Corporate Politics

Corporate politics, what the heck is that ?

Consider this statement: "Achieving a goal is often not as important as the way its achieved". Balderdash? Confused? Disagree? Read on.

If you don't know what corporate politics is yet, then you are either new to the job market, naive, or an agnostic. If you are new to the job market - you will learn over time, unless you are naive and continue to be one. If you are agnostic then you must think that you can find a small cubicle in your company and get into "heads-down" work, try not to bother anyone, not let anything or anyone bother you. My friend, you have a lesson to learn. I used to be an agnostic. When it comes to politics, I say you should not be agnostic.

If you are one, the symptoms are telling. Things happen to you at work, i.e. you are not in control of those things or your own career. You never decide the work you want to do, things don't fall in place as you would expect. You aspire to get to the next level, but simply can't shake off the isolation you are in.

It is time to get up from you easy office chair and look beyond your gloomy cubicle walls. People in your office are out and about. They are talking to key individuals, they are comparing notes, going out to lunch, golf and beer. You are working hard, producing results and hoping your manager will notice how great you are at what you do. You are in great danger. If you stay the course you are bound to get into conflicts, distance people, be primarily task-oriented and pigeon-holed for the rest of you career. You will be labeled if you aren't already.

You will do what you are doing for the rest of you life if you are lucky. If you are like the rest of us, things will change, and the change may not be what you agree with. Learn about politics, because that is what I have done & recommend strongly. Importantly, don't learn destructive politics. I believe in karma, and I believe politics can be positive for the organization. Negative politics is destructive & in the long run is a "lose-lose".

Politics in this context of can be defined as "the total complex of relations between people ..." [ref Webster's]. The age old adage explains politics - "It is not what you, it is who you know that matters". According to Kathleen Kelly Reardon it's all politics. She believes that winning in a world where hard work & talent aren't enough is possible. In her book "It's All Politics. Winning in a world where hard work and talent aren't enough", she describes several political advantages one should work to develop:

• Develop an uncanny attentiveness to what others say & how they act
• Develop empathy - what others have to say & how they think and feel
• Prepare in advance all outcomes of a discussion. Prepare, prepare, prepare.
• Ability to see things as others do is critical
• Convey a strong interest in what other people are saying. Don't impose views - rather manage interactions to synergize
• Each of us is at least 75% responsible for the way we're treated
• Become a skilled interpreter of meanings at a number of levels
• If it quacks like a duck it is a duck. Be able to communicate with a duck

Once these principles are learned, they must be practiced. Books & blogs may teach you about a topic, unless you practice it, you will never truly learn it. Try to learn it, not about it.

Learn positive politics. Basically, craft your skills to achieve. Get things done. Reardon proposes the ACE method. What is it ?

The ACE Method:

• Appropriateness - what others are doing
• Consistency - what a person like you would do
• Effectiveness - what will get you what you want

These are boundaries within which one must operate. Learning to be appropriate (with seniors, peers, juniors & external team members) is critical. As a leader, consistency and effectiveness are the other two sides of the triangle.

You may cringe when you hear the word "power", this seems to conjure up several negative images & feelings. However, I do believe that power in the right hands is a blessing. In order to achieve what you need in your job, you need to acquire and craft enough power to intrinsically influence a group or another person to do what needs to be done. Reardon describes clean power crafting & maintaining strategies.

Power crafting/maintaining strategies

Appearances

• Impression Management: craft your reputation
• Surroundings: attend to the decor of your office/work area
• Credibility: Aim to get the respect, trust & confidence of your co-workers
• Commitment: Be busy & in demand - but not overwhelmed
• Charisma: Be charming & humorous
• Value: Link what you do to company/division goals

Relationships

• Attraction: Make people feel good about working with you or for you
• Similarity: Be like "the duck" in some important way
• Favor bank: Remember the value of reciprocity
• Mentors: Seek out advisors. If you don't have one - get one. Select carefully though
  
• Connections: Get to know people in power who can be helpful to your career

Communication

• Information control: Use caution when giving information to others
• Conversation management: Avoid dysfunctional habits & going offtrack
• Style management: Adjust your style to facilitate conversation
• Open to input: Do more listening than telling
• Facework: Avoid causing other people to lose "face"
• Flexibility: Remain open to creative ways to achieve your goals

Structural Power

• Job status: Assess the power of your position and ask yourself where you career is headed
• Limit access: Be a team player but don't tell everyone everything you're thinking
• Rewarding allies: Be sure to thank people who help you, and remember to help them too
• Selective availability: Help out, but don't be over available

