Groupthink

From Chapter 8 entitled Teams and Networks in the sub section Decision-Making Processes on page 205 the concept of groupthink is introduced. Groupthink “is a well-known problem associated with team decision making initially identified by psychologist Irving Janis, occurs when team members go along with, rather than evaluate, the group’s proposals or ideas.” Groupthink can be detrimental to a team because members do not express their ideas or concerns instead they go along with what the group decides no matter how bad the final decision is. I have noticed in many groups at school people do not like to be the first to speak so I will start shooting out ideas and everyone just goes along with whatever I say. I could say let’s do a project about unicorns and everyone would say “yeah great Idea,” etc. So I have noticed that I give an idea and go around the group and have others bring up their own ideas and we then vote as a group – I will then voice my concerns and ask for others, and eventually people begin to participate and chime in when necessary. Groupthink can be a bad path to follow so avoid it at all costs!

Gender Communication Differences

From Chapter 7 entitled Identity and Difference in Organizational Life in the sub section Frame 1: Gender Differences at Work on pages 204 to 206 the authors support the case that men engage in report talk and women in rapport talk. Men use a style that emphasizes demonstrations of skills, commanding, direct, assertiveness etc, while women use a style that emphasizes experiences, support, listening, tentativeness, and personal relationships. Women are incredibly different when it comes to communicating in the workplace and it does not always mesh. My boss and I have a hard time communicating a lot of the time; however, I have learned to work around his lack of communication skills. He expects me to know dates and times without telling me about them so I have had to go around him to figure out important information I need to know. I do feel that men focus more on status and power then women who prefer to focus on personal relationships and a lot of them really care about what people think of them. The lack of communication between men and women is fun though; they can never figure us out!

Work/Life Conflict

From Chapter 7 entitled Identity and Difference in Organizational Life in the sub section Organizing Difference in Organizations on page 203 the topic of work/life conflict is discussed. Here the authors define it as 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 aspirations on members’ experiences at work.” The discussion focuses around women and how they are normally the ones who have to find this balance of life and work and normally have a hard time doing so. They work and then go home and work – the cycle seems to never end. My mom is a perfect example of this – she works 16 hour days and is also President of our neighborhood pool, while also being a mom and a wife. She never rests. I recently did an interview with her about what it means to her to be a woman and she said that women never get to relax and that my brother said to her when he was little “Mommy you work all the time,” because he never saw her sitting down and relaxing, she was always busy. I do feel that women do have to work harder than men in order to prove themselves in the workplace while also having to take on the domestic responsibilities. Luckily more and more men and stepping it up and helping their wives manage the home but that extra time can lead to more time spent at work which can run someone down. I sometimes find that I overwork myself between school and two jobs - I get pretty stressed out, especially when I have a bunch of things due, I have to be at work all day and I do not get home till after 9 – but hopefully this will help me better manage my time in the future when I have a family.

Pervasive Communicaton Environment

In the web lecture entitled Technology and Teams it is stated that we live in a “pervasive communication environment that give us multiple access points to an integrated communication structure with text audio, video, and voice capabilities.” These new technologies have opened so many windows for the world but at the same time I do not feel like they are helping in every aspect of life. Yes people do use technologies to help them achieve goals, final projects, and communicate any time they want, but what about social skills? I feel that so many people are becoming dependent on their new technologies that they are forgetting about human contact. I had a group member last semester that refused to meet with the group and insisted that email was the only way to communicate. It made me sad to see someone so turned off by physical meetings. I feel like the best contact is physical contact and the rest are great tools that should be utilized for teams that cannot meet in person because of geography or for a quick question and answer. However, I believe that teams who meet in person might be more successful because you get to know all of your team members personally and can work together more effectively. Online communications can cause confusion and people can perceive things differently, especially when it comes to emotions. Overall, I feel that all our different portals to communication are wonderful assets but we need to remember that social skills are more important in the long run.

Employee Safety

From Chapter 6 entitled Critical Approaches to Organizations and Communication in the sub section recent trends in critical organizational communication scholarship: organizing healthy organizations on pages 181 to 184 the discussion of employee health and well being is introduced. The authors state that “organizations often simply pay higher insurance premiums rather than redesign the workplace and work processes with an eye toward employee safety.” What companies do not understand is that stress is a large factor in the diminishing employee health statuses. Many employees state that they are stressed due to their job which causes a downturn in their health and an increase in bills. Instead of finding ways to help their employees, organizations simply pay more in insurance fees. This is sad to me because the companies could save money by paying less insurance and working on helping their employees by making their environment more enjoyable.

I personally have never had to experience any physical harm due to a job – unless you want to count paper cuts or sunburns – however I get so stressed that I lose my voice. This happens every few months and is so frustrating to deal with! Luckily I do not have to have frequent doctor’s visits in order to fix my voice. However, it would be nice if my boss could make the job less stressful, but he is the cause of all of my stress because he does things like: not showing up one day and when I call him to ask where he is he says he told me he was not coming in when he never did, he also says he emails me dates that are important and never does so I asked him to send me the emails with the important dates and he never could find them….interesting….so I guess it is hard to de-stress when it’s your bass causing all of it!

