Report on My Interviews

            This blogpost is intended to breakdown my interviews into the information that I found about the professionals in my major. Specifically the genre types that they said they used.

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What are the most significant or interesting genres that you learned about from your interviewees? Please identify at least THREE specific genres from your discipline/field of study that your interview subjects discussed writing within. 

Jerel Slaughter:

• Email
• Powerpoint
• Research/Academic Articles

Allison Gabriel:

• Twitter
• Powerpoint
• Research Posters
• Research/Academic Articles

How do these genres differ from one another? Think about things like genre convention, content, purpose, audience, message, and context as you describe these differences.

           The genres that both Gabriel and Slaughter had in common were the use of Powerpoint and their Research/Academic Articles. They use them in pretty much the same way; Powerpoint to make presentations and convey information, and their articles to give examples of research work. The ones that were a little different were the use of Email (Slaughter), Twitter (Gabriel), and Research Posters (Gabriel). Slaughter noted that the use of email allowed him to update his colleagues and students in an efficient manner. He isn't really using it to present information to students, but more so to link them to important articles. Gabriel's use of Twitter allows students to engage in her classes through social media. She recognizes that social media is a very popular among our youth and wants to reach her students through those platforms. With the use of Research Posters, Gabriel is able to present the research that she is currently working on and is able to receive feedback from fellow colleagues and students.

Based on the information you gathered in your interviews, what is challenging and/or difficult about writing within these genres (from a professional's point of view)?

            The use of email as a writing genre in both an academic and professional setting allows Slaughter to keep his students and colleagues up-to-date, but at the same time it can create an impersonal relationship between him and his students. However, he tackles this issue by holding discussion-based classes. That is the reason why his writing genres are pretty limited, because he likes to keep it simple. He said he would rather have his students discuss the information that they have learned rather than trying to just teach them it during class. Gabriel's biggest challenging with using Twitter for her class is getting students to actually use this medium. As it is now, she suggests that her students follow her to stay up-to-date on her research or other information related to the class, however, it is not a requirement.

Based on the information you gathered in your interviews, what is exciting and/or rewarding about writing within these genres (from a professional's point of view)?

            Slaughter is extremely content with how his classes are handled, in the sense that he is not just lecturing his students. Sure he still teaches them and presents information in class, but by using email to keep his students posted, he is able to utilize classroom time to discuss topics they have read about and learn in a more interactive environment. Gabriel really appreciates the "Brown Bag series" portion of her department, where she is able to create a poster and present her research on the projects she's been working on. This time allows her to receive feedback from peers, colleagues, and other students. It gives her a fresh perspective before the final stages of production. Her use of Twitter (which she is becoming more accustomed to) allows her to connect better with her students which is a very important aspect when teaching students.

Where in mass media - popular, academic, and/or social - can examples of this genre be found? If genre examples cannot be found within mass media easily, where can genre examples be found/located?

            The genres that these professionals used are not anything out of the ordinary so they are pretty common in the academic and social realm. A lot of professors use email, powerpoint, and research posters/articles to present information. Slowly, but surely, social media platforms are becoming key components to teach worldwide and Gabriel is trying to hop on to that medium with the hopes of better communicating with her students and colleagues. 

From Academia to Social Media

            This blogpost is intended to give me a better understanding of the writer of the article from the academic journal that I chose.

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What is the name of the author (from the academic journal) that you selected and which social media networks were you able to find her/him on?

             Dr. Michael A. Jacoby- Found on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter.

How would you describe the author's social media presence? What kinds of things are they talking about or sharing on social media? 

             The author has a very informative Linkedin account. There is a good amount of background information on him such as education, profession, recommendations, etc. I was not able to get any information from his Facebook account, he has not used it since 2013 and there was really no posts from him. His twitter, however, is very active and he is really into tweeting about funding for education in Illinois. There are a few personal tweets, like his love for the Chicago Cubs, but most of his tweets are about educational budgets and link his followers to articles.

Now return to the piece that this author published in the academic journal. How does their persona on social media differ from their persona in the pages of the academic journal?

             It is a little hard to relate his tweets to his writings in the academic journal, solely for the fact that on twitter there isn't much writing. However one does get a sense of his passion for advocating for the improvement of education in Iowa. His tweets do relate to some of the points in his editor's note. For example, he tweets about the Vision 20/20 organization here and this is matched to his explanation of the program in The Journal for School Business Management (Jacoby, 9).

Academic Discourse & Genre

            The purpose of this blog is to analyze the different types of writing genres that were used inside of the academic journal I chose to review.

