How to Build a Rock Garden Table

Sometimes we find old tables sitting around the house or a neighbor willing to part with a scratched up old piece of furniture for a few dollars. What is one man’s junk is another treasure. Learning how to refurnish such tables puts them back into beneficial use within one’s home or office. A little tender love and care can restore it to its former beauty.  The possibilities are as open as your imagination. 

Unpainted table

Finding a solid wooden table with a few scratches on it but in sound condition I decided it would be great for my patio. Yet as I finished painting it I decided that I could do just a little more to enhance it as an artistic project. A few ideas rolled around in my head such as building an actual pond, a sand based rock garden, or a nice habitat for hermit crabs. Finally I decided that it would be an excellent place to put the portable Weber Grill. 

Edging

As you can tell from the pictures the center is made of rocks, sand and shells. It looks wet but is as solid as glass. This means you can turn the table upside down, move it, and still not have a mess. There are many different options when turning an old wood table into an art project. Consider all of the options such as a smaller rock garden in the center for a vase or creating a slim rock garden edging on three sides to give it an artistic yet functional development.

Step 1: Make sure the table is pure wood without laminated tops or chip board construction. Check the structural soundness of the table to make sure it is worth your time. 

Step 2: Lightly sand the surface to create a slightly rougher texture to hold the paint. This is important if the top has a clear coat on it. If you desire to varnish the table you will need to strip and sand. You will want to remove or fill all the scratches. 

Step 3: Paint or varnish the table. It may be necessary to do this more than one time to ensure consistency of color and depth. 

Step 4: Measure out how large or small you desire to make your rock garden. Use these measurements to purchase and cut half inch or quarter inch boards. The size and thickness of the edging is up to your personal preference. 

Step 5: Use wood glue and thin nails to attach the four sides to the top of the table. It is important that you use glue as it will secure the wood properly and avoid any leakage when the clear coat is applied. Paint the stripping to match the table once they are attached.

Step 6: Pour sand, rocks, and little shells between the attached edging boards. The type of items you use within this area is up to you. Some considerations could be simply sparkles, shells, glass gems, balls, or anything else of interest. You can find these items at any craft store. Make sure they are arranged and spread out to cover the bottom of the table.

Step 7: Pour the epoxy clear coat over the items you placed between the edging boards.  The directions state it will be completely cured within 72 hours. This may work for a thin layer but when that layer is an inch thick it could take up to a week or more. 

Dry Rock Garden

The end result should be a table that is painted and has a decorative style. It is possible to make many variations on this table. My goal was to create a wet looking pond on the table where a Weber grill, plants or pictures can be placed. Depending on the layer of epoxy clear coat you can create a smooth top or one in which the rocks sit above the coating. It draws some level of interest as people naturally go over and touch the rock garden to see if it is full of water. A second round of this might come out more as a table with a higher but less wide place for potted plants. If you are interested in purchasing this table please send me an email.

Expenses:

Table Free

Epoxy clear coat $27 X 2

Edging wood $4

Paint $4

Rocks, Sand, Shells $8 (You can get this for free)

Total $70

The Development of Collaborative Entrepreneurship in Organizations

Entrepreneurship comes in many forms, methods, and pathways. Most often it is discussed in terms of small business development but also includes important aspects of developing stronger products, services, and proactive problem-solving. Research conducted on a Finnish consulting firm helps to highlight how internal organizational entrepreneurship can exist within the team framework of the organizations leaders. It is this leadership inclusion and culture of discussion that can turn reactive management into proactive problem-solving that improves performance. 

Entrepreneurship within organizations should be honored and encouraged to foster stronger performing companies. The main task of organizational entrepreneurship is to improve economic performance through better developed strategies and operations (Rauch, et. al., 2009; Ireland, Covin & Kuratko, 2009). Such activities encourage innovative development of both the decision-makers processes as well as the operational structures they control. 

