segment #4

The fourth section of my book consists of two chapters. These chapters included, “selling sex for visas: sex tourism as a stepping-stone to international migration”, and “among women: migrant domestics and their Taiwanese employers across generations”

The first chapter of this section outlines the reasons and justifications that women place on sex work, and how it leads to international migration. The chapter focuses on Dominican sex workers from the small town of Sosua. When interviewed these women made the distinction between marriage por amor and marriage por residencia very clear. This is marriage for love verses marriage for visas. These women are not only using sex work for survival financially, but also for the hopes of advancement. The aim of this strategy is marriage for migration. While the sex trade in Sosua is dangerous, the women are able to somewhat control their working conditions because in Sosua the sex work is not tied to pimps or the drug trade. Sosua sex workers target the European tourists who visit the bars and will hopefully take them along when they return home. The reality of this event happening however is slim. Still the possibility that it may happen keeps the women’s hopes alive and makes them continue to do this kind of work. The sex workers in Sousa are also different because these women experience financial gain through this field of work. Usually pushed into these careers because of poverty and single motherhood, the women in Sosua’s sex work earn significantly more money than other job a Dominican woman can obtain in either service or domestic careers. Some young women also pointed out that hanging out in the tourist bars and making money is a better use of their time than waiting in line at the U.S embassy. The internet has increased the traffic of sex tourists into Sosua and similar areas, increasing these women’s hopes of one day obtaining a visa and leaving the country.

Among these sex workers, they have created a sort of culture. The assumption of these workers is that Europe can provide a better life for them. These women value relationships, more importantly marriage. The artifacts are the visas that they can obtain through marriage, which will allow them to travel to Europe. Another artifact the women receive are “letters of invitation”. These letters are the first step in receiving a tourist visa. The women often communicate with tourists whom have returned to Europe through faxes. From this, women value reading and writing skills, which they do not all posses, but often times collaborate with someone who does. From these values the same assumption is made, that Europe will provide a better life for them.

The next chapter of this segment shows how globalization has transformed the relations between Taiwanese women. When the local culture meets global labor, there are three types of labor that produce kin ties. First is “filial kin work” which is care work conducted in order to maintain intergenerational ties. The duty of caring for aging parents is transferred from the son to his wife, creating a gender transfer. Next the daughter in law outsources this care to a migrant worker, which involves what is called a market transfer. The next kind of labor is “kin labor” which is care provided by someone in extended kin to maintain familial ties. These types of labor include unpaid labor offered by mother-in-laws to care for grand children. However many elders do this in order to stay close to their sons rather than out of a love for grandchildren.  The last kind is “fictive kin” which includes non-family migrant workers who provide care like a family member for older adults in lieu of actual kin.

                  Culture is shown through the women of Taiwanese families because the author outlines the change of a culture. This culture used to specify the duties of eldest sons to care for their aging parents, but with the increase of two-income families we see this start to dwindle. Sons, who often pass this duty off to their wives, or hire migrant workers to care for parents, are becoming increasingly independent from linage. The daughter-in-laws who have received this duty from husbands hire migrant workers in their place because they are also working and do not wish to attend to mother and father-in-laws. However some of the culture still remains because these women are careful to make sure mother-in-laws are not threatened by these new workers. This change in culture has urged the government to change its policy. The government has been considering implementing social security benefits, public pensions, and subsidized care for these elders. 

Lincoln, Machiavelli, and Plato

During the discussion on the excerpts from the prince piece I drew many parallels with another class I am in, Advanced Government and Politics. On Wednesday in my PLS class we were speaking about the president. The public has many ideas of the president, and we wish for him to be all things to all people. We expect our president to be warm, caring, and compassionate, but at the same time ruthless and clever. We expect him to be confident but not arrogant, and to maintain traditions while creating new order. This was similar to the ideas the author held of a leader. He says a leader should be a contradict in similar ways. The key in both instances is the balance of the two traits you are trying to master.
The Machiavellian way is self interested. The Lincolnian way is making oneself an agent for the people. The Platonian way is doing what is best for all. The Lincolnian leader reminded me a lot of an attorney. While Lincoln held his own values about what was right, he also understood that he was an agent for the people and aimed to do what they wanted as a whole. In the same way a defense attorney may have his own ideas about whether or not his client is innocent or guilty, but he has to put these aside and do the best he can to prove his client's innocence, or at the very least make sure that guilt beyond a reasonable doubt is not established.

