Cultural Constraints In The Workplace

Communication Constraints in the Workplace

Throughout my short time at Target Community and Educational Services, Inc. I have had the opportunity to work with and experience what it is like to work with people from diverse backgrounds who can at times communicate in many different ways.

During my time at Target, Inc. I had the chance to also work on my practicum. For this project I chose to rewrite the organizations training policy so that all employees would better understand what was required of them. One of the tasks that came along with this project was getting feedback from different members of the organization, and I found this to be a major constraint to the completion of the project. I have chosen to include this as a personal entry in this section in order to demonstrate my understanding of the communication constraints in the workplace as well as in any situations related to a team environment. “Without good communication skills, managers often fail to gain commitment from employees, achieve business goals and develop rapport with the people on their team.”(Jay,

2005, pg. 1)

When beginning my practicum it never crossed my mind that the project could take more time than expected due to the way the organization’s communication worked and how individuals within the organization functioned. I found that I had to adapt the way in which I did things in order to complete the training policy and all that it entailed.

As the project progressed I chose to solicit feedback each time I made a change to the policy. I found that the best way to solicit this feedback was through email since the culture of the company dictated that the best way to relay information was in this manner.

Using email also allowed me to refer back to the email feedback if questions arose throughout the process. “By putting it in writing, those who have to initiate the plan can readily refer to it over the life of the plan.” (Robbins, 2005, pg. 140) Although the majority of the organization responds to this method there were a few key people that I had difficulty retrieving feedback from. One of the most important people that fell into this category was the CEO of the organization. Without the CEO’s approval of the policy it would never be accepted by the organization, and I would be unable to move forward with the project. This constraint posed a huge problem to the completion of the project and I had to come up with ways in which to address the problem without seeming pushy or overbearing. It was also important for me to realize what may have taken precedence over my project.

I had emailed the CEO a few times throughout the project and had not received any response; however I was receiving feedback from many if not all of the other directors. Because I had been getting responses from many different people I chose to continue to make changes to the policy in hopes that the CEO would feel included in the process and at least have a chance to read the changes if he did not have time to respond.

By doing this I felt I left little room for disagreement of the policy changes up to that point. When I had gotten to the point at which no further changes needed to be made I sent out the policy again to everyone involved, and still got no response from the CEO.

Assuming that he may have still been very busy with other more pressing issues I chose to give him a few weeks to respond. When I still did not hear any response verbally or in email I decided that a different approach would be necessary. I had many different options to consider when approaching this issue. I could send the CEO an email that was more personal and only addressed to him, set up an appointment to discuss the new policy, or to put a copy of the policy in his mailbox and hope that in paper form would be more tangible and create more of a response. Each method had its strong points, but I had to choose the method that best fit with the organizational culture and the individual I was working with. I felt that a face to face meeting would be too formal and may take to much time away from other matter, and with the volume of paperwork in the CEOs mailbox my copy of the training policy could get lost in the shuffle. I settled on a more personal email only sent to him in the hopes that it would grab his attention. I made sure that the information that needed to be communicated was clear and that I explained what

I needed from him in order to move forward. After so many attempts in the past I was shocked at how quickly the CEO responded to me. It was a matter of hours before he walked down to my office with all the information I had ask for as well as his approval of the new policy. Being in a small organization it is a lot simpler to get the information needed from all levels of the organization. (Smith, 2001). This flat structure allowed me to better communicate with the CEO because of the few layers between my position and the CEO. (Flat, 2008) Although the project was slowed down because of communication constraints I was still able to interact with each person when the situation demanded it in order to effectively proceed with the project.

This experience helped me to better understand the many problems that may present themselves when working with others. As an HR professional I found that it is very important to understand the different methods of communication that may need to be used in order to prevent roadblocks from occurring. The constraints of communication within a group or workplace can hinder the productivity of others.

Within the field of Human Resources it is my job to make it a point to be aware of what methods of communication each person I interact with prefers or works best with. It is also my job to make others aware of communication methods so that the organization as a whole can be more productive. This issue fits well into the constraints objective because if communication issues cause delays in a project it can cause productivity levels to decrease and in some cases for employees to become unmotivated.

The HRD program has taught me a great deal about keeping lines of communication open with employees, and teaching them about different forms of communication can reduce constraints within the culture of an organization. I have also experienced these constraints as demonstrated in the scenario above and continue to make myself aware of how others communicate and how I may best communicate with them to get my desired effects. I have made it a point in my workplace to observe the way in which others communicate in order to better my own communication skills. This can help me in the future to create trainings regarding communication skills, and help employees to dissolve disagreements cause by miscommunications. References

Jay, J. (2005, Spring). Focus on Five Key Strategies to Improve Communication Skills.

HR Magazine

Robbins, S. (2005). Essentials of Organizational Behavior 8th ed.

Smith, S. (2002). Removing Workplace Communication Barriers. Fairfield County

Business Journal, Vol. 41 Issue 27, p4

Wikipedia.com (2008). Flat Organization. Retrieve November 5, 2008

Website: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_organization