With respect to the recent completion of the Case Project, I thought it would be interesting to comment on my teammate’s blog post “Is Defining Roles Always a Key to Team Success?” Dhruv Bhagat writes in his post that based on his experience, successful efforts were because team members had chosen their roles and took responsibility to deliver them on time and to the best of their ability.

Our Case Project was different from our Fantasy project in that the first few steps of the Case Project were critical to be done as a team. It was not until the later steps that each team member could decide on one aspect of the project that they will focus on. As the individual components were completed, we regrouped to come up with our finished product. 

I disagree with Dhruv because as evident from his post, he believes that our group was only successful in the Fantasy Project because we defined our roles. As I witnessed in our Case Project, however, sometimes the situation demands for equal collaboration on each step to come up with exactly what our group was trying to get across. Some roles made sense to define, such as the roles of final report writing versus presentation creating but even then these roles were divided among two or more people. Ultimately though, this project was only going to be successful if strict roles were not implemented so each team member could supply their ideas in any part of the project where they could see a possible improvement.

Dhruv also mentions his experience of a disagreement about role allocation. We saw something similar to this while working on our Case Project. One team member felt as if they did not get to contribute enough with which parts of the project they were allocated. As Dhruv states in his post, “this is when it is important for the members to discuss the problems and come to a consensus.” In this case, it was easy to re-divide up the work in a way that made everybody happy. I feel very fortunate that we had a team where members always wanted more work and more say because, in my opinion, success is based on how invested each team member is in the ultimate goal.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/dhruvbhagat/

Picture: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=disagreement+cartoon&view=detailv2&qpvt=disagreement+cartoon&id=284EDA12DE306682E270B75EEF82F6F49EFB189E&selectedindex=85&ccid=VPPOgdd4&simid=608047360392626757&thid=OIP.M54f3ce81d77896fc331b1899ec257e9dH0&mode=overlay&first=1

I found the blog posts of one student, Kassandra Desmarais, to be quite interesting and relatable. In one post, specifically, she tackles the topic of the Pit bull ban in Montreal. After the death of an elderly woman in June, the city of Montreal was considering passing a bylaw banning pit bulls from the city. She goes on to talk about how some people perceive animals as an “individual” with rights and others perceive Pit bulls as dangerous. Kassandra connects her observation back to the concept that the perceiver is influenced by personal characteristics, past experiences, and expectations as we learned in COMM 292.

I found this particularly interesting considering the recent deaths of the belugas at the Vancouver Aquarium. With all the following controversy on social media, I’ve noticed the conflicting perception of what people think is best for the animals. Some people believe that the whales are better off where they can receive care and be researched for future understanding. Others believe that the whales need to be returned to the wild to live out their lives naturally. It is proposed that there be a referendum question on the 2018 municipal election ballot to decide whether the Vancouver Aquarium should be allowed to continue to keep whales in captivity.perceived perception

As a life-long resident of Vancouver, I have been to the aquarium countless times. When I was little, it was my favourite thing to sit in the danger zone and get pegged by a beluga splash that was aimed with almost intentional-like accuracy.

But as Kassandra said, based on my personal experiences and characteristics, I believe that in 2018 I would vote to keep the whales in captivity whereas someone who has seen the documentary “Black Fish”, for example, would most likely vote to free the whales.

Kassandra and I diverge in our opinions because she does not believe that the well-being of humans should come at a cost to Pit bulls whereas I feel like each person who takes a stand on this topic or the beluga dilemma, no matter what that stand is, is correct because ultimately, they are showing that they care about the well-being of the creatures on this earth.

https://blogs.ubc.ca/kassandradesmarais/

Picture: https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=free+the+whales+protest&view=detailv2&id=9665D13618D940E2C581363FF69972A871FE9D47&selectedindex=44&ccid=TYnNcbpe&simid=608051505030630275&thid=OIP.M4d89cd71ba5ec8b81599ead0e7912b5eo0&mode=overlay&first=1

How much of our daily lives revolve around using technology? In my opinion– too much. I’ve begun to notice that even for completely mundane tasks, such as asking you co-worker across the office a question or submitting a paper for school, people have reverted to using technology as opposed to the human approach. Technology in general is designed to make our lives more efficient, but it comes at the cost of more of a disconnect between people and “technostress”.

Kathrine Walz from Johnson and Wales University wrote an article titled “Stress Related Issues Due to Too Much Technology: Effects on Working Profession”(1) where she addresses the issue of “technostress”. In her study, interviewees were asked about the levels of stress they experience due to workplace technology. Data collected from 52 surveys showed that all 52 people own cell phones, pagers, BlackBerrys, laptops, etc. and that 38% of them always experience anxiety when they are separated from their devices while 37% only experience separation anxiety some of the time. Walz goes on to describe the issues that people have, such as excessive scratching or over eating, and how they link back to the levels of stress and anxiety we experience due to technology.

Her data could not be more accurate in my opinion. I have experienced and witnessed technology related stress on many levels. As a student, my life revolves around all the work I do for my classes on my laptop. I would almost be confident in saying that you could not attend university in this day and age if you did not own a computer. For me, “technostress” is experienced when I actually go to hand something in because there is no human confirmation that my teacher has received my assignment. In my brief experience working in an office, I noticed that people who needed to get into contact with me would email me rather than walking down the hall to where my desk was located or even phoning me. This was a source of stress for me because I had to always be up to date on my emails or I might miss something. On another level, I have witnessed teenage girls cry and become inconsolable at the loss of their phone. I found Walz’s article interesting because she mentioned the connection between stress from technology and excessive scratching. I am guilty of excessive scratching at times when I become too stressed about events in my life. Her article has made me realize that even though stress from technology does not affect me on a level that I notice every day, it does contribute to the overall level of stress I feel. If I could cut out all the unnecessary ways I use technology every day and revert back to an in-person approach, my overall stress level would decrease.