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How many different kinds of genres seem to be published in this particular issue of the journal you selected?

           I was able to identify three different types of genres in this journal.

Identify at least three different genres within the journal issue and describe the significant formal differences between the three genres. If you made up your own name, explain why you chose the name you invented.

           The three different types of genres that I was able to identify in the article were a quick reference guide, scholarly article, and advertisements. The quick reference guide takes the important parts of a situation and breaks it up into sections that cover different aspects of the issue be described. It includes pictures, graphs and infographics to provide visual aid to the reader. The next genre that I found, the scholarly article, strictly provided written information. It was almost like a short essay, but it was split into different sections. The last genre I found that was majorly used in this publication was advertisements. The advertisements provided seemed strictly targeted towards improving one's  care for education, helping children, and improving one's businesses. There weren't any really random advertisements.

Now come up with your own definition for each genre. Be sure to explain what you perceive to be the purpose of each genre and how each genre might meet the needs and expectations of a target audience.

            The quick reference is a writing genre used to inform a certain audience about a particular issue in an easy-to-read format with the help of visual aids such as pictures and infographics. It is split into different sections with subheadings that describe different aspects of the issue being discussed. The scholarly article is used to discuss important issues about a certain subject. They are almost like QRG's without visual aids and they are a fraction of the size. The information presented is all comprehensive so the use of infographics would be unnecessary. Lastly, the advertisement is intended to promote a certain organization, and, in turn, helps fund the organization it is included it. Advertisements can either be irrelevant in relation to the platform it is displayed in, or only certain advertisements are allowed in.

Rhetorical Analysis of Academic Journal

            The purpose of this blog is to do a rhetorical analysis of one of the academic journals mentioned in the previous blog. For this blogpost  as able to find a hard copy of The Journal of School Business Management.

Me.

Who are the authors/speakers published in this specific issue of the academic journal you've selected? How many different authors are published here? What can you find out about these people? How are the authors/speakers portrayed in the journal issue?

The Journal of School Business Management (Volume 27, Number 2. Fall/Winter 2015) 

            The was this journal is structured is a little odd in the fact that after each article, there is is no writer mentioned...at all. There is, however, a whole page about the editor and he talks about what will be talk about in the journal and explains why it is important. Since this is a small journal, and he is executive director, he seems to have been a huge contributor to this special edition, even though it was clearly a collaborative effort. No writers were specified at all, although, it is possible that they are the handful of people listed under "directors." The Executive Director/Editor, Dr. Michael A. Jacoby, is the author I'll be analyzing. I was able to find him on Linkedin, Facebook and Twitter. Jacoby is very knowledgeable about the education system in Iowa, so his voice can be heard throughout the articles, in an effort to better the system by improving educators, funding for schools, and how kids learn. (Jacoby, 9)

Who is the intended audience for this particular journal issue? How can you tell? Are there any secondary audiences included here?

            The main audience of this particular journal issue is everyone involved in the Illinois education system. They are all a part of "Vision 20/20" which is a collaborative work run by six different education organizations that represent Illinois' top education leaders. (Jacoby, 7). Jacoby mentions in his editor's note that "we [educators of Illinois] are all a part of the system," meaning that this affects everyone in the state of Illinois. A secondary audience could be educators and school heads in other states that could take ideas  from this publication.

What is the context surrounding this particular journal issue? What purpose is the journal issue trying to achieve?How does this affect the content of the journal?What is the overall message of the journal issue?

            The context of this particular journal issue is educators statewide (in Illinois) are trying to improve all aspects of the education system from the educators all the way to what the school can provide for students. The members of Vision 20/20 "believe the key to continuous improvement in public education relies on the wisdom and innovation of public educators who work with students every day. This is a continuous process." (Jacoby, 9) This central goal affects the content of the journal because it is broken up into four different sections intended to improve the education system. These four section are "Highly Effective Educators, 21st Century Learning, Shared Accountability, and Equitable and Adequate Funding." (Jacoby, 9) The overall message of this journal issue is that there is always room for improvement for any business, and right now, it is time for the education system in Illinois to revise their current strategies and take them a step further to effectively educate students and run a school.

My Major

           This blogpost is intended to dissect my major and explain my personal interests in my intended major. Links are also provided to different scholarly articles that are focused around my major.

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What do students in your program or department learn how to do?

            Students in my program/department (Business Management) learn all the necessary skills to be an effective business manager. Not only do they learn the common skills of any businessman, but they go farther as to learn how to communicate properly with their fellow employees and how to manage any situation at the workplace. Classes are not limited to just business finance or accounting, but they also cover behavior at work, emotional labor, and a whole other range of subjects.

