Month: May 2020

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Discussion prompts for Week of 5/25

Everyone should respond to the 1st question and then select 1 of the other 2 to answer. Responses should be >150 words each. Please tag your responses with “unit1,” “week of 5/25,” and [your name]. Categorize as “Discussions/Homework.”

Please post your responses by 5/27, and then read through your classmates’ posts and my comments and respond where you wish.

  1. Graff and Birkenstein (in the opening chapter of They Say/I Say) remind us that in researched writing we are always starting from what others are saying. That means we must first be able to fairly and accurately represent the ideas of others. They suggest a number of different shapes this might take. Try out one of their approaches from chapter 1 to craft a statement about some piece of Gundemir et al’s argument. Write a sentence or two using this approach, and then explain what you’ve done and how it went. Did you find this approach to framing useful? How/why/why not?
  2. How do this week’s readings from Gundemir et al and Austin and Pisano add to your understanding of diversity in organizations? Draw some connections between these readings and the texts we examined last week–-how is this broad topic starting to take shape for you? Are there ways that you find yourself able to connect to your own experience to these Big Picture concepts (i.e. as a member of the SU community and/or as an employee/intern in another work setting)?
  3. These articles we’re reading this week have rather different purposes. Gundemir et al raise important questions about the impacts of how diversity is framed (as either valuing individual differences or as de-emphasizing individual differences). Austin and Pisano examine the opportunities and challenges that a specific type of diversity (neurodiversity) brings to workplaces. While heading in different directions, both articles ask readers to consider the social implications of workplace decisions. Explain and respond to their conclusions about the ripple effects of diverse workplaces. In other words, help us to understand how and why their ideas matter.
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Thinking about summary and genre

Why summary is important

Summary is a task that you’ll encounter often in research-based writing–as an author, you’ll need to explain the essence of a text that you have worked with in developing your own ideas. Writing an effective summary means offering your reader a genuine understanding of the text, not just a list of its greatest hits. Your reader needs a little context–

  • what is this text?
  • what is the author doing in it?
  • what are the key ideas we should take from it?
  • and then what are you going to do with it?

Because you’ll need this skill regularly, we’re going to practice and use it regularly–we develop writing skills just like any other kind of competency, through examining models, trying it out, and repeating the drill.

You’ll find a handout on Blackboard that offers some more explanation of writing effective summaries. It’s also linked here: Handout on summary

Let’s think about this in terms of the Herring article you just read for last week. If you were going to explain this article to someone else, it wouldn’t be enough to say that Gundemir and her colleagues talk about some of the pros and cons of workplace diversity. We wouldn’t know anything about who Gundemir is and why we should take her word for it. We wouldn’t know whether this article was grounded in good research. We wouldn’t know whether the idea that there are more fruitful and less fruitful ways to frame diversity is central to her argument, or a kind of tertiary point that she mentions. We wouldn’t understand what the article is.

A summary like this, however, would offer us a lot more value: In his article…. from the Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies, Seval Gundemir, an organizational psychologist at the University of Amsterdam, examines how companies’ diversity policies affect the way that minority employees view their own leadership potential within their companies. She reports data from 2 different studies that she and her colleagues conducted.  She finds that…..

Notice what that summary does–it offers a quick biographical blurb about the author (which tells us that she’s an academic), lets us know that this is a scholarly article (written by a scholar for other scholars in the field), gives us a window into her data set and methods, and then lets us know what she’s arguing. If we know all that, then anything else that you share with us from the article will be a lot more meaningful. We’ll get why it matters and what evidence there is to back it up.

Because effective summary is so essential to writing about research, we’ll be practicing this skill quite a bit in the weeks to come.

Why it’s important to think about genre

This is a term we’ll use quite a bit throughout the course, so it’s worth taking some time to discuss what it means. We often think about genre in relation to music or movies, where we’re accustomed to using it to refer to different ‘types’ of media. These genre labels communicate something to consumers, shape expectations for what that media will be like, and serve as handing sorting mechanisms for us (what we like, what we don’t, what we’re in the mood for, how we would describe something to another person, etc.)

