When it comes to elect a group leader, whom are you likely to vote for? Would it be one of the people eagerly waving their hands in the air in a meeting? These individuals are probably the ones who tend to be most outgoing, sociable, and hyped up about an opportunity to be recognized and identified. 

Admitted it or not, in organizations, we still frequently hear comments that represent stereotypes based on gender, age, religion and personality. “Women will not relocate for a promotion,” “older workers cannot learn new skills,” “Asian immigrants are hard-working and conscientious,” and also, “Extroverts can be better leaders”. When we question what qualities shape a successful figure, the answers seem obvious. It is easy to notice that most job advertisements require their employees to be outgoing and extrovert. In most people’s mind, introvert and reserved people can only be analysts or calm observers in a team.

However, it turns out that your best choice of a leader is more likely to be the quiet and reticent person who takes a back seat in public discussions. Introverts make better leaders than extroverts actually. 

Through the Ted talk of Susan Cain, who makes the speech on “the power of introverts” we learn that introversion is a complex personal trait. Virtually, it is arbitrary to classify those shy and quiet ones into introverts. To observe them closely, they in fact are more qualified to be wisdom listeners and inspirer.  

Under the ideal circumstance, a good team is that the personalities of a leader and followers should be in harmony for a group to achieve maximum productivity. Can introvert leaders achieve this goal? Yes, and actually they can do better than extroverts!! In some specific cases, extroverts are easily irritated and cause more conflicts inside the team, while those introverts can alleviate the disputes and solve the difficulties with less effort and cost to integrate the whole team closely. Without any doubt, we may rate those introvert leaders higher due to their ability to maximize the group’s actual productivity. It is widely acknowledged that introverts are observant by nature and then they can spark teammates’ motivation subtly, which is more efficient than those of extroverts.

After discussing above, we can learn that introverts, equipped with acute ability of observing and solving, are definitely better leaders for a successful teamwork than extroverts. With an introvert leader, the team will be more productive and harmonious, rather that those extroverts who usually take advantage of group work as a stage for themselves to show off.

Word Count: 420

Cain, Susan. “The power of introverts.” Susan Cain: The power of introverts | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Apr. 2017.

In Kaitlyn ho’s blog, Lonely Millionaires, she pointed out that many leaders, in fact, feel isolated and conflicted when it comes to personal relationships in the workplace. We often speak about all the perks of having a leadership position: money, recognition, experience, and an outstanding résumé. However, we never stop and think about how difficult it is to maintain that role and how the pressure might affect the leader’s personal and professional life.

Katy’s post mentioned the fact that leaders do not really have anyone to turn to when times get tough and you’re facing a challenge. It’s a interesting topic and a novel perspective. However, I could understand that it would be difficult to manage the power imbalance in a group of friends and thus, you’d be lonely as a leader. But i don’t think a successful leader couldn’t find anyone when they feel sad or stressful. They have their own social circle and everyone has friends can understand each other.

Learning to manage pressure is a basic skill for everyone. Not being loneliness It’s their own job not others. Motivating employees is a important job for leaders. But the reason why is leaders want to achieve the goal of eliminating the cost of human resources. Motivating employees is not what they should do, but it is what they want to do. Similarly, being happy is none of others business. Even for the managers, what they should do is try to adjust themselves and they are actually the only people care about themselves.

All in all, we all want to get rid of the loneliness. Maybe for the top people, they are more easily to be lonely due to the level. But that is their responsibility to adjust themselves, it just like why they enjoys the happiness about power.

Word Count:300

In Michaela Quinn’s blog about the gender equality, she discusses how to motivate female employees and achieve the gender equality on workplace.

For the most part, I agree with Michaela’s perspective that having children has a huge impact on a woman’s decision to keep working or to stay home. She mentioned that company could offer gender equal benefits to make female workers’ life easier. But what I actually want to say is why the company need to think about get benefits for female workers and attract more and more female employees become workforce.

