Chapter 11: Instructions for Life in the New Millenium

Every one of the Dalai Lama's instructions for the New Millennium I found useful and inspiring. I really believe that a person who is happy on the inside will be happy no matter where they are. It is inner piece with oneself that transcends to each situation that person comes into contact with. My goal in life is to become at piece with and happy with myself, so that I can then be a better employee, family member, and person in general. One aspect of the Dalai Lama's advice that I find particularly useful in the work place is the "3 R's: Respect for the self; Respect for others; Responsibility for all of your actions" (Eisenberg, 349). This behavior is applicable to everyone in an organization and will create a healthier environment for everyone. In my past experiences I have had managers who, like everyone, made a mistake that effected the organization. When they would own up to their mistake and take responsibility for their problem I would have so much more respect for them. This is definitely great advice for living well!

Chapter 9: Habits of Authentic Communication Performance

As a Communication major I found the habits of authentic communicative performance of use to me. This section says that what all leaders and leadership have in common is communication. This is useful to me as a Communication Studies major. I know that with it being such a broad and light major, people often think of us Comm majors as "wishy-washy" or just taking the easy way out. I for one have always been really excited about this major because it has taught me how to communicate better in array of different settings. For example when reading this particular chapter I was thinking about how in interviews they ask you questions about your major and how it has helped etc. I for sure can articulate after reading this chapter, how being a communication major will help me to be a more effective leader. It is essential to "have an ability to use language to influence and motivate others" (Eisenberg, 284). This power is what inspires others and articulates a vision for an organization to hold. I have found this section very useful tool to add to my communication.

Chapter 8: Groupthink

The idea of groupthink is a deadly problem. This problem, which occurs when group members simply agree with ideas instead of evaluating, has had past of creating some of the biggest mistakes in history. Most notably used by the Nazi's in the Wannsee conference, when they made their infamous final solution to kill all of the Jewish people in Europe. Of the fifteen men at the conference none pointed out what a horrible idea this would be. All of these men were intelligent people, they may have been afraid or just extreme in their opinions. Nevertheless, this is one example that shows us how important it is to express our opinions and evaluate the groups choices. Especially at times when we are in fear, it seems even more important to bring light to an opposing view. After learning more about, I have been making an effort to change my sometimes passive ways, to create more dialogue about group decisions in my classes and experiences beyond.

Chapter 7: Gendered Narratives in Popular Culture

"Are you a character in someone else's story or are you the author of your own?" The book questions, in a section which talks about how identities are learned though popular colture. I definitely think we learn a lot about our culture and construct a lot of our reality through viewing media. This is because what we see on television we assume to be true, because we have grown up with television, it is familiar, we are comfortable with it and we can resonate with it. Along with resonating, television mainstreams ideas. In mainstreaming, media creates the norms by stabilizing and regulating views within a society. For most kids, they learn their sexual roles in society by age six, just by viewing television. As we learn and grow with the media we learn to trust in it and build our realities off of it.

The media creates a synthetic reality, that tells stories and entertains and that keeps up the status quo. The realities in which media creates are distorted views of the world because it is only the view that the media is presenting. In the theory of cultivation it says the more a person watches television, the more distorted their views will be. The television cumulatively creates a world view in which the heavy viewers believe is their present reality.

While I am aware that media and popular culture as a whole have definitely influenced my behavior over the course of my life, I am increasingly motivated to create my own authentic reality. It seems hard to do, as the book says, when we act as we are supposed to we are rewarded (and disadvanteged for the opposing). People like order and come to expect certain behaviors in situations. I think in life it is important to find the balance between being socially acceptable enough to fit in, in a society. And just disconnected enough to find your true beliefs and values in life.

Web Lecture: Metaphors and Culture

In the recent Web lecture on Metaphors and Culture I found one part of the article particularly interesting. It said, "organizational culture plays an important role in promoting ideology that privileges certain groups over others... vocabulary, and other cultural artifacts are infused with an organization's ideology. Because that ideology resides outside organization members' usual awareness, they come to accept and participate in their own oppression." Even just focusing on the vocabulary used on regular basis in our society, and in organizations daily, it is apparent how our language inherently dominates and oppresses outsiders and minorities.
The implications of this reality is something that is not often spoken about, even though these speech patterns are used numerous times throughout our day. How many times do we say that something is "gay," to imply that it is not fun, or that a girl is a "slut" and a guy is a "pimp" when doing the same action? We use these sayings or similar sayings without realizing what we are actually doing. We are continuing the circle of dominance for the rich, white, straight guy. We use these words inherently as way of suppressing others to make us feel more dominant. As a result of this, these minorities are using these words which are oppressing them, in order to fit in our society. By creating and using words that oppress others we are facilitating a world of hierarchy dependent on race, sex, status.
            As we come to realize the consequences of our actions it is clear that the usage of our language needs a change. Instead of using these belittling words we can use more appropriate words that contain the actual meaning we are trying to convey. As for reassuring the dominance of the white, rich, straight male, he can spend time reflecting on other ways to boost his ego, as well as, how he feels about his past of oppressing those different from him. We can all be more aware of our word usage and make conscious choices when we speak.

