dawgsbusinessblog

Today for our asynchronous lecture, we (I say we loosely, I'm not sure how many people actually do the assignments) watched a couple ted talks that were available in Chapter 8 of Organisational Communication by Zink and Zink. The ted talk I will be discussing in this particular blog is called: How to save the world (or at least yourself) from bad meetings.  The Ted Talker spoke about how many meetings function very unsuccessfully, and end up being a waste of peoples time. A bad meeting could take place for a number of reasons: the moderator doesn't know how to run the meeting, the meeting is formatted poorly with no concise direction or imperative, the participants don't know why they are at the meeting, etc.  Bad, boring meetings have a reputation for being very prevalent in the business world. When I think of business, I think of meetings. I think of a stock image of a man in a suit rubbing his temples while he stares at the clock. Fellow business people sit around him. I...

 Contrary to my assumption, this chapter is not really about culture. Well, the kind of culture I imagined. I thought that this chapter would be about how different cultures and environments communicate and organise themselves. Instead, this chapter is more about categories of defensive and supportive communication. This is useful info, even though my culturally-curious side is left slightly disappointed.  In this chapter, the author discusses the fact that communication isn't just what you say- its how you say it. Your tone, context, or even style of communicating can have a great effect on the overall message. Was it Marshall McLuhan that said "The Medium is the Message?" Well, when the medium happens to be our voices, we can keep an eye on the ways we speak that spark either defensive or supportive reactions in our audience. In understanding the ways our speaking styles impact our audiences, we can be more successful communicators. Some examples of categories of defens...

As an adolescent, I prided myself in being not your 'typical' teen. For me, this meant avoiding brand names and knitting in the halls. It also meant not getting a cell phone, which most of my peers carried around. I had an iPod for 6 years, but no cell phone. Nearing the end of its lifespan, it had a cracked screen that shed shards of glass in my fingertips when I scrolled the screen. It also leaked an interesting fluid, but despite its signs of tragic ailment, I still did not want a cell phone. In fact, I was not an owner of a cell phone until I was 16 years old, and I didn't even want one then. It was a warm summers day, when I was supposed to take the bus home. I had some scattered directions in my brain, and I decided to just go for it, like the idiot I was (and still partially am). So I got on the bus.  My first warning sign should have been that someone in my class from north kildonan was on the bus. I do not live in north kildonan. I live in Osborne.  As the bus ride...

Human Relations became a factor in the workplace after the industrial revolution had largely turned the workplace into an inhuman facility. Connection, work, satisfaction, and happiness were not factors that company owners really cared about. Social and psychological factors are key factors in work satisfaction and productivity levels. Compared to the Industrial revolution, today we have a different model of workplace that bears some similarities to the Industrial Model but ultimately makes an effort to make their workers feel cared about and human.  My Mom works at IKEA. This is a huge chain business, but it does have some aspects of Human Relations that work well. They announce staff birthdays on a loudspeaker during break, give out great benefits and try to build a community. People 'incharge' listen to the concerns of the staff. When my mom had to work weekends and was feeling really unhappy because she missed her family, IKEA listened and didn't give her any more weeke...

  Breaking Bad- Power and  Resistance In the popular TV series, Breaking Bad, there are a lot of power and business struggles. If you haven't watched the show Breaking Bad, it is basically about a High School Science teacher (Walter White) turned meth cook, who works with different people in illegal circumstances in the drug world.  In later seasons of the show, Walt works with Gus, who is basically his boss (depicted above in the meme). He controls the output and distribution of Walt's meth. Gus is the formal authority and is in a high ranking position in the drug business. Walt has some formal authority, but not as much as Gus. His source of power comes from the knowledge of drugs that he has. He is a meth making expert, which gives him power over Gus. Gus depends on Walt's expertise and knowledge about meth making. Walt is the expert of the product, while Gus is the owner of the business that sells the product. Both people have a unique source of power. 

In high school, there were multiple personalities of speakers. There were the academic and the driven, who clutched their cue cards and strategically panned the room every few minutes. There were the under-prepared, the scared, and the runners, who would mutter requests of pushing their speech to the proceeding class and reluctantly take the stage, tomato red face, eyes locked on their notes (if they happened to have them) and jumpy composition. Occasionally during my high school career, we had a couple runners: people who ran from the room minutes before their presentations, or went to use the bathroom- and never returned. The teacher would search the building high and low for the runners, but was never really successful at finding them.  The two examples above are polar opposite speaking styles, one is prepared and stagnant, the other is flimsy and somewhat chaotic. In my opinion, neither of these speaking strategies are very effective. What are they both missing? Authenticity, t...

  When faced with the choice between speaking up in the workplace or doing nothing, subordinates may loose no matter what they choose. When speaking up against personal grievances, offering ideas or alternative solutions, subordinates may face punishment, blatant lack of respect, or even risk loosing their job. In that case, staying silent may seem like the best option, but by doing so, subordinates also loose (in this case you pick up 25 cards). Keeping silent in the face of important issues might cause the business more problems down the line, and it also heightens your own job dissatisfaction, while also creating long term grudges. No matter what, speaking up or staying silent is a gamble. Just like in this meme, both choices seem perils. However, you can still 'win' the game and come out on top if your play your cards right. 

  I choose this picture to explore visual communications. The picture has a high verisimilitude, it is a photo, is very real looking, and believable. Modality wise, this picture shows a mother bear and cub on a waning piece of ice. This picture is 'claiming' that the melting ice is impacting polar bears lives, making it harder to find land, food, shelter, and rest.