In the last years, we have witnessed major changes in social attitudes towards women in the workforce and management positions. Six decades ago, a Gallup study showed that 66% of working adults preferred to work for a male manager and only 5% preferred a female boss.

Come modern times and another Gallup study, and the numbers may take us by surprise: 33% of adult respondents said they preferred a male boss and 20% answered they most definitely preferred a female manager.

Those research clearly shows that female employees become more and more popular, but why?

Based on common sense and daily experience alone, parents of girls will tell you that girls performed better in school environments since early ages than boys did.

A study conducted at the University of Georgia and Columbia University showed that girls possess a set of traits that go beyond the realm of cognitive performances (attention, memory, etc.) and the realm of what we commonly call “intelligence.” Girls perform better in school and become better learners because of their attitude towards the act of learning.

In other words, girls, young and mature women present higher levels of learning eagerness, task persistence, learning independence, better work organization, flexibility and engagement with the topics learned.

Having a pro-active approach towards learning and being better at organizing, women tend to become better employees as they understand the tasks at hand faster. However, if you were a child prodigy in school, this doesn’t mean your traits and natural skills will hold forever if you don’t keep your edge.

Word count: 347

Work cited:

Sandberg, S. (2010, December 21). Sheryl Sandberg: Why we have too few women leaders [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/sheryl_sandberg_why_we_have_too_few_women_leaders.html

Why Girls Do Better in School. (2015, October 06). Retrieved April 01, 2017, from https://psychcentral.com/news/2013/01/05/why-girls-do-better-in-school/50050.html

Negative behaviour caused by misinterpretation of past experience

By the learning of concept for perception, we know the perception is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their impressions to give meaning of their situation. Therefore, what we have perceived can be substantially different from the objective reality. In addition, people’s behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is.

Based on what have been discussed above, I want to bring up an idea which is people could change their defect to be betters ones as long as they have courage to do so. It is people’s understanding of experience that shapes our behaviour and personality, not the past experience. The Law of Causation is not an apodictic proof on psychology. Therefore, any psychological trauma can be overcome in the world. To contemplate it further, we may introduce the Theory of Teleology, which is a powerful tool for us to perceive current phenomena and then solve them.

CAT

Practical Example – Positive behaviour result from correct purpose

I have a cousin named Tom. Although he cages himself at home, Tom actually not only wants to go out but also wants to have a job. He truly has a desire of changing himself. However, he has a sense of fear to leave the room and face the outside world. As long as he steps out, he would experience palpitations and rapid heartbeat. It’s like a neurosis. We take it for granted that the cause of his negative behaviour is due to his past experience. He used to be a victim of domestic violence, which result in his reserved personality, and then makes him scaring of leaving room. Therefore, even he wants to change his life, he can do nothing without proper understanding of his past experience.

The Law of Causation is vulnerable

By the explanation of determinism, the past experience decides his status quo. However, if it is right, children grew up in an environment of child abuse should all cage themselves in the room. As everyone knows, past is the father of the present. If we only focus on the previous reason and use it to explain current situation, we will be limited by determinism and never have the chance to solve the problem objectively. In fact, one can change himself by understanding their past experience objectively rather than subjectively.

When it comes to the Theory of Teleology, I don’t admit that past definitely decide present. However, what your understanding of the past is the core issue, for it is chosen by yourself on purpose. All the traits you have are benefit for you and the personality you possess is on purpose, although you might not be totally satisfied with it.

If we use this idea to think about Tom’s psychologic trauma, we can do a simple backward induction. His feeling of isolation and anxiety is truly existed, but all of those emotions serve for the purpose of “not leave the room”, and “the mention of past experience is just an excuse for his negative behaviour.”

Let’s keep going. Why don’t he want to leave the room? As long as he does not leave the room, his parents will definitely concern about him intensively, reconsider their educational methods, which comfort him quite well. Instead, once he leaves the room, he will lose all the attention, and nobody will take him seriously anymore.

