Organizational Culture

Organizations can be considered to have a culture of their own, depending upon what the goals of the organization are and how the various divisions function in relation to one another. An organization is in fact a small community of sorts where people interact with each other and spend a significant portion of their lives.

I used to work as a volunteer at a pro-literacy organization, whose members tutored illiterate people to read and write. Those who worked and volunteered there treated each other with respect and openness, since they were accustomed to do the same with their students who needed to be treated in this manner. The culture here may be described as "gentle and easy-going".

Contrast this with my internship experience at a company that manufactured chips that went into mobile phones. The people here had to be on top of the competition, were stressed out with their work, and rarely even said hello to each other. The culture here could be best described as "hectic".

What is Culture?

Page 76 of the Textbook defines culture first as a certain kind of opposite of nature, and then as a system of meaning that guides in the construction of reality in a social community.

I think that one merit of this definition is that it helps one understand that culture is not only in the conduct of people belonging to a community, but especially in the meaning that one may ascribe to that conduct. For example, it was considered good manners a few centuries ago in the Middle East for a guest to belch after eating his food, indicating satisfaction with the meal offered. But the same conduct in the West might be seen as offensive, indicating a lack of self-restraint on the part of the guest. Hence the same conduct (belching) is seen as good in one culture and bad in another, since the meaning ascribed to the conduct varies with the perception of the community.

Project Direction 2 (Cross-cultural Communication)

I arrived in the USA over a decade ago from India, and am quite familiar with the lifestyles and cultures of both countries. In my travels, I've visited England, Germany, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Maldives, learning that each culture has something unique about it that gave it a special place in the world.

The Buddhist culture in Thailand was impressive - it was awe-inspiring to see the Temple of the Golden Buddha, which has a 10-foot tall statue of the Buddha in Gold.

I expected the people in England to be cold and aloof (not merely because Hollywood villians usually have a British accent!) but was pleasantly surprised to find that they were quite warm and friendly. I mentioned this to an Englishman at Heathrow airport when I was waiting for my flight out of the country, and he gently corrected me and said that I was suffering from a misconception and that English people aren't friendly at all - they were only being nice to me because they saw my camera and knew I was a tourist!

Germany was very interesting, because the people were so logical in their thinking - not only the fellow engineers I met with as part of my job, but also those who worked in the grocery stores and the restaurants!

I believe that in the modern era where people from diverse cultures are working with each other in the same company, cross-cultural is not only inevitable, but also to be celebrated. I'm therefore interested in cross-cultural communication in the organizational context.

Project Direction - 1 (Globalization)

As an MBA student, I'm very interested in the area of Globalization and its effects on the business and economics. This is an area that was not taught in business schools as recently as a decade ago, and has only lately become a required course in many MBA curricula, including San Jose State University (the class is "Global Business Environment"). I consider myself well-read in the area having followed the news for the past few years on how the businesses in the USA and especially Asia have been impacted by the global free market.

This is related to the field of Organizational Communication because Organizations are no more limited by geographical barriers. I've used audio and video conferencing with my colleagues in Germany and other parts of the world. I've interacted with teams in other companies located on the other side of the globe - I dial into the meeting at 6am California time they attend the same meeting at 10pm local time!

Limitations of Linguistic Analysis

There are some limitations to linguistic analysis to arrive at conclusions that may make assumptions that are probabilistic rather than deterministic. This is touched upon briefly in the textbook under the section "Data Analysis" under the discussion on Centering Resonance Analysis (CRA, page 461), but the caveats seem to be missing.

One example I can think of where linguistic analysis gave wrong results that did not agree with the rest of the evidence is in the case of "Forensic Linguistics" that was used in the aftermath of the Anthrax attacks. Donald Foster was a forensic linguist who used the written messages in the Anthrax letters to identify the perpetrator of the attacks. Foster claimed that a virologist, Dr. Steven Hatfill, was a possible suspect after noting some similarities in language used by Hatfill to the words in the Anthrax letters. After an exhaustive investigation, Hatfill was declared to be innocent, and even successfully sued the Government for millions of dollars. This was a case where a large amount of linguistic evidence suggested a conclusion (Hatfill's guilt) that was later proven to be false.

