In this chapter there is a section that talks about how the Dalai Lama offers some practical advice for "good karma." Some that I like apllying to my own life are:
"Take into account that great love and great achievments involve great risks." I have definitly had my fair share of mistakes, disapointments and heartaches and when I look back on them and cringe at the thought of where I had led myself and allowed people to lead me..I think "WHY?" But at the end of the day I am thankfull for it all. I couldn't reach happiness, success, and all of those goals if I hadn't taken risks. And another achievment to consider is in school...it has definitly been a battle for mysef to get as far as I have in school...but if it had been easy then it wouldn't be considered a great achievment in the long run.
"Not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful sroke up luck." In life there are so many "wants" and we often let ourselves mistakenly assume that these wants are really "needs." I wanted to get accepted into Arizona State so badly, and when I wasn't it felt like the end of my world, my dreams were crushed. But if I had been, I would of missed out on an important relationship that I was desinted to be in...my mother told me that she moved away from home at a yound age, never moved back and has always regretting living so far from her family. being close to my family is so important to me, and I think that not getting into an out of state school was a blessing in disguise, because I know now that I too would have regretting leaving my family.
"Remeber that silence is sometimes the best answer." I have learned in arguments with some people silence is better even when I know that I could argue with them in return, but in the long run it won't change anything more if they knew my opinion. I have had jobs where people love to gossip about others behind their back, and I have learned that when I hear these things, it is beter for myself to stay quite. A person who is capable of talking so porrly about someone else behind their back is definitley capable of repeating what you have said-in anyway that they wish.
These are just a few cocepts to "good karma" that I follow in my life. And I believe, just as it says in the text, "taken together, these recommendations underscore the importance of positive interpersonal relationships and openness to new experiences and to learning, personal growth, and happiness" (p.349).
Friday, January 16, 2009
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Ch. Nine: Communication Leadership
The definitions for empowerment can vary “considerably from the sharing of power and decision making with employees through delegation, to enabling ad motivating employees by building feelings of self-efficacy” (p.292). The text goes on to explain that in order for an employee to feel empowered they must feel like they are capable of performing the job and possess the authority to decided how to do the job well.
I think that this is so true. If an employee feels powerless they are not going to be happy with their job position and they are most likely not going to fulfill the success for the job. It’s an ongoing process and it is a huge important task for the seniority members of the business to play a supportive role in ensuring that the employees feel empowered.
Starting a new job is always stressful for me because that is when I definitely feel powerless. I love it when I finally reach that comfort place of confidence in the tasks that I am performing on the job. Once I reach that place I am able to feel empowered because I can just move along day to day knowing my place and where and how to do the work without having to ask a lot of questions and have my work double-checked by a seniority member. Like I said, empowerment is an ongoing process and it’s only going to work out through an employee manager relationship of effective communication.
I think that this is so true. If an employee feels powerless they are not going to be happy with their job position and they are most likely not going to fulfill the success for the job. It’s an ongoing process and it is a huge important task for the seniority members of the business to play a supportive role in ensuring that the employees feel empowered.
Starting a new job is always stressful for me because that is when I definitely feel powerless. I love it when I finally reach that comfort place of confidence in the tasks that I am performing on the job. Once I reach that place I am able to feel empowered because I can just move along day to day knowing my place and where and how to do the work without having to ask a lot of questions and have my work double-checked by a seniority member. Like I said, empowerment is an ongoing process and it’s only going to work out through an employee manager relationship of effective communication.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Web Lecture: Technology & Teams
I enjoyed this lecture and the ideas that were discussed. I have definitely used Facebook to organize a group activity with friends, and I am always using it to stay connected with my friends and family during our day to day busy lives. I think that it’s fun, and easier at times than getting on the phone for a conversation, but to be honest I would enjoy a face-to- face conversation in comparison to emails and IM chats—on any given day. But these new forms of technology communication have become a part of us; it has evolved into our lives. We have arranged ourselves in order for this to be a part of us.
