The Importance of Two-Way Communication
Communication is a vital tool for organizational interaction. However, communication breakdown occurs when the lack of two-sided interaction takes place, thereby disrupting the communication channel. In the current case study, it has been seen the Petra Valos attempted to communicate with her fellow staffs regarding the new policies. Petra represented her inappropriate communication skills, while discussing about the change in policy with staffs. According to DiSanza and Legge (2016) communication should always be two-sided for proper transaction of the message, for which the communication is being held. In the case study, Petra initiated the communication in a wrong way; she did not even greet her fellows, while staring a conversation. She just conveyed the message of changed subject in organizational policy, but did not provide them the opportunity to share their views regarding the policy that is being discussed.
In addition, Petra further shown her non-professional communication, when she started the communication with a negative aspect about the fellow staffs; for instance, she confirmed that she knows staffs are not interested in the discussion, making them more demotivated towards the discussion. Moreover, Petra only represented her views regarding the policy; assumed and declared that employees must not have any issues regarding the policy. Staffs may have some issues with the new shift, may have some queries regarding the new policies, which they needed to discuss with their senior; but Petra did not provided them the opportunity to represent their views. Therefore, the communication remained one sided and incomplete, as Petra did not share any experience of common language with the staffs, which led to the breakdown of communication.
This case study of Petra can be demonstrated with the help of “Transaction model of communication”. This model depicts that people may interpret their experience in different way than others. The model says that the key purpose of communication is to send the meaningful message with the other communicators through the use of common language, shared experience along with the mutual awareness. However, in Petra’s case study, Petra did not share common language and did not share her experience or awareness with the staffs. No mutual awareness was promoted by Petra to meet with the communication objective.
Figure: A meaning oriented model
(Source: Beattie & Ellis, 2014)
According to Gestalt theory of psychology demonstrates the understanding of psychological aspects related to the ability of a person to achieve and maintain meaningful perceptions in the world. Thus, the theory involves several principles for perception. This theory of perception says that “the mind forms a global whole with self-organizing tendencies” (Andersch, 2011). The principles of Gestalt theory are:
Petra’s Inappropriate Communication Skills
Similarity: This law of perception depicts that people often perceive similar looking things to be the elements of the same group or pattern.
Proximity: According to this principle, elements placed in close proximity are often perceived to belong to the same group of objects.
Continuation: This law tells that elements, which are placed in a continuous manner, people are likely to group these elements together and perceive the group of elements to be integrated in the perceptual wholes, moving continuously towards the next object (Hamlyn 2017).
Closure: This law states that when sufficient spaces are indicated by the object, along with some gaps; people can fill the whole thing with missing parts through their perception.
Figure and ground: People can distinguish an object with the help of their shape, colour and forms, from their background, as demonstrated by the law of figure and ground.
According to the Gestalt theory, the supermarket case study includes some of these laws of perception. For instance, initially author demonstrated the trend of right side entry in the supermarket. Here, author perceived all the customers belonging from a similar group. Although some customers may turn left first, but as most of them turn right first, author perceived the rest customers to be similar with them, by applying law of similarity (Burgoon, Guerrero & Floyd, 2016). Next, floor tiles are placed in very close proximity; thus placing small tiles would influence people to perceive that the array of tiles is longer, promoting their perception towards a longer path. It would make them customers to slow their steps and review the products on the shelf. Therefore, law of proximity has been utilized here. On the other hand, author depicted that widening the soap or detergent bottle; manufacturers can make people to use these faster than a narrow opening bottle. Here also the law of similarity has been applied. It is because, keeping the bottle design unchanged, manufacturer make people to perceive these bottles are similar and neglect the size of opening and choose wide opening bottle and fulfilling the manufacturer’s purpose.
