MediaSpace Wiki

Organizational Spr2006 Sess02

Index Card Assignment 1 due today

Look over the BOINC site at http://davis.foulger.info/oswego/boinc. On one side of a 3x5 index card, rank the five projects documented there from most interesting (to you) to least interesting. Explain what, about the top ranked item, makes it interesting to you.

Reading due today

Chapter 1 of Eisenberg and the Preface of Tompkins. Bring two questions to class based on the readings. Write your questions on one side of a 3x5 index card.

Notice

The syllabus has been corrected for the errors that were noted in class on Friday.

Agenda

• Collect Index Cards
• Management Assignments
• Initiate discussion of Questions led by managers leading to manager ranking
• Reading review
• Questions

• We all work
  • Most of us will work in organizations
  • All of us will participate in and work with organizations
  • Many of you will take on leadership positions
  • Most of you will participate in organizational decision making
  • As the organizations you work in and with inevitably change and evolve
• This course is about developing a toolbox
  • Of ways of thinking about organizations
  • Of communication skills you can apply when working in and with organizations
  • The questions we will ask will be, in many cases, more important than the answers we provide
  • Reinventing yourself and the organizations you work with is the most important thing you can take from this course.
    • its a dynamic workplace
    • the conditions that prevailed when our grandfathers worked no longer prevail
    • workplace skills continue to change and evolve
    • there are thousands of different jobs. schools specifically train people for dozens of them. Most require ongoing learning and the application of general skills
      • thinking
      • organizing
      • solving
      • making effective decisions
      • getting things done
    • companies don't expect employees to spend an entire career in one place, and largely don't want them to.
    • most people have at least two different careers
      • lifelong learning matters
      • having generic tools matters more than specific ones do
    • the marketplace is now global
      • most countries cost less than we do

• An organization is
  • a collection of people
  • that create and maintain long term relationships
  • with the goal of creating value
• Value, simply stated, is whatever it is that people need or want
• There are are many ways to create value
  • Not all require organizations
  • All involve communication
    1. Discovering what people value.
    2. Assembling resources and relationships
       • Investors
       • Suppliers
       • Management
       • Employees
       • Business Partners
       • Consultants
    3. Building and maintaining relationships
    4. Coordinating efforts to convert resources into value
       • For individuals
       • For communities
       • For governments
    5. Communicating the availability of that value to customers
• Value is complex
  • We have many needs and wants
  • And we often satisfy many different needs and wants through organizations
  • At least in modern culture, we tend to measure value rather simply: money
  • But money is
    • just one of many media (communication systems) used to enable messages in organizations
    • just one of several languages used to create messages in organizations
• Organizational Communication studies the communication that supports these activities
  • Such that we can do it more effectively
  • Communication is the fundamental building block with which we create and maintain organizations
  • Communication is the primary modality of structuration in organizations
• This sets up what we might call the communication value chain:

 communication -> relationships -> groups -> organizations -> value

• In order for an organization to create value it must somehow negotiate a complex set of dialectics:
  • Individual versus Organization
    • Individuals require resources in order to achieve their goals
      • Satisfying our basic needs
      • Raising families
      • Pursuing happiness
      • We join organizations to fulfill our individual needs and wants
    • Organizations must create value in order to support individuals
      • Often competing against other organizations to do so
      • That sometimes requires organizations to make hard decisions
        • Layoffs and relocations, which protects investors and management at a cost to employees and communities
        • Bankruptcy, which protects management and employees at a cost to investors
        • Other organizational behaviors that hurts one set of stakeholders in the interests of protecting another set.
  • Resource Investment versus Personal Investment
    • There are two ways to invest in an organization
      • One type of investment takes the form of resources (usually money)
      • Another type takes the form of effort (usually labor)
    • We often regard monetary investment as the more important one
      • Debt
      • Ownership
    • And discount the importance of the other
      • At will employment agreements
  • Ethical Behavior (including Truth) versus Expedience
  • Human values versus monetary value
  • Creativity versus Constraint
    • Creating value requires "creativity"
    • Creating value as an organization requires "constraint"