This chapter addressed the importance of businesses
adapting to changes in the markets that they belong to, which is very relevant
in today’s constantly changing world.
One of the key concepts of the chapter was the dialectic of direction
and change. The book defines this
dialectic in the following way: “[The] willingness to follow a particular path
with the courage to move in a different direction when necessary” (174). Our world is constantly changing and this
makes it difficult (sometimes impossible) for businesses to survive without
adapting to the changes occurring around it.
The chapter also mentions the importance of “building, renovation, and
constant improvement” in order to be competitive (176). If a company does not go with the flow and
change with everyone else, they will not stay in business for very long.
On page 177 there is a passage that reminded me of
how I felt about the changes that took place a couple of years ago where I
work. The book says, “The union of
direction and change protects and promotes the goods of survival and
competitiveness. This view of business
and professional communication ethics offers clarity and insight into the
unethical: on one hand, an environment with an unwillingness or inability to
change, and on the other hand, a commitment to change that moves too easily in
response to demands and pressures, unresponsive to a reflective tradition”
(Arnett et al 177). In the last couple
of years my employer has made some major changes to the ways that it does
business. The point of these changes has
been to be more competitive and keep up with the other businesses in our
sector. The changes that were made, I
feel, were made in order to make the business more like larger businesses in
the sector. This involved making some
drastic changes to the job descriptions of some employees. In making these changes, I feel that the
business was “mov[ing] too easily in response to demands and pressures” and did
not focus on one key aspect of business and professional communication ethics:
the traditions that were in place that were a key part of what made our
organization what it was.
Hi Michele,
ReplyDeleteDo you think the new changes your employer made are effective? If you had a say in the decision making process, what would you have suggested in order to have new changes in place that are effective yet still hold some of the original traditions that you mentioned which helped the business stand apart from other ones? Did you find it difficult to adapt to the new changes?
I also found this concept comparable to my sorority. In a sense, it is a business because we offer sisterhood and friendship to the girls, but we also are offering our time to the community by working towards children's literacy. We have professional guidelines as to how we handle business between the sisters and our colony, with chapters from different schools, with other Greek organizations, with outside organizations/community, and the University as well. As the colony here at the U of M grew, the colony realized that new guidelines needed to be put in order to maintain a more professional image as well as handling situations in a more ethical and professional manner. This caused some tension between the Founding Mothers and the newer sisters. The Founding Mothers wanted to keep the original guidelines and traditions whereas the newer sisters felt it was time for change. Both parties must realize that in order for the sorority as a whole to survive and continue its legacy successfully, there must be some change as the "good" of the sorority started to shift (i.e. sisterhood and friendship changed as new sisters came about with different personalities). What happens when two sisters get into a huge argument, both having clashing personalities, and the argument affects the whole sisterhood and friendship aspect? The "good" of sisterhood and friendship is now threaten. How do you navigate through this ethically? Can new rules and guidelines just be added out of nowhere to help with this sort of situation? If we look at this at a business standpoint, it would be best to handle the situation in a way where it won't harm the business, keep it within the business, learn from it, and create guidelines for the future as to how to handle it in the future smoothly. There will always be complaints and its best to figure out beforehand how to handle that complaint.
Michele, you make an interesting point about change. I agree with you; if a company is unwilling to change, they will not survive. They will fall victim to their competitors and not appeal to customers any longer. Also, I like the point that you make about changing when necessary. It sounds like your boss made changes, but it wasn't totally necessary. It sounds like your company could have survived, but your boss wanted to implement changes to be more suitable to what your competitors were doing. If I was a boss, I would only make changes that need to happen in order for the company to survive. It reminds me of the saying, "if it aint broke, don't fix it". Stay with what you are doing if it isn't detrimental to your work. Also, it sounds like the change your boss implemented affected the traditions of the company. I believe that tradition is huge at an organization, because that's where uniqueness is founded and developed. Without tradition, it's hard to appeal to customers and it perceives your company to have no backbone!
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