week15-Global Business Communication – focus on Intercultural Mannerisms.

First of all i really liked the topic and i think it gives an important information that is necessary for us to learn as the world is becoming more and more global and it is important to understand and be sensitive towards different cultures. I think the personal interest and introduction do a very good job in explain why the topic was chosen and it is even able to creat interest in reading the web poster. The findings are very relevant to the topic and there is some decent amount of work that can be done in the future. I really enjoyed reading this web poster.

week 15- Buliding corporation through leadership

The image on this webposter is very interesting as it shows that the leader is keeping an eye on everyone and i am not very certain if that is what a leader really does or should be doing. Again the introduction makes it clear that the finding will help understand the leadership styles and it is very clearly mentioned that the webposter will be talking about different aspect of leadership. The personal interest was very strong and motivating and the author sounded very confident and the interest was explained very clearly and in the most simple way which makes it easy to understand. The findings are explained very well and there is perfect relevance to the topic.

week15- Cross cultural issues in USA and India organizations

This is an interesting topic and something i can relate to as i am from India and have lived there and pursuing my masters here in USA. The image is very relevant and the explanation is absolutely true, it is a fact there the there is an immense difference in the two cultures and the example of a simple handshake is used very well to demonstrate the difference in attitudes. The personal interest gives a very good explanation as to why this topic was chosen and i agree that personal experience is the best way of learning rather than reading papers.The conclusion does justice to the paper and i message is convey in the right manner.

week 15- Organizational Communications, Climate and Work-Related Outcomes

This webposter is very again very interesting and focus on the relationship between job satisfaction an organizational communication. After reading this webposter i found that i did not think of organizational communication to play a role in loyalty and job satisfaction. The classic research was presented very well and was very impressive and i found the measure of communication satisfaction very interesting, i am talking about the eight factors that are used to measure communication satisfaction. I learnt that organizational climate also plays a major role in job satisfaction and is connected to so many constraints. The conclusion does justice to the topic and is able to communicate the take away's of the webposter.

week 15- leadership in organization culture

I liked this webposter and the related image is very relevant, interesting and funny at the same time. It tells us about the mentality of our leaders and how they do not pay attention and give importance to such issues. The introduction does good justice to the webposter and it explains how it is important for leaders to use theirs powers effectively and how the leadership style differ from country to country. Another thing i noticed about the findings was that the findings were very relevant and were topics that were covered in the text and what we learnt from the class. This was helpful in a way that it made the webposter easy to understand.

week 13- Efficiency

It is essential for the organization to be efficient if they want to satisfy their client. They have to make sure that their supply matches the demand and that they are able to deliver the service or products in the time requested. If an organization is efficient they gain the confidence of the customers and in turn the can make profits for them selfs. They need to concentrate in maximizing output for the given input.

week 13- Creativity in leader

Creativity in managers and leaders is essential and i believe it is not a very easy task. It is important for leaders to be creative in their management skills and always bring new and improved ways of having group activities. We have elected a new president in the united states and the president has promised many things and when one reads about his ideas and thoughts one clearly can understand that he has a lot of potential and has many plans but just the talking never helps. He has to be creative and come up with a kind of leadership that will him accomplish his promises.

Week 13- promotions

Organizational culture is a very important topic in todays international market. It is interesting to see how people from all over the world are working together. I think motivation is the key to getting things done from the employees no matter where they are from, they need to be motivated well like for example if the organization offers promotion on the basis of seniority then thats no motivation for people who are new. So i believe an organization should develop a culture where the promotion is given on the basis of performance and not seniority.

Week 13- Organizational identification

The text book talks about the importance of organizational identification. It gives examples of the way companies use the medium of advertisements make an identity and it is a medium for them to endorse their products as well. Another way companies make an identity is by making use of catchy slogans. I believe it is very essential for the companies to have their own identity so that customers get familiar with the company and that helps them take decisions about their product brand.

Week 11 - Making teamwork work

A very important part of teamwork is getting things done and working towards reaching the goals. To be able to achieve this it is important that the goal, mission and vision be clear to the entire team. Necessary steps should be taken to reach that goal. What I have seen in my project teams is that the deadlines are not met. It is important to make the rules clear and not let anyone take the work for granted. All the members have to be at the same level in understanding and should be motivated to put in the hard work that is required.

