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.