Miscommunications in the Workplace Essay Example for Free

Miscommunications in the Workplace Essay Recently we have had two of our retailers contact us with problems regarding shipments they have received or have failed to receive. I know this is not the first time this has happened but I would like to minimize the possibilities of it happening again. It seems the root of our problem is miscommunication in the workplace. As a shipping manager that has seen this kind of issue before in past work experiences and I believe I know what we can do to solve our breakdown in communication between the various departments, retailers, and co-workers. As CFO I know you will see this proposal can benefit the company both financially and operationally. First, I propose that the company implement a required form of communication. I believe hand written notes are a thing of the past and that we should upgrade our communication requirements to electronic mail. If we had an e-mail only policy we could have record of all communication on file without the risk of losing a post-it note. E-mail also includes the option of a read receipt, which allows the user to know when the receiver has opened and read the message or if they have not seen the message yet and another form of  communication, such as a phone call, might be required to meet a deadline. The policy might also include that all e-mails must receive a reply no matter how simple the message. I can head a short meeting at the end of the day to cover the implementation of this plan. The idea here is to eliminate hand written notes as well as informal communication such as instant messengers and social network communications. We will need to upgrade a few of the employees company cell phones and instruct them on how to use e-mail on these devices. Even though e-mails are good for keeping a history of communications, public relations expert Lisa Elias states, When delivering delicate information, pick up the phone. A gentle tone of voice can soften bad news or express warmth and caring, whereas an email or text can easily be misconstrued, (Kouremetis 2013). Although e-mail can help eliminate the outside forms of communication, another possible resolution would be to implement task management software into the office. This alone may solve the issue. There are many different task management programs available but one that has caught my eye is AtTask, which is used by corporations such as HBO, Samsung, and Adobe. AtTask will allow us to run a free trial of the software prior to purchasing and claims the product will allow us to see what is going on with our projects, if we are on time, and when it will be done (Services, 2012). You will even have access to the task manager to see what is going on in our shipping bay. AtTask even has an integrated communications technology that allows for instant messaging between co-workers and a notes system for the client list. That way, if one person speaks with a client of ours and they request a change to their order he can enter the message in the clients message folder and we can all receive the notification straight to our smart phones and computers. Even though, task management software will ultimately benefit company wide communication, another area that lacks focus is education on the subject matter of the workplace. A few of these men have worked here for over ten years and they know every part number by memory, but communication technology is outgrowing these few at a rapid pace. On the other end of the  spectrum, these younger men have keen senses of current technological advancements, but they could use some more time in learning the step-by-step processes we face on a daily basis. I propose that we run a workshop meeting once every two weeks for a total of eight weeks to teach the young ones about the process of shipping from us, the supplier, to the consumer/retailer. This workshop could possibly be run during hours if the time comes available, but will most likely need to take place on Saturday from 12:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. The instructors will be chosen from 3 of our most experienced workers who will earn overtime from these extra hours. A separate workshop on communication technology for the employees that have been here should happen once a week for an hour, probably on Wednesday evenings after work. The employees will be eligible for overtime with this extra hour on the job. I believe that being educated on the subject matter of the workplace is vital to our success. In addition to knowledge of the workplace being significant, another part of the communication process that has lacked in certain areas is feedback. Feedback is one of the four major communication functions (Belch 2012). It is the key to knowing your communication was successful. We need to emphasize in the training process that it is okay to ask questions. I have seen it happen before where someone is afraid to ask a question for fear of disapproval only to have to go back re-work what has been done. Asking the right questions can help us to do it right the first time (D.I.R.T.Fi.T.). I feel the previously mentioned workshops would be a great time to re-emphasize the importance of asking questions. Also, as mentioned in the first proposal, all e-mails must receive a reply or they will be followed up with a phone call. We must remember that sometimes in order to receive feedback it must be asked for. After explaining a work order or process it is vital to ask, Do you understand? or Do you have any questions for me? Another way of obtaining feedback would be through face-to-face technology. With our smartphones and office computers we can send a more personal message with FTF video conferencing. Google Hangouts are part of the Google suite of applications that support multi-party video chat as well as other Google applications including Sketch-UP, Docs, Spreadsheets, Presentations, and screen sharing and these types of technologies are being recommended as  teaching formats to doctors and professors around the globe (Roseth, 2013). In conclusion, I do believe there is work to be done in regards to the communication process in the workplace. I have proposed four strategies to minimize the possibility of future communication breakdowns. Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions you may have. You may decide to choose one or to integrate all four, the choice is yours, but I do ask that you please take your time in considering the possibilities and I do trust you will choose what is best for the company. References Belch, G. E., Belch, M. A. (2012). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective, 9th Edition. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. Kouremetis, D. (2013). Choosing Communication Methods Wisely for Your Small Business. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/denakouremetis/2013/01/28/choosing-communication-methods-wisely-for-your-small-business/ Roseth, C. (2013). Blending Synchronous Face-to-face and Computer-Supported Cooperative Learning in a Hybrid Doctoral Seminar. Techtrends: Linking Research Practice To Improve Learning, 57(3), 54-59. Services. (2012). AtTask software services retrieved from http://www.attask.com/services

