Do you belong to a group?

The Elvis Team^^

Do you know what small group communication is? What are the types of groups? In my understanding, small-group communication involves a small number of people, usually engaged in face-to-face interaction, actively working together toward a common goal. The types of small group communication depend on the purpose of the group. What I have learnt is there are three types of teams. There is the learning group which involves sharing and seeking information. Also there is the self-maintenance group that inspires desirable attitudes, understanding as well as using communication patterns. Lastly, is the problem-solving group that would make decisions based on problem.

I believe all of us have worked in groups before which I always do. I would say I am fortunate to have a good group for assignment purposes. Although each of my group members carries different personality but when we work together, we work in unity. We have never quarreled so far. We discuss together whatever problem that exist and solve them out. Not only that, we respect each other and show understanding. As a group, each member must be able to communicate freely and openly with all of the other members of the group. Furthermore, I feel the key leading to successful team work is to compromise. I have seen many groups in great conflict before. Based on my observation, the reasons causing the clash are due to lack of communication and refusing to compromise.

People join groups for a variety of reasons. No matter what the reason could be, once you join the team, you should be committed and play your role well. Most companies and organizations have people working in small teams. This has been found to be more effective and productive than a single individual toiling away at a project. When you have three or four more people working on an issue, you have the advantage of having access to more ideas and solutions for the project, of having more checking safeguards against any flaws in the plan, and of being able to establish more network connections.

Cat&Dog Team

Can't believe this is the last post already. I would like to thanks to all readers who have been supportive to my blog. Although I will be stop blogging for some time but doesn't mean I stop completely. I would still update you guys with interesting facts and experiences in future. Wait for me. Bye!

~ENDS~

Can I survive as a newbie?

Being new in a working organization is never easy. You have to get used to the new environment, dealing with your bosses and your colleagues as well as the work load. Normally, newbie will have a hard time fitting into their working place initially because there are a lot of stuffs newbie has to self learnt such as the values, rituals and cultures of a workplace. Organizations don’t normally communicate their cultures, mission and values in detailed. If you are lucky enough, you would get nice colleagues who would be willing to teach you new things and help you solve problems you face. However, most senior colleagues are either too busy to teach you or they just can’t be bothered to help you.

Besides, new employees also face conflicts in the workplace. Conflict in the workplace can be due to many reasons. Perhaps the most significant cause is when someone feels taken advantage of. This might happen when a perfectionist boss demands the same dedication and commitment from employees as he or she exhibits, but does not compensate them for the late or weekend hours or a boss who has a habit of yelling at you in front of your coworkers or critical comments about your work during meetings and excluding them from a group lunch or team meeting?

Life can be difficult for new employee as well because of the existence of workplace bullying which is very common nowadays. At some point in your career you’ll be bullied somehow or rather. That is why many people prefer to come out on their own and be the own boss instead of working along with other people and having to see to their faces or being manipulate by them. In the U.S., where the practice is being studied, an estimated 37% of workers, or about 54 million people, have been bullied at the office or repeatedly mistreated in a health-harming way, according to a 2007 Zogby International survey. People are lack of awareness about the bullying that could happen. Most new employees would just keep quite even when they are bullied in order to prevent from loosing the new job they applied.

In my case, it was hard for me to adapt myself into the organization I first work for. It was a primary school. I worked as a temporary replacing a teacher who went to deliver baby. I remember on the first day I felt so alone, lost and insecure because I didn't know anybody yet. Moreover, I was stress having to teach the pupils as I have no experience before unlike the other qualified teacher who had been through proper training. The stress caused me to loose appetite and I lost weight terribly. However, not long after that I was fortunate that there were few took initiative to talking to me and we made friends. They were so helpful to me, teaching me stuffs and helping me how to handle difficult students. I was so grateful to have them as an encouragement to me otherwise I don’t think I would last long working there.