Week 11 - Managing Race in an Organization

In today's global world it is often seen that people of different colors working together and hence it is very important for the organization to manage the culture well. I believe that organizations should have a culture that treats all the employees equally without any racial discrimination. It is also very important for the management to make sure that employees do not have differences amongst each other based on race. One of my friend who is from computer science said that a professor said it openly in the class that Indians should not be allowed to come to do master's in US just because one the Indian student was not able to answer his question in class. Now this kind of a behavior is just not acceptable and this could probably influence other non Indians in the class and they would probably act in a certain way. So it is very important for people at the higher level to take more responsibility and act more maturely.

Week 11 - Interviews

The text book talks about the strength and weakness of conducting interviews. The strength of conducting an interview is that one can gain knowledge of beliefs, values, personal experience of the participant. In case the interviewer has any ambiguity or difficulty in understand any part, he/she can ask questions and clear any doubt. Besides the strengths the text book points out a very interesting disadvantage which is the reliability of the information. As the interviews are more interactive, each interview will be different from the other. It could get difficult to analyze the information because the experiences of people on a same issue might be different and in such condition it can get difficult to come to conclusion.

Week 11 - Language

Language is an important part of any culture. It is seen that people who speak the same language have a different bond and can connect to each other easily. So i believe it is a good idea for an organization to have a language or a style of talking which would bring everyone closer. I work as a student assistant in the department and i have seen that the faculty and the chair have amazing bond. They have a very informal way of talking to each other. It is difficult for me to express the way they interact but one can easily tell that they are all friends and everyone from the chair to faculty to the office manager are treated the same way.

Week 11 - Two sided communication

I read an article which gave an example of an college and its dean who took also the decisions on his own and never took any ideas from the faculty members. The dean held meeting just to let the faculty members know what was to be done. The meetings were just for him to speak and others to listen, he never asked for opinions and suggestions that faculty members would have. This lead to a lot of communication gap among the faculty members and the dean and the culture became such that no one spoke or had any suggestions on the issues and people were not as much involved with the matters that were concerned to the college. By giving this example my point is that, it is very important to have an exchange of information from both the side. It is important to take suggestions and encourage debates on topics so that better results can be obtained

week 10 - Communication and Sexual Harassment

This is a very debatable topic. Well I believe that both male and female undergo sexual harassment but it is often seen that women have an edge over men in this area. About 2 years ago I saw a very interesting hindi movie called “AITRAAZ “ in which they show that the boss’s wife sexually harasses one of the employees and when he “VICTIM” tries to report to the boss about this act of wife, the boss files a case again the employee for sexually harassing his wife. And then the whole drama where no one believes the employee but later he proves that he was the victim. The moral of the story, I believe if an individual is sexually harassed, he/she should raise a voice against it not for the mere benefits or to extract money but for the right reasons, and the reasons would be that no one else should be harassed by the same individual.

week 10 - Question of boundaries

The text books talks about the boundaries on page number 410. It is very interesting how companies today are being so cautious about the health of their employees. But to what extent should they be concerned is the question. I believe that companies taking care of the physical and psychological problems just shows that they are concerned about their employees and in turn they are benefited because when the employee is emotionally balanced he/she will perform better in his/her job. But to talk about companies firing employees for smoking, overweight, risky leisure activities etc, I think this is a personal choice of the employee. I mean if an employee is smoking when is not at work it should not concern the employer. I think if the companies are concerned about all these activities i would consider it as an intrusion in their personal life.

week 10 - The Racial Foundation Of Organizationl Communication

The text books talks about race as a separate, singular concept that is relevant only under singular circumstances. It is common to have people of different colors working together in the organization, it is important to manage and balance people from different cultures. Well today i filled out an application form for an internship position and there was a separate part that had to be filled which was optional but the criteria to be filled was ethnicity,male/female. I do not believe that these should be a criteria that they should bother even putting on an application form as this in no way affects the credibility and ability of an individual. I am not sure if this would be considered a racial bias but i sure think this should not be a part of an application form

week 10 - Born Global

On page number 389 the text book talks about the companies that are global. I want to talk about Wal-Mart which has won the fortune 500 list for the second consecutive year, the largest retailer, which is also the world's largest company with nearly $379 billion in revenue. One of the major reason being their international operations who out pay their domestic sales. And there has been an addition of 5 companies from china to the list which is amazing, I think because of the downfall of companies such as GM because of the bad decisions they made, other international companies have been benefited

week 10 - Globalization

Globalization is a term that is used most frequently in today's world. Globalization has a very great impact in the organizations today. It is often seen that the a project are handled by a team who may be from different cities or countries working together, without having to meet in person but by the utilization of the modern communication. Another important effect of globalization that i believe is very common is outsourcing. It is seen that most of the companies outsource their customer services to countries such as India etc where the man power is not very expensive.