Problems with Data Gathering from Surveys

In the section on "Data Gathering" (page 448 of textbook), one of the methods recommended for gathering data is from Surveys. The textbook however warns that the method may not be accurate for various reasons, such as explaining the cause of perceptions, the social context under which a person holds an opinion, and the problem of quantifying an experience that may not be quantifiable.

One limitation of Surveys that was not discussed is that the wording of the question posed to participants may be interpreted in multiple ways, causing respondents to give answers that may not be the true intention of the questioner. For example, the survey question, "Do you own your home?" may be answered "yes" by a person because he/she does "own" the place, but that omits the fact that there is a mortgage on the house that will most likely not be repaid, and the person is likely to lose the house any moment. So the question is ambiguous - it does not distinguish between: (1) those who own their home after all the mortgage has been paid, (2) those who own their home but mortgage is likely to be paid in a few years, and (3) those who own their home now but are likely to have it foreclosed.

(Mis)Labeling creating (Mis)Perceptions

Pages 445-6 of the textbook discuss how the perception of an event changes when the event is given a different label. The example in the textbook is how the terrorist act of September 11, 2001 would be viewed quite differently if described as "a crime against humanity".

This is a useful insight to guard oneself against misperceptions perpetrated by people who want to portray some acts or events in a different vein from what it really is, creating a "spin" on the event which may not agree with known facts.

Only recently, a fifth grader in Aurora, Colorado, was suspended for wearing a t-shirt saying, "Obama is a terrorist's best friend". While neither condemning nor condoning the actions of the school in suspending the fifth grader, I must say that it is quite a convenient untruth to say that Barack Obama, the presidential candidate, is the "best friend" of a terrorist. Are there real facts to support Obama being THE BEST FRIEND - a better friend than anyone else in the world, for at least one terrorist? It is quite obvious that the quote is hardly defensible as being true, and was written with the chief aim of being provocative in an irrational way.

Syntax and Semantics

The textbook (pages 441-2) talks about language being used in the sense of SYNTAX as well as SEMANTICS. The former refers to the string of letters, characters or words that are used to designate a statement in any language, and the grammar rules governing the way in which the characters interact. For example, "I like doughnuts, but they can be fattening." is a syntactically accurate statement in the English language.

However, the same statement when rewritten slightly differently as, "Me like doughnuts, but they fattening." is syntactically incorrect. The use of the first-person singular accusative pronoun ("Me") being used in place of the first-person singular nominative pronoun ("I"); and also the lack of a modal verb ("can") or a regular verb ("be") rendering the second phrase of the rewritten statement without a verb are both reasons why the second statement is syntactically incorrect.

Semantics can be identical between two statements even though their syntaxes are different. For example, the statements, "At this point in time, we do not offer that service" and "At this time, we do not offer that service" have the same meaning and hence the same semantics, because "at this point in time" means the same thing as "at this time" ("point in" is redundant in this case).

Emotional versus Professional

The textbook distinguishes between emotional and professional behavior (page 66), with the implication that professionalism is necessarily unemotional, especially in the organizational context.

This principle does not generalize to ALL organizations - for there certainly exist organizations where being emotional is actually encouraged rather than disparaged. Religious organizations such as Churches, for instance, encourage their members to display emotions in a constructive manner rather than be detached to their fellow members. I once volunteered at a pro-literacy organization, and many of my colleagues there openly displayed empathy, and even actively encouraged it. This includes those who actually professionally worked there (i.e. they were paid for their contributions to managing the organization), not only the volunteers.

The film industry requires its actors to be emotional when the situation demands it, and actors are considered mature only when they are able to display strong emotions in a realistic manner.

My guess is that those organizations that value humanity above all (such as religious and charitable organizations) will respect emotions, but those that value money above all (such as business organizations) will not do so.

