Q1：(a) A company is a system designed to perform functions and tasks in an efficient way. People are hired to fulfill these functions with the help of machines and other equipment. They are paid for the tasks they perform.
(b) A company is a group of people working together. The people have social relations with other people and with the organization. The functioning is dependent on these relations.
About 75 percent of Americans chose the first definition, more than 50 percent of Canadians, Australians, a third of Japanese and Singaporese chose it (page 83 to 84).
In your future, do you want to work at a company like (a) or (b)? Explain.
Q2：According to the author, Westerns tend to think that things will change in the same direction and at the same rate as current, while Asians believe that things continue changing and sometimes they reverse direction(P103). Which idea do you think is closer to your view?Also, Do you see any potential problem viewing the world in such way?Explain in detail.
Q3:Chinese managers performed better when they thought they were working with in-group members than when they thought they were alone or working with out-group members. Americans worked the best when they thought they were alone, and it made no difference whether they thought they were working with an in-group or with an out-group (page 98). Would you rather study in groups or alone? Explain your idea using your experience.
Group 4 Leaders:
Nanako Matsumoto
Ryohta Kurosu
Nozomi Otaki
I will like to answer to question #3☆
ReplyDeleteI would rather study in groups than alone.
For example, last time when I was studying for the PWT, I found myself understanding Meiland better when studying with my classmates, because I could ask them if my answers are correct. My group of classmates made me feel confident in my answers. I felt safe by studying with them.
However, in group works, I would rather work alone.
For example, when I was in High school, I had to work on a presentation about global warming in a group of six. At first, when I heard that this presentation was a group work, I felt lucky, because I thought I could share the responsibility with my friends, and felt safe that I don’t have to take all the responsibility. I was really excited about being able to share ideas with others. However, I found it really frustrating while working on this project. I wanted to use the power point, but there were people who didn’t think the same as me. I don’t really like giving up what I want to do. However, if we work in groups, there are times when we have to give up things and hold back your ideas in order to get along with people, and make a good presentation. Also, it made me frustrated, because some of the people in my groups didn’t participate that much and I ended up doing the work for them. It made me really angry when they were graded as same as me, when they didn’t do the work.
I actually like groups better than being alone, depending on the people. If the people are cooperative, I would definitely choose ‘groups’. However, if my group members are selfish and non-cooperative, I would rather work alone.
For question 2
ReplyDeleteI see things in Asian way, which believe that things would change continuously. I don’t think there are patterns in the nature. There are exceptions, so I try to keep in mind about it and stay calm if the exception comes. I try to think today won’t be a good day just because yesterday was a good day, or I won’t be a lucky person just because I won a lottery once. By thinking this way, I can get ready for the next thing which might not be the same as it has been before.
There is one problem for thinking in Asian way, which is that I can’t fully trust something just because it was good before. For example, I always check my alarm many times before I get into bed. I have never forgotten to put my alarm on, but still I can’t trust myself.
I would like to answer question 3.
ReplyDeleteI think I prefer working in a group because I think there is a limit to individual`s ability, and cooperation of two or more mind can result to a better work. In my recent project in Asian Study class, I worked together with Tsuru-chan on how we will explain our topic in our presentation. If I were alone, I could not make the points clear, but because two of us could share ideas, and could add missing points on each other`s ideas, we could make it into some kind of a shape. If there is an effective cooperation, the work would definitely be a better one, so I prefer studying in groups.
I will answer for question1.
ReplyDeleteI’d like to work for a company like (b) in the future. It is because I can work harder if feel I belong to a certain group than when I do not feel so. My parents are teachers and they get along well with their colleagues. They often told me what happened in their working place and how they overcame the problem in cooperate. I liked listening to their talking and I felt happy when they talked about their job.
That is why I want to make good relation with working member. Cooperation is necessary when I hit the wall and fail in something. If my working member hit the wall, I would like to help them as hard as I can. Working is going to be a big part of my life, so I want to feel comfortable when I work. I feel comfortable, when I do something with someone.
For most of the times, I would rather study in groups than alone. I used to think that there are more responsibilities when you study alone than in groups, but now I think the opposite. There are more responsibilities when you study in groups because you have to take part of the job not just for yourself but for the group mates.
