Integrity and Values (Chapter 11)

Integrity is a key topic in Chapter 11. In my company, we have a set of core values and integrity is one of them. We define it as: Inspiring trust by taking responsibility, acting ethically, and encouraging honest and open debate. In further detail, it is discussed as meeting your commitments, admitting mistakes and turning them into learning opportunities.

The text continues the discussion of integrity with the experience of work. I think that the list from the Dalai Lama's "Instructions for Life in the New Millennium", the organizational values, and the NCA Credo for Ethical Communication go beyond values for ethical communication and work. Just as the sources of these values vary, its applications are endless. When I read these lists, I immediately made connections to how I've been living/working these past few months. The ones that stuck out the most for me included:

- Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk.
- Share your knowledge. It is a way of achieving immortality.
- Keep your word.

In the very last section of the chapter, there are reflective stories to question, "What Will You Do Monday Morning?" To start, I hope that I am more mindful in my own communication and continue to have mindful dialogue in my relationships. I will try to recall these values and hopefully become a better communicator myself.

Talent: Training and Development (Chapter 10)

In today’s dynamic environment, it is very hard to keep up a consistent training program. This is my role at work – to build a training curriculum each fiscal year for employees to build skills in emerging technology areas. As the text states, knowledge and skills to be taught are evolving at blinding speed. As adult learners, as soon as we identify that a skill is needed, we want the information now.

I just started this role last year because the training program was under much scrutiny. It ranked low on employee surveys and operated as a separate function to day-to-day work. After 1 year, we still have a lot to learn, but we tied the program to building relevant skills and I hope that the program promotes a flexible approach to continuous learning. There are classroom, small group and virtual learning opportunities available. Computer-based (online) training is a popular choice because it can be delivered to a wide audience and is often flexible as to when an individual can take the course (asynchronous learning). We are recognizing that training and performance are tied together and working to build successful individuals in both areas.

Dialogic Democracy and Organizations (Web Lecture)

In the web lecture, it is stated that dialogic democracy is well-suited to organizations because dialogue requires collaboration. I find this very interesting because organizations do have the tools and methods to increase collaboration, but like the lecture says, it requires a genuine commitment to the process. Too often, I've seen tools pushed to my colleagues and me that are meant to help collaboration across tasks, locations and people. However, we often bypass the opportunity to learn about the tools and the best way to use them. The tools often go unused and we continue to work singly on our individual tasks. It is also common that I notice we don't often listen to each other. We're too busy to get our work done that it can narrow our perspectives on problem solving and decision making as a group. Decisions only get made by a few people. This also echoes some of the attributes of participatory democracy, where power is seldom distributed equally and not all participants enjoy full access to information.

Transformational Leadership (Chapter 9)

In my work group, we study emerging technology trends and develop prototypes to demonstrate the potential impact of these trends on business processes. To promote these ideas, we host client workshops where we communicate our ideas and vision. Realizing that a major component of our role is to ‘sell’ these ideas, the managing director recently requested that all executives attend effective communication training. It is critical that the executives tell a compelling story and can articulate how our ideas will transform a business. (In a way, the director pushed each of these executives to become change agents).

However, it is not enough to just be trained on these communication topics. I agree that leaders must establish behavioral habits that enact and reinforce this vision. It is true that only a few of these executives will probably rise to the next level of leadership.

Multiple Stakeholder Model (Chapter 8)

The multiple stakeholder model asserts that organizations ought to be concerned with the interests of many individuals and groups, not just shareholders and stockholders. Last year, my office moved to downtown San Jose. Before moving, we renovated the entire floor. It was very high priority that we were environmentally-conscious in our decisions by selecting material and products that are renewable and sustainable. By doing this, we have applied for LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) status.

Organizations that have participated in applying for LEED status seem to receive favorable press and influence which organizations to partner with. The 'green' initiative is also a hot topic at work, with several projects focused on estimating and reducing carbon footprints, eco-challenges, and 'green' interest groups. In recent years, there is definitely more focus on balancing and aligning the goals of the organization with a respect for the well-being of the planet (a more democratic work environment).

Cultural Diversity in Teams (Chapter 8)

I am in a situation at work where my project team is distributed in 3 locations: Chicago, San Jose and Bangalore, India. With the advance in communication and collaboration technologies, this virtual team was put together by the project leadership based on our skills and knowledge. To collaborate, we use a shared team website, frequent conference calls and instant messaging tools. However, no matter what tools we use, there are still vastly different time zones (India and California are 12 ½ hours apart), different cultures and different ways of working. As the project deadline soon approaches, we are experiencing many challenges in communication. The expectations of how team members deliver work seem to vary among individuals. Unfortunately, this has led to much conflict and a delay in project timelines.

