The European Union as we know it today, formed in the aftermath World War II. It began as a purely economic cooperative, with the main idea being that countries who trade with one another are economically interdependent and therefore would be more likely to avoid conflict. This joint venture was originally called the European Economic Community and included six countries: Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. Since that time the European Union has expanded to 27 countries and their focus has also expanded from purely economic to also include climate, health, agriculture, and migration, just to name a few. The European Union claims to have “delivered more than a half century of peace, stability, and prosperity, helped raise living standards and launched a single European currency: the Euro, that is used in more than 340 million EU citizens in 19 countries” (2020). However, recent headlines, such as Brexit, have left many wondering if the EU is still a worthwhile venture. Let’s take a look at the good and the bad of the European Union. 

 

The claim that the EU has delivered peace definitely seems to pan out. During its long history, Europe has very regularly been engaged in conflict. “The past 50 years in Europe have been some of the most peaceful out of the last 1,000 years of history. There have been fewer wars fought on the continent than at any time since the reign of the Roman Empire” (Miller, 2019). Since the members work together toward the common good, it alleviates some tensions that may have previously led to internal conflict. The union also protects members against outside aggression because each member shares intelligence, resources and training which makes the collective more safe. In addition to safety and peace, the European Union created the single market which removed internal borders allowing citizens to live and work in any EU country, move money easily, and sell goods without restrictions. This has created more jobs and higher wages across the EU and has made it easier for people to travel. The economic benefits also reach to the rest of the world as well. Instead of countries attempting to negotiate with 27 separate countries, they are able to make one deal that affects all members which equates to a better deal for all involved. 

 

There are many disadvantages to the European Union as well. While fewer conflicts between members of the union is definitely a good thing there has been a recent rise in nationalism and fascism within individual countries. There are many different cultures within the members of the EU as well as geographical differences that makes unity difficult at times, This disparity also rears its ugly head when we look at the economics of the EU. In order to participate in the Union, each member country must help fund the union. Obviously larger members have more potent financial capabilities which means they often pay more than smaller members. One of the reasons Britain voted to exit the EU was because of the amount they paid, stating that some years this would create a loss of $4 billion to their economy (Miller, 2019). FInally, the pandemic also seems to have placed a burden on one of the main principles of the European Union, free movement. How will individual economies, markets, business and people be able to integrate as long as a virus is wreaking havoc across its members? Can the single market withstand this lack of integration? The existence of the union may rely on heavily on the outcome of the pandemic. 

 

References

Miller, K. (2019, June 11). 18 Advantages and Disadvantages of the European Union. FutureofWorking.com. https://futureofworking.com/11-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-the-european-union/.

Official website of the European Union. European Union. (2020, April 17). https://europa.eu/european-union/index_en. 

 

According to Dr. Geert Hofstede, as stated by Moran, et al, collectivism “occurs when there is a tight social framework in which people distinguish between in-groups and out-groups; they expect their in-group to look after them, and in exchange for that owe absolute loyalty to it” (Moran et al., 2014). When looking at Hofstede’s six dimensions of culture, specifically individualism-collectivism for China as compared to the world, China scored a 20 where the rest of the world is at a 45.17. This shows that China at a low range of individualism, indicating a more collective culture. The rest of the world, in comparison, is more individualistic and places the emphasis “on independence and a focus on the individual” rather than the group. (Moran et al., 2014). The differences in culture could not be more drastic, especially right now as the world is dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. 

It feels as though we cannot turn on the TV or open social media without hearing about the “second wave” and the constant reminder to socially distance, wash your hands, and of course, wear a mask. For those of us living in the United States, we have seen the mask topic become more and more politicized and some citizens view it as an infringement of their individual rights. Maybe you know someone who doesn’t wear a mask, invites you to gatherings, and lives as though nothing has changed and there simply is not a pandemic going on. We could not ask for a more clear and obvious example of individualistic culture on display. Every state taking different measures, or no measures has caused some states to see more drastic upticks in cases, hospitalizations, and even deaths. 

When looking at more collective cultures, such as China, they have seemingly not done as poorly. In fact, research from the University of Kent has found that people who adopt a collectivist mindset are more likely to comply with social distancing and hygiene practices to help reduce the spread of COVID-19. This is not breaking news, as seeing the population of China social distancing and wearing masks consistently has become a common sight. 