week 10- Theory

The text book gives a good explanation about theory and how it is developed over time to make sense of various aspects of the world. Further the text book gives us the importance of theory and how it can be used more than once. It helps us set methods and ways of doing things and helps avoid the necessity of doing things all over again from the start. Among the qualities of good theory, one quality that is not mentioned and that i thought would be a good theory is making an organization robust. It gives a clear picture of the ways things need to be done and robust culture can be obtained.

week 10- Communication???

Communication in the most simplest terms is exchange of information between two people or a group. In an organization the communication can be in various forms such as, memos, emails, meetings, or regular face to face communication. It is important that right information is transferred to the right people and that it is heard. For example the text book gives an example of the memo that is transferred in the organization but sometimes it is possible that people ignore that message and that information is not effective. This can cause many troubles, and hence it is important to pay attention that the information is heard by the group and right audiance.

Week 9 - Knowlege of changes

I text book mentions that it is important that all the members of the organization to have complete knowledge about the changes. There is a mention of collective knowledge in organization and how it is seen that collectively the knowledge about the changes in the organization is not the same. The text book gives an example where interviewed members of the organization to see if they were all aware of the changes and if they all knew the same thing or was there variation. It was observed that the management team had the same idea of the organizational change where as there was a variation in the lower level employees who did not have a very clear idea of what actual changes would be and their idea was on in line with the management. It is important that all the members of the organization have the complete knowledge of the changes and it is the responsibility of the upper management to make sure that this information is communicated to the employees well and they need to make sure that the employees know what the changes are by asking them and talking to them individually about it.

week 9 - Creative Idea Generation

I agree with the text book about the keys to idea generation. It is important to prepare for the brainstorming session so that the session is successful and the end result is fruitful. I am in complete agreement with the process of brainstorming mentioned in the text book. It is also very important that all the employees should feel free and have no fear of anyone while the brainstorming so that they are able to think out of the box and generate ideas. Another aspect that i felt was not mentioned in the text book was the appreciation of idea. I believe it is important to appreciate so that one is aware that his/her ideas are appreciated and this would allow them to be more creative and confident.

week 9 - Indentifying beliefs about changes

On page 314 box 11.1, there is an interesting exercise on how to identify your beliefs about changes. I am going to answer a few questions asked in this box to identify my beliefs about change.
1) I believe that most employees dread making changes and are not very enthusiastic about it.
2) When it comes to making changes most managers would probably be more worried about how things would be for them and hope that they would not have to loose anything.
3) I believe people do disagree about whether people are are able to change.
4) People resist change because, change is hard to adapt and there is a notion that things would become bad for them and they hope not to loose anything, such as their cabin, office or floor they work on, project team members etc.
5) The best way to overcome resistance to change would be to educate all the employees about what the changes would be and how would everyone be benefited by it.

Week 9 - Issue Control Tactics

The text book mentions a few issue control tactic but i think it missed one of the best ways of dealing with issues which would be confronting it. I believe it is very important to deal with issues, conflicts right in the beginning when it arises. It is important to have an atmosphere without stress and tension around and the sooner it is sorted the better it is. I think companies should have a special meeting session at least once a month focused only on the issues, conflicts or any opinion clash . It could be very helpful as issues could be solved and better results could be obtained. I think this exercise would even help the employees be more interactive and be able to speak whats on their mind without having any kind of fear.

week 9 - Conflict

The text book has mentioned five different types of conflict and all of which i agree with. Conflict is very common to arise between two people or a group, where there are opinions there is conflict as it is not always necessary that people will agree with one another. The text book has made an interesting point about how conflict can be beneficial. It is a commonality that everyone dislikes conflict and has a negative attitude towards it. But i agree with the text book that conflict gives opportunity to release build-up tension, helps generate creative thinking and even strengthens relationship. It is a fact that it is not very pleasant to face conflict but the result of it may be good and may lead to better results and help in decision making

