Miss Jamaica International...Lesa-gayle Wee Tom

After a long hiatus Jamaica has selected 21 year old Lesa-gayle Wee Tom to represent the island at the 50th anniversary of the Miss International Beauty contest to be held at Sichuan Province Gymnasium in Chengdu, Chinaon November 7, 2010. More than 60contestants from various countries and territories will compete for the title in November 2010, where Miss International 2009, Anagabriela Espinoza from Mexico will crown her successor at the end of the event.

Miss Wee Tom's selection was done at the executive level, after several potential candidates were screened using the international pageant judging criteria which includes overall appearance,beauty of the face, swimsuit fitness, poise and elegance, personality, environmental awarenessand intelligence.Born in Kingston, Jamaica to parents Gary Wee Tom and Juliet Royes, Lesa-gayle showed anundeniable star quality and outgoing personality as a young child. She was inspired by her mother, a former actress on the popular Jamaican soap opera, Royal Palm Estate.

Lesa-gayle started participating in the Jamaica Carnival by age four; and the opportunity ignited a modeling career. By the age of five, she had already mastered the art of performing and modeling in frontof mass audiences. She’s been featured in numerous print campaigns and photo shoots; and haseven been photographed by renowned celebrity photographer, Derek Blanks.Nonetheless, she eagerly aspires to further expand her qualifications and is currently enrolled as a national honor-roll student on a Barita Scholarship at Florida Atlantic University where she is pursuing a major in Broadcast Journalism with a minor in tourism/hospitality management. This ambitious beauty also speaks fluent Spanish.

Her five-year plan is to gain her degree, host her own television show and chair her own charityorganization. She also aspires to pursue fashion design and launch a clothing line.In her rare moments of leisure Miss Wee Tom enjoys dancing, shopping, volunteering at different charity events and spending time with her loved ones.

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Kai McDonald- Miss Earth Jamaica 2010

FORT LAUDERDALE, FL – September 1, 2010 - Twenty-five year old Kai Ayanna Indira McDonald was selected to represent Jamaica at the tenth edition of Miss Earth beauty pageant to be held in Vinpearl Land, Nha Trang, Vietnam on December 4, 2010.

More than 80 contestants from various countries and territories will compete for the title in December 2010, where Miss Earth 2009, Larissa Ramos of Brazil will crown her successor at the end of the event that will broadcast by VTV, ABS, CBN and The Filipino Channel.

The Miss Earth winner serves as the spokesperson for the Miss Earth Foundation, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and other environmental organizations.

Miss McDonald's selection was done at the executive level, after several potential candidates were screened using the international pageant judging criteria which includes overall appearance, beauty of the face, swimsuit fitness, poise and elegance, personality, environmental awareness and intelligence.

Kai Ayanna Indira McDonald was born in Clarendon, Jamaica on August 17th, 1984. In her earlier years she attended Wolmer's Preparatory School and Wolmer's High School for Girls' where she is a past Deputy Head Girl.

As a child she also received her education in Piano from the Kathleen Hickling Bond School of Music, for which she has accumulated several distinctions and has played in local concerts at the

Edna Manley School of Arts. In addition, she was a member of Wolmer's Dance Troupe for eleven years, which afforded her the opportunity of travelling to the Caribbean to perform.

Kai was raised in a Christian home with both parents and an older sister. As a member of Webster Memorial United Church she was a part of the Youth Fellowship, and the church choir before migrating to Florida.

Currently, she is a student at Florida International University pursuing her studies in Finance. As an advocate for 'going green' her goal is to set up projects and workshops in Jamaica, in order to promote environmental change. Also, to educate people about the importance of converting their personal choices, in order to live an eco friendly lifestyle.

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The Case of the Missing Raise

This scenario explores the areas of Conflict Management, Communication and Negotiation within Organizational Behavior and Leadership.

Marsha Lloyd accepted a new job offer from longtime colleague Fred Massie, Head of the Department of Management at Central University. This offer means that Marsha would have to relocate from the East where she is presently Assistant Professor at Private University to the Midwest. Upon weighing her options with her husband they came to the conclusion that it would be a welcomed change that offers a challenge and the opportunity to introduce new courses at Central University in addition to the fact that Marsha has always respected Professor Massie and became ecstatic for the opportunity to work alongside such a distinguished educator. During the recruiting process, she agreed with the expected performance standards which stated that research and publication would be given increasing weight along with teaching and service in regards to future departmental decisions. They moved to the Midwest and Marsha started her new position with much enthusiasm in the Fall Semester.