That same study, however, found that people who are more individualist are less likely to engage, partly due to beliefs in COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and feelings of powerlessness surrounding the pandemic. It is almost as if the collective mindset is empowering individuals that they can get through the pandemic together because they will all do their part. In individualistic societies, there appears to be more of a feeling of powerlessness maybe because we do not feel like we can rely on each other to do their part. I don’t think that the exact same measures in China will work here, nor do I think that we should simply all lock ourselves inside our homes never to venture out again. However, adopting a more collective mindset has served us in the past and could help guide us through this pandemic as well. 

 

Resources

Biddlestone, M., Green, R., & Douglas, K. M. (2020). Cultural orientation, power, belief in conspiracy theories, and intentions to reduce the spread of COVID‐19. British Journal of Social Psychology, 59(3), 663–673. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12397

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences (9th ed.). Routledge. 

 

In its most basic form, social learning is “about learning from others in the social environment.” Human beings are social creatures and as such, we rely on others to help guide and shape our behavior. According to Bandura, social learning is not simply mimicry or imitation but rather modeling, where “the person doing the learning sees a behavior and replicates it, but also modifies it based on his or her own experiences and desires.” The process of social learning is broken up into 4 steps: attention, retention, reproduction and motivation. It is important to look at each of these steps individually and see how our more connected, social media driven world is influencing and affecting each stage both positively and negatively.

Attention is the very first step in social learning and zeroes in on one’s ability to focus their attention on the person and behavior that is being learned. In this aspect, social media is an amazing convenient and useful tool. 3.196 billion people actively use social networks, an average user spends 2 hours and 24 minutes per day on social media and 50.1% of the time spent on a mobile phone is done using social media apps. We can already see the positive effects of social media applications on learning, in fact, before I call a support line or seek the advice or services of a professional, I will often watch YouTube videos to see if I can complete the task myself. We have the ability to provide our attention and learn from people all over the world, at any moment, 24/7. However, is everyone on the internet an expert? Who are we providing our attention to? One of the drawbacks to such limitless access is that discerning who we should be learning from and modeling becomes much more difficult.

Retention refers to the learner’s ability to recall the stored observed behavior. This can be a complicated process because so many things fight for our attention and any deviation from the observation could result in less than 100% recall. I mentioned above how our attention has already been monopolized by social media outlets, again making them an incredible tool for social learning. However, with the continuous addition of more and more apps and social networks, there more things competing for our attention every day. A constant barrage of notifications to post here, respond there, a new video uploaded by a channel you subscribe to, and suddenly our attention is diverted, and we are distracted.

Reproduction is about the learning being able to physically reproduce the behavior or action they observed or learned. The great part about social media is that feedback is often immediate and unvarnished. I have seen this firsthand, seeing a colleague post something in a social media group and seemingly instantly, there are dozens of comments with recommendations on how to do it better or try this instead. Also, since reproduction also allows the learning to pull from their own experiences, limitations, etc. the reproduction may include something different that was not included in the original observation. This slight change or adaptation can now be learned by others and may flatten the learning curve for people that also have limitations of similar life experiences. The negative aspect of this, is that while someone might find a “better” way of doing something it is not always the “right” way to do something. Once the “wrong” way catches on, it may be extremely difficult to reverse, or change given the instant nature of social media platforms.

Finally, motivation refers to the desire to reproduce the behavior or thing being observed. People are more likely to reproduce behaviors that they feel will benefit them. In this way social media is fantastic because there are groups for almost everything and a simple Google search will provide endless pages, videos, reddit boards, etc. It is easier than ever for people to determine if the behavior is “worth their time” because they can see it and read others experiences with it. Did it work for them? If so, then the learning is more likely to be motivated to learn and reproduce the behavior. However, motivation is also tied to person modeling the behavior. Does the learning like them? Do they respect them? Do they trust them? In this area, social media may be becoming more of a detriment. We are living in a world of algorithms where our social media feeds show us things that we “want” to see. We may become more likely to “listen” to only those sources and not others, regardless of the expertise, education or experience the other source may have.

 

Resources

Georgie, D. (2020, June 18). How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media in 2020? TechJury. https://techjury.net/blog/time-spent-on-social-media/.

Pennsylvania State University. (2020). Retrieved 8 October 2020, from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/2075490/modules/items/29697174

Ever since the novel Coronavirus was named a pandemic by the World Health Organization on March 11, 2020, more and more people are working from home. I have personally been working from home since March 13 and my employer has already made me aware that there is no plan to bring me back into the office for the remainder of the year. This change immediately caused me some anxiety as I struggled to wrap my head around exactly how to effectively do my job as I had previously. As a facilitator, I am used to spending my entire day in the classroom training employees, in person, on various aspects of their role in the company. So much of my role was about to change and so many challenges were about to present themselves in my new environment.