Week 8 – Power of Authority

I agree with the text book about the three sources of power. Information and knowledge , persons in authority , instrumentalities such as architecture, technology and capital are ones mentioned in the text book. An example that i can think of for a person in authority is an graduate or undergraduate adviser. In my first semester i had taken a course that was not an elective or a core of my department and so my adviser said that he would not consider it and because i had crossed the drop date i would have to take that course anyway. I approached to him again and asked him again the next semester if he would consider it, all he said was write an application and that he would consider it. He changed his decision which was very good for me but he could totally do that without having to answere anyone. He has the power to accept or reject of course on valid reasons but him being the adviser gives him the power to take such decision

week 8 - Power due to knowledge

The text book poses many questions on page 251 about what are the types of knowledge are the most highly priced today in our society?, which profession or positions are most highly paid? Well in terms of knowledge i would say that doctors are highly priced, may be they even deserve it as they spend almost half their life studying. And i would say that doctors do gain a lot of respect as it is a noble job but of course they do get highly paid for it. If i am not wrong i think they even get ranked as A grade citizens, I am sure this is true in case of India but not so sure if this is globally accepted.
And my thoughts on the profession that are most highly paid are the top actors. It is amazing how they get so highly paid and i do not understand as to why are they paid so much. Well I guess in today's world if someone wants to make a lot of money, entertainment business is the way to go.

week 8 - Power

I agree with most of the statements about power given in the beginning of the 9th chapter, however i am in agreement that with power comes corruption. I am from India and I have seen this happen all the time, if people have to get any work done from the officials or any authority, it is very common that the officials have to be bribed. It is very sad but true in case of India. I believe that corruption is more common at a more higher level such as politicians etc. I think power gives an authority that can be misused very easily. A person has to be ethically very strong to be able to resist corruption and not to misuse power. I need we need more people in the world who truely understand the meaning of power and not misuse it.

week 8 - Differences among Teams

I agree with the text book when it says that every team is unique on the basis of its situations. I even agree with the process consultation, I think i should employ it in my project team as well.The process consultation says that there should be one team member who acts as a process observer and then after watching the team's interactions provides feedback and then the team discusses the ways in which they can improve the team's process. I think this is a very smart approach and if i apply it in my team meetings we as a good would do much better. Further i even agree with the categorizing of team, I think this would help the team realize what kind of an attitude they need to have and the discipline they need to follow. I this would help the team achieve their goals quicker and would reduce conflicts and confusions as well.

Week 8 -Team Participation

I agree with the facts presented by the text book about the unions and how the employee is become more self involved now. Well for participation i would like to give an example of class projects. In almost all the group projects that i have done, i have not seen the same amount of participation among all the team members. In one of my group projects we are four in a team but just two of us are serious about our project and do the assigned job on time and present it. I there has to be way to monitor "employee participation" or "team participation" and i believe this can be done by asking each member of the group about the job that his/her team member has done. I think this would force all the team members to actually give equal amount of participation and also view what his/her group member is working on.

week 7- Superior-subordinate relationships

The text book talks about the superior and subordinate relationship and their communication. The communication between them consists of upward and downward communication flows. The text book mentions some of the downward communications such as job instructions, job rationales, and information on procedures and practices etc. These communications are directed from the superior to the subordinate which are focused on giving instructions and procedures of how the work needs to be done. And the upward communications include job status and problems in performing work, information about coworkers, ideas and suggestions etc. These are the communications that are directed from subordinate to the superior to discuss the problems they face or about area they need the guidance of their superior.

