Hey viewers of my blog, I went to review my blog and realized the visual graphs that were supposed to be in my blog are not there. I am going to try and fix this but if not just go to the link and get the information from there!
Sorry for the confusion.
Kim
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Chapter 3 Communication Theories
Chapter 3 Communication Theories
Overview
Each version of communication theories is built from the one before it. It has evolved in time through trial and error. There are three common theories: interpersonal, machine assisted and mass media.
Father of information theory
Shannon and Weaver’s are said to be the father of information theory. He explained the communication model is dealing with substance or meaning and content. He described the process as a linear process; he was the first to start thinking of information as a concept.
First model
The first of the theories cam from Harold Lasswell. In 1948 Lasswell designed this linear communication theory after working on war propaganda. This is the model he came up with: http://www.juniata.edu/faculty/cockett/teaching/130/models/lasswell.html
Shramm
1st model is described as the connection between sources and destination. Shramm designed his model in the 1950’s, his model used the same concepts as the previous model, but he made it more circular, so that the communication process never ends. The image of his process comes from http://www.shkaminski.com/classes/handouts/communication%20models.htm
The idea of this model is that there is feedback in the communication process. This process makes it possible for a for a company to ask a message to a customer, and then take that information (message) and give it back to the company so they can work on improving.
Kincaid’s Convergence Model
Communication is a process where participants work together to share information. The bottom line is they work for mutual understanding. This process also has evolved over time.
Example from Real life
The swim camp that I work in the summer is my example of communication theories. Jon Alter (my boss) meets with on average a group of five counselors after camp. He brings us to a restaurant and we talk about what we could have done better, what we liked about the summer, and what we did great at. It is a very comfortable meeting where we can speak our mind. This is important to the camp because it evolves this way. By sharing information from counselor to boss, we bridge the gap in communication and find the best practices to continue to make our swim camp the best in the United States.
Sources
My two sources are highlighted through my content. They gave me visual evidence of how the communication process works through the theories. I incorporated them into my blog so the readers can visually be simulated and understand the theories a bit easier.
Overview
Each version of communication theories is built from the one before it. It has evolved in time through trial and error. There are three common theories: interpersonal, machine assisted and mass media.
Father of information theory
Shannon and Weaver’s are said to be the father of information theory. He explained the communication model is dealing with substance or meaning and content. He described the process as a linear process; he was the first to start thinking of information as a concept.
First model
The first of the theories cam from Harold Lasswell. In 1948 Lasswell designed this linear communication theory after working on war propaganda. This is the model he came up with: http://www.juniata.edu/faculty/cockett/teaching/130/models/lasswell.html
Shramm
1st model is described as the connection between sources and destination. Shramm designed his model in the 1950’s, his model used the same concepts as the previous model, but he made it more circular, so that the communication process never ends. The image of his process comes from http://www.shkaminski.com/classes/handouts/communication%20models.htm
The idea of this model is that there is feedback in the communication process. This process makes it possible for a for a company to ask a message to a customer, and then take that information (message) and give it back to the company so they can work on improving.
Kincaid’s Convergence Model
Communication is a process where participants work together to share information. The bottom line is they work for mutual understanding. This process also has evolved over time.
Example from Real life
The swim camp that I work in the summer is my example of communication theories. Jon Alter (my boss) meets with on average a group of five counselors after camp. He brings us to a restaurant and we talk about what we could have done better, what we liked about the summer, and what we did great at. It is a very comfortable meeting where we can speak our mind. This is important to the camp because it evolves this way. By sharing information from counselor to boss, we bridge the gap in communication and find the best practices to continue to make our swim camp the best in the United States.
Sources
My two sources are highlighted through my content. They gave me visual evidence of how the communication process works through the theories. I incorporated them into my blog so the readers can visually be simulated and understand the theories a bit easier.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Chapter 2 Communicating Strategically
Chapter 2 Communicating Strategically
Needed Strategy
Every form of communication should have a strategy. Between families, with significant others, at work, in sports, or simply with friends. The process for communicating includes determining the objectives for a particular communication, deciding what resources are available for achieving those objectives and diagnosing the organizations/persons reputation.