ReplyDeleteStudying in groups gives me more pressure and responsibilities. However, at the same time, if everyone studies in group cooperatively, it would helpful and effective for each individual. For example, when I was in high school, I hated to study World History. I could not understand my teacher’s explanation. However, once I started studying World History with some of my classmate’s afterschool, I begin to gain better grades than before. I tend to think “I’ll do it tomorrow” when I’m studying alone, but by studying with my friends, I feel more responsibility to study and group members will encourage me to study even more. Therefore, I would rather study in groups.
Thank you for your comment Yuriko!:)
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about cooperation in the working place. It is because working environment greatly affects our "affective filter". It's like our ELP classe!I get motivated thanks to my peers. Without good relationship among peers, we wouldn't be checking each others essay or study for PWT together.
For question3
ReplyDeleteI need both types of study. If I emphasize group study too much, I can hardly pursue or sophisticate my own idea and then get less understanding of the subject. On the other hand, studying alone all the time takes away my diversity of thinking and may push me into kind of dogmatism. Therefore I believe that keeping the balance of both group and individual study brings biggest effect on my learning.
I am going to answer Question 3.
ReplyDeleteI prefer studying alone. First of all, I don't like group works. Working in a group gives me huge stresses. When we do group works, we have to find the time when everyone can come and gather. For that, we might have to change our schedules or wait for them. After we get together in groups, things don’t go smoothly. Some are lazy or don’t listen while the other even don’t appear to the meeting. Off course not all people are uncooperative. But when those kinds of things happen, I loose my consentration on the project and begin to think why I can’t just handle the work all by myself or work with only who have the passions. When I do projects alone, it is less stress to me. Although, working in groups available more information and views, so it is actually better than working alone.
answering No.3
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, I think it would be better to work alone because you can concentrate on making up your mind without being disturved by others.
If you work with others, not everyone has the same idea so first of all, it takes time to decide and there will be a loss of time. In addition, when you have an idea different from others, some good ideas might be turned down as we usualy follow major ideas. So for many reasons, people should work on something by their selves.
Question #3
ReplyDeleteI would rather study in group because you will be able to get new ideas and opinions from the members of the group. Just like there is a proverb “two heads are better than one”, the other member may come up with new ideas or opinions you have never thought of. As Fisher stated in Perception of Self, even though we are looking at the same thing, we all have different perceptions and different point of views. That is why we can acquire new ideas from the group members and make the study even more valuable. In addition, when we work on a project in a group, we can distribute the work between the members in order to get the project done quickly.
I'll comment on Q2.
ReplyDeleteI have a closer view of Asians.
It's it is like I'm walking along with the circle; from good to bad to good, or from bad to good to bad (108).
Like Nozomi (Shiraishi one!) mentioned earlier, your happiness today will not guarantee your happiness for tomorrow. Likewise, you might be happy tomorrow even thought you think that today is really bad day.
And I think that is why that we have to take responsibility for our life, and try to make it better.
Things change, so does our life.
I do not give up to be happy only because I am not happy right now.
I do not feel content with my success because, tomorrow, I may not.
One of the potential problem with this view is that I may not be able to fully enjoy your exciting moment. Even you are extremely happy, you think that you will not be happy tomorrow and cannot enjoy your moment. (Maybe a close idea to Nozomi's, “I can’t fully trust something just because it was good before”).
For example, you have a new boyfriend or a girlfriend, but you cannot enjoy your date today because you worry if you will broke up with him or her.
In other words, you worry too much about the future.
However, this is not my case since I think that it is essential to have a bad day to have a good day.
Yes, bad things happen, but they are like a spice that make your life more enjoyable and exciting.
By thinking this way, I can fully enjoy my moment (if that is bad or good) and my life.
Thank you for your comment,Nozomi.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your expression "exception" in nature.
And I like your example of the alarm. I cannot help but worry that the thing I did well today might go wrong tomorrow. It may be a stressful thing,but I guess it is important to get ready for the "worst".
Thank you for your comment, Kanako.
ReplyDeleteSo you think that things change, and our life,too,however we should not worry about that too much.
I like your idea of "spice"! Just like cooking, some spicy or bitter things are needed to make our life "delicious"; they make our life more fruitful, I guess.
omg i posted the comment but it disappeared! okay, im going to write from the begining-.-
ReplyDeletei would like to answer for question1.
I want to work at company which has function like (b) in the future. If I am paid for the tasks I perform, like (a) said, I feel like a robot or something doing only what others told to do. Since I am human and have an ability to communicate, I want to use that ability for working. I will be able to be more active and have passion for my job and it will also be better for company itself. As Morgan said, by communicating with others we can have new and more likely to be true ideas.
