Participatory Democracy

I wasn’t aware of democracy models. Out of the five democracy models described in the web lecture, dialogic democracy is the best in theory as people can express themselves and people listen, thus results in cooperative learning. However, as mentioned in the lecture, it can be “time consuming and requires a lot of commitment”; and some people might falter and time might be limited. So in general and overall, I think participatory democracy is the best as people also participate and have good knowledge and talk about important issues. I am aware that it has negatives such as the “unequal distribution of power and lack of information”, however in a democracy power cannot be equal anyway.

Mindful Dialogue

According to Eisenberg et. al “mindful dialogue is to produce thoughts that neither party in a relationship, nor any participant in a group, team, or network, could have produced alone” (Eisenberg et. al, 354). I love this concept. This is the “thinking together” concept. A lot of times people, especially smart ones get too proud that they think they can do and fix anything and therefore don’t listen and talk together with another person about decision making. In an organization, I think mindful dialogue is key to success as talking about goals and things to do to reach them get others involve and makes it a lot easier to achieve. Also, the saying “two heads is better than one” is correct most of the time, depending on whose minds they are of course.

Competitive Strategy

Competitive Strategy is a “clear statement of why costumers should choose a company’s products or services over those of competing companies” (Eisenberg et. al, 310). This is basically what makes a capitalist country work. People always sell what they have, may it be a product such as clothes, tv show, books, CD; and services such as massages, counseling, etc. The company or product that is most competitive, meaning the product that resonates with the customers most. There are many factors that can enthusiast a costumer such as the most affordable, the most brander, the quality of the product and service, etc.

Situational Leadership

Out of all the leadership styles described in chapter 9, the view of leadership that resonates with me most is the situational theory; while the theory that I do not like is trait theory. Trait theory suggests that “leaders are born”, you are born with those skills and that if you are not, then tough luck, you cannot be a leader. I believe that trait definitely does affect our potentials, but of course, it’s always up to our environment and our experiences that can make us a leader as our potential will be fulfilled. The best theory on the other hand, I think is situational theory as it suggest that “appropriate leadership emerges from behavior that is responsive to varied situations” (Eisenberg et. al, 278). It argues that leaders are only good if they can adapt to the situation and use the right style using leadership styles such as selling and delegating.

Communication Imperative

Communication Imperative, according to our web lecture “suggests that we're social beings, compelled to connect and interact with others”. Small groups or organizations do have communication imperative. In my fraternity, we only not use text messages, e-mails, phone-calls, face-to-face conversations, and meetings, for our chapter functions. We even use online social networks to communicate. We also sometimes use them to advertise our fundraisers and philanthropies to get the most turn out. It is true that people do like connecting and interacting with others. Sometimes even, people including myself talk online with someone on the next room or upstairs of where I am.

Virtual and Real Communication

Today’s technology gave humans many ways to communicate other than face-to-face; technologies such as phones, e-mail, audio messaging, and video messaging. Most people call these new technologies as a way of communication as virtual or unreal communication. I disagree. Although they are virtual they are still real communication as the sender of a message sends the message while the receiver receives the message. Even though emotions are not as easy to communicate with those technologies they are still being communicated; it is just harder to understand the message and we sometimes misinterpret it. But that is also the case when communicating face-to-face, we misunderstand people’s messages. I believe both face-to-face and virtual communications have their goods and bads. With face-to-face, it is easier to communicate the message and emotions as you can see who you’re talking to. However, virtual communication for some people can also be easier to communicate some things as they can’t do it in face-to-face conversations.

Group Think

According to Eisenberg et. al, Groupthink occurs when team members go along with, rather than evaluate, the group’s proposals or ideas. Psychologist Irving Janis believes that this can be problematic in team decision making. I totally agree with Dr. Anis, groupthink can be a big problem. In my fraternity, there are times that groupthink occurs. I think this happens when members of an organization becomes too lazy to think for themselves, not confident about themselves so they fear that people won’t listen to them, or don’t care enough. Sometimes, when a respected leader speaks, members listen and sometimes just go along with him or her even though the leader himself or herself asks for their suggestions. I believe everyone can be a victim of groupthink, meaning someone who just go along with what the group thinks. I myself sometimes notice myself agreeing with the decision and then when I think about it realizes I disagree.