Knowledge Power

• Keep learning: Never stop learning from people at every level of the organization
• Recognize: "Regimes of Truth": Identify organizational philosophies
• Be where knowledge emerges: location informational sources and be around them
• Create knowledge dependence: Find out what areas of expertise those in power look for

Caution! Don't flaunt power. Acquiring respect & power is a lot of hard work. Don't blow it away by being cocky and insolent. Having a helping nature, zero ego and a respectful attitude are primary ingredients to maintaining power. Respecting others is to let others make mistakes and not penalize them punitively. Let the other person save face. Spare the reputation of others.

Recognize negative & destructive politics: "credit snatching", "career threats", "targeting", "scapegoating", "patronizing", "double bind" or moving target, "lording" or when everything is a power issue, "embedded spy", "gossip", "belittling", etc. Reardon cites examples of each and suggests specific things to say and combat each scenario.

One principal concept of politics is the art of persuasion. Aligning thoughts is a way of doing this. Reardon calls this "Framing", A framing effect happens in a communication. When a person sees a situation in a different light and expresses his frame of reference. Others react and realign. This is framing.

Several such techniques exist and there are lots to learn. Your intrinsic attitude and disposition will dictate much of your career path. Just be aware there is something called corporate politics that plays a major role in your work life. First know about it and learn to participate. Remember there is the right side & dark side to politics. Positive constructive politics is the only long term sustainable path.

Bookmark Sync by Google is Disappointing

Goggle labs have offered a Firefox plug-in that promises to automatically synchronize the state of the browser across machines. To download it Click here
I installed the plugin on 2 Firefox browsers
(1) Firefox 1.5.x on a Windows 2000 SP4 2.5GHz 1.5GB RAM
(2) Firefox 1.5x on a Windows Home SPx 1.60GHz 760MB RAM
(3) Firefox 1.5x on a Windows 2000 SP4 1.8GHZ 1GB RAM

The first machine was run behind a firefall and proxy server, the other was connected to the internet with no proxy. Depending on the network I connected the first machine in
I was disappointed by a major flaw in the plug-in. If the browser cannot connect the Internet, then it will not work.
Uninstalling the browser is easy, but once you re-install it the Google browser synch is not uninstalled. YOu can delete it from the extensions either because to do that you will have to start the browser, but the browser does not start.

Reputation: Guard It

So Much Depends on Reputation – Guard it with your Life

According to Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power, reputation is the cornerstone of power. Reputation alone can intimidate and win. Vulnerability will invite attacks from all sides. Reputations should be unassailable; one should be alert to potential attacks and thwart them before they happen. According to Greene, one should destroy enemies by opening holes in their own reputations and after the holes are opened, stand aside and let public opinion take over.
Notably a person in recent political history was a victim of such reputation damage. He was not able to recover from it and finally offered his resignation; of course a different reason was cited for this.
Colin Powel is a highly decorated military personnel. Before Operation Desert Storm was executed, he publicly opposed several of George H.W. Bush's administration officials who advocated the deployment of troops to the Middle East to force Iraqi president Saddam Hussein to withdraw his armies from neighboring Kuwait. Powel believed that the dictator could instead be contained through sanctions and a buildup of forces around Kuwait.
Before the War on Terror in Iraq, Powell, who was by then a prominent figure on President Bush’s cabinet where he served as the Secretary of State, was able influence Bush to present a case for war at the United Nations. Powell also found himself presenting questionable intelligence to the U.N. to make a case of WMD presence in Iraq. The intelligence was proven to be false; no WMDs were found and the weapon sites revealed nothing. Powel, with his reputation severely bruised, decided to step down from the Bush administration's cabinet. Powell, who had an impeccable record, found his reputation tarnished by this. But it was too late.
Could he have done things differently?
On one hand he had to support his president and on the other hand he had to support his core values and beliefs of war. He was probably torn between the two choices. He went in half-sure. He was vulnerable. He should have guarded his reputation with his life. He should have quit sooner, with honor. Had he not appeared before the United Nations at all, the history books would be kinder to him. When we will look at Colin Powell, as a highly decorated individual, we will also see a vulnerability that was exposed through political ineptitude that caused his reputation to take a severe beating on the world stage. Guard your reputation with your life.

You can buy the book, first read the heartless list of the laws. If you read the book, read it with a grain of salt. Do not loose your values, beliefs and ethics.

