Economy topics and Issues related to Second act Movie story.

Second act story depicted nowadays challenges towards people lifestyles. The story
starts with Maya (Jennifer Lopez) aims to be a store manager but her application was decline
due to her academic quality. Maya disappointed with her boss decision since she work hard to
obtain that position but her boss passed that position to outsider who have better qualification
than her. Her best friend Joan's (Leah Remini) son makes her a fake resume online, and she
gets a job interview at a huge company based on the lies. She accepts the job, and though at
first her co-worker Zoe (Vanessa Hudgens) is chilly towards her, she softens up, especially when
she discovers that Maya is the mother who gave her up for adoption. It turns out Zoe's father
Anderson (Treat Williams), the head of the company, called Maya in for an interview to meet
his daughter's birth mother but was ultimately impressed with her. Maya's work at the
company is ultimately a success but cannot go on with the lie and tells the truth at a big press
conference. Zoe is extremely hurt and moves to London. A year later, Maya has created her
own successful business from the ground up. She gets back together with her ex-boyfriend Trey
(Milo Ventimiglia) with plans to finally start a family and when Zoe returns, Zoe forgives Maya.

There are lots of economy topic involves in this story, the obvious one is academic
quality for job application. This is a common topic when it comes to working environment. One
must have a related academic quality to apply a related job. It is very important for human
resource department to filter every application possible since education is common to access
nowadays. This scene was illustrated in the early minute of the movie where Maya being
rejected as a manager even though she has enough experience to handle that responsibility. An
article made by Shaun M. Dougherty, an associate professor in Connecticut describe as
academic is the major important factor to get a job placement in the world nowadays
(Dougherty, 2017). The academic quality also be a base for a person to get a salary range since
competition a lot harsh nowadays due to easy access of information and education.
Qualifications are useful because they make skills visible. This confidence allows employers and
others to decide how to make the best use of the skills of the labor force (Field, 2016).

Further review on second act movie reveal that issues idea cross between worker teams
in production line. This showed when maya intend to change the production line onto natural
based product while her colleague suggest that changing production line is costly. This is
common for nowadays practice where new idea always mingle with production cost.
Introducing new production line take lots of cost and resources. Therefore, deep discussion
must be made with every executive to make this project success. It is also important to keep
track with customers need where you should point the business area of your product. This idea
also supported by journalist Audra in her article where she suggests that employees need to
communicate what they think to a supervisor, and an empathetic supervisor can help them feel
secure in their role in the organization (Bianca, 2020). This article also suggest that a manager
may present ideas to the employee about how he is doing in each performance area, but he
also should listen to the employee's ideas and, if allowed, use the employee's input in the
performance appraisal document. This exchange of ideas enables an employee to become
more effective in his job, which helps the organization to meet its goals. Plus, an employee's
attitude has a potential to impact his interactions with others and his individual work
performance. Attitude affects an employee's reactions to others, including colleagues,
supervisors and customers. This attitude affects his perception of his job and his value to the
organization. If an employee's work tasks involve collaboration with others, his attitude can
affect the success or failure of the group (Bianca, Chron, 2020). This also shows in movie later
where Maya indeed success in her production line based on help from her daughter Zoe.

Next, competition in a company. After Maya and Zoe express their idea to their boss,
the boss gave them 10 weeks to comes up with a solution for their product. They got enough
supplies and workplace for their idea to became reality. This also common practice in nowadays
economy where a boss divides a team to solve a problem with different approach. As idiom
once said, do not put all your eggs in one basket. Time is essential for worker and company.
Therefore, several approach must be implemented to get one ideal solution for a problem. In
fact, research estimates that between 81% and 95% of employees around the world actively
serve on multiple teams simultaneously (Troy Smith, 2018). In a good team must consist a good
leader and workers. Leaders should be trained to empower their followers by delegating
authority to them on important tasks, giving them as much autonomy as possible, supportively
coaching as employees take on more and more responsibilities, sharing as much strategic and
important information as possible, and asking for input when making key decisions. Research
consistently shows that when managers engage in these behaviors, employees react by taking
initiative and behaving proactively. This also shows in the movie where Maya Fail to redirect his
workers in rowing boat during family day made by her company. The bottom line was that a
good boss can compensate for a bad one for employees working on multiple teams, at least
when it comes to employees feeling empowered and being proactive.

Another economy topic that worth to be discussed is important of varies spoken

language. In the movie showed Maya lie through her resume saying that she capable on
speaking mandarin language. It turns out she cannot speak mandarin language and need help
from her friend Joan. This event turns to be a bad ending where Maya fails to communicate
with the Chinese distributor. This shows that how important on multi language on every high
position member in a company. Nowadays, we are working with lots of company all around the
world and language is one of the barriers that diminished us. Mastering a specific language
greatly help us on setting our work thus improving the timeline of our product. However, same
goes to the distributor that need to master English language as it is considered as important
language nowadays. This also supported by a journalist from Decald Herald where globalization
has encouraged the domestic companies to think beyond their nations (Jyothi, 2012). People do
not mind taking challenging and fruitful overseas assignments these days. As English is spoken
in most of the countries, language is no longer a barrier for people who intend to settle down in
other countries. In addition, As the private sector companies are gaining ground and becoming
more competitive due to changed world economy, the employees are always kept on their
toes. It is like either you work hard and show your performance or perish for not taking care of
your professional growth. The ability to use a language efficiently is required to remain
employable.

