6.2 What does it mean to be busy?

One comment that I hear on a daily basis from my co-workers is that they do not understand why my desk is never covered by piles of papers. Initially this comment used to bother me. Nowadays I am used to this kind of comment, given that I have heard it since my first job.

I often hear from some co-workers that they’d rather have lots of papers over their desks just to impress the boss. Even when they are not doing absolutely anything, they still make sure they cover their desks with papers to send the impression that they have a lot going on.

It is interesting that people judge me because I am very organized, but they never ask why I am how I am. Because I can not operate when my surrounding is messy, I make sure my desk is always nice and clean so that I take care of my responsibilities: at work and at home.

On page 80 of the textbook, we see that “the work ethic also shapes our very idea of what it means to be busy.” In my view, to be busy means to follow human conventions (pretend to be busy, do lots of things at the same time to show competence, etc). By following these conventions human beings are more likely to meet some of society's expectations.

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6.1 Cultures, Subcultures, and Organizational Socialization

On page 75 of the textbook the author claims that "when we visit other countries for the first time, however, we notice details of the environment and behavior because they are not familiar or customary. We are strangers and suddenly aware of differences and similarities."
I directly relate this passage to my own life. Before moving to America, I visited it twice. I got to know the most famous tourist places in California, and I went back home assured that my life would completely change, given that everything was unfamiliar to me.

All of a sudden I realized that I would not be single anymore, and I would not be physically close to my family & relatives. In addition to that, I would need to get used to a new language, culture, food, friends, job, and so forth. Gee, my whole life would change! I finally moved to the U.S., and I do not have regrets. I would do all over again if necessary. It is amazing how much I grew with so many changes.

Moving to a foreign country is very exciting, but people always have lots of unanswered questions in their minds prior, during, and after the fact, due to everything they gain and lose along the process. At some point new circumstances create awareness and confirmation that human beings always take things for granted. "We suddenly see what we took for granted in a new light."

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5.5 Research Project – part II

After thinking carefully about the direction that my partner and I will give to our Research Project, I realized how huge our theme (Global Business Communication) is. We will rely on good peer-reviewed journal articles and some books to substantiate our work.

The most important part of this project appears to be the preliminaries. While doing the readings, we will need to restrict it to how Business Communication is in determined countries. I like the idea of focusing it on Brazil, China, and United States.

Additional aspects, such as how power is perceived between managers and subordinates, how technologies connect people cross-cultures, how English appears to be predominant to other languages, are very appealing. Although we feel tempted to include these additional aspects in our project, we need to keep our area of interest very clear in our minds. Doing so, we will be able to clearly convey Global Business Communication in our website.

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5.4 Research Project – part I

My initial idea for this Research Project was to focus on Business Ethics; my project partner, on the other hand, came up with the topic Global Business Communication. After discussing about both themes, most likely we will focus our project on Global Business Communication – reinforcing diversity as key element on this process.

In addition to verbal and nonverbal communication, appropriate business conduct, how diversity impacts Global Business Communication, we might illustrate how this dynamic process called Global Communication is performed in other countries. By contrasting how this dynamic occurs in the United States, and in other countries, we believe we will provide an accurate view of this reality.

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5.3 Language & Power

On page 462 of the textbook the author states that “the passive voice masks the decision makers and suggests a neutral air of authority.” On Goldberg, A. et al.’s article, The Meaning of Power, “one obstacle to the study of power and communication has been the elusive nature of power as a concept.”

The following real-life episode is perfect to explain the relationship language & power. Not even a month ago my manager decided to make some arrangements in our group. She sent out an email to the team, informing that everybody on the 4th floor would move to different cubicles. The interesting thing here is that no reasons were provided to justify such change. However, there was no room for inquiries, because she reinforced that we could ask any question we had, except why those changes were happening.

This neutral air of authority employed by my manager has everything to do with power as control. Her warning shut some people up, and frustrated others. Clearly, the decision was made, we were “informed” afterwards, but we still do not know the reason for such unexpected change. And we will probably never know.