Theory Z

From Chapter 5 entitled Cultural Studies of Organizations and Communication in the sub section Competitive Pressures on page 130 Ouchi’s Theory Z is introduced. (His name cracks me up by the way!) “Theory Z type of an organization would integrate individual achievement and advancement while also developing a sense of community in the workplace…it would also be capable or reducing negative influences and segmented decision making by incorporating new cultural values into the work environment.”

Overall, I feel that individual advancement and a community environment already exist in organizations today. For example if a project needs to be completed a group will work together to complete it but at the same time hope their individual success and work will help with grow in the organization.

Theory Z is a good concept but is not something that needs to be implemented because I think that individual advancement will always outweigh community. At any job I have ever done I have had to work with someone else or a group of people and I do want the group as a whole to succeed but I want my work to stand out so that I look good. I think most people, deep down, feel the same.

Practical View

From the web lectures Metaphors and Culture discussing the topic of the practical view approach. This approach claims that "culture is an internal organizational variable that can be manipulated and change to improve organizational effectiveness." I agree with this to some extent, because the culture can be manipulated to benefit the company but it can also harm the company as well.

The web lecture states that everyone: employees, managers, executives etc. all have part in the manipulation and compilation of the organization, which is true, but it also wonders if managers actually can change the culture.

I think they can. Managers can make the culture negative with poor managing skills, now this may not affect the entire organization but it can happen to a small group, and we all know how negativity can spread! But good managers can also make the environment fun and inviting creating a place where employees want to be so they can be challenged and successful.

Overall, I do feel that managers have a major part in shaping an organization's culture simply because they have a lot of say and choice when it comes to how things are implemented, projects are completed, and the happiness of their employees.

For example when I was a manager I believe, overall, everyone was happy and people enjoyed coming to work because of the new procedures I implemented to make work fun when I left I received so many phone calls from employees asking me to come back. Evidently the new manager came in and began acting like a tyrant making everything very stressful - I think its safe to say that most of the employees who had worked for me left that company.

Workplace Surveillance

From the web lectures Metaphors and Culture discussing the topic of workplace surveillance: I am a business major and the debate of employee privacy at work comes up in every class. The debating gets heated most of the time with arguments going back and forth on whether a company should or should not be allowed to view what their employees are doing through the computer, telephones, etc. My opinion is that when you are at work you are under the company's time and you should be working - however, this sometimes does not happen. My mom told me a few years ago that her company decided to have a random check at a random time to see what people were doing on their computers....it just so happened that 75% of the people on the computers were looking at porn....to be honest I do not think that is the kind of work the company really wants!

I agree that companies should only have access to the things the employee can access at work, beyond work the time and activities go to the employee. But I am for company surveillance of employees, while they are at work.

Companies pay employees to WORK not to play and complete personal errands, if a company has to implement procedures that may breach employee privacy while at work, so be it. If an employee is doing nothing wrong, the breach of privacy should not be an issue. I feel that many who do have an issue with this topic are those who want to get away with being paid for not really working, and that is what we need to avoid!

Ch 4 - Partial Inclusion

From Chapter 4 entitled The Systems Perspective on Organizations and Communication in the sub section Partial Inclusion on page 118 describes the concept as a way to explain why certain strategies for motivating employees are ineffective. Karl Weick explains that all employees partially bring themselves to work and there are certain characteristics, attributes, and behaviors we do not see. At work many try to be professional and go above and beyond (at least that we is what hope they try to do) however, at home that person can be a hermit who rarely goes outside and converses with others. One employee could lack initiative but at home is a single parent who goes above and beyond for their children. Overall, this concept states that people never fully bring themselves to work. This is true, I believe, because when I am at work I try to provide the kids I work with, with a good role model who does not swear, who is respectful of others, has good manners, and is responsible. Outside of work I really do not care what random people’s kids think of me, but at work the kids should be able to look up to me using me as a role model and their parents should like me and want me to be a role model for their children.

Ch 4 - Equinfinality

From Chapter 4 entitled The Systems Perspective on Organizations and Communication in the sub section Biology and General Systems Theory on page 102 and 103 the concept of equinfinality is introduced. Here equinfinality is defined as “the idea that there is more than one right way to accomplish the same goal. I love this concept mainly because it should be aimed at those who are confined to a small thinking space that has no room for movement. There are some people who are so narrow-minded and stuck in their own world of ideas and thoughts that they begin to act as if there is nothing beyond the space that they take up in the world. People like this hold the world back and make it so organizations, and other forms of life, remain primitive to the ever changing world. This concept is especially important when it comes to solving problems in the workplace, and in life. By understanding that things can be accomplished, solved, and organized in many different ways allows people to reach the finish line with a path that works best for them. Allowing others to accomplish things their way and understanding that it is just as good as the way you would have done it allows for managers to become more successful, in turn allowing their employees to become more successful and open-minded. Sadly, I do find myself being narrow-minded at times and I hope that this concept can open up some more doors for me.

