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Building Community in Organizations

I found this article through one of my other classes, but I think that it relates to Motivation and Emotion more than anything else in psychology. The article discusses six steps to having a healthy, cooperative community.  Many times it referrers to areas in the business context, but I also think it would be applicable to everyday life.  Although the article does come across as somewhat candy-coated, I still think the general ideas have great meaning behind them, even if they aren't 100% generalizable to every type of community. 

The text discusses the aspect of engagement (Reeve, 165) in a way that encourages motivation.  This is the same basic concept that the article is getting at, only more specified.  The article wants to motivate members of a given community to take part and care about that community, where as Reeve discusses the model of engagement in a broader basis.  Engagement can involve anything that someone cares about, including psychological needs. Engagement also taps into emotions as well, causing for even more intensified involvement in the given activity.  Building a strong community anywhere (whether it's at work, school, or home) can be much easier if these guidelines of engagement are implemented. Table 6.4 (Reeve, 164) in the text shows how the aspects of an environment can trigger engagement and fulfill different psychological needs. While many of these terms are different that those provided in the article, they stem off of the same ideas and constructs. 

 

The six principles of an engaged community are:

1. Communicate a compelling message.

2. Build a guiding coalition.

3. Create principle-based versus compliance-based guidelines for decisions and behaviors.

4. Identify early engagement indicators.

5. Generate continuous opportunities for dialogue at all levels.

6. Plan assimilation strategies for new members and new leaders.

 

While some of the terminology may seem complex, the article explains how simple each principle really is. Many of the terms stem from concepts that we have learned in the past about Motivation and Emotion.  The first aspect, communicating a compelling message, gets into the concept of involvement and relatedness, and almost acts like an advertisement.  Reeve discusses the importance of relatedness (Reeve, 161-162) and how high levels of relatedness can increase levels of social interaction, higher functioning, resilience to stress, and lower chances of psychological dysfunctions.  In order to get people engaged in a given situation, they must first feel as if they have a social relation to that community or event and have a sense of involvement within that situation.

The second principle, building a coalition, corresponds with the idea of leadership. Reeve (196) discusses how leadership skills can effect and influence the people around that leader.  Reeve also discusses how power can also change the attitudes of peers. With a high-quality leader, subordinates will be more likely to participate fully within the community, and be happier with their community overall.   

The third principle, principle-based vs. compliance-based guidelines, revolves around the idea of autonomy and control over situations.  Reeve discusses the importance of fulfilling the need for autonomy (Reeve, 145-146).  This area is crucial in discussing something such as a community or job setting, and can have a huge impact on the level of happiness and satisfaction each individual experiences.  Using guidelines that promote autonomy, rather than strict rules, can enhance individual's level of involvement and engagement within that group.  This can also improve performance and satisfaction in that particular situation.

The next principle deals with early signs of motivational concepts. Once people seem to show an interest in engagement, it reinforces the leaders and those involved by showing them that the engagement is possible and helpful. Reinforcing the behaviors of both leaders and subordinates is a good way to keep motivations high and keep everyone involved (Reeve, 115). In turn, this can help to keep the levels of engagement constant in the community setting.            Principle number five revisits aspects of relatedness and competence.  Encouraging communication is a way to gain relationships with each individual, strengthening their levels of engagement.  This also has an impact on their levels of competence (Reeve, 154).  Increasing communication increases levels of interaction with the environment, establishing a perception of competence.  Competence is the need to have an effect on the environment, as well as master optimal challenges (Reeve, 155).  Increasing the levels of communication and increasing opportunities for challenges is a great way to get individuals engaged in which ever community they may be in.

Assimilation strategies for new members and leaders is applying the concepts of all of these situations into one, making new members feel as though they are involved, making the steps of engagement easier to adapt to. In short, it takes aspects of all of the other principles and applies them to the single new member in order to make them feel as though they are engaged in that community, and so that they can begin to take part in each of the six principles.

 

Can you think of any other psychological concepts that we have discussed in class that relate to this article? Are there any that DON'T apply to these principles?

 

 

 

How many times have you asked yourself about the goals you want to accomplish before you die? If not, why haven't you? Have you ever heard the quote "Carpe Diem" which means to seize the day. Or even enjoy being a kid while you can, because it goes by too fast. Well the Buried Life guys have, and according to them life moves fast, so we should slow down and enjoy it.

 

You might have met the Buried Life guys if you're a fan of any shows on MTV. It is likely that you have seen a trailer/shows for the TV show called The Buried Life. Meet Ben, Dave, Jonnie, Duncan, four guys who share the same ideas about life and the world around them.

These four guys were originally from the same town, and knew of each other; however it wasn't until 2006 when they discovered that they had the same goals and aspirations about their life, focusing on the question "What do you want to do before you die?" This question led to these four guys making a list of things they wanted to do before they died, starting out at 50 items. After making this first list, they set out on a journey to complete these tasks, and making a documentary of it. Along the way, they wanted to help others cross of things on their lists as well. On their first trip they were able to cross off 26 items on their list, and help 24 people. This led to the development of the list with 100 items on it, and the guys decided they did not want to put a quantity for the number of people they wanted to help, they just want to help as many people as they can. The Buried life eventually are going to making a film of their documentary of all of the 100 items they accomplish.