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5.2 Label & its implications down the road

On page 444 of the textbook the author explains how we make sense of determined events and how we respond to them makes a big difference. I indeed can illustrate a situation where a label had serious implication down the road.

After getting married I decided to use my husband’s last name (Hasan), and do not use my Brazilian surname (Ribeiro) anymore. One day I was going to Southern California and for some unknown reason, I neither could check-in online, nor I could print my boarding pass in one of those self-service machines at the airport. Then I was informed that my name was in the “Transportation Security Administration’s watch list”, due to its Arabic origin. I can not describe with words my level of frustration with this ridiculous situation. If I am unable to kill even one insect, there is no way I could be considered a threat to anyone.

But anyway, I have been emailing TSA in order to have my name out of this watch list, but so far no response at all. Every time I travel I need to plan to be at the airport much ahead of the time to check-in and print my boarding pass with the attendant’s help. Hence, because someone decided to put the in this category (list) I will suffer the implications of this choice until any wise decision is made.

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5.1 Dimensions of Organizational Messages

The question “When does a message have almost material force?” is indeed meaningful to me. Having lived abroad for almost three years makes me miss my country so much! So every time I visit my family in Brazil I make sure I bring lots of objects that bring me memories from home. For instance, I have some Brazilian flags, flip-flops, T-shirts, CD's, and lots of other little things that I am very proud of showing to other people.

Few months ago I was taken by surprise when I saw a big Brazilian flag outside a store by my house. When I entered the store I found out that they had lots of Brazilian products that I simply adore. The time I spent there was as of I was shopping in Brazil. Seeing so many familiar products – most of them stamped with a little Brazilian flag brought so much happiness to my heart. Hence, seeing my nation’s flag in the United States has always an incredible material force to me.

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4.5 Group decision making and communication

“Look at the checklist!” This is one of the phrases I hear on a daily base where I work at. My job consists of analyzing and imputing data in SAP – HR environment. For every single transaction I process, I need to make sure I am following the checklist. Whenever I need to process an unknown transaction I feel tempted to discuss it with a co-worker, because it is faster. So it frustrates me to hear someone saying “look at the checklist”. It is easier to talk to a co-worker and clarify my questions. But at the end, I know that relying on the checklists is the safest way to go on my job.
I believe that human beings and organizations rely on patterns in order to make decisions. On chapter 3 of textbook Karl Weick suggests that “…what we remember worked for us in previous decisions becomes the frame for viewing the next decision.” Then he adds that organizations perform on the same way: “they use maps from earlier situations in a new situation because that’s the best they can do.” Hence, past experiences provide guidance on the decision making process.

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4.4 The idea of Rationality

“Because we want to be accepted and successful in society, we usually want others to see us as rational.” I deeply believe that everybody would like to be accepted in society, but I do not believe that one should be rational just for the sake of being accepted. Fortunately there are many companies that still encourage their employees to be in contact with their irrational side as well.

I used to work for a company where formality was strongly emphasized. We should carry ourselves with all the formality during business hours. However, there was some balance on this dynamic. For instance, this company used to promote barbecues with live music once a month – usually on Fridays, so that the employees could get to know their coworkers better, and let the accumulate stress goes away.

In my view there is no way one can be 100% rational all the time. Human beings possess emotions – which differentiate them from machines. Hence, the perfect combination would be some balance between rationality and irrationality.

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4.3 Bureaucracy

The theorist Max Weber believed that the legitimate power of authority is the factor that makes people obey. Among the three basic authority types (charismatic, traditional, and legal-rational), I will focus on the first one, the charismatic.

The best manager I've ever had was certainly a very charismatic woman. She was able to engage the entire team on a very subtle way. She was honest in regarding to our individual/ group goals and deadlines. And even when the projects were not so exciting, it turned out that we faced them as so, because she would show us innovative ways to see conventional things. And whenever she could not convince us, we still engaged on the projects because the team did not want to let her down.

