Communication Strategies

Of the five strategies for communicating about change:

1. the strategy I prefer is the Underscore and Explore strategy because it really involves both the management and the employees. It has the potential to create a pleasant atmosphere in the workplace and a sense of togetherness. Employees are empowered and have a voice in resolving issues and the management has happy employees and resolved issues.

2. the method that seems most used in my workplace is the Withhold and Uphold strategy. Information seems to be guarded very closely by the management (administration) for some reason. And, as in the strategy, a faculty member hears something, there seems to be a "standard" answer by all of the management (upheld). With the new administration, my hope is that this type of management style will be replaced by a more effective one. I can certainly say that the new superintendent/director has attempted to provide information to the faculty using both the underscore and explore strategy and the tell and sell strategy; it is a welcome change to previous administration and is noted by a majority of the faculty (employees).

3. the method I least prefer is the Spray and Pray strategy. Though it was a toss-up between the Spray and Pray strategy and the Withhold and Uphold strategy, I feel the Spray and Pray strategy is the least effective and would waste the most time. Simply giving information just to give it and then hoping that the employees are able to wade through all of the muck and then miraculously come up with the same ideas and opinions as that of the management is absurd. Additionally, employees would come to devalue information because there is no real value placed upon giving it. The Spray and Pray strategy is a waste of time on the managements part and a waste of time on the employees part.

Conflict of Interest - New Element & Frequency of Use

Raquista Claitt
Blog 4

What new element of the your topic did you discover and rate how often you have or think you might use it

frequency

A new element for me in the area of conflict of interest rules is the fact that I couldn’t find any “rules” per se, but I was able to explore conflict management “styles” with my partner. The fact that there were clearly defined styles of dealing with conflict of interest issues wasn’t really surprising; however, it was new to see the actual designations and titles associated with each conflict management style.

When thinking about how often I might use it, I can honestly say that I doubt I would ever use the titles or names in conversation (unless I was doing something such as the mock training session in the essay); however, I can definitely say that I have used probably each of the conflict management styles at some point in my life and I can assuredly say that I will use them again based on the situation or conflict of interest. When thinking about rating how often I have used the conflict management styles from our presentation, I would probably have to say “anytime I have had a conflict I have responded in one of the ways presented.” When thinking about how often I might use the conflict management styles from our presentation, I would probably have to say “anytime I have a conflict I would more than likely respond in one of the ways presented.” Therefore, I suppose that I would rate the instances and “high.”

As an educator and a life-long learner, I have to keep in mind that there is always going to be change. Education is not static. And with all of the hands in the cookie jar so to speak (legislators, community leaders, parents, businesses, interest groups, vendors, book companies, teachers, students, alumni, politicians, et cetera), there is no doubt that things will continue to change on a consistent basis and as such I have to understand that I must fit my conflict management style with my situation, with my position within the organizational hierarchy, with the people involved in the conflict, and with the people who will be impacted by my decision.

12 Hour Cultural Reflection

When thinking back about my interactions over a 12 hour period on any weekday, I would have to say that a majority of my time is spent at my school. The culture I researched was represented in the South American region and I focused on concepts of time. In this respect, I believe that my interactions would have been about the same because though they generally regard people as more important than appointments and schedules, education is very important. If I really think about it, their view of education makes sense because what is a better way of taking care of someone and showing them that you care than educating them. That in and of itself would be more important than other schedules and appointments. My interactions with the students may have been the same as well.

Based on our discussion from the February 07, 2007 class, if I were interacting with colleagues from a different culture I would probably find myslef attempting to be more aware of my hand gestures, eye contact, tone, stance. I would probably find myself taking cues from them about how far to stand away from them for their comfort level and actually looking for these cues.

Overally, I feel that I would still be me; however, because of the class, I would find myself attempting to be more aware of the cues others from different cultures would send in regards to communicating with them. Because I believe in treating people with respect anyway, I believe that my interactions would be very similar to the way they are now.

Rough Draft vs. Final Draft

When first addressing the assignment of composing my rough draft for Essay 1, I noticed that I had a lot of opinions. When completing my final draft, I tried to find research or used my prior knowledge to attempt to support some of my ideas. I discarded one line of thought because I couldn't really tie it to the topic as well as I would have liked to. Additionally, I found that as soon as the assignment was given, I was already formulating my rough draft in my head and discussing it with someone else; however, I did not have the opportunity to immediately write down my thoughts which were "off the top of my head." What I tried to do instead was type up all of my initial thoughts and put them into some type of organized format (for the rough draft). In the final version, I tried to better organize, support, and expound on my initial thoughts.

Were I to have a set time to write my essay, as in when taking the FELE, I would probably approach the writing by first quickly brainstorming all of my thoughts about the topic. I would then jot down any research and researchers I could think of who address the topic. I would then either number my brainstorming thoughts in order of how I would organize it in the essay or write a quick outline based on my brainstorming ideas. I feel that this approach would work for me because I would be able to write my essay in a more organized fashion and I would have most of my thoughts already written down and would only have to expand on them and organize them in the actual essay.

I MADE IT!

Welcome to my first blog! I look forward to utilizing this new tool to communicate with everyone!