In his article named “Face Values”, the writer Paul Ekman claimed that usually people exhibit distinct facial expressions for the basic emotions like happiness, anger, grief and disgust. However, on the other hand, the expressions of the people for the emotions of fear and surprise remain noticeably constant and identical. According to the research study conducted, the cultural beliefs or ideals of any particular group did not affect the facial expressions or the non-verbal gestures of any individual. The way an individual emotionally responds to a specific situation remains more or less uniform, regardless of the cultural group he or she belongs to. However, the researcher encountered many problems while conducting the research. While conducting the research, Paul Ekman went to conduct the research on the Fore People of New Guinea, and these people were not literate enough (Ekman, 1980). Consequently, the researcher could not ask them to pick up a picture and explain what basic emotion was expressed in the same. In absence of their knowledge regarding any written language, the people had to be asked to make up a story by observing the pictures. Besides, the research subjects did not initially respond positively to the idea of the story-telling technique as the researcher wished to employ, and that proved to be exhaustive as well. However, to conclude, the researcher concluded that whatever the subjects responded seeking pictures of distinct emotions clearly stated that there is no inherent relation between the specific culture and the facial expressions of the people. Each person makes or decodes the same facial expression in a similar way. However, what the research ultimately concludes is that the culture does not affect the facial expressions or the non-verbal responses of the people in any way, and that people regardless of their ethnicity, exhibit similar facila expression in similar situations (Nussbaum et al., 2015).
The Transaction Model of Communication
While people usually meet in a social group at public places, they behave in a different way considering the presence of people belonging to different ethnic groups, race or social class. While going in a lift, often the White People move a step or two farther, while an African man approaches them. They often look hesitant, do not exhibit signs of disturbance, often their face shows signs of trouble and slight irritation. Usually, in escalators, the American people prefer to step on a different stair in case an Asian fellow passenger is also standing on the same stair. They prefer to stand a level higher than the Asians rather than sharing the same stair. Again, I the crowded shopping centers, the local residents of a country remain indifferent to the arrival of a foreigner, though they try their best to keep their possessions, such as money or shopping bags close to themselves. They do not stare at the foreign travelers usually more than once, and prefer not to gaze at them for a prolonged time (Burgoon et al., 2016). On the other hand, as far as the “outsiders” are concerned, they usually stay apart from the local residents, and do not prefer to approach them except in situations where they need their help. While striking a conversation with the local residents, the Black people look downward and wait for a while, and then approach the Whites. On the other hand, if the foreign traveler is from countries like Russia or USA, and are White, they usually approach the natives with greater confidence, and in a more straightforward way. They raise their eyebrows while communicating with the local residents, and usually stay calm and composed. On the other hand, the people coming usually from non-English speaking countries, having little or no knowledge in English, exhibit facial expressions that clearly display their lack of confidence. Amongst the gestures and body languages, they usually involve a lot of hand movements while struggling to make themselves understandable. They look less assertively, unlike the US counterparts while communicating, and usually prefer to avoid direct eye contact with the foreign residents of the new country. While walking on the footpaths, as the native residents and the foreign residents exchange looks, they usually withdraw the same, and do not prefer direct and constant eye contact. As a result of the social distance, there is also a form of physical distance that is being perceived when people of the same country like Australia comes into direct contact with the people of other ethnic background like the Aboriginal inhabitants of the Torres Strait Island (Heslin, 2013).
Gestalt Theory of Psychology and Its Application in Supermarkets
Although censorship has been usually confined to the digital media tools such as television or traditional media tools like newspapers, recently the idea of censorship is also being applied to the video games as well. It has been observed that most of high stress, violent games such as the Zombie games ask the player to employ sadistic violence to win the game. The Video games such as The House of the Dead literally need the players commit reckless acts such as murder and slaying that in turn increase the aggression and violence among the children and young adults. Hence, it requires the active involvement of the authoritative institutions to ensure that the content of the games do not exceed a specific limit in terms of violence. The sale of violent games, especially to the minors, must be prevented, while the content needs to be checked well before releasing the same in the market (Parkin, 2014). The issue of gaming censorship is not only relevant because of the violence it displays, but also because it often stereotypes situations and convey the wrong message. For example, in the Aladdin games, Jasmine is always found to sit on the back of Aladdin and does not engage herself in the act of earning coins, while the hero is the only one who actively participates in the game. While these games stereotype the role of women in society, other video games often show the White protagonists beating the Black ones and beating them is the only pre-condition of winning the game. Considering the above arguments, it becomes clear that gaming censorship is a matter of great importance as it helps the government regulate and control the message a game conveys to the public (Ferguson & Beaver, 2015). The government of each nation must introduce the content rating systems or banning systems for all the video games.
