Survey: People skills valued over those for IT

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Well I am glad to brighten your work day. Let me try again and leave Gates out of it.

We in IT in the USA all went to college and graduated - well make that assumption. In college you are rewarded for participation. In the USA the most commonly held value is individualism. This is why we do not let innocent individuals go to jail for the benefit of others who actually did the crime. That is not true in other countries but these two things - reward for participation and the value of individualism - is what makes the US great and it is why steroids users in sports are disliked.

Now think of Germany and Japan. In these team oriented cultures you are rewarded for listening and not speaking out. (in general) It gets worse.

In the USA most groups and most teams will be dominated by direct communicators, narrative communicators, and logical communicators. All of these types of communicators hold distain for the kind of communicators who we usually think of as good listeners. These are the empathetic communicators. Those kids who sat in class and rarely participated.

So lets say Bill Gates doesn't understand that the executive survey says more about a culture war than about technology. Do we live in a society that values the individual over the group or is group think what we need to value. In that latter, productivity and even morality become issues. Morality becomes an issue because those who value being part of the group are not likely to speak out when they see illegalities. Enron is the prime example.

Posted by: mighetto   Posted on: 12/14/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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