I was once as an intern in an industrial association which belongs to the local Industrial and Commercial Bureau.
In this association, the workforce is comparatively elder, and almost all are retired from military or the relatives of soldiers, and enjoy the proximate salary, welfare, and benefits with the bureau’s civil servants. Generally speaking, their job is to assistant bureau’s civil servants, to inspect the business license and business scope of some district companies.
When I entered this association, there was using a new on-line system. The staff needs to input those companies’s balance sheet and profit statement, and then the staff would get those companies’ operation situation which was automatically analyzed by the system. However, those information provided by the system is for reference only. The staff needs to find out the reasons why some financial data does not meet the system’s standard. During my internship, I found the most problem they faced was not analysis those financial data. In contrast, staffs had many difficulties in handling this system. For example, they had difficulties in inputting company’s balance sheet and profit statement. In details, they could not adjust their on-line system, because they did not know how to input the correct data in the correct space.
The bureau once organized some lectures to assist those staffs, but the effect is not striking. When I entered this association, my main job is to help them input those data. After some try, I discovered that the main point which confused the staffs was the different description between the on-line system and company’s financial statements. As a result, they always put the data to the wrong space, and made the statements unbalanced.
Due to this system was bought from a financial company, the bureau could not edit its programming language, the only way we could do was to adjust it. The way we took was to find the relations between the on-line statements and company’s financial statements. Then we recorded the corresponding formula, which help us to discover the correct data we needed. One month later, the efficiency was remarkable promoted. ————By Fu Xuanqing (Angie)
My previous working company was Shanghai Security News. I was an editor in the company. It provides an online platform which allows all staff to attend the regular specific learning sessions and discuss together thru internet. Actually, it should fulfill at least 3 principles of learning organization including shared vision, team learning and systems thinking based on their definitions.
Shared vision "involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. "(Senge 1990 pg. 9) Team learning refers to "The process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results its members truly desire" (Senge1990 pg. 236) Systems thinking is about the relationship between the individual and the organization and the process of creating feedback and resolving problems between them, seen from a 'whole organization perspective' rather than an isolated issue.
However, in many cases, the company is difficult to make the change and train the new knowledge for the staff because of the structure of the company. As a traditional Chinese company, it has many different management layers in the organization. Even though the innovative leaders would like to provide the learning opportunities for learning the most updated market knowledge to the staff, they still need to face the complicated internal bureaucratically process.
My previous working company was Shanghai Security News. I was an editor in the company. It provides an online platform which allows all staff to attend the regular specific learning sessions and discuss together thru internet. Actually, it should fulfill at least 3 principles of learning organization including shared vision, team learning and systems thinking based on their definitions.
Shared vision "involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. "(Senge 1990 pg. 9) Team learning refers to "The process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results its members truly desire" (Senge1990 pg. 236) Systems thinking is about the relationship between the individual and the organization and the process of creating feedback and resolving problems between them, seen from a 'whole organization perspective' rather than an isolated issue.
However, in many cases, the company is difficult to make the change and train the new knowledge for the staff because of the structure of the company. As a traditional Chinese company, it has many different management layers in the organization. Even though the innovative leaders would like to provide the learning opportunities for learning the most updated market knowledge to the staff, they still need to face the complicated internal bureaucratically process.
