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Week 1 Discussion

Hello all! My name is Haylee Folden and I graduated in 2014 from the University of

Washington in Seattle, Washington with a degree in Political Science. I have spent the

entirety of my life living in Snohomish, Washington approximately 20 miles north of

Seattle. For the last six months I have been working as the service operations coordinator

for Thyssenkrupp Elevator Americas a branch that includes new construction,

modernization, repair and service of elevators. My intentions of getting this MBA with a

focus in operations is to use it to advance in the company or industry I currently am

working in and to learn valuable knowledge about business.

Recently my company has released a new pilot program that my branch has been

selected to partake in. The idea of this new program is to standardize operating procedures

to make the company more efficient so to better cater to our customers needs. A systems

approach is generally the best way to describe our new standard operating procedure, or

SOP, program. Part of being a pilot branch for the roll out of the SOP program is working

through the 10 elements of the systems approach and working though the effects of the

different lines of business on one another (Newstrom, 2015, p. 15). I started with the

company right when this was rolling out and have noticed the organization and teamwork

of the branch becoming more and more successful on a daily basis.

Thyssenkrupp Elevator in general is a tightly run ship; the corporation is based out

of Germany and has strict management standards. From a non-management perspective,

Thyssenkrupp Elevator runs its business very much like the autocratic model. (Newstrom,

2015, p. 36). For example, through observations of managers with subordinates my

manager and our contract coordinators dynamic is highly autocratic. In fact, said contract
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coordinator is currently looking for a new job because she is criticized and micromanaged

so harshly. The unfortunate part of this is that she only has good things said about her from

the people whom she actually helps.

References

Newstrom, J.W. (2015). Organization Behavior: Human Behavior at Work. New York;

McGraw-Hill