PAR 6: Host Katelyn Boyd

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/benefits-employee-empowerment-1177.html

What Are The Benefits of Employee Empowerment

Even though this week we are talking about a few different approaches to communication in an organization, I love the idea of employee empowerment and how much it can actually improve an organization when used correctly and effectively. This article discusses ways employee empowerment can be beneficial, but it doesn’t actually state how much this can improve communication between leaders and employees as a whole. When reading the article, I was able to pick up that communication is improved as well as employee productivity and interaction when the employer trusts their workers and empowers them without even realizing it because it is physically noticed in the long run.

PAR 5: Host Morgan Nalley

http://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2015/03/13/culture-why-its-the-hottest-topic-in-business-today/#278ae2a7b6e2

Culture: Why It’s the Hottest Topic In Business Today

After reading through a few different articles about culture, I decided to choose this one because it didn’t only define and apply culture to business, but also gave great examples. As explained in this article good culture has become a very popular thing to job seekers. As we are discussing culture this week I thought that this article gave great examples as to how some companies are excelling in employee satisfaction, while others are average or below. Culture is defined as a “set of behaviors, values, artifacts, reward systems, and rituals that make up your organization.” There are resources out there that are giving employees and job seekers the ability to rate and see ratings of culture within a workplace. If a company is doing culture right, then anyone who is even just visiting a company should be able to identify their culture within just a few minutes of being there. The way that employees present themselves, treat the customers, and treat their co workers is very important in making this first impression of culture. When seeking a job in the future I think that this will be a great thing to keep in mind. If the culture of a company is one that you enjoy, then enjoying your job will be that much easier.

PAR 4: Host Staci Hovland

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/team-learning-more-than-group-thinking/

Team Learning: More than Group Thinking

I chose this article on team learning because it was one that I found interesting that goes along with Peter Senge’s learning organization. This is only one of his five features talked about in the book. I found that group thinking is not like team learning at all. Groupthink is more so how one person puts an idea out there and everyone else in the group goes along with it. Team learning is focusing on getting the entire team involved, in order to make intelligent decision. The article goes in depth about how we can use team learning. By putting together everyone’s thoughts, it makes for a higher group IQ. Looking at the projects talked about in the article, I never though there would different techniques to use. I see new that everything that is connected to solving a problem, relates to the solutions that the team comes up with. It shapes the way we look at things, by putting them in a different perspective.