During the fall semester Marsha settled in comfortably and was well received by her new colleagues. She sensed internal issues among the faculty in regards to the weighting and standards that apply to performance merit. The Department Dean announced the availability of a 7% pay raise pool in which the chairpersons are to distribute based on performance merit. By the end of fall semester Marsha was informed that 1) she had received positive student feedback, 2) two of her papers would be published by a journal and 3) she had presented two papers at a professional meeting. These were great accomplishments for her as well as great contributions to the Department of Management. (Job Satisfaction)

Based on these achievements Marsha anticipated her performance review and expected to be rewarded justly in terms of the stated policy of rewarding faculty on the basis of performance merit. This however did not prove to be the case; in fact she received the 3rd highest % increase and became internally angry (Emotional Conflict) at the fact that Fred had not discussed her performance review prior to making the pay raise assessment and also that he decided to address inequities that existed among senior faculty members giving them the top two increases. (Conflict Resolution)

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Jennifer's dilemma

Jennifer Treeholm, the former Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs was appointed interim Vice President for a 3 year term at Mid-West University by the newly appointed President of said University. After the interim, the President reluctantly appointed her the role of Vice President of the University.

Jennifer has devoted her entire career to Mid-West U. She was initially hired as an Introductory History instructor. While teaching history, she earned her PH.D and was appointed Assistant Professor and as time progressed she was promoted to Associate Professor due to her popularity and excellent teaching ability. Over time, she would become actively involved in various activities on campus such as forming the first union, acquiring grants, writing skits for the faculty club’s annual follies and generally offering her support to anyone who needed her assistance. She became President of the Faculty Senate where she served two years before being offered the position of Associate Vice President of Academic
Affairs where for the next ten years she handled most of the academic complaints, oversaw several committees and wrote lettes and reports for the then Vice President. She was well known and admired among her peers for her devotion to the University as well as for her energy and charm.

Not long into his new position, the newly appointed President was met with the resignation of the Vice President at a time when a hiring freeze was in order; however he needed to find a replacement. He was advised by many faculty leaders and administrators that Jennifer would be the logical choice for replacement because of her experience and devotion to the school. The President agreed to appoint Jennifer as the Interim Vice President for a 3 yr period with the possibility of becoming a candidate for the permanent position once the hiring freeze came to an end. The President was influenced by Organizational Politics. He acknowledged the opinion and interests of other faculty and administrators in regards to Jennifer being considered for the position (Ch. 12 Power and Politics p 292-293)

During her time as interim VP Jennifer’s performance became unsatisfactory. It appeared that she did not fully understand her role as interim vice president. She exhibited a participative leadership style, which prevented her from completing tasks in a timely manner. She needed to delegate tasks effectively instead of focusing on going above and beyond to nurture subordinates. The President began to realize her weakness and her supporters questioned her ability to lead though they still supported her and she remained popular nonetheless.

After the hiring freeze came to an end, the President set forth on a national search for a potential candidate as clearly he was not moved by Jennifer’s performance as Interim Vice President. After a yearlong search, the President along with the Search Committee met and found that the external candidates were not fit for the position. They recommend that Jennifer be appointed contingent upon if she agreed to change her management style and the following conditions: 1) she would organize her office and staff and begin delegating more work to others, 2) She would "play" her number two position, backing the president and echoing his position on the university's vision statement, 3) She would provide greater direction for the Deans who report to her. She agreed and was officially became the first ever female Vice President of Mid-West University.

The Vice President position encompassed many responsibilities which Jennifer could not handle due to her lack of knowledge and experience as it relates to the other administrations outside of Academic and Faculty Affairs. She was thrown in to a position (VP) where she had to make decisions and did not know how to execute them as previously she did not manage or delegate tasks; rather she took them on herself in the hopes of pacifying her followers. The President decided to hire someone with extensive experience to fill the position of Vice President of Finance and Administration to Jennifer’s relief. Strangely enough she still remained popular and well-liked.

In retrospect, Jennifer should have been appointed Vice President of Academic and Faculty Affairs instead of University Vice President, as she has numerous years of experience in this arena having served ten years as Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs. She was the Associate VP of Academic Affairs where she handled most of the academic complaints in addition to writing reports and letters for the then Vice President. She is well versed on the dynamics of relationships, needs and goals of Academic and Faculty affairs and has developed popularity on campus and is known to be a good teacher. The Inspirational Leadership Perspective introduces Charismatic Leadership (Chapter 13 page 321-325) as leaders who are capable of having a profound and extraordinary effect on followers. Jennifer is charismatic and well liked. Two traits that may help to facilitate change needed to resolve academic and faculty complaints.

