In week 4, we were introduced to the working culture and management style in Google and Lenovo. To summarize what we discussed, the “Google Way” involves giving the workers lots of freedom and incentives. These motivate the workers in an environment that encourages creativity. Lenovo, a Chinese-based company, follows an eight-men executive committee and follows a rather strict hierarchy. However, the company has been trying to “free up” the workers and incorporate Western cultures into the company, in an attempt to compete in the global stage. Their attempts have arguably been successful, steering them to becoming one of the largest manufacturers of computers and hardware around the globe.
The “Google Way” of management very much reflects on the American society, in terms of freedom. Workers work at their own pace and are allowed to dedicate 20% of their time into their own creative projects for Google. The Lenovo way also shows much about the Chinese society, which is very much known for communism. As like communism, there is a strict hierarchy in which the top management calls the shots and the workers work without questioning the decisions of the management. Lenovo however, has an executive committee made up of some “Westerners”, with the company in hope of helping the company enter the global stage. However, as Bill Amelio had experienced, his Chinese colleagues’ reluctance to speak their minds and their preference to follow orders frustrated him. As quoted from what he told Wall Street Journal in 2008, “You don’t want everyone saying, ‘yes, yes, yes’ all the time.”
Personally, I would love to work in the Google environment, as it allows me to express my creativity without boundaries. Without tight schedules to fulfill and working at my own pace, work would definitely be more enjoyable and I believe this is how quality work can truly be produced. Of course, this requires a high standard of discipline, self-discipline. Only with self-discipline can one be able to have the responsibility to complete tasks even under such comfortable and perhaps distracting situations. Free food, massages, recreation centers- all these build up to a dream workplace for everyone. While all these seem like a heaven for a working place, disadvantages include being distracted by all the temptations and end up not completing the work. This of course, leads to the sack. Also, environments would be extremely stressful as we would feel obliged to complete more tasks for Google as we are given so many incentives.
Without a doubt, the Lenovo environment would be a pleasant place to work at too. Work there would most probably be more systematic, where everything is in place and all that we need to do is complete the assigned work in the assigned period of time. Nevertheless, working environment is constrained and there is no room to express creativity. Also, workers have no say over the decisions made by the superior, and we would still have to complete the tasks no matter how unhappy we are with the situation, leading to high levels of unhappiness working for the Lenovo. However, as I had mentioned earlier, the Lenovo management also includes Western ideologies of freedom and say, which broadens the boundaries of the circle.
The Lenovo system as compared to Google’s working environment, would be less stressful as we do not face being obliged to create something as we do not feel debted towards the company without all the incentives and freedom. Work is done and over with quickly, and we simply wait for the next assigned task to arrive. On the other hand, it might be more stressful as work has to be rushed out and completed in a fixed amount of time.
Of course, Both environments have its advantages and disadvantages, just like there are always two sides to a coin. If I were to piece together the advantages of both working environments, it would be where work is structured in which there is a clear and distinct amount of work to be done, but at our own paces, where we are able to express our creativity. Of course, the incentives Google provides shouldn’t be missed, as that would be a main source of motivation for workers.
To conclude, I would love to work in the Google environment in the future as it allows me to express creativity. Being a person who believes in allowing as much creative freedom as possible, I feel it would be the best working environment for me. Nevertheless, having a structure would be good for our working environment as work is assigned and we would not have to crack our brains too hard as there is a structure to fall back on when lost. I definitely look forward to our next Socio Economic Studies tutorial!
Monday, January 30, 2012
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Reflective Journal 1
Socio-Economic Studies (SES) is a brand new subject for us this year, part of the CSE SMTP's curriculum. From the name of the subject itself, I had felt the moment I read the timetable that this would be an extremely enriching and interesting subject. The name of the subject suggested that this would be about the link between social changes and behaviors and the economic status and growth of the country, which seemed particularly interesting.
During our first lesson of SES lesson, Ms Yeo introduced the structure and syllabus of this module to us. Basically, we would be exploring how the different cultures of mainly the chinese and western cultures have led to their economical growth today. With China predicted to overtake the United States of America as the economical super power by 2016, it is definitely beneficial for us to understand how the United States of America have achieved the feat of being economical super power throughout all these years as well as how Chinese values have helped the Chinese to be able to potentially become the economical super power in 2016.
Assessment
For SES, there are no written tests nor examinations. Instead, these will be replaced by reflective journals and class discussions. Personally, I feel that this is a much better to grade our performance in class as it shows our true understanding and allows us to have more freedom to express our ideas, unlike written tests and examinations which are bounded by the limited amount of time we have and the tendency for us to write what we feel will get us to achieve higher marks instead of expressing our true opinion. In my opinion, reflective journals allow us to reflect on the lesson itself after class discussions, consolidate our views and have a better understanding on the topic. There would also be a term paper cum presentation for our assessment, which I feel appropriately replaces the "dead" examinations we have to take for other subjects. While we still have to follow according to the rubrics in order to achieve a better grade, presentations train us to be able to speak our point instead of simply writing, which allows us to convey our point in a more lively way. This definitely fulfills the Hwa Chong mission of nurturing leaders. Leaders are able to speak and convey a point in a way to convince others, not simply writing everything into a piece of paper and submitting it! The SES assessment, although "probably difficult" to score in, would definitely push us further.