When it comes to genres of writing, that same sort of understanding applies, but it’s worth pushing beyond this simplistic idea of ‘categories’ (as though they’re just sorting buckets) to understand how and why genres take shape.

image of small buckets for sorting crayons by color

For starters, genres tend to responses to recurring writing situations–in other words, the same kind of need keeps popping up and we can use the same sort of text to meet that need. Let’s think about applying for a job. That’s a recurring situation, right? Lots of people find themselves having to do that. And there are ways that writing can help to make that situation work. Now, job application materials–resumes and cover letters–didn’t just emerge spontaneously. They took shape because readers and writers found them to be useful ways of meeting that situational need–front-loaded documents that quickly communicate a job seeker’s qualifications, skills, and experiences. AND they’ve taken the fairly standard form that they do (consistent across many decades) because that pretty standard approach to organizing and formatting makes it possible for the reader to plow through a whole bunch of these documents pretty quickly, while still finding what they need.

Thus, we can think about genres as responsive and organic–developed to meet the needs of writers and readers and changeable depending upon circumstances. They’re not fixed, not static, and not simply interchangeable. We need to match genre to situation–thinking about our readers, about our purposes, about our publication/delivery venues.

Everything you do as a writer is a choice. And our choices are shaped by the situations in/for which we write. This rhetorical situation consists of a few key components, illustrated in the diagram below:

illustration of the components of rhetorical situation--author, audience, purpose, and context

Understanding the rhetorical situation of texts helps us as readers understand what to expect from them and how to read them. And for us as writers, understanding our audience and purpose will help us to craft texts that work for our readers, meeting their needs and expectations and providing them a clear path to understanding.

The texts that you’re reading this week come from 2 rather different genres–Gundemir’s article is a fairly typical scholarly text, written by academics for an audience of other academics in their field and providing the sort of intensive research and analysis those readers demand. The other text by Austin & Pisano is from the Harvard Business Review, a publication with a much broader audience of professionals. They turn to HBR for quick insights into topics they might be interested in and are generally not looking for the same kind of deep-dive. When you know what you’re looking at, it’s much easier to navigate through it.

Now, because most of us are not organizational psychologists (I presume), Gundemir’s text isn’t really designed for us. We have to make our own path through it. There’s a handout on Blackboard (also linked here: Handout on Reading Scholarly Articles ) on how to wade through sometimes dense scholarly articles like this one.

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responses for week of 5/18

  1. A researchable question that came to mind was the culture of workspaces and work areas where racism is highest. What does that say about the company? If organizational culture is driven by incentives and is adaptable to society, what does that say about society? I think it is interesting with the increasing diversity to analyze the deeper workings of companies who have employees who experience institutional racism. If organizational culture reflects the society surrounding it and adapts to culture in it, how come many are still made to feel left out. Another question it raises is why do many employers tolerate or try to excuse discrimination. Although it is clear and evident that many employees experience it, why do many workplaces fail to conduct diversity training. These are questions that I would be interested in exploring further as I am coming up on looking for jobs and internships. A moral standard that is important to me is how the workplace is conducted and if employees feel comfortable going to their employers with an issue. And if they do not feel comfortable, why is that so?
  2. In regards to the diversity article, there have been a few instances in my life where I have experienced a lack of ethnic diversity, but diversity in other identifications. In the past, I have worked at an assisted living home serving food to the elderly. In this job, I noticed that all of the wait staff were female while the kitchen crew was only male. For the waitstaff, majority were white females aged 16-30 while the kitchen crew ranged in age however they were predominantly white. Although each staff member came from a different economical background, we all shared the basic superficial traits. I thought this was interesting as the elderly who lived in the home were all white, creating no physical diversity in the workplace. I never had gone through a diversity training or having a job properly address workplace discrimination until I started working at the Syracuse Barnes Center as a lifeguard where the staff is more diverse. The team I am surrounded by at my job at the Barnes Center is more efficient and we are able to have an open dialogue with each other at any moment, while my other lifeguarding job at a country club yielded very little diversity and less comfortability with addressing issues. Although the lifeguarding staff at both jobs were predominately female, at my job at the country club we never had training on how to address if someone makes us uncomfortable, only if a woman was wearing a revealing bathing suit and how to address the situation. The difference in efficiency of the staff was clear to me once I started working at Barnes, which coincides with the points made in the article surrounding workplace diversity.
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Introduction

Hello Everyone!! My name is Mikayla Fils-Aime and I am a rising sophomore at Syracuse University. I am from Long Island, New York and I am a dual major in Health & Exercise Science and Biology along with a Pre-med track.  In order to fulfill my degree requirements it is required that I take Writing 205 however, I have always been passionate about writing and sharing stories. I registered a little late for online courses so I am attempting to catch up on all my work. Yet, I am excited to use my time in quarantine honing my writing skills and getting work done.