We bound to face challenges in working place anyhow but it depends how well you can handle or manage the obstacles. Being ‘’different’’ from the dominant group in the workplace creates additional barriers. Hence, sometimes we have to sacrifice our own culture and values in order to adopt the culture of the organization and survive!

Share with you a video of workplace bullying.

And how to deal with difficult people at work.

I am a stage fright freak!

Have you ever had to give a speech? Do you remember that feeling? A knot in the stomach, sweaty palms and a panic attack! I do and it happens very often somehow. I am never a front person. I dislike talking in front of too many people. I have had a few bad experiences when presenting in front a large crowd of people. These unpleasant experiences haunt me still. Even until now I still couldn’t able to erase them off my memory storage. By the way, I have good long term memory storage. I could remember everything that happens arouns me even the incidents have occurred ages ago. But strangely enough, I hardly can remember anything when comes to lectures I have learnt in classes. I still wonder why.

Like I said earlier, I am not comfortable having to stand forward to present while everyone is looking at me. I tend to be extremely nervous, tense and panicky. I would start getting anxious and under stress a few days before the day of presentation itself. I am actually going through what is known as situational anxiety which is one of the obstacles to Communication. Situational anxiety is defined by factors that exist during a specific speaking situation. For example, the crowd is the factor that causes me to feel scared.

Let me just share with you the two bad experiences I went through in my previous presentations. The first one happened when I was in Standard Three. I was asked by my teacher to participate in a story telling competition. At that time, I didn’t know that I actually very scared to present until I was on the stage. I remembered I could memorize the whole speech perfectly but when I was up there presenting, I forgot everything. I couldn’t even greet the audiences. I managed to utter a few words and sentences and the rest I got stuck with ‘em’, ‘aaa’, ‘er’. The worst thing was I stood on the stage for 10 minutes! All the audiences were laughing their heads off. I then quickly ended the speech with ‘terima kasih’. I felt so embarrassing but I did not cry, probably I was too young too feel that emotional.

However, I cried for the next experience though which happened to me in Form Two. This incident that took place in church where I supposed to lead in the singing session for my youth group but unfortunately the musicians who supposed to assist me couldn’t make it. Then I asked helped from another youth but to my surprised he replied, ‘You play the music yourself lar’. I said to myself, ‘Hello? I can’t play the piano that’s why I need your help!’ Anyway, I somehow managed to get someone else to play the guitar instead. After that, I started to lead the group to sing. Half way through, the same fellow who rejected helping me, started laughing at me with his gang. I was so hurt and disappointed. The incident had affected me badly since. I was so upset that I stopped attending youth fellowship completely.

Some people may think it’s a small matter but to me it wasn’t. The feeling of hurt and disappointment was hard to forget. It literally diminished my confidence. After what happened, I would avoid any chances to go out to speak. I told myself not to present anymore if possible but things are different at college. We have dozens of presentations to do as they are graded. Now I have got used to the idea of presenting and through the many practices, I have better confidence than before. Nevertheless, I’m still working on to manage my anxieties.

Try and persuade me, can you?

Hi, before I go any further take a look at this commercial video below and tell me whether you would purchase the product? Enjoy the show!

So people, will you buy the Serta mattress? Are you tempted to have one for yourself or your parents? Did you even consider getting it? If you do, you have been persuaded. It means that the commercial is persuasive enough to make you buy the product. If you don't, means you are not convinced with it. Persuasion is a form of social influence. It can be powerful enough to sway your mindset toward the adoption of an idea, attitude, or action.

In class, I have learnt three important ways of using speech to persuade an individual or group to feel as you do. Firstly, persuading your audience through the use of Ethos is a way of convincing them of your argument because you have validity on a personal level in their eyes. The word Ethos actually stands for credibility. Secondly, the use of Pathos, or emotional persuasion is simply a way of appealing to a person's emotions in order to convince them of your argument. Many argumentative speech topics are able to be given in a persuasive manner by the use of pathos, simply because it is easy to appeal to somebody's emotions throughout your speech. Logos speaking has to do with persuading someone through the use of logic. There are several different ways in which you can do this but one of the most effective is by developing a coherent speech that moves logically through the subject. If you keep your audience in mind and develop a good argument, they will be able to follow it to its natural conclusion.

