Reflecting on the Semester — Week 16
Beginning this online class I didn’t really know what to expect. My last online class used a different website so starting off using Medium for the first time was bit confusing. I have never blogged or really read any blogs, besides Tumblr if that even counts. Medium is a unique source of blogs that allows for easy access to people’s ideas from all across the world. However, I haven’t really used this website for anything other than assignments. Maybe after this course is over I will use this website to better familiarize myself with blogging and blogs. Overall, I found this class was a nice alternative to the classroom. However, I felt because it was online I had less motivation to get assignments done, something I will need to work on. I wish I would have given myself more time with this class instead of pushing it off to the last minute. I leaned from this experience and now know that my procrastination needs to stop.
I learned a lot in the class. I learned just how important communication is to an organization. In previous classes like Industrial Psychology and a few of my communication classes we touched on communication in the workplace. However, this class really dove in on this topic and covered everything. I learned how to deal with power in the workplace and how to communicate with people who may not share my same ideas or beliefs. I also like how this book covered social media because this continues to become a large part in the workplace. Before taking this class I never really understood what discourse meant. Now I learned that power has a large role in discourse.
I’ve never been the one to step up and be a leader. I never feel confident enough to take on such a big role. However, after reading the chapter on leadership, I feel I may be more equipped to take on this role. In the past my experience with leaders has been both good and bad. I usually like just taking orders and following them. However, I now know how to properly communicate as a leader and learned that there needs to be a balance between power and restraint.
A lot of my blogs talk about my workplace. I felt while reading this book that my workplace has presented itself with many examples to show the good and bad of communication in the workplace. Now as we come to the end of the semester I know how to deal with situations that may arise in my workplace. Motivation is a large part of a well-run organization. Before this course I didn’t really understand the role of my boss. She is always very calm, cool, and collected. I’ve never seen her take leadership in any situation; she usually will pass it on to someone else. However, after leaning about motivation and leadership I now know she is just trying to please everyone in the office. She passes the leadership duties onto another employee who loves taking charge. Like the Fox (2008) article discusses, if a leader in the workplace shows interest in employees, supports them, and praises them genuinely, then that leader is “shooting” Serotonin into the workplace. This makes the employees feel good and opens their minds to new ideas and they become more supportive of one another.
This class has taught me some valuable ideas that I will keep in mind whenever dealing with communication in an organization. I appreciate all the work you put into this class and ensuring that we always had a overview of the chapters and alwasy knew what you expected on weekly blogs.
