One last interesting aspect.

One topic in the book that I wanted to discuss further was the section about Interview Questions. I found this section to be particularly enlightening as it provided a different perspective on interviewing than I’ve had privy to in the past. The idea that the interview questions can be multi-faceted, where you’re discussing not only the organization, but additional items such as: the goals of the company, management style, or training programs. Upon reflection this, of course, makes sense because an interviews purpose is not only to allow the manager to become familiar with the applicant, but also allows the applicant to familiarize themselves with the inner workings of the company. There could be a very distinct management style at the company that the applicant is unfamiliar with, or perhaps the management style is more micro-managing than the applicant wants to deal with. The organizational culture should also greatly factor into an applicant, or managers perspective when conducting an interview. Will the individual mesh well with the other employees? Will there be conflicts? Understanding not only the applicant’s familiarity but also comfort ability will make for a much better working relationship for all parties involved.

Interesting Concepts

The concepts I found most interesting those concepts that I could apply directly to my personal life. This may seem somewhat self-centered, but I don’t have all that much reason or purpose to apply other concepts that the book discussed. The intercultural communication concepts were of great interest and I’m sure that I learned a lot, and will be better able to apply those concepts in a real-world scenario. I just don’t have a significant amount of friends from many distinct cultures. The concepts about communicating better with peers, or in a work environment were also very useful to me. I found that I was also able to apply these concepts to enhance my communication style at my workplace. The most interesting to me, by a far margin, are the interpersonal concepts. Especially the concepts relating to relationships and how to understand and improve communication between partners. I found that I’ve been able to communicate much more comprehensively and also understand when I’m not communicating very effectively.

Research Methodology

The method of most interest to me was the unobtrusive method. I found this method of research interesting because it initially struck me as a bit off from what I considered to be normal research. I normally consider research to be asking questions of people, looking through books or manuscripts. I guess the observation of the impact, measurements of erosion, or evaluating which communication methods are more popular would also fall into the category of a voiceless audience which this method of research seems to epitomize. Another aspect of this method of research that I found interesting is that it could also be a falsely built framework of understanding. If one considered the prevalence of a message to be popular, or more accurate, then the group with the largest printing press would always win. This seems a bit counter intuitive to me, as sometimes the more meaningful messages are those of the smaller variety. This can happen when the groups or individuals who have a large influence disagree or are attempting to suppress the message. There are a great many examples of this, the book burning done during the World Wars, or a political candidate who is unable to obtain airtime because he cannot afford the outrageous prices set by the news networks are a couple of these examples.

Message is the Medium

I’m not sure that I personally agree with the idea that the medium is the message. This statement implies that the way a message is conveyed is just as important as the message itself. I disagree with this idea on a philosophical level. If the message is important enough, or if it’s meaning stands the test of time, and still has a heavy impact generation after generation, then the message itself stands apart from the medium. I mean that the message will be conveyed via many varied and different mediums over time. For example, religious ideas stem originally from manuscripts, texts, or the Bible. This message is the further expanded upon via sermons from preachers, priests, etc. Outside of religious circles, there has been a common theme among academia that teachers teach students. This started out in one-on-one learning, followed by classrooms, and now online classes and curriculums exist. All of this isn’t to say that the medium isn’t important in its own right. Often the medium used to convey a message is very important. For example, using the online class situation, the class needs to be structured in such a way that the class material will be conveyed in a pragmatic, meaningful, and understandable way. Presenting material through a lecture format may not be the best format when teaching an online course.

Online Relationships

I’ve had the occasional friend in cyberspace. They relationship dynamic is quite a bit different and in my opinion much more difficult to manage. Most of my relationships online were simple friendships with people in online games that we were both playing at the time. The chances that these friendships were strong enough to survive the distance between us, or how different the communication channels can be was very unlikely from my experiences. The difficulty for me is maintaining long distance relationships at all. The online communications tend to be a little bit more difficult to manage also as the tone of a message is often more difficult to convey with the written word alone. The use of emoticons or other visual keys to lend emphasis (e.g. *hints*) to the conversation are very prevalent. I tended to attempt to stay away from acronyms as the meaning can change based upon not only the context of the conversation but also the geographic location, and the society of the participants. For example, some of the acronyms I used were very localized to my society at the time, and while my friends were tolerant of certain misunderstandings, there was the misunderstanding to begin with. The online friendships take a lot more for me to maintain, as I have to spend much more time communicating rather than being in the same physical location. Being in the same space as your friends allows your actions to speak for you. This cannot be achieved with online relationships.

Interesting Section

The book section on mobile technology was of particular interest to me. I find that oftentimes when I’m commuting to work, I’m able to catch up on a majority of my outstanding phone calls. Prior to having this somewhat long commute, I found it sometimes difficult to find an appropriate time to dedicate towards making my phone calls. There are so many things that our society is now asking of us that it’s not surprising that the social ramifications towards communications has been adjusting recently. Making phone calls, taking phone calls, or instant messaging makes social situations very touch and go. Is it okay to pick up the phone when you’re at a meeting? The business aspect of this is additionally compounded by management having the perception that they can do whatever they want. Why this seems to be acceptable to me is very discomfiting. This combined with businesses giving employees a business mobile phone has led to the perception that the employees should be accessible at all hours of the day, evening and weekend. 

Environmental Considerations

Organizations are very closely tied to the environment. The businesses are dependent upon the local community for their employee base, and they need to take into consideration the societal influences. If the local community tends to lean towards a certain ethical, religious, or other mix then it would behoove the business from keeping that in consideration when making decisions. The relationship between the school I attend and the city it is located in also has a very tight knit effect on what kind of mentality the college will attract. If the college is looking to attract a certain type of demographic, political perspective, or cultural influence and the local community doesn’t support those types of people, then it’s obvious that the college should focus its incoming student populace on out-of-town attendees. The college has some ethical obligations to the local community. The most basic being that if the local community doesn’t appreciate how the college is managing their student population, this could lead to strained relations with businesses, police, or other community organizations.