Ch 3 - The Human Relations Approach

From Chapter 3 entitled the Three Early Perspectives on Organizations and Communication in the sub section The Human Relations Approach on page 82 the authors define human relations as “the assumption that all people want to feel united, tied, bound to something, some cause, bigger than they, commanding them yet worthy of them, summoning them to significant in living.” The idea of the employee-manager relationship is talked about through the eyes of May Parker Follett who “believed that only cooperating among people working together in groups under visionary leadership produced excellence in the workplace, the neighborhood, or the community.” I agree with Follett’s vision of providing a manager that interacts with their employees and creates a cohesive environment where EVERYONE is considered important and vital to the company. When I worked at Pacsun I felt that I was just a “filler” if you will, a warm body to make it look like enough employees were present but I was not worth anything and would help the company only achieve organized and folded clothes, which the manager looked at as an unimportant and useless job. Because the manager viewed it as useless so did I, causing me to do a terrible job and I hated coming to work. However, where I work now, I feel like a valuable and important part to the team. My boss constantly asks for my opinions and keeps me updated with everything that is going on with the team and if we run across problems he asks me what I think we could do to fix it and we work out a solution together. Now that someone views me as a valuable team member I cannot wait to get to work and perform the best to my ability. So by having a manger that treats you with respect instead of intimidation makes the working environment more enjoyable.

Ch 3 - Division of Labor and Hierarchy

From Chapter 3 entitled the Three Early Perspectives on Organizations and Communication in the sub section The Industrial Revolution on page 71 the topic of the Division of Labor and hierarchy are introduced. Here the authors define the “division of labor as the separation of tasks into discrete units and hierarchy as the vertical arrangement of power and authority that distinguishes managers from employees” (Eisenberg, Goodall, Trethewey, 2007). The authors also state that these concepts are part of the modern organization theory. Our modern organizations have strict levels of hierarchy in order to define rank and those who observe, keep order, and who can fix problems (the managers) above the employees who have work split up among other employees and when their work is put together a complete project is the end result. As a manager I found that some employees resented the decisions or requests I made. For example: I made someone a lead (assistant manager) that had only been with us for one year, but was an incredible worker and always went above and beyond what was expected. She was a great example and I wanted others to see that if they work hard it pays off and she was a fantastic lead. Later I had an employee who had been working there for four years ask why she had not been made the lead because she believed seniority had priority. In actuality she rarely got her work done and spent most of her time listening to baseball games on the radio and was eventually let go. Seniority should not take priority (even though sometimes it does) I believe work performance should determine the growth of an employee throughout the organization. Despite the resentment people may have when it comes to the division of labor and the hierarchy it creates I feel that these concepts make organizations run smoother then it would if it had everyone has equals because there would be no one to delegate and make important decisions when no one else can.

My Work Story

I have been "working" since I was 12 years old starting with the typical girl job of babysitting. I loved babysitting and occasionally do it now, however, it has made me NEVER want children of my own.

As I was growing up my mom would only buy me gigantic clothes or boys clothes (no joke- luckily my sister would sneak in cute clothes whenever possible) and when I complained my mom told me that she didn't like the clothes I would choose and that I could wear whatever I wanted when I got a job. So the second I turned 15 I was a real working girl.

I began working at our community's private pool. I have been swimming since I was 5 - I am 22 now - and since it is the one thing I knew the best I figured I might as well work near a pool as well. So, I became a lifeguard and swim instructor. I then became a swim coach along with guarding and instructing and soon became the manager of the pool.

Somewhere in there I worked at pacsun for a year.

During my freshman year of college I was a lifeguard/swim instructor/swim coach/and a hostess at the Elephant bar

During my sophomore year of college I was a lifeguard/swim instructor/swim coach/and a swim coach at the local YMCA apart from my community private pool - so I was a swim coach at two different places. I stayed at the YMCA for 3 years.

Currently I am only a USA swim coach for a very competitive team in Campbell and I love every bit of it!

On top of all of this I continuously house sit and baby sit whenever and where ever I am needed. I also plan on teaching swim lessons again this summer and only being a sub for lifeguarding when I am needed.

Having three to four different jobs and being a full time student got too crazy and I had to take a step back - however during this process I moved from a swim coach at a Cabana Club to a YMCA to a USA swim team, where I feel I truly belong.

I love to keep busy and be challenged and work has satisfied that for me in many ways but I have also noticed that I bounce from place to place after a couple of years. I can only assume that this is because I get bored and need new surroundings - better get that out of my system fast!

And let me tell you the first pay check I had went to the smallest clothes I could find just to spite my mom!!!! Boo to boy clothes!!

Intro

Hello all my name is Hallie and I will be my owners alias for this class! I love to sleep all day and walk all over my owner at night while she sleeps, meowing in her face because I want to drink from the faucet instead of my water dish! It is fun to mess with her. Please do not make the common mistake in calling me "Hay-ley" it is pronounced "Hal-lee". I was found outside at 5 weeks old a day before Halloween therefore receiving the name "Hallie". I am now a young 9 years old and I love my owner very much and follow her all around the house. This is my owners first online class so I hope we get it right!