Week 7- Workplace Relationship

The text book gives a very interesting case right in the beginning of the chapter. This reminds me when i first came to USA and went to the bank of America, They always have an employee/manager who walks around and asks customers on their entrance about what can they do for them. This is not the case in India, i was very impressed and found that it really helps people who are new to the environment and would have less knowledge of banking. It is important to have a good workplace relationship which helps build connection and the customer would want to come again. But it is important to draw the line between helping the customers and annoying them, sometimes the salespeople just overdo it which is not at all required.

week 7 - Communication - Leadership

The text book says that communication is at the heart of leadership and its complexity leads to confusion around leadership. I even agree with the text book that effective leaders must be skilled in both listening and delegating. It is very important for a leader to not only delegate instructions but also listen and act. One of my friend works for a company and she always complains about her manager. She says that in every meeting they have, the manager asks them if they have any suggestions about the way things work and the interns give their suggestions but nothing is really done. Their manager just listens to them but does nothing about their suggestions. As a result of which they have stopped giving suggestions and keep their thoughts to themselves. It is not just important for a leader to listen but act or take measures to the requests/suggestions of employees

week 7 - Situational approach

Under the "Grint's Classification of Leadership Theories," the text book talks about situational approach and describes it to be as path goal theory. I found this part interesting because the text book says that in this approach the focus is on leadership behaviors that can be performed by anyone and it even says that the essential features of the situation or context are identified and the most effective behavior can be determined. I am now very clear with this approach so please correct me if i am wrong, the meaning of this approach is that the leaders are chosen according to the situation. So does this mean that the leadership or leader changes based on the situation and the behavior of the employees?

Week 7- Importance of Leadership

The concept leadership is very important. It is important for a leader to understand his/her group and lead the group towards success. I had to do a group project in one of the class that i took last semester. The main problem with that group was that no one wanted to take the initiative of doing anything and it not at all well coordinated . Then we decided amongst ourselves that we would choose a group leader as we were lagging behind in our work schedule. After we appointed a leader with the consensus of everyone, the leader himself took many responsibilities and saw that the work was done. And finally we reached our goal and got a good grade in that project. Had we not taken the decision of appointing a leader i am sure that we would not be able to finish our project

week 6 - External Involvement

Again I agree with the text book when it says the organizational goals, slogans are of not much concern to consumer as they are busy in their life and they rarely care about what the organizations say about themselves. The example I gave in “Struggling to be heard” about the most expensive commercial which was just a means of entertainment to most of the external environment. I for one was more interested to know about how they actually managed to make a commercial like this rather than the product. I don’t think that people are going to buy the car based on the commercial. An interesting example that the book mentioned of McDonald and their clown called Ronald McDonald, it is true that people and not going to stop going to McDonald if they change their clown to a rabbit named oscar.

Week 6 - Struggling to be heard

The text book gives us a very good example of advertising messages and the amount of money that is spent on them. Advertising is a method of marketing products and if the companies/ organizations wants to be heard, advertising media is one of the best way. It is amazing how this costs so much. A month ago I saw the most expensive advertisement by Honda for Accord Car and I must say the commercial looks great but the question would be was it really required for them to do this just to be heard. Well this commercial did get everyone talking and was noticed but do you think it really payed off, I mean did people went and bought the car just because the commercial looked great. Well for one thing, they did get a place for themselves in Guinness book of world records for the most expensive commercial.

Week 6- Socialization

I agree with the text book when it says that “socialization refers to the ways a member of an organization learns the norms, values that would be helpful in performing their job.” In India when the students join colleges and are fresher, the seniors organize a party and the main purpose is to make the new comers familiar with the department, seniors, staff etc. The fresher party helps all the new students feel comfortable with professors and senior students. It is a good opportunity for them to learn about their department and courses and even seniors and many other new comers. They get familiar with the whole system and can clear all the doubts they have in their minds.

Wek 6- Functionalist Perspective

The text book says that the perspective on culture is sometimes described as something an organization has, as a tool that functions to accomplish objectives. I also agree with the text book when it says that the most essential function of leadership is "manipulation of culture." This is so true, the leader has to be such that he shapes the organizations such that the goals, mission, vision, objectives, structure etc are all very clear. He is the one who can make an organization a robust organization by making all of the above mentioned very clear and well defined. I believe it is also in the hands of the leader to mold his/her workforce to adapt change. The principals and culture in the organization should be such that the work force should not have rigidity towards changes, the attitude of the top management should also focus on building an environment that is capable of changing. I am stressing on cultural change as I believe that cultural changes are not very easy to adapt and at the same time inevitable.

