as a way to communicate T plablem is that some people things they don\'t have th
ID: 400095 • Letter: A
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as a way to communicate T plablem is that some people things they don't have the courage to say in cial m breaking up with a boyfriend or girlfriend. And, of course, some people Oteade as someone entirely different from themselves, deceiving others ply ming in unethical -even illegal-behavior studies ar hefore through the use of social networks, they are plagued by loneliness. ga suggest that while people communicate more often and with more peo- ple thoh indicates h that roughly 20 percent of Americans are unhappy with their lives Recarch loneliness-that's nearly 60 million people. This problem is not unique to U.S. the t the increasing becars, health care rofessionals across the Western world are becoming concerned ing loneliness and isolation of their patients about the era link exists between social networking and loneliness is unclear, as is the na- Whett Dotential link. What is certain is that social networking has become a big part that o of our lives and is changing the way we communicate with one a of m ty of communication, social networking can fall victim to common com cation barriers. In the next section, we will consider these barriers in detail, look at they affect our interactions with others, and explore ways to minimize their impact. mu Discussion Questions , Consider two situations: one in which information technology helped you build a relationship, and one in which it inhibited the development of a relationship. How did technology help in the first instance and get in the way in the second? 2. Many argue that new communication technologies have made social interactions impersonal and that people are not developing enough face-to-face communica- tion skills. What is your opinion on this topic?Explanation / Answer
1. As given in the case, there are two scenarios to be considered. In the modern era, with the advent of technology, there are lots of changes in the way business is functioning. One major change has been in reducing the gaps across borders for communication. Most of the complex projects that are undertaken in any company might have cross cultural teams that are based out of many regions. This can be due to localization of talent and the cost savings obtained by outsourcing the non competent areas. But this brings in a time gap and delay in communication between all the engaged parties. To reduce this gap, various solutions have been developed including video conferencing and online meetings where teams can interact in a virtual environment and prepare solutions jointly. I recall one such incident. We were developing the content archival management system in our organization and apart from few seasoned professionals, we did not have the skill set to take on this project. But the higher management had taken this up as a high priority project and had to implement the same as soon as they could. Then we got in our consulting partners from Singapore. We needed to provide some solutions or proof of concept to the management and they helped in delivering the same. Once the solution was approved by higher leaders, we started interacting more though the project was completed. This gave us an opportunity to understand the best practices across the globe and helped the consultant get a foothold in this new market. The solutions we had developed were complex but the implementation was successful only due to the support provided by technical changes in communication and its advancement which enabled us to have a virtual team in place to deliver the solution.
But high dependency on technology has its own issues too. Another incident which we had in our ecosystem was late reporting of vehicles and non visibility of vehicle movement from plant or warehouse. To rectify this, we implemented a vehicle tracking system which used GPS based mobile phones to provide geo-location of the vehicles real time. A vendor who was serving with us for a long time was identified as a partner who regularly delayed the customer deliveries. The movement of his trucks were captured and till then he used to paint us a wrong picture of his vehicle locations. Though it did not have a long term impact on the relationship, we had lot of discussions and change in our contractual terms to ensure the vehicle SLA`s were updated and followed. In this case, technology helped us identify the issue within the supply chain and rectify it. The relationship between the transport vendors was completely based on trust and word of mouth but this transparency has slightly affected the relationship.
In both cases, technology has a significant impact. Though mechanisms for connecting they developed relationships and by providing better transparencies they slightly inhibited the relationship.
2. As mentioned here, new communication technologies have made a huge impact in the younger generation. They spend a large chunk of personal time on the web and using smart phones or laptops. This is due to the change in mindset of the individuals and the approach they have towards connecting with others. While one can argue that they are reaching out to higher list of people and can create impact across the borders many are losing the interpersonal connect they have with one another. They stress and take more importance to ensure everything is proper in the social media but they are not developing the face to face communication. It is a well known fact that having a face to face communication can create higher impact and have the desired outcome to a discussion. I am of the opinion that though technology has provided a plethora of mediums to communicate, it should not take away our primary mode and that is face to face. While long distance communication can be better served using technical solutions, wherever possible, meeting and discussing points helps in developing the communication skill and the personality of the individual. It also helps in developing confidence to address the mass audience when we interact to larger group via social media since though our physical interaction we already understand the kind of response we could get from the target group. So even though technology has provided multiple options and methods to communicate, we should still use face to face communication wherever possible.
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