Friday, February 28, 2020

Virtual Collaboration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Virtual Collaboration - Essay Example tal technologies that enable organizations or individuals to collaborately plan, design, develop, manage, and research products, services, and innovative IT and E-Commerce applications† (Turban, McLean and Wetherbe 144). The current discourse hereby aims to present virtual collaboration through lessons learned from in-class and online events summaries, as perceived to be applicable in a future career. Virtual collaboration through social events was recognized to be the most popular, by far. The most relevant lessons learned from social events include the following: (1) selection of topics which are interesting to prospective participants; (2) using communication medium that would reach the target audience: social networking sites, email, smartphones, among others; (3) use of innovative approaches, like gamification; and (4) assignment of roles, or delegation of tasks by events’ organizers. One learned that there are disparities in techniques in in-class versus online events. For in-class social events, there are opportunities for face-to-face interactions to augment virtual collaboration, when needed. For instance, organizers could require weekly face-to-face group meetings to resolve conflicts, iron out concerns, and monitor the progress of assigned tasks. In contrast, in purely on-line social events where there are no opportunities for face-to-face interactions, the participants rely solely on online or electronic medium to communicate. As such, there should be regular interaction using various social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter) and other electronic medium (Skype, university sites, email). Major lessons learned from in-class activities that enriched one’s understanding of the topic are categorized as follows: (1) enhance opportunities for personal interaction with other members of the class which improved one’s confidence in interpersonal communication; (2) commitment to cultural diversity within the university encouraged one’s respect for

Wednesday, February 12, 2020

Understanding cultural and ethnic identity of United States Essay

Understanding cultural and ethnic identity of United States - Essay Example Culture is people's way of life. It denotes what a people value and abides to as normal. It is that complex whole of a people's collective experience in life. It includes religion, political, economical, ethics, social and aesthetic. 'It is the sentiments of belonging or connection to ones larger culture as in case with U.S minority ethnic groups mixing their ethnic oriented values with some of the larger US cultural values' (p94). A people's culture can have strong or weak cultural salience.Cultural identity is something larger than ethnic identity; it relates the culture of one group in relation to the culture of another group especially when one group is dominant. Strong cultural salience reflects weak cultural identity and the opposite applies.Ting-Toomey defines ethnicity as an inheritance where members of a particular group perceive each other as emotionally bounded by a common set of traditional, worldviews, history, and heritage. (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2005).It is difficulty t o trace ones ethnic origin especially where one is from parents of multiple ethnic backgrounds. This can go back to great grandparents who had mixed ethnic heritage. Group membership among communities defines social identity along the ethnic cultural boundaries( Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2005).The issue of ethnic and cultural identity has been a dominant and salient issue of many minority ethnic groups for along time... This dictated the way and how far they could practice their ethnicity and culture. Their cultures and ethnicity became threaten by this dominant culture and therefore minority community became more ethnic and cultural aware of their origin as people '...from somewhere... ' (p94) In order to understand the significance of an individual's ethnicity, it is imperative to understand the ethnic value content and ethnic salience of that person's ethnic identity salience in particular. A closer look at different ethnic backgrounds of American people, we can identify a European or a Latin, Asian and Native American by looking at the salient aspect of individualism and collectiveness. A European will tend to exhibit individualist tendencies whereas Asian, Latino and Native American will have in-group orientation thus collectiveness. Strange enough African -American will tend to blend both collectivism and individualism for the purpose of survival and adaptation. (Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2005). The adaptability process of minority groups in America can be analyzed along a number of factors on the ground. First the social economic situations of the host culture: America is mythically known as 'land of great opportunities'. Therefore, immigrants were welcomed by the host culture, as there were a lot to share since the economy was doing well. This could not be the case where the host culture is experiencing economical hardship. The host would become hostile to the immigrant and this means very difficult for the newcomers to settle and adapt to new cultural environment ( Ting-Toomey & Chung, 2005). In addition, consciously or unconsciously, the host culture may have a preconceived definition of the immigrant as part of their bigger human family or aliens or visitors. This