The Eclectic Adventure of Lestate's Coffee Shop

Lestats Coffee Shop is a must see for those who are interesting in the eclectic and trendy social setting. The shop offers significant eye candy that tantalizes the eye with art, knick knacks, and every manner of self-expressing visitor. Upon arrival one will be drawn to the café style patio that affords a European setting on a busy street. The scene doesn’t change once stepping inside as walls filled with art, a fire place, and mismatched furniture draws the eye. 

Wherever one’s eyes set they will find a gargoyle, a few dusty books, or art for sale to ponder on. Even walking around the coffee shop there will be a level of excitement as you take in the various colors and patterns of local artists trying to make a few dollars off of their hard work. A visitor won’t find the carbon copy cleanliness of your local Starbucks but will enjoy the eclectic styles of the local bohemian community.

In the middle of the night, after a hard evening of adventure, or in the wee hours of the morning rushing to work Lestat’s is open 24 hours a day and seven days a week. During the daylight hours it may be hard to find a table but in the late evening the crowd becomes a little sparser. To your amazement you might find a young couple who doesn’t want the night to end or an old hipping singing a tune to himself in remembrance of the days of social love. 

Food and beverage choices are cheap due the desire to price products within the range that local college students can afford. Most items are under 10 dollars and offer sandwiches, pasta salad, bagels and quiche.  Five to six different coffees are available under $2.00 and blueberry scones for less than $3.00. This is a place for quick food and conversation so visitors shouldn’t expect a fine dining atmosphere. 

With the discount price comes hours of internet access and lots of ear filling commotion. On one side of the room will be students studying statistics while on the other side there may be a young mother telling her new boyfriend how much she dislikes her husband. Just about anything goes in a place like this. Tie to t-shirt everyone appears to be welcome and accommodated. 

For more information you may view Lestate’s website at http://www.lestats.com

Hours of Operation: 24/7

Address: 3343 Adams Ave, San Diego, CA 92116

Music Nights: Calendar

Price: Coffee and Scone $4.50

Improving on Teamwork by Understanding Your Weaknesses

Understanding the weaknesses employees have in their ability to engage effectively in team-work is beneficial in creating higher levels of organizational performance. As companies seek to develop new products and service the use of teams become important in putting to effective use the diversified skills. Certain weaknesses work in association with other weaknesses and can be used as a starting point to improvement.

The use of work groups has become more common in modern times as a concept borrowed from Japanese manufacturers.  The ideal employee is often seen as that person who is capable of working effectively in groups (Guffey, 2000). It is through this group effort that individuals are capable of hedging their skills to create stronger results through mutual synergy. 

The skills needed to be a strong group player can be elusive. Business leaders and employees alike can have difficulty understanding these concepts and defining them precisely enough to be of significant use.  According to Ainsworth (2000) strong group skills include confidence in one’s abilities, interpersonal skills, open-mindedness, listening skills, and an ability to recognize the contribution of others. 

It is beneficial to see an example of the difficulties someone may create if they have not developed these attributes. Let us assume an employee named John is argumentative, seeks personal recognition above other group members, refuses to listen to varying perspectives, is set in his ways, and lacks personal confidence in his abilities. We might find John to be self-seeking and unable to come to agreement with anything that doesn’t recognize the “rightness” of his perceptions. 

Such a group is likely to disintegrate on the single influence of John and his personality. The more John is involved in the group the more likely it will become ineffective wasting time, cost and resources. John’s inability to develop proper teamwork skills will create an atmosphere where either poor decisions are being made to appease John or group resistance begins to form to thwart him. A single poor group member can impact the actions and reactions of the entire group and the effectiveness of the company.

Business leaders and college professors can help improve upon people’s weaknesses by helping them find strategies to recognize areas of improvement and methods of overcoming these challenges. As students move into the business world they will be more prepared through the relevant instructional methods and self-awareness. Business and education can further recognize these poor skills and provide relevant methods of overcoming them.

Due to this confusion of teamwork skills Schullery & Gibson (2012), from Western Michigan University, have conducted research on undergraduate business and organizational communication skills. The purpose of the study can be summed in a single sentence, “How well does, or can, the business communication syllabus address students’ group skill needs?” A total of 356 students participated in the study through four 15-week semesters.  Students were asked to rank their abilities and skills throughout their courses.

The Results:

-Group of skill deficiencies seem to travel together in factors:

.-Factor 1:  Shy, conflict avoidances, public speaking anxiety, and leadership seem to be associated.

-Factor 2: Motivation, Oral Skills, and Brainstorming.

-Factor 3: Impatient, Intolerant and dislike groups. 