Explanation of Strategy and examples
Determining the objectives is just the simple explanation of what you want to communicate. In your life with your family you may want to communicate what is for dinner that night, in sports you may want to communicate what time practice is, and where I worked this summer (Longhorn Swim Camp) we might need to communicate the airport schedule. These are examples of what you want to communicate now here are the objectives (for swim camp), communicate child’s age, destination, flight number, flight time, and what counselor is going to shuttle the child to the airport.
Deciding what resources are available makes a big difference in communicating. Resources include money, time and human resources. Families may have to communicate differently depending on what their schedules are like, if they have cell phones, or computer access. For a sports team, depending on the number of athletes depends how to communicate information to them. Mass e-mails are a way if everyone has computer access, mass text messages are another way, and word of mouth from the captains is another resource of communication. In my work example, to communicate the airport schedule we would receive an e-mail; and after the e-mail we would receive a mass text telling us to check our e-mail so no one can be missed in the communication process.
The last link to the communication process is, diagnosing the organizations reputation. For a family situation, if the family is well put together, and if you are absent from dinner this could cause bad reputation on your part for not receiving the messages. For the sport team, if the athletic advisor wants to relay a message through the coach to the athletes and fails to do so then the reputation of the team will go down depending on how well the coach communicates the information. And for my example of the camp I worked our reputation means a heck of a lot considering the children’s families have paid a lot of money to send their child to the best swim camp in the world, and if the children do not arrive home safely or in a timely manner the reputation of the camp will go down!
Resource information link to the chapter
In the links that I found pertaining to communicating strategically they pointed out ideas that were not as explained in the book. One of the major things I learned from the sources is that an executive needs to communicate. But they need to decide what is most important to communicate and what does not need to be communicated to the employees. This is a big concern, because if the wrong information gets out to the employees it can cause a lack of effort on the job site or even people getting in trouble for spreading rumors. At swim camp one of our head counselors let it slip that the counselor were going to get a half day off, and because he let this information slip soon the rumors spread and every counselor knew and started slacking because they knew their day was almost over which made our productivity dwindle.
The other article I uncovered about communicating strategically was about conflict in communication, and misunderstanding. If there are both or either of these issues in the communication process the effectiveness of the company can be tarnished. An example from my work experience of misunderstanding were information is given is when one of the counselors must not have heard the fact that if you are a male, you are not allowed to go into a female campers room unless you have a female counselor with you. Because this certain counselor misunderstood this information it caused conflict between all of the counselors and this caused a lot of talking behind the counselors back and ended in a big blow up until our boss stepped in. The communication process was not activated in the right manor which made the conflict become even worse.
Strategic communication is an important part of every aspect of our lives and must be understood to be effective.
http://www.cba.uni.edu/buscomm/buscomcourse/ReadingsSummer07/CommunicatingStrategically.pdf
http://www.imetacomm.com/otherpubs/pdf_doc_downloads/strat_commg_uncertainty_v4.pdf
Needed Strategy
Every form of communication should have a strategy. Between families, with significant others, at work, in sports, or simply with friends. The process for communicating includes determining the objectives for a particular communication, deciding what resources are available for achieving those objectives and diagnosing the organizations/persons reputation.
Explanation of Strategy and examples
Determining the objectives is just the simple explanation of what you want to communicate. In your life with your family you may want to communicate what is for dinner that night, in sports you may want to communicate what time practice is, and where I worked this summer (Longhorn Swim Camp) we might need to communicate the airport schedule. These are examples of what you want to communicate now here are the objectives (for swim camp), communicate child’s age, destination, flight number, flight time, and what counselor is going to shuttle the child to the airport.
