Cultural programming includes "learning values (dominant beliefs and attitudes)"[1]. And cultural diversity challenges values. Many of the things that we know from childhood as the things that "ought to be so" can be easily challenged by a person from another culture. With the globalization most of these differences should be blurred, and more and more often we see global culture ruling the world. Is it bad or good?
Globalization brings tolerance.
Diversity brings alternatives.
And both do not exclude each other
1)Jones, M. and Alony, I. (2007) The Cultural Impact of Information Systems -- Through the Eyes of Hofstede -- A Critical Journey, Issues in Informing Science & Information Technology, 4, pp. 407-419.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Writing Desease
Some people as the result of their daily job responsibilities get into habit of writing tons of unnecessary information.
Note to myself: always remember that any written word should have its purpose
Note to myself: always remember that any written word should have its purpose
Research Motto
"...leverage the positive aspects of diversity while limiting its negative aspects"
(Carte, T. and Chidambaram, L. (2004) A Capabilities-Based Theory of Technology Deployment in Diverse Teams: Leapfrogging the Pitfalls of Diversity and Leveraging Its Potential with Collaborative Technology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 5(11/12), pp. 448-471.
)
(Carte, T. and Chidambaram, L. (2004) A Capabilities-Based Theory of Technology Deployment in Diverse Teams: Leapfrogging the Pitfalls of Diversity and Leveraging Its Potential with Collaborative Technology, Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 5(11/12), pp. 448-471.
)
What Color Is Your Research
This is one of the questions that Badenhurst suggests to answer. For me it is always green. It is somewhat strange for me as almost everything positive in my life is blue. But blue research is boring isn't it? :-)
I think it is light green, because it is fresh, newly born, weak physically (but strong in spirit!). It is a celebration and inspiration and a way forward. It is my life and life should be bright.
When I was thinking about the color of my research, I was lying in bed and my laptop was far away, so I could not check my blog and I was worried that the color theme was blue there. Luckily, today I've looked and I see that it is green. But I think I must make it brighter :-) Spring clean!
I think it is light green, because it is fresh, newly born, weak physically (but strong in spirit!). It is a celebration and inspiration and a way forward. It is my life and life should be bright.
When I was thinking about the color of my research, I was lying in bed and my laptop was far away, so I could not check my blog and I was worried that the color theme was blue there. Luckily, today I've looked and I see that it is green. But I think I must make it brighter :-) Spring clean!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Clearly Precious Information ....
Taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weasel_word:
* "A growing body of evidence..."[8] (Where is the raw data for your review?)
* "People say..." (Which people? How do they know?)
* "It has been claimed that..." (By whom, where, when?)
* "Critics claim..." (Which critics?)
* "Clearly..." (As if the premise is undeniably true)
* "It stands to reason that..." (Again, as if the premise is undeniably true—see "Clearly" above)
* "Questions have been raised..." (Implies a fatal flaw has been discovered)
* "I heard that..." (Who told you? Is the source reliable?)
* "There is evidence that..." (What evidence? Is the source reliable?)
* "Experience shows that..." (Whose experience? What was the experience? How does it demonstrate this?)
* "It has been mentioned that..." (Who are these mentioners? Can they be trusted?)
* "Popular wisdom has it that..." (Is popular wisdom a test of truth?)
* "Commonsense has it/insists that..." (The common sense of whom? Who says so? See "Popular wisdom" above, and "It is known that" below)
* "It is known that..." (By whom and by what method is it known?)
* "Officially known as..." (By whom, where, when—who says so?)
* "It turns out that..." (How does it turn out?)
* "It was noted that..." (A commonly used start of a line by Auditors with poor workpapers or little evidence)
* "Our product is so good, it was even given away in celebrity gift bags." (True, perhaps, but not relevant.)
* "See why more of our trucks are sold in Southern California than in any other part of the country." (Southern California is a big vehicle market.)
* "Nobody else's product is better than ours." (What is the evidence of this?)
* "Studies show..." (what studies?)
* "(The phenomenon) came to be seen as..." (by whom?)
* "Some argue..." (who?)
* "Up to sixty percent..." (so, 59%? 50%? 10%?)