The study helps to come to some important understandings that these skill deficiencies seem to travel together. For example, a person who is shy is not necessarily unmotivated. A person who lacks oral skills is not generally intolerant of others.  Importantly, many of the students were aware of their skill weaknesses but have not developed abilities to overcome them. This inability leads to continued poor group performance throughout a person’s life. 

Let us move back to the example of John. His confrontational, self-seeking, and rude behaviors is most likely to fall into Factor 3 which means that these can be a result of poor skills such as impatient, intolerant and dislike of groups. In these poor skills he will have an impact on the nature and function of that group as he fails to compensate for his weaknesses. It is through proper development and training that employees can both recognize their weaknesses and learn how to overcome them. 

Ainsworth, S. (2000). Teamwork 2000: multifunctional teams help companies cut through bureaucracy and release creativity to improve their bottom line. Chemical and Engineering, 77.

Guffey, M. (2000).  Business communication: process and product. (3^rd Edition). New York: South-Western.

Schullery, N. & Gibson, M. (2001). Working in groups: identification and treatment of student’s perceived weaknesses. Business Communication Quarterly, 64 (2).

Tips on Buying Suits for Your Professional Wardrobe

Ludwig von Mises

Buying suits can be a daunting task for people who are not sure where to start. Working in a professional setting often requires the use of suits for meetings, interviews, or other important social events. Any person who is a casual wearer of suits should have between 4 and 5 in their closet for a variety of occasions.  

Whether you are searching online or walking through the mall you should consider a few solid tips on purchasing the right suit for your needs. No matter what range of suit you are seeking to purchase quality is always a better indicator than price. The price posted on the tag is not the final price and there is always a little wiggle room. With that in mind consider the following tips:

1.       Avoid Pleats: Pleated pants will make you look bigger than you are. To have the masculine top with a thinner waste avoid the extra material that is comfortable but of poor taste.

2.       A Little Snug: A proper suit should be a little snug and constricting. Extra space in a suit will look sloppy and make you look larger than you are.

3.       Two Buttons: Two buttons is more modern than three button suits. When wearing a two button suit ensure that you leave the bottom button open.

4.       Avoid Excessive Tailoring: Avoid suits that require too much tailoring. If it isn’t close to the proper fit excessive cutting and sewing will impact its overall look.

5.       Color and pattern: It is generally advisable to stick with traditional colors for suits until you build a reasonable wardrobe of navy blue, charcoal grey, and brown.

6.       Measurements: Measurements should be taken of neck, shoulders, sleeves, chest, waist, and inseam in order to tailor the suit properly.

7.       Accessories: Belts should match your shoes and buckles should match your watch.

8.       Tie Choice: In today’s world a thinner tie is better than a thicker one.  Make sure that some of the color matches the rest of the material unless you are looking for a clash.

Book Review: Thinking Fast and Slow by Dr. Daniel Khaneman-Priming, Intuition, and Rational Thought

Thinking, Fast and Slow by Dr. Daniel Kahneman discussed the overall processes of fast-paced intuition and a slower process of rational control. The book helps to highlight two concepts called the experiencing self and the remembering self. The experiencing of self is the intuitive experiences that come from our senses while the remembering self is the reflective thoughts that help us gauge history. Each system contributes to the decisions we make and why we make them. 

In system 1 (intuition) people make quick judgments to threats or changes in our environment that allow them to react quickly. The stimulus forces them to quickly scan for possible reactions and associations that benefit their survival. Once they have reacted they can use system 2 (calculation and reflection) to review the possible choices and deliberatively make better choices. 

Both systems can have bias. System 1 can improperly perceive information and make incorrect assumptions from the information. The first answer that comes to mind is not always the correct one. Likewise, people’s rational and deliberative thought can also fool them because they are missing important perceptual information as people rationally move through logical steps and connections.   

Rationality is an interesting concept people use in science but also applies to people’s daily life. 

Rationality is a more deliberative and systematic approach to understanding problems. It relies on calculation, reflection, and judgment. However, rationality is also having consistent beliefs through a person’s being.  For example, it is rational for someone to believe in ghosts as long as it is internally consistent with their other thoughts and beliefs.

The book also discusses priming and its impact on choice. In a priming situation a person can be shown perceptual or conceptual cues that impact responses and choices later. For example, a person primed with environmental stimuli might recognize that stimuli later when more information becomes available. Conceptual priming is often used in research and is focused on using thoughts and concepts under the same modality to impact understanding at a future date.  Perceptual priming can be seen as intuitive while conceptual priming is more rational.

Priming does not need to be overt information and can be unconscious. For example, a single word can be used to prime a thought later through a particular interaction with the environment. Even thought the book doesn’t state this one could make a logical argument that all people are primed in some form or fashion through their collective experiences and shared pasts that allow for groupings of responses. It is possible to predict future choices based upon cultural primes from the past if these past experiences encourage particular behavioral patterns.