The pervasive communication environment makes me think back to PR Day and how our guest speaker, the director of international communications at IBM explained that a new form of technology had made communication and work somewhat easier for the company. Instead of having to always jump on a plane and fly to another country for an hour meeting and then turn around and jump on another plane back to the states the company has been using an internet connected conference to connect these clients and business associates without any traveling being done. He explained that this indeed helps in ways of traveling and saving time, but it isn’t always as effective as meeting face-to face.
Consider our class for instance, I feel that this is still a real class even though we meet and connect through the internet. We are still doing the same work load as any other class, but we are missing out on the one-on-one interaction. I see no problem to it since the instructor has had all instructions pretty easy and straight forward. But I have had online classes in the past that did not work out as well. I needed that one-on-one interaction to understand the concepts more.
I think that our generation is extremely lucky to have the opportunity to take a class on line. Its all about time management of course, but to be honest a lot of my classes seem like a waste of time when we meet in person. A lot of times I have to force myself to go and sit in the class for a few hours—when all I want to do is go home and do the studying alone on my own time. So there are definitely pros and cons to the whole new world of communications and technology. I think that nothing can ever take away the benefits of meeting face to face for communicating.
The pervasive communication environment makes me think back to PR Day and how our guest speaker, the director of international communications at IBM explained that a new form of technology had made communication and work somewhat easier for the company. Instead of having to always jump on a plane and fly to another country for an hour meeting and then turn around and jump on another plane back to the states the company has been using an internet connected conference to connect these clients and business associates without any traveling being done. He explained that this indeed helps in ways of traveling and saving time, but it isn’t always as effective as meeting face-to face.
Consider our class for instance, I feel that this is still a real class even though we meet and connect through the internet. We are still doing the same work load as any other class, but we are missing out on the one-on-one interaction. I see no problem to it since the instructor has had all instructions pretty easy and straight forward. But I have had online classes in the past that did not work out as well. I needed that one-on-one interaction to understand the concepts more.
I think that our generation is extremely lucky to have the opportunity to take a class on line. Its all about time management of course, but to be honest a lot of my classes seem like a waste of time when we meet in person. A lot of times I have to force myself to go and sit in the class for a few hours—when all I want to do is go home and do the studying alone on my own time. So there are definitely pros and cons to the whole new world of communications and technology. I think that nothing can ever take away the benefits of meeting face to face for communicating.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Ch. Seven: Identity & Difference in Organizational Life
"The term work / life conflict refers to the simultaneous influence of work on members' lives away from work - at home, at leisure, and in families and communities - and the influence of personal life responsibilities and asporations on members' experiences at work" (p.203) The text explains that this concept has been of most importance/influence among feminist scholars because a woman's ability to sucessfully balance a career and family life just does not seem to work out when society also implies that a woman must take on the role of child care and domestic labor once they have returned home from work.
This idea is bothersom for me on a few reasons-I have always wanted a career, and I have always wanted to eventually have a family of my own. My mother has worked my entire life, she was a school teacher until I was fifteen, and then she went back to school to work on her masters but at the same time as she worked on her masters she was promoted to a job title that sounds almost impossible which was: Superintendent / principle/ teacher. Yes she had all three of those job positions at the same time, and was working on her masters, and she was still a mother of four. I know that me being the youngest of four at this time was obviously much easier, but she was still there for me when I needed her, she was still a mother with a career. After she recieved her masters she continued with that job and eventually they added on a twist to her teaching position, she was now the Superintendent / Principle / teacher for a classroom filled with two grades. She did this for a cuple of years years, and up until most recently she is now a Superintendent for 500 students, plus 5 charter schools that are associated with the one large school.
My mother has worked so hard to get to where she is in her career and I never once felt like she neglected the role of being a mother, if anything she raised her children to be independent and responsible. We all helped out around the house, including my father. And I think that society needs to wake up and realize that their whole concept of how a woman should run her family and household once she returns home from a day of work needs to change. I believe that it's about time that our society promotes children helping out around the home. It's definitely a way of devloping a mature outlook on life.
Over this past summer I had an oncall position with an event planner. The women that I worked with were retired, and chose this job as something fun to do from time to time. One day during one of my conversations with the one of the women she seemed shocked when I told her that I planned on having a career and a family at the same time. To my surprise she told me that I was going to have to choose...because both were impossible to have. No one had ever told me this before. My parents had always encouraged me to go to college and to become whatever my heart desired...I mean, I've grown up watching them both have a career and a family, so why was someone telling me that that wasn't right? She didn't even given me options, she simply said that I was going to have to choose.
