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.