This course taught effective time management strategies that can be applied to both personal and professional life. It emphasized planning and prioritizing tasks, tracking time spent on activities, and establishing work-life balance. The underlying theory discussed was the human relations approach, which focuses on valuing employees and fostering a welcoming and cooperative work environment. When these concepts are applied, it can increase employee productivity and satisfaction by addressing individual needs and styles. The course helped prepare the student for a career in human resources by providing practical skills and aligning with the goals of supporting employees' well-being and potential.

1. Erika Valdivia
Comm 199C
Professor Raman
Work Smarter Not Harder: Time Management for Personal and Professional
Productivity
1. Introduction
This was a very educational course that provided great strategies for time management in
real life work environments and even for our own personal lives. These courses’
strategies were helpful to learn while I was taking the class because it taught me the
basics of how to manage my personal and school schedule. After I had taken this
class, the concept of “Time is the most limited resource” stuck with me and made
me conscious about planning my day, my week and the month. I am positive that
this class will prove to be helpful in my future career as a Human Resources
Consultant when I get to apply the concepts and practice acquired to manage my
time in order to meet deadlines, plan my work day and share this skills with anyone
struggling with time management. We learned to make a work plan prioritizing what is
most important first such as learning to recognize urgent vs. important and urgent AND
important tasks. In my work as a Human Resources Consultant, I will be faced with
possibly multiple situations that might need sorting into the categories of important,
urgent or both and I will address those situations using the knowledge I acquired.
We also learned that time is a limited resource and in order to make that work plan we
need to track our time completing tasks or job duties, so we can learn from our own

2. experience and work habits how long each task will take us to accomplish and estimate
our Strategic Reserve Time. By planning our work and personal life we will learn our
own definition of work-life balance and make changes or adjustments according to our
own values and honor system.
1. Theory Identification and history of Theories
The dominant theory underlying this course is Human Relations. My passion to help
others and genuine desire to see others grow in their personal and professional life
in a welcoming work environment will be my best asset.
I will explain how the Human Relations Theory has shaped the field of
Communications and how we still apply this theory adapted to the modern views of
Human Relations. The Human Relations Theory has its origins with “The
Hawthorne Effect” of Elton Mayo (1920)i who conducted serious research, studies
and interviews that led him to conclude that the repetitive work produced fatigued
workers and high employee turnover and that by providing periodical “breaks”
throughout the day it created more satisfied employees and reduced turnover. This
new theory had a pivotal impact in the existing “Scientific Management” by
Frederick Taylor and caused scholars and researchers to review its concept. The
Scientific theory claims that employees’ productivity was slowed or reduced by
employees deliberately with the purpose of avoiding jobs reduction. Scholars still
use the studies conducted for the Hawthorne Effect and interpret the data through a
modern vision. Currently the Human Relation Theory is being applied through the

3. lens of “Servant Leadership” which is focused on the growth and well being of the
people (employees) and “sharing the power and putting the needs of others first”.ii
2. Theory Application
The theory of Human Relations, start with the assumption that all people “want to feel
united, tied, bound to something, some cause, bigger than they commanding them yet
worthy of them, summoning them to significance in living” (Bendix, 1956). This course
teaches how employees can maximize their productivity in the workplace, by using
effective planning. Their time which is the most valued resource. Tom Peters, Leadership
guru, said “We often, maybe even mostly, let our schedule schedule itself; ignoring the
fact that time, NOT MONEY, is our only true leadership asset” By doing so, employees
will have a more balanced work-life, which in turn will provide self fulfilling
experiences. When employees realize the impact their contribution has in the goals
of the company as a whole, it gives them another perspective to the big picture and
they no longer feel that they are just a simple part of the “organizational machine”,
but are a meaningful contributor to the end goal. By humanizing the relationship of
leader and employees we are capable of giving a sense of belonging, we create a
culture of mutual respect, integrity and the welcoming environment created by the
leader will determine the impact on production or performance.
Mary Parker Follett believed that only cooperation among people working together our
Coursera course we learned that collaborating with members of our organization would
be part of the success is time management, for example, if we are new in the job or

