Lawrence Klein Econ 490 fall 2019

The standard principal-agent model is bilateral, yet it is usually a triangle in the reality, indicating that agent needs to deal with 2 different principals. In principal-agent model, the agent is contracted to manage the principal’s asset instead of the principal. There can be conflict between principal and agent since agent can have their own objectives instead of principal’s, agents can get benefit from asymmetrical information, and agent can avoid their responsibility and work less than one’s capacity or ability. So, there is agency cost to resolve or prevent the conflict between them. From my experiences, I have not yet encountered in triangle like arrangement. However, I have seen my sister dealt with two different principals. She works as administrative officer/accountant in private international school in China. At the school, there are several international departments such as Korean department where my sister works, English department, and US department. Each departmen...

In workplace, there are always interactions between workers and conflicts among workers. People all think differently and express their thoughts and feelings in various ways, which may cause conflict with each other. And, it is important for manager to be able to keep good relationship among workers and resolve conflicts smoothly if it happens since “individual and organizational effectiveness depend heavily on the quality of interpersonal relationships and team dynamics” according to B&D chapter 8. Here is one example of conflict that I have experienced in RSO. In the RSO, there were 5 different teams. Our team had to hold an annual event on Champaign public library as usual. It was our team’s event where we introduce Korean cultures to children and their parents. For example, we would have various activities that children can participate; Korean traditional game called Tu-ho (pitch-pot), wearing Korean traditional clothes, and making key chain with Korean traditional patter...

Last week, team production and gift exchange were discussed. In the team production, we talked about the past performance and how the current reward should be divided. This week, we are looking at the team production in the other way; How can we improve the performances of each worker to have the better team production? There are various ways to improve the performance of the worker. The boss can encourage under-performed employees to make them be productive again, or the boss can discipline under-performed employee. How hard does the boss or manager should discipline their workers to rehabilitate the relationship? I believe that moderate discipline and the following encouragement like compliments can rehabilitate the relationship and increase their productivity. I have worked as an assistant teacher during summer for three years. When I worked as assistant teacher at summer camp in China in 2018, I was able to see several disciplinary moments. The summer camp was held for fou...

  After reading three articles regarding sharing the marbles, fairness, and altruism, I found it really interesting to learn about children's different behaviors towards others based on the situation and how their behaviors are related to our society and my experiences in team production and gift exchange. In the article about sharing the marbles, there was one experiment where children needs to pull the ropes to get marbles. If both children pull the ropes at the same time, one will get one marble where the other will get three marbles. However, the one who gets three marbles will share one marble to the other since they both have done works together, meaning "share-the-spoils" button is pressed. Two children collaborated to produce gain from the action, so "rich" kid is willing to share the gain as gift exchange. Regarding the gift exchange in the team production, it is the social behavior where teammate voluntary deliver good or service.  In this example, it ...