Discussion: View Thread

From: Jacob Eisenberg [mailto:Jacob.Eisenberg@ucd.ie]

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, some of our faculty members here were approached regarding various
items that faculty posted on the outside part of their own office doors.
They were asked to remove all items from the doors because of some vague
reasons that generally has to do with looks. Now, to be sure, these postings
are not some kind of provocative material; typically these are copied
portions of articles, conference and talk announcements, quotes etc.

As this was not an issue in the other few academic institutions I resided
in, I was wondering on the norms and policies in other universities and
colleges as well as your personal opinions on this matter: should faculty be
discouraged, or even prohibited to post items on their door? Should it be
limited to clearly non-offensive materials (defined by whom?)?


Thanks,

Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.
Department of Business Administration,
Quinn School of Business,
University College Dublin,
Belfield, Dublin 4,
Ireland

Tel: +353-1-716 4774
Fax: +353-1-716 4762
Email: Jacob.eisenberg@ucd.ie
http://www.ucd.ie/busadmin/

From: Naomi Olson [mailto:olsonen@rcn.com]


In reply to Jacob Eisenberg's post:

In our department faculty post everything from notes to students to family
photos to silly cartoons about dogs and wine to pictures of Dolly Parton on
their doors.

I would say: "Lighten up! Our reputations will be defined by our integrity,
energy, productivity, relevance, wisdom and etc., not by the appearance of
our office doors. We were attracted to this career because we are creative,
expressive people, who at best are capable and inspiring communicators. And
we are trying to teach our students to be the same... To encourage our and
their well-being, allow -- and encourage -- us to express ourselves."

If called upon to propose content-guidelines, I would probably draw the line
at hate speech or images and text that reasonable people would agree
students might find intimidating. I think this kind of thing is generally
self-enforced; we don't want to risk our personal reputations any more that
the school wants to risk its own....

My 2 cents.

Naomi Olson
--
Naomi Olson, Doctoral Candidate
Organization Studies, Carroll School of Management
Boston College
617-558-6866
olsonen@rcn.com
--
"Do human beings ever realize life when they live it? Every, every minute?"
Emily looking down on "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder

Well, organizational culture is just culture.
It sounds very strange to me that someone in the beatiful Ireland could
confuse the office door of a teacher with the shop window of a fashion
store, but may be that's a matter of tradition and habits, ie,
organizational culture.
Then, we know organizational culture is influenced also by the local context
and every organization have its "personality" and cultural identity, that
could differ with that of other organizations, operating in the same sector.
So, may be the attention to "Etiquette" is a common trait in irish
universities, or its just a specific cultural trait of your college. For
what i know, there is nothing similar in Italy.
I find very improbable teachers at university can't wait to post "offensive
materials" on the door, but if i should indicate some criteria, in order to
avoid inappropriate posting, i would recommend to avoid the posting of
documents containing explicit political, racial and sexual implications.
Relating the question "defined by whom", it depends on the internal
organization of the university, may be. I think the principle of autonomy of
teaching should suggest some kind of autarchy (self regulation by the
community of teachers).

Best Regards

Fabrizio Maimone


Dr Fabrizio Maimone

LUMSA University of Rome
Communication Sciences
Via della Traspontina, 21
00193 Rome
Italy

Office: Via di S. Erasmo, 12
00184 Rome Italy
tel/fax: ++39 06 70454469
mobile phone: 3478003479
email: fabrizio.maimone@tin.it

Jacob,

At this institution, on the west coast of Canada, we have only the Canada
and BC Human Rights Acts as legislation which lay out (13 categories in
BC) things that might be discriminatory and advises us not to do this
(under penalty of law).
Other than that, the University College has no particular polices or rules
in this matter. I can't think of a situation where something like you
describe has happened here.

There are many items on all the doors to faculty offices, none in
particularly bad taste and none in abeyance of the law.
Personally, I have a colourful sticker on my door that says "Celebrate
Diversity - Stop Racism"

If this were to happen here I would be wondering about who was needing to
control whom?

thoughtfully

Alice Macpherson
PD & PLA Coordinator
Kwantlen University College
604 599-3040

"The palest ink is stronger than the strongest memory." (Chinese proverb)




Charles Wankel <cxx@bellatlantic.net>
Sent by: Management Education and Development Discussion
<MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU>
03/17/2004 08:13 AM
Please respond to cxx


To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
cc:
Subject: Academic Organizational Culture and Office Doors


From: Jacob Eisenberg [mailto:Jacob.Eisenberg@ucd.ie]

Dear Colleagues,

Recently, some of our faculty members here were approached regarding
various
items that faculty posted on the outside part of their own office doors.
They were asked to remove all items from the doors because of some vague
reasons that generally has to do with looks. Now, to be sure, these
postings
are not some kind of provocative material; typically these are copied
portions of articles, conference and talk announcements, quotes etc.

As this was not an issue in the other few academic institutions I resided
in, I was wondering on the norms and policies in other universities and
colleges as well as your personal opinions on this matter: should faculty
be
discouraged, or even prohibited to post items on their door? Should it be
limited to clearly non-offensive materials (defined by whom?)?


Thanks,

Jacob Eisenberg, Ph.D.
Department of Business Administration,
Quinn School of Business,
University College Dublin,
Belfield, Dublin 4,
Ireland

Tel: +353-1-716 4774
Fax: +353-1-716 4762
Email: Jacob.eisenberg@ucd.ie
http://www.ucd.ie/busadmin/

From: William Sharbrough [mailto:william.sharbrough@citadel.edu]


Further:

I work at The Citadel, a rather unique state institution, where we have a
dress code that includes no facial hair, military uniforms, rank in the
South
Carolina militia, etc. We all knew that when we took our jobs. But in 19
years, no one has ever said anything about the stuff on or around our doors.

I agree with Naomi, the administration at your college has better things to
do than police office doors (What's smaller than micromanagement?)!

William Sharbrough

On Wed, 17 Mar 2004 12:04:37 -0500
Charles Wankel <cxx@bellatlantic.net> wrote:
> From: Naomi Olson [mailto:olsonen@rcn.com]
>
>
> In reply to Jacob Eisenberg's post:
>
> In our department faculty post everything from notes to students to family
> photos to silly cartoons about dogs and wine to pictures of Dolly Parton
on
> their doors.
>
> I would say: "Lighten up! Our reputations will be defined by our
> integrity,
> energy, productivity, relevance, wisdom and etc., not by the appearance of
> our office doors. We were attracted to this career because we are
> creative,
> expressive people, who at best are capable and inspiring communicators.
> And
> we are trying to teach our students to be the same... To encourage our and
> their well-being, allow -- and encourage -- us to express ourselves."
>
> If called upon to propose content-guidelines, I would probably draw the
> line
> at hate speech or images and text that reasonable people would agree
> students might find intimidating. I think this kind of thing is generally
> self-enforced; we don't want to risk our personal reputations any more
that
> the school wants to risk its own....
>
> My 2 cents.
>
> Naomi Olson
> --
> Naomi Olson, Doctoral Candidate
> Organization Studies, Carroll School of Management
> Boston College
> 617-558-6866
> olsonen@rcn.com
> --
> "Do human beings ever realize life when they live it? Every, every
minute?"
> Emily looking down on "Our Town" by Thornton Wilder

William C. Sharbrough, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Management & Marketing Division Head
School of Business Administration
The Citadel, Charleston, SC
william.sharbrough@citadel.edu O: 843.953.5164 F:843.953.6764