1. As a leader in a non-profit organisation Background information: In 2009, I entered a non-profit organisation called “light-house”, which focused on voluntary teaching in the poor areas of mainland. The basic conception of this organisation is “to help children think about their lives and find their direction is more important than to donate money”, which is also what “light-house” means. Anyone who is interested in this organisation may visit our website: http://www.lighthouse.org.cn/ Then, I would like to share some information about members in the team with you. Our team members coming from various universities and colleges in Guangzhou share totally different opinions on education , direction of life, as well as the light-house. Also， the range of age is wide, from the freshmen to graduates. Our task was to work as a team to finish the voluntary teaching in a middle school surrounded by mountains called “Dama mountain”. The period of one month was quite long for us, which meant almost half of our summer holiday would be taken up. What should we learn and think about during the process? 1.Better understand ourselves and rethink about our own direction before we teach students. 2.Know each other and work as a team rather than individuals. 3.Think and communicate in an open way and give feedbacks to conflicting opinions. 4.Give excellent courses in class not related to the exams but related to students’ logical and rational thinking, their understanding on their hometown and the world outside and their creativity. 5.Try to encourage students to think about their lives and make a decision about their future. (It seemed that this model is suitable to what mentioned in the fifth discipline)
(It seemed that this model is suitable to what mentioned in the fifth discipline) How did we learn during the process? Before we set off: All members are divided into different groups each with 6/7 people and the organization gave us a group training together, which was mainly depended on their own experience. During the process, there were three parts. The first one is called “the individual part”, which focused on questions about who I was, what the aim of my life was, why I came here and what I expected from the experience. The second part is called ” the team part”. All members in a group sat together in a circle under the moonlight and each group was given a candle. In this environment, everyone was required to draw 6 pictures about his own experiences and shared them with others in the group. Then others would give a feedback to him/her. It was actually an amazing part because after that, we really felt much closer to each other. Perhaps before this activity we were just members in a group but after it, we were friends who had already known and understood each other. Then, we were given several assignments to finish together the next day. It was not the result but the process made us thinking about why we succeeded or why we failed. Although the truth that we hold different opinions did not be changed, we would not blame others and we could take advantage of everyone’s special ability, which meant we worked as a team. The third part was a little cruel because it was called the “say-goodbye part”. Two members in each group would be picked out and attend another assigned group, which was a piece of unacceptable news to all at first. But to get the permission to set off, we should accept it and say good-bye to our dear members. Finally, each new organized group was given a final task to show their outcomes. Of course, you may have guessed the result. The two groups exchanging members were combined to a large one and went to the same place together. For example, M,N，two members in group A ，were required to attend group B while P, Q ，two members in group B， were requested to join group A. Finally, group A and group B became a large group and went to a certain place， such as Damai mountain. It was the original plan of “light-house”. However, since one of the teaching sites had been cancelled, our group became a really large one with 24 members and I was finally selected as the team leader.
During the voluntary teaching term in the Damai mountain: Personally, it was not only a process to check the result of training given by the organization but a process we should totally depend on ourselves to solve all the challenging problems. Then let me share some of them with you, as well as my perspectives. In such group, to make a decision, everyone should state his/her opinions and agree with it, which was a traditional way in lighthouse. Otherwise, nobody, including me, could make a decision. However, it was difficult for everyone to have open mind and to accept conflicting opinions, which was the basic of all the barriers. Communication between two people was most effective. Relatively, talking among a small group with 3 or 4 members also went smooth. However, it was really a great challenge to have a meeting and discuss something together. Several people were active and they might even argue with each other in the members’ presence while others kept silent, hoping the meeting ended up quickly then they could talk in private. The result was that some members felt upset for other’s offense and not being accepted and that some members felt it a waste of time having such meeting. As the leader of the group, I felt worried about the situation and my way was to communicate with every member in private and to find different ways to solve everyone’s problem. For example, more task would be given the one who would like to give more to the students in spare time. An adding title would be given to the one who wanted to take more responsibilities. Also, when a girl in charge of teaching only focused on the courses and omitted activities after classes were not easily persuaded, I even tried to contact with the boy she loved in Italy and asked him for help. It seemed that each problem was controlled well but I knew the truth was they were not entirely solved in our group. I always felt sorry about it and if the group was even larger than this one, it was really impossible to talk with everyone in private, then what should I do then?
Then， I will share another experience with you. Actually, you will be quite familiar with it, so I will just discuss it simply. I work as a teacher in Guangzhou New Oriental School, which is the most famous training school in mainland China. During the training period, teachers are given lessons on how to make the courses wonderful and we are all trained strictly. Pass the training exam, teachers there do not have to work in an office from Monday to Friday and that’s why I can pursue my study in HKU as a full time student. What we should do is to give classes on time and get as high mark as possible from students, in other words, our customers. At first, I thought it was a quite simple model. What we would like to get here is the satisfactory salary and what we should do is to give best courses to meet the requirements of students. But with the expanding of this organisation, problems come out gradually. 1. Lots of old teachers choose to leave and even set up a new training school to compete with us. But not all the teachers leave for money. Actually, they earned much more than the new ones. According to their blogs or other ways to state their opinions，their feelings were not taken seriously as before, which have some relationship with the model described in class last Thursday. Perhaps the pace of changing has not been controlled well in this organization. 2. The lack of communication leads to more unnecessary inner competition rather than cooperation. Often, 3 or 4 teachers will teach a class together. Their individual marks will be compared by the leader of the school and they were used as the only way to judge their performance. Apparently, it is not the best way to assess teachers. Therefore, the method of assessment may need changing.
When comparing lighthouse with nos school，I find that the former is non-profit while the later is a profitable company. No conflict of profit will have bad influence on the relationship of lighthouse members but the different opinions will. Also, in lighthouse all members are encouraged to state their opinions openly. But how can we keep balance between effectiveness and democracy? As for nos, a profitable company, as well as an outstanding training school, besides money or profit, what other points should be taken into consideration to keep it grow up fast and healthily? Perhaps in MITE 6328， I can seize the opportunity to think deeply about all the problems. All comments and feedbacks are welcomed.
