The Context of Culture
Before coming to the lecture “The Context of Culture” some notions in the culture of organizations were familiar for me, in addition, general knowledge were also understood, such as that every organization has its own culture, which identifies its specific norms and ethics. The lecture was structured by the tutor. The questions, which were considered as the definitions of the culture in several perspectives, the meaning of the organizational culture, four types of culture were considered as well as the factors, which influenced the culture, Stewart’s consideration of the effect on culture was considered and Matthews’ (1995) micro cultures were also analyzed.
Coming closer to the content of the lecture, it may be stressed that the main question, which was considered, is the four types of culture according to Harrison and Handy, and the differences between them. Power culture, task culture, role culture and person culture were analyzed in the current question. The main knowledge, which was possessed, is that during the power culture there is the person, who controls all the spheres of the organization’s life, while the role culture structures the control and responsibility and the highly structured, stable company with single product is meant. The task culture is the most flexible and usually exists in the small companies, where the tem work is provided. Furthermore, the person culture, as it was noticed, should be the most profitable as the person in the centre of consideration, and every manager knows that even in the time of the computer technologies, the educated and experienced human resources are the main guarantee of the qualitative work.The other two questions, which attention was turned to, were factors, which influenced the culture and division of the work, which seemed significant in the work of every manager.
Having come through the lecture, some information was still not discussed, such as which type of culture is better and how to reach that culture. Moreover, it seems for me that there are disadvantages of this and that type of organizational culture, and it would be profitable to consider those disadvantages in future along with the factors, which not just influence the culture of the organization, but also create the factors for development of the limitations of this or that culture.
Managing Effectively
The effective management has usually been associated with the team work, or group work, which was the same for me, before listening to the current lecture. Moreover, it was familiar for me that the main aim why people usually gather in groups is that the group work offers more possibilities and opens the new varieties for the choice of the work forms. The lecture was lead sequentially and consequently, mostly without repetitions, only in the cases, where it was necessary. The questions were discussed properly and with the high level of evaluation discussion, such as the analysis of the advantages and disadvantages in this or that question, with the personal opinion of the students’ introduction.
The main question in the lecture, which was considered, is the difference in the team and group work, which were the same notions for me before the lecture. Referencing to this question, I was told that group team is when people just share some information and team work is when the result of the work depends on effort of every team member. The other two questions, which were absolutely new for me in this lecture, were the functions, which group and team perform which are different as these two activities provide different result and two different notions and the stages of group development, as every manager will have to come through these stages in order to create a strong group with the effective results of work provided.
The lecture also provided the useful knowledge in team development, group tasks and group decision making techniques. Interacting, brainstorming, nominal group and electronic meeting group decision making techniques were discusses, the specific features of these techniques with identifying the limitations and strong items for this or that technique.
Considering the lecture, some ideas for further leaning have come to mind, such as the evaluation of team effectiveness and team decision making techniques, which were not considered in detail, but seem rather significant for the manager to know. Considering the stages of group development form Prestage to Adjourning, it could be profitable to analyze the time, spent on every stage, and to discuss the techniques how to make the process of reaching the last stage faster without loosing all the experience, considered on every stage.
Effective Communications
It has always been understood for me that communication is a core element in the work of the manager. Possessing the profound communicative skills in the work is the half of the organization success, as the result of the negotiations usually depends on the skills, which the manager possesses in the communication. The main aim of the lecture, as it was understood for me after its conclusion, was to give reasons why communication is important with the references to the special examples, in order to show the future managers what may happen if to avoid the importance of communication in the work. Moreover, some tips and the techniques of the good communication were given for students by the lecture to improve our skills in the question.
The main question, which was considered during the lecture, is the importance of the body language during communication. The lecture gave the main tips of how to behave and which body movements to choose with the aim to support the said words and to insure the companion in the seriousness of your intentions. The other two important questions, which were considered, are the effect of environment on communication, which appeared to be the principal point, as the effectiveness of the communication depends on the atmosphere, in which people work, and the advices of the written and oral communication, which will be useful in the future, when students will have to turn to their jobs and provide both and oral communication effectively. The lecturer also tried to show us the possibility for the further investigation of the question through such notions as the styles of communication in organizations, the seriousness of the communicational; skills and the effect of work environmental on the communicational skills of the workers.
Coming to the further study from my point of view, it can be mentioned that the difficulties of the communication were not considered in detail and the ways how to come out of these difficult and unsuitable situations in the communication were not considered as well as the techniques of coping with difficult clients and companions. It seems to me that these questions should be considered additionally and be the effective continuation of the research of the current lecture.