Post 5 Illinibucks

If our school is going to use Illinibucks to allocate scarce resources, this system would be very popular at the beginning and potentially useful in a short run. In the long run, this system will not be very effective. In addition, it is very hard to determine a proper price for Illinibucks to eliminate deadweight loss.

From my perspective, I think Illinibucks use to moving to the head of the line can be used in registering class, check out line in Illini union bookstore, and local restaurant, dining halls, and Mckinley health center. In the short run, this market mechanism would work because some innovators are willing to purchase Illinibucks as a tryout that how this new system operates. Most students would not accept cost more money on moving to the head of the line since most time it does not take very long time to waiting for a line and some people may regard Illinibucks as a discrimination among students which is unfair to students who are from low-income families. Hence, only students from middle-class or high-income families are more likely to use Illinibucks to get the fast pass into popular classes, bars and restaurants. Since only a few market participants exist in Illinibucks system, those users could always get the fast pass right away. In the long run, if more and more students joined this market, the fast pass line probably also long as a regular line. In this situation, students may only pay for Illinibucks if the fast line is not quite long. Otherwise, they would just stay in the regular line. In the long run, students who are junior or senior standings always have priorities in early-registration, so they do not need to pay extra money for registering a popular class. Students with freshman standing without early registration could also ask James Scholar students to help them reserve spots. Sometimes, if students really want to take a class, they could email either Professor or academic advisors for override permission. Hence, the needs for Illinibucks in class registration would be largely decreased due to above reasons. For purchasing books, there are multi-channels available for to get required books such as E-book, pre-order online, used books from other students instead of going to the bookstore in person. For restaurants, you can actually pre-order food online or just give a call in advance. In addition, there are some many alternatives restaurants available, students could always find the one with less waiting. Therefore, once there are more alternatives or substitutions available in the market, Illinibucks won’t be effective to get the head of a line.

At the beginning of each semester, it always takes a long time to waiting in the checkout line of the Illini bookstore, if the price of Illinibucks is too expensive for example five to ten dollars, those students are quite willing to pay it because it benefits overweight costs. Additionally, if the price of the Illinibucks is too low and demands are massive, the problem of black market would exist, some students may buy low and sell high which would also affect the functionalities of this system. In opposite, if the price of Illinibucks is too expensive such as twenty dollars, some students may consider that the costs are greater than the benefits. However, in some emergency situation, more students are willing to pay for Illinibucks for saving waiting time with fewer concerns on the price of Illinibucks. For example, when some serious accidents or injuries happened, students want to get medical service as soon as possible. The needs for emergent medical service are inelastic so students are willing to pay more on Illinibucks no matter how expensive the costs would be.

In conclusion, I believe that the effectiveness and efficiency of Illinibucks system significantly depend on the whether the demand for pre-selected items is elastic or inelastic. Also, it depends on the cost-benefit analysis and the number of substitutions in the current market. Lastly, the problem of black-market and fairness is also a huge concern determining the market efficiency. 

Post 4 Organizing teams

In one of my accounting classes, I worked with four other group members all together to do the accounting projects throughout the whole semester. At the first project, everyone met in the BIF in order to get familiar with each other. Since this was the first time we formally met each other, we had no idea about each others personalities and working styles. Hence, we started to read and analyze the case altogether and brainstorm after finishing readings. Since I was the first one who finished the readings at home, I brought out my ideas about the whole contents should include in our group projects. I designed three main bodies which focused on different areas of the company and listed corresponding bullet points under each topic. After listening to my plan for this project, all the other group members agreed on my version and no one came up with new ideas. Hence, we started to assign those three body parts and one introduction and one conclusion. Each group members would pick any part they wanted from above five components. One of the group members showed up late so he picked the conclusion part and volunteered to do the proofreading. From the first work, I realized that if someone came up with full ideas while others did not know much about the case contents, it is hard for them to came up with their own ideas after listening to other’s thoughts. In order to avoid this kind of limitation of ideas happened in the future, we made an agreement that everyone needed to read the case before showing up in the meeting and all group members needed to contribute thoughts for the project. In addition, we elected one person as our liaison who was responsible for checked the due date of all projects and contacted everyone one week earlier to set up the meeting schedule. Moreover, we also elected one person as proofreaders who were also responsible for printing out every final project handed in class and uploaded via compass 2g.

On the second time, everyone showed up on time as requested by our liaison. This time, our class required each group present in front of the whole class. Thus, we need to practice the group presentation after completing the work. Then, we elected one person as the timekeeper to monitor each member’s speech length and warned when the member talked longer than the expected time. Moreover, we also elected one person as a recorder to write down all the ideas proposed by group members to make sure we did not miss any good point. Lastly, we assigned one group member as questioner who was responsible for collecting any question asked by group members and going to office hour to ask either TA or professor and then gave feedback to us.