It was a huge loss for this organization when she moved to another company. Her successor was really professional and competent, but we tended to make comparisons with the former leadership. At the same time, I understand that it must be challenging for the upcoming leader to preserve charismatic authority if the team remain convinced that nobody else can keep up the same charismatic level demonstrated by the former leader. Weber claimed that the negative aspect of charismatic authority occurs when the person leaves the organization, and consequently, it is very difficult to preserve it.

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4.2 Structure and Process

I would like to establish a comparison between the “retrospective sensemaking” and structure on organizations. On page 21 of textbook we see that when people describe their lives to others they tend to highlight the main experienced facts, instead of narrating everything that has ever happened. And this is called retrospective sensemaking; on the other hand, companies have their procedures – which shape how they are, and compose their history.

Experiences contribute to bring meaning to people’s lives. One could not make sense of himself/herself if nothing had ever happened. By the same token, organizations also need to have some structure – such as policies, which dictate some of the key things that are expected from the employees, e.g., behavior, dress code, and so forth.

The author reinforces that although there is no process without structure, “too much structure constraints, limits creativity, and leads to alienation and boredom.” I believe that companies should strive for some balance when they define their procedures, so that people have time to get used to it, and do not refute it just because at the first moment it does not make too much sense.

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4.1 Organizational Structures

This episode happened a month ago. I was invited to participate on a meeting, and my opinion was required in advance in regarding to the agenda. I got really excited for having the opportunity to share ideas on how to make our meetings more effective and dynamic. However I was really disappointed when the meeting started and the agenda was distributed to the participants. None of my suggestions were implemented. To me that was nonsense. If they were not willing to make changes, what is the point of asking for people’s opinion?

Initially I did not understand why the employees kept repeating the slogan it is what it is, but after this experience I got the message. I do not feel motivated to share my ideas anymore, because I know nothing is going to change at this company. While having a rigid agenda sounds comfortable for many people inside this organization, it also prevents that others speak up. It makes perfect sense to me when Anthony Giddens defends that “structure is both an outcome of and a resource for interaction…structure is both enabling and constraining.”

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3.5 Interacting with the Market

On page 368 of textbook, the communication scholar Sheizaf Rafaeli argues that interactivity is not a characteristic of media. While media and communication channels set some upper bounds of interactivity, it is the actual use of a medium that determines the level of interactivity in each particular situation.”

When I first moved to the United States I started seeking for Brazilian publications in order to know more about Brazilians who had been in the US longer than I, to find out more about their lives in America. I found lots of websites and publications in Brazilian Portuguese, and it turned out that I became collaborator for one magazine as a translator. My voluntary work granted me an ad on the same magazine, and through this ad I was able to gather some people interested in learning how to speak Brazilian Portuguese.

In fact this experience would not be possible without the existence of those communication channels. They allowed me to interact with other Brazilians and Americans and share common interests. Through this experience I built up my network, and had the opportunity to share my culture and beautiful native language skills with other people.

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3.4 E-mail Use in Organizations

It is known the benefits of using e-mail in Organizations. On this post, I will focus on the misuse of it, instead. “It's been suggested that e-mail may be (mis)used to organize social events…disseminate misinformation, rumors, complaints, or jokes.” (Box 12.9, p.363).

Because some employees misuse electronic tools, companies have been implementing privacy policies & surveillance methods to protect their businesses. The company I work for does not grant Internet access to contractors, for instance. As a contractor, I feel as isolated as if I was in an island. By the first time in my life I have no access to Internet at work, which to me sounds insane, because I would not misuse this tool. Instead, it could be very helpful on some of my responsibilities.

But anyways, the point of using this example is that although I barely have access to the systems I need, I still had to sign an agreement acknowledging, right upon being hired, that I would not misuse their systems. Having no privacy at all bothers me sometimes. If you ask if all this control makes me produce more or being more effective, I would say absolutely no. Although I understand that costs play a big role on this issue, I can not deny my low feeling of belongingness.