 

When talking about these guys, we have to go back to the basics of motivation which of course is goals. Their 100 item list is of course their goals. These goals come in a variety of skill level, some more difficult to achieve than others. Along with that, Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan all have high levels of the need for achievement. You can see this just by looking at how far they have come in achieving all of their goals. These guys first started out just talking about this journey in 2006, and its now 2010, and they have crossed off yet another item on their list "Making a badass TV show" with their show The Buried Life on MTV. Their ultimate goal consists of every item being checked off, and a documentary film to show it all. Along with their goals, they try to help others achieve a goal of theirs. With this, the Buried Life guys are gaining feedback from the people that they help. This feedback is obviously positive, and provides feelings of happiness, joy, and even feeling accomplished.

 

Although it appears that the Buried Life guys are just trying to complete a list just to be able to say they did those things, I think it is something a little more than that. Reeve (2009) talks about the six dimensions of psychological well-being, including self-acceptance, positive relations with others, autonomy, environmental mastery, purpose in life, and personal growth. By pursuing these six dimensions, individuals are ultimately defining your concept of self. The Buried Life Guys are continuously working on many of these dimensions. While helping others along their journey to complete their lists of things to do before they die, the Buried Life Guys are establishing positive relations with other people. Not only that, they are networking, and establishing connections which benefit not only themselves, but also the people that they would like to help. It is evident that these four guys also have high levels of autonomy because they have chosen to take on these goals, and to go to great lengths to achieve them despite if others don't believe that they can. Overall, through everything the Buried Life guys are accomplishing, or going to accomplish, they are building and figuring their purpose in life, and have high levels of personal growth.  I'm not sure if the Buried Life Guys would agree, but I would say it seems like their purpose in life is to help others. It seems like they received a lot of joy and happiness out of it, and it helps them grow as a person as well.

Ben, Dave, Jonnie, and Duncan have motivated other people to make their own lists of goals to do before they die. The Buried Life has even influenced a networking site called The Buried Life Network. If you're interested in watching their show on MTV or just learning more about the Buried Life visit these two websites. http://www.theburiedlife.com or http://www.mtv.com/shows/buried_life/episodes.jhtml.

 

As Ben, Dave, Jonnie and Duncan state, if they ever come to your town, you better be ready to answer the question "What do you want to do before you die?"

In our society social networking is booming. The rate at which people are creating facebook, MySpace, twitter accounts, and profiles on dating site are enormous. Just the other day my grandmother asked me what twitter was (never did I think I'd hear those words out of my 85 year old grandmother). However, this obsession with the internet and new social networking site makes me ask the question; are they good?  Are we cheating ourselves of out getting to know someone the way out parents and grandparents did? Are we losing social skill that we have taken so long to develop?

            I am sure that everyone can think of someone they know who has met someone on a dating site that has resulted in a successful relationship and marriage.  Personally I do not feel as though there is anything wrong with that.  With women going into the work world and getting higher educations and people no long live in a 100 miles radus of where they grew up there is a definite need for a social network in order to meet people outside of your workplace. But part of me wonders if this new social networking phenomena is just the next step in dating or is it unnatural to find and select a mate online. What do you think?

 

Below are articles that are of positive and negative experiences with dating site. Take a look at them and tell me what you think...

 

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,396461,00.html

 

 

Mothers shares successful experience with online dating

http://www.onlinedatingmagazine.com/datingexperiences/11-online-dating-experience.html

http://www.cnn.com/2009/LIVING/worklife/08/03/cb.blogging.good.for.career/index.html

 

I thought this was kind of an interesting article.  To be honest I'm not really into this whole blogging scene, but the article really opened my eyes as to some of the benefits it can provide in our ever changing technological society.

 

Reeve states that "a goal is whatever an individual is striving to accomplish" and "goals generate motivation by focusing people's attention on the discrepancy between their present level of accomplishment and their ideal level of accomplishment."  The author of this article writes beginning bloggers should set goals for themselves and "your blog won't be an asset to you if it lacks direction and attention" 

 

The author of this piece also suggests "A blog can be useful for countless reasons, so it's best to decide for yourself what your purpose in starting it is."  In other words, set a goal of what you are trying to achieve.

 

The part of the article that caught my eye was about how blogging can help during interviews as the author writes, "A common interview question is, 'What makes you unique from other candidates?' A great -- and unique -- answer would be, 'One thing that may set me apart from your other candidates is my ability to introduce a dedicated and loyal following to your company. For the past eight months, I have authored a blog that has over 2,000 readers on a weekly basis. This blog is dedicated to trends, leaders and advancements in our industry.'"

 

Kind of a cool deal if you can: A) have a blog that has that many followers and B) put forth the time and dedication to keep the blog current and relevant.

 

Anyone have a blog on their own they update besides this one for class?  If so, how many followers do you have and what is your goal or direction of your blog?

 

I found an interesting article that looked at a study conducted that stated that people who used Facebook tended to be happier, however they missed one important variable with their participants, they were mostly all extroverts.  This article addresses the fact that most people who are more extroverted tend to use Facebook more and tend to be happier in general, not because of Facebook.