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Images Change Analysis

Case Study: IS&T

The Strategic Change Initiative
The division of Information Systems and Technology (IS&T) of Georgia State University’s function is to provide leadership and services in the application of technology for the university community. The IS&T division is managed by J.L. Albert who serves as the Associate Provost for Information Systems and Technology as well as Chief Information Officer of the university. As such, IS&T activities are guided by the University Strategic Plan and the University Information Technology Strategic Plan. IS&T has realigned its organizational structure in order to create internal efficiency. The restructuring seeks to benefit the University Community as a whole in that it will allow for: A Customer Focused Culture, Budgetary Transparency, and Enhanced Business Function. Internally, the initiative will improve communications for campus projects, customer service advancements, staff certifications, project management, work effort accountability and teamwork. The CIO and his management team use a director image for managing change in order to improve internal efficiency and to reinvent the image of the division of IS&T. It is a thoughtfully planned change that aims at positioning the organization for the future by assessing, measuring, and enabling consistent alignment of people strategy with business strategy, organizational development and performance improvement.
The strategic change initiative has allowed the IS&T division to improve the efficiency of its unit through successful completion of various projects designed to enhance the university community. IS&T carries out numerous IT projects each fiscal year in order to advance the ever changing technology and meet the demands of a top rated Research University as well as to remain current.
One of the major problem areas facing the division was the operation of its Help Center- the first point of contact for technical help for students, administrators, staff and faculty. The Help Center group consistently underperformed in the areas of customer satisfaction, technical expertise and call resolutions. As a result of the change initiative put in place that called for 1) Certification of existing Help desk agents, 2) Reclassification of job description and 3) A newly implemented Help Desk Tracking system, IS&T’s Help Center has succeeded in resolving more than 70 percent of trouble calls during the first contact, keeping the abandonment rate below the maximum set percentage rate of 10% to 7.27% where it previously had a rank of an 18% abandonment rate. In addition, the IS&T Help Center now continues to meet its’ overall customer satisfaction. IS&T has accomplished the major tasks of its realignment within the Help Center as the customer focused culture has increased along with accountability for results and teamwork.
I believe that not only was the change of procedure within the IS&T Help Desk Group successful it was grossly needed in order to rid the negative image of incompetence of that plagued the Technical Support Analysts at the division of IS&T. People were complacent with their jobs due to the casual environment, security and benefits; however they did not seek to utilize the opportunities that beheld them at the University where higher learning is encouraged and paid for. As a result of the sudden pressure to become A+ Certified, technicians feared losing their jobs and this fear caused them to tighten up and improve performance and see the bigger picture painted by management. It also served to reinforce the idea that the division is a whole and encouraged communication with management and employees.
To better manage change in an organization or division a manager should be keen on creating a sense of urgency, having clear and concise communication of vision, strategies and goals, continually monitor progress and provide feedback when needed.

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Case Analysis: First Community Financial

First Community Financial Corporation provides financial solutions for small to mid size businesses. FCF specializes in asset based lending and factoring. FCF’s business is generated by high-growth companies and lends up to $1million in high risk loans of plus 6% interest rates. Companies sell their account receivables and ownership of said receivables to FCF in order to obtain instant cash.

FCF Organizational Culture:
FCF has established an HR policy that invests in its employees thus yielding low turnover rates; the policy also encourages open communication and values the opinions of all staff members. FCF has the youngest staff and management teams in the finance industry as their recruiting seeks young, ambitious people with the desire for growth within the company, therefore as the company grows responsibilities and rewards also grows for young executives. The strategy is to develop a consistent and professional team of industry experts. This is defined by the Management Philosophy and Strategy which links key goal-related issues with collaboration issues by establishing boundaries while bonding individual together by assuring future success within the company (Management Philosophy and Strategy, Chapter 15, p.381)

FCF Organization Divisional Department Tensions:
The Business Development Dept is responsible for generating new clients and mediating with them through the approval process where as the Credit Administrators’ primary goal is to limit bad loans. Due to the nature of the processing and approving of loans between the Business Development Dept and the Credit Administration Dept, the conflict at hand is Win-Lose conflict(Ch 10, Conflict and Negotiation) p. 241)for the business development department because their compensation is based on the number of Clients they are able to get qualified for loans whereas the Credit Administration Department is not monetarily affected in the terms of commission for the number of Clients that they approve for loans which is Quality over Quantity. Also, BDs are concerned about the amount of referrals that get denied and the effect it will have on sales opportunities.

I find that FCF borders on Mechanistic Structures and Machine Bureaucracy (Chapter16, Organizational Goals and Structures p.407-408). It stresses rules, policies and procedures; specifying techniques for decision making. Their Organizational Goals falls under Systems Goals (Chapter16, Organizational Goals and Structures p392) whereby their product of factoring allows them to compete in diverse and distinct markets, therefore staff’s product knowledge is crucial to FCF’s success.

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