Thursday, October 25, 2007

Lara Hodgson- Assignment #1

Quote: “All paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” ~ Aristotle (384 BC – 322 BC)

I think these quotes relate to the concepts that we have covered in class because the put thought and feeling into the aspects of the work place. Everyone in life has to work in one shape of form. A definition of organizational communication is the strategic control of shared meaning and understanding. If all paid jobs absorb and degrade the mind then everything that provides money for people to live on degrades the mind; it is a shared meaning of the workplace. This quote can mean that the mind is degraded because it is put a price on by the employer of how much it is worth. It is a question of how much your mind is worth to be spent doing the work it is getting paid to do.
In the Maslow Hierarchy of Needs, the need for belonging needs to be meant to reach self-actualization. The second part of this quote relates to some of the concepts we covered because it deals with the finding enjoyment and therefore belonging within the workplace. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work covers a supported relationship with yourself and the work. It is much like the human resource approach in which the principle of supported relationship holds that all interactions within an organization should support individual self-worth and importance, with an emphasis on supportive relationships between work groups and open communication. (Organizational Communication, p.90).
I think this quote relates more on the biological system approach because it has to do with an individual’s state of mind rather then general effort. In the scientific management approach, the human mind can be viewed as like the machine in which there are many different machines that are programmed for specific work. It is the value of the work the machine, the mind, is doing in which the price is placed. This is degrading to the machine because it is put a price on rather than being seen for the full potential that it could be. It is only seen for the specific job it is getting paid to do.
On a cultural study point of view to this quote, if one takes pride in their work then they put perfection in the work, could be seen that they are obsessive in making the work perfect and spend a great amount of time in their career. I think this is based on a cultural aspect because having a great and stable work life and making it consume the majority of their time puts certain pressures on individuals to strive to be perfect. This goes hand and hand with the sense of belonging and being apart of something significant. This is what people strive for when they begin and hold a career.

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