Final Post

I learn a great deal of things in this course. The way how approach to economics of organizations was very special because it induce students to actively participate in the course flow. In addition to this, the approach makes the material a lot easier by learning many concepts step by step through excel homework and lectures. Also, blog post assignment is like digesting newly learned knowledge, which is connecting important concepts of economics to my real lives so it is not easily perished in my brain. While the course does not require tons of work, it fully teaches many valuable concepts in economics of organization.

There were two rules in this course; (1) that attendance was not required and (2) that deadlines were soft. First, if attendance is not required, it naturally drops the attendance rate during the semester. It might discourage a professor to teach in class if too few students participate in the class. On the other hand, it also increases the quality of lecture. Because students that attend the class only for attendance is not likely to focus on the lecture. By second nature, the students who are left for curiosity are more likely to participate in the course, which makes the quality of the class higher. In addition to this, if attendance is not required, it gives impression to students that they are respected as being responsible individual. It motivates students rather more responsible and professional.

For second rule, if deadlines of assignments were soft, it naturally drops the rate of assignment submission in time. Of course, it can discourage an instructor because some students are not following the flow of learning as the course materials were designed. However, it can give motivation for some students to do the assignment as they are given some freedom to control the deadlines. In addition to this, some people, who have very limited time during semester, can be more flexible to find right time to do the tase so it is better for them to speculate on meaning of assignments. Better learning experience is possible if student takes the responsibility seriously.

For my experience in this semester, I have to admit that I was irresponsible to follow the flow as the course is designed. I tried to attend every single class and do the homework up to date in the beginning of the semester. The progress and my promise were kept until thanksgiving weeks, however it was not easy to be responsible once I am out of track. To the end of semester, workload is getting heavier and heavier, which makes me to forget the most softer or understandable deadlines. This result can discourage myself and an instructor as well. However, I was very satisfied with the course policy until then. Because those two rules in this course made myself more professional and active to the course. I felt like I was treated as responsible man, which increase the productivity and interest about the course as well. I like to have enough time to think about something. In addition to this, if the deadlines are soft, students are not giving up at the end. For example, CS374:Computation and Algorithm class that I took has strict deadlines and require tons of work each week. In consequence, students are severely stressed out and many of them ended up with giving up taking the course.

If I were to recommend changes in the approach, I would keep the soft deadline rule but I would change the attendance required. Even though trust between an instructor and students is important, there are a great deal of student who takes advantage of it. I would still respect the individual schedule about the assignment deadline. However, required attendance may force students to come to the class and make them sit in the class room, but it will give better feedback for both an instructor and students.

In this semester, I really appreciate this course because it makes me learn invaluable concepts not only from the course materials, but also participating in the class as organization. While communicating with a professor through online and offline, for example the class direction decision moments and all the policies about the course, I learned about economics of organization as live.

Principal Agent Model

There are a great deal of principal agent problems as we have relationship with another people and problems. The principal agent problems can be found in our daily lives and professional field that deals with law, insurance, or more serious problems. I want to start off with my family story first, and then insurance story will be dealt.

Since I was born, my parent live with my father's parent. Grandfather and grandmother live with my parent, my brother, and me. It is mostly peaceful and happy but sometimes there are conflicts between my parent and grandparent. Especially, my mother and grandmother were sometimes having arguments. The arguments are usually from the difference between age groups. My grandmother used to live in the period when woman is ought to take care of all housework, which includes all meals, cleaning, child care, and all other housework are thought to be job for only wife or woman. And husband or man is ought to work for their family, which means making money is their job. However, my mother is a fashion designer. She likes to work globally, reading books to learn new things, and travel to see another world. She loves her job rather than taking care of housework. They live in the opposite world. My grandmother wanted her to come home early as soon as she finishes her work to prepare dinner for family, but my mother wanted to take peaceful rest and read a book after exhausting work days.

 Between them, my father is the one who tried to understand both sides of opinions to resolve the tension. My father was wise. He was entirely supporting mother's work life. He respected her opinion and life as herself to do whatever she has dreamed. He did not want her to give up her job because of him, or any other obstacles. In addition to this, he also respected grandmother's opinion. He truly understood the situation and thoughts of her and tried to persuade her to fade away from old customs. As he put an effort to removing the gap between old and new life customs, the conflicts between my mother and grandmother have been relieved and they respect each other even though they are still subtle things that cannot be agreed on.

In addition, my wife was involved in a car accident during her travel in Jeju island. It was crazy because driver under influence crushed her car even though she was on the right lane to drive. Her car was literally crushed and the car was not usable anymore. It was a serious and urgent situation. There were no family or friends to help her physically right away because she was on a trip and she was far from home.  Therefore, she called an agent to talk about how to deal with this matter. Even though, the post-accident situation is quite systemized, her agent was trying to satisfy her about compensation and any care she wanted. She did not have to talk about the accident details and compensation directly to the person who also involved in an accident. The agent she hired was dealing with all the cost and insurance problems instead of her to resolve the situation as clean as possible. It was also possible because the accident occurred because of the other car, not her.

From daily basis to a car accident situation, principal agent models can be found in our lives frequently. To resolve the problems, the agent should be knowledgeable about someone or situation because he or she is the person who understand the both side of opinions. It needs some professional knowledge, genuine mindset, and logic to resolve the tension.