Integrity (Ch11)

Leadership and Integrity go hand in hand. Having integrity means to fulfill the commitments you make to others. A politician is usually not regarded to be an individual with integrity because of the way he or she is portrayed by the media. Unfortunately, politicians are usually seen as leaders and because of their bad social rapport. In contrast, people who are not in political positions and are organizing a people are seen as righteous people. I write of this mainly because it is something that I think of everyday in my line of work.

Computer-Assisted Communication Technologies (Ch 10)

These include fax, e-mail, video conferencing, voice mail and others. It is surprising to think that businesses ran without these devices. Organizations are definitely running much more efficiently because of these devices. Unfortunately, these technologies have probably also left many people without a job. Once technologies take the place of someone's job the person usually becomes indispensable. This is definitely something to consider when we are developing more forms of communication. Personal contact was also eliminated with these forms of communication. Due to these developments some were able to start or expand their businesses more efficiently and possibly at a lower cost.

Habits of Mind (Ch 9)

Habits of mind according to Robert E. Quinn from the Harvard Business Review, are patterns ways if thinking that define how a person aproaches issues. This relates to leardership, because this could be a a way of how leaders can be efficient. He goes on to explain how most books about leadership show the reader how to be like other leaders instead of drawin on their own insticts and values.

I tend to belive this is true. A true leader will be their own person and will draw on what is natural for them, this way they come out transparent and build up credibility and respect from others.

Competitive Democracy (Web Lecture)

An election can be considered Competitive Democracy. I thought this was particularly interesting, because how can it be a democracy if only two candidates have a good chance of winning, as it is the case at every US election. One could argue that there are various other people running for the presidency. However, reality is that most don't have a good chance of winning. Some of the reasons we have a bi-partisan election is because of lack of economic resources from other parties like the green party and socialist party etc.

Team-Based Organization (Chapter 8)

The author speaks on the team approach as encouraging formal communication and view all employees as capable of making decisions. Instead of separating the managers and writing off the workers as non-thinkers. When you empower a worker with the ability of making their own decision, rather than dictating to them, you build up their sense of belonging in the company. Everyone wants to have a sense of belonging and workers get this sense when they are working with teams.

Gender Differences at Work. Chapter 7

The two most important statements in this section are: Men seek status by engaging in report talk. Women use conversation to build relationships using rapport talk. Women and men do have two different ways of communicating. Most of this is because of the way we are socialized. Unfortunately, the workplace and other institutions measure us by the way men communicate rather than women. This is one of the many reasons men tend to be promoted before women. As women I feel that we need to adapt more of the form of communication of men, but still be true to ourselves.

Web lecture: Virtual or Real Communication

I think that most people put both Virtual and Real communication in the same category. Proffessor Coopman asks if this class is real even though we meet online. This class is still real. But, I personally have had a real hard time connecting with the material. Eventhough, it is very interesting to learn about all of these topics. It doesn't feel like I'm interacting with anyone. As a result I probably will not be taking any online courses in the near future.

Technology is important for the development of a country. But, what kind of society will we have if people will continue to communicate through myspace messages, text messages or e-mail instead of in real life.