The Eccentrics Versus the Uncouths

The Eccentrics Versus the Uncouths.

This article is inspired by this one.

I argue that the difference between a Geek versus Nerd is the same difference that separates the eccentrics from the uncouths. Also, most often the nerds are the ones that are geeks, the geeks are often nerds, some nerds are not geeks, and some geeks are not nerds. A nerd is an uncouth person a geek is an eccentric. I think geeks are odd, and are not really the talented few who run the show in corporate America. The genius may be a nerd, a geek, neither, or both. The leader in corporate America may not be nerdy nor geeky, unless the leader is a perceived genius.

Eccentricity.

Webster defines someone who is eccentric as:
a: deviating from an established or usual pattern or style
b : deviating from conventional or accepted usage or conduct especially in odd or whimsical ways

Take notice that an eccentric is not uncouth, just bizarre. Oddities in behavior are often traits of the genius. The reverse does not work. So if you acquire odd behavior, that does not make you a genius. Such people are pretentious and once discovered they attract disdain.

Scientists, mathematicians, engineers, software gurus are often seen as eccentrics. In corporate America, most IT staff thrive on geekdom. Most border on nerdiness, however I can say that most of the people I know are not nerdy. They (the geeks) enjoy being perceived as problem solvers. Geeks often carry the latest gadget on them. Cellphones, PDAs, & blackberrys are always within bluetooth range. They are always ready to receive a call, send an e-mail, plan the next meeting. Geeks derive power from skill. Ccommunication is usually not their forte. Geeks are simply eccentrics. They are well mannered, well meaning corporate citizens. They don't burn bridges and they don't knowingly step on other poeple's toes. They are the unsung heroes of corporate America. These are the analysts, production support personnel, engineers & programmers.


Uncouth

Webster defines someone who is uncouth as:
a : strange or clumsy in shape or appearance : OUTLANDISH
b : lacking in polish and grace : RUGGED <uncouth verse>
c : awkward and uncultivated in appearance, manner, or behavior

Nerds are not oriented towards solving problems, rather they are inclined towards "technology for the sake of technology" they are not usually self-aware and are neither aware of their surroundings (people, reactions etc). They talk a lot. Loud. Such behavior results in faux pas, ill manners and eventual social boycott. Nerdiness directly translates into bad manners. Nerds=Uncouths. Sometimes they are pompous uncouths.

Geeks are Eccentrics, Nerds ands Uncouths. Uncouths can be eccentrics, and eccentrics can be uncouth, people can be neither or both. Corporate IT citizens, please try harder to be neither.

Leadership by heuristics or empirical research ?

Leadership has been studied from various perspectives. The first recorded approach to leadership was embedded in traits. It was believed that leaders are born not made, "Kings are born, not made", it was said. "Greatness is in the blood", was commonly believed. Several views on leadership emerged as our civilization evolved. Over the past 30 years our understanding of leadership went through a major shift. Our collective new understanding of leadership has been presented nicely by Peter Northouse. He provides a very good overview of leadership in his book Leadership Theory & Practice (LTP). Various perspectives on leadership have been acquired over time through scientific research. Northouse writes about several approaches to leadership in his book including the trait approach, skills approach, style approach, situational approach, contingency theory, path-goal theory, leader-member exchange theory, transformational leadership, and team leadership. The book presents captivating work in the field of leadership. Each approach to leadership is well cited, documented, explained and critiqued. The reader will find it easy to associate the theory with his daily practice. My favorite theory is the style approach to leadership, the famous Leadership Grid is the product of research conducted by Ohio State University and Michigan University.
Diametrically opposite to empirical research in leadership is a heuristic approach to leadership. To summarize this approach is akin to the live and learn approach, learn by your mistakes approach, and a generalize by personal experience approach. Belasco & Stayer have written an oddly titled best-selling book in first person based on these principles of leadership. Flight of the buffalo (FOTB ) is a joint venture that dives head first into experiences of running companies, heuristics of leadership, visual analogies, gut feel, earthly common sense and best practices of "leadership". The oddity of the title is explained early in the book.
The book begins with the authors' journeys into leadership and various related concepts & ideas. Amongst others ideas like intellectual capitalism, leadership vision, focus, direction, obstacles (removing them), developing ownership in employees, self-directed action & learning to be the leader (lead goose) are discussed. Every chapter is littered with short stories and a moral. There is an Aesop's Fables like feel to the book. Real-life examples are touching and real, however, if you have read Northouse's LTP previously, you can draw parallels to Belasco and Stayer's experiences. Specific leadership theories presented in LTP can easily experience the wise words the authors present. The book is enjoyable, and almost actionable. Some of the advice is basically common sense best practices in action. The writing style is patterned by "try,try again until you succeed, or decide to do things differently".
The authors introduce interesting words and concepts. I liked the word authors invented to mean the inverse of leadership - "status-quo-ship". Another favorite is the concept of "lead goose" in the "intellectual capitalism era". Good advice is provided on every page of the book, obvious common sense is prescribed often. For example, "Leaders proact, not react" is treated as a chapter, the basic premise is that leaders should prevent problems rather than solve problems. Basic management tenets are also provided for the uninitiated, Deliverable (What will be delivered ?), Measurement (How will we know it is done ?), Date (When will it be done ?), Person Responsible (Who will do it ?). The authors recommend that every employee do a process analysis by asking "what can i stop doing?" - remove obstacles. Expectation setting on staff, customers and oneself is disccussed. Henry Kissinger is cited as asking "Is this your best work?". The author(s) push for excellence through action.
I found the authors doing a good job in the area of potential and reaching it. What's the difference between those who reach their potential and those who don't ? Those who do, bring a discipline with them to every task they face. They are willing continuously to challenge themselves. They keep learning how to get better because they do not accept falling short of their potential.
This book can become suddenly interesting and intensely revealing if you decide to read Northouse's LTP first. It is the perfect anti-dote to analysis by knowledge (knowing too much, but acting too little).
But really, what is the best approach to leadership ? Heuristics or empirical ? IMO learn the theory, read about experiences (it is cheaper than having your own) then go out to the field armed with your knowledge and the experience of the authors. Practice.