Span of Control

On page 51 of the textbook, there is a discussion of "Span of Control", which refers to the number of people that can be supervised by one manager without causing the manager to become over-worked or over-stressed. The upper limit to the Span of Control is estimated to be 7-9 persons.

I think that this number is actually an underestimate, and that improvements in information technology have probably increased the Span of Control to about 20. When I was in graduate school, there were some professors who supervised over 20 graduate students primarily by communicating with them through email, and saw their students in person only when it was absolutely necessary. This helped the students to utilize the professor's time in a more effective manner, and it was not difficult for the professor to maintain good communication with 20 students on a routine basis.

Self-organization and Chaos

The concept of Self-organization (textbook, page 37) is fascinating, where the organization develops by adapting to the changes in environment by altering key areas of itself (in a process similar to Evolution). One chief way - if not the only way - for an organization to develop is for it to be close to Chaos (page 38). The reason for this is obvious - change in an organization occurs only as a result of, and in an answer to, challenges provided by the environment.

This idea of Chaos providing the thrust for Self-organization can probably also be applied to childhood development. It is by providing a child with appropriate challenges on the road to adulthood that a child learns how to apply pre-existing learning in the right manner, or modify what has been learned to fit the context.

Bureaucracy

Organizational bureaucracy or "Red Tape" (page 28 of textbook), although essential for the proper functioning of an organization, often places hurdles on getting the job done if followed to the letter. I once mailed a single-page letter by FedEx, and remember the manager telling the lady at the counter that she had to weigh the envelope to make sure that it was less than a pound. After the manager left, the lady smiled at me and said, "This is so light that anyone could tell that this doesn't weigh more than a pound, but I still have to follow the guidelines!" She weighed the envelope with a sigh; I understood her pain.

In 1960's India, bureaucracy was an art form raised to new heights. Although technically a capitalist country, several coils of red tape had to be endured before one could get a "license" to start a business in the country. After the business became functional, one had to file tons of paperwork with the Government to ensure a "properly" functioning business. It is only after this mindless bureaucracy was lifted that the Indian economy has been growing steadily.

Enabling and Constraining

The textbook speaks of the positive and negative aspects of organizational structure as sometimes enabling and at other times constraining (page 20). The structure helps us accomplish things and at other times, gets in our way. I believe this is an important caveat to most organizational structures - the rules and regulations that are designed to aid people achieve their goals also inhibits certain tasks that are important to the organization.

A historic example of how an entire system that was apparently designed to help people but really inhibited all freedom is Communism. The system of Socialism was believed to be essentially good because it helped people to "work according to their ability, and take according to their necessity". The practical result of this system, however, was that the Government took virtually full control of people's daily lives, and thus the system became an impediment to freedom.

Information Drought

"Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink."
- Samuel Coolidge, 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner'

(The above verse is a sailor's lament that on the oceans, there is water all around, but none of it is drinkable).

In this post, I will argue that nowadays, one often experiences difficulty in obtaining useful and required information. This might seem contradictory to a previous post that argued on an overload of information, but I will explain why the ideas are complementary and not contradictory.

The problem lies not so much in a lack of information as to know exactly where to look for the information that is useful and reliable. For example, many a time I have waited for a colleague to send me important information on a new product, but am told, to my surprise, that he or she has already sent it to me - the information was buried in a long email, which I only scarcely glanced at, since 90% of the email was not in my job scope. So the information exists - but is only difficult to find. This is one of the reasons that search engines have begun to rule the internet. Google is the leading website on the web for a good reason - they provide web SEARCH, which is crucial to accurately locating the information that one requires.

"Data mining" is one of the fastest growing fields in software. As the name suggests, there is so much data recorded and available in organizations that relevant data needs to be "mined", much like gold being mined from deep within the earth!

Miscommunication with New Communication Technologies

I believe that the possibilities for miscommunication with new communication technologies is more than ever before, and may get progressively worse in the future.