I know that it won't be easy once I reach that position in life, but I think that it's ridiculous that I will have to "choose" between the two.
This idea is bothersom for me on a few reasons-I have always wanted a career, and I have always wanted to eventually have a family of my own. My mother has worked my entire life, she was a school teacher until I was fifteen, and then she went back to school to work on her masters but at the same time as she worked on her masters she was promoted to a job title that sounds almost impossible which was: Superintendent / principle/ teacher. Yes she had all three of those job positions at the same time, and was working on her masters, and she was still a mother of four. I know that me being the youngest of four at this time was obviously much easier, but she was still there for me when I needed her, she was still a mother with a career. After she recieved her masters she continued with that job and eventually they added on a twist to her teaching position, she was now the Superintendent / Principle / teacher for a classroom filled with two grades. She did this for a cuple of years years, and up until most recently she is now a Superintendent for 500 students, plus 5 charter schools that are associated with the one large school.
My mother has worked so hard to get to where she is in her career and I never once felt like she neglected the role of being a mother, if anything she raised her children to be independent and responsible. We all helped out around the house, including my father. And I think that society needs to wake up and realize that their whole concept of how a woman should run her family and household once she returns home from a day of work needs to change. I believe that it's about time that our society promotes children helping out around the home. It's definitely a way of devloping a mature outlook on life.
Over this past summer I had an oncall position with an event planner. The women that I worked with were retired, and chose this job as something fun to do from time to time. One day during one of my conversations with the one of the women she seemed shocked when I told her that I planned on having a career and a family at the same time. To my surprise she told me that I was going to have to choose...because both were impossible to have. No one had ever told me this before. My parents had always encouraged me to go to college and to become whatever my heart desired...I mean, I've grown up watching them both have a career and a family, so why was someone telling me that that wasn't right? She didn't even given me options, she simply said that I was going to have to choose.
I know that it won't be easy once I reach that position in life, but I think that it's ridiculous that I will have to "choose" between the two.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Metaphors & Culture
Metaphores & Culture
I found it interesting for the lecture to explain how we use metaphores for abstract ideas, such as with love. It said that if you view love as a journey, then you'll expect romantic and other close relationships to progress and change over time. If the relationships don't seem to follow the path you expect, you'll likely take actions to try and change the relationship to better fit your metaphor.
When take a look at this idea and how it fits into my life, I see it as past love relationships did not work out, because I either didn't allow myself to see that its a journey, just as life itself is, and I wanted it to all suddenly happen, without being honest with myself in understanding that it all takes time. I would constantly second guess myself and think that I had to change the relationship in order to make sure my idea of what I wanted the relationship to be, would actually work out. However, now I understand that this wasn't right, because I wasn't allowing life to just happen and take its role. I was trying to make somwething work when the reality is that it wasn;t going to work because I wasn;t allowing myself to see that it is all a jounrney.
I found it interesting for the lecture to explain how we use metaphores for abstract ideas, such as with love. It said that if you view love as a journey, then you'll expect romantic and other close relationships to progress and change over time. If the relationships don't seem to follow the path you expect, you'll likely take actions to try and change the relationship to better fit your metaphor.
When take a look at this idea and how it fits into my life, I see it as past love relationships did not work out, because I either didn't allow myself to see that its a journey, just as life itself is, and I wanted it to all suddenly happen, without being honest with myself in understanding that it all takes time. I would constantly second guess myself and think that I had to change the relationship in order to make sure my idea of what I wanted the relationship to be, would actually work out. However, now I understand that this wasn't right, because I wasn't allowing life to just happen and take its role. I was trying to make somwething work when the reality is that it wasn;t going to work because I wasn;t allowing myself to see that it is all a jounrney.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Ch. five: Culture Studies of Organizations & Communications
“Successful socialization efforts can serve as a means of reproducing and reinforcing an organization’s culture” (p.149). High –reliability organizations (HROs) are groups of people who have chosen to work in dangerous conditions, and the slightest miscommunication amongst these members could lead to a disaster.