Although I only planned to work and volunteer this summer I prefer to expand my knowledge of reading and writing while also getting ahead on my credits. I’ve never taken a summer course before but I am excited to learn more about the programs and hit deadlines although they may be a little difficult to keep track of. Although I miss the campus environment I am glad to be home and focusing on my studies while also becoming a more dedicated student for classes in the fall. (Hopefully)

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Unit 1 week of 5/18 (Dan)

  1.             I found the study conducted in the article “Why Diversity Matters” to be particularly intriguing for me. I Immediately noticed their sample size of 366 companies across four different regions and various industries. A sample of this sort should be sufficient to provide accurate data of which logical inferences can be made. I also noticed that they compared the financial metrics with the respective industries of each company. Therefore, it was very eye-opening for me to see such a drastic increase in financial performance which I assume to be due to increased ethnic and gender diversity.

The goal of a company is to make money. With that said, I believe that regardless of gender or race, the greatest candidates should be chosen for positions in those companies. If we judge people on their appearances or beliefs rather than their skills and abilities, we are doomed to miss out on the positive impact they would have contributed.

I would be interested to explore further which industries were most positively affected by the increased diversity. I would also be curious to see where the companies were located and what the census was in the areas around the companies studied. It may be possible that rather than particular companies shunning increased diversity, they simply did not have many different candidates to choose from.

 

  1.              In the very first paragraph of the article “What is organizational culture and why we should care?” the author states “There is little consensus on what organizational culture actually is”. He then continues to state that this is problematic, because if you cannot truly define an issue there is no clear path to solving it. I thought that was a very gripping claim in this article.

I found many of the definitions of these individuals to have some truth. For example, one individual stated that culture is in large part a product of compensation. I do agree that compensation has a strong affect on the overall culture of a workplace. Though I think that appreciation, and a feeling of importance may have just as strong of an affect. I believe that if employees do not feel fulfilled with their responsibilities in the organization, they will always leave with a pit in their stomach while feeling like something is missing. I understand this on a personal level as when I have a productive day at work and my mentors and managers recognize me, I leave work with a smile on my face and carry positive energy throughout the day.

I also agree with another definition in this article. It that states that it is an oversimplification to assume that there is only one culture in a given organization. I found this to be true as well as I have recognized many different departments at my place of work of which employee satisfaction is positive or negative to various degrees

If I had to give a definition myself of what organizational culture is, I would define it as the aggregate feeling and repeated behavior of individuals in a workplace. I would continue to clarify that there may be many facets of culture in an organization and that it is affected by many factors including the decisions and behavior of those in leadership roles.

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Lauren Fitzmaurice Intro

My name is Lauren and I’m from Washington state. I’m a CRS major with a Marketing minor, with plans to go into video advertising, likely specializing in sports. I’m an intern for Cuse Media where I edit and come up with video ideas for Syracuse Athletics’ social media accounts. Beyond making videos, I also play basketball here at Syracuse. I will be a Senior this Fall. I’ve always enjoyed writing, so I’m excited for what this class will bring.

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Unit 1 question responses, Aaron

  1. The article “Why diversity matters” does a good job at using graphics to grab our attention immediately and show some of the differences in company performance when they are more diverse. The first research question that I find myself looking at is the actual title of this article. I know that is a broad question to ask in terms of research, but the statistics that are cited in this article help a lot as far as pointing out why it is beneficial to have a mixed group of people in a workplace. It seems that if you are an employee of a company and you’re trying to be more productive at work, it would help to have a positive mindset and also be challenged- I feel diversity fits both of those parameters.
    In the article “What is organizational culture and why should we care?” It’s instantly noticed that while there are some similarities in the contributors view on culture, there are also some differences, and that was worth looking into further for me, to ask “Is diversity of thought in the same sphere as race, gender, orientation, etc.?” I know it wasn’t anything super profound, but to see, or read other peoples views while asked the same question was something I valued.
  2.  In my professional life I have been lucky enough to have a diverse group of people that surrounded me. The bulk of my jobs have been warehouse employment, where admittedly going into them I had a preconceived idea of what kind of person would be working there (a white male), and while that may have been the majority in most cases, there certainly were other genders, races and mixes of openly gay, straight, trans people working with me. This was a godsend to me because even throughout my personal life I strive to live by that saying “diversity is the spice of life”. By this I mean  that it’s boring just being around the same kind of person that you are (in my opinion), and not only that, it helps your performance, your expansion of ideas, and your attitude. With all of the political division that has been going on lately I have always tried my hardest to seek out conversation with people who may look at things differently than I do, because shutting people out who don’t look like I do or think like I do seems very destructive.
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Unit 1 5/18 Isaac Haseltine