I'm working for mainland China Government as a civil servant,what my interests lie in e-government domain and which platform in my city needs somehow imporving,nowadays, Governments around the world have embraced ‘e-government,’ seeing it as promoting everything from greater interaction with government,the saving of taxpayer money, the streamlining of citizen-to-government communications better, more efficient public services they want, even a transformation of government. Expectations are high, but to what extent do citizens use the new systems? Which citizens are using the new systems? Are the often enthusiastic pronouncements by governments and developers made for the new technology matched by a similar demand and support for its development from the public at large? Yes, Our government launched a personalized e-government system for citizens, and they known there was some fault on it, so we sent some staffs(includ me) to some major west countries to learn how to design and improve our e-government initiatives. That's how my government learnt so far and I may learn some new technology from our programme and use them into my government and that's why I enrolled this programme.
I agree with Azalea's opinion. Many Chinese companies and bureaus still have complicated internal bureaucratical conflicts. Sometimes, there are many different management level, which made the administration of the organization more ineffective. Besides,the so-called "innovation" is hard to be carried out. At a long time later, the staff began to work in a mechanical way, and were not willing to adapt new things.
Re：Simon E-government is popular nowadays, which will bring us much convenience, both for the civil servants and citizens. However, I think in mainland China, the most significant problem of e-government is not on the level of technology since Chinese government is really rich. Instead, the probelm is that not enough information is shared among people. What is more,so many wondeful websites such as youtube, facebook are forbidden by the government.
Re:Angie Staff retiring from military or the relatives of soldiers are always refusing to make a change, not only because of their relative old age, but also because of the thinking model. Although the online platform you mentioned is not hard to access, it is still a great challenge in such a company. Fortunately, you finally overcame the difficulities.
Re:Azalea The environment supporting learning is ideal in your company, since a well-organized online platform have been set up and used frequently. As for the problem of many different management layers, it is a common and we may accept the truth that changes are always made gradually rather than immediately.
I was once as an intern in an industrial association which belongs to the local Industrial and Commercial Bureau.
ReplyDeleteIn this association, the workforce is comparatively elder, and almost all are retired from military or the relatives of soldiers, and enjoy the proximate salary, welfare, and benefits with the bureau’s civil servants. Generally speaking, their job is to assistant bureau’s civil servants, to inspect the business license and business scope of some district companies.
When I entered this association, there was using a new on-line system. The staff needs to input those companies’s balance sheet and profit statement, and then the staff would get those companies’ operation situation which was automatically analyzed by the system. However, those information provided by the system is for reference only. The staff needs to find out the reasons why some financial data does not meet the system’s standard. During my internship, I found the most problem they faced was not analysis those financial data. In contrast, staffs had many difficulties in handling this system. For example, they had difficulties in inputting company’s balance sheet and profit statement. In details, they could not adjust their on-line system, because they did not know how to input the correct data in the correct space.
The bureau once organized some lectures to assist those staffs, but the effect is not striking. When I entered this association, my main job is to help them input those data. After some try, I discovered that the main point which confused the staffs was the different description between the on-line system and company’s financial statements. As a result, they always put the data to the wrong space, and made the statements unbalanced.
Due to this system was bought from a financial company, the bureau could not edit its programming language, the only way we could do was to adjust it. The way we took was to find the relations between the on-line statements and company’s financial statements. Then we recorded the corresponding formula, which help us to discover the correct data we needed. One month later, the efficiency was remarkable promoted.
————By Fu Xuanqing (Angie)
My previous working company was Shanghai Security News. I was an editor in the company. It provides an online platform which allows all staff to attend the regular specific learning sessions and discuss together thru internet. Actually, it should fulfill at least 3 principles of learning organization including shared vision, team learning and systems thinking based on their definitions.
ReplyDeleteShared vision "involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. "(Senge 1990 pg. 9)
Team learning refers to "The process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results its members truly desire" (Senge1990 pg. 236)
Systems thinking is about the relationship between the individual and the organization and the process of creating feedback and resolving problems between them, seen from a 'whole organization perspective' rather than an isolated issue.
However, in many cases, the company is difficult to make the change and train the new knowledge for the staff because of the structure of the company. As a traditional Chinese company, it has many different management layers in the organization. Even though the innovative leaders would like to provide the learning opportunities for learning the most updated market knowledge to the staff, they still need to face the complicated internal bureaucratically process.