It is a dynamic time in organizations with the increase in global teams. I agree with the text that a large part of the team development includes mutual respect and trust. Our situation is not unique. The student in me is curious to how this will work out and what role the team members and managers will play. The worker in me is anxious for it to be worked out soon.

Work/life conflict (Chapter 7)

The text defines work/life conflict as the simultaneous influence of work on members’ lives away from work and the influence of personal life responsibilities and aspirations on members’ experiences at work. Since I enrolled in my graduate program, I find myself struggling at times to find work/life/school balance. I sincerely try to keep the 3 areas separate so that I can focus on the task at hand, but inevitably, one area flows into another and it’s midnight while I’m submitting a report for work. I agree with the text in that communication technologies can enable more flexibility in when/where we work, but it’s on the individual to set boundaries. I’ve seen and done many examples of trying to fit in every spare moment of time with something productive – this often leads to much tension and stress. I’m looking forward to my next vacation. :-)

Technology and Teams - Learning opportunities (Web Lecture)

Real vs. Virtual - Distance learning courses provide opportunities to use emerging communication technologies to build an online learning community. Just as in this class, I think the communication is very real, even if technically labeled as virtual. In some sense, having a written log of communication activities (evidence) even makes it more real.

We are also recognizing that the technology tools we use in our everyday lives – PDAs, ipods and cell phones can be leveraged to extend the classroom. Recently, I was able to experience the pervasive communication environment while visiting the Long Beach Aquarium. One of the exhibits had a sign to use your cell phone to dial a number for more information about the exhibit. I thought this was an interesting merge of written information (the exhibit signage), physical information (the fish) and virtual information (what I was listening to on my cell phone). If I had thought to use the internet o my phone, I could’ve also viewed the aquarium’s web page for more information!

Conduit Metaphor (Web lecture: Metaphors and Culture)

In the web lecture, the conduit metaphor is discussed in that meanings can be transferred from speakers/writers to listeners/readers in words. This straightforward approach minimizes the importance of unintentional meaning and ignores the importance of receiving and implementing to revise and strengthen the intended message.

The conduit metaphor also presents problems for instructional design. Feedback is a critical step to ensure that the learning objectives are being met. There are several cycles of feedback included in the process that review the design and development of the instruction. Without this step in the process, the designer may build instruction that doesn’t meet the target audience’s needs. It is understood through many instructional models that this has to be an iterative process in order to present and produce the most productive instruction.

Organizing Healthy Organizations (Chapter 6)

I would echo that employee health and well-being are becoming more important in organizations. I have seen this occur at the management and peer levels in my company. New programs have started to promote ergonomic workspaces and walking 10k steps a day. We also have several online health quizzes that if completed, we get money! (Usually as a reduction in insurance premium costs or a special spending account). Amongst my peers, I have also seen increased concern about each other’s well-being. Annually, we also discuss all of the different health insurance plans and their benefits.

These changes have all occurred within the past 2-3years. It’s still early, but it is a departure from previous perspectives where efficiency and productivity outweighed employee safety and health.

Workplace Surveillance (Web Lecture: Metaphors and Culture)

In the web lecture, the topic of workplace surveillance is discussed. It is an example of organizations as instruments of domination. There are many communication technologies commonly used in the workplace (Instant Messaging, Chat rooms, Webcams, web conferencing, etc) that may monitor an employee's activities. It is even said that critical theorists argues that such surveillance is intrusive and stressful.

However, I would also offer the notion that such technologies can actually aid in communication and collaboration. True, there is still the great possibility that management can use these tools to track how we spend our time, but these tools also provide opportunities to work with our colleagues in other locations across the world. Global teams are becoming more commonplace on our projects and it's become critical to use such tools to work through the daily tasks. We've built up a sense of trust among each other that the main purpose of using these technologies is to better work together, not to intrude and dominate our activities.

Socialization: Integrating New Members into Organizational Cultures (Chapter 5)

Socialization is a process by which people learn the rules, norms, and expectations of a culture over time and thereby become members of that culture. Hess states that workers who remain apart from the culture are unlikely to be as effective or satisfied with the job. There are many topics in Ch. 5 that resonate at my workplace, but this experience happened fairly recently. We have hired a number of people who bring in deep technology experience to the group. Most of these employees have a fair number of years experience in other work environments. Assimilating to our small, 150 person group, is admittedly a challenge as we create our own processes and definitely have our own culture. For example, the group is very competitive – in everything from sports to idea generation. At the senior level, the executives have worked together for years (some at least for 10 years), so there is an inherent level of networking and interaction.