We can be persuaded through various ways such being exposed to advertisements and commercials to get us to buy their products or listening to persuasive speech and presentations which could influence our thinking. However, we have to have a convincing and creative idea with supported facts in order to persuade people. Not only that, our presentations should be something memorable, inspiring and something that make sense to attract people’s attention. People are not dumb basically. They don’t just buy whatever we say or present because each person has their own thought and stand. Giving senseless speech could only put the audience off.

The one person who makes a good persuasive speaker is non other than Barack Obama. He is such a good role model who is capable of giving persuasive and inspiring words. He uses repetition of key words, he changes his tone and volume of his voice, he has good eye contact with his audiences and he includes gestures when he speaks. Below is an example of his persuasive speech. Hope that by listening and observing to his speech could help you learn how to persuasively present ideas.

Ready forJob Interview?

Interview is somewhat a formal discussion between two parties in which information is exchanged. In order to fill an open job position, an employee might interview potential candidates to gain a better understanding of their backgrounds, qualifications and skills. Interview consists of many different types. There are counseling interview, employment interview, interrogation interview, telephone interview and so on. Basically, I will be talking more on employment interview.

Going for job interview is something each of us has to face. Whether or not you going to make it trough is all depends on you performance. Bare in mind that it doesn't matter which university you graduate from, how good is your GPA points, how well experience and knowledgeable you are but if you fail to interview successfully; you won’t get the job.

Successful interviewing begins with preparation. Many people fail to be accepted in an organization or company is due to their bad performance during an interview. They lack of preparation before attending the interviews for their desired career field. They do not practice enough on what are the important criteria they should pay attention when preparing for job interview.

Job interview is never easy! Being able to make a good first impression is important if you want to be hired. Nowadays, employers don’t just hire you based on how great is your academic qualifications you have obtained but also they see to how well you can carry yourself to impress them. Having good communication skills are bonus for you because being able to communicate well in expressing your thoughts and ideas can show that you are good asset for the company.

I have only been to one formal interview when I was applying for a job as a temporary teacher. I could still remember freshly how it was like. I wasn't well prepared at that time as I never been to any interview before. I just went in and try my luck. I was so nervous and stumble upon my words. Thank God, the headmaster was understanding, he knew I was just a form six leaver and willing to give me a chance to try. I was so thankful to him.

Now that I’m majoring in Communication, I’m exposed more into how an interview should be like and how to prepare better. Here I will include some tips on preparing yourself before an interview as well as videos on example of good interviewing skills, what you should and should not do to avoid making mistakes for job interviews.

Take Note!

Good Self Introduction

Do's and Dont's of Interviewing

Avoid These Mistakes

Body Language Speaks Louder Than Words!

Previously, I was sharing on the importance of being a good listener and this time it will be about body language which particularly most of us would apply in our everyday life. Body language could also mean nonverbal communication that we use to deliver messages that are not written, spoken or sounded with or without intention. Sometimes, we use nonverbal cues to replace word or a spoken message such as through facial expressions, eye contact, gestures, clothing and even the tone of our voices. Take a look at the picture above, the girl’s facial expression and the way she folded both her hands, it indicates that she is angry without having to say it out. According to the chart below, it shows that nonverbal inputs comprise 55% during communication.

How true do you find that when you are in anger, your body language could be seen obviously showing that you are angry? Speaking for myself, I find it very accurate. As for me, when I am pissed off with something or even with someone, I tend to be quiet as though everything is fine but my body language shows otherwise. It is noticeable because I would be frowning, my tone is different and I am acting impatiently. For instance, there are many incidents especially when I am behind the wheel where my auntie’s would confront my ways of driving and I could not agree with her comments. I shall include our conversation as written below.

