Week 3 Reading Reflection

1      I think the part of the reading that stood out to me the most was the amount of research being done regarding entrepreneurial cognition.  In my mind it has always just been a natural part of how I live, but it is interesting to see that there really are a lot of specific cognitive aspects that indicate the mind of an entrepreneur.  Another part of the reading I found interesting was dealing with stress.  I think it is important to note that stress is commonly thought of in a negative context but in reality, without stress, it would be extremely hard to work efficiently and successfully.

2      The most confusing part of the reading was the part about managerial rationalization, especially where the book classifies the actions as “against the firm” or “for the firm”.  The way I see it, all of the examples listed have a direct effect both against and for the firm.

3      One question I would ask the author is why he included the section on The Entrepreneurial Ego?  I don’t necessarily think these are traits are important to talk about when addressing entrepreneurs specifically because they are traits of really any person in their career.  I would also ask the author why he mentioned the popularity of having a code of conduct although right before that he talked about how ethical codes are often too difficult to have a explicit set of guidelines.

4      There were no parts of the reading I felt that the writer was wrong about.  However, I do feel that my opinion is different than the author concerning ethical leadership of small business owners being more powerful than that of corporations.  I think that even in larger companies, ethical leadership is just as powerful as the desire to move up the ladder is always present for sub-managers.  Although employees have more contact with small business owners, this means it is easier to not follow the guidelines when the owner is not around; whereas with larger companies, there is always a hierarchy of managers around employees so it is harder to operate outside of the ethical guidelines.