Second Example

Therefore, when we realize our subconscious purpose under the behavior, we can clearly find the crux of the matter and face it with courage. For example, for the people who are smart but cannot study assiduously and perseveringly, they use laziness as an excuse to explain their failure. If they don’t work persistently, they could attribute all their failures to their attitudes. That the fear of the truth that being persistent may also lead to failure is the crux of themselves.

Conclusion

Overall, the Law of Causation is the explanation of past experience and the sources of any excuses, but the Theory of Teleology is to find the essential causes and then solve them successfully. My idea of thinking about your “purpose” is based on our learning of perception and it is an effective way for us to rethink about ourselves and be a better person. Be courageous to face your life, and hope you can get any benefits from my idea. 😀

By the concept of perception, we can know that people’s behaviours are based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. So that, when we look at a “target”, our interpretation of what we are see is heavily influenced by our personal characteristics – attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations. Therefore, the world is actually subjective in our eyes.

Based on that, I want to bring up an idea which is people could change their defect as long as they have the courage to do so. Because not people’s experience shapes our behaviour and personality, but the understanding of experience shapes our behaviour and personality. In addition, the law of causation is not an apodeictic proof on psychology. Therefore, any psychological trauma can be overcome in the world. You might think my idea is ridiculous, don’t worry, I will give you a specific example to explain it.

CAT

I have a distant cousin named Tom. He is caged in home by himself. He not only wants to go out but also wants to have a job. He truly has a desire of changing himself. But he has a sense of fear to leave the room. As long as he steps out, he would experience palpitations and rapid heartbeat. It’s like a neurosis. Therefore, even he wants to change his life, he cannot do anything. We all think the reason why he cannot leave the room is due to his past experience. In the growing process, he is a victim of domestic violence. So that he is afraid of human’s interaction, and it makes him scare of leave the room.

By the explanation of determinism, the past experience decides his status quo. However, if it is right, children grew up in a environment of child abuse should all cage themselves in the room. Because the past is the father of the present. If we only focus on the reason in the past, and use it to explain everything for now. We will be limited by determinism and never have the chance to solve the problem. Because the things has happened in the past already decided your status quo and the things will happen in the future. So your status quo is a unshakeable result.

However, my theory is to talk about your “purpose” of your choice. I don’t admit that your past definitely decide your present, but what you understanding of your past is the core issue. Because your understanding of your past is chosen by yourself on purpose. All the traits you have are benefit for you and you choose it by yourself on purpose, although you might not totally satisfied with it.

If we use this idea to think about Tom’s psychologic trauma, we can do a simple backward induction. Tom is not “because of anxious so that cannot leave the room”, but “don’t want to step out so that create the feeling of scare.” His feeling of scared and anxious is truly existed, but all of those emotions are created for the purpose of “don’t leave the room”.

Let’s keep going. Why don’t he want to leave the room? If you are his parent, your child cages himself in the room, what will you do? You would absolutely be worried and think about how to help him. You might rethink your past behaviour of educating you child and try your best to help them go back to the society and concern about him. So this is Tom’s purpose of understanding his past as a trauma. As long as he cannot leave the room, people will concern about him and Tom can gain all of their attentions. They will treat him gingerly. Instead, when he leaves the room, he will become the most usual person. Nobody will take him seriously anymore.

Therefore, when we realize our subconscious purpose under the behaviour, we can clearly find the crux of the matter and face it with courage. For the people who are smart but cannot study assiduously and perseveringly, their purpose might be avoiding failure. If they don’t work to persevere, they can assume all the reasons why they are not success is their attitude otherwise they can success as well. Their scare of the truth of being persevere but still don’t be success is the crux of themselves.

Overall, my idea of thinking about your “purpose” is based on our learning of perception and it is a effective way for use to rethink about ourselves and be a better person. Be courageous to face your life, and hope you can get any benefits from my idea:D.