Deciding what resources are available makes a big difference in communicating. Resources include money, time and human resources. Families may have to communicate differently depending on what their schedules are like, if they have cell phones, or computer access. For a sports team, depending on the number of athletes depends how to communicate information to them. Mass e-mails are a way if everyone has computer access, mass text messages are another way, and word of mouth from the captains is another resource of communication. In my work example, to communicate the airport schedule we would receive an e-mail; and after the e-mail we would receive a mass text telling us to check our e-mail so no one can be missed in the communication process.
The last link to the communication process is, diagnosing the organizations reputation. For a family situation, if the family is well put together, and if you are absent from dinner this could cause bad reputation on your part for not receiving the messages. For the sport team, if the athletic advisor wants to relay a message through the coach to the athletes and fails to do so then the reputation of the team will go down depending on how well the coach communicates the information. And for my example of the camp I worked our reputation means a heck of a lot considering the children’s families have paid a lot of money to send their child to the best swim camp in the world, and if the children do not arrive home safely or in a timely manner the reputation of the camp will go down!
Resource information link to the chapter
In the links that I found pertaining to communicating strategically they pointed out ideas that were not as explained in the book. One of the major things I learned from the sources is that an executive needs to communicate. But they need to decide what is most important to communicate and what does not need to be communicated to the employees. This is a big concern, because if the wrong information gets out to the employees it can cause a lack of effort on the job site or even people getting in trouble for spreading rumors. At swim camp one of our head counselors let it slip that the counselor were going to get a half day off, and because he let this information slip soon the rumors spread and every counselor knew and started slacking because they knew their day was almost over which made our productivity dwindle.
The other article I uncovered about communicating strategically was about conflict in communication, and misunderstanding. If there are both or either of these issues in the communication process the effectiveness of the company can be tarnished. An example from my work experience of misunderstanding were information is given is when one of the counselors must not have heard the fact that if you are a male, you are not allowed to go into a female campers room unless you have a female counselor with you. Because this certain counselor misunderstood this information it caused conflict between all of the counselors and this caused a lot of talking behind the counselors back and ended in a big blow up until our boss stepped in. The communication process was not activated in the right manor which made the conflict become even worse.
Strategic communication is an important part of every aspect of our lives and must be understood to be effective.
http://www.cba.uni.edu/buscomm/buscomcourse/ReadingsSummer07/CommunicatingStrategically.pdf
http://www.imetacomm.com/otherpubs/pdf_doc_downloads/strat_commg_uncertainty_v4.pdf
Sunday, September 7, 2008
Chapter 1 The Changing Enviorment for Business
The chapter talks about the changing environment in business. About how the environment is changing and the business needs to change for the good of the environment, the business needs to be socially responsible with their actions. The entire chapter was basically about the environment and how it has changed throughout the years. But one of the last points talked about how communication through the company is how the company stays socially responsible.
My focus is on what we discussed in class. We discussed how communication is one of the most important issues facing the workforce. We spoke about the communication process, and how many things can interrupt the encoding, and decoding process. The goal that the company is trying to set fourth can be at risk because of noise within the communication process. Noise is anything that can interrupt the process including literal noise (fans, radio), or the fact that your significant other had broken up with you that morning and that’s all you are thinking about, to even just being sleep deprived.
In company meetings where the mission statement and vision statement are being stated, the goal is to get all the employees on the same page. The reason a company does this is to share the mission/vision that the company is working for so the employees are working for the common goal.
For example, I work at a swim camp in Austin TX, as a Counselor/coach. The first week of our duties include attending meetings to get the 23 other Counselor/coach’s on the same page. Some of these meetings are long and drawn out. Our boss does not come up with any creative ways to get the messages across except his mono-toned deep boring voice that goes on for 3 hours. There is a problem here. For the sleep deprived people, especially the new employees who are sleep deprived from their late nights out, they seem to drift in and out of sleep during these meetings. The problem with this is if you do not hear all of the rules such as “you may not enter a room of the opposite sex (a kids room), without a counselor of the same sex with you.” Joe one of the counselors had dozed off during this rule, or was not paying attention (noise), because the first week of camp he was caught on three occasions in a female’s room without a female counselor present. This hurt Joe and he had to be talked to by the boss.