* "More than seventy percent..." (How many more? 70.01%? 80%? 90%?)
* "The vast majority..." (All, almost all, more than half—how many?)
* "A growing body of evidence..."[8] (Where is the raw data for your review?)
* "People say..." (Which people? How do they know?)
* "It has been claimed that..." (By whom, where, when?)
* "Critics claim..." (Which critics?)
* "Clearly..." (As if the premise is undeniably true)
* "It stands to reason that..." (Again, as if the premise is undeniably true—see "Clearly" above)
* "Questions have been raised..." (Implies a fatal flaw has been discovered)
* "I heard that..." (Who told you? Is the source reliable?)
* "There is evidence that..." (What evidence? Is the source reliable?)
* "Experience shows that..." (Whose experience? What was the experience? How does it demonstrate this?)
* "It has been mentioned that..." (Who are these mentioners? Can they be trusted?)
* "Popular wisdom has it that..." (Is popular wisdom a test of truth?)
* "Commonsense has it/insists that..." (The common sense of whom? Who says so? See "Popular wisdom" above, and "It is known that" below)
* "It is known that..." (By whom and by what method is it known?)
* "Officially known as..." (By whom, where, when—who says so?)
* "It turns out that..." (How does it turn out?)
* "It was noted that..." (A commonly used start of a line by Auditors with poor workpapers or little evidence)
* "Our product is so good, it was even given away in celebrity gift bags." (True, perhaps, but not relevant.)
* "See why more of our trucks are sold in Southern California than in any other part of the country." (Southern California is a big vehicle market.)
* "Nobody else's product is better than ours." (What is the evidence of this?)
* "Studies show..." (what studies?)
* "(The phenomenon) came to be seen as..." (by whom?)
* "Some argue..." (who?)
* "Up to sixty percent..." (so, 59%? 50%? 10%?)
* "More than seventy percent..." (How many more? 70.01%? 80%? 90%?)
* "The vast majority..." (All, almost all, more than half—how many?)
Diversity Faultlines
Found a very interesting article [1] introducing a concept of group faultline, which is defined as a feature, which can potentially divide a group into subgroups. Potentially it can be any feature: age, sex, profession, educational background, physical characteristics, intellectual features etc. In general, the probability of the division and forming of stable subgroups depends on alignment of several faultlines, i.e. if a group consists of 2 20-year old males and 3 40-year-old females - they will probably form subgroups.
Another important thing - physical, easily-visible characteristics (gender, age, race, language spoken etc) tend to create subgroups faster and can stay on the way of the formation of subgroups based on interests and intellectual preferences. "Although group members can categorize themselves in many different ways, they typically have a harder time denying their demographic attributes." (1). This, I believe, is usually undesirable if we are seeking intellectual contact and compatibility (and we are seeking it, aren't we?)
1)Lau, D. C. and Murnighan, J. K. (1998) Demographic Diversity and Faultlines: The Compositional Dynamics of Organizational Groups, The Academy of Management Review, 23(2), pp. 325-340.
Another important thing - physical, easily-visible characteristics (gender, age, race, language spoken etc) tend to create subgroups faster and can stay on the way of the formation of subgroups based on interests and intellectual preferences. "Although group members can categorize themselves in many different ways, they typically have a harder time denying their demographic attributes." (1). This, I believe, is usually undesirable if we are seeking intellectual contact and compatibility (and we are seeking it, aren't we?)
1)Lau, D. C. and Murnighan, J. K. (1998) Demographic Diversity and Faultlines: The Compositional Dynamics of Organizational Groups, The Academy of Management Review, 23(2), pp. 325-340.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
About Fear
Sometimes when I walk on a sore feet stepping on uneven surface - I'm not sure and make very small steps. I'm not sure in my life now - I take very small steps and moving very slowly. Is it good or bad? I don't want to be a tortoise, but I also do not want to be hurt unnecessary. Eventually I'm unsure of what I can achieve and therefore scared. Looks like uncertainty avoidance again :-) Need to keep it in mind and try to reduce this fear.