The book helps highlight how the “two systems” work together to make accurate or inaccurate judgments. Some have described these as the “hot” and “cold” systems. The “hot” system scans for information and the “cold” system makes rational judgments. When both systems can work together and understand their relationship to the environment a person can develop the strongest responses to challenges and situations while reducing potential cognitive bias and improper reactions. 

The author Daniel Kahneman is a 2002 Nobel Prize winner in Economic Systems. His work as a psychologist focuses on decision making, behavioral economics, judgments, and hedonic behaviors.  In 2012 he was named in the Foreign Policy magazine as one of the top global thinkers. Many of his works are considered new research and ground breaking. 

The book is certainly a beneficial read for those who are interested in decision-making and bias. However, if one were looking for casual reading they may forewarned to move down the aisle to less intensive works. The work includes sufficient depth, case studies, and research on how the mind processes information and the heuristics we use to make decisions.  Even though the language is not difficult to understand the book is more doctoral level in its orientation. 

Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking Fast and Thinking Slow. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN: 978-0-374-27563

Blog Ranking: Academics/Researchers 4.6/5 Casual Readers: 3.9/5

Price:  $20

Implementing Pay-for-Performance with Municipal Employees

Governmental agencies are often seen as ineffective in managing the human capital within their departments. As budgets become strained and tax revenue declines officials will need to find new ways of motivating and managing employees to do more with less. The development of higher employee engagement and performance often starts with the performance appraisal and the standards set within. The use of pay-for-performance can increase both the skill and standards within such agencies.

Human resource functions often set the pay and performance criteria of public service employees. In public agencies the cost of labor can be heavy and accounts for approximately 60% of municipal budgets (Chelladurai, 1999). The effective management of taxpayer dollars often rests on the proper utilization of this resource for greater public service. 

To develop stronger uses of human capital there should to be higher levels of alignment between work criteria and organizational objectives.  An important factor in creating this alignment rests on tying compensation closely to organizational service requirements to minimize human capital waste (Dyer & Reeves, 1995).  Employees need to focus on those tasks which are most important for the function of the organization.

Pay-per-performance is a method of compensating employees for the quality of work they complete. In municipal employees accustomed to universal performance appraisals and minimum performance standards there isn’t much incentive for higher levels of effort. Pay-for-performance systems have been described as one of the most effective methods of motivating and increasing performance (Levy & Williams, 2004). 

Research helps open the door to understanding how environments that may have been opposed to pay-for-performance in the past may be receptive to such measures if employee input is considered. By partnering with employees to develop higher standards the performance system creates higher levels of perceived validity and greater trust with management. Through employee engagement the organization can realign employee efforts to save taxpayer dollars. 

Research conducted by Mulvaney, McKinney, & Grodsky (2012) Study of 70 full-time and 550 part-time employees in the Elmhurst Park District of Illinois help highlight potential new performance measures for public employees. To implement an effective pay-for-performance system within municipal government required six important steps:

• 1.)    Job Analysis: Systematic method of gathering and analyzing information on the content of jobs.
• 2.)    Rating of Tasks: This includes the rating of tasks as to their importance to the success of the organization.
• 3.)    Creating of Appraisal Instrument: The development of the appraisal system based upon job tasks.
• 4.)    Identifying Raters: People who would be most accurate in assessing performance were selected to conduct the appraisals.
• 5.)    Rater Training: Each of the raters was trained to reduce bias and errors.
• 6.)    Performance Interview: Seeking and discussing potential information to include in the performance appraisal system.

The results help indicate that improvement in employee perception are beneficial results of developing employee pay-for-performance systems in which employees are participants in their development. The study was considered a pilot study that briefly tries to grasp the main concepts of transformation in government agencies. Additional research would be helpful in improving the likelihood of positive outcomes. The findings are as follows. 

-Cognitive and affective value of employees’ engagement in developing pay-for-performance evaluations.

-Additional agreement between management and employee perceptions of fairness  and accuracy with evaluations. 

-Noticeable performance improvement with employees who received feedback.

-There were higher levels of perceived procedural trust with the pay-for-performance evaluations.

Chelladurai, P. (1999). Human resource management in sport and recreation. Chicago, IL.:Human Kinetics

Dyer, L. & Reeves, T. (1995). Human resource strategies and firm performance: what do we know and where do we need to go? International Journal of Human Resource Management, 5 (3). 

Levy, P. & Williams, J. (2004). The social context of performance appraisals: a review and framework for the hitwe. Journal of Management, 20 (6).

Mulvaney, M., McKinney, W. & Grodsky, R. (2012). The development of a pay-for-performance system for municipal agencies: a case study. Public Personnel Management,  41 (3).