Summary of Mike Rose Essays

Summary of Mike Rose Essays Summary of Mike Rose Essay Summary of Mike Rose Essay Mike developed an interest in psychology early in life. Mike attended college where he studied social and physiological sciences and taught for a period often years. Mike describes cultural beliefs such as; intelligence being a measure of ones level of education, or a Job title defining a persons intellect. Our culture would have us believe a physically demanding Job to require less intelligence. Mike recalls his mother, Rosier Rose, at work in a local restaurant. Observing customers actions and DOD language allowed Rosier to recognize a customers dissatisfaction with a meal or need for some additional item. Rosier could multi-task, communicate orders in short form and created her own memory strategy so she could remember individual orders. The physical aspect of the Job was tasking to Rosier so she worked smarter, grouping Jobs and eliminating wasted time. Mikes observations of his mother at the work, to him, defined the adult worker. Joe, Mikes uncle, dropped out of school in the ninth grade and started work for the railroad. He Joined the navy, returned to the railroad, and later Joined his brother at General Motors. Joe was very good at recognizing problems and developing solutions to correct them. Joe relates the shop floor to being at school, a continuous learning environment. Joe became foreman and got promoted to supervisor of the paint and body department. Joe found ways to improve the efficiency and developed a new spray nozzle design. To ease the stress associated with the repetitive activities, Joe implemented Job rotation. For eight years, Mike studied the thought process of workers such as Rose and Joe. Mike recognized the use of creative thinking and its affect on the worker. Mike describes how easily we can overlook the remarkable cognitive abilities of the blue collar worker. Mikes study of the workers brings to light many activities, mental and physical, not typically associated with occupations we believe to be menial. Clearly, intelligence and cognitive ability cannot be defined by a title or Job function.