Team Effort

Throughout my years I have been a part of many sports teams and worked on a number of different group projects, all of which require a great deal of teamwork in order to be successful. I have also been a part of several volunteer organizations that have set up events in order to raise money, awareness, and benefit the community. My favorite team that I have been affiliated with was the Annual District 214 Alternative Basketball Tournament held at Forest View High School in Arlington Heights, IL.

            Alternative schools are a different path that some teenagers need to take in order to be successful. Their curriculum is based around the core classes that every student takes; math, science, English, health, physical education, drivers education, etc. However, they are geared towards individuals who have behavioral issues, as well as trouble focusing in the classroom, or other things of that nature. Unfortunately, the alternative schools in district 214 do not have extracurricular activities they are able to participate in year round. Over the years teachers from the schools in this district have put together several different basketball tournaments for all willing participants from each school, forming teams based on age, gender, and talent level. In 2011, my senior year of high school I was a member of the team that put on the tournament at Forest View.

            The tournament had become fairly big in recent years, and there were a lot of things that needed to be accomplished. Based on Bolman and Deal’s text, the team was set up in a Simple Hierarchy fashion; however it was more of a hybrid. There were five or six senior members of the staff that acted as the top-level managers. All the information and big decisions flowed through each of them before they were complete. Below them volunteers were divided up into several groups. These groups consisted of individuals to advertise the event, set up concessions, contact the participants, organize check-ins, and those to find volunteer referees and score persons.

            I was part of the group that was to find volunteer referees and score persons. We were able to recruit many volunteer referees from last year’s tournament, several high school basketball players from around the area to run the scoreboard and scorebook, as well as extra volunteers who were willing to help out wherever they were needed. In total, the staff was about 60 people.

            On the day of the tournament, the team became more of an All-Channel Network.  Members of different groups helped where help was needed to make sure that everything ran smoothly. This would be an interesting scenario for Bolman and Deal to touch on; a organization that changes its team structure.  Overall the tournament was a success, every group was able to complete their assignment without any trouble.

Opportunism

Opportunism is defined as the taking of opportunities as and when they arise, regardless of planning or principle. In economics we tend to think of it as taking a chance for personal gain. Most individuals have been presented with a scenario in which they had the option of acting opportunistic or playing it safe. Growing up my parents always preached to think before you act; a lesson that has stuck with me for much of my life. Most times I find it best to play it safe, analyze the situation and make an educated decision. However, I have found that there are plenty of times where it’s best to act opportunistically. Acting opportunistically has a chance to turn into a great story or experience. There is one time in particular in which I did not act with opportunism and it end up closing a door to a great opportunity.

A few years ago I was looking for a summer job that would work well with a summer school. The class that I took was my fourth year of Spanish, a requirement that I would need to complete in order to graduate this May. Spanish wasn’t my favorite subject and I felt that it would be less challenging and would make space for a more interesting class I could register for next Fall. The search went well and I was able to find a great paying job that would pay 13.50/hr at 30 hrs a week that fit well with my night class at Elgin Community College. However, a few weeks prior to my start date I was presented with a very good work opportunity from my Uncle at Garrets Popcorn in downtown Chicago. One of their interns had dropped out and they were looking for someone to fill the position as soon as possible. I was fairly ecstatic when I received the call and was given number for the supervisor to go over the specifics.

I got in contact with John (the supervisor) the next day. He informed me that the job work require me to work 30 to 35 hours a week, Monday thru Thursday. I wanted to accept the job immediately but I had my doubts about whether it was the right move. I was disappointed with the pay rate at 10.25 and hour; however I would be working on Wacker Dr., right on the Chicago River. In addition, I would be working a team of other people around my age. It did however conflict with my class at Elgin Community College because of the time it would take to get back from the city. I told John that I would give it some thought and get back to him in a couple days. He said that it was fine but he was also in contact with another person for the job and the first one to get back to him would get it.

The next day I was seriously contemplating rejecting the offer and sticking with my previous plans. However, the next day I had a change of heart, I felt that the working in Chicago would be a great experience and teach me much more than working the other job. I gave John a call the next day only to find out that the other prospect had already accepted the offer and filled the position.

Although it was nice to get Spanish out of the way, the other job was extremely boring and I did not get any enjoyment out of it. If I would have acted opportunistically I would have secured a position at Garrett’s which would have been a much more enjoyable and useful experience to carry along with me in the future. 

Project Transaction Costs

Over the past few summers I have had the pleasure of working for a medical supply company called McKesson. McKesson is one of the largest distributors of medical supplies, products, and equipment; they ship to hospitals, private practices, and homes all over the country. These products included everything from medicines and syringes to food supplements such as Pediasure. Working for this company has introduced me to the world of supply chain management and logistics. 

McKesson has several warehouses that are based by region which receive, store, and ship thousands of lines on a daily basis. In order to ensure that the warehouse is efficient, the warehouse is divided into three departments: receiving, replenishment, and shipping. All three departments are currently integrated through one system that the employees can use via a hand held computer called an RF. The RF allows employees to see how much work that needs to completed per day per department and helps the company keep track of worker efficiency and the amount of each product that is shipped and received. Before this summer, the branch of McKesson that I worked for used two separate systems to keep track of all their logistics which was based on a series of specific factors. The corporate supervisors of the branch made the decision to switch to one integrated system to increase productivity and which would ultimately save the company money. In order to integrate the system, the company had to incur several transaction costs

. Transaction Costs Incurred:

1.       Developing the product: The transaction costs for developing the system were the time it took the company engineers to design it and the amount of money that it cost to fund the process. Funding includes the salary paid to the design team and the amount of money it costs to code it.

2.       Testing the product: As any smart corporation would do, McKesson ran several simulations and tests to make sure that the program worked properly and all the bugs and problems were corrected. This takes time and money that added to the cost of the project.

3.       Putting it into play: Up until this point, most transaction cost that were incurred were at a more corporate level. However, once the system was ready to be put into place, the lower-level employees that worked in the warehouse had to give up free time and work longer hours and extra days to take inventory and make sure that the turnover went smoothly.  There were several employees that were asked to work over forty hours a week Monday thru Saturday. I played a big role in helping the warehouse switch over and was needed to work a couple six day weeks that cost me time I could have used for other activities. In addition, travel time and extra gas bought to make sure I was able to get to work on time so as to not let my team could be factored into my transaction costs. 

Donald Patinkin

Donald Patinkin was an Israeli economist who was born on January 8, 1922 in the city of Chicago. Patinkin spent most of his undergraduate career at the prestigious University of Chicago where he earned his Ph.D in economics. He was also enrolled at the Hebrew Theological College where he studied the Talmud. Patinkin is most widely recognized for his studies in Keynesian macroeconomics and for his tenure as president of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem which lasted from 1982 until his resignation in 1986.

Patikin is classified as a neo-Keynesian economist and his famous book, “Money, Interest, and Prices,” is considered to be the book that John Maynard Keynes never wrote. He was also a contributor to the theory of disequilibrium economics, which developed ideas of traditional Keynesian ideas and compared them to a more classical approach of economics. He also did some work in theories of unemployment, and general monetary economics.

I was not aware of whom Donald Patinkin was and the impact he had on Keynesian economics prior to this assignment. It is interesting to learn about an individual who has accomplished so much in his field from my home town of Chicago, as well as a former lecturer at the University of Illinois. Although his research was cutting-edge, his work doesn’t seem to have much relevance to this class seeing as Patinkin’s work was mostly based on the macroeconomics, which focuses on the economy as a whole. In this class we are more concerned with interactions at a micro level because we are focused more specifically on organizational complexities and issues.