Saving Private Ryan Critique :: essays research papers

June 6th 1944 is known as the day that turned the tides of World War II. Allied troops both Para dropped and landed on French occupied territory via the English Channel. For Captain John Miller, the beach was enough, but after only three short days of recovery, Miller and his squad of men are sent in search of what has become a very important soldier. Receiving his orders from the â€Å"very top†, Miller and his men set out in search of a James Francis Ryan from Iowa. Along the way, Germans kill two of Miller’s men, provoking the question, â€Å"How many men are worth one man’s life?† As the movie progresses, Captain Miller’s team finally finds Private Ryan, the man they were sent to save. John explains to him that all three of his brothers were killed in action, and as a result of this, James Ryan, the last surviving brother of the Ryan family, is ordered to be returned home so that he may carry on the family name.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  However the conflict arises when James is reluctant to leave and is determined to stay with â€Å"the only brothers he has left†, in order to defend a strategic bridge who’s defense is vital in determining the immediate tide of the war. Again, Captain Miller, after already loosing two of his men, decides that Ryan and his fellow soldiers cannot hold the point on their own, and that he and his men will aid the already weakened defenders in hopes of not only defending the bridge from the Germans, but also to save Private Ryan from what would other-wise be his inevitable death.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  After hasty preparations and decisive planning, the French ghost town previously torn apart by war, erupts to life once again with the sounds of conflict. The town of Rommel is slowly but surely being overtaken by the Germans, their numbers too great for Miller’s men to fend off. On top of that, Captain Miller’s squad is diminishing by the minute and all hope seems lost. John gives the order to fall back to the predetermined point of retreat called â€Å"the Alamo†. This is the point of no return, and their last resort is to blow the bridge in order to prevent the Germans from gaining a strategic stronghold in the region. With bullets whizzing by and ricocheting in every direction, Captain Miller stands up, thus revealing himself to enemy fire, and moves to get the device needed to trigger the bridge to explode.

