Reputation in an Organization

Reputations in organizations are extremely valued. Having a certain reputation can make or break an organization, consumers have the tendency to place more value on a product if the company making the product has a good reputation. This type of reputation can come in many forms. Walmart has a reputation for providing items at bulk pricing to consumers. Microsoft has a reputation for making products for business use such as through Microsoft Office and the Windows operating system. In particular, one company that I have found to be especially interesting is Apple. The reputation that Apple has developed in the past 20 years is incredible to see. Essentially, Apple has developed the reputation to be technologically innovative and to provide products to the consumer that is aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, Apple has developed a reputation for providing good support for its consumers. For these reasons, Apple has established such a large following in the consumer market. Thousands of consumers wait in lines for new releases of Apple products every year. The reputation that Apple has developed brings the company loyalty in its customers. I have personally seen people buy a certain Apple product on the market simply because of the brand, rather than another item that might be cheaper or meet their personal satisfaction better.

One of Apple’s more innovative products was the release of the iPod in 2001. This was one of the products that Apple revolutionized the music industry. Consumers were able to have an mp3 player that wasn’t based off of flash storage. Consumers were able to store thousands of songs on a device and be able to integrate this device with the iTunes software developed by Apple. In this way, Apple developed the reputation for being innovative in the music industry. Consumers associated the music market with the iPod brand. Apple also developed a reputation for being “cool” amongst the younger generation. Furthermore, the utilization of advertisements with flashy visuals and catchy music helped uphold this reputation of being “cool”. I personally remember how popular iPod were when I was growing up. All my friends that had iPods when they first came out became very popular because everybody wanted to see the device in action. Furthermore, Apple has maintained the reputation of being technologically innovative (even though it might not be), by releasing a newer version of the product every year. Typically, there are a few improvements with the product such as an updated version of the iPod. In recent years we have seen how the iPod has improved every year and even by coming out with other versions of the iPod such as the iPod Nano and iPod Touch.

Apple also has a reputation of having good support. Usually support through the genius bar is supplemented by someone that is competent enough to try to fix a situation. This is quite contrary to other businesses where you are directed to speak to someone who might not even be based in the United States in order to provide troubleshooting. The reputation of Apple is obviously also very apparent in way the stock value has risen dramatically in the past few decades. Apple may have the reputation of being innovative, and it does this best by creating products that are consumer friendly while also attracting the tech savvy as well. 

Reputation in my Family

One environment where I developed a personal reputation is with my family at home. I feel strongly pressured to develop a certain persona based off of my reputation at home. In particular, I have to uphold a very responsible reputation in regards to my parents and I have to assume a loving brotherly type of reputation when I am around my younger sisters. I would typically say that my reputation with my family is very respectable. I try to appease my parents by being the right type of role model for my little sisters.  

I have developed my reputation through my years of experience with my family members. My family members, especially my parents have steadily learned to trust me and to let me assume more responsibilities. In particular, I felt as if my parents were a big motivator in my life. They would help me set specific goals and help me set out to achieve them. These goals might include academic goals or career development goals such as getting a job. As I learned to meet these goals, I have developed a reputation of being reliable and a responsible person to my parents.

Furthermore, my reputation amongst my little sisters is hopefully one that they can be proud of. I personally want to be the role model that my little sisters can look up to and strive to be. On a personal level, I have worked especially hard in developing my reputation as a person that does the right thing, although this can be difficult at times. Whenever I am around my sisters I try to stress to them that being a good person is such an extremely important goal to strive for in life. I know that my parents will push my little sisters to become successful academically, so I try to push them in other areas such as being involved in the community and taking on extracurricular activities in school.

In addition to assuming moral responsibilities, I have worked hard to become a role model for my sisters through my achievements. I have accomplished this by doing well academically in school and starting to become financially responsible for myself. My current goals involve graduating from the University of Illinois with a high GPA and to immediately start working after college. Hopefully, by accomplishing my current goals, I will build on my reputation of being a role model for my little sisters. I want to eventually become a mentor for them for whatever life goals they are set to accomplish by sharing with them my personal experiences on various subject matters.

What I have described so far is for the most part accurate, but there are many instances where my reputation amongst my family members have deteriorated because of my actions. It is very difficult to maintain a good image for my parents and more importantly my little sisters at sometimes, particularly at my age. I feel like I am at the age in which many people participate in activities that would be inappropriate in the eyes of my parents or for my little sisters to see. One example is going to social events with my friends. Although I am 22 years old, and can legally drink I still think that there are many negative connotations associated with participating in such an activity. There have been many instances where my parents have seen me drinking. Although they don’t necessary care, they always tell me to be responsible with my actions. For these reasons, I try to keep my social activities away from my parents and my little sisters especially. In particular, there have been instances where I choose to go out with friends rather than stay at home and participate in more family activities. 

Triangle Principle Agent Relationship

I have personally experienced the triangle relationship between the principal agent problems in my previous employment. In particular, I had summer job in which I worked as a cashier at a local convenience store. This was a job in which I assumed a lot more responsibility that I had initially thought. I worked primarily night shifts, which meant that I had to essentially run the entire store by myself. Since there was only one worker in the store during this shift, I had to assume the responsibilities of running the store as well as taking care of the customers. Essentially, I experienced the principal agent problem with trying to be an agent to my boss as well as the customers. There was a clear distinction between what specific customers wanted and the expectations from my boss.

More specifically, I acted as an agent between my boss and the customers. My boss would leave me specific set of instructions each night such as managing inventory, stocking the store, paper work, or clean up. The main concern of my boss was to keep the store running at all times and to make sure that everything goes smoothly. Often times I would have to take inventory for current products and then make orders electronically for various items. For example, I would have to take inventory of alcohol products and make a purchase for those items that would potentially run out that week. Since we carried a variety of products from food, alcohol, to cigarettes we had to constantly keep inventory managed in order to make the store run smoothly. Since the convenience store that I worked at was a franchise, there was one main distributor that the store purchased from. There were incentives to purchase specific items and sell them in the store such as for promotional purchases. These were the items that my boss would incentivize me to sell. Certain contracts gave special discounts for the sale of certain products so these were the products that my boss would tell me to try and entice the customers to sell.

On the other spectrum, I would deal with customers on a daily basis. Often times these customers were my regulars. I would build a relationship with these certain people that would come in on a regular basis. These were the type of people that would stop in and would take the time to talk to me. In addition, these customers would often times give me their input on specific products that they would like to see in the store. For example one particular brand of cigars would sell very fast whereas others would sit on the counter for months at a time. When I would try to communicate to my boss these suggestions, there would be a mix of attitudes. While my boss sometimes respected my input, there were other times in which they would simply be ignored because of the protocol of the franchise. There was definitely a conflict between what certain products consumers demanded and the choice of products that my boss made from a higher up position in this organization. The main issues that arose because of this triangular principal agent problem came from asymmetric information between the various principals. There is a discrepancy between what consumers demand and the information about various contracts and promotions. While I looked to satisfy the party of my boss, I sometimes felt pressured to agree with my customers. I would definitely try to actively sell the products that had a promotion. It became difficult at times trying to explain to my customers why my manager wouldn’t take the advice of multiple customers.