Tag: comm292

I went shopping at downtown during the reading break. To my surprise, Hollister in Vancouver has a totally different image than the ones in China. In China, the store is always crowded and it takes 1 hour or more on average to get into the fitting rooms. It’s always a hotspot for teenagers. But here in Vancouver, there’re not many customers even on weekends. As an employee in Hollister, this was quite a shock for me. Besides the fact that Chinese population is huge, I believe there’re other factors for such a difference.

 

The main idea is that the ethical dimension of culture (EWC) is different between two countries.   EWC is the shared concept of right and wrong behavior in the workplace that reflects the true values of the organization and shapes the ethical decision-making of its members. ₁

 

The EWC in China stores is relatively negative. Discrimination starts from hiring. In China, only teenagers who are tall and skinny will pass the interview. Managers select pretty and hot customers as potential staffs and give them casting cards. Even though people can still apply for the job, the probability of getting admitted is quite small. After employees start working, they’re forced to purchase and wear the new arrivals all the time. Employees are treated as marketing tools. On the other hand, based on my personal experience in the Vancouver store, the staffs there look fit and healthy, and they’re always smiley and willing to offer help. Clearly, working ability and personality matter more.

 

The difference in EWC brings Hollister profit, but only in short term. It attracts lots of customers who hope to get a casting card. One of my colleagues applied five times because she thought working here was an approval of her appearance. However, many choose to quit after one or two months because of compulsory purchase and indifferent employment relationship. They would start badmouthing about Hollister and the huge turnover rate is definitely a waste of resources as the training period is almost half as long as the working period. Moreover, since employees are mostly high school students with hardly any patience, the customer satisfaction decreases. Nevertheless, the discrimination greatly limits its target market to only young people.

 

The negative core values of Hollister’s EWC will eventually hurt its reputation and sales in China as they directly affect employees’ attitude while working. In order to improve the situation, Hollister should make the employment relationship better, implement human-based management(stop forcing staffs to buy clothes), change the discriminate value and reverse the current EMC.

 

Word Count: 425

1. A. Simha and J. B. Cullen, “Ethical Climates and Their Effects on Organizational Outcomes: Implications from the Past and Prophecies for the Future,” Academy of Management, November 2012, pp. 20–34.

2.“Gilly Hicks and Hollister Flagship Store Opening.” Getty Images. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2017

http://www.gettyimages.ca/event/gilly-hicks-and-hollister-flagship-store-opening-143901891?#hot-life-guards-pose-for-the-opening-of-the-gilly-hicks-and-hollister-picture-id143715355

League of Legends is a multiplayer online battle arena developed by Riot Games. It attracts millions of fans and players all over the world and creates its own e-sports culture. Faker, a Korean gamer who is famous for his extraordinary skills and performance during matches, is extremely talented and brings his LOL team SKT T1 to the top.

In Kevin Park’s blog post, he discussed the reasons of SKT T1 and Faker’s success as a composition of team work, hard-working spirit, extraordinary management and human resources, and a caring and intelligent coach. While I agree with Kevin’s analysis, I feel that the unique operating system within the team can be further digging into.

League of Legends is a 5 versus 5 game and it requires immediate decision making and group cooperation. Unlike teams from other countries who choose to hire international players with better skills and reputation, all members on SKT T1 are Korean. Despite the elimination of such language barrier, the excellent team work affects a lot. Countries like China offer super high salary to poach staff from SKT T1, especially towards Faker, but most of them choose to stay. These team members stay together, skip holiday, and practice day and night to hold the team together. As what Faker said to ESPN interview: “I think going abroad is a good experience, but personally, I want to stay in Korea and win the world championship again.”₁ They love their country and is honored to be a member of SKT T1. The honor of winning the championship is more like an intrinsic motivation as they value glory more than bonus.

The coach kkOma and the management crews are also an important factor on SKT K1’s road to success. There’re specialties who go to every LOL games, search for potential outstanding player and invite them to join the team. They keep inject new ideas and new styles into the team and reinforce it. The coach, as a manager at the workplace, plays a great role on team building. I used to feel that it’s hard to keep SKT K1 united as Faker is far more famous and outstanding than the others. But the coach said that: “It’s a team game. When the team doesn’t do well, Faker doesn’t do well.”₂ There’s no bias or hierarchy within the team. Thanks to the structure of the game, each member plays a unique role; there’s no role conflict and the climate of trust is intense.

SKT T1 demonstrates clear purpose, participation, consensus decisions, style diversity and other characteristics of being an effective team₃. Together with each member’s great ability of gaming, I believe SKT T1 is going to stay gold and reach the top again.

Word Count: 454

1.& 2.

From The Mag: The Unkillable Demon King. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2017, from

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/13035450/league-legends-prodigy-faker- carries-country-shoulders

3.

M. Parker, Team Players and Teamwork: The New Competitive Business Strategy (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1990), Table 2, p. 33. Copyright 1990 by Jossey-Bass Inc., Publishers. ISBN: 978-1555422578

 

It’s hard to reach 100% equal or fair, especially when individual interpretation is involved. Claire Zillman expressed her opinion by stating that “Assigning blame too quickly for failures at work can backfire – big time.”₁, and I’m on her side.