The article “Why Diversity Matters” highlighted the inequality that has plagued the human race for thousands of years. Since industrialization, the world has only seen the recent few decades where women and people of color are given an equal chance in the workplace, although we are far from a world filled with racial tension we have made large strides in the direction of a true blended diversity rather than the segmented groups we still must deal with today. The standards and stereotypes that have been assigned to women and people of color have become a generational problem, where the belief in a monochromatic workforce outways the idea of letting a new perspective be apart of the organization.  There’s no question that the color of your skin plays a crucial part in your perspective of our world today, to diminish a perspective that can shed light on the opposing side of the same goal is exactly what the article is proving to be the inefficient, wrong move for an organization. Racial/gender bias is developed from a mind closed to new ideas, for any type of organization to maintain a forward-thinking initiative the doors must open to the same caliber as they would for any human, regardless of the visual characteristics that segment our population today.

Cultures are formed around sets of ideas and moral codes. When an outsider enters a culture they bring their own ideology and morals, but to fully immerse yourself you and the people who make up the culture must agree and disagree together to form a community around the unique ideology you are creating and evolving. The quote from Bruce Perron stated “Organizational culture defines a jointly shared description of an organization from within.” The organizational culture is a shared collective, without everyone’s perspectives pointed toward the same direction and proper discourse the culture can not survive at its fullest potential. The author of the article, Michael Watkins, elaborated on this idea by bringing up sense-making, and states “a shared awareness and understanding out of different individuals,”. Whether there are more disagreements than agreements, the main goal of an organizational culture is to bring people together to create a shared mindset of how the organization will operate. Therefore, the culture can not be stagnant, the world is not perfect and clashing ideas are a necessary part for an organization to grow. The people that are a part of an organizational culture can have differing perspectives, although, for the culture to thrive they have they must share the same goals and beliefs for the organization.

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Intro, Benjamin Fisch

Hi everyone! My name is Benjamin Fisch and I am a Junior at Syracuse University. I am required to take this course for my major, but I am still very excited to be enrolled in it. Throughout the course of this class, I can see myself growing and getting better as a writer. This is very exciting for me. My major at Syracuse is Liberal Studies. I am very fond of Syracuse and my experiences with the University thus far. However, I did not start my college career here. I began college at Indiana University and spent 3 years there. For health and personal reasons I transferred to Syracuse and I have not looked back.

I consider myself to be a very caring and compassionate person. My favorite sports to watch are football and basketball. My favorite football team is the Minnesota Vikings and my favorite NBA team is the Los Angeles Lakers, because of Lebron James. I follow whatever team Lebron is on, because I am a huge fan of his. I also love music. I can connect with all different genres of music, but specifically hip hop is my main interest. Although, I am not very fond of the new hip hop that is coming out of the industry today. I gravitate towards hip hop of the 90s and early 2,000s era.

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Intro

Hey everyone my name is Bryan Cordova and I’m entering my fifth year at the School of Architecture. Over my past four years I’ve taken a wide range of classes from traditional lecture halls and studio environments to cooking classes and physics labs. I was also fortunate enough to have studied abroad in London and Florence the semesters right before the COVID-19 outbreak. This semester was definitely a forceful and self-motivational push on everybody’s end though from my experience, one piece of advice I could share would be to set weekly goals and keep track of incremental process work.

Unfortunately my summer plans to work in NYC had to change but I’m just as happy with where I am at now. I managed to secure an internship with a firm thats doing interesting research and entering design competitions on how we rethink NYC restaurants in the future. I’m looking forward to see how that plays out while also taking this writing class. Its a requirement I’ve been looking to fulfill for some time now but just never got to fitting it around my schedule. As I begin my final year of thesis, I’m certain the research skills and writing practice I can takeaway from this class will definitely be of value.