Week 6 - CULTURE

The text book gives a very clear and good explanation about culture, about what is culture, its definition etc. Culture is such a big topic and I believe it depends on many different aspects, such as national culture, international culture, policies of organization, professionalism, language etc. Every area has its importance in creating a culture in an organization. I would like to give an example of the difference in cultures in the universities of India and USA. In India students address all the professors and instructions by sir or madam which is not the same in USA. In USA students address professors by their first name or last name (with the addition of professor to it) but this behavior would be considered rude in India. The culture followed in India would not work here and in the same way the culture followed in USA would not be accepted here. It does not mean that one is right and the other is wrong but it is about what people are habituated to.

Research Project

For my research project i will be concentrating on the Culture in Organizations. I will talk about the culture in Yahoo and its effect on the employees. This would be more of a case study and i would even include the main elements of culture that an organization should have and consider.I thought of yahoo as it has gone through so many changes and even because the information would be readily available to me on the internet and published papers. I think with time the organizational culture has changed a lot both good and bad. So i would like to focus on the good and bad trends in culture in an organization.I will have a better understanding of this topic after i read chapter 4 which is due next week.

Week 5- Analysing Organizational Communication

Communication

The text book gives very good examples of the different kind of organizational communications such as symbols, narratives, relationships, meeting etc. And i agree that communication " isn't just the single message we can set apart from one other but the totality of interactions that form our context for understanding" . Communication can be even made by our actions. Back in India when i was doing my undergrad i had a lecturer who disliked people coming late in his class but never said anything to students who came in late instead he would be the first one to come to class, like 5 minutes before the class and this act of his made everyone come 5 minutes early to class. It was amazing, the whole semester everyone came in early to his class. Me and my friends would get late to the other class but never his. I would say that we responded to his action, i mean this was a communication of actions.

Analysis include variety of evidence or relevant data

Any person can communicate any kind of information but to believe in that communication it is important to have facts and relevant data. For example if i say that the population of Canada is more than India, no one will believe me because on analyzing based on the data and the facts available the comment will be proved wrong. So while making strong comments or even writing about them it is essential that the comment should be based on facts and evidence.

Surveys

Surveys can be used for many purposes, such as to know what the employees think of their work environment, what are the requirements of customers, feedback from students about the lecturers. For example if a company is thinking of improvising their product they need to prepare a relevant list of questions and hit the right market they are making the product for and conduct the survey. This will help them know what the customer wants and the area in which they should head to achieve the demand.

Interviews

I agree with the text book that semi-structured interviews are most useful interview formats for organizational communication research as the questions are focused on the interest of the interviewee and in a way that he/she can express his/her opinion. A lot of information can be gathered from an interviewee and the interviewee is not restricted to just the questions asked, it is observed so often that in interviews the interviewee start sharing their experiences through which one can gain lot of knowledge.

Paying attention to what is not present

For example, if a lecturer misses to give the location of his office in the green sheet but provides all the information of his office hours and availability, it is pointless because to be able to meet the lecturer the students will need his location without which his office hours have no much importance. So yes i agree with the text book when it explains "Noting the absence of certain things"

Week 4: Have to be careful while taking DECISIONS

Decisions

Gosh can you imagine how often we make decisions. We don’t realize how frequent in our day to day life decisions are taken. Similarly in an organization decisions are taken at different levels such as top level, middle level and lower level. The employees at lower level would be foremen, labors etc, at this level decisions are taken most frequently but their decisions do not have major impact on the organizations growth or economy. Where as the decisions made at top level have a very strong impact on the whole organization and every individual involved with it. The top level would be the upper management such as CEO’s, managing directors etc the frequency of decisions taken at this level is not very frequent While taking decisions at this level one has to consider all the constraints because any mistake in taking decision here would lead to major damage to the whole organization.

Information Flow

Correct information flow is important in any institute or organization. It will help the organization run smoothly and function well if there is effective information flow. I would take an example of concurrent engineering which is a concept of Design for Manufacturability. In concurrent engineering it is required that all the various functions involved in product making work together. For example the manufacturers, design team, quality and testing team, production team, human factor, marketing team etc should all work together and provide information concurrently. The main reason for the introduction of this concept was lack of information flow and the fact that there was no proper communication between the various functions of an organization during the product development. As a result of which there was product failure, increased cost, company not being able to deliver product in time etc. Concurrent engineering helps in effective communication and information flow right from the beginning till the end which helps the company function better achieve deliverables.