"People implicitly categorize themselves into subgroups according to salient
cues and identify more closely with people they perceive as being similar to themselves. They do this to achieve and maintain positive self-identity."[1] Another creeping fear - loss of identity, becoming somebody unknown to myself and unusual to people who know me. Well, fear stays there, but moving forward means changing and the circle of people around me will change inevitably. Though it would be nice if there will be people who will stay independently of my change.
Another great fear: that I'm doing something totally wrong in life and wasting time. Stupid fear, because how can you assess if you are doing a right thing if you do not know what is right? We are just doing something random and something that looks exciting and meaningful at the moment. Obviously, we are changing on the way and meaningful becomes something else. One way to avoid the change is take a written word for granted and follow a set of rules, which tells you what is right. But why follow somebody's else's "right", especially as it is surely outdated, because it was written/said some time ago.
And a very small fear, but frustrating non the less - what if I can't finish this research??? Awful :-)
1.Staples, D. and Zhao, L. (2006) The Effects of Cultural Diversity in Virtual Teams Versus Face-to-Face Teams, Group Decision & Negotiation, 15(4), pp. 389-406.
1.Staples, D. and Zhao, L. (2006) The Effects of Cultural Diversity in Virtual Teams Versus Face-to-Face Teams, Group Decision & Negotiation, 15(4), pp. 389-406.
"People implicitly categorize themselves into subgroups according to salient
cues and identify more closely with people they perceive as being similar to themselves. They do this to achieve and maintain positive self-identity."[1] Another creeping fear - loss of identity, becoming somebody unknown to myself and unusual to people who know me. Well, fear stays there, but moving forward means changing and the circle of people around me will change inevitably. Though it would be nice if there will be people who will stay independently of my change.
Another great fear: that I'm doing something totally wrong in life and wasting time. Stupid fear, because how can you assess if you are doing a right thing if you do not know what is right? We are just doing something random and something that looks exciting and meaningful at the moment. Obviously, we are changing on the way and meaningful becomes something else. One way to avoid the change is take a written word for granted and follow a set of rules, which tells you what is right. But why follow somebody's else's "right", especially as it is surely outdated, because it was written/said some time ago.
And a very small fear, but frustrating non the less - what if I can't finish this research??? Awful :-)
1.Staples, D. and Zhao, L. (2006) The Effects of Cultural Diversity in Virtual Teams Versus Face-to-Face Teams, Group Decision & Negotiation, 15(4), pp. 389-406.
1.Staples, D. and Zhao, L. (2006) The Effects of Cultural Diversity in Virtual Teams Versus Face-to-Face Teams, Group Decision & Negotiation, 15(4), pp. 389-406.
Brief Assessment of the Present
I have no idea how to do research.
therefore...
I will have to find out!
I found out - that my way of keeping the literature resources that I've read is - putting it politely - not helpful. At least I do not remember what did I read.
therefore...
I need to add notes about what I've read and what I thought and how useful did I find it. Quick abstract of every article from my point of view.
I've lost the idea of why am I doing this research. Well, it comes and goes, so it is probably just one of the steps on the way. But it feels quite difficult, because I'm restlessly trying to fill up the time with doing SOMETHING, without any reason of doing it. And, certainly, I feel exhausted of doing things that I made myself to do, because I neither want neither need them. Am I running away from the reality? Scared to check the present and see that it is not as good as I wanted it to be? Lacking energy to assess the situation and make improvements?
I feel like the last statement is the most true, but is it really true, or is it my explanation to myself? Need to think about it and start doing useful things and abandon useless.
therefore...
I will have to find out!
I found out - that my way of keeping the literature resources that I've read is - putting it politely - not helpful. At least I do not remember what did I read.
therefore...
I need to add notes about what I've read and what I thought and how useful did I find it. Quick abstract of every article from my point of view.
I've lost the idea of why am I doing this research. Well, it comes and goes, so it is probably just one of the steps on the way. But it feels quite difficult, because I'm restlessly trying to fill up the time with doing SOMETHING, without any reason of doing it. And, certainly, I feel exhausted of doing things that I made myself to do, because I neither want neither need them. Am I running away from the reality? Scared to check the present and see that it is not as good as I wanted it to be? Lacking energy to assess the situation and make improvements?
I feel like the last statement is the most true, but is it really true, or is it my explanation to myself? Need to think about it and start doing useful things and abandon useless.
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