Another issue related to economy topics is critical thinking on producing a final product.
In the movie, Maya got several critiques about her product cannot perform and bound to
doom. She got her critical thinking and proposed to apply silver ginkgo tree plant essence inside
the product. This shows how important to not give up in any situation and how vital critical
thinking is in our job. Critical thinking is the ability to think clearly and rationally, understanding
the logical connection between ideas. Critical thinking might be described as the ability to
engage in reflective and independent thinking. In essence, critical thinking requires you to use
your ability to reason. The ability to think logically about a crisis to solve it is a valuable soft skill.
Employers prefer job candidates who can validate a problem using critical thinking skills. They
want to have employees who can work out problems quickly, but more importantly, they want
ones who can solve them efficiently. Employers value workers who know how to think critically.
Critical thinkers bring creative solutions to the table and help businesses to innovate and
remain competitive (Mendes, 2020). Critical thinking examples exist in every part of the
workplace, from the corporate executive offices to the sales floor. Whether you are the boss or
an intern, knowing how to think critically gives you the power to make positive contributions to
the company. In term of leader perspective, leader are role models for their direct reports. How
leader analyze problems influences how their team members will handle issues going forward.
leader that uses critical thinking processes foster teams that are intentional about assessing
problems and devising solutions as shown in the movie.

Final issues related to business and economy is marketing value. In the movie depicted
Maya product was chosen among other solution to be in the television. On the top of that,
maya has been given a reward to present her own product in the television by her manager.
This shows how important the media to expand our product range to increase the sales of our
product. Appearing in television also give impact as an influence which resulting Maya to be a
successful business in Mondays Mom. This also shows how important rewarding employees.
Recognition helps employees see that their company values them and their contributions to the
success of their team and the company overall. This is particularly key when organizations grow
or change. It helps employees build a sense of security in their value to the
company, motivating them to continue great work. Employee recognition is the timely informal
or formal acknowledgement of a person or team behavior, effort or business result that
supports the organizations goals and values and which has clearly been beyond normal
expectations. Plus, leader need to understand the psychology of praising others for their good
work to apply the principles of employee recognition yourself and to encourage others to
initiate it in their working relationships. Appreciation is a fundamental human need. Employees
respond to appreciation expressed through recognition of their good work because it confirms
their work is valued by others. When employees and their work are valued, their satisfaction
and productivity rise, and they are motivated to maintain or improve their good work. Gallup
studies show employee recognition is the key factor influencing employee engagement and
therefore organizational performance. Employee recognition is the principle of social proof in
action, a term pioneered by social psychology professor Robert Cialdini. He defined the
principle in this way: “We view a behavior as correct in a given situation to the degree that we
see others performing it.” Employee recognition embodies the principle by showing to others in
a tangible way that a person’s efforts have been outstanding (harrison, 2020).

In conclusion, second act showed a lot of business issues and topic to be discussed. It is
also worth to mention that this story revolves around someone who does not have academic
qualification, but she still survives in business world. There also involve a lot of conflict which
result good and bad thing towards protagonist, but she still thrives to survive till the end of the
story. In a business world nowadays, both qualification and experience are the key to remain
employable. Even though you already have a job, you still had to improve your quality by
installing critical thinking and practice it from time to time. The ability to solve a problem is a
must characteristic for a worker to have to became successful in the future.

References
Bianca, A. (2020). Chron. Retrieved from The Importance of an Employee and a Supervisor Exchanging
Ideas: https://work.chron.com/importance-employee-supervisor-exchanging-ideas-6104.html

Bianca, A. (2020). Chron. Retrieved from Employee Attitude Vs. Job Performance:
https://work.chron.com/employee-attitude-vs-job-performance-6610.html

Dougherty, S. M. (2017, 1 1). The Conversation. Retrieved from Want a job? It’s still about education:
https://theconversation.com/want-a-job-its-still-about-education-83064

Field, S. (2016, 1 28). OECD Education and Skills Today. Retrieved from Why do we bother with
qualifications: https://oecdedutoday.com/why-do-we-bother-with-qualifications/

harrison, K. (2020, 6 1). Why employee recognition is so important – and what you can do about it.
Retrieved from Cutting edge: https://cuttingedgepr.com/employee-recognition-important/

Jyothi. (2012, 5 16). Importance of English in employment. Retrieved from Decan herald:
https://www.deccanherald.com/content/249714/importance-english-employment.html

Mendes, J. L. (2020, 1 1). Why Critical Thinking Skills Are Important in the Workplace. Retrieved from Zip
recruiter: https://www.ziprecruiter.com/blog/why-critical-thinking-skills-are-important-in-the-
workplace/

Troy Smith, B. K. (2018, 9 26). Research: When Employees Work on Multiple Teams, Good Bosses Can
Have Ripple Effects. Retrieved from Havard Businness review:
https://hbr.org/2018/09/research-when-employees-work-on-multiple-teams-good-bosses-can-
have-ripple-effects