Chapter 4: Retrospective sense making

I am often guilty of acting before I think. I find my emotions will guide my decisions at times in place of rational thought and planning. In the retrospective sense making theory it talks about how people often think they plan things out, but in reality people will often act first and then think about what they did. The theory has a "recipe" for knowing what you think about what you said or did. A sort of self therapy in becoming more self aware of why we act the way we do. I really like this because sometimes I feel like I have no idea why I act the way I do in a situation and why other people act differently. In his recipe he talks about identity construction, retrospection, enactment, socialization, continuation, extracted cues and plausibility. I find the idea of socialization most useful for myself. This part of the "recipe" says, "what I say, single out, and conclude are determined by who socialized me and how I was socialized, as well as by the audience I anticipate will audit my conclusions." (Eisenberg, 115)

The concept of thinking beyond a single situation and realizing why we communicate the way we do because of how we were raised and the environment we are in is really important in sense making. People have no problem judging others and making assumptions about their life, when what we should be doing is looking at our own lives and figuring out why we are the way we are. I think it is so much more valuable because we can only ever be sure of ourselves. We do not know others life experiences, so I find it much more valuable to spend time learning about myself to help me in future situations.

Chapter 3: Human Resources

My definition of a leader is someone who can inspire their followers to attain their goals. Believing this, I agree most with the human resources approach to leadership style in an organizational environment. In this approach the overall atmosphere of the organization is taken into account, in addition to encouraging employee participation and communication. The Maslow's hierarchy of needs shows the process of satisfaction for individuals, in this process which we are all going through, each person is on a path trying to reach "self-actualization," which is ultimately reaching our highest possible potential. The steps to personal satisfaction being: physiological, safety, love, self-esteem and lastly self-actualization. What Maslow's continues to show, via Eupsychian Management, is that "conditions that foster individual health are often surprisingly good for the prosperity of the organization" (Eisenberg, 87). As a result, in order to be successful, leaders (managers) should set goals that coincide with those of the individual and the organization. An example of doing this, is when companies advertise jobs in the light that they will help the individual achieve self-actualization. When employees can reach their full potential in the work place, they will continue to do well for the company because it is fulfilling for themselves.

It seems this idea works out well for everyone involved and while it is the best solution, good things don't come easy. It is the hardest approach to actuate into an organization. It involves time and commitment from all parties and is definitely on the extreme left side of the spectrum, as it would be hard for bureaucracies to make the switch to such an approach. I think it would definitely be worth the work, because the "open communication between managers and employees ensures creativity, adaptability to change, and satisfaction of the individual's needs and motivations." (Eisenberg, 94) I know that I would like to be in a position of leadership at some point in my future and in making these decisions in my organization I will definitely want to create an environment that facilitates learning and creates challenges that promote my followers to use their skills and rise to challenges. With this approach, they do well for the company and feel good that they worked hard at something. Thus giving them more self worth and worth to the company.

Chapter 1- New Values and Priorities

Chapter 1 says we have been living in a time of changing values. Where past ideals of a admirable career have come to include family and friend relations as well. This change has in turn created less devotion to career and more of a desire for balance between work and our outside life. This is described by Eisenberg as quality of life, which is "overall satisfaction with ... work experience in the context of other life experiences, constraints and aspirations." With this new idea of quality of life employees are also seeking careers that are fullfilling and workplaces that provide a healthy enviroment to harvest interpersonal relationships with co-workers. Work is not seen as a negative thing we have to do, but something that makes us feel good.

This is a nice concept, however with the current economic struggles it seems that we are lucky to even have jobs. The book continues to say that with millions of unemployed or underemployed people in the United States not many can afford to have preference. While some are seeking more meaningful work, Eisenberg notes we should be setting goals to create at least some quality to life for those of even the lowest class.

I know with graduating in the upcoming year I am definitely going to be looking for a job that will provide me with sense of satisfaction and appreciation for what I do. I hope that I can find this quality in my life after college, but I remain realistic about my situation. Even in my past working experiences as a student I have saught jobs that I would enjoy, but I can only do so much with my experience and time availabilities. This is a compromise we all have to make when choosing jobs. The main point is that our main goal is no longer to have a succesful career (and become "workaholics"), but rather, we want to have a balance between a good job and a happy life outside of work. I know I feel that way.

Chapter 2-The real meeting

In chapter two, the concept of the real meeting is most interesting to me. I like the idea of authentic conversation in a work environment and the idea of really coming to an understanding of one another in the process. I think this idea is beneficial for everyone involved and is the most effective way to conduct business. As said in the text, “Dialogue is one of the richest activities that human beings can engage in.” I think that if we all dialogued with those in organizational environments we would have better and more effective relationships in the workplace.

I personally enjoy having valuable relationships in the work environment because I really like being able to talk to my superiors and communicate to them and co workers about issues. I really like having the open communication because I feel like all parties are constantly growing and becoming stronger assets to the organization.