Two different emotions of two eminent beings have been expressed I the two books. While Sven Birkets is very particular about his feelings which imply that current trends of the internet have snatched away the luxury of human beings who used to indulge in reading literary works in books. His main claim is that the internet has been successful in replacing the traditional linear absorption of a vast amount of information from television, radios and books making them connected by hypertexts. This he believes is threatening the older order of things as well as different traditional conceptions of literacy, literary cultures as well as a sense of individualistic beings. However Wen Stephenson has argued against this opinion suggesting that it is matter of perspectives and choices people had made while in this advancing stages of generations. On the other hand, Wen Stephenson had clearly stated that essence of literature as well as literacy culture will still survive and is never under any threatening situation. Just as the culture of literacy has remained unharmed even during the periods of television, radios and other medias, it will also survive the current sensation of internet.
Paul Ekman’s Research on Facial Expressions and Non-Verbal Gestures
However, the comments made by Birkets are based on his own emotions and he had provided his own perspectives describing the technology as the main reason of his disappointment. However, Wen’s feelings can never be condemned by the criticism of Birket as he is a strong believer that the new entrant of technology will never overcome the literary culture. It will only be a choice to readers as readers will be able to choose between the mediums they want to opt for (Tyner, 2014). The claim that prints provide better literacy culture than the technological web pages showing them can never be accepted as a true literature lover will hardly be bothered by the medium of prints of screens how he or she will solely depend of the literary styles and skills of the author (Buckingham, 2013). However one might definitely like or dislike the particular medium of availability of the literary works but according to a citizen of the modern generation, a book or a screen will hardly create any concern as long as the work available does not disrespect literature and is a quality work saving the literature from destruction (Kransch, 2014)
To compare the website representation among two different countries, the Coca cola website of US and Australia has been selected.
Figure: Coca Cola website, the United States of America
(Source: us.coca-cola.com, 2017)
Figure: Coca Cola website Australia
(Source: Coca-cola.com.au, 2017)
It has been seen in many cases that the design of a website reflects the national culture and lifestyle of the residents. According to the current trends, in developed countries, obesity is a key health issue, government and non-government organizations have undertook several initiatives for making people aware about the preventive measures of obesity through consumption of healthy foods and drinks. It resulted in rise in positive health promoting behaviour of people in developed countries, who are now preferring healthy drinks and foods (Ferraro & Brody, 2015). Thus, for a beverage organization, they need to make people aware about how healthy their drinks are. Coca cola website of Australia has been designed in such a way that represents healthy products in first place, i.e. the calorie free products. However, in case of US, this matter has not been focused. Rather, they focused on the refreshment and enjoy people must have, while drinking their products have been highlighted significantly.
Social and Cultural Differences in Non-Verbal Communication
On the other hand, Hofstede cultural model described that Australians believe in individualism, whereas US is more focused on group work. Australians does not follow the culture of using their leisure time for family and friends; which is potentially followed by the Americans. The representation of Coca cola website has also followed the culture of group work (Hofstede, 2011). Thus, US coca cola website has included the caption of “Together tastes better”. Moreover, according to Australian culture, the coca cola website is simple background; whereas according to American preferences, the coca cola website of US is more colourful and attractive.
This section deals with the analysis of the article “Tehran art set to get satisfaction” by Howard Schneider in Tehran which highlighted the changing culture of Iran by adopting the western culture.
In the given article, the image refers to Mick Jagger. He is the British rock singer. He is the fellow visitor of the “Tehran’s Museum of Contemporary Art” (Nivi and Safdarian 2015). Although associated with negative image such as use of drugs and wild sex, he is popular and a source of inspiration for thousands of people (Kittler 2015). As his image was placed in the news article, Fatimah Noorbasch was astonished. Similar surprising reactions were popping across the city. The reaction was in response to the shifting of Iran’s culture and social environment. The astonishment was an outcome of alteration caused by the singer in respect to the medieval limitations of the Islamic revolution, which is shifting towards criticism and academic metropolis.
Recently, Iran started to experience openness and democracy as more number of people in Iran were turning to be frequent thinkers. With the growing followers of Mick Jagger, Iran encountered alteration in people’s interest in music and art. This can be explained by two incidences stated by Howard Schneider. Firstly, A while back, Iran’s most selling book was a translation of Pink Floyd’s lyrics in Persian language. Secondly, it is the same country where a diva named Khateri Parvaneh performed freely at Fadjir Music Festival (Seaman 2013). This incidences highlight the changing of Iranian culture and how people are becoming more liberal.
