Finding my groove

My Management Foundations book is a piece of crap. I feel like I'm wasting my time when I read it. Do I really need the key words with their definitions at the bottom of each page? There is no flow to the ideas and the treatment of different topics feels very superficial. Maybe that's to be expected in an introductory course that is probably more survey than deep dive. While the text of each chapter blows (at least the first two), there are references to research papers and reviews that flesh out the concepts in a much more comprehensive and interesting way. Organizational behavior is a very interesting field of research. I would rather read through a pile of research papers than that piece of crap textbook that cost me $150 or so dollars.

My little rant above suggests two possibilities for the next couple months of my new academic project. I do not want to turn into the know-it-all jerk with the PhD who thinks the advanced degree makes him an authority on all topics. My issues with the book could come off as issues with the topics of the class. For all I know, the professor will say that the book is a piece of crap and direct us to particular footnotes for papers that do a better job of describing an area of organizational behavior research. I want to contribute to the class, but I will try very hard to make constructive and informed comments in whatever medium we use to discuss the readings. The tone of my comments will be critical. I also need to keep in mind that this is a prerequisite class for what I expect will be a more in depth treatment in an MBA class. The content of this class should really be comparable to what you would see in a similar undergraduate class (or classes).

If the class ends up being a fairly superficial trip through a cliche textbook, I guess that will just leave me more time to read interesting papers cited in the footnotes. I get out from these classes what I put in. I can do what the class requires, take my grade, and move on, or I can use the class as an opportunity to develop my own ideas about how to run an organization. I don't know how hard I'll have to try to develop my own thinking after reading this presentation by Reed Hastings of Netflix. I will just us all of their thinking to guide my own. I see a tendency in my class textbook to implement programs that will help the company fit the needs of the employee. I like how Netflix has defined how the company will work and seeks employees that fit that vision rather than fitting their vision to the employees. The Hastings presentation is a good lens to look at all of this organization behavior research discussed in the textbook. I hope to use the good of the presentation to make something meaningful for myself from the textbook.

I say all this while still a week outside of my first online class. My view of where the book fits into the value of the class may change after one or two classes.