15.2 Kartik’s Web Poster

Kartik discussed cross-cultural communication issues in USA and India organizations. His web poster indeed provides useful information for multinational businesses and whoever else is interested in understanding the dynamics of USA/India trade. There is no doubt about the importance of the relationship between India and USA, given that both countries have been more and more unified by business’ interests.

I learned interesting information about India. I did not know that a handshake did not mean the same in the US and in India. When it comes to handshake, Brazil, for instance, interprets it like USA: a strong handshake means interest and a gentle one indicates one does not care or is afraid of something. Indeed non-verbal communication plays a big role in intercultural relationships. In terms of similarities, Brazil is a collectivist country like India. So whenever US executives deal with Brazilians executives, they need to bear in mind this cultural difference. Like Kartik, since I started my Masters program at SJSU I have been encountering similar contextual intercultural situations that teach me valuable lessons.

Garota de Ipanema

15.1 Kristle’s Web Poster

Kristle chose a very interesting theme for her Web Poster: Building Corporations through Leadership. The image she selected is adequate in the sense that it speaks by itself and the links direct visitors to interesting content related to the theme.

The introduction is engaging in a way that invites even those who might not be entirely interested in the dynamics of leadership.

It is clear what Kristle’s interests are. It would be interesting if she had added brief information on the timeframe she established to be where she wants to be.

In future research Kristle mentioned that the articles do not directly talk about leadership, but have relation to it. My feeling is that many of us experienced similar situation. My project partner and I experienced also found very interesting articles which somehow were related to our area of interest, but did not necessary addressed the question directly.

The conclusion is straightforward, and it points out that not everybody can be a leader. In times when people strongly advocate their leadership skills, it is important to remind what a real leader is!

Garota de Ipanema

11.5 Ideas related to COMM 244

My main area of interest within communication is Organizational and Intercultural communication. It is amazing how my horizons expanded after taking this Organizational Communication class! The textbook chosen for this class is so rich in information, and I feel it is a resource I can rely on in the future when I am dealing with different contexts of organizational communication.

This was my first on-line class, and I certainly enjoyed it. However, I feel the discussions could be deeper if the format was in person class. The organizational communicational scenarios could be studied through case studies, for instance. Overall this class added value to my professional life, and the knowledge acquired will certainly constitute important piece in my “sand box”.

Garota de Ipanema

11.4 History & Communication

I can not help! My main topic for today is Barack Obama!
Since I earned the right to vote when I turned 16 years I have never been as interested in politics as I am this year. As a permanent resident of the United States, unfortunately I still can not vote in America. But I feel good that, through my communication skills, I impacted many people who voted yesterday.

As much as I agree with Barack Obama in terms of what America needs and he is the one who can make those changes happen, my main argument talking to American voters is the importance of acknowledging that if Barack Obama is in the power, the merit needs to be attributed to those African Americans who endured prejudice, humiliation, pain, and all sort of injustices in the past. It is not possible to forget History, otherwise the purpose of his glory is totally defeated.

The link between History and organizational communication I want to establish is that there are still lots of nonsense prejudice within the organizations (managers who favor some employees and mistreat others, misconceptions about cross-cultural employees, etc). Either implicit or explicit, it is crucial that organization communication deals with these dilemmas in order to have History of better work environment for everybody.

Garota de Ipanema

11.3 Future Research

It was very interesting to work on the annotated bibliographies for the COMM 244 class. Our research is focused on Global Business Communication – Intercultural mannerisms. Fortunately we did not have a hard time to find peer reviewed journal articles on our area of interest. In terms of future research, however, it will be valid to have more articles focused on other aspects of Intercultural mannerisms. We noticed that most articles touched cross-cultural negotiations as the main aspect of intercultural mannerisms. We believe that there is much more to be explored in this area.

Based on how people portray themselves throughout the organizations I have worked at, I see that aspects such as informal conversations over the coffee room, phone conversations, dress code, and cultural festivities within the ethnic employees should be highlighted as important aspects of intercultural mannerisms. It would be wonderful to see more finding on these additional aspects I just mentioned.

Garota de Ipanema

11.2 Business Ethics

One of my favorite concepts discussed in COMM 244 was ethics in communication. This concept, so present and so absent in the organizations nowadays is indeed something that occupied my thoughts for long hours along this course. It is sad to realize that although the majority of companies defends that they have ethics in their businesses, actually, they have total lack of ethics in their businesses.

My final project in my undergraduate program was a thesis with focus on child labor. It broke my heart to realize that so many companies employee child labor. When I was collecting some interviews, many employers told me that they were actually doing a big favor by contracting children in their factories. They’d rather seeing children working than in the streets. My whole argument was that every single child deserves to enjoy the childhood in school, deserves to have time to play, to enjoy life with their loved, to be kids, instead of spending 12 hours working in a factory.

Bottom line is that the unethical behavior of many companies is so pervasive that many parents I interviewed sort of shared similar beliefs defended by these companies. Of course I only interviewed poor people, who obviously were struggling for more financial income. But from that point on, I started paying closer attention to how companies behave in the name of their own “ethics”.

Garota de Ipanema

11.1 Elections & communication approach

Today is certainly a remarkable day in the American History: it is election day! I thought it would be interesting to make it a topic for my blog because it is a subject that calls my attention, and because I believe it has everything to do with organizational communication.

In my entire life I’ve never been so into Politics like now. The way mass media has reported information about the presidential candidates is astonishing to me. What has counted the most since the campaigns started around 18 months ago is race, gender, and minor details that do not even deserve attention.

Establishing a comparison between organizational communication and how mass media reports information, I see that both have the power to manipulate information to convey the message they want. As a result, the same way employees get frustrated with misleading information within an organization, voters feel twisted and frustrated with how mass media portrayed information the way they wanted during this election season.

Garota de Ipanema