Its not a=mc2

Communication education makes you think and plan, so maybe it is like algebra. Knowing the proper application of the theories is where success can be found.

Thinking of my work for a national certification agency I was drawn to the corporate advertising article, because this is something that we don’t currently do. We currently interact with a small group of core “customers”, state licensing agents. Dealing with 50 states, the military, and a few trusted territories, we are faced with several different issues happening at the same time, which necessitates the use of different persuasion theories. The main message needs to continue to be “public protection” no matter what regional or state issue we are addressing.

Currently we rely on Integration Information theory principles to achieve our communication goals. My personal experience supports Anderson’s equation

Ao = ∑ W1 S1

Reviewing the four theories for this week made me think of how each theory could be applied to past situations, my personal goal from this information is to be able to quickly identify which theory will work best for future situations. My ultimate goal would be to provide inoculations in the future. Check back in a couple years to see if I reach my goal.



Pashupati, K., Arpan, L., & Nikolaev, A. (2002, Fall2002). Corporate Advertising as Inoculation Against Negative News: An Experimental Investigation of Efficacy and Presentation Order Effects. Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising, 24(2), 1. Retrieved October 15, 2008, from Business Source Complete database.

Boo! Did I scare you? Do your supervisors scare you?

Wonder if they are doing it on purpose?

What motives people and how employers motivate employees can range as dramatically as colors in a rainbow. Each person responds in a different way. Although most can be grouped into commonly recognized motivation theories such as, achievement, affiliation, competence, power, attitude, incentive and fear.

Welbourne (1995) provides and in depth review of how fear can be effectively used as a motivator. When preparing to read this article, I expected to not be supportive of this theory. Surprisingly, the article nicely explained how the use of fear with information on how to cope with the fear. In my view, this means details.

Welbourne references in her article Schein (1993) who commented that anxiety (fear) is needed for change to occur but that is must not be so great to cause paralysis. Schein concluded that to successfully communicate change it is necessary to balance negative and positive information.

The National Registry recently underwent a dramatic change in operations – changing from a paper driven certification exam to a computer based exam. The concept was met with great enthusiasm but the reality brought fear – what would happen to the paper-driven job duties performed by many staff members? Watching the management styles of the department directors was an interesting human behavior lab. They each approached motivating their staff different, while still using the underlying fear to motivate staff to be creative in ways they approached the changes and made recommendations. Some methods were successful, some not so successful. Reflecting this transition in reference to the various motivation theories helps explain the results I witnessed.

Overall, I think motivation is personal. Why are people doing what they do? Do we every really know all the experiences that may have impacted them prior to their current position? I think effective managers learn to use a blend of the commonly identified motivational theories throughout their careers, continuing to learn as they grow too (and also impacted by their current motivations). To be a successful leader, I hope to use my experiences and knowledge to select the best motivational theory for the task and staff I lead at the time. Maybe someday I will be using fear to effectively motivate my staff. I hope I’m not too scary.


Welbourne, T. (1995, March). Fear: The Misunderstood Component of Organizational Transformation. Human Resource Planning, 18(1), 30-37. Retrieved October 8, 2008, from Business Source Complete database.

What did they say? What did they mean?

Do you realize that effective listening requires you to be active, not passive? Are you willing to journey toward being a better listener?

Lu opines that listening is an important and integral component of human interaction. She also states that failure to listen is probably the cause of more interpersonal problems more than any other aspect of human behavior. (Lu 2005) I believe that to be a good listener you need to be actively involved in the process. To learn to be a better listener, you need to know where to begin. Take a listening style inventory to know where to start your journey. You may find this survey link a good starting point.

Reading this week's assignments, reminded me that I continually need to work on this skill. In this age of technology listening is not simply auditory. Personally I use many mediums to "listen". It is important to my position that I work to continually improve my listening skills. Learning my current listening style, by completing an inventory, I can now set improvement goals. Interestingly, when taking the time to think about listening, I see how by any improvement will be beneficial to my continued growth.

