Five Classes in 5 months
- Category: School
- Posted On: 12/22/2006
- Views: 4,210
It has been 5 months since I returned to school at Western International University and I have completed four courses in that time. The major difficulty has been balancing the responsibilities of a full-time job and family while getting good grades. I have taken MGT340 "Organizational Behavior and Theory", CRT201 "Critical Thinking", ACC301 "Introduction to Accounting", ACC302 "Managerial Accounting", and ETH201 "Cultural Diversity". Read on for a summary...
Organizational Behavior and Theory
The content of this course mostly covered management's perspective on organizational theory, employee behavior, etc. Things like motivating your employees, how teams get started, develop, grow, and finish, how organizational structure affects operations, ethics in the workplace, and more. One of the rare benefits of this class was that the instructor was extremely well qualified in her work experience; a common issue raised with most college education. Each class was introduced with an article from Wall Street and current business topics were always debated. What did I learn? Most of what I took away from the class was not "book knowledge", but a better understanding of myself and how I view business. I learned to approach each employee as a unique individual with different motivations, beliefs, work methods, etc. I also learned how to identify problems in the workplace and how to approach these problems in a systematic manner, often with specific methods for finding solutions. The class was a wonderful summary of the things I see happening on a daily basis, but never take the time to really analyze.
Critical Thinking
This class is a university core requirement that teaches the very basics of critically evaluating every input you receive. Being critical in this sense is not associated with being "negative", but rather being careful to analyze if the information you are receiving is valid and worthwhile. How is a person communicating their position on an issue? Are they making an effective argument that presents valid reasons? Are they using common fallacies to persuade you? Further, can you present valid arguments to support your beliefs, morals, ethics, and/or value judgements, or are you making assumptions that may not be true? We watched "12 Angry Men", which was a great DVD to summarize critical thinking. Each class presented new ethical dilemmas to consider. In the end, I realized we should all be asking more questions on a regular basis.
Cultural Diversity
Wow! I knew this world and the United States in particular is culturally diverse, but it amazes me how much work we put into aligning ourselves with commonalities or separating ourselves from differences. It's almost as if we were all born zebras and if one person had spots they would immediatley be separated and treated completely differently than the rest. Certainly our uniqueness in this world and the acts of individuals and of groups did not suprise me, but it was refreshing to dedicate time toward better understanding others. "You are unique, just like everyone else" has always been a favorite quote. By far, the most interesting subject to cover for me was how the United States immigration patterns have developed. This country has simply exploded and I struggle with how the variety has affected our growth and current situations. It was good to understand that this constant friction in coping with our diversity is truly unique in our recent history. It also helps me understand some of the difficulties we face in the U.S. and how often we are all hypocrites of our voiced opinions / beliefs / policies / etc.
Introduction to Accounting
Ugh... good thing there are accountants to do this stuff. I'll apply some of the principles to personal bank account management, but the rest I'll simply throw at the bottom of the pile toward my degree. Some of it was certainly interesting. It was fun to see how creative accounting really could be for those "adventurous" souls that wish to find "accounting alternatives" (loop holes) and risk catching the eye of creditors, policy makers like the IRS, or stock holders. There are certainly black and white lines in accounting and the gray is severely frowned upon, but shifting money between accounts was like watching a grouped musical chair free-for-all. ;)
Managerial Accounting
Wake me up when you're done... Our professor was awesome! Going to class was invaluable, because you soaked up the content through entertaining lectures (yes, entertaining accounting... imagine that). I have to fess up: I got a B through my notes. I only read the book for about two hours and turned in almost all of my homework late. I was finding it increasingly difficult to manage my studying time with other responsibilities, so I analyzed this class from the start. How does the professor grade? How does he teach? How does he test? My two hours of reading was spent before the mid-term to make certain I covered the bases in case the professor had not (some teachers will test you on things they never taught or told you to study -- it was just buried in the readings somewhere). I aced the mid-term, so I knew I could breeze through the class by simply paying attention. I'd already figured out the minimum homework grades, etc. to pass the class, so it was just a matter of turning in enough to be safe and testing well. What did I actually learn in the class? How a company manages their stocks and bonds was the only thing that I really want to stick in my head along with how they're issued, bought, etc.
- Category: School
- Posted On: 12/22/2006
- Views: 4,210