What do people who get degrees in this field usually go on to do for work?

            People who graduate with degrees in my field of study usually go on to manage at various corporations. They can be at companies such as Macy's, Pepsi, Coca Cola, and hundreds of other places. The possibilities almost seem endless and the percent of kids who graduate with a job already lined up is pretty high for Eller.

What drew you to this field?

            I came to this field rather unexpectedly. I am planning on going to med school (I know, it sounds absurd...why would I be under a business degree), but I thought that if down the road I decide med school is not for me, then I would be on track to get into Eller. The reason I am going for a business management degree is because I have always known that I wanted to be a leader. I am not too fond of the idea of working under someone, and I would rather be able to manage a business on my own.

Name three of the leaders/most exciting people involved in this field right now in 2016. Why are they interesting or exciting to you? 

            Larry Page (CEO) of Google is a very interesting business leader of America, solely for the fact that he is a self-made billionaire. His creation of Google was absolutely huge, he manages the world's leading search engine which has helped millions upon millions of people worldwide. Tim Cook (CEO) of Apple has proved himself to be a very successful leader among the tech world. After the passing of Steve Jobs, he did not let the company slow down or take a fall from such a tragic event, rather, he took the business and has been thriving since. He obviously has been doing all the right things to keep Apple as a successful and booming company. Another self-made billionaire that I admire is Jeff Bezos (CEO) of Amazon. He took the general idea of eBay and amped it up 100x by becoming a produce of common goods for a fraction of the price.

What are the names of three leading academic/scholarly journals in your field? Where are they published? Give us the names and locations of at least 3.

• Academy of Management Review -Briarcliff Manor, New York

• The Journal of School Business Management -Dekalb, IL

• The Journal of Finance -Hoboken, New Jersey

My Interviewees on Social Media

            This blogpost was able to give me a better insight on how my interviewees take advantage of different forms of social media.

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What are the names of each interviewee and which social media networks were you able to find each of them on?

Allison Gabriel:

• Linkedin
• Twitter

Jerel Slaughter:

• Linkedin

How would you describe each interviewee's social media presence? What kinds of things are they talking about or sharing on social media? How does their persona on social media differ from their persona in the pages of the academic journal?

Allison Gabriel: Allison Gabriel can only be found on Linkedin and Twitter.  Her Linkedin is very informative on everything that she is associated with. She has over 500 connections, and one can find groups that she's a part of, awards and honors, pages she's following, and an extensive background analysis. She also has a Twitter account made in 2013 that seems to be more active now than in the past with a little over 450 tweets. She seems to tweet about things in her area of expertise, and it all stays professional. It appears to be more of links to posts, and one can see that she is a happy alumni of Penn State. Her persona on social media is very much like her persona in her academic journals. She speaks very professionally and presents information that supports what she has to say. For example she promotes some of her research with Serge da Motta Veiga in this tweet.

Jerel Slaughter: The only form of social media that I could find for Jerel was his Linkedin, which had minimal information compared to that of Allison Gabriel. There is a slight background on his professional and academic career. It also includes the groups he is a part of and the pages that he follows. Seeing as though his Linkedin account is his only form of social media, it is hard to make a connection with his publications.

My Interviewees as Professional Writers

           This post evaluates some of the publications done by my interviewees. The research done here helped prepare me for the interviews because I was able to get more insight on the people I'm interviewing.

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Give us the name of each interviewee and write a short summary of the kinds of professional publications they've authored (according to their website, CV and/or other easily findable online resources that list their publications). 

Allison Gabriel:

           Gabriel's work expertise include emotions at work, emotional labor, motivation, employ well being, etc. That being said, she is very knowledgeable about the psychology behind employees in the workspace. She has written in journals such as the Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Applied Psychology, Academy of Management Journal and many other similar journals. Her main topic that is covered in her articles is emotions at work and what factors play a role in employees' emotions.

Jerel Slaughter:

            Slaughter's work expertise cover recruitment and applicant attraction, decision making in recruitment and selection, deviant and unethical behavior in organizations. The publications that he has contributed to include Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Journal of Applied Psychology, American Journal of Health Promotion and a good amount of other journals. His writings seem to talk about decision making for new employees, employer image and employer branding.

Track down a few of their publications online. Be sure to examine at least two different publications by each interviewee (and hyperlink us to the two examples for each). What professional genres has each interviewee written in? 

