Dialogic Democracy

It is interesting to see who far we as a nation have come since the time that the Constitution was first written by our fore fathers. Dialogic Democracy has given birth to many new ideas. I watch the news almost everyday and everyday I am appalled at what I am listening too. Although I agree with collaboration and everyone being passionate about what they believe in it is so hard watch what is happening in our nation. Also if you feel strongly about a situation if you do not devote your entire lifestyle to that cause you will not necessarily make a change. It is a hard decision whether or not you will actually involve yourself in Dialogic Democracy, because it is a life change.

Norms

Norms in the work place are very interesting. They “designate the boundaries of acceptable behavior in the group.” I think this is funny because these kinds of “norms” seem to always be changing in the work place. It seems that every time there is a new employee added to the company things are changing. Any kind of change in the economic environment of the country can also change the “norms” of the company. Yet these norms are still always expected even when things change.

Work/Life Conflicts

I think it is very interesting how the work place today wants to control people’s lives. I as a college student still living at home with my family was working at starbucks; they wanted me to make starbucks my life. It was kind of ridiculous, I was just promoted and I was not yet getting paid for the position. They tried to make me work on a holiday because they would not let me request the day off, then gave the day off to other people who had worked there less than me. It was made very clear to me that Starbucks was more important than my own personal life. I did not agree with the company’s policy so I left. I believe that there should be a strict line drawn between work and life.

Virtual or Real Communication

I believe that all communication is real. Even if we communicate virtually it is still real.. Although when we communicate virtually there is more room for misunderstandings. I have done a lot of group projects and because of too much virtual communication there was some misunderstandings with in the group and things got a little confusing. Therefore although virtual communication is very helpful it can not be the only way of communication there has to be virtual and face-to-face communication for things to work out.

Pervasive Communication Environment

Pervasive Communication Environment is extremely interesting in that it is very different than before. A perfect example of pervasive communication is this class. Anywhere we are that we have internet access we can access this class post a blog and look at everything else that is going on. We can access the class from phones, in a starbucks or at home. It is amazing that we can access information anywhere with a connection even with out the internet we just need to pick up a newspaper or be around a television.

Fragmentation Approach

Fragmentation is very interesting because I believe it is the most realistic of the three approaches. Yet, I also believe it is the best way to have things, If everyone was the same and agreed on everything in the company there would be no new ideas and companies would fail because as humans we are always changing. We want new things new ideas we want to be entertained, if corporations do not keep their customers interests through fragmentation then they will lose us and therefore lose their business. Nothing in our world is clearly defined and therefore, organizations find it hard to define their roles. But that is why so many people still have jobs because our world is always changing and we need corporations with their individuals to keep up with those changes

Domination Metaphor

The domination metaphor is very sad to me. I watched a movie in a marketing class called “The Corporation”. This movie talked about Corporations that used sweatshops that exploited little children. The Corporation Nike breaks down their day in to ten thousandths of a second to increase production. For every shirt these children make they earn .08 cents! The movie talked about using up the resources in this case people. Because as soon as the people realize that they are being mistreated they try and rebel, it usually does not happen though because this is the only income they have and they need corporations like Nike to stay.

Social Power

There are five types of Social Power. 1) Reward Power 2) Coercive Power 3) Referent Power 4) Export Power and 5) Legitimate Power. When I first read the word power I immediately thought the kinds of powers that are reward and coercive power. I never thought of any other of the other powers. I did not realize that they were really involved in the work place. Yet, they are, and now that I know they are involved I see where it applied in the organizations that I have been involved in. It never occurred to me that all of these powers had terms and I never thought of powers as a process in the work place.

Cultural Elements

The Book talks about how an organization shapes how “its members think, act, and behave in particular ways” (128) I find this very interesting I used to work in a very small Sushi restaurant that was privately owned. Inevitably when ever the father and daughter were fighting the whole restaurant was in a bad mood and when they were getting along there was a light air in the whole room. I never realized that what was happening in our restaurant was involved with cultural elements. As a Japanese restaurant we had to use metaphors to describe our foods so that less experienced customers would understand what some words were. We performed rituals everyday in that we had to perform certain tasks to make everything run smoothly. As for storytelling there was always one to tell. We had artifacts around the restaurant that represented the Japanese lifestyle. The Head Sushi chef was our role model because he was always kind and calm. Every time we would go u[ to a customer performance was watched by our boss to make sure we were being professional. As a family organization our values were to be very polite and give the customer what they wanted with in reason. As an employee I did all of these things never understanding that I was daily involved in a culture. I was also performing cultural elements. I never understood how much communication played in our world. I always had a very elementary view of communication, especially organizational communication.

Theories

I thought it was very interesting that I never realized that just like talk theories are partial, partisan, and problematic as well. The partiality concept was the most interesting to me. In arguments I am the person always trying to be right. In reading the section on partiality I realized that even though what I am saying might be right there might be another aspect of the story that is right also. As a child you read your history books and you assume them to be completely true, why would there be another point of view? I realized that the statement “It is logically impossible to say everything about anything.” is true.

Coopetition

It was interesting that companies started to share information with each other. I think it is very interesting that they did better after they shared. Looking back at history companies did not share information; they would protect that information with all of their effort. Now with open systems and companies understanding open systems people have realized that their “ecosystems” are being improved. It is fascinating to see the similarities between the biology of a body and how it works together and society and how it works together.

Biology and General Systems Theory

It is amazing to me how everything in life is connected. I know that everything in my body works together to make a whole but I never thought of it in the same way in context to a society. It is very interesting that they are termed “loosely coupled systems”. In my opinion a societies parts are much more fascinating and interesting to watch work together than bodies’ parts. In different ways obviously but a society is so fascinating.

From Empire to Hierarchy

I always knew that if you were able to live up in the hills, away from most people, then those people were well off. What I did not realize was that this kind of industrialization has been happening since the United States was born. I think it is interesting that our society still looks at status through where you live and how close you are to the cities. I think that as a society we have fallen away from Benjamin Franklin’s proverbs. People used to live by these saying but it seems as if our society now only wants to do the minimal amount of work that can be done for the most amount of money.