This section in the chapter talked about firefighters they are HROs. This hit close to home—since I have plenty of firefighters amongst my family and friends. It is so true that in this occupation, appropriate communication and organization is essential, because the job is about saving lives.
It takes a certain type of person to become a firefighter. And the organization doesn’t make it easy to get in. The reason is because they want to be 100% positive that the people out there protecting your community are people who can work as a socialization. And in order to even be considered to become a part of that socialization they must possess a good reputation, physical and mental strengths, knowledge and trustworthiness.
I believe that the control and high degree of member conformity is productive for firefighters, but I agree with the author that such control and high degree of member conformity isn’t good for all occupations, because it can be counterproductive.
This section in the chapter talked about firefighters they are HROs. This hit close to home—since I have plenty of firefighters amongst my family and friends. It is so true that in this occupation, appropriate communication and organization is essential, because the job is about saving lives.
It takes a certain type of person to become a firefighter. And the organization doesn’t make it easy to get in. The reason is because they want to be 100% positive that the people out there protecting your community are people who can work as a socialization. And in order to even be considered to become a part of that socialization they must possess a good reputation, physical and mental strengths, knowledge and trustworthiness.
I believe that the control and high degree of member conformity is productive for firefighters, but I agree with the author that such control and high degree of member conformity isn’t good for all occupations, because it can be counterproductive.
Thursday, January 8, 2009
The Lawsuit
Chapter three: Three Early Perspectives on Organizations & Communications
The text says, “We should learn to see each theory as a participant in a larger, ongoing dialect where each conversational thread both reveals and conceals some aspects of organizational life and the larger social milieu in which organizations are located” (p.62).
The theories that are being discussed in the above explanation are considered, “the three P’s of historical writing.”
1. Theories are Partial: Our account tells only part of the story. It’s logically impossible to say everything about anything; new perspectives are always possible, now and into the future.
2. Theories are Partisan: The story we tell is one that we favor. All thought is partisan. Knowledge is shaped by the theories and interpretations we use to make sense of the world.
3. Theories are Problematic: our account asks more questions than it can answer, and the answers it does provide are based on what is currently known rather than on all that could be known.
I can fit these theories into so many incidents that have occurred in my life, but one in particular stands out. I’ll call it the lawsuit. I’ve worked for my current employer for the past 5 years, and we specialize in custom desserts. The company has a well know reputation for the taste and appearance of its products. Now as much praise as we regularly receive from our clientele, it is honest to say that not everyone can be satisfied 100% of the time. So yes, I have dealt with my fair share of complaints.
One day I was on the phones taking care of the invoices and a client called to place an order. The woman on the other end said that she was ordering the dessert for someone else in her office. She told me the name of the dessert she wanted, and I automatically knew what she was referring to—since it was a popular item on the menu. The woman then said, “ I want that cake made with butter cream, not whipped cream.” I explained that that would be no problem in doing so, since the cake is originally made with butter cream anyways. She then said, “This is important because the woman who I am ordering this for can-not have whipped cream.”
Anyways, a few days pass, the dessert is made and delivered, and as my coworker and I are closing up the facility a woman comes in and instantly began to yell at my coworker. I over hear her say that she had eaten our cake and that it was not supposed to be made with butter cream because it contains soy, which she is allergic to, and in a result of this she had had an allergic reaction.
At this point I stepped into the conversation since I knew just the order that she was referring to. Now the problem was that she and I both began to use the three P’s in our conversation. She had indeed eaten the dessert, but she had not been the one who had placed the order. This was a big result of where the partial and partisan developed. She was told that at the time of ordering the dessert, the other woman who placed the order asked that it specifically NOT be made with butter cream—AND the salesperson over the phone (that would be me) guaranteed that the product was not made with soy.