The funny thing about this example is, if our boss would have been a bit more creative getting the rules across Joe, would not have fallen asleep as easily.
A second topic we discussed was the encoding and decoding process. The message can get across by encoding through a cell phone, or face to face contact, and decoding is how the person being communicated to understands the message. The thing is different people learn/listen differently than others. Different personalities take information differently.
For example, at this swim camp, the counselors must help out in the locker room after every session. The counselors are supposed to know this rule, yet one counselor, Reba, did not usually enjoy the people she was working with so she would avoid the locker room which meant she was avoiding her responsibilities. The girls she did not like did not help out the situation; they just bickered and talked behind her back. I did not particularly like Reba, but to get her to do her task of going into the locker room I simply just talked her, and let her feel welcomed. After that I said “hey lets do what we need to do, to the locker room we go.” After this there were no complains of her not doing her duties. Different people need to be communicated with differently to get them to do what is needed. Sometimes it is more about actions than actual words.
For more information on communication here is a link to an article about “Effective Workplace Communication? It’s more than just talk.”
http://www.words-at-work.com/goodcomm.htm
My focus is on what we discussed in class. We discussed how communication is one of the most important issues facing the workforce. We spoke about the communication process, and how many things can interrupt the encoding, and decoding process. The goal that the company is trying to set fourth can be at risk because of noise within the communication process. Noise is anything that can interrupt the process including literal noise (fans, radio), or the fact that your significant other had broken up with you that morning and that’s all you are thinking about, to even just being sleep deprived.
In company meetings where the mission statement and vision statement are being stated, the goal is to get all the employees on the same page. The reason a company does this is to share the mission/vision that the company is working for so the employees are working for the common goal.
For example, I work at a swim camp in Austin TX, as a Counselor/coach. The first week of our duties include attending meetings to get the 23 other Counselor/coach’s on the same page. Some of these meetings are long and drawn out. Our boss does not come up with any creative ways to get the messages across except his mono-toned deep boring voice that goes on for 3 hours. There is a problem here. For the sleep deprived people, especially the new employees who are sleep deprived from their late nights out, they seem to drift in and out of sleep during these meetings. The problem with this is if you do not hear all of the rules such as “you may not enter a room of the opposite sex (a kids room), without a counselor of the same sex with you.” Joe one of the counselors had dozed off during this rule, or was not paying attention (noise), because the first week of camp he was caught on three occasions in a female’s room without a female counselor present. This hurt Joe and he had to be talked to by the boss.
The funny thing about this example is, if our boss would have been a bit more creative getting the rules across Joe, would not have fallen asleep as easily.
A second topic we discussed was the encoding and decoding process. The message can get across by encoding through a cell phone, or face to face contact, and decoding is how the person being communicated to understands the message. The thing is different people learn/listen differently than others. Different personalities take information differently.
For example, at this swim camp, the counselors must help out in the locker room after every session. The counselors are supposed to know this rule, yet one counselor, Reba, did not usually enjoy the people she was working with so she would avoid the locker room which meant she was avoiding her responsibilities. The girls she did not like did not help out the situation; they just bickered and talked behind her back. I did not particularly like Reba, but to get her to do her task of going into the locker room I simply just talked her, and let her feel welcomed. After that I said “hey lets do what we need to do, to the locker room we go.” After this there were no complains of her not doing her duties. Different people need to be communicated with differently to get them to do what is needed. Sometimes it is more about actions than actual words.
For more information on communication here is a link to an article about “Effective Workplace Communication? It’s more than just talk.”
http://www.words-at-work.com/goodcomm.htm
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