Collaboration and individual values

I agree with Tony’s views on Individual Value required.

It is easy to announce: “let’s have collaboration” in business organisations. 

Are people ready to collaborate?  How does collaboration work? 

What are the magic wands that would spark collaboration amongst the members in an organisation?

Throughout the past decades, we have been searching for tools and solutions that could satisfy organisation’s needs, team’s needs and individual’s needs.   Organisations are striving to win over the hearts and minds of their employees and all stakeholders by satisfying those overlapping needs.  This would give the organisation or network and individual the “competitive advantage” over other networks or companies.  Collaboration is the key to success and is also the strategic imperative towards the achievement of company vision and missions.

Social networking could be a starting point to re-ignite such search of solutions – creating a common goal for everyone via engagement, and collaboration.

Learning is a social currency that could add value to all employees, the organisation, and the networks.  The social capital (learning) emerged through such collaborative learning amongst employees, and their stakeholders would help the organisation to sustain its competitiveness in an ever changing market.  

What is essential in keeping such learning alive within those networks – or sections?  It’s trust, openness, a will to collaborate and cooperate, and a passion towards learning amongst the employer and employees

Without trust, and openness amongst top management, managers and rank and file, and the social capacity to engage employees, it’s easy to fall back to the command – control hierarchy structure.  Without the leadership and a passion towards learning, and some common goals, networks or community collaboration would be difficult to sustain.

Whilst urging people to work smart and collaborate in the section and organisation is a goal of “good citizenship” where we should promote, it is also important to ensure that individual’s values are respected.  This will allow  everyone to shine in an organisation.

When the employees shine and learn more skills, they would more likely be able to contribute to their teams and organisation.  That sows the seeds of collaboration. 

That’s why both the employees and their organisation must learn how to be “sociable”, in order to serve their internal and external customers, not just be another functional unit at this digital age.

Organisation which runs with an adaptive network structure would more likely be able to collaborate widely with their employees and customers. 

Individual values are also required to ensure the company could develop in the long run.  It’s people who are running the organisation, not just the system!

John

Our Future Brain

Enjoy this Neurons and neuro-transmitters

Imagine each of us acts like a neuron and when we connect, communicate and interact with each other under the super-internet, what will our future brain – global network within our brain looks like?

Is networked learning always in alignment with organisational learning?

I think this is a fundamental question that most people would like to know the answer but rarely dare to ask.

What is intriguing is that individual networked learning could be in conflict with the organisational learning.   This is especially the case at this time of financial crisis.

Ethics:

During the 2002-04 period, it seemed as if most days brought to light another case of corporate lying, misrepresentations and financial manipulations.  What happened to managerial ethics?

This important aspect of managerial behaviour seems to have been forgotten or ignored as some managers put their self-interest ahead of others who might be affected by their decisions.  Take, for example, the ‘Enron Three’ (former chairman Ken Lay, former CEO Jeff Skilling and former CFO Andy Fastow).   All behaved as if the laws and accounting rules did not apply to them.  They used greed, manipulation and collusion to deceive their board of directors, employees, shareholders and others about Enron’s worsening financial condition.  Because of these managers’ unethical actions, thousands of Enron employees lost their jobs and the company stock set aside in their retirement savings became worthless.

Although Enron seemed to be the pivotal event in this corporate ethics crisis, executives at a number of other large companies were engaging in similar kinds of unethical acts.  In Australia, there was the HIH collapse in 2001 which ultimately led to HIH directors Ray Williams and Rodney Adler being found guilty in 2005 of criminal charges in relation to the collapse.  Ray Williams was found guilty of considerable abandonment of duty and was jailed for a minimum of two years and nine months.  Rodney Adler was found guilty of making false or misleading statements which the sentencing judge describe as displaying an appalling lack of commercial morality. …

What would you have done had you been a manager in these organisations? How would you have reacted?  One thing we know is that ethical issues are not simple or easy!  Make one decision and someone will be affected; make another and someone else is likely to be affected.  In today’s changing workplace, managers need an approach to deal with the complexities and uncertainties associated with the ethical dilemmas that arise.

Source: Robbins, S   Management  4th edition 2006 (p57-58)

As an educator and learner, are we also facing similar ethical issues in the learning ecology?  What are those ethical issues? As a blogger, what are the implications if the information that we are sharing with others were originated from an incorrect information source?  Are we able to discern those sources with lying, misrepresentations and manipulation of information?  Are we responsible for the provision of accurate, up-to-date information in our blogs?  What learning ethics do we adopt in our communication and interaction with other bloggers or readers? 

What happens if our learning practice is not aligning with our organisation’s mission and vision?  Examples include when organisations have banned the use of social networking tools such as Facebook, YouTubes or My Space, whereas you as an educator is continuing to teach your learners using those tools.   Is it a concern to you?  Is it a concern to your organisation or institution?

How would you deal with the ethical issues in networked learning and organisation learning?  If you have found some ethical issues that are in conflict with the organisation practice, how would you deal with them? 

Comments?

The network and individual’s liberty

George mentions in the liberty of the networked. 