As I explained to this woman how the conversation had actually gone—my attempt for her to understand where this serious problem of her allergic reaction went wrong, she screamed in my face, saying I was a liar. Unfortunately, at this point anything that was going to proceed to come out of my mouth was partisan—in my favor, to make sense in my world. The entire conversation was problematic, because the woman wanted to believe that her coworker was telling her the truth about how the desert had actually been ordered. It was all partial, because I had one side of the story—which made me a “liar,” and the woman had another (that was passed down to her). Each of our stories were partisan, because she wanted me to believe that I had done something wrong-which would mean that she could believe her own story, and I wanted her to believe that my story was the correct format—especially since I remembered the order being placed, and even more importantly because ‘soy products’ were not once mentioned in the conversation between the woman and I over the phone—BECAUSE SOY IS USED I ALL OF OUR DESSERTS.
The entire scenario was problematic, and the woman sued the company. Fortunately myself and the company knew the truth, and we knew that after 20 years of business, and this being the only miscommunication problem that resulted in a lawsuit, then things weren’t so bad. After all, communications problems are bound to happen in the world of business, regardless of how precise you think you are being.
The text says, “We should learn to see each theory as a participant in a larger, ongoing dialect where each conversational thread both reveals and conceals some aspects of organizational life and the larger social milieu in which organizations are located” (p.62).
The theories that are being discussed in the above explanation are considered, “the three P’s of historical writing.”
1. Theories are Partial: Our account tells only part of the story. It’s logically impossible to say everything about anything; new perspectives are always possible, now and into the future.
2. Theories are Partisan: The story we tell is one that we favor. All thought is partisan. Knowledge is shaped by the theories and interpretations we use to make sense of the world.
3. Theories are Problematic: our account asks more questions than it can answer, and the answers it does provide are based on what is currently known rather than on all that could be known.
I can fit these theories into so many incidents that have occurred in my life, but one in particular stands out. I’ll call it the lawsuit. I’ve worked for my current employer for the past 5 years, and we specialize in custom desserts. The company has a well know reputation for the taste and appearance of its products. Now as much praise as we regularly receive from our clientele, it is honest to say that not everyone can be satisfied 100% of the time. So yes, I have dealt with my fair share of complaints.
One day I was on the phones taking care of the invoices and a client called to place an order. The woman on the other end said that she was ordering the dessert for someone else in her office. She told me the name of the dessert she wanted, and I automatically knew what she was referring to—since it was a popular item on the menu. The woman then said, “ I want that cake made with butter cream, not whipped cream.” I explained that that would be no problem in doing so, since the cake is originally made with butter cream anyways. She then said, “This is important because the woman who I am ordering this for can-not have whipped cream.”
Anyways, a few days pass, the dessert is made and delivered, and as my coworker and I are closing up the facility a woman comes in and instantly began to yell at my coworker. I over hear her say that she had eaten our cake and that it was not supposed to be made with butter cream because it contains soy, which she is allergic to, and in a result of this she had had an allergic reaction.
At this point I stepped into the conversation since I knew just the order that she was referring to. Now the problem was that she and I both began to use the three P’s in our conversation. She had indeed eaten the dessert, but she had not been the one who had placed the order. This was a big result of where the partial and partisan developed. She was told that at the time of ordering the dessert, the other woman who placed the order asked that it specifically NOT be made with butter cream—AND the salesperson over the phone (that would be me) guaranteed that the product was not made with soy.
As I explained to this woman how the conversation had actually gone—my attempt for her to understand where this serious problem of her allergic reaction went wrong, she screamed in my face, saying I was a liar. Unfortunately, at this point anything that was going to proceed to come out of my mouth was partisan—in my favor, to make sense in my world. The entire conversation was problematic, because the woman wanted to believe that her coworker was telling her the truth about how the desert had actually been ordered. It was all partial, because I had one side of the story—which made me a “liar,” and the woman had another (that was passed down to her). Each of our stories were partisan, because she wanted me to believe that I had done something wrong-which would mean that she could believe her own story, and I wanted her to believe that my story was the correct format—especially since I remembered the order being placed, and even more importantly because ‘soy products’ were not once mentioned in the conversation between the woman and I over the phone—BECAUSE SOY IS USED I ALL OF OUR DESSERTS.
The entire scenario was problematic, and the woman sued the company. Fortunately myself and the company knew the truth, and we knew that after 20 years of business, and this being the only miscommunication problem that resulted in a lawsuit, then things weren’t so bad. After all, communications problems are bound to happen in the world of business, regardless of how precise you think you are being.
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