A company’s organizational culture and communication strategies highly influence employee 's behaviors and perceptions. While there are different ideas of what organizational culture is Keyton defines it as a “set of artifacts, values, and assumptions that emerge from the interactions of the organizational members,” (Keyton 2005, 1). I have worked at ColoradoBiz Magazine for almost three years and have my own perceptions of the publication’s organizational culture. But to understand the different ways culture is interpreted and communicated within the organization I interviewed ColoradoBiz Magazine’s editor, Gigi. Everyone sends and receives messages differently. Based on our personal experiences and other influential factors, Gigi and I
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From an editorial standpoint, Gigi expressed that a sizable chunk of the team’s day-to-day work is done individually and electronically. She notes that as we occasionally convene for meetings, most communication is conducted via email. Technology is an artifact that plays a chief role in our organizational communication. “A norm is a way in which a collective, or group of people, engage in routine behavior,” (Keyton 2005, 24). While it may not be an obvious artifact, email is a norm that the employees expect to use constantly at work. This lack of collaboration and face-to-face communication fosters a closed communication climate and limits how employees inteperet messages. Communicating this way leads our team to have individualistic work styles. Although I do agree with Gigi’s notion that much of our work is done individually, there are instances where we collaborate to be more successful and interdependently contribute to the finished product, like during the production cycle of each …show more content…
Members of the team have varied communication styles and process information differently. Tofanelli notes, “Communication diversity is a fact of organizational life. No matter how skilled prepared, motivated, and responsible the individuals involved in a group, personality differences will always exist,” (Tofanelli 2012, 17). During the interview, Gigi highlighted that the organization’s most challenged communicators are the ones with the most power. The communication competency she mentioned that these challenged communicators lacked was empathy. “Empathy can easily be inhibited by dogmatic thinking or a rigidly judgmental orientation. Hearing the other becomes difficult if we are not open to new information or if we believe that the other doesn’t meet our expectations,” (Spangle and Moorhead 1998, 55). From my perspective, this dogmatic thinking is present at our organization, and I agree that this leads to some of the senior staff member’s general lack of empathy. Gigi believes this way of working causes a hostile and unproductive environment. Spangle and Moorhead emphasize that “empathetic understanding contributes to greater job satisfaction and lower employee turnover,” (Spangle and Moorhead 1998, 54). Many people have left the company because of the flippant, power-driven behavior of certain
From an editorial standpoint, Gigi expressed that a sizable chunk of the team’s day-to-day work is done individually and electronically. She notes that as we occasionally convene for meetings, most communication is conducted via email. Technology is an artifact that plays a chief role in our organizational communication. “A norm is a way in which a collective, or group of people, engage in routine behavior,” (Keyton 2005, 24). While it may not be an obvious artifact, email is a norm that the employees expect to use constantly at work. This lack of collaboration and face-to-face communication fosters a closed communication climate and limits how employees inteperet messages. Communicating this way leads our team to have individualistic work styles. Although I do agree with Gigi’s notion that much of our work is done individually, there are instances where we collaborate to be more successful and interdependently contribute to the finished product, like during the production cycle of each …show more content…
Members of the team have varied communication styles and process information differently. Tofanelli notes, “Communication diversity is a fact of organizational life. No matter how skilled prepared, motivated, and responsible the individuals involved in a group, personality differences will always exist,” (Tofanelli 2012, 17). During the interview, Gigi highlighted that the organization’s most challenged communicators are the ones with the most power. The communication competency she mentioned that these challenged communicators lacked was empathy. “Empathy can easily be inhibited by dogmatic thinking or a rigidly judgmental orientation. Hearing the other becomes difficult if we are not open to new information or if we believe that the other doesn’t meet our expectations,” (Spangle and Moorhead 1998, 55). From my perspective, this dogmatic thinking is present at our organization, and I agree that this leads to some of the senior staff member’s general lack of empathy. Gigi believes this way of working causes a hostile and unproductive environment. Spangle and Moorhead emphasize that “empathetic understanding contributes to greater job satisfaction and lower employee turnover,” (Spangle and Moorhead 1998, 54). Many people have left the company because of the flippant, power-driven behavior of certain