 

According to Hall (as cited in Moran, Abramson, & Moran, 2014, p. 39), 80-90 percent of the message you send or interpret as the receiver, occurs on the nonverbal level. This silent language includes “voice tone, gestures, facial expressions, and body language (Moran et al., 2014). The impact of this level of communication is obvious when in a classroom working face to face with participants, but now I was about to venture down a path of presenting complex information or technical steps on completing tasks and my toolkit was about to be slashed! In addition, I was going to have to try and strike a balance between low and high context communication in an environment that was not as conducive. Given the limitations of virtual training, I knew I was going to have to engage in more talking than normal. Previously, I could rely on activities, demonstrations, and simulations to help drive some of the learning however this was not going to be the case in the virtual world. The issue that immediately arises when I engage in more explicit verbal communication is that I pose the risk of alienating a portion of my audience. Each training class is a diverse mix of participants, some with more experience than others, various educational backgrounds, etc. This mix of both high and low context individuals works great in person. I can utilize the more experienced individuals to lead activities and help less experienced ones, however in the virtual world, they may be less willing and can actually become disengaged with the content. If I feel the need to provide a lot of information to the class, the high context individuals may feel that I am providing “too much information than is necessary” and may even regard it as “repetitive or disrespectful to their time” (Moran et al., 2014). To combat this, I often share presenter privileges and allow the high context communicators to share their experiences and expertise in addition to the content that I provide. This allows the lower context communicators to still receive the information they need, while not isolating and upsetting the ones that do not. 

 

In addition to low and high context communicators, I also have to identify and handle slow versus fast messaging preferences that were not present live in the classroom. When I trained in the classroom, I was tied to a certain geographic location and thus had an understanding of how my audience liked to hear information. For instance, when I would train in the Northeast, I knew to “speed things up” and “get to the point.” In addition, younger participants would also ask if I could simply e-mail them the material rather than go through the whole process of attending the training. On the other side, there are participants in other regions of the country who prefer some small talk, stories rather than lectures, and like to get to know you and the other participants. This seemed to help them understand and retain the information and I could adjust my training style to meet those needs as well. Well, in the virtual world, I am no longer tied to a specific geographic location and much like the low and high context communicators, I also found myself with a healthy mix of participants who prefer fast messaging and some that prefer slow. I attempt to combat the issues that arise here by allowing some time for general interaction, icebreakers, etc. at the beginning of training as well as when we return from breaks. This allows for that personal touch that some prefer, while not diverting the delivery of content as the day progresses. I would also send out recap emails to participants at the end of sessions and set time aside during delivery for check-ins to ensure that my message was being clearly received and interpreted. 

 

The final nonverbal issue that I was going to have to overcome was how my message was going to be interpreted once I was not being seen. So much of my communication style incorporates gestures and eye contact and not all participants have access to the technology necessary to allow for video. I was so accustomed to using movement in the training room to emphasize transitions or gestures to punctuate important concepts, how was I going to replace this? And how was I going to ensure a consistent message was being sent and interpreted when some could see me and others not? I needed to focus more on my tone of voice, being sure to use volume modulation and inflection as well as gestures. I invested in a wireless headset, so I could move around my home office in a similar manner as I did a live training classroom. This mix of verbal and nonverbal cues allowed me to communicate effectively with both those who could and could not see me,

 

References

 

Moran, R. T., Abramson, N. A. R., & Moran, S. V. (2014). Managing cultural differences (9th ed.). Routledge.

World Health Organization. (2020). Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) – events as they happen. World Health Organization. https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/events-as-they-happen. 

Hello everyone!

My name is Mike Lichman and I am an OLEAD major living in Reading, PA. I work as a senior facilitator for a large international bank, where I get to train all levels of the company from branch employees, call center employees, as well as executive level. Outside of work, I have an incredible wife, Jen, and a crazy dog named Morgan. In the few chances where I have time to myself, I enjoy reading, playing poker, and making music. 

I am looking forward to this course, as I have all of my OLEAD courses, primarily because I am incredibly interested and fascinated by leadership in all aspects. Some of my favorite books are about both good and bad leaders, I love to learn about what makes good leaders and see how I can implement it in my life bother personally and professionally. I can’t wait to work with all of you and hope you all have a healthy, safe, and productive semester!