Personal Work Environment

Personal Work Environment

This paper will explore organizational communication and its application within my work environment. I will explain the main types of communication within each organizational structure. I will also analyze communication in my personal work environment to include amount, types, options, location, and speed.

The essay, Sharing Organizational Messages Through Effective Lateral Communication, by John E Spillan, Mary Mino, and M Susan Rowles (2002), focuses on studying and improving organizational communication. This essay highlights vertical and lateral communication while clarifying organizational structure and characteristics. According to the authors, organizational communication is broken down into two groups, vertical and lateral communication.

Vertical Communication

Vertical communication is the flow of information from the top level down to the bottom of an organization. This is generally prevalent in a majority of companies but does not always bode well for employees or management. Within this structure, employees' are often counterproductive, frequently wasting time awaiting direction from above while oftentimes, the information does not make it to everyone in the intended audience.

An example of vertical communication is a directive from the boss on Thursday for casual dress on Friday. Middle management passes the information along to supervisors who then pass along the directive to workers. Inevitably, someone will show up to work in business attire and wonder why everyone else is in jeans. This is a perfect example of a lack of information shared among workers.

Lateral Communication

Lateral communication is often ideal in most organizations because information sharing happens at all levels and keeps personnel informed on important issues. According to Thomas Thamara, "Lateral communication allows for a spirit of collaboration and teamwork by empowering employees at every level of the organizational hierarchy to work effectively together" (as cited in Spillan, Mino & Rowles, 2002).

Organizational Structure

In order to recognize what type of communication a particular company is using, one must first understand the different types of organizational structure. Chris Ansell stated, "The three predominant organizational structures are mechanistic, organic, and network" (as cited in Spillan, Mino & Rowles, 2002). Mechanistic organizational structure is also known as hierarchical and relies on a chain of command. Organic organizational structure is an entrepreneurial approach that encourages communication at every level while network organizational structure mirrors e-commerce and relies on the internet.

Work Environment

I work in an organization that prides itself on discipline and order. The military organizational structure is a hierarchy using the chain of command. Soldiers receive and execute orders from above, without question, in a timely manner. This type of communication may work well in adverse conditions when lives are at stake, but not for the routine work environment.

In my position, I would say that I am communicating at least 90% of the time by speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Most of my daily communication is verbal in one-on-one