Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Authenticity, ch. 7, p. 200

“Do what you love!” is a motto that describes what authenticity means in both your work and personal life. The book further describes authenticity as a trend that is being propelled by a growing desire for authenticity, or for being real and honest in how we live and work with others. Whereas earlier notions of identity referred to an individual’s ability to look inside oneself (or outside of one’s professional work) to find one’s real self, contemporary ideas of authenticity focus much more on the ethics and consistency of one’s behaviors.

When I first read the description of authenticity, two related instances come to mind that I have been experiencing in my professional, educational and personal life. The first instance relates to conversations that I have had with my friends, mainly women that have teenagers approaching high school graduation and sometimes those with children in junior high school. They talk about how their children benefit by being a part of some organization or team sport to help their child get accepted into the college of their choice. Therefore, the student’s GPA along with other professional or organizational affiliations will help them achieve their goal of being accepted into college and better yet, a full scholarship.

The second instance that comes to mind is the wave of social networking being used as a way to help get jobs, set perceptions as the industry leader, or expert in a specific field to gain market awareness, sales, etc. Most companies are adopting this way of marketing and advertising by tying a personality to the company image who is authentic and is a real person that not only shares expertise but themselves more personally than we have seen in the past, such as an executive, product expert and so on. I sometimes wonder though if this type of exposure can lead to security issues or even cause the reader to become skeptical of the author’s authenticity because maybe all they want to do is sell them something.

1 comment:

  1. There does seem to be a growing trend and emphasis on authenticity. People want to know that they're getting the real thing. Even commercials for fast food saying 100% beef or 100% juice reflect our growing demand for the real thing. I also see this in many day to day conversation when people "say it like it is". In previous times people may not have complained as loudly and publicly when they didn't like an organizations ethics, customer service, or products.

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