Allison Gabriel: 

            Journal of Applied Psychology (2015) - This publication was written as scholarly article that includes a few graphs and flow charts that help to explain the information in the article.

            Motivation and Emotion (2010) - This publication was written as scholarly article that includes a few graphs and flow charts that help to explain the information in the article.

            These two different articles, from different time periods and publishers, have very similar formats. They talk about their approach, hypotheses, methods, data, results and analysis of their data found for their research topic. Both of them were written as research articles.

Jerel Slaughter:

            Personnel Psychology (2011) - This publication was written as scholarly article that includes a few graphs and flow charts that help to explain the information in the article. It is very data driven and

            Journal of Applied Psychology (2005) - This publication was written as scholarly article that includes a few graphs and flow charts that help to explain the information in the article.

           These two different articles, from different time periods and publishers, have very similar formats. They talk about their approach, hypotheses, methods, data, results and analysis of their data found for their research topic. Both of them were written as research articles.

What is the context surrounding the two different pieces published by each of your interviewees/What purpose is each piece trying to achieve?

            Journal of Applied Psychology (2015) - This article was aimed towards analyzing the influence of power and solidarity on emotional displays at work. They studied relative power and solidarity on the emotions of employees at work in different situations

            Motivation and Emotion (2010) - This article studied a couple different emotional labor strategies that employees use to comply with their emotional expectations at work. The authors studied surface acting (fake emotions) and deep acting (trying a forced emotion).

________________________________________

           
            Personnel Psychology (2011) - This article co-authored by Jerel Slaughter looked deeper into work engagement and its correlation to task and correlation experience. They used meta-analytic data to test the role of engagement.

            Journal of Applied Psychology (2005) - This publication covered three main issues: "(a) the content of different affirmative action plans; (b) the 3-way interaction among distributive, procedural, and interactional justice; and (c) the distinction between outcome favorability and distributive justice." This experiment on organization justice and black applicant reactions to affirmative action was carried out by observing a sample of black students who responded to 1 of 6 of their plans.

What is the overall message of each piece? 

            Journal of Applied Psychology (2015) - The overall message of this article is that "display rules involved more control over emotional expressions (i.e., more deamplification and masking of emotion and less expressing and amplification of emotion) when the interaction partner had higher relative power compared to when the interaction partner had equal or lower relative power...Display rules also involved more control when the interaction partner was low in solidarity compared to when the interaction partner was high in solidarity, with this effect being similar in magnitude for anger and happiness."

            Motivation and Emotion (2010) - The overall message of this article was the identification of "5 emotional labor profiles—non-actors, low actors, surface actors, deep actors, and regulators—and found that these actor profiles were distinguished by several emotional labor antecedents (positive affectivity, negative affectivity, display rules, customer orientation, and emotion demands–abilities fit) and differentially predicted employee outcomes (emotional exhaustion, job satisfaction, and felt inauthenticity)."

________________________________________

           
            Personnel Psychology (2011) - The overall message of this article is that "work engagement is a useful construct that deserves further attention."


            Journal of Applied Psychology (2005) - The overall message of this article is "using organizational justice as a guiding framework, the authors studied perceptions of affirmative action programs by presumed beneficiaries."

My Interview Subjects

            For this blogpost I discuss the different people I will be interviewing for Project 2 about professionals in my major. I will cover all aspects of their professional careers, as well as a list of questions that I plan on asking them. Links are provided in the picture captions that take you to their professional website/homepage.

             

Allison S. Gabriel

Jerel Slaughter

Names of the organization(s) your interviewees work for, as well as their job titles.

Allison: 
         Assistant Professor of Management and Operations at the University of Arizona. Researcher of well-being/motivation/emotions for the Department of Psychology at the University of Arizona.

Jerel:
         Robins Professor of Management at the University of Arizona. Management and Organizations Head at the University of Arizona.

Higher education degrees that your interviewees hold and the names of the institutions that issued them.

Allison:

• Ph.D., Industrial-Organizational Psychology, The University of Akron, 2013
• M.A., Industrial-Organizational Psychology, The University of Akron, 2010
• B.A., Psychology (Honors, Highest Distinction), Psychology, The Pennsylvania State University, 2008

Jerel: 

• PhD, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Bowling Green State University, 1996 – 2000

• MA, Experimental Psychology, University of Hartford, 1994 – 1996

• BA, Psychology, Emory University, 1990 – 1994

Years your interviewees have worked in the field professionally.