———

Citation:

“CAT.” Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Feb. 2017.

By the learning of concept for perception, we know the perception is the process by which individuals organize and interpret their impressions to give meaning of their environment. So that what we perceive can be substantially different from objective reality. In addition, people’s behaviour is based on their perception of what reality is, not on reality itself. When we look at a “target”, our interpretation of what we are see is heavily influenced by our personal characteristics—attitudes, motives, interests, past experiences, and expectations.

Therefore, we can say the world is actually subjective in our eyes. More daringly, we might can try to make a guess which is every single person can change themselves to a better one as long as they want to and have the courage to do so. Your past is not the reason of your success or failure. We shouldn’t let the experience decide our ego, but endow the meaning of our experience. We have the initiative of our self-fashioning. It is a right way for us to changing ourselves to a better one.

(Island & Boat)

Further more, I want to bring up an idea is totally against the Determinism in philosophy, which is Teleology. Determinism believes the idea that every event is necessitated by antecedent events and conditions together with the laws of nature(1). But teleology is the explanation of phenomena by the purpose they serve rather than by postulated causes.(2) So that people’s status quo is not determined by their past experience, but their perception of past experience. This world not exists psychological trauma cannot be overcomes. All of the trauma is created by patient themselves in purpose to achieve their goals, which is the effects of trauma. Usually there is a fictional final goal which can be deciphered alongside of innumerable sub-goals. The inferiority/superiority dynamic is constantly at work through various forms of compensation and overcompensation. It’s a kind of like the backward induction of behaviour analysis.

For some reasons which can bring them benefits, people endow their past with a negatively affect of their life. Sometimes it’s a sense of fear to challenge a new lifestyle so they refuse to integrate into society and purposely magnified the negative impact on their experience into misfortune as the excuse. But actually, we can redefine everything you get to experience and make it affect your life in a positive way.  

For the further explanation of the teleology and the new way of thinking about the world I will put on the next blog due to the word limit. For the first blog, we only brought up the idea of taking no account of our experience. Because the world in our mind is subjective, your success or failure is not decided by your past but what you want to understanding of your past. Stop using your misfortune as the excuse of your escape behaviors, trying to have the courage to face all of the things. You can change everything, which includes your introverted personality. More specific discussion on the “changing everything” will be putted on the next Blog 😀

Citation:

1.”Determinism.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

2. “Teleology.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 04 Feb. 2017.

3. Boat & Island – YOU CAN’T CHANGE PEOPLE BUT YOU CAN CHANGE YOURSELF

Does Internet work good for our relationship or not? As the generation who is tied with internet, does our way of life change or not? Internet absolutely makes our life easier than the previous generations, but does any worse trend of our behaviour make us sit up and think?

The generation without internet lived in a friendly village or neighbourhood where everyone knew their names. But now, how many neighbours’ name do you know? How often do you chat with each other? It seems internet sucks people away from in-person contact and real-world disconnection, it makes us kindly lose the interests to make new friends. What will the people’s relationship look like in 10 years?

A large amount of the communication that takes place online is with the same set of friends and family who are also contacted in person and by phone. This is especially true for socially close relationships — the more close friends and family are seen in person, the more they are contacted by email. In this way, the internet absolutely changes our way of building relationship.

In addition, due to the dependence of Social Network rather than face-to-face talk, we are tend to talk to each other via mobile phone, Skype or communicate via Facebook. However, by doing this, they are missing out on their partner’s facial expressions or the gestures that the other makes. Emotions are reduced to Likes or Dislikes, smiley faces or other emotions.

For the generation is tied with internet, the ability of in-person contact has weakened. The way of making friends is changing. We are more isolated in the community but internet enhances our closer connections in a positive way.  The generational differences of behaviour exist in our lifestyle. The understanding of this is important for us to unconsciously aware the negative impact which is brought by the internet and avoided it. It’s also essential for us to understand the necessary of using different strategies for different groups of customer in workplace.

