After this lessons readings, and the commentary of some of my peers, I am choosing to write about both the effectiveness of communication and egocentrism. Egocentrism, as the text suggests, is having little or no regard for interests, beliefs, or attitudes other than one’s own; self-centered. I believe that as students to the concepts we are learning in the course, we still fail to see ourselves as people who tend to be egocentric or insensitive to the actual plight of people who are different than us.
I read a blog post today that made me refer to the readings and analyze, because I wanted to take that as a learning opportunity and properly address what I had read and understand where the disconnect or “error in communication” occurred. Long story short, I think it is very important for us to consider our biases and if we’re selective listeners when things are being communicated. Maybe someone has a legitimate reason to complain, but we’re choosing not see their reason. Maybe certain groups of people are crying for help and fairness, but we only choose to hear that they are speaking out against something.
An applicable example of this would be Syrian refugees trying to illegal enter other countries because they are escaping persecution where they are from. It is possible that they want better lives for their children instead of having their children be slaughtered in their homeland; but we only choose to hear that they are trying to come to American illegally and not that they are escaping death, Or maybe because people are saying that black lives matter, we choose to insert the word “only” in front of that, even though the statement means to shed light on the race of people who are being killed by police officers at an alarming rate, not negating the importance of the lives of other races. Lastly, how about people from Mexico smuggling themselves to the US with only positive intentions? Many of them come here and take the jobs that no one wants, yet entitled Americans who don’t care to open up the lines of communication and understand the circumstances of others, say that they’re coming in and “taking our jobs.”
Communication is a two way street and I think that us, as Americans need to understand that as well. We always blame, instead of trying to understand others perspectives. I truly believe that the moment we start to do that, the less of a divide we will see here across race, religion, and culture. I could elaborate further, but I think this should suffice. We need to let go of the egocentrism that is embedded in our American culture.
Moran, R. T., Moran, S. V., & Abramson, N. R. (2001). Managing Cultural Differences.
https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1802572/modules/items/21179073
Hi Marvin, your blog post ties in nicely to some of the others with regard to HOW can we help top leaders be less egocentric, and more focused on the changes that must happen for their organizations to stay relevant. Wells-Fargo, Encyclopedia Britannica..both have environmental changes happening about them; how can others in the organization make leaders aware that changes WILL have an impact?