----(Azalea Yan)
My previous working company was Shanghai Security News. I was an editor in the company. It provides an online platform which allows all staff to attend the regular specific learning sessions and discuss together thru internet. Actually, it should fulfill at least 3 principles of learning organization including shared vision, team learning and systems thinking based on their definitions.
ReplyDeleteShared vision "involves the skills of unearthing shared ‘pictures of the future’ that foster genuine commitment and enrolment rather than compliance. "(Senge 1990 pg. 9)
Team learning refers to "The process of aligning and developing the capacities of a team to create the results its members truly desire" (Senge1990 pg. 236)
Systems thinking is about the relationship between the individual and the organization and the process of creating feedback and resolving problems between them, seen from a 'whole organization perspective' rather than an isolated issue.
However, in many cases, the company is difficult to make the change and train the new knowledge for the staff because of the structure of the company. As a traditional Chinese company, it has many different management layers in the organization. Even though the innovative leaders would like to provide the learning opportunities for learning the most updated market knowledge to the staff, they still need to face the complicated internal bureaucratically process.
----Azalea Yan
1. As a leader in a non-profit organisation
ReplyDeleteBackground information:
In 2009, I entered a non-profit organisation called “light-house”, which focused on voluntary teaching in the poor areas of mainland. The basic conception of this organisation is “to help children think about their lives and find their direction is more important than to donate money”, which is also what “light-house” means. Anyone who is interested in this organisation may visit our website: http://www.lighthouse.org.cn/
Then, I would like to share some information about members in the team with you. Our team members coming from various universities and colleges in Guangzhou share totally different opinions on education , direction of life, as well as the light-house. Also， the range of age is wide, from the freshmen to graduates.
Our task was to work as a team to finish the voluntary teaching in a middle school surrounded by mountains called “Dama mountain”. The period of one month was quite long for us, which meant almost half of our summer holiday would be taken up.
What should we learn and think about during the process?
1.Better understand ourselves and rethink about our own direction before we teach students.
2.Know each other and work as a team rather than individuals.
3.Think and communicate in an open way and give feedbacks to conflicting opinions.
4.Give excellent courses in class not related to the exams but related to students’ logical and rational thinking, their understanding on their hometown and the world outside and their creativity.
5.Try to encourage students to think about their lives and make a decision about their future.
(It seemed that this model is suitable to what mentioned in the fifth discipline)
(It seemed that this model is suitable to what mentioned in the fifth discipline)
ReplyDeleteHow did we learn during the process?
Before we set off:
All members are divided into different groups each with 6/7 people and the organization gave us a group training together, which was mainly depended on their own experience.
During the process, there were three parts.
The first one is called “the individual part”, which focused on questions about who I was, what
the aim of my life was, why I came here and what I expected from the experience.
The second part is called ” the team part”. All members in a group sat together in a circle under the moonlight and each group was given a candle. In this environment, everyone was required to draw 6 pictures about his own experiences and shared them with others in the group. Then others would give a feedback to him/her. It was actually an amazing part because after that, we really felt much closer to each other. Perhaps before this activity we were just members in a group but after it, we were friends who had already known and understood each other. Then, we were given several assignments to finish together the next day. It was not the result but the process made us thinking about why we succeeded or why we failed. Although the truth that we hold different opinions did not be changed, we would not blame others and we could take advantage of everyone’s special ability, which meant we worked as a team.
The third part was a little cruel because it was called the “say-goodbye part”. Two members in each group would be picked out and attend another assigned group, which was a piece of unacceptable news to all at first. But to get the permission to set off, we should accept it and say good-bye to our dear members. Finally, each new organized group was given a final task to show their outcomes.
Of course, you may have guessed the result. The two groups exchanging members were combined to a large one and went to the same place together. For example, M,N，two members in group A ，were required to attend group B while P, Q ，two members in group B， were requested to join group A. Finally, group A and group B became a large group and went to a certain place， such as Damai mountain. It was the original plan of “light-house”. However, since one of the teaching sites had been cancelled, our group became a really large one with 24 members and I was finally selected as the team leader.
During the voluntary teaching term in the Damai mountain:
ReplyDeletePersonally, it was not only a process to check the result of training given by the organization but a process we should totally depend on ourselves to solve all the challenging problems. Then let me share some of them with you, as well as my perspectives.
In such group, to make a decision, everyone should state his/her opinions and agree with it, which was a traditional way in lighthouse. Otherwise, nobody, including me, could make a decision. However, it was difficult for everyone to have open mind and to accept conflicting opinions, which was the basic of all the barriers.