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3.3. Interpreting the Effects of Organizational Communication Technologies

Due to personal choice and time constraints, I do not use Facebook or Orkut. However, I do enjoy using Hotmail Messenger and e-mails to get in touch with family and friends. Most of the time I am happy – so I make sure I use cute smile faces along my messages to express my happiness; whenever the opposite occurs, I use sad little faces to express my emotions. Hence, I do not conceive electronic media as impersonal on these moments.

Weeks ago all employees in my department received an email with instructions on how we should communicate with other departments through e-mail. The subject of that email (communication) called my attention immediately, but the content made many people uncomfortable. To sum up, they drafted some guidelines on how to be more rational when writing emails. “These little symbols of happiness are considered annoying to the receiver.” In this situation PEOPLE clearly started “filtering out nonverbal cues and therefore, inhibited the communication of social and emotional content."

On page 12 of textbook, we see that “instead of formulating e-mail messages as formal letters, beginning with a “Dear…” or a “Hi…”many people simply write the message as if a conversation was already going on.” In my view, if organizations want to do whatever other organizations are doing, they should understand that at the end of the day, their biggest asset is still the human being - preferbly happy. Whenever I receive any help from a co-worker, for instance, I make sure I add some happy face at the end of my message to reinforce my gratitude. I do care about writing correctly, but I do not put efforts to become someone I am not just to follow the protocol.

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3.2 Using Communication Technologies

September 7th is a national holiday in Brazil. It is our “Independence Day” - the day when Brazilians were set free from Portugueses. My family was telling me how Mass Media reported all the celebrations for the day, reinforcing how free our nation is, and so forth. This slogan sounded nice, but it did not entirely convince me. Then I started reflecting how independent we are - not only as a country, but as human beings.We live in a time of constant transition, and inevitably we end up dependents of resources invented by other people.

When it comes to the use of communication technologies, there are certainly advantages and disadvantages. In one hand it is excellent to learn new information; on the other hand, we are servants of new technologies. Technology became so advanced, that there is no return. Life will go on….so will new technologies. In chapter 12 of the text the author invites us to “think of the constant updates on computer software that sometimes seem more a nuisance than a help, requiring us to learn new features and to re-learn how to do some tasks that had become routine…”

3.1 The meanings and uses of Organizational Communication Technologies

The ultimate modern gift I received from my parents during my youth was an electronic typewriter. For years that machine “saved my life”. I can not even count how many projects I typed on that efficient typewriter….until the moment that my ultimate gift became so obsolete, that I urgently had to buy my first computer…which ended up getting outdated pretty quickly. Then my husband gave me a laptop…which became too slow if compared to whatever was available out there. And guess what? We’re getting a second laptop this week.

Reflecting on this short journey of typewriter, PC’s, and laptops reinforced in my mind how dependent we are of technologies. It is almost impossible not to rely on some kind of technology nowadays, and those who reject to learn and use them will become socially excluded somehow.

Few days ago I was talking to a friend of mine – by email, of course, and she was proud of sharing that her grandmother had just purchased her first laptop. With my mouth opened I heard that her 89 year-old-grandma is now sending emails to the whole family, displaying her pictures and information on Facebook & Orkut, etc. And my friend told me not to be surprised when I receive Mrs. Ambar’s first message, because my electronic address was already on her address list. I should not, but I was astonished! Chapter 12 of textbook says that “technology is often seen as synonymous with change”. Who is going to deny it?

2.5 Diversity & Values

Spending time with my family and traveling are things I truly care about. Time spent with my family makes me stronger for life; and travelling teach me how to appreciate my own culture even more, and also understand and respect other people’s cultures.

On chapter 14 of textbook we see that “when we are faced with sharply different beliefs or values, our own assumptions suddenly stand out. Travel can have this effect, as when a North American confronts a radically different pattern of living, in say, Latin America…is likely to encounter more collectivist, inherently social conceptions of values, mores, and notions of correct behavior.”