Directed Project/Thesis Defense

The thesis defense was succesful. I was looking forward to it. Tanya and Nikhil accompanied me for the presentation. Mark set up the projector, Dr.Newton, Dr.Latif, and Dr.Newton entered Knoy 569. I introduced all to Nikhil and Tanya. Dr.Elliott played with Niknil and said that they were gathered to meet with him and my presentation was just a side show.
After everyone settled, the proceedings began. The light was dimmed, and I began. After about three slides into the presentation Nikhil started acting up. Tanya took stolled him out and waited in the lobby.
For the next hour I was in the groove, slide after slide I talked and answered questions interactively. At one point, during the presentation Dr.Newton murmed, "This is important work". The professors were satisfied.
At the end of the presentation, the lights were switched back on. Everyone was beaming with satisfaction. Dr.Newton asked if she could use the statistical part of my paper to teach her six hundered level course. I responded before she could complete her request with a confident smile and a blunt "YES". She commented further to the department head that this is definitely worth a PhD. Dr.Elliott, my chair said he was very pleased with the work and saw no issues. He offered to co-author an artcile to be published in a scientific journal. Dr.Latif, the department head, said that I was young and I should consider teaching, if I ever decide to teach at Purdue, even part-time, this would be a great help. He asked me what I thought of the program and I answered honestly. Mark took down my feedback, not sure why. Over all it was a satisfactory defense. I am quite pleased with myself.

Ethical Power

According to Paula Caproni, author of "Management Skills For Everyday Life", there are six universal forms of influence.

• Reciprocation
• Committment & consistency
• Authority
• Social proof
• Scarcity
• Liking

Power emanating from these forms of influence can be considered ethical.

Founding principles:

• You should tell people explicitly what you want.
• Organization's interest and others' interest is at par or above your own.
• You treat everyone fairly, follow process and do not abuse.
• You leave yourself reasonably open to be influenced by others.
• You back your points with valid data.

These founding principles and ethical form of influence is in direct contrast to the Robert Greene's "The 48 Laws Of Power" in which he shockingly suffocates any breath of ethics. The book is laced with a dark sense of human power perversion. For instance, #31 Control the options: Get others to play with the cards you deal. #32 Play to people's fantasies and #36 Disdain things you cannot have do not play to long term interests nor do they breed contributors who care for the greater good.

Caproni's book brings a breath of fresh air to the taboo "Power", it certainly explains in detail, and backed by research, the ethics associated with power - and how it can be put to good ethical use.

Breaking Trust: A Tutorial

Trust Breakers

Here is a list of behaviors & traits you should demonstrate, practice and implement at work in order to break the trust of your employer, employees, co-workers and clients :

• Advance your own interest at the expense of others.
• Be blatantly and pompously self-promoting.
• Use inconsistent standards to evaluate employees.
• Allow some people to break the rules and expect others to follow them.
• Do not care about performance problems until the time to rate your employee.
• Enable poor-performers to stay in your organization unchallenged.
• Pigeon-hole your employees.
• Take credit of your employee's work.