In this news clip, Claire found that leaders tend to fix the failures by simply firing individuals or specific groups when they’re involved in failures over and over instead of digging into the failures and see what’s behind the surface. The employers might think it’s the easiest, quickest and cheapest way to get away from failing again. The strategy sometimes works for small firms or some specific cases, however, if highly localized failures keep repeating, the employers had better address larger issues.

The employers could make errors when assign blame too quickly for failures. People sometimes make interpretation using attribution theory that we tend to notice atypical behaviors and add meanings ourselves. This interpretation methods could lead to fundamental attribution error as we always underestimate external factors and emphasize internal factors while judging others; but we always believe in external factors for failures while judging ourselves. In the workplace, the employers tend to blame and fire the employees when there’re actually some external factors affecting the efficiency and effectiveness negatively.

Things could also go wrong when people make quick decisions based on the attribution error. The firing method could get serious if the employer ignores the larger issues. In the movie War Dogs, the protagonist David quickly decided to quit the firm AEY instead of having communication with his partner Efraim and this resulted in Efraim’s anxiety and David even got threatened. If David took his time, he might have calmed down and realize the conflict between Efraim and him also came from his compromising and submissive behaviors while working.

Assigning blame too quickly for failures is not a good phenomenon for a healthy and well-functioning organization. The leader should always remind themselves to think unbiasedly, penetrate and identify larger issues, and make appropriate decisions at low opportunity costs. Little failures add up, and the ignorance will eventually result in big pay offs.

Word count: 357

1. Zillman, Claire . “Assigning blame too quickly for failures at work can backfire—big time.” Fortune. N.p., 08 Sept. 2015. Web. 01 Apr. 2017. <http://fortune.com/2015/09/08/blame-failure-work/>.

“I’ve had enough.” One of my friends from Vantage complained to me on a Friday night. “Especially my Mexican teammate.” She said disappointedly, “I tried to show that I was not satisfied by the topic he chose by reducing conversation and acting impatiently. However, he didn’t seem to understand and he simply thought I didn’t understand English.” The real reason behind the conflict, which is the incomprehension of culture, caught my attention.

Such misunderstandings are not uncommon in multicultural countries. What I feel confused about is that, if, for example, my friend transform smoothly into another level of context, will the communication between her and her Chinese friends change negatively? While performing tasks, are there any ways for leaders to minimize the context difference efficiently and effectively?

In Chapter 7 of the textbook, there’s a section about cultural context. It explains that “cultures tend to differ in the degree to which context influences the meaning individuals take from communication”. 2 It also gives suggestions on how people should act while working with people from a different culture. However, it doesn’t clarify the ways from the leaders’ perspective.

It’s hard to eliminate the difference in cultural context since the high-context cultures formed from long history and the context is national. As a Chinese, I feel hard and embarrassing to oppose right after someone raises an opinion because these un-said conventional rules have been in my mind since I was born. Despite the basic listening and respect, the process of adaption must be two-way as it requires understanding and forgiveness from both sides.

The textbook mentioned how to minimize the gap between colleagues but sometimes an appropriate policy from an administrative perspective is more effective. Leaders could set a clear goal to work on and require anonymous feedback frequently and organize meetings or events to break the ice. Different cultures bring collisions of diverse ideas. However, there’s no need to change the culture context deliberately: it can make you behave unnaturally and affect the relationship with others negatively.

Word counts: 372

1. Sennett, J. (2013, August 07). Blog – Latest News. Retrieved February 05, 2017, from https://www.gentlemansgazette.com/rules-of-civility-etiquette-guide/
2. See E. T. Hall, Beyond Culture (Garden City, NY: Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1976); W. L. Adair, “Integrative Sequences and Negotiation Outcome in Same – and Mixed-Culture Negotiations,” International Journal of Conflict Management 14, no. 3-4 (2003), pp. 1359-1392; W. L. Adair and J. M. Brett, “The Negotiation Dance; Time, Culture, and Behavioral Sequences in Negotiation,” Organization Science 16, no. 1(2005), pp. 33-51; E. Giebels and P. J. Taylor, “Interaction Patterns in Crisis Negotiations: Persuasive Arguments and Cultural Differences,” Journal of Applied Psychology 94, no. 1(2009), pp. 5-19; and M. G. Kittler, D. Rygl, and A. Mackinnon, “Beyond Culture or Beyond Control? Reviewing the Use of Hall’s High-/Low-Context Concept,” International Journal of Cross-Cultural Management 11, no. 1 (2011), pp. 63-82

When I was checking on social media, a top search term “The Recognition of Tao”₁ popped up, saying how this Chinese k-pop star successfully changed his negative public image and attracted thousands of fans within only six months. Inappropriate use of words, badmouthing ex-members for quitting the team but quit the team himself 1 year later, weird accent in rapping, Tao was disliked by many people. They made his funny pictures into sarcastic emoticons. However, after these emoticons helped mainland Chinese beat Taiwan Independence advocators on Facebook, he suddenly became a star and was on TV everywhere.