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(1) http://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1011&context=mba_student

Comm 292 is the first time I had ever come across the term “uncertainty avoidance”. I was fascinated because immediately my brain made the connection to Donald Trump and his political agenda.

Uncertainty avoidance is “the degree to which people in a country prefer structured over unstructured situations.”(1) In other words, it is a way to categorize the level of fear a country has towards the unknown. Without any sort of evidence, I’m inclined to think that America falls on the higher end of this spectrum because of the amount of people who support a man who wants to build a wall to keep people out and put people of a misunderstood religion on a register. Upon further research, however, America only scored a 46 on the Uncertainty Avoidance Index as opposed to Greece and Portugal who scored over 100. (2)

So why is America’s uncertainty avoidance score not higher? First of all, I think that there’s a chance the index was created by Americans– so therefore their score reflects their perception of themselves and not necessarily how the rest of the world views them. That’s the only logical explanation, unless the index is outdated or scorers were only taking into consideration America’s more advanced half.

An alarmingly large number of Americans support the statement “Make America Great Again”. Donald Trump exploits people’s fear of criminals and drugs coming in from Mexico and the Islamic religion. His voting demographic is derived from his outrageous claims that cater to people’s fears. The fact that Trump even has a shot at presidency speaks to the fact that America is a nation (at least by half) that prefers structure and is uncomfortable with ambiguity.

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(1) pg 82 of textbook

(2) http://www.clearlycultural.com/geert-hofstede-cultural-dimensions/uncertainty-avoidance-index/

When we walk into an interview, our potential employer has already read our whole life story. Every bullet point on our resumes has been put under scrutiny. To even have received an interview means that they have made the judgment about us that you could be a candidate for the job.

If you’re like me, you sound like the full package on paper. Good job experience, involvement in the community, and a captain on sports teams leads a person examining my resume to believe that they are going to meet an individual who is possibly a better candidate than someone else who doesn’t have any of those things. But then I have to hold an interview in person… It’s not to say that I don’t interview well, but there is a gap between what people picture when they read about me on paper versus how I come across in real life. I always feel like it’s somehow disappointing for the interviewer to not get exactly what they were expecting. This seems unfair though because I’m not in control of the opinions people form about me before even meeting me.

According to our textbook, “research shows we form impressions of others within a tenth of a second, based on our first glance.”(1) So within a tenth of a second, I have failed to meet expectations. It goes on to say that “most interviewers’ decisions change very little after the first four or five minutes of an interview.” This means that I only have 5 minutes to convince them that I am everything I appear to be on paper. But is this even possible? Can one break the self-fulfilling prophecy that states that a person will perform exactly how others expect them to?

Business News Daily gives advice for when you know you’re not impressing your interviewer. It says that “a hiring manager often won’t outright tell you that you’re screwing up an interview… he or she will say it with body language.” (2) It suggests taking time to reframe/clarify what you are saying, or in this case, who I am and why I am the candidate they want. If I can discern any body language that causes me to think I’m not impressing my interviewer, I can break away from the prophecy by calmly reiterating that I am exactly who I claim to be and that that is exactly who they are looking for.

(1) Langton, N., Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A. (n.d.). Organizational Behaviour (7th Canadian Edition), pg 46.

(2) http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6985-save-failing-job-interview.html

Comic- http://www.glasbergen.com/tag/funny-human-resources-cartoons/

Song- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gFCW3PHBws

One thing about myself is that I am an athlete. I started on my first sports team when I was 5 and play on recreation teams to this day. I have played everything from softball, to lacrosse, to volleyball, basketball, ultimate Frisbee and much more. Team dynamics is something I have never even had to stop and think about, it was just a part of my daily life. Collaborating and bonding with your teammates is the easiest way to have a successful sports team. It wasn’t until my first job in a bookstore that I realized that the people you work with are your teammates too. Moreover, I didn’t realize that not everyone is accustomed to working with others on a team.

On a sports team, similarly to in the office, there is always that one person you can’t stand. You know who I’m talking about. In my experience, this is always going to happen. Even when I was 5 there were kids that I just wasn’t going to get along with. But that’s the thing about being on a team, you put everything else aside to do the best job that you can.

An article written by Forbes titled “How to Deal with Coworkers you can’t Stand” claims that “people conflicts in the office aren’t so much personality clashes as intention collisions.”(1) For example, some people are inclined to be more of an individualist than a collectivist. In other words, some people prefer to work alone and not depend on anyone else. But unfortunately for those people, there will always times in your life when you have to work with others. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing for a team if one person prefers to work alone but, with that being said, that person still has to make an effort to step outside of their comfort zone. Their intentions need to line up with that of the overall goal of the group. If there is no effort being made by one person to be a part of the team, the rest of the team will suffer.

Other values, such as masculinity vs femininity, long term vs short term orientation, and uncertainty avoidance are laid out in Hofstede’s framework for assessing cultures.(2) I believe that just as these dimensions identify differences between cultures, they also identify individual values in everyday situations. The differences in these values are where we see conflicts in the workplace. But just like we teach little kids playing soccer, no matter what reason you have for disliking someone, while you are working together it is in your best interest to try and get past whatever it is.

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(1)- http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2012/09/14/how-to-deal-with-coworkers-you-cant-stand/#60ca02643de7

(2) Langton, N., Robbins, S. P., Judge, T. A. (n.d.). Organizational Behaviour (7th Canadian Edition), pg 82.

Comic- https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/industry-pro_active-psychology-group-groups-group_dynamic-cst0141_low.jpg