Week 4, Organizational authority and structure

"Bureaucracy is the worst enemy of organization".
In bureaucracy an employee has to only do his/her duties by following strict guidelines, rules and procedures, where there is no room for flexibility which is the main reason that it is not adopted by many organizations today. For example, a child joins an art class to learn drawing and painting. And if his teacher makes strict rules that he can only draw what is asked for him to draw and he can only use the colors that the teacher provides this would destroy the creativity of the child. But again there have to be some rules so that the child does learn drawing and painting in his class. Similarly in an organization there has to be a perfect blend of flexibility and rules which will help the organization and the employees as well. One way to motivate the employee would be to give incentives and bonuses to the employees for their good work which will give them recognition and the employee would perform better and help in the growth of the organization.

The text book mentions about traditional authority, which is common in India even today. In India it is commonly seen that kids train themselves in the same profession their parents are so that they can inherit their parents business. Sometimes even if not trained they join their parents in the same profession. So the traditional authority does exist even today.

Charismatic authority
As I am from India I can think of Mahatma Gandhi on the top of mind for an example of a Charismatic person. He was a strong supporter of non-violence and had almost the whole country as his follower. He helped India get independence without violence. After his death the whole country mourned and there was a lot of chaos as people believed so much in him and loved him.

Theory X
I do not believe in Theory X as it says that an employee would perform better if he is rewarded externally and that he should be threatened so that he does his job well by the fear of being punished. In today’s world I do not think any organization would believe in this concept and want to implement it

Week3. Organization Communication Technologies

It has become difficult to update ourselves with the ever changing technology with a new invention almost everyday. The technology that came just a month or few weeks ago becomes obsolete quickly sometimes before even being aware of the new advances that technology has made one gets to hear about another recent technology. The way in which the technology has impacted us can be seen in our everyday activities. The first thing I do when I get up in the morning is check my emails which was not the case when I was younger when there was not as much technology involvement in my life. Ten or twelve years ago I did not even know that online classes even existed where you do not have to physically be present in a room with teacher and classmates, but here I am taking an online course and absolutely enjoying the experience. Technology has made it possible for all of us to be able to take BUS244 and actually get to know each other when we read each others blogs. There is exchange of ideas and opinions online and the best part is that it can be done at individuals’ time availability and none of the information is lost. The idea is good and its fun for me as this is my first online class but I would not want all my classes online, as for me face to face communications are preferable. Internet plays such a major role in our lives these days and when I talk about internet I have to talk about computers without which it has become hard to imagine getting things done.

Technology has both pros and corns’ for example telecommuting is the terminology used for people who work from home and they are connected with their office via internet, computer networking and fax which works perfectly for people who need to be at home for various reasons . Teleconferencing is another method for people from across the world to have meeting without actually having to leave their place. But with this kind of an arrangement it is hard to make friends and get to know people. The amount of face to face interaction and communication are decreased. The conversations and interaction remain only work related. Another example which I believe has major adverse effect is video games. Kids these days are more engrossed in playing video games which according to me is not all good. There is no physical exercise and kids do not learn how to play in big groups, share and interact with each other which is so important.

Technology is made available for us to make our lives easy but it really is in our hands to draw the line and decide how much of it we really want to use.

Communication - Almost impossible to live without

Communication in the simplest terms is exchange of ideas, thoughts and opinions with one another or in a group. Communication can be done in many forms such as letters,memos, talking in person, exchanging emails, metaphors, meetings and even text messages.

In an organization effective communication is very important so that the right message is conveyed at all levels. Previously there was bureaucracy in organization where the employees did not have any say in the work procedures, but now things have changed. We have democracy in the organizations where the employees are considered a major part and their opinions are considered to be of great value. Another change that has been observed is that the organizations communicate with their customers to know about their needs, likes and dislikes. Surveys are conducted to know the customers better so that they know exactly what the customer expects and what they need to do to deliver.

Almost all organizations have vision statement, mission statement, long term goals, short term goals, and objectives which tells exactly what kind of company or institute it is, where it stands and where it wants to reach. These theories are very important which keep reminding the employees what they are reaching for . And it aldo gives an idea of where they are and where they need to get at.