Just yesterday (16 January 2012), we had our first SES tutorial, which exposed us to what Cultural Intelligence (CQ) was. Having read up on cultural intelligence before the lesson, I had a better understanding of it and definitely enjoyed the lesson. Cultural Intelligence can be measured from four different aspects: CQ Drive (motivation), the person's interest in and confidence at functioning effectively in culturally diverse settings, CQ Knowledge (cognition) , the person's knowledge on how cultures are similar and different, CQ Strategy (meta-cognition) , on how the person makes sense of culturally diverse experiences and finally CQ Action (behavior), the person's capability to adapt his/her behavior to different cultures.
Without a doubt, CQ is important for an individual. As mentioned by David Livermore, people with higher CQs tend to be consistently more personally and professionally effective, having an edge in the crowded job market and enjoy greater personal satisfaction and less burnout in all kids of multicultural situations. Leaders with high CQ are able to understand how to encounter new cultural situations, judge what goes on in them, make appropriate adjustments to understand and behave effectively in otherwise disorienting circumstances.
While I agree that CQ is important to everybody in today's society, especially to people who plan to be involved in the global economy, to strike businesses around the world or to be a leader in research, industry or government, I believe that CQ is more or less, as Ms Yeo mentioned, common sense. Is behaving appropriately in front of other cultures not common sense? While the formal structure of CQ is one which can help one be better able to understand what is expected of him, it is simply just another ideology which everybody should already know that this is "the politically right, right in terms of social normalities" thing to do put onto paper formally.
However, as I mentioned, the Cultural Intelligence test is still good for people who want to know where they stand in Cultural Intelligence. Personally, I scored badly for CQ Knowledge. This is probably because I have never really met people from differentiated cultural backgrounds, and have not read up much on them. I definitely hope to be able to meet people from other cultures to find out more about them and would make an effort in the future to read up on other cultures or even learn to appreciate songs from different cultural backgrounds.
I definitely hope SES would be as enriching as I hope it would be, and look forward to an enriching journey in the future!
Ng Aik Yang
3S2
During our first lesson of SES lesson, Ms Yeo introduced the structure and syllabus of this module to us. Basically, we would be exploring how the different cultures of mainly the chinese and western cultures have led to their economical growth today. With China predicted to overtake the United States of America as the economical super power by 2016, it is definitely beneficial for us to understand how the United States of America have achieved the feat of being economical super power throughout all these years as well as how Chinese values have helped the Chinese to be able to potentially become the economical super power in 2016.
Assessment
For SES, there are no written tests nor examinations. Instead, these will be replaced by reflective journals and class discussions. Personally, I feel that this is a much better to grade our performance in class as it shows our true understanding and allows us to have more freedom to express our ideas, unlike written tests and examinations which are bounded by the limited amount of time we have and the tendency for us to write what we feel will get us to achieve higher marks instead of expressing our true opinion. In my opinion, reflective journals allow us to reflect on the lesson itself after class discussions, consolidate our views and have a better understanding on the topic. There would also be a term paper cum presentation for our assessment, which I feel appropriately replaces the "dead" examinations we have to take for other subjects. While we still have to follow according to the rubrics in order to achieve a better grade, presentations train us to be able to speak our point instead of simply writing, which allows us to convey our point in a more lively way. This definitely fulfills the Hwa Chong mission of nurturing leaders. Leaders are able to speak and convey a point in a way to convince others, not simply writing everything into a piece of paper and submitting it! The SES assessment, although "probably difficult" to score in, would definitely push us further.
Just yesterday (16 January 2012), we had our first SES tutorial, which exposed us to what Cultural Intelligence (CQ) was. Having read up on cultural intelligence before the lesson, I had a better understanding of it and definitely enjoyed the lesson. Cultural Intelligence can be measured from four different aspects: CQ Drive (motivation), the person's interest in and confidence at functioning effectively in culturally diverse settings, CQ Knowledge (cognition) , the person's knowledge on how cultures are similar and different, CQ Strategy (meta-cognition) , on how the person makes sense of culturally diverse experiences and finally CQ Action (behavior), the person's capability to adapt his/her behavior to different cultures.
Without a doubt, CQ is important for an individual. As mentioned by David Livermore, people with higher CQs tend to be consistently more personally and professionally effective, having an edge in the crowded job market and enjoy greater personal satisfaction and less burnout in all kids of multicultural situations. Leaders with high CQ are able to understand how to encounter new cultural situations, judge what goes on in them, make appropriate adjustments to understand and behave effectively in otherwise disorienting circumstances.
While I agree that CQ is important to everybody in today's society, especially to people who plan to be involved in the global economy, to strike businesses around the world or to be a leader in research, industry or government, I believe that CQ is more or less, as Ms Yeo mentioned, common sense. Is behaving appropriately in front of other cultures not common sense? While the formal structure of CQ is one which can help one be better able to understand what is expected of him, it is simply just another ideology which everybody should already know that this is "the politically right, right in terms of social normalities" thing to do put onto paper formally.
However, as I mentioned, the Cultural Intelligence test is still good for people who want to know where they stand in Cultural Intelligence. Personally, I scored badly for CQ Knowledge. This is probably because I have never really met people from differentiated cultural backgrounds, and have not read up much on them. I definitely hope to be able to meet people from other cultures to find out more about them and would make an effort in the future to read up on other cultures or even learn to appreciate songs from different cultural backgrounds.
I definitely hope SES would be as enriching as I hope it would be, and look forward to an enriching journey in the future!
Ng Aik Yang
3S2
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