Reflections

          Working on a group project in this class was a great process that I thoroughly enjoyed. With interactive technologies, I've always enjoyed using discussion boards in an online setting because threads encourage everyone to participate. I also enjoyed using the group wiki, as I had never used this before. As the group leader, I was able to go into the group wiki and outline the assignment deliverables, and then each group member could add in their own piece. I really liked this because in an essence the group wiki was treated as a living document. Instead of each person having to submit separate assignments, individuals could add to the existing document. The one thing for me that might have made working in a group a little easier is having a tool such as a chat box that would allow individuals to talk back and forth in "real time". I think that would be a little more interactive than e-mail and discussion boards because you would be talking to each other in real-time, similar to an online meeting. 
-Cara O. 

MMC 540 Week 2 Main Discussion-Owens

Question 1-

Chapter 4 lists five objectives that companies can pursue with interactive technologies. These five objectives are related to existing business functions. Give an example of an existing business function at your company that seems ripe for updating with an interactive technology. Do you think your company is ready to make the leap? Why or why not?

Five primary objectives that companies can pursue in the groundswell include listening, talking, energizing, supporting, and embracing. Although there are areas of improvement that my company could work on within each of the objectives, the listening objective is the most imperative. In order to truly understand our customer and the needs of our customer, listening is crucial. As Ricardo Guimaraes stated, "The value of a brand belongs to the market, and not to the company. The company in this sense is a tool to create value for the brand...Brand in this sense-it lives outside the company, not in the company" (Li & Bernoff 2011, p. 79).

The organization I currently work for is the Southwest Virginia Workforce Investment Board (WIB), and we serve adults, unemployed workers, and youth participants. While serving the participants, they are able to talk to their career development specialist about any issues they may be having, however, we do not have any other type of customer feedback system in place. This is a challenge because it does not allow participants to express their satisfaction or dissatisfaction with their career development specialist, or with our services. Also, if we do not listen to our participants, then we cannot truly understand their needs or understand where we can improve as an organization.

In developing a listening objective for our organization, our organization could improve not only in our services to the client, but listening would also help us to develop marketing tools that would better promote our services. Listening would also enhance productivity, and would give us an advantage over other WIBs (Helms & Haynes, 1992). With listening, it is also important to remember to listen all of the time, and not just a few times a year.  As discussed by Helms and Haynes, listening activities include 3 categories: information seeking, evaluating others, and responding to others (Helms & Haynes, 1992). Learning to listen to our participants on a regular basis, can also help our organization more effectively pin point issues as they occur, and not six months later.  As Li and Bernoff discuss, listening is "Ongoing monitoring of your customers' conversations with each other, instead of occasional survey s an d focus groups" (Li & Bernoff 2011, p. 69).

Overall, our organization is ready to make the leap to start listening to our clients, because we spend a lot of time developing policies and procedures to what we feel is best for our organization, however, the missing component is listening to our actual participants, and understanding what they feel would be most helpful. We often sit around discussing ways we could improve our services, but in moving forward with a listening objective, it would be beneficial to develop a listening plan and actually begin implementing it. Our organization could set aside a specific research budget and develop a private community that would deliver surveys to our participants, and would promote regular brand monitoring. In the end, improved listening can help our organization better understand our participants and will help us move forward in a positive direction in better serving our participants.

References:

Helms, M. M., & Haynes, P. J. (1992). Are you really listening? the benefit of effective intra-organizational listening. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 7(6), 17. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.bellevue.edu:80/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/215888773?accountid=28125

Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies (pp. 9-61). Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business Press. 

Introduction

Hi! My name is Cara Owens and this is my second semester towards obtaining my Master's Degree in Managerial Communications. I received my Bachelors Degree in Communication Arts through Bellevue University back in March of 2011, and I am very excited to be taking this course.  

I work for Southwest Virginia Workforce Investment Board as a Program Analyst, where we help youth, job seekers, and veterans to find employment, pursue an education, and gain skills through training programs. We also help employers locate skilled employees to meet their workforce needs. I truly enjoy my role, as it is always rewarding to see people improve their lives.

I currently reside in a small town located in Southwest Virginia. I am 24 years old and have been married for 5 years to my husband, and we have two precious boys, ages 2 and 4. In my free time I love spending as much time as I can with my boys, and enjoy baking, DIY home improvement, and singing. 

In taking this course, I hope to learn about new communication technologies that would be beneficial for the organization I currently work for. It is imperative for organizations to realize the importance of remaining up-to-date on communication technologies that can vastly improve both their organization's efficiency and performance. 

Overall, I am mostly looking forward to the last assignment in this course, which is the Testimonial Project, and having the chance to work with software I rarely get to use in my current job. It will also give me a chance to show my creative side.  I look forward to meeting everyone, and working together to learn 21st Century Communication Technologies.