Incentives

Incentives and punishment fuel everyone. The example we looked at today was Doctors; the punishment of a law suit combined with the incentive to enhance business is enough for doctors to produce type II diagnosis. This is telling a patient they are sick when they are actually well. The consequences for the patient in this case are minimized because it is mostly psychological. Compared to the other scenario, type I where they would tell patients they are well when indeed they are sick. In this case a patient may experience grave consequences from lack of treatment. The question becomes how can we minimize these two types of diagnosis since they are both ultimately false. We discussed briefly, changing tort law, or changing the consequences for mal practice claims. While this may or may not be a suitable solution, I think the better solution would be education. In educating doctors even more, they can become more confident, and make false claims less often. I know that no one can be right 100% of the time, but it is possible to be right a good majority of the time, especially if you're trained in even more instances. By education I am implying longer residences for doctors. This means they will have more on the job training, which will expose them to more experiences and therefore make them better equipped to handle all sorts of situations. 

I really think education can be a changer for all incentive based situations. The reading states that every living organism seeks to do things that warrant rewards, and not do things that cause punishment. Being more educated on a subject can help to better understand the underlying rewards. In a doctor's case these underlying rewards may be satisfaction of saving more amounts of lives, or reputation of providing just treatment. As well as help us to avoid punishment. The more you know about any one thing, the more likely you are to know all the routes that will lead to punishment. No two situations can be exactly the same therefore the more education an individual posses, the more chance they have to pick the route that will lead them to favorable outcomes instead of the unfavorable.

Equity Theory

The equity theory , based upon the equity ratio is derived around the idea that inputs should be equal to outputs. When we have the notion that outputs are unequal to inputs, we want for them to become equal. I have personally seen this theory in action. I have been with my company for 3 summers now. I was hired as summer help, but have had the privilege of being invited back the following two summers, and also over winter breaks. When I first started another girl , my same age, started that summer as well. She and I did the exact same work and had the exact same start date. The only difference between us was that she was a Senator's daughter. Halfway through the summer I found out she was making a dollar more than I was. Even though our job descriptions and hours were identical. I was furious, but there was nothing I could do about it. Instead I blew it off and did not change my work efficiency. She did not return after that first summer. I returned, along with a girl I had befriended the first summer. This was her 3rd summer, and my 2nd. I found out that summer that she had received a raise and was making more than I did. This did not bother me because she was there longer than I was. After that summer she was not invited back, but I was. Because of this I was sure I was going to get the raise at this time. However when I returned for my third summer this past year, I was surprised to find my rate was exactly the same. This made me extremely angry, but there was not very much I could do about it. I also felt that my work performance had been way superior to hers ever was. Because of this, my work efficiency definitely dropped this summer as compared to others.

Motivation

In class yesterday, we spoke about motivation, and how motivation can be broken down into different categories and sub categories. We also spoke about the idea behind companies who supply their employees with a work space equip with extra curriculars. Companies do this in order to diminish any other motivators employs might find that will distract them from their work. This is based on the idea that what I want you to do, and what you want to do are essentially the same thing, I just need to eliminate the distractions. We watched a video about Google, and the things the company offers employs at work.
This morning I was watching T.V and came across a commercial for a Honda plant. The commercial started out by the spokes person saying "mmmm what's the smell", in reference to the eatery. This plant boasted a cafe, that apparently had wonderful fragrances, a putting green, a walking path, and even a delivery service for errands.
All of these things are meant to draw employs in, and then give them no reason to leave. It was very interesting to me that I saw this commercial today after we had just spoken about the motives behind these things in class, I definitely looked at it in a new light. Before this discussion I would have thought how bizarre it is that a company would have all of these things to distract employees, when really it is mitigating other distracting motivators, to help employees find more motivation to do their work.