Most of us use mobile phones, and it is quite common to experience dropped calls. In the ad campaign for Cingular cell phones, commercials illustrated just how devastating a dropped call can be. In one particularly strong commercial, a person calls the suicide hotline from the top of a building, and while the counselor at the other end is trying to convince him that taking his own life is not a good option, the line goes dead, and the screen turns black, hinting at disastrous consequences. The slogan is "Fewer dropped calls". (View the commercial online at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRNkHugEu6w)

There are also problems with emails. Sometimes, one misunderstands the "tone" of an email because one cannot actually hear the voice behind it. I've heard complaints from friends about how their emotions are constantly misinterpreted if they do not explicitly use emoticons [:-) :-( etc.]. In cases where emoticons are not appropriate (e.g. a semi-professional setting such as being a club-member), it is difficult to correctly interpret a person's tone under many circumstances.

Communication Skills in a Changing Technology Landscape

In the discussion on Contemporary Communication Technologies, The textbook says on page 350 that "...communication knowledge and skills also count as communication technology." The implication being that it is not only the engineering and science behind the "hardware" side of internet and email functionality, but also the "soft" skills of using the internet and email as means of communicating that constitutes "Communication Technology".

I find this to be an important take on communication technology, because buying pieces of hardware and giving it for people's daily use is simple, but getting them to use it productively and constructively for the sake of organizational interests and development is difficult. For example, although the technology for Online Shared Folders has existed in our organization for several years, it is only recently that people began using it fruitfully as a communication vehicle. The reason for this lapse is because it took people some time to figure out exactly how to make most of the new technology to work for them.

Information Overload

(I had earlier posted this as "Information Overdose", but after doing a little research, I discovered that other researchers have given it the name "Information Overload". Hence I'm reposting this with a new title. More at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_overload)

The modern and post-modern world have increased several-fold the number of ways we can communicate with each other. The telephone, facsimile, email, etc. were unavailable as recently as a few decades ago to most of the world's population, and while they have been useful as a communication tool, this has resulted in an unfortunate side-effect of what I would call "Information Overdose". I would argue that most people in the post-modern world have a problem processing more information than they can handle, and this problem is likely to get worse in the coming decades.

For example, emails have brought us closer by facilitating communication between continents at the click of a mouse, but unfortunately, we also get a large amount of "junk" in our Inbox everyday. I'm not only referring to the problem of "spam" emails, but also to those emails that are irrelevant to our lives that we receive since we're part of a mailing list, or work-related emails that are really not our immediate responsibility. I had been away on vacation for 4 weeks, and when I returned, I found 281 unanswered emails in my Inbox! Only a small number of those emails were directly related to my job function (I would estimate about a third), while some were only to "keep me in the loop", and many were quite irrelevant to my job function or even my interests. I'm quite sure that I'm not unusual in this situation, and that most people feel overwhelmed with the number of emails they have to respond to on a daily basis, and dealing with emails that are unrelated to their work and interests.

Technology and Impersonal Information

The textbook talks about new technologies becoming "impersonal" vehicles of communication. For example, page 362 discusses personal, impersonal and hyperpersonal communication. Page 357 states: "Thus, the so-called 'cues-filtered-out' model has promoted an image of electronic media as impersonal, impoverishing interpersonal relations and reducing the quality of organizational life. Think of examples that support this view."

One example I can think of is in the area of doctor-patient communication. In the distant past, doctors used to visit their patients in the patient's own home, and communicate with them face-to-face on a very personal basis. In the mid-twentieth century, doctors might even converse with their patients over the phone, thus dispensing the face-to-face meeting altogether. But with the advent of emails, the doctor-patient interaction does not happen with immediate effect - it may take the doctor hours if not days to reply to a patient's email. I believe that much of the personal communication with one's doctor has diminished due to reliance upon emails in the medical field. It is no doubt convenient, but lacks the personal comfort that face-to-face communication brings to the patient.

Some doctors also ask the patient to "google" (has happened to me!) in order to learn more about their medical condition. The patient finds out about his or her illness via a medium that has no empathy for their personal situation, which is certainly hard on the emotions of people with serious medical conditions.