For Question #1
ReplyDeleteIn the future, I want to work in a company that has the idea of (b), where they work together as a group. I have experienced working together with my teammates in clubs and committees. The experience that I remember the most is the one that I had when I was the leader of the strings orchestra club in high school. Being the top position in a large group, I thought I must always look out for problems and take care of almost everything that happened within the club. I thought that the whole responsibility of the orchestra rested on me. Therefore, I did not ask for help so much even though I had a hard time completing them. Eventually, I got so tired an stressed out that other members who were in the same grade as me noticed that I was doing all the work on my own. They told me to trust them and rely on them more. It was not that I did not trust them, but I had forgotten that we can work together to make the orchestra better. After I realized that I had them, we started to work together. Occasionally, our opinions would differ and we would have arguments, but the club definitely became a better place than it was when I was doing all the work by myself.
From this experience, I learned that working as a team is beneficial in many ways. We will be able to cover up for each others’ mistakes, you can have a break sometimes and prevent from being tired, you will obtain a wider perspective because you will share ideas with your teammates, and so on. In my opinion, rather than working alone, working together in a group will lead to a better result. Thus, I want to work at a company that bases the idea of (b) in the future.
Sorry for commenting so late!
I will answer #2.
ReplyDeleteMy views are more like the asian way, I think things change in unexpected ways and it is always suprising how things turn out. I expect it to be so, so how things turn out is what you get. No more or no less. Even though I think this way I do get frustrated with changes though. Like having a favorite player suffer a drop in ability because of age. Your brain knows it but you just don't like the situation.
Thank you for your comment Mai!!!
ReplyDeleteYour experience as a top position of the orchestra is a very good example of how group and cooperation can be beneficial for us in many ways. Thank you for sharing the perfect example! I think your idea kind of relates to what Meiland was saying in "Social justification". Meiland explained in that part that we can reach the best solution when we "reason" and "argue for or against one side or the other".
Thank you for your comment Kyosuke!
ReplyDeleteSo you think that you need both types of study. I thougt that what you wrote sounds a bit like Morgan. Morgan said that scholars are to communicate through both writing and speaking. Communicateing through speaking is like studying with numbers of people wheres through writing can "winds up writing to himself".
For question 3
ReplyDeleteI would rather study in a group than study alone. Cooperating with group members solves problems and questions I have and gives dramatic ideas that I had never think of. For example, the night before PWT test, all Program C students of KEYAKI dorm get together and work together to make sure we all understand the PWT questions. I found myself that I had misunderstood some parts of Meiland and this group work helped me to understand the text much better.
However, I would rather study alone when every group members have different things to do. Even they get together, they would not need communication which loses the point to work together. I remember that once my friends and I get together to work at my friend home, we did work but find no advantages to be together. It was because we did not have any talking about work.
Therefore I think I rather study with a group unless a group members and I work on same or similar subject.
Thank you for your comment Moe!
ReplyDeleteI understand Moe’s idea very well, studying in groups have merits and demerits. As Moe have said we can have better understanding of a subject by studying with other people. Also we can see the different viewpoints and opinions by sharing ideas. When studying in groups all members of the group must be cooperative.
In Moe’s case, I think those people who did not work should not have gotten same grade as Moe did. On the other hand, I also think that Moe should have scolded those people because it is not a group work unless everyone is doing their job.
Thank you for your comment Obinata!
ReplyDeleteI understand Obinata’s idea. When we share ideas we can have better understanding and can also know different viewpoints of a subject. However, I think studying alone is better than studying in groups. If you do not understand a certain subject you just have to ask your teacher. In addition, your teacher can help you phrase your idea into words.
If you are working alone you do not have to arrange schedule with other people in the group, therefore you can study when you can. And most importantly, there are times some people do not work at all. If that happens group working will be nothing more than stressful. Therefore I think studying alone is better than studying in groups.
Thank you for your comment Yurika!
ReplyDeleteI think studying in groups requires more responsibility than studying alone too. For example, in blog discussion my group members had to make questions to post. In order to do that we had to read the book and find what is really important. In addition, doing the work on time is also important because we must share our questions and decide which questions to use. Therefore I truly agree that studying in groups need cooperation and responsibility than studying alone.