Dialog between my auntie and me when I am driving:

Catherine: (Dangerously overtaking a lorry in front at the trunk road.)

Auntie: Catherine, it is not wise to overtake the lorry when you cannot see the front view clearly. It could cause accident! On top of that, it is not advisable to overtake on double-line.

Catherine: The lorry is crawling like a snail!

Auntie: You should be more patient and wait till the view is clearer before overtaking it.There is no need to rush.

Catherine: Yeah right!

Auntie: You see, say you a little bit you angry already.

Catherine: I am not angry lar! (Answering with irritating tone)

Auntie: I am just advising you, there is no need to be so reactive.

Catherine: I said I am not angry!

Auntie: But your body language shows that you are.

Catherine: (Start muttering and stepping on the accelerator to increase the speed)

Based on the conversation above, you can identify that although verbally I denied that I was not angry but my nonverbal behaviors proved to be the opposite. This again shows that body language speaks louder than words. People tend to believe more on the body language they perceive compared to the verbal messages they receive by observing somebody when communicating.

Nonverbal communication can be complicated as everyone perceives nonverbal messages with different perspective. We should learn to be aware and mindful of nonverbal messages by opening our mind and not to jump straight to conclusions. Be knowledgeable about how others communicate nonverbally as everyone comes from different culture. Lastly, learn the skills on how to send and receive nonverbal messages and incorporate them with verbal messages you are going to convey.

Enjoy these interesting Body Language Videos

Effective Listening

Hello people, hope you guys have had a great weekend. Today is Father’s day; let’s wish all fathers, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY! Too bad I wasn’t able to celebrate with my father this year as I couldn’t get anymore tickets to go home. But, I promise I will next year.

Well, here I am again to update you with the stuffs I have learnt recently. This time, it is going to be different compared to my previous posts which were kind of too factual. More of my own ideas, experiences, observations and so on would be included in. Hope you could spot the differences in my blog and tell me whether I have improved or it still remains the same old style. This post will be about effective listening.

Before I go further in detail on listening effectively, let me share some facts with you. Do you know that actually, Americans spend more than 40% of their time listening? As you can see from the chart below, listening stands the highest percentage compared to reading, speaking and writing.

I have never realized that listening could be so important. I admit I am not a very good listener. I tend to be selective with what I want to hear especially listening to talks or speeches. I have these poor habits that lead me to tune off from listening. For examples, my mind wanders off easily due to boring topics or poor deliverance from certain speakers. I would either daydreaming during the talks or pretending to be listening. BUT strangely, I could be very attentive when listening to interesting GOSSIPS.

Video Example of Bad Listener

A good listener should listen with emphatic as well as being able to appreciate messages that are delivered to the person. Emphatic listening means listening with a purpose and attempting to understand the other person. I know that to be a good listener is not easy but it is not impossible either. It takes time to practice and practice makes perfect. Plasticizing to become a good listener is something I myself still have to improve.

Want to be Good Listener? Be a TV:)

In an article that I have read recently stated that, ‘Parents today are hooked on tech tools at home for communication or for work related purposes instead of paying more attention listening to their children’s need. In the article, it was mention that children felt hurt when their mum or dad fails to pay attention on them instead they spend more time on their devices. This is also a sign of bad listening. Parents do no realized that their action would eventually ruin the bonding between themselves and their children.

Example of Parents Not Listening to their Children

That's all for now. Hope you enjoy reading this post. I conclude this post with a few tips of becoming effective listener.

TIPS

Improving Interpersonal Relationships

Hi, it's me again. Hope I did not bore you down with my previous post. I know it looks dry with too many words. I am a person who is not so creative so reading my blog can be quite tedious but I will try my best to make it more interesting.