Communication between two people was most effective. Relatively, talking among a small group with 3 or 4 members also went smooth. However, it was really a great challenge to have a meeting and discuss something together. Several people were active and they might even argue with each other in the members’ presence while others kept silent, hoping the meeting ended up quickly then they could talk in private. The result was that some members felt upset for other’s offense and not being accepted and that some members felt it a waste of time having such meeting. As the leader of the group, I felt worried about the situation and my way was to communicate with every member in private and to find different ways to solve everyone’s problem. For example, more task would be given the one who would like to give more to the students in spare time. An adding title would be given to the one who wanted to take more responsibilities. Also, when a girl in charge of teaching only focused on the courses and omitted activities after classes were not easily persuaded, I even tried to contact with the boy she loved in Italy and asked him for help. It seemed that each problem was controlled well but I knew the truth was they were not entirely solved in our group. I always felt sorry about it and if the group was even larger than this one, it was really impossible to talk with everyone in private, then what should I do then?
Then， I will share another experience with you. Actually, you will be quite familiar with it, so I will just discuss it simply.
ReplyDeleteI work as a teacher in Guangzhou New Oriental School, which is the most famous training school in mainland China. During the training period, teachers are given lessons on how to make the courses wonderful and we are all trained strictly. Pass the training exam, teachers there do not have to work in an office from Monday to Friday and that’s why I can pursue my study in HKU as a full time student. What we should do is to give classes on time and get as high mark as possible from students, in other words, our customers. At first, I thought it was a quite simple model. What we would like to get here is the satisfactory salary and what we should do is to give best courses to meet the requirements of students.
But with the expanding of this organisation, problems come out gradually.
1. Lots of old teachers choose to leave and even set up a new training school to compete with us. But not all the teachers leave for money. Actually, they earned much more than the new ones. According to their blogs or other ways to state their opinions，their feelings were not taken seriously as before, which have some relationship with the model described in class last Thursday. Perhaps the pace of changing has not been controlled well in this organization.
2. The lack of communication leads to more unnecessary inner competition rather than cooperation. Often, 3 or 4 teachers will teach a class together. Their individual marks will be compared by the leader of the school and they were used as the only way to judge their performance. Apparently, it is not the best way to assess teachers. Therefore, the method of assessment may need changing.
When comparing lighthouse with nos school，I find that the former is non-profit while the later is a profitable company. No conflict of profit will have bad influence on the relationship of lighthouse members but the different opinions will. Also, in lighthouse all members are encouraged to state their opinions openly. But how can we keep balance between effectiveness and democracy? As for nos, a profitable company, as well as an outstanding training school, besides money or profit, what other points should be taken into consideration to keep it grow up fast and healthily? Perhaps in MITE 6328， I can seize the opportunity to think deeply about all the problems.
All comments and feedbacks are welcomed.
I'm working for mainland China Government as a civil servant,what my interests lie in e-government domain and which platform in my city needs somehow imporving,nowadays, Governments around the world have embraced ‘e-government,’ seeing it as promoting everything from greater interaction with government,the saving of taxpayer money, the streamlining of citizen-to-government communications better, more efficient public services they want, even a transformation of government. Expectations are high, but to what extent do citizens use the new systems? Which citizens are using the new systems? Are the often enthusiastic pronouncements by governments and developers made for the new technology matched by a similar demand and support for its development from the public at large? Yes, Our government launched a personalized e-government system for citizens, and they known there was some fault on it, so we sent some staffs(includ me) to some major west countries to learn how to design and improve our e-government initiatives. That's how my government learnt so far and I may learn some new technology from our programme and use them into my government and that's why I enrolled this programme.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Azalea's opinion. Many Chinese companies and bureaus still have complicated internal bureaucratical conflicts. Sometimes, there are many different management level, which made the administration of the organization more ineffective. Besides,the so-called "innovation" is hard to be carried out. At a long time later, the staff began to work in a mechanical way, and were not willing to adapt new things.
ReplyDeleteRe：Simon
ReplyDeleteE-government is popular nowadays, which will bring us much convenience, both for the civil servants and citizens. However, I think in mainland China, the most significant problem of e-government is not on the level of technology since Chinese government is really rich. Instead, the probelm is that not enough information is shared among people. What is more,so many wondeful websites such as youtube, facebook are forbidden by the government.
Re:Angie
ReplyDeleteStaff retiring from military or the relatives of soldiers are always refusing to make a change, not only because of their relative old age, but also because of the thinking model. Although the online platform you mentioned is not hard to access, it is still a great challenge in such a company. Fortunately, you finally overcame the difficulities.
Re:Azalea
ReplyDeleteThe environment supporting learning is ideal in your company, since a well-organized online platform have been set up and used frequently. As for the problem of many different management layers, it is a common and we may accept the truth that changes are always made gradually rather than immediately.