Com Trivia Question of the Day

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Com Trivia Question of the Day

• What year were Alexander Graham Bell and his
  associates awarded the first US patent for the
  invention of telephone?
• 18761
• The telephone for Bell was described as an
  apparatus for transmitting vocal or other sounds
  telegraphically

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So, Where were we?

• Four Ways of Thinking about Communication
• Broad theories, in fact these are in chronical
  order but all of these ways continue to exist in
  ways today.
• as Information Transmission (mid-1900s)
• as Transactional Process (1960s)
• as Strategic Control or (1980s)
• as Balancing Creativity and Constraint (1980s
  present, along with other theories in use today)

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So, the idea of communication has changed over
time . . .

• And, so has the idea of work.
• Tell me why? Why does it matter that you know
  that how we think about communication and how we
  think about work has changed over time?
• Give me a current example of how a company didnt
  pay attention to the history of an idea and it
  had negative consequences?

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But hold on . . . Lets focus on the history
of the idea of work because its a critical idea
in this class.Break up into your project groups
and Ill assign you one time period.
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Re-read your time period and post

• Take 15-20 minutes. Answer these three questions
  on poster paper . . . .
• What types of work existed during this period?
• How was work defined?
• In other words, what did work represent for
  different people at this time?
• Are there any similarities to how we view work
  today?

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Philosophy Rhetoric of Work

• Historical Tour of the idea of work . . . .
• Ancient Greece
• Monasticism
• Feudalism
• Capitalism
• Communism
• Thursday Slavery in the U.S.
• Thursday Industrial Revolution in the U.S.

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Ancient Greece

• Slaves and freed slaves worked tedious and
  loathsome jobs.
• Upper class women were in the home lower
• Class women worked as weavers, nurses, wet
  nurses, midwives, etc.
• Working for anothers profit was the most
  degrading kind of work.
• Work was generally well respected, but citizens
  (white male ruling class) did the most revered
  work as philosophers and senators.

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Monasticism

• Medieval monasteries refuge of elite roman
  noble escaping violence.
• Philosophy hard work, self-sufficiency, and
  spirituality but some Roman freedom thought
  manual labor was beneath their dignity they
  thought prayer was holier than work
• St. Benedicts Rule changed this . . .
• Religion and early capitalism collided with
  respect to money lending.

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Feudalism

1. Practiced in Africa, Constantinople, Europe,
   India, Ireland, Japan, Jerusalem, Pakistan,
   Russia elsewhere.
2. Form of divided or share ownership contractual
   exchange for services.
3. Lord gave land to vassal in exchange for military
   service, along with taxes and agricultural
   products.
4. Land could not be passed on to daughters.
5. Patron-Client Obligation Skilled laborers and
   professionals more valued by lord.

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• What moved across Europe between the years of
  1300bce and late 1600bce and changed the
  definition and organization of work?

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1. Black Plague, among other factors, changed the
   nature of work and labor.
2. Workers were few in number, their services were
   in high demand. They could commanded higher
   wages, resisted oppressive practices, and broke
   feudal contracts.
3. Then, growth of urban centers, beginning of
   guilds (early trade/craft unions) . . .

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Mercantilism Capitalism and Communism

• Mercantilism An Economic Theory and Practice
  prominent between the 16th and 18th centuries
  across Europe and the US colonies.
• Government regulation of trade, colonial
  expansion, adoption of interest bearing loans,
  rise of slavery again with African slave trade to
  the US.

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Capitalism

1. Physiocracy early philosophy paved the way for
   the development of capitalism
2. The idea and language of work was significantly
   changing
3. Beginnings of thinking that there was a natural
   order to economics
4. Labor organized into three categories productive
   class, the proprietors, and artisans.
5. Productive key term, even today. Productive
   produce surplus products, not just reshape what
   is produced.

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• Adam Smith broadened definition of productive
• Labor (not its exchange) was the real
• value of any commodity.
• Unproductive occupations menial servants,
  singers, dancers, clergy, lawyers, professors,
  actors, orators . . .
• These ideas were shaped by and shaped the
  emerging industrial revolution.

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• Smiths characteristics of determining the value
  of particular kinds of labor
• Agreeableness of work
• Ease/difficulty of learning the work
• Inconsistency/stability of employment
• Amount of trust required
• Probability of leading to success
• How are these alive and well today in how we talk
  about work?

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Communism

• Communal work/living long standing idea, but
  were talking about Marx and Engels writings.
• What was the world like when their ideas emerged
• Europeans had little freedom, poverty persisted,
  indentured servitude remained, and slavery
  thrived.
• With the rise of urban centers and mass
  production, Marx argued that people were
  increasingly alienated from their work.
• Human fulfillment meaningful activity now what
  was spontaneous became controlled, divided and
  routinized through mass production.

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• Wealthy factory owners exploited workers by
  paying them less than their worth (labor
  value).
• Marx argued that conflict and class struggle was
  at the base of our problem he predicted the end
  of capitalism.

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• New way of organizing work would emerge
  communal living rather than competitive people
  would work and consume according to their needs.
• Central government would dispense housing,
  education, medicine and other necessities.
• Obviously, communism has had unfulfilled promises
  but very different versions are still alive in
  relation to various economic and governmental
  structures.

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Jumping across the Atlantic

• We cant talk about the idea of work in US
  history without talking about slavery.
• Why?
• WEB Dubois and Booker T. Washington influenced
  how we define the role work should play in life,
  education and race in the U.S. (note a chapter
  on these mens contributions is posted on the
  blog)

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• Booker T. Washington freed slave, attended
  Hampton Normal Academy (now Hampton University),
  conservative political philosophy, educational
  advocate, Tuskeege Normal Institute, focus on
  practical education, Compromise Speech.
• Slavery had defined manual labor as degrading.
• Set out to change definition of work for Blacks.
• Education as a means to practical and honorable
  labor and self-sufficiency for the Black
  community equality in work and life not espoused
  by Booker T. Washington.

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• W.E.B. DuBois born a free Black man, attended
  Fiske College and eventually Harvard, radical
  philosophy, Soul of Black Folks (1899),
  co-founded NAACP (1910) adopted many communist
  principles in his life and writings on race.
• Respected but vehemently disagreed with Booker T.
  
• Criticized White privilege and racial oppression.
• Education was a means of consciousness raising
  for Black Americans education and hard work as a
  means of equality between Blacks and Whites.

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Industrial Revolution in the U.S.

• Think early factory-line production . . . .
• Brought with it the separation of work and home.
• Work was moving from the farm and small to the
  cities, and early manufacturing processes (cotton
  gin, early assembly line, etc. )
• The scientific management perspectives and
  focus on divisions of labor in new manufacturing
  work.

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Ok, for Tuesday . . . .

• Group One Stop by to Chat briefly after class
  today, 2 minutes.
• Finish the historic tour and also move down to a
  focus specifically on managerial communication
  across different ways of thinking about
  communication and work.
• Read Arrow, Circuit, Dance