The areas studied this week will form the basis for your journal entries. Some of the areas and concepts covered this week include: the importance of communication in organizations, communication channels, barriers to interpersonal and organizational communication, theories of motivation, and influences of motivation.

In your journaling, you are to think about the concepts and key phrases learned this week. Listed below are some thought provoking questions to stimulate your thinking. They are there to help you focus on the concepts and management tools you have studied. Use these questions as thought provokers, and journal thoughts that you have already formulated on the material covered up to this point in the course. (If you do not have direct experience in any of these areas you can use situations that you have been told about or observed).

1. Think about some communication issues you have had. Why did some go smoothly and others result in misinformation and a breakdown in cooperation? Can you remember the details of your worst encounter with motivation?
2. What barriers to communication have you encountered? How did you try to overcome them? Would you use the same techniques again, or would you try another approach?
3. Have you experienced downward, upward and horizontal communications channels in your personal or business life?
4. Are you conscious of your responsibilities as a sender when communicating?
5. What was your best encounter with a manager who was trying to motivate you? Sometimes you do not know what they are trying to do until a while later when you reflect on the situation and the results.
6. Now that you have studied content and process theories of motivation, can you look back on situations and discern what was being used on you?
7. What role have goals, equity and reinforcement played in your experience?

Directions:

Choose two of the questions listed above and record your personal reflections (at least 1-2 paragraphs) in your journal for future use. Try to choose questions that you have a strong opinion on, or where your opinion has changed as a result of this weeks activities. As the course moves along you will see that the journal will evolve into a cohesive philosophy of management which you will use to complete this course and also use in your role as a manager.