Iran was country where display of western arts was considered politically and religiously insensitive and hence was banned (Neshat 2016). However, recently it was observed that there is a display of Picasso’s artwork in Iran’s museums. This indicates the public preferences for western art irrespective of its political insensitivity. There are no prohibitions implied on these museums by the political leaders. the directors of the museum have also displayed the art work of Warhol and other works of American pop artists (Breyley 2016). According to Howard Schneider the local artists perceive these incidences as a mark of growing intellectual liberalism and the break of religious and political shackles.
Censorship in Video Games and Its Effects on Children and Youth
In the first paragraph of the letter, the entire approach of John while writing the job application has followed a carefree tone as well as over smart attitude which might not be accepted by the company. In the first paragraph, John after addressing his subject of marketing has mentioned that he is not god in mathematics. He should have never expressed his negative aspects before mentioning his positive aspects as that might affect his impression on the employer. He is also wrting the letter with a tone of advising or ordering the employer about whether to consider his poor marks for mathematics. This kind of behaviour is unprofessional and is not accepted (Bhatia, 2014).
In the second paragraph, he starts with expressing his wish of coming at the office of the employer to seek for an interview. It is not a professional method. John should have asked the employer to provide him an appointment giving them the authority to fix the meeting. This is an etiquette that one should respect the authority under whose guidance he would be working and earning money for livelihood. Moreover the phrase “real bad” is a colloquial term and should never be used in professional fields. Moreover, the last sentence can never be mentioned as the entire tone is unethical and is an indirect approach to provide him good remuneration from the company. moreover, he blatantly states that he does not know anything about the company that gives his carefree and lazy behaviour. This may make the company think that if he is so casual and careless in gathering information about where he is working for, he might also reflect the same working style when a bigger project would be given to him. Hence, loss of confidence from the employer would be a negative aspect (Grace et al., 2015).
He also states that he wants to have easy money without working hard. This implies to the employer that he is a lazy worker and would not be enthusiastic in taking new challenges and opportunities. Hence all the mentioned aspects should be modified by him before he mails the letter and should go through sample letters to learn the professional language.
To whom it may concern,
Respected Sir,
I, John Smith, a final year marketing student at the Henry Parkes University have received good marks in my Management Studies, Accounting and Business Law. I am a smooth talker and have the capability to influence people making them visualize the positive aspects, which is the sole importance of marketing strategies.
It would be kind of you, if you provide me an appointment for interview in the next week at any of your convenient time. I have researched about your company and would be glad if I get an opportunity to start my career with your esteemed organization.
I believe my dedication and capability will help your organization to reach the mission you are looking for. Therefore, I will be obliged if you consider my letter and provide me scopes of working under you.
Regards,
John Smith
Privacy:
With the utilization of the platform of internet for socializing, shopping, searching for nearby places, payments and many others, information of the local people are easily becoming available to a large number of sources. Although the mode of activities in regular lives has become much easier with the application of internet in every aspect of human lives but is have many negative aspects as well. For fraudsters, it becomes extremely easy to collect the information that may lead to crimes like murdering, stealing, kidnapping, cyber bullying, threats and many others (McKee, 2013). All these result in sever implications raising the concerns that how much people are safe on the internet with their privacy. Avery good example can be given here. Although Google which is the renowned search engine suggests that they have no access to people’s personal information. This can never be true by the fact that individuals often get suggestions of buying something or visiting some places while they are engrossed in some other works. If Google was not really saving personal information then it is not also possible for them to provide new options and recommendations on objects that one has saved earlier. It is an argument which is supported by many positive and negative aspects by Google and cybercrime complaints lodged against them over years. It is an ethical issue in maintenance of privacy among internet users. This is said so because from the field of internet, it has become easier for any expert to collect information (Veruggio, Operto & Bekey, 2016). A large number of private pictures are often downloaded from face book and photoshopped by rogues to blackmail people. Hence, privacy maintenance has become a matter of concern. In the media, privacy is often breached as information can travel at a faster rate and is often traceable. This information can also be merged from multiple contexts and venues online making it a risk. Recently, the attack of the Ransomware software has shaken the world as it had poses a higher threat to privacy of people making their files inaccessible. These files remain in the custody of the attackers until ransom is paid. Therefore, a person paying money to protect his own privacy is indeed an ethical implication and leads to huge devastations for many governmental as well as private firms. Hence, strong legal actions and rules and policies need to be published to make the satiations come under control and protect the human rights from frauds and dishonesty (Hong & Thong, 2013).
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