Language and reason as ways of knowing Essay

Knowledge is also said as ‘ways of knowing’. It means ‘information and skills acquired through experience and education’. The acquisition of knowledge is done by three main factors; perception, language and reason. In this essay we sought to see the strengths and limitations of those learning approaches. Let’s take an example, how do we know that in a bottle, labeled crystal, there is water? We would use this example to explore the three cases. Perception is the way of taking messages and processing it by the brain to obtain meaningful information. Using the example above, we would do anything possible to conclude that what we are consuming from the bottle is water. That is we would observe, smell, taste, etc. We can see that we use our senses to identify the substance. We would observe the bottle, its labeling (name, ingredients etc.), colour of the substance and advertisement on the substance; we would smell the substance and even taste it (this would be last because we fear it might be harmful). All this shows that using our senses, we can identify objects and moving organism; this is the major strength of perception (immense knowledge is gained). Another point would be upon losing one of the senses; we are able to intensify the others, which help us even more in detection but surplus always comes with its difficulties. Subliminal perception is the way trying to identify objects with the memory only, for example a patient may not remember someone’s name but seems to know that person, and thus that patient tries to associate a name that goes well with that person that he/she declares to be unidentifiable. The problem is that even with our senses, we are limited in perception and it’s very frustrating to know how little we know. Sometimes our senses may deceive us, we may see the substance transparent but it is not necessarily water but another liquid. We can have perceptual illusions where we believe an object to have a specific shape but actually differs from what we have thought of. We may also have hallucination, we may feel, see, hear, taste and smell something when there is really nothing of such kind. We also tend to conclude on the very first bit of information received as we have been in such situation before (experience). Language is a method of communication which involves a sender, a message and a receiver to express thoughts. It was developed by humans and when using it, the rules were grammar and the symbols were words. The advantage of this method of learning is that it’s very simple (user-friendly) to use and every person in the world uses it. So communication is easy, thus enriching the ability to acquire knowledge. The greatest advantage is that there are many ways to communicate the thought, therefore enabling people to understand in a way or other. Using the example above, we can give important information, express what we feel and enquire about the substance in the bottle and also in different ways so that all the people involved can understand. There are also seven functions of language, which guides us to where each piece of information acquired can be classified. Despite language having a strong face of learning, it still has its disadvantages. The example above, the bottle of supposedly water, we have used our senses to identify it but without language it is impossible to give the facts, views etc correctly and even harder to communicate the information in different ways; some people uses too many words to explain only a word(can be a different language). Also different people have different views and not all will agree on what one has said about the substance. Reason is a way to justify what we have acquired as knowledge based on previous experiences. If we cannot do so, therefore we have not gained any knowledge. Taking the above example again, we say if that substance is water because it’s tasteless; we say so because we have heard, read and experimented on water. The strength of reasoning would be the rationality and logic arguments. Rationality is what allows us to say things that do make sense, we will not say that the substance in the bottle is water because of the shape of the bottle; it does not make sense. The rationality of a statement shows how the processing of all the information acquired is done and says whether it’s â€Å"good† or not (there is really a bad reason as long as a person can justify it). Being logical depends on the argument put forward as example given above. To be logical, the deductive argument must be correct and validate the argument; this differentiates between a â€Å"good† reasoning and â€Å"bad† reasoning, using above example, 1) all liquid that is pH 7 is water and the substance in the bottle is of pH 7, thus the substance in the bottle is water (this a valid deductive argument) . But sometime the arguments may be valid but does not sound, all substances that are colourless are harmless and the substance in the bottle is colourless, therefore it’s harmless (concentrated hydrochloric acid is also colourless but is very harmful).  To conclude knowledge gained through perception, language and reason is a great advantage to us, human beings but often can be deceptive and invalid. We should be more careful when taking in information, processing, expressing and justifying it. Here again we see that they are all linked!

Homosexuality and University Press - 5666 Words

Homosexuality (male). Definition Homosexuality refers to sexual behaviors and desires between males or between females. Gay refers to self-identification with such practices and desires, like homosexual, both terms mostly used only for men. Lesbian is its female counterpart. Such definitions have run into major problems, and nowadays the concept â€Å"queer† is used to indicate the fluency of sexual practices and gender performances. Sociological context Since the 1970s, homosexuality has become the topic of an interdisciplinary specialization variously called gay and lesbian, queer or LGBT studies (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender to which sometimes are added QQI: Queer, Questioning and Intersexual). The field is far removed†¦show more content†¦The Dutch physician and homosexual rights activist Lucien von Rà ¶mer worked with Hirschfeld on sexual statistics. In a survey of 308 Amsterdam students done in 1904, he not only counted the men who identified as homosexual (2%) and bisexual (4%), but as well those who had gay sex during puberty (21%) or homosexual fantasies (6%). In the first Dutch gay novel that appeared this same year, the author Jacob Israà «l de Haan told how he as a student made fun answering the questions. He already made clear how unreliable such data often are. Hirschfeld also came with the first urban geography, â€Å"Berlin’s Third Gender† (1904) in which he described the city’s gay subculture of bars and parks and the elaborate world of male prostitution. Mainly German books on the history of sexual morality (â€Å"Sittengeschichte†) that often included chapters on homosexuality, preceded and influenced the work of later sociologists and historians, like Norbert Elias and Michel Foucault. 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