The Worls is Getting Smaller

August 13, 2008

After reading into interpersonal communication more and having a better grasp on this subject. My partner Spicey Noodle Soup on the Stewart reading refers to my time in Ireland. “If we use the sliding scale of communication quality presented by Stewart, the types of communication taking place in the U.S. corporate office would be social and cultural communication and limited in interpersonal communication.” I agree only because my experience working in a completely corporate office in the United States is a lot more conservative then in a plant that is about a quarter corporate and 3 quarters laborers. However one the other hand I have had a lot of cultural communication because I am not from there and I have never worked at a plant in the United States to compare it with.Deliver Me Summer’s response to “Constructing Identities” Stewart, Zediker, and Witteborn, was interesting to me. “They begin by describing two fundamental concepts: first, we construct our “selves” in communication with others, and second, these “selves” affect who we are and how we relate to others.” (Deliver Me Summer) I think as we grow older and learn more are “selves” are always changing. I agree with her that there are parts of self that do not change but for the most part are responses to peoples questions contain traces of are own identity. Many times this has to do with what we chose to belief from many conversations before. We generally take this information and process it and then dispense are own version of it to new people.

I think Cake response to the article by Stewart, Zediker, and Witteborn was interesting also. He is explains how the writes refer to one’s self having to do with what culture we come from. “The individual self is contained within one’s body, and is defined by what that body holds. In the Eastern cultures, the self is defined by what is outside the body (i.e. the groups one is a part of), and breaking from the norm is unacceptable, something Barrett discusses also.” This is important when communication happens between cultures. As the world becomes smaller metaphorically speaking we need to realize this important concept in order to open our self’s up to learn what is different. That seems to be a good way to better are self.

CommSyr also brings up the topic or culture in her response to Stewart, Zediker, and Witteborn. “The author states that we are constantly constructing identities while we communicate and while doing so we are constructing how others perceive us and the relationships we have with these people.” We are always using nexting to learn more about people even if we do not know it. This can create conflict as cultures norms clash and the person we are trying to show off does not always come through. The worst thing I have done wall meeting people from Spain that did not know English very well was using sarcasm. This does not go over well when one is not completely flaunt in language. I still do not know if the girl I was talking to thinks I am insane or rude, even after I tried to explain the situation.

Project Management in Ireland

July 16, 2008

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Assignment 1: Project Management

I am in Ireland for the summer working at a company based out of called EMC. They are a computer disk storage company “Where Information Lives”. They make all kinds of products involved with storing and managing large digital databases, for companies such as MasterCard or American Airlines. Most people know them because of the work they do with the Red Sox and the big banners that are up at Fenway Park promoting the company. I work in the customer service for a project manager this summer. I would love to talk about what I am doing but EMC wouldn’t be happy with me posting an explanation about my project online. So I am going to write a little bit about the actual process project management. This interests me because it is something I might like to do when I get out of college and the skills can be used in lots of different settings.

What I learned today at the office is about human resource management. I will stick with the basics about what a project manager is because there is a lot to it and I could write 5 pages. Human resource management is about organizing and managing a team of people throughout a projects life cycle. This involves planning what a team needs to complete the project and getting the right people for the job. However first what does it take to be a project manager? Some of the key characteristics are being honest, decisive, team oriented, respectful and positive. Stake holders in projects need people to be honest about how the project is doing and able to make decisions about the project without having to bother the stake holders about every little problem. Obviously a project manager needs to be team oriented because they are working with many different people to try and complete the project. Respect and positive are important also because a project manager has to be able to use everyone on the team even if they are not the easy to work with but are needed because of their expertise.

Leadership is what this all comes down to. This is different than a normal manger. The project manager has to work with people from all over a company and maybe contract people to complete jobs that would not be worth hiring for. Most project managers have a set of abilities to run their team with. The ability to make requests of the team members, asking people to complete tasks much like a normal or functional manager would. They have the ability to fire or punish team members for the obvious reasons. They also have the ability to reward employees for doing a good job and completing tasks on time. Referent power is also something that a project manger gets but this is respect that is gained over time. This can open the door for more flexibility in the work place because the project manager would be known as a honest, reliable team player.

This is just some of the things I have learned about the way EMC uses project managers but it is only the tip if the iceberg. Human resource management extends into how to set up communication, organizational structure and team development. This is just what is needed from project managers. My manager is a project manager. Unlike the people on his team I work much closer to him helping out with his work. He is trying to teach me about the basics of project management by bringing me to lots of meetings and putting together power points to release the upper management reporting on his project. So far it has been a valuable experience.

Hello world!

July 15, 2008

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