CommLog

Does the American Work Ethic Sabotage Communication?

According to Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, a psychologist and business professor at the University of Michigan, there is a widely held American belief that an impersonal work ethic is most appropriate in the workplace and more conducive to productivity. Sanchez-Burks blames our “Protestant relational ideology” —related to our Protestant-rooted work ethic — for discouraging emotional connections at the office. He believes we’ve been acculturated to accept that personal relationships and the display of emotions in the workplace are unprofessional and may interfere with communication and disrupt productivity. Interestingly, in his research on Asian and Latin American groups, Sanchez-Burks found that unlike their American counterparts, these groups place a premium on personal relationships and actually count on workplace socializing to foster productive decision making. Additionally, he discovered that East Asians use less direct (read: more face-saving) communication both at work and in social settings because interpersonal harmony is valued — not just outside of work, but at the workplace as well. Americans, on the other hand, tend to treat work situations differently from social settings. The American norm? More direct (sometimes blunt) communication at work and more indirect communication outside of work. Furthermore, in his research, Sanchez-Burks found that conflicts and misunderstandings were fueled by the different communication styles used across cultures. So…will the American drive to stay on task and impersonal put us at a disadvantage in a global economy and with a diverse workforce? Sanchez-Burks believes it will and suggests that corporate socialization isn’t just “nice to do,” but is a valuable way to increase communication effectiveness, improve teamwork and reduce conflict, particularly in culturally diverse work forces.

Dubious Achievements in Employee Communication

July's "award" goes to Irish airline Aer Lingus, which produced a "discussion document," leaked to employees, that enumerated a variety of "environmental push factors" the organization could use to encourage employees to volunteer to take a package to leave the organization. According to the BBC, these "push factors"...

...included suggestions that cabin crew swap their current uniforms for jump suits and t-shirts, while pilots should be forced to attend long, tedious training courses."

I suspect that this leaked memo in its own right has served (intentionally or unintentionally) as an effective "environmental push factor."

PR & New Media

There's an interesting conversation about PR and new media going on in the blogosphere right now. First read this by David Weinberger (one of the Cluetrain authors). Among his points:

Now I think PR is entering a phase where it sees itself as helping companies with their public relationships. ("Public Relationships — Adding hips to public relations"?) I first heard this term at EdelmanPR (disclosure: to whom I'm a consultant), but I don't know who coined it. I find the phrase useful because it asserts a connection to traditional PR while pointing to a new dominant possibility. It implies, in line with Tim's thinking, that PR needs to get out of the intermediation business. It means that more voices have to be allowed to speak from within the corporation, since relationships based on a committee-produced controlled voice will fail. It explains why blogs are such a useful tool: They are public relationships. It assumes there's persistence to the relationship, not merely press releases thrown in our faces whenever the company has some new crap to flog. It assumes mutuality. It relies on the relationships being based on frankness and transparency.

I heard him make this point at the PR Seminar, and at the time it seemed to strike many of the PR folks there as an insight. David's post (and you should go read the whole thing) was prompted by this post on "The New Public Relations" by Tim Bray, which also prompted a critical post from Chris Edwards. Follow those links, too. The points about PR are worth reading, and they illustrate how blogs are conversations as well.

Embracing Instant Messaging

It wasn't that long ago that we were talking about the backlash from messaging. Not anymore. According to a recent article on CNET, "Businesses are getting the (instant) message." While some companies have locked down their systems to prevent personal IM use, many companies (including those) have implemented enterprise-specific applications for employee communication. It seems that financial industry is one of the first to take hold as a group:

"If you don't have IM in this business, you're not there," says Sal Morreale, a trader at Cantor Fitzgerald. "I tend to have 10 or 11 IM windows open at a time."

Organizations face obvious challenges, too. Go here to read the CNET article...it outlines the cons, as well as pros, to implementing IM.