Recently, we’ve had a few of the new hires quit after about 6 months on the job. One person even admitted that she did not feel she fit in with the group. She said that there were very few activities that helped her learn about the culture and she always felt she was “outside”. I understand that it may take time to become a member of the culture (maybe longer than 6 months), but I think it’s also the responsibility of the organization to help these new hires be involved in the group and complete the organizational assimilation process. We’re working on it by matching up the new hires with “buddies” in the group, setting aside time to introduce them to the group at meetings, and involving them in organizing group activities (such as social or community service events). It’s a small start, but I think it’s a good measure of making progress to help people become part of the group.

Karl Weick's Sense-Making Model (Ch 4, #2)

Weick's model of organizing has 3 parts: enactment, selection and retention. In enactment, members create environments through their actions and patterns of attention. On the instructor blog, there is a comment from a recent news article that SJSU cannot grow because it is in an urban geography (and thus, has set physical boundaries). This enactment of an environment seems very limited in the approach and contradictory to the Silicon Valley environment in which the university is located. We are at the heart of technology, so why not look to technology for solutions to help the university grow? Various online learning opportunities exist and the features range from direct/simple (like this blog) to learning management software (like Blackboard). Maybe the university could use some boundary spanners to help expose the technology and learning solutions out there.

Systems approach (Ch. 4, #1)

In this chapter, we discuss the systems approach, which emphasizes a collection of parts that work together to create a functional whole. This approach is also used extensively in instructional design, which is what I’m currently studying in the education department. The core model in instructional design is called ADDIE – analysis, design, development, implementation and evaluation. Learning objectives are identified early and instruction is designed and developed to meet those goals. During the process, continuous formative evaluation is conducted to provide feedback (which the text discusses) to strengthen the instructional design. Once the instruction is delivered (implemented), a summative evaluation is conducted at the end. All of these steps are dependent on one another and when something is skipped, the instruction is not fully effective.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs (Ch 3., #2)

Abraham Maslow concluded that the conditions that foster individual health are often surprisingly good for the organization as well. Expanding on the text’s examples, I have seen many instances of this in corporate recruiting. It often seems the case where the companies are working very hard to sell themselves to you. They promote many benefits to working in a positive atmosphere and having the opportunity to grow. For example, Google offers extended benefits “beyond the norm”. They offer free gourmet food, on-site doctors, car services, dry cleaning, a gym, etc. These examples of rewards encourage people that the company is the best place to work. By recruiting the best individuals and providing them such a supportive environment, the company hopes to reap the rewards of the individual’s productivity (and health).

For reference, here’s Google’s introduction to their jobs page:

“Let’s work together.

Chances are you have a good idea of where you want to go in life. At Google, we’ve designed a culture that helps you get there. From our flexible, project-based approach to corporate structure to our innovative perks and benefits, we do everything we can to make sure our employees not only have great jobs, but great lives. Into being challenged? Into having fun? Want to change the world? If the answer is yes, then you’ve come to the right place.”

Scientific management in today's world (Ch. 3, #1)

Classical management approaches are definitely alive today in my experiences in the consulting business. We are in constant competition with other companies to win client work and we are tasked to come up with the most efficient plan possible. I've worked on quite a few project plans where we had to predict the exact amount of labor it would take to complete a task. We estimate the hours it would take an analyst to complete a task and multiply it by their cost rate. This total is a major input on how much to charge the client for our work. This particular example follows the division of labor and the “individualizing the organization” label used in the Scientific Management portion of the text.

Scheduling tools are constantly improving and it is very apparent that lots of people are using scientific management methods to plan and organize their lives. For me, I use an online calendar for activities and most things are color coded (although I like to think I have a decent memory). I have colleagues who solely rely on their devices (PDAs, smart phones) to tell them when/where they need to be someplace. I also just came across an article today about a Self-Writing To-Do List. It seems that online scheduling will get even easier since this tool will interpret spoken commands and written sentences to build calendars – there will be no need to manually update calendar details! In a sense, it seems that the technology is enabling us to become very machine-like in organizing our lives. :)

http://www.technologyreview.com/Infotech/20887/page1/

Welcome! It's going to be a busy summer...

Welcome to my blog!  

My name is Jen Toguri and I'm a graduate student studying Instructional Technology.  I'm looking forward to taking COMM 144 this summer and doing my best to interact with everyone online. :)

Organizational communication will no doubt be an interesting topic.  I've spent the last 6 years working as a consultant in a huge management and technology consulting firm.  Currently, I'm focusing on creating, managing and delivering training programs for the firm's research and development group.  The organization has changed so much in the last few years and with new advances in technology, it is certainly a dynamic workplace!  

Looking forward to 'meeting' you!