I was quite shocked by his “luck”. Is Tao a good person for real? Did this image change just happened by chance? Why did people’s perception change so quickly from one extreme to another? Why did people still become his fans even though some aware that perceptions could go wrong? I feel confused.

Since people only see a limit of things, we tend to use selective perception for judgement. The definition is that: “People’s selective interpretation of what they see based on their interest, background, experience, and attitudes”. 3 It explains how people generate attitude and interpretation towards an unfamiliar object or person, but it doesn’t mention how people change selective perception after a negative first impression.

It’s impossible to judge celebrities based only on their TV appearance. I would say not always believe in selective perception, especially when talking about celebrities. His transformation is purely because of luck; people accidently shaped him into a patriot because we see how his emoticons defeat those aggressive comments on FB. Also, the reason why I believe it’s an accidental event is that people don’t tend to change believes or attitudes in a short time. We always react to breaking news or events but ignore minor matters. Tao’s image would not change so fast if he were simply doing charity and donating money; people weighed patriotism too much that they ignored that Tao did nothing spontaneously to support mainland China.

People usually tend to change slowly after they form an attitude based on selective perception, but are easily influenced by breaking news on social media. There’s no standard on changing perceptions under circumstances. Besides extending experience and knowledge and avoiding bias, I suggest people not to believe in instant breaking news but long-lasting positive behavior. Shortcuts always lead to troubles, but for Tao this time, the shortcut on interpretation turned him a star.

Word Counts: 407

1.From negative Public Image to thousands of fans, how did Tao transform in 2016?(n.d.) Retrieved February 05, 2017, from

http://www.jiemian.com/article/1048243.html

2. Chen, D. (2016, January 18). Hot Emoticon fights on FB. Is Tao becoming a hero? Retrieved February 05, 2017, from

http://www.ylq.com/redian/0119/31326.html

3.Chapter 5: Perception and Individual Decision Making. (n.d.). Retrieved February 05. 2017, from

  www.csus.edu/indiv/s/sablynskic/ch5obe150.htm

When I was having breakfast with a bunch of friends this morning, a blog that talks about how managers should handle employees’ stress during a financial crisis popped up. A quote from it says: “it’s very necessary that the people in charge of the companies, the managers, the different executives in the company take this dimension into account and manage the emotion of the people, or we could very easily have, not a difficult moment, but explosions.”

As a beginner of OB, I understand how stress has negative behavioral consequences on task performance and organizational effectiveness. But are employees the only sector who needs comfort during the crisis? How are managers going to relieve the pressure alone? Are there any ways to minimize the possibility of negative working condition even before the crisis?

In Chapter 2 of the textbook, there’s a concept of emotion regulation. It means to “identify and modify the emotions you feel” and is part of the EI literature. Talking about stress with emotional regulation, I personally think the recruitment is another stage that should be focused on. To further analyze how to motivate employees, I checked on my group member Zain’s blog. He disagreed with Emma Seppala’s idea that all a manager should do is motivate spiritually. Intrinsic motivation such as rewards and bonuses is also important and that such motivation from employers needs to be both materially and spiritually. I agree with his point that spiritual support alone doesn’t work well, however, I think he ignored the fact that sometimes, especially under extreme condition like recession, managers are not the only one who should be motivating. There’re other factors that influence the workplace.

A successful firm could not only produce high quality and quantity of goods and services, but also work consistently and overcome difficulties. This requires certain level of EI for both employees and management executives. People with high EI adjusts their own emotions, and are also able to recognize the others and give positive feedback. Managers feel equally distressed during crisis and they alone can never handle employee stress without a corporative response and acceptance.

Managers are necessary to give energy to employees to help recover from stress and prevent them from “lack of oxygen” by offering open expressive communication. However, employees themselves are a conclusive factor for companies’ success at the start of the game. During the crisis, managers have the highest probability to get fired and they’re under pressure, too. Hiring employees with high EI will help not only the working condition during crisis, but also greatly improve the working quality and company spirit.

In conclusion, managers have the responsibility to balance the crisis awareness and work together with the cooperation from employees. Despite managers, companies could eliminate the potential low-efficiency-work at the stage of recruiting.

Word Count: 468

1.Dean Graham. The Berlin School Of Creative Leadership. “Why Managers Should Handle

Employee Stress During A Financial Crisis.” N.p., 25 Jan. 2016. Web. 15 Jan. 2017.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/berlinschoolofcreativeleadership/2016/01/23/why-managers-should-handle-employee-stress-during-a-financial-crisis/#60e0ceec6a6

2.Major Reasons of Global Economic Crisis of 2008 – 2010: brief literature review. (2014, December 29). Retrieved February 05, 2017, from

Major Reasons of Global Economic Crisis of 2008 – 2010: brief literature review

3.Based on D. R. Caruso, J. D. Mayer, and P. Salovey, “Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Leadership,” in Multiple Intelligences and Leadership, ed. R. E. Riggio, S. E. Murphy, and F. J. Pirozzolo (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002), p. 70