A few days back, I have come across an interesting topic in Organizational Communications class. The topic is IMPROVING INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS. It is fascinating to learn the four types of communication styles each person might posses. The four communication styles are Closed, Blind, Hidden, and Open. Interested to know what style are you using? Try this survey and you will know!

Direction

Answer each of the following questions by circling a number from 1 to 10 that represents how true or false each statements is to you.

Questions

1) I feel more comfortable around things than people.

False 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 True

2) To keep the peace, I usually give in.

False 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 True

3) I find that I'm usually right on most issues.

False 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 True

4) I make sure that my opinions are known.

False 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 True

5) It's important to me that people like me; if they don't, I feel very uncomfortable.

False 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 True

6) I usually withhold my opinions until I know what other people think.

False 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 True

7) I like almost all of the people I meet.

False 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 True

8) Working on teams is fun and effective.

False 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 True

Scoring

Add the points from questions 7 and 8: total= Open

Add the points from questions 5 and 6: total= Hidden

Add the points from questions 3 and 4: total= Blind

Add the points from questions 1 and 2: total= Closed

*Your largest total represents the communication style you use when things are going smoothly. The next largest total ( or two totals if the scores are very close) are the styles you jump back to under stress.

*This survey is taken from Communicating for Results textbook.

Here are descriptions of Closed, Blind, Hidden, Open Communicator:

A) Closed Style

• Productive when allowed to work alone
• Uncomfortable around people
• Seldom communicates expectations
• Motivated by anxiety or fear
• Avoids conflict

CLOSED!

B) Blind Style

• Seen as authoritarian and demanding
• Motivated by over self-confidence
• Usually experienced and knowledgeable
• Handles conflict by force

BLIND!

C) Hidden Style

• Prefers a social environment
• Motivated by mistrust or need to please
• Disclose only positives expectations or opinions
• Smooth over conflict
• Good listener

HIDDEN!

D) Open Style

• Seen as a team communicator
• Motivated by confidence and like of people
• Often too open and/ or open too soon
• Uses problem-solving to handle conflict
• Communicates expectations

OPEN!

~ Ends ~

Organizational Communication

Good evening people, here I am for the second post. First of all, let me ask you some questions. How many of you have worked in an organization before? Organization meaning social unit of people, systematically arranged and managed to meet goals on a continuing basis. All organizations have a management structure that determines relationships between functions and positions, roles and responsibilities. Examples, working as a lecturer in SEGi College or working as an insurance sales consultant for Great Eastern are working for organizations. I am pretty sure most of you do have such experiences. However, are you aware that actually working in any organization involves both formal and informal communication? I shall explain briefly the difference between formal and informal communication in steps with examples based on my previous working experience.

Three Types of Formal Communication:

1) Downward Communication

• Definition: Messages are passed down from employer to employee. Employer is the one who gives instructions and the employee would be at the receiving end.
• Example : I worked as a temporary primary teacher before. Obviously, the headmaster is my boss and I would follow his instructions accordingly.

2) Upward Communication

• Definition: Messages flow upward from employee to employer. Employer could present reports, opinions, ideas, feelings, and problems to his/her employer.
• Example : As a temporary teacher, I have never been trained. Hence, I bound to encounter problems especially while teaching pupils. I then would seek advice from the headmaster regarding my problems for solutions.

3) Horizontal Communication

• Definition: Messages flow between people of the same rank.
• Example : In my case, the other teachers in my workplace are my colleagues. We are at the same rank of position, hence we communicate in a horizontal manner during working hours.

Informal Communication:

• Definition: Informal communication is an informal network. It is also known as The Grapevine. Informal communication indicates concerns that would be voiced out in a formal meeting. Informal communication can occur among employees during lunch time or after work time where they discuss (gossip) about matters happening inside their company.
• Examples: I would go out for lunch or dinner with the other teachers and talk about our boss who is demanding and selfish as well as other stuffs.

