Unit 3

In Chapter 16, Organizational Culture they speak about rituals. Rituals as defined by our textbook are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization. When I was 18, coming back from college for the summer I found a summer job at Thomson Book Company now known as Cengage. I had to be at work at 6 in the morning (not really my idea of a summer vacation). However, every morning after we would clock in, our department would get together and talk about what we needed to get done for the day ahead, then we would engage in a ritual of our own. We sang a song and did kind of a dance/stretch. This definitely woke me and my coworkers up. We weren't afraid to be silly and embarrass ourselves. This ritual as ridiculous as it was was a great idea. It boosted our morale as workers and were excited to get started. Not only did it wake us up but being silly opened us up to each other and we were able to form great work relationships. These kind of rituals are a great way to start off the work day.

Unit 2

In class we discussed the idea of groupthink. Groupthink is where potentially bad or wrong decisions are made primarily because members of the group are afraid to stray away from the group. It is easier to be in agreement and just go with the flow than rock the boat.

How many times have we witnessed this idea of groupthink being in college? There have been instances in my life personally when I feel as though I have a better solution but I am afraid me and my idea will be rejected by the group so it is almost better to keep my mouth shut. There have also been instances when I know something is wrong but I will go ahead with the group just so not to rock the boat.

Along with belonging to a group comes certain pressures. I hope in my professional life outside of college I can bring many different ideas to the table that possibly no one was thinking about. In my mind, the point of having groups and teams is to bring about many different ideas, solutions, or thoughts. Bringing different people with different ideas can be highly beneficial whereas groupthink potentially gets a group nowhere special.