Thanks for commenting Leo!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your idea that you can concentrate by studying alone. When studying in groups, there are times you hesitate to ask a question or say your opinion because of “ kuuki”. I think that “kuuki” will be made if you do any group works. However, if you work alone you can make any “kuuki” you like or you can even choose not to make “kuuki” at all.
Thank you for your comment Yukie!
ReplyDeleteI understand your idea but does it work for everybody? Even if every one of the group members has different ideas we cannot help but be sensitive to “kuuki”. Unless the group members are constructed with people whom you can say your idea, we cannot help but think whether it is okay for you to say your idea; “If East Asians must coordinate their behavior with others and adjust to situations, we would expect them to attend more closely to other people’s attitudes and behaviors than do Westerners” (page 86). I think Yukie had a time you could not say what you wanted to say. For example, it is hard to raise your hand during the class and say your opinion to the class, but if you were to write a comment on comment sheet you can write what you want to say. I understand that we can create new ideas through group works but it is also true that not all the people can say their opinion.
I am guving my opinion to Q3.
ReplyDeleteI do not think I can pick my answer from either one because I think I can work better when it does not require help others, and to the contrary, of course, it is better to have a person or some people studying with me when it comes to working on complex problems requiring other's help.
Simple math problems, memorizing terms or events in science and history, these do not require cooperative working unless the person is completely lost on how to solve it even after reading reference books. Since these forms of studying are mechanical process in that therse do not require development in thinking.
However, when it comes to essays and reports, other's opinions or peer editting are what make one's piece a better one in that they get more concincing and strong after going through multisides view.
Therefore I prefer working alone when working on imput working or simple mechanical work, but I also prefer working with others when working on disputable topics.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteI'll answer number 1.
ReplyDeleteI'd choose (a), because I'd want to work in an environment that respects individual actions and abilities.
I recently read an interesting newspaper article about a Japanese company that introduced a new system to its office: to hold a BBQ party every week. The aim was basically to strengthen "bonds" between workers, and thus increase productivity.
I thought this was really weird. First of all, there is an assumption that says "strong relationships increase productivity". Of course, relationships are important and they certainly do have an effect on productivity. But this is only to a certain extent. Productivity has other countless factors like techniques, technology, time management, etc. Second, a really good working environment will enable good, strong bonds to develop on its own anyway, without having to hold BBQ parties. By a "good working environment", I mean that if workers are able to pursue their strongest abilities and work on individual things they like doing best, there's nothing better for them. They'd be happy for their given freedom, and thus would be willing to respect others and their interests, because they'd want the same respect from others as well. This "respect for individuality" is what really composes the strong bonds, not just little BBQ parties held on precious weekends.
But who knows, maybe the BBQ parties do work in Japanese companies. the article said that the company just introduced this system, so the outcomes are still yet to be known. But in any case, I doubt that there would be increased productivity anyway.
Naoko Thank you for your comment and sharing the news paper article with us!
ReplyDeleteI think I’ve read about the company before. I felt the same thing too. Especially now I strongly believe that bonds formed through BBQ or parties are very fragile after I've been to some of the shinkan BBQs and parties. I feel that the relation formed through such fun parties can be just temporary. One can say something one doesn’t believe at all under the circumstance. Most people do not remember the encounter at that party. On the other hand, the relation formed when we sit down and have conversation or when we go through difficulties together is more likely to become strong ties. We come to understand the others' values and respect them. Like you said, I believe "the respect for individuality" creates strong ties each other.
Well, let's see what happens with the company's productivity:)
Thank you for your comment Haruka!
ReplyDeleteI agree with your opinion that having passion for one’s work is also better for company itself. It is very clear from my experience productivity is proportional to our passion and motivation for the task. When I am passionate about something, I can concentrate on the task very hard and produce a very good complete product. Also, I think that doing something told by someone limits our possibility to produce something better and hinder us to make improvement. Therefore, I believe that (B) is much beneficial for company.
Thank you for your comment Tsuru-cyan( Yumi)!!
ReplyDeleteThat’s great that you are working together in the dorm too!! I wish GINGKO dorm could have done something like that! I agree with your second opinion. I also believe that there is no point in studying different subjects together. If I am to point out something good about it, that would be I can see what other subjects are like. But other than that, it seems that there is no merit doing it. We might end up talking about something completely irrelevant to the topic of the study and waste time.