Workplace Observation

Workplace Observation

In the workplace there are many different aspects of the organization. Some of the aspects or "culture" of an organization are organizational diversity, dress and language, how communication flows, and organizational policies. Below I will discuss several aspects of the company I work for and define what the different cultures are.

How Communication Flows

As we know this day in age there are many ways how to communicate. There is email, verbal, Internet, intranet, etc... However, there is only two ways communications flows. There is upward communication defined as "communication from an employee to supervisor, supervisor to department head, department head to vice-president, and so on." (Abbott 2005) The other flow is downward communication, which is described as ""Information flowing from the top of the organizational management hierarchy and telling people in the organization what is important (mission) and what is valued (policies)." (Andrews 1996) In my company we definitely use upward communication. When anything important is going on it seems to impact the employees more when it's sent from one of the directors. Taken with greater importance and definitely put into to play if applicable. I feel that there is more control and is more effective using upward communication.

Organizational Policies

Organizational policies are the basic common rules of the company. They can be described as sick time, narcotics abuse, sexual harassment etc... What the company finds the most important to document, so that everyone is clear of what the rules are. These policies can help the employee understand an organization easier, by knowing the rules clearly and it can easily settle any conflicts between employee and company. In my organization all the different departments of the company contribute to the Policies manual. The policy is reviewed yearly, and addendums are made. The IT dept which is the department I am in, add to the policy's about Internet Usage, Email usage, storage sizes of the mailboxes etc.. We clearly state that anything, is done on the company's computer is subject to monitoring. In many cases mangers advise that they want a specific employee's Internet monitored, or email monitored. We then report back to the manger that requested it, and they take it up with Human Resources. Our rule is that a county manager has to request it, and has to be good reasoning. Other departments, like the legal counsel talk about arbitration, before going to any courts. The accounting dept talks about fraud, the human resource department talks about attendance, and leave of absences, benefits etc... you get the idea. As you can see this easily answers many question when a new employee comes on board.

Dress and Language

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