At this point, every group member had his or her own role and particular responsibilities in the team. For each project, we would have five parts and assign the task by following first come first pick rule. If one of the members felt challenged in selected parts, he or she could still ask help for all the team members or switched the part with the approve of the other team member. For the presentation part, if one team member need more time than the assigned minutes such as three minutes for everyone, we will discuss all together to see who did not need to present for three minutes or whose part was less important would share out his time to the needed person. Therefore, our group worked very effectively and unitedly. Everyone would help each other to solve the problems. Most time, we kept the tradition of democracy to achieve consensus. We shared the risks and rewards equally, which created a friendly and collaborative working environment.

Post 2 Organization experience

I joined in the graduate department of Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA). In this organization, we have one chairman and a group of board members. There three vice-chairmen, three secretaries, and one consultant. From my perspective, there are too many board members which cause a redundancy problem. I think only one chairman, one vice-chairman, two secretaries and one consultant would be enough to manage the whole organization. Below the board members, there is undergraduate department, treasury department, social network department, media department, human resource department, graduate department, technical department and so on. Every department would have one head of the department, one or two vice head of the department, and two secretaries and members. In this organization level, I also think there is also a redundancy problem. Normally the job functions of vice head of department and secretary are overlapped. The utilization of the human resource is not efficient. To illustrate, in our department, the arrangement of every member’s schedule is not assigned to secretaries rather than managed by the new member. Originally, the secretaries should manage department event and notice everyone. However, new members do not have first-hand information about the upcoming event, they have to ask it from secretaries or even head of department first, then update the calendar later, which is totally unnecessary. In addition, new members are not familiar with each other and organization routine, so I think the higher level management members should update events through top-down system instead of the bottom up system because they are familiar with the whole process that could save more time in planning.
Since the supervisors of our department are highly lack of efficient management experience, there is always information asymmetry among group members and ineffective event arrangement. For example, there are mule events holding in the same period, and all members have to join two or more events. Nevertheless, our supervisors overlooked the event and meeting scheduled time and location, so some members may have two meetings at the same time. They realized this problem after they have sent out the schedule to all members couple days later. Hence, members have to reschedule their own time in order to meet department needs again. Because of those changes, I have to cancel my other appointments and group meeting time to fit the new schedule, which would cost for me. In my original plan, I could meet my team members to discuss our group assignments, right now I have to contact all the team members to re-set up a new group meeting time for the concern of my organization requirement. Other team members also need to adjust their own time accordingly. Hence, I think an ineffective organization management would waste human resources and time.
 

Post 3 Opportunism

I read a story from the newspaper. One time, a man saw a bag placing in the corner of the hospital, but no one was in the nearby. So he grabbed that bag and checked what’s in it. He was so shocked there are at 40,000 dollars inside the bag. Definitely, this amount money is very appealing to ripping off. Moreover, there is nobody notice what happened in this hidden corner. He could just keep the money and leave the hospital. However, he did not. Otherwise, it will not be reported on newspaper. He thought for a while and finally decided to stay there and wait for the owner coming back. At the same time, he also contacted the customer service of the hospital trying to reach the owner with hospital together. After 4 hours waiting, the owner finally comes back. The owner is a single mom from a small village. When she saw the bag with the correct amount of money, she was so surprised and thrilled since she really did not expect the money bag did not steal by others. She told that man this amount of money was borrowed for treat her daughter’s cancer. In order to gather enough money to pay the bill, she had sold the only small house and asked for the relative for the rest. If she lost the money, she has no way to get the enough money for her daughter’s surgery. 

Later on, the reporter interviewed with this man and asked him have ever thought just taking the money away? He answered honestly, at the very beginning, this selfish thought really came into his mind, but if he really took the money, what would have happened to the owner? In common sense, nobody would bring this large of money going out. It must have an important reason for the owner to do so. In addition, it is not easy to save this large amount of money. He did not want to regret and feel guilty for his selfish thought, which might cause huge trouble to the owner. Therefore, he decided to be a moral man and reach out the owner. 

From this story, I think sometimes people choose to not be an opportunist may due to the moral conscientiousness. They can hardly bear the censure from their conscience for the whole life. In addition, it is not easy to make money for a living. He does not want exploit their hard-earned dollars. Lastly, it is nice to behave an honest person by helping others. In this story, he saved a girl’s life. People would be proud of their moral behaviors or selfless choice. Based on above consideration, I think it is not hard to understand why sometimes people choose not to take advantage of the situation.