Employees First in an Organization

The textbook refers to the views of the great Moral Philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle (page 427), and how their views are still relevant to this day. The book also touches upon the views of Immanual Kant, whose ideas I respect.

Kant was of the opinion that Moral action ought to have Man as the end and never as the means to the end. In other words, the ultimate goal of all Moral action is to aid or improve Man, and an action that treats Man as merely the means to an end, but not the end itself, cannot be called moral at all.

I believe that this principle goes to the very foundation of the Ethics of an organization. First and foremost, People are the most valuable entities in any organization. So an organization ought to place its own employees ahead of everything else. Hence the first moral principle of any organization is "Employees First".

Organizations ought to place human values above the other insentient aspects of the organization. In some sense, Employees ARE the Organization!

Ethics and Morality

The textbook does not distinguish between "Ethics" and "Morality", as for instance, page 411 states, "To many people, ethics or morality is an automatic response". The two words seem to be clubbed together as one, when in fact there is a subtle distinction. The difference between the two is: Ethics is a subject which studies the object called Morality.
In other words, Ethics is a field of study, whereas Morality is what is "out there". It is like the difference between Medicine, which is a field of study, and the human body, which is the object of study.

This is clearly brought out by the Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at San Diego, Lawrence M. Hinman in his Glossary on Ethics (http://ethics.sandiego.edu/Glossary.html), where he writes:
"Ethics. The explicit, philosophical reflection on moral beliefs and practices. The difference between ethics and morality is similar to the difference between musicology and music. Ethics is a conscious stepping back and reflecting on morality, just as musicology is a conscious reflection on music."

A Critique of Globalization

I only partially agree with the textbook's section on the criticism of Globalization. I respect the view that globalization has mostly ignored the social and political concerns, and concentrates on the economic aspect to cater to the profit-mongering multinational companies. My uncle who lives in India still complains about the local McDonald's and Pizza Huts and feels that they are trying to "take over" the traditional and rich cuisine of India. He sincerely believes that there is a conspiracy to "convert" Indians to American cuisine. My uncle's feeling may seem funny, but that sentiment is likely shared by a large number of people in India.

I do not fully agree with the textbook's criticism of globalization, because I believe that social and political issues can be addressed only in the context of economic issues. The global free market has lifted many millions of people from poverty, and will continue to do so for some decades in the future, and hand in hand with economic development comes education with its socio-political ramifications. Presently, economic issues are taking center-stage, but there will certainly be a time for political and social discussions and development.

Globalization, Communication and the Internet

I enjoyed reading the book "The World is Flat" by Thomas Friedman, which is about the business world becoming increasingly globalized. In this book, Friedman makes the bold assertion that the economic world of today is now "flat" in the sense that the business playing field has been leveled, and that all countries can now compete with one another in the global market-place on almost equal footing.

One of the major reasons for this leveling is due to the invention of the internet. Companies in the USA can now easily transfer work - especially software-based work - to other parts of the world via the medium of the internet, and people across the globe can communicate and work as though they are across each others' desks. This medium of communication was unavailable a few decades ago, and has since revolutionized communication and job functionality. Whether it is by emails or web-based software applications or online shared folders, there are innumerable ways that the internet has changed the way we communicate in the workplace.

According to Friedman, in the future, it is not going to matter whether someone is born in America or China or Australia, but whether that person is able to deliver value-added goods to any part of the world. The internet is one of the chief inventions that is responsible for this change.

Communication in the Multicultural Context

Having arrived in the United States from India, I can say with experience that communication across cultural boundaries has its own challenges. I was schooled in "British English" that uses several words that may seem strage or alien to Americans, and this has caused some occasional confusions.

To give an example: I was once waiting, along with several others, at a theme park in California, and innocently remarked to the person standing in front of me, "Long queue, huh!" and he asked, "What?" and I said in a clear tone, "IT IS A LONG QUEUE!" and he looked at me puzzled and then turned away. I wasn't sure why this happened till I had a long conversation with an American friend who told me that the "proper" word to use in the American context is "line" and not "queue"!