A large percentage of organizational performance is based within the capacity and behavioral patterns of the leadership team. It is this leadership team that develops the processes and procedures by which other organizational aspects function. These processes and procedures create a structure that primes employee’s behavior through the rewards, punishments, expectations, communication lines, and processes. Enhancing the entrepreneurship of the leadership team has a huge impact on the functioning of the rest of the organization. 

Since leader’s decisions are important and have a wide impact on the organization it is beneficial to create checks and balances by offering as many possible solutions and counter solutions as relevancy allows. Some have advocated a four step process of joint decision-making that includes proposal, access, agreement and commitment (Stevanovic, 2012). As proposals make their way into the leadership war room they should be fairly pondered, accepted or discarded, and finally committed upon. 

A study conducted by Peltola from the University of Helsinki helps to further define how entrepreneurship and decision-making innovation works within executive teams (2013). The study offers a case study of a consultative business management organization with access to a number of other firms in Finland. Meetings were recorded to determine overall effectiveness of practices. 

Results:

-Collaborative decision-making practices to solve jointly-acknowledged performance problems are important at the initial stages of entrepreneurship. 

- Entrepreneurship in decision making is founded on proposals, access, agreement and commitment. 

-Strong decision-making processes require conversational subtlety. 

-Powerful members must first adapt and model entrepreneurship traits for others.

Business Analysis:

The development of an entrepreneurial culture starts at the very top of an organization. Those leaders who adapt and model the stages will encourage others to come forward with solutions. The stages depend on a proposal, access to decision makers, agreement about fundamental issues and approaches, and finally commitment to enact the proposal. The successful solicitation and presentation of proposals requires the ability to engage in productive conversation versus the subtle rejection of anything new. Organizations that desire to stay ahead of problems need to be open to potential solutions and accepting of those solutions for debate. 

Ireland, R.D., Covin, J.G., Kuratko, D.F., (2009). Conceptualizing Corporate Entrepreneurship Strategy. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(1).

Peltola, S. (2013). The emergence of entrepreneurship in organizations: joint decision-making about new sales practices in management group meeting interaction. Poznan University of Economics Review, 13 (1).

Rauch, A., Wiklund, J., Lumpkin, G.T., Frese, M., (2009) Entrepreneurial Orientation and Business Performance: An Assessment of Past Research and Suggestions for the Future. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 33(3).

Stevanovic, M., (2012) Establishing Joint Decisions in a Dyad. Discourse Studies, 14 (6).

A Current Study: An Assessment of Emotional Intelligence Understanding in the Field of Real Estate

Purpose/Significance

Dr Andree Swanson and Dr Brand Bowler, research partners, are conducting a qualitative study is to identify the levels of understanding of emotional intelligence (EI) within the field of real estate sales.  Understanding and using EI is a learned behavior that real estate professionals should be aware of when dealing with clients.  Literature reveals that using EI will improve realtors’ efficiency and effectiveness.  The study will seek real estate sales professionals recruited through social media and networking.   

Significance Statement

The significance of this study is that a real estate sales professional must maintain the knowledge and skills necessary to provide professionally competent services.  Competence includes the wisdom to recognize the limitations of that knowledge and promote ethical relationships.  Emotional recognition of the client plays a crucial role in understanding the client’s motivation and feelings about his or her finances as related to real estate transactions. 

Emotional awareness is a key component of being an effective real estate sales professional.  Upon preliminary research, little to no literature can be found on emotional intelligence and real estate sales professionals.  Because of the lack of research on the topic, the completion of this proposed study is necessary.

Many studies have been published on how individuals with high emotional intelligence can enhance and increase the potential for positive outcomes.  The researchers propose that real estate sales professionals should work to increase their emotional intelligence, which can be learned, to be successful when working with clients.  Emotional intelligence is a learned and practiced skill.  The completion of the proposed study may positively benefit the field of real estate and in a greater sense may significantly change the landscape of communications and relationships in both business and academia as a whole.