Breaking down this citation, I perceive that whenever we interact with people from other cultures, we tend to make some comparisons with our own culture. Brazil, for instance, is very family-oriented. Usually people do not always move out their parent’s house as soon as they turn 18 years old. Instead, they move out when it is time to get married or live with a partner or friend. Having family around is one the strongest characteristics of Brazilian Culture.

2.4 Global & Local

It is quite interesting to think about what falls into global category, and what fits better into local category. On Chapter 13, page 383, we see an example of Coca-Cola Corporation. Although they sell their products across the globe, they realize the importance of developing products that local people would be willing to appreciate. I honestly believe that one of globalization’s roles is “bring nations together”, instead of imposing standards of right or wrong.

“According to the marketing professor Fuat Firat, globalization is not a uniform and universalizing process but a fragmented set of lifestyles, products, and consumption patters – typically North American – across the globe.”

In Brazil, for instance, barbecue is a serious tradition. However, Brazilians usually do not use the famous A1 on barbecues because it is not something we enjoy; On the other hand, Brazilians love Tabasco Pepper Sauce, produced by Mc. Ilhenny Co., on barbecues. By these ordinary examples, I want to address the fact that if companies such as Kraft Foods need to come up with some product that satisfies people in general, instead of just imposing whatever is successful in other parts of the world. Apparently Kraft understands it, because Brazilians consumer several other products they produce. “Some businesses acknowledge that globalization does not (or should not) necessarily homogenize tastes”.

2.3 Social Exclusion

Nowadays people are more “into the idea” of technology than ever before. Some might think: I can not imagine my life without Internet. On the one hand, Internet makes life easier – instantaneous communication with doctors, online shopping, and why not to say, this online class; on the other hand, it deprives human interaction. On Chapter 13 of textbook, Peter Monge defends that “certain kinds of interconnection imply disconnection”.

It has been an incredible experience to learn how to create my own blog, and eventually figure out how to put together my own website for COMM 244. However, I can not help wondering how our relationship as classmates would be if we had to meet in person once a week. I am not against technology, do not misunderstand me! But fact is that people live more anxious due to the expectation that they always need to be ready for whatever is coming up in terms of new technologies. Consequently, on the swing of this vicious circle, time spent with family and friends shrinks more and more.

Still on chapter 13 of the textbook, the sociologist Manuel Castells “argues that the informational global economy is characterized not only by increasing interdependence but also by exclusionary segmentation – increasing divisions within a society or culture between those who can access the benefits of globalization and those who cannot.” Somehow, I label it Social Exclusion.

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2.2 Technology’s impacts on Globalization

Once a month, the Human Resources Teams from the United States, some countries from South America, and Central America “get together” to discuss what is happening on their respective countries. These monthly meetings which take place at the company I work for are doable, mainly because of new communication technologies such as teleconferencing.

After participating on one of these meetings this morning, and with chapter thirteen of the textbook in the back of my mind, I caught myself concluding that there are not boundaries that technology can not cross. The theorist Marshall McLuhan defended that “since electronic communication is almost instantaneous, it is able to link events and locations and create interdependence.”

Although there are participants across the globe on these meetings –bringing different languages and cultures to the context, every single one is trying to obtain something – either just get updated on last topics or present their ideas and projects to the group, in order to unify the company’s processes. In other words, the textbook defines globalization “as a process of perception, understanding, and, by extension, persuasion”.

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2.1 Global Awareness

I am convinced that global awareness can be achieved in the future, but so that it happens, it is mandatory that local issues are addressed right now. On the one hand, issues such as productivity and efficiency are often discussed; on the other hand, issues such as equal distribution of resources – food, jobs, health care are still not reality in many people’s lives, and unfortunately they have not been treated with the required sense of urgency by the government, companies, and society in general.

When people do not have their basic needs supplied, they will hardly go beyond the ordinary thought of how they will survive the present day. Maslow’s pyramid clearly exemplifies how important it is for human beings to have their primary needs supplied, so that they take global topics like Social Responsibility and Global Warming as their own cause.

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