Week 16: Semester Reflection

First, I would like to say this class was very satisfying to me. I didn’t know what to expect from an online class but in ways I think I learned and interacted with my classmates more in this setting. The blogs of the weekly readings and watching assignments were very helpful. I have never blogged before this class but now I see why some people enjoy it so much. Personally, I have enjoyed expressing my opinions on the readings and also seeing what the rest of the class thought as well.

I think the most important thing I learned from this class is how important communication is to a business. I wasn’t sure what organizational communication would be about and I was surprised to see it relates a lot to business. Chapter 1: Communication and the Changing World has a few concepts which I think will be useful for me in the future. Globalization is a term that everyone should know and understand. With the world and business becoming more and more diverse it is important to know what to expect. I didn’t realize globalization had many positive and negative affects. One day I hope to work for a company so being familiar with globalization is important. With the rise of the global company I realized that knowing or understanding another language is important. After reading this chapter I have become more interested in learning a new language. I think being bilingual will set me apart from other employers and make a better and more useful employee. Another aspect of globalization that I have become more aware of is managing a multicultural workforce. Companies or teams are becoming more diverse and they will continue to be. The book mentioned how African Americans, Asians, Caucasians, and Europeans can all behave and communicate differently. Attending and working on campus at Illinois Tech has made me realize that. The students here are so diverse and catering to all of them has to be difficult. I imagine actually being a manager of such a diverse group would be even more difficult. After taking this course I have a better idea of what to expect in the workforce when it come to working with people from different countries and backgrounds.

Another concept that was interesting to me was organizational culture. I wasn’t familiar with the term before and now I know it is an important aspect of an organization. By learning more about organizational culture I know I want to work in a more carefree and friendly workplace. The information is useful to me because now when I am looking for a job I will be more observant of how people in the organize interact with each other. I know it is rare to be in a perfect workplace but the cultural aspect is important to keep in mind. This course made me think about the type of relationships I want to have at work. I wondered if I would want a boss who is laid back or one that is more strict. This also made me question the type of worker I want to be. If I have a boss who is laid back and won’t encourage me to work harder then I would probably do average work. On the other hand if I had a tough boss then I would always be doing the high quality work that I can. These are things to keep in mind when thinking about an organization’s culture. After looking at the different views of organizational culture the one that made most sense to me was the interpretive view. This view made the most sense to me because it is how the people in an organization act on a day to day basis. I understand this view of organizational culture to make the most sense because it takes all the people in one organization to make up the culture not just a handful of people. The concept of organizational culture has made me more aware of how organizations function and communicate.

The last concept that really stuck out to me was identity. After reading the chapter about identity I realized that organizations do the things they do to make themselves known. With that being said it made me think about what type of organization I would like to work for. This is useful to me because the organization that I work will someday affect my identity and how other people see me. I don’t want to work for a company that doesn’t support our troops or other rights groups. These are the things that the public pays attention to. For the blog post about identity I talked about brand meltdowns. When I researching different brand meltdowns it was interesting to see how many organizations lost it’s identity. I learned that it is important for organization’s to communicate their identity the best they can. I think a good reputation makes more people want to work for you. I will use this knowledge that I have gained to research different companies that I hope to work for and find their identities.