Berry succinctly states, effective communication is critical to most organizational processes (Berry 2006). The use of computer-mediated asynchronous communication (CMAC) has changed work environments drastically and there does not seem to be a sign of returning to face-to-face and only paper communication.

I think mastering listening skills will be a lifelong journey.



References

Lu, Jianying. (2005). The listening style inventory (LSI) as an instrument for improving listening skill. Sino-US English Teaching, 2 (5) 45-50.

Berry, G. R. (2006). Can Computer-Mediated, Asynchronous Communication Improve, Team Processes and Decision Making? Journal of Business Communication, 43(4), 344-366.

Twas the night before 704

Well, it is the night before and I have butterflies, not panic like I had previously (I was to take this course during summer term and deferred to Fall). I am looking forward to meeting everyone and have enjoyed reviewing the blog entries.

Tonight, driving home from Tabbi's Strides for Pride program, I was reminding her that I have class tomorrow and she asked if I was excited - I told her I was nervous, like she was the first day of school and she told me "It's ok, if you don't understand, just raise your hand". What a great reminder of how simple things can be.

Let the journey begin - see you soon!

The Journey begins

How I got here…. no, not my entire life story, just some information about me and my journey returning to higher education.

I started taking classes toward my bachelors degree in Business kind of on a dare from a former boss and before being a mom. That adventure took 9 years - with breaks following my daughters birth, a miscarriage, fertility treatments and special education evaluations. Although the journey was long, the sense of pride upon completion was HUGE!

Following graduation in 2001 I sought new employment challenges, leaving a job after 14 years. Life lesson - things are not always as they are promised when you are being recruited. So, a short 18 months later, I joined they many seeking employment.

I was fortunate to find a position within a short time at the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) - did you know there was such a thing? Did you know it is located in Columbus? I have been given many opportunities at the NREMT and currently serve as the Community Relations Coordinator. One motivation to seek additional education is to learn new skills which will assist me in developing new skills to use in my position. Another is that I truely enjoy the adult learning environment.


Some additional background, so you can get to know me and have some insight into my life. I met my husband while in high school, a mutual friend introduced us - we went to different schools. I first met him in the basement of a fire house and during our first date, I stood in the rain and watched a barn burn down. Hmmm.... maybe I should have reconsidered then - just kidding. This journey has been going on for 23 years now and more often than not it has been great. Being married to a friend makes any adversity bearable (including health, family matters, employment or financial). My husband is currently a Lt. with the Columbus Division of Fire and is an EMS Supervisor/Paramedic. Thus, we are kind of in the same business - later posts will provide you with more on this subject, which sometimes can be lively.

We were married almost 9 years when our daughter arrived (we had lots of fun 'practicing'). When she was about 12-18 months we noticed she was not meeting traditional milestones for toddlers. We have a wonderful pediatrician who continues to support us through this journey and guide us through the maze of emotions and testing. However, and depending on how you look at it, fortunately or unfortunately we have no traditional diagnosis for her. She is not a lot of things (Downs, Cerebral Palsy, Fragile X, Autistic, etc.) but she is not a "typical" child either. We choose to see this as fortunate as it gives us opportunities to try lots of things to assist her. Most of her delays seem focused on motor planning and sensory deficits. She works very hard to get her body to do what most of us take for granted as "natural" - walking a straight line, put a sentence together using more than 6 words, quickly reacting to a stimulus, signing a document/fine motor skills.

Having a special needs child makes you appreciate the smallest of successes - things that many parents often take for granted - watch for stories that continue to make me beam with pride.

For this entry: she recently told me "I'm proud of you" and when I asked her why, she "you are going to Franklin to be a good learner". I will try to remember her words when I get discouraged along my journey. She reminds me each time she sees a Franklin commercial that I go there "again".

Enough for now - I look forward to meeting everyone and invite you to join me on this journey, I think it is going to be an interesting odyssey.