Benefits

The results of the proposed study could potentially change the field of real estate sales by transforming the realtor / client relationship.  This would benefit not only the profession, but also the individual agents and their real estate sales clients who work with an Emotionally Intelligent trained agent.  The results may also provide a positive resource for the field of education by establishing Emotional Intelligence courses into the curriculum of business and real estate studies. 

Participate in Study

If you are a real estate professional, you are invited to participate in a qualitative research study on Emotional Intelligence.  Please go to this link, complete the informed consent, and take the brief survey.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GBVGC3Q

Dr. Andree Swanson & Dr. Brand Bowler

References

Bradberry, T., & Greaves, J. (2009). Emotional Intelligence 2.0. San Diego, CA: TalentSmart.

Paterson, K. (2011). What's your EQ? Rough Notes. Retrieved from ProQuest.

Trochim, W. M. (2006). Survey research. Research Methods Knowledge Base. from http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/survey.php

Improving Employee Performance through Expectancy Theory

Expectancy Theory postulates that a person will act in a certain way and make particular decisions based upon what they expect the results to be.  Managers that desire to better understand how to motivate employees should explore expectancy theory and its practical use to boost performance. The theory has been used in a number of companies and situations with great success. It is such a popular theory that additional theories have been developed off of its seminal findings.

Victor Vroom indicated in his 1968 ground breaking research that motivation can be fostered when employers ensure that rewards are desired and tied directly to performance. His research showed through a number of cases studies and experimental approaches that workers will perform better when rewards are of significant value to employees. When the association of effort and reward is too distant employees may have a hard time making the connection and putting forward effort. 

The Theory takes into account three main concepts that include expectancy, instrumentality and valence. Expectancy is an employee’s belief that additional effort will lead to higher levels of performance, instrumentality is an employee’s belief that engaging in certain behaviors will result in a reward, and valence is value of that reward to the employees. Understanding how the formula works helps decision makers use policies, procedures, leadership skills, compensation and succession planning as methods of raising overall motivation.

Motivation = Valence X Expectancy (Instrumentality) 

Let us put this to an applied example. Bob is an employee who has high self-esteem but has been suffering from an inability to find a pathway to perform higher because the old manager believed that “having a job” was reward enough. Bob is not stupid so he performs at a level comparable to his co-workers so that he can keep the only reward the workplace is offering “a job” but doesn’t put any more effort forward because there are no other rewards to achieve (praise, recognition, compensation, promotion, etc…)  Is Bob doomed to mediocre performance?

The company’s costs have been expanding causing profits to plummet. The board of directors decides that new management is necessary to achieve results. This new manager begins to adjust the compensation structure, opportunities for promotion, and the ability of employees to influence their workplace. Bob’s performance increases because he believes that he has the ability to perform better (expectancy), trusts his new manager enough to believe that his performance will be appropriately (instrumentality), and finds the rewards of worthwhile value to motivate him (valence). 

The great news is that it isn’t only Bob’s performance that rises but also members of his team who see Bob receiving rewards. They begin to adjust their behavior in emulation of Bobs so as to receive similar benefits. Overtime, the new changes by the manager and the development of employee performance expectations become embedded into the culture raising standards and profits. 

Before an organization decides to throw money into their employee’s hands in the hope they will perform better, managers should be aware that there are many factors that contribute to the success of Vroom’s Expectancy Theory. Each component should be measured in multiple ways to determine precisely where the problems and de-motivators reside within the organization.  Employees must have the skills to perform better, believe they can perform better, and the right organizational factors to encourage motivated behavior. The person, environment, and the organizational design should align to make higher levels of performance possible.  It is a process of continuous improvement.

Vroom, V. (1964). Work and motivation. New York: Wiley. 

Kinicki, A. & Kreitner, R. (2009). Organizational behavior: key concepts, skills, and best practices (Fourth Edition). USA: McGraw-Hill Company, Inc.