“Society gave power to the individual, but also had absolute power over including or excluding the individual. Collective power was bought at the cost of individual rights and certainties. One of the most troubling aspects of the wired world, with its assault on privacy and its technologies of manipulation, may recreate and amplify this aspect of the world of the ancients.”

He raises the following questions: What will become of the individual? Collectives are great for many things. But any view of society that does not start with the individual is disconcerting.

In response to his questions, I would like to reflect on the different ”forces”, especially the opposite voices amongst individuals within networks, and those between individual and network (or society) as Yin and Yang.

Yin and Yang

In Chinese philosophy, the concept of yin yang ([yin - simplified Chinese: 阴; traditional Chinese: 陰; pinyin: yīn] [yang - simplified Chinese: 阳; traditional Chinese: 陽; pinyin: yáng] um yang in Korean; often referred to in the west as yin and yang) is used to describe how seemingly disjunct or opposing forces are interconnected and interdependent in the natural world, giving rise to each other in turn. The concept lies at the heart of many branches of classical Chinese science and philosophy, as well as being a primary guideline of traditional Chinese medicine,[1] and a central principle of different forms of Chinese martial arts and exercise,…. Many natural dualities – e.g. dark and light, female and male, low and high – are cast in Chinese thought as yin yang.

The relationship between yin and yang is often described in terms of sunlight playing over a mountain and in the valley. Yin (literally the ’shady place’ or ‘north slope’) is the dark area occluded by the mountain’s bulk, while yang (literally the ’sunny place’ or ’south slope’) is the brightly lit portion. As the sun moves across the sky, yin and yang gradually trade places with each other, revealing what was obscured and obscuring what was revealed. Yin is usually characterized as slow, soft, insubstantial, diffuse, cold, wet, and tranquil. It is generally associated with the feminine, birth and generation, and with the night. Yang, by contrast, is characterized as hard, fast, solid, dry, focused, hot, and aggressive. It is associated with masculinity and daytime.[2]

Yin and yang are complementary opposites within a greater whole. Everything has both yin and yang aspects, which constantly interact, never existing in absolute stasis.

So Yin/Yang reflects the female/male or night/day. We need both sides to make up the world, to achieve the harmony, and the ultimate peace. And wouldn’t life be evolving like that? Even if it’s a coin, it has two sides (at least), but if you take a serious look, there is a third side (the rim- the ring which consists of multiple sides). This represents the multiple perspectives of individuals and collectives.  And these attitudes and perspectives are all coded and embedded in the individuals,  within the networks, and within the society.  And that may be how cultures of a community or society are developed.

Does it mean that an individual and its network are mutually dependent on each other just like the yin/yang or the 2 sides of a coin? Without the Yin (female) balancing the Yang (male), what would this world look like? 

How would this Yin and Yang affect the liberty of an individual in a community or network?  Sometimes, an individuals’ voice might be weakened by the network (the Voice of the Crowd), especially when there are misfit between individuals’ opinions from that of the network.  The power of the network could be imposed on the individuals.  Such conflict, if unresolved, will lead to individuals’ dissatisfaction on the network or participants of the networks. When there is an overpowering of the individuals such as basic rights from the society (or network), then the individuals would be resentful to its reign. History is the best teaching for us. How did revolutions arise? Why? How did people respond to the imposition of undemocratic rules and regulations?

So, it’s a natural phenomena – where an individual has to comply with the rules and regulations (the laws and legislations) set by society, which forms part of the basis of civilization. But without the individuals’ contribution to the network, how will a network or society grow?  Some networks or society fail because  of the domination of a few “strong voices” over the weak individuals, the power issue.

The Lord of the Ring – Return of the King exemplifies how the power of the dark force has turned the world upside down, with evils overruling the “Kingdom”, and where the Return of the King overturns the dark force and restore peace.  This is also the case of Star Wars, where the two opposite forces (Yin and Yang) have their important “roles” to play in the world.  Though these are fictitious stories, don’t they teach us very good lessons on the impact of power and forces over individuals in a society?  And that there are always Yin and Yang evolving in our networks and society.

How would we interpret these in our networks?   Which are the networks that could enable us to learn?  Who decides on what to learn and how to learn in a network? 

In reflection, I had shared learning with Catherine on Moodle Forum of CCK08 on various occasions. I think we had a fruitful conversation and discussion on the Network SARS example. I realised that SARS did represent one of the most life threatening virus network in recent decades.  And she kept on reminding me on the danger of virus spreading. And I valued her comments and criticism. 

In retrospect, without such a SARS virus attack, would we be aware of the need of community or network responses to any virus epidemic or pandemic? That was also a point that I would like to raise: any meme or virus could be spread without our awareness over the network. Sometimes, we may benefit from such a lesson, if we could learn from our mistakes. But at other times it may become a burden, and we might have lost control over the spread of virus. The result could be disastrous.

A balance between yin and yang is needed (just like the individual and the society/network). Individuals efforts are limited in solving systemic issues. One needs a collaborative network efforts to solve systemic or social problems. But we also need to nurture and empower the individuals to grow and develop in the network or society. That’s why education of individuals is important in any society.  And we need to value both individuals’ and networks’ voices.

Do we need to balance the Yin and Yang in an network?