Hopefully, my brief explanations have granted you rough understanding of what formal and informal communication are. I shall continue with the five main organizational models which have been introduced by theorists. Different models are used by different organizations. It is up to you to think and choose which model is more suitable and appropriate to keep a company running well.

Five Types of Organizational Model:

1) Traditional Model

~Background:

• Also known as Classical model
• Introduced by Taylor, Fayol and Web
• Focusing more on how to reduce production costs then the workers

~Employees:

• Expected to work like machines in order to maximize production
• Cannot voice out to stand for themselves but to follow orders accordingly
• Those who fail to achieve what they are expected to do will not be rewarded

~Employers:

• Always think that they are superior
• Unfriendly with workers to show they are in control, otherwise workers will take advantage
• They think employees are basically lazy and therefore need to be guarded

*Disadvantage: Workers are treated like machine

2) Human Relations Models

~Background

• Initiated by Mayo and Barnard
• Pay fully attention with the social and psychological needs of employees

~Employees:

• Given tender loving care
• They would perform well if they are treated well
• Supported well by supervisors

~Employers:

• Would convince workers that they are important members of the company
• Treating the workers nicely to them is vital and could result in a more productive employee
• An organization should be like ''one happy family''

*Disadvantage: Workers tend to take advantage and grow lazy.

3) Human Resource Model:

~Background:

• Founded by McGregor, Likert, Blake and Miles
• Focus on workers and management as both are essential

~ Employees:

• Given certain goals for them to achieve
• Will motivate themselves by allowing them to participate in decision making
• Get well treated but in a more balance way

~Employers:

• Think that workers can maximize their potential by setting goals for them
• Flexible, allow workers to make mistakes
• Allowing workers to involve in problem-solving in order to develop their potential

4) Systems Model

~Background

• Introduced by Katz
• Concerned with the organization as a whole
• There is no single or best way to manage an organization
• Any of the models used could be successful depending on the internal and external factors
• Anyone in the organization can affect the entire organization

* Managers and employees must take note that every part of the organization is interdependant and affecting each other.

5) Transformational Model

~Background

• Introduced by Poole
• Concern with IT and flexibility in management
• In order to compete in global markets, flexibility is more essential than large organization
• Most communication occurs through the Internet and video-conferences
• Operates in different business units, smaller units and faster compared to bureaucratic structure

*Encourage to use all five models as each has its best way to do things, and each has its strength and weaknesses. However, transformational model suits the current global market better.

That is all for I want to say about organizational communication. Hope, you will find this post informative. Would come up with the following post soon.

Self-introduction

Hello people, thank you for dropping by. Here, I include a short introduction about myself. I am Catherine Chew and turning twenty-three this year. I was born in Sabah but bred in Johor. I am the only child and live with my parents. Being the only child in my family, I am blessed with proper care and love. Although there are many advantages to be the only child but that does not mean I am free to do anything, there are restrictions as well. I could converse in English, Mandarin, Malay and Hokkien. As I came from a Chinese background family, hence I communicate mostly in Mandarin.

Some people would think those who are born as the only child can be introvert as they are mostly alone without any sibling to communicate with but in my case I am an extrovert I would say. I admit that I cannot stand loneliness or being alone without friends. I will get depressed if I am closed up all by myself at home. Therefore I always meet up with friends and hanging out with them. I like to chat and share our thoughts and feelings with each other. Moreover, I am more than happy to lend my listening ears to my peers when they need someone to talk to.

Currently, I am studying in Segi College Kota Damansara. I am majoring in Communication under the American Degree Program. The reason I have chosen Communication is because I hope to be an editor or journalist in future. I know it is tough to pursue my dream but I will try my best. I do not want to disappoint my parents and other family members because they have high expectation of me. Not only that, I hope to become a more responsible, confident, hardworking, thoughtful and successful person.

Here ends the part of introducing myself. I would come up with more posts sooner or later. I hope I could entertain all of you with my write-up and do leave comments if you wish as I would be happy to read them. Thank you.