• Withold important information.
• Be closed minded to diverse ideas.
• Act disrepectfully towards others.
• Lie or cover up, rather than admit to mistakes.
• Break promises, or use words cheaply.
• Betray confidence by saying one thing and doing another.
• Spin by communicating selective facts, and by lacing tone to imply a different context.
• Act inconsistently; be incongruent in body language and intent.
• Have frequent negative interactions with co-workers and subordinates.
• Hide incompetence by making excuses.
• Plagerize others' ideas and work.
• Don't listen to others' opinions then punch holes without understanding the issue completely.
• Don't teach others to fish, rather bring them the fist.
• Make people dependent on you for daily work.
  
• Be unconcerned about personal needs, be pompous and self-promoting.
• Don't be humble or meek.
  

There are surely more ways to break trust and it is fairly simple to do so. Remember, that establishing trust is a time consuming process that requires consistency, congruency and solid principles. Leaders who are meek rise to the top and stay there. Read about meekness in Jim Collin's "Good To Great". Humility and meekness are different attributes, but I think both are equally important. "People with humility don't think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less" - Ken Blanchard and Norman Vincent Peale in the Power of Ethical Management.


The above is synthesized from Fernando Bartalome's "Nobody Trusts the Boss Completely, Now What?" (Harvard Business Review)

Diffusion Rates Will Increase in 2006

We have seen more advances in science and technology in the last 60 years than in all of previous history. The rate of technology diffusion has progressively increased as well.
According to K.H.Hammond (2001), it took the telephone 35 years to get into 25% of all homes in the United States. It took TV 26 years. It took radio 22 years. It took PCs 16 years. It took Internet 7 years. It probably took cellphones less than 5, DVDs less than 3, and iPod, XBox, PlayStation, less than 2 years. In a hyper-competitive global market, technology will seamlessly cross boundaries quicker than ever before.
By the end of 2006, I think that successful technology products will proliferate markets in months, not years.

How to make people like you in 90 seconds or less.

Introduction
An intriguing title for a book! This small book (less than 200 pages) is written by Nicholas Boothman. It covers a pretty broad range of topics. From my perspective, the book did a decent job of bringing body language, communication skills, and behavior together. It covers a lot of ground with everyday examples. One of the acronyms that is fascinating is KFC. Know what you want, Find out what you are getting, Change what you do until you get what you want. The key is the "K" know what you want. Once you know what you want, you can direct your attitude, synchronize appropriately, communicate effectively by using the preferred senses.

Attitude
The book focuses on achieving rapport when it does not come naturally. Boothman calls his technique "Rapport by Design". In this technique, you the reader, will assume the characteristics of the person you are engaged with temporarily,"The key to establish rapport with strangers is to become like them". He describes various ways of doing that, especially through body language and the right attitude. The author describes to general types of attitudes. A "Really Useful Attitude" and a "Really Useless Attitude".

Really Useful Attitude	Really Useless Attitude
Warm Enthusiastic Confident Supportive Relaxed Obliging Curious Resourceful Comfortable Helpful Engaging Laid back Patient Welcoming Cheery Interested	Angry Sarcastic Impatient Bored Disrespectful Conceited Pessimistic Anxious Rude suspicious Vengeful Afraid Self-conscious Mocking Embarrassed Dutiful

The whole idea to list the useful and useless attitudes is to get a picture of what is needed and what must be avoided. Attitude is the core of interpersonal skill.

Synchronization

There is significant talk about body language and synchronization at the subliminal level. Boothman states "When you meet someone new, immediately point your heart warmly at that person's heart. ". Such gestures, he claims are universal and cross-cultural. He adds, "There is magic in this.". He explicitly calls out on closed body language and gives examples of what not to do.
He cites Albert Mehrabian, professor at UCLA, who has studied communication in detail. His studies suggest that 55% of what we respond to takes place visually; 38% of what we respond to is the sound; and 7% is the content. The author suggests that we synchronize our attitudes,body language (gestures, posture, gesticulations, movement, tilts, nods, expressions, breathing and rhythms), and voice (tone, volume, speed, pitch, rhythm, words).