Citation:

As Jasmine’s blog which is about the Buzz of iPhone7, the future of APPLE is not bright as before.Oct 25, 2016, Apple announced financial results. For the first time in 15 years, ever since it rebuilt on a strategy to be the leader in mobile products, full year sales declined.

http://media.idownloadblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/q4-2016.png (IMAGE IS TOO UNCLEAR WHEN IT WAS INSERTED, PLZ CLICK ON)[1]

Apple’s value took a huge hit because stagnating sales of iPhone caused the company to completely lose its growth story. From the prediction of chip suppliers of Apple, the order for Apple in 2017 will decline to 80%, (the number of first quarter in 2017 will reduce to 35000 thousands).[1]

All of the information show that people‘s enthusiasm of iPhone is decreasing. The profit structure of high dependency on iPhone would finally leads to the decay of Apple, since the decreasing of iPhone is unavoidable due to the market saturation of smartphone .

As the symbol of innovation, iPhone and Apple are losing the advantages of their differentiation strategy.[2]

• As we learned from COMM101, being different is the key strategy for sustainable development.[1] At the beginning, Apple was well-done. Minimalism design of the product, IOS system and unique ecosystem of accessories, which are the reason why iPhone could be the leading enterprise in the market. It not only bring them the profit on sustainable development of charging from Apple Store, but also bring them the high brand value. iPhone becomes a symbol.
• However, the smartphone market is near saturation and customers are disappointed on Apple. Many of phone companies are approaching to the same innovative ideas. They all cannot find a new direction, so that they catch up Apple in the way of following the trend. In this environment, being special is far harder than before. At this moment, innovating and “changing the world” as Steve Jobs said are too hard. Now, appearance of recent versions of iPhone are approaching to the same and the hardware is lacking significant upgrade, the decrease of intensity of innovation results customers’ leaves.

Now, companies are upgrading on products’ hardware to improve the practicality of products. However, changing the ideology of cell phone and create a new style would be the only way of innovation, such like the things like wrist-worn smartphones, phones with bendable screens, curved screens and transparent phones. The products can completely change the way we interact with our technology would be the new leader in the future. It might be something we even can’t image what it is. The innovation from the higher level of the appearance of the phone could bring Apple power to stand on the top of the world again.

Benson, Thor. “10 Awesome Smartphone Concepts That May Never Exist.” 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 23 Jan. 2014.   

Overall, after the iPhone touches to the ceiling of growing , the crisis of Apple is seems on the way.

If Apple can’t meet customers’ expectation on the way of innovation and find a product to replace the position of iPhone in the company, world would never mention phones in the way of “iPhone and others” and think about a fruit rather than a tech company when they mention the word “apple”. Apple would eventually fall into the mundane world.

[1]”Apple IPhone Sales 2007-2016 | Statistic.” Statista. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

[2] Concept of differentiation strategy

Oct 25, 2016, Apple announced sales and earnings. For the first time in 15 years, ever since it rebuilt on a strategy to be the leader in mobile products, full year sales declined.

http://media.idownloadblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/q4-2016.png (IMAGE IS TOO UNCLEAR WHEN IT WAS INSERTED, PLZ CLICK ON)

Apple’s value took a huge hit because stagnating sales of iPhone caused the company to completely lose its growth story. From the prediction of chip suppliers of Apple, the order for Apple in 2017 will decline to 80%, due to the data collection from 2016 (in the first quarter, the order reduce to 45000 thousands, the number of first quarter in 2017 will reduce to 35000 thousands).[1]

All of the informations show that people‘s enthusiasm of iPhone is decreasing. Because the major profit of Apple is based on selling iPhone, the structure of high dependency on iPhone would finally leads to the decay of Apple. Since the decreasing of iPhone is unavoidable due to the market saturation of smartphone .