4. recently promoted, it is a good idea to speak the peer who previously held that position to
help us create a work plan. We also learned that our leadership will play an important
role for employees figuring out priorities, scheduling time and creating an individual
work plan that may be different for each employee.
3. Metaphor for Organizations
Considering that metaphors are figure of speech that define that define an unfamiliar
experience in terms of another, more familiar one. On this course I found that it discusses
the organization as culture metaphor. Eisenberg did a research that led to an attempt to
establish a causal link between communication satisfaction and job satisfaction, although
there is no empirical evidence that supports that relationship. The fact that employees are
valued for who they are and provided with the resources to succeed such as having the
freedom to schedule their own time using their own sense making considering their
most/least productive time of the day is certainly valuing the individual culture of every
employee, which in turn takes me to the Theory Z from Ouchi who studied how the
different cultural backgrounds of organization members influence interactions within the
organization. It is important to understand that each person has a different style of
learning and working. Each of us learn what is our most productive time in the day
and use it for the most challenging or demanding tasks of the day. Therefore,
respecting that individuality of each employee will greatly contribute to an increase
productivity and the success of the organization.

5. 4. View of communication
The Human Relations Theory conceptualizes the Coursera course communication, as we
previously identified. One of the stories used by the instructor told us how a friend of
hers made herself available 24 hours 7 days a week to her boss’ text messages, which led
to her boss sending messaging her at various times of the day including early hours in the
morning and late hours at night, which started creating a stressful situation for her
because now she could not enjoy her personal time at home with family or friends. In
this situation we can appreciate that this person who wanted to look good at work by
quickly answering her boss’ messages, put herself in the difficult position of having to
have that conversation with her boss to discuss the expectations for her duties at work,
her job description etc. and finally setting boundaries, so she could be more productive at
work and at home. This is an example where we can appreciate all the Human
Relations Approaches. I believe firmly that by creating an environment with an
“open door policy” where employees are welcome to share their thoughts and
feedback, we can learn more about each individual, what drives them, what
motivates them and how they want to be coached for success.
5. Critique: Theory Strengths
In the example used before where we can see hat the human relation between employee
and manager were improved by conflict resolution which demanded openness and
honesty from part of the employee to bring up the discomfort created by her boss who

6. was sending her messages at times when she is enjoying her family and personal time
which diminished the quality of her time away from the workplace. By initiating this kind
of communication with her boss, she was valued for her self-actualization and needs-
oriented relationship. In this case her boss honored the job description displaying an
ethical behavior by giving back to her the job offered initially. By negotiating with
her the differences they had which fits in the Division of labor/management. In
addition, stability in safety was accomplished through the positive result of this
communication.
6. Critique: Theory Weakness
One of the limitations of this theory could be identified as a false openness in which this
employee, may not be fully honest when approaching her manager to discuss the
discomfort created by her messaging at inappropriate times when the employee is
enjoying her personal time away from work. In addition, we are equating employee
happiness with improved productivity and efficiency, which may lead to make the
organization responsible in a way for the employee’s happiness. Let’s formulate a
scenario. This employee now is going through a difficult divorce and is not able to keep
her focus due to the overwhelming situation, how can the employer/manager negotiate
differences through open communication? How can stability be addressed or maintained?
This questions, point out that this theory is in some aspects idealistic and would not apply
when we consider that employee happiness equates efficiency or productivity. Indeed,

7. there is not enough empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of human relations
especially the claim that positive employee morale increases productivity.
7. Reflection
I certainly believe that the Coursera course was very valuable and will aid me in my
career as a Human Resources Consultant. Balancing life and work can be
challenging and the real life tools and tips I learned are invaluable. This kind of
training about time management is great not only for new employees but also
experienced managers and leadership members. I have been applying it on my
personal life as well which is adding quality to it. When companies and/or large
corporations invest in training their leaders and employees with this quality and
practical material, it shows that they care for their people, that they are paying
attention to what matters, which in turn raises the morale and productivity. This
process is known as the Hawthorne effect. The Coursera course not only taught me
how to plan and time manage my duties at work but also my personal time and
activities, which in turn will lead me to meet my basic needs in the context of
efficiency. Here we can see how the goals of each employee merge with the goals of
the organization creating the perfect conditions for self-actualization. This also
coincides with the theory of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs that states that people’s
basic needs must be met before they can move toward achieving their full human
potential. I am looking forward to start my career as a Human Resources
Consultant to display my high ethical standards through respecting the human

8. dignity of every employee, peer and member of the leadership, fostering a safe
workplace, knowing what is right and doing what is right.
REFERENCES
i Human Relations Contributors- Elton mayo’s Hawthorne Experiments -
http://www.accel-team.com/motivation/hawthorne_02.html
ii Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Power of Legitimate Greatness - Robert
K. Greenleaf (1977)