Communication
Boothman declares two types of communication methods, one that opens up the conversation (through open-ended questions) and the other, that closes the conversation (questions that ask for a yes/no response). The author encourages questions that begin with "who, what, when, why, where, how" compared to "did you, are you , have you".
A "location/occasion" conversation methodology is recommended to break the ice. It is even better to use sensory specific words like "See, Tell, Feel" in a conversation. The author offers situational advice for regular day-to-day scenarios. The strongest point the author makes about communication is that most people do not know what they want out of a communication. It is of paramount importance that you know what you want before you open your mouth. If you do not want anything, make sure the other person knows and ensure that you are not wasting any time theirs or yours.
Boothman explains nicely the difference between "active" listening and "parrot phrasing" by providing excellent examples. All facets of communication are touched upon, at one point in the book Boothman explains how to receive compliments and advises not to flatter, "cheap flattery, tired cliches, and patronizing remarks reek of insincerity & can be insulting".

Senses
What makes this book different from other books is how Boothman classifies people by their preferred senses. He claims that there are three type of people: Visuals (55%), Auditories(15%) & Kinesthetics (30%). The author claims that it is more effective to select words in a conversation depending on which type of person you are talking with. The book offers techniques to determine the type of person. There is a good description of the type of eye-movement to expect when a person is visualizing, re-hearing, or re-feeling to retrieve information. A self-test is also offered in the form a questionnaire that determines your favorite sense. From a communication perspective, Boothman says to use metaphors, he claims that it appeals to all types because metaphors exercise all senses.


Conclusion
This book concludes easily by bringing all the four major components together. It ends with food for thought. The author urges his readers to get their imagination under control and install some Really Useful Assumptions. Assume rapport and trust, assume likability, assume synchronicity, assume forgiveness, assume impact, assume positivity and above all assume disposition to connectivity. He reminds us that when greeting someone new use this metaphor: Open-Eye-Bean-"Hi!"-Lean.

Management Skills for Everyday Life : The Practical Coach (2nd Edition)

An excellent book by Paula J. Caproni. This book covers important topics that will impact your personal and work life.
Topics covered by the author include success predictors, self-awareness, trust building, effective communication, ethical power & influence, relationship management, cultural diversity, creating high-performance teams, and crafting a life. Sounds a lot for 459 pages ? It is. The material is covered in sufficient detail.
One thing that strikes you while you read the book are the quotes. Famous quotes are printed on the margins, contextualized and related to the content. One of my favorite quotes can be found in the first chapter. "Learn as if you were to live forever. Live as if you were going to die tomorrow" - Mahatma Gandhi.
Every chapter is well researched. The end-notes are documented at the end of each chapter. This book should appeal to all.

IT Timeline

Information Technology Timeline

1642 - Blaise Pascal invented the mechanical calculator
1834 - Charles Babbage designed the analytical engine
1890 - Herman Hollerith created the statistical tabulator
1936 - Alan Turing described the universal machine
1947 - Bardeen, Shockley, and Brattain invented the transistor


(To Be Continued...)

IBM WebSphere 5 Classloaders

Abundant articles are available on WebSphere classloaders.


Just to reiterate one important point:

Several issues in WebSphere version 4.x have been resolved in WebSphere 5.x.
For example: If in a WAS5 ear there are multiple WARs and each WAR needs to reuse a utility jar and the reference is given in the manifest, the jar class loader will load up the utility only ONCE.

In a project I was working there was debate and almost certainly a hack was planned by delinking wars from their manifests and adding those manifests in a shell EJB projects (!)

Here is a sample classloader hierachy:
Application is set to Parent First
War is set to Parent last.

EJB ClassLoaders
com.ibm.ws.classloader.ExtJarClassLoader
sun.misc.Launcher$ExtClassLoader
sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader
com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.ExtClassLoader
com.ibm.ws.classloader.ProtectionClassLoader
com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader

WAR Classloaders

com.ibm.ws.classloader.CompoundClassLoader
com.ibm.ws.classloader.ExtJarClassLoader
sun.misc.Launcher$ExtClassLoader
sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader
com.ibm.ws.bootstrap.ExtClassLoader
com.ibm.ws.classloader.ProtectionClassLoader
com.ibm.ws.classloader.JarClassLoader

You can view your hierarchy with the classloader viewer, read and download from here.

What is Architecture ?

"Architecture is a set of structuring principles that enables a system to be comprised of a set of simpler systems each with its own local context that is independent of but not inconsistent with the context of the larger system as a whole."

This definition can be easly contextualized to information systems.