Allison

Assistant Professor of Management and Organizations

The University of Arizona

August 2015 – Present (7 months)Tucson, AZ

Assistant Professor of Management

Virginia Commonwealth University

August 2013 – August 2015 (2 years 1 month)Richmond, Virginia Area

Jerel

Robbins Professor of Management; Department Head, Management and Organizations

University of Arizona, Eller College

July 2014 – Present (1 year 8 months)

Robbins Professor of Management

University of Arizona, Department of Management and Organizations

July 2013 – July 2014 (1 year 1 month)

Associate Professor

University of Arizona, Department of Management & Organizations

July 2006 – June 2013 (7 years)

Assistant Professor

University of Arizona, Eller College of Management

2002 – 2006 (4 years)

Assistant Professor

Louisiana State University, Department of Psychology

2000 – 2002 (2 years)

Date, time & location of your scheduled interview.
Allison: Wednesday at 10 am- 405FF McClelland Hall

       

Jerel:  Monday at 2:30 pm- 405JJ McClelland Hall

Interview Questions for Interviewees.

Allison:

• What do you do for a living, in other words, how would you describe your job?
• How did you end up as a Professor of Management and Organizations?
• How do you present information to your colleagues and superiors?
• Are there any other, less common ways that you present information in your line of work?
• What kinds of audiences do you communicate and/or write for?
• Are you obligated to write for a certain group?
• Internal (university) or external group?
• What genres do you work in?
• Could you provide me with examples of your work?
• Do certain types of genres make you feel a type of way?
• What is something that you’ve written that you are most proud of?
• How did you feel before/after publication of your work?
• Could you tell me more about your research with the Psychology Department?
• Would you be open to answering follow-up questions in the following weeks?

Jerel:

• What do you do for a living, in other words, how would you describe your job?
• How did you end up as a Department Head of Management and Organizations?
• What does it mean to be a Robbins Professor of Management?
• How do you present information to your colleagues and superiors?
• Are there any other, less common ways that you present information in your line of work?
• What kinds of audiences do you communicate and/or write for?
• Are you obligated to write for a certain group?
• Internal (university) or external group?
• What genres do you work in?
• Could you provide me with examples of your work?
• Do certain types of genres make you feel a type of way?
• Could you tell me more about a few of your many publications?
• What is something that you’ve written that you are most proud of?
• How did you feel before/after publication of your work?
• Are you a part of any research, if so, could you provide me with more information about what it is and how you play a part in it?
• Would you be open to answering follow-up questions in the following weeks?

Brutally Honest Self Assessment

              In this blog I talk about my after-thoughts of my finished Project 1 assignment. I talk about the strengths, weaknesses, and overall feelings of the project.

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1.    How are you feeling about the project you just submitted for assessment? Give me your raw, unvarnished opinion of your own project overall. 

              I honestly feel great about my Quick Reference Guide for Project 1. I put a lot of time and effort into the project and I really think it reflects that. I did extensive research as shown in the previous blog posts and I filtered through all of it to create something that is quick and informative. I'm also really, really happy about how the formatting turned out and that the QRG coincidentally ended right at the end of a page...I personally just find that so aesthetically pleasing.

2.    What are the major weaknesses of the project you submitted? Explain carefully how and why you consider these elements to be weak or under-developed.

              I believe the analysis of the articles around the time period of my issue could have been more in depth, but it was sort of hard seeing as though the major articles could not really make connections with the issue being covered. Although, the purpose of including the articles were to establish the time period and give a sense of what else was going on. Also, I'm glad with the way the QRG came out looks-wise, but I am kind of bummed out that it is a GoogleDocs because that's how my audience will be viewing it. The PDF version I submitted looks way better because it does not include the rest of the GoogleDocs website and looks like an article.

3.    What are the major strengths of the project you submitted? Explain carefully how and why you consider these elements to be strong or well-developed.

            One of my strengths for this paper was the amount of research done prior to starting the QRG. I feel like I was able to cover every aspect of this situation and in an effective manner. My peer editors seemed to have enjoyed it as well. I also believe the consistent formatting for my QRG is definitely a strength and there is nothing really to distract the reader.

4.    What do you think of how you practiced time management for Project 1? Did you put enough time and effort into the project? Did you procrastinate and wait till the last minute to work on things? Share any major time management triumphs or fails.... 

            For time management I feel like I did not change much from my usual habits. I have fairly good habits and I can usually gauge how much work I can handle before I run out of time. My biggest issue seemed to be time-managing for the blogs. They were effective in helping with the overall process of the project, but I found them to be very time-consuming and redundant. I firmly believe that I put more than enough work into my QRG.