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  • 1.  MG-ED-DV Digest - 5 May 1997 to 6 May 1997

    Posted 05-07-1997 09:12
    >Date: Mon, 5 May 1997 15:35:18 CST
    >From: jstrauss@BEN.EDU
    >Subject: Call for input: "From Ageing to Sageing"
    >
    > What must be done to establish and maintain work-life situations
    > such that we experience meaningfulness and add value to those with
    > whom we interact? What role can MED play in facilitating change?
    >
    > We are asking MEDers to share a personal and/or professional
    > perspectives related to this aging phenomenon.
    >
    > Judi Strauss and Marilyn Jacobson

    It would help me if you were more specific in your questions. Each of
    those two questions is a mouthful, independent of the issues of "ageing to
    saging." Maybe you want to be as open as possible, but a little more focus
    would help me to respond. Thanks in advance.


    Don Austin, Ph.D.
    ____________________________________________
    Department of Organizational Behavior
    Case Western Reserve University
    Cleveland, OH 44106
    (216) 932-8421
    ____________________________________________
    Experiential learning through involvement and dialogue

    Research on the presence, significance, and impact of
    affirmative interaction in small groups


  • 2.  MG-ED-DV Digest - 5 May 1997 to 6 May 1997

    Posted 05-07-1997 09:19
    >Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 17:18:36 -0400
    >From: Hubert Wood <hwood@C.ABAC.PEACHNET.EDU>
    >Subject: Re: Writing and Thinking
    >
    >I am aware that the sandwich technique for giving out bad news to employees
    >was in vogue for several years but I'm now hearing that employees have been
    >conditioned to expecting bad news anytime that a favorable comment is made
    >to them and therefore they do not hear the good news because they are
    >waiting on the brick to fall on their head. What I'm hearing now is that it
    >is better to simply face the employee with the bad news or good news as the
    >case may be instead of sending mixed messages as the sandwich technique
    >does. Any thoughts on this?

    Absolutely! I am so glad you brought this up. I for one am thoroughly
    disenchanted with all of the "techniques" being taught and adopted in
    business practice, which replace simple honesty. We seem so adverse to
    dealing with the consequences of simple honesty. Maybe that is at the root
    of a lot of poor writing, and for that matter at the root of poor
    interaction of all sorts.

    Don Austin, Ph.D.
    ____________________________________________
    Department of Organizational Behavior
    Case Western Reserve University
    Cleveland, OH 44106
    (216) 932-8421
    ____________________________________________
    Experiential learning through involvement and dialogue

    Research on the presence, significance, and impact of
    affirmative interaction in small groups


  • 3.  MG-ED-DV Digest - 5 May 1997 to 6 May 1997

    Posted 05-07-1997 11:07


  • 4.  MG-ED-DV Digest - 5 May 1997 to 6 May 1997

    Posted 05-07-1997 21:01
    These conversations on the problems of student writing remind me of the
    famous Pogo cartoon, "We have met the enemy...and it is us!"

    Take a look at the memos and documents on any campus, or in any
    organization, and you see plenty of reasons why students write so
    poorly. They're simply following our example. Academic writing is full
    of passive voice, obfuscatory phrasing, and jargon. Academic journals
    contain some of the worst writing one could find. If they get clear
    writing they turn it down because it must be too simple, and not
    sufficiently "rigorous." In one of my fields, the Journal of Marketing
    and the Journal of Marketing Research are nearly incomprehensible.

    So, for students, we shouldn[t really complain about their writing.
    They've receive poor grounding in the elementary and secondary schools,
    and they have poor examples to guide them. The wonder is they write as
    well as they do. Given their background, our job is an extraordinarily
    difficult one.

    Research has shown that the two most important contributors to improved
    writing are a) rewriting and b) commentary by many concerned readers.
    This means we must give them the opportunity to correct what they do.
    One-time assignments are not that effective. And we must try to get more
    of our colleagues to do the same, i.e. employ writing assignments in
    their course requirements.
    Not an easy task.
    --
    Dr. George L. Pamental - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Rhode Island
    College
    Associate Professor - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Providence, RI
    02908
    Depﾕt. of Management - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Phone: 401.456.8760
    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - http://192.133.12.49/pamental/ - - - - - - -
    - - - - - -