iPhone is losing the advantages of their differentiation strategy.[2]

• As we learned from COMM101, being different is the key strategy for sustainable development.[1] At the beginning, Apple was well-done. Minimalism design of the product, IOS system, unique technology accessories, special charging interface and so on, which are the reason why iPhone could be the leading enterprise in the market. It not only bring them the profit on sustainable development of charging from Apple Store, but also bring them the high brand value. iPhone becomes a symbol.
• However, the smartphone market is near saturation and more and more customers disappointed Apple. Many of phone companies are approaching to the same innovative ideas. They all cannot find a new direction, so that they catch up Apple in the way of following the trend of minimalism design. In this environment, being special and the only is far more harder than before. Innovation and “changing the world” as Steve Jobs said are too hard for Apple for now. The appearance of recent versions of iPhone are approaching to the same, the decrease of intensity of innovation results customers’ leaves.

For now, the normal way for phone company to remain the customers is upgrading on products’ hardware to improve the practicality. But if they still want to attract customers by the innovation, they can only change the ideology of cell phone and create a new style. It might be things like wrist-worn smartphones, phones with bendable screens, curved screens, transparent phones, projectors, and laser keyboards are going to completely change the way we interact with our technology. Or it will be something we can’t image what it is? The innovation from the higher level of the appearance of the phone could bring them power to stand on the top of the world again.

Overall, after the iPhone touches to the ceiling of growing , the crisis of Apple is seems on the way.

If Apple cannot do something or finds another product to replace the position of iPhone in the company. The world would never mention phones in the way of “iPhone and others”.

And people will never think of tech company when they mention the word “apple”. It would fall into the mundane world finally.

[1]”Apple IPhone Sales 2007-2016 | Statistic.” Statista. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2016.

[2] Concept of differentiation strategy

Samsung says Galaxy Note 7 recall to cost at least $5.3 billion, but is it enough?

Last week, from peer blog I got some interesting opinion which is iPhone7 is not quality enough but customers are still willing to purchase it due to the reputation of brand APPLE. As Prof joked in class, when we mention “apple”, it almost directly lead everyone to think about that company. So, the boom issue of Galaxy Note 7 would bring Samsung how much invisible damages?

Timeline:

Aug 24th – Note 7 “BOOM”  (one million WON bomb) ->

Aug 31st –  Samsung recalled 2500 thousands Note 7 and announced the reason to explosion is battery of SDI. (but actually the explosion is caused by the design of Note7 hardware)

Sep 2ed – Samsung announced that Note 7 is safe to use and continued to sell.

Unfortunately, Note7 still BOOM BOOM BOOM. Oct 10th, Note7 stopped selling and becomes the phone which was died earliest in the history of Samsung.

As an ancient Chinese proverb, “You may escape an untoward act of God, but never the evil of your own.” If Samsung from the most beginning realized the importance of explosion and calling back all the phones to figure out the reason, they would not be pushed to this dangerous place. Comparing to the cost of recalling the phone, the bankruptcy of Credit in consumers obviously brought Samsung destruction level of harm.

Last Friday (Oct 14th), Samsung Electronics said that the discontinuation of the Galaxy Note 7 would cost the company about $3 billion (U.S.) during the current and next quarters, bringing the total cost of the recall to at least $5.3 billion(1). This must be the reason why Samsung don’t want to recall the phones back as soon as possible.

For now, the value of newest Gear VR is dynamic falling to one of fifth compare to original price due to it’s the accessories of Note7. In addition, Samsung’s action of deceiving consumers that the main reason of explosion is the battery made people angry. The true reason of “BOOM” is on the process of assembly, so that the change of manufacture of battery is impossible to improve the quality of Samsung Phone. With the doubt of quality of the company, the impact which will be brought to Samsung is unbelievable.

https://www.thestar.com/business/2016/10/14/samsung-says-galaxy-note-7-recall-to-cost-at-least-53-billion.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter