Organ-nice-seishun communication…very interesting~
Communication between organs with nice youth??
OK, bad pun there.
Now, I only have barely enough working experience to ‘lick’ on the surface of organizational communication, so do bear with me if I’m not very elaborate.
From the multiple part-time jobs I have had, 2 of them practiced, and probably are still practicing, organizational communication rather ‘fiercely’; IRAS (the one which hounds us for our taxes), and a construction company supposedly with a long history, yet with dumb employees.
Organizational communication is particularly important for humongous companies like IRAS, since every department is significantly distinct from one another in terms of labour, and their scope of work. But unfortunately, I was but a dispensable part-timer then, so I cannot elaborate more on this. Instead, I shall move on to the smaller company. 😀
My time in the construction company was a particularly miserable one, and no, it wasn’t due to the working environment. (I dun mind dirt or noise, or anything like that) Now knowing more about organizational communication, I finally realized what’s lacking in that company, and a serious matter at that. Everyday I would hear the head honcho of the company screaming his head on his phone to his multiple sub-contractors and subordinates due to the lack of updates to him on the project, while the employees and sub-contractors would sometimes scream their heads off at one another because of miscommunication (in the construction/renovation industry, a simple mistake can result in penalties amounting to even thousands of dollars).
Seemed like this company lacks a system to relay information to one another within the company, didn’t it?
Sadly, it did utilize an effective mail system that is also easy to use. It was only because the individuals took it for granted. No one ever really reads the mail, merely sending the many auto-receipts, used for micro-management, back to the senders to indicate that they have read the mail. And they did not have a clear partition between proper, administrative mails, and junk/useless mails, thus everything was in a mess.
And it was all left to poor, old me to sieve the crucial mails out from the ‘dump’, and forward them to the relevant people who would just ignore them.
＿|￣|O”‘
Well, that’s all I have for organizational communication.
And, that’s all for this COM101 blog! So far, at least~
And to end things on an ‘impressionable‘ note, though highly irrelevant 😀 :
This man shows he has the balls to wear something like this. Literally.
Via Neta.
So long~!
Communication with a MavericK 
9 comments
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March 19, 2009 at 9:02 am
Gem
PUN IS BAD.
Organisational communication makes me want to grind my teeth, seriously. During my one-year stint at a hotel, there was so much politicking that it made my head ache. But I think that organisational communication is really something that can’t be taught; you need to go in and learn for yourself. See how the “veterans” behave, and follow accordingly. All the hierachy and stuff…you can learn the theories, but what really matters is the application. And can I just say, the communication in my hotel involved a lot of emails because everybody wanted to protect their asses by having the written word to defend themselves with if necessary!
…and I really REALLY didn’t need to see that picture.
March 19, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Shawn Tay
what a pun marcus.
and i thought superman is supposed to save the world. or at least effect some form of positive change on the working environment.
i guess whatever theories we learn don’t always apply to practical everyday life organizations. i mean i don’t believe that in organizations they won’t have such technical knowledge of how a structure it’s supposed to be be.
i guess a lot is more of the application. organizations are dynamic material and there’s no fixed method of going about doing certain things.
March 19, 2009 at 11:40 pm
farhan franha
Bro,
I think you left out the part where you as a newbie will get “arrowed” to do the most mundane tasks.
I did have a taste of organisational communication in the army as i did admin work at some point there, but i guess thats different. Shant elaborate here lest i want MINDEF FIBUA-ing my door, but in a nutshell, it covers most of the things Jem said….
Last comment dude.. Take care..
March 21, 2009 at 8:14 am
les.
i had a fair share of organisational communication too, in the fire brigade. i have to agree with farhan about the arrowing of newbies to do all the ‘sai gang’, or what we call dirty work. as long as you’re the most inexperienced person, everything will be pushed to you, and subsequently the blame for doing something ‘the wrong way’. the solution is simple. find a veteran who’s willing to teach, learn as much as you can in the shortest amount of time. as long as you’re competent in your work the arrowing stops. and then you wait for more newbies to come in so u can arrow your work to them. LOL. it’s a vicious cycle.
i guess it all boils down to ineffective communication, in your case.
March 21, 2009 at 4:44 pm
lynette
i had experiences working in a small local company and a bigger international firm.
i definately enjoyed working in the international firm more. ok, maybe that’s because they employ me to do specific jobs and they have 200 over staff at the company, they do not have much sai gang left for me to complete.
but when i worked for a small local company, a tuition centre as an administrator to be specific. i had a mentor who told me what not to do after i did somthing wrong. not what to do before i mess up. for example, i had to print mailing lists and there is a software where you can tranfer the names from an excel format into word format. i asked my mentor how to do it. she told me to google and find a tutorial and learn it. it took a computer idiot 2 days to do it. when i mastered it, the whole process only took 10 mins. look at the amount of time i wasted to do that. i had to work OT (w/o pay) to complete my work. my mentor communicates effectively. it’s just that she doesnt want to communicate.
in small firms, they treat you like their family. and they expect you to give your heart and soul to contribute to this family. hence, it explains all the sai gang i need to do. and it’s a long list. i dont think you all want to know what mundane stuff i did.
March 22, 2009 at 10:41 am
Kelvin
I guess it does make sense for many of the smaller firms do encounter problems with regards to communications. Smaller firms are generally more traditional as compared to the MNCs, they do not understand/recognise the importance of communications, or have sometimes possess a distorted image with regards to organisational communications. I’ve worked in my parent’s company prior to starting school in SIM, although I dare not say I’ve experienced everything (due to the fact that I was treated differently by my peers, it’s the boss’ son syndrome!) this is definitely an inherent problem. I’ve seen colleagues arguing over misinterpretation of information, miscommunications etc. It’s not exactly a pleasant scenario to be on the receiving end of these tirades >.<
March 22, 2009 at 12:48 pm
waltztitus
WHAT HAPPEN TO SELLING INDIAN FOOD AT WISMA?!
Sheeet. Not constructive comments.
March 22, 2009 at 4:25 pm
lomo
LOL. my time at a financial company wasn’t a very good experience too. you might think that listed companies would have good communication skills. but there, everyone just emails one another and yes, they scream from one end of the office to the other if work is not done cos the latter hasnt read the email.
even at small firms where all i did was scanning advertisements for them, communication in the office was ‘barren’. no one really communicated with one another, except through emails. very different from the financial company.
for me, organizational communication is very important-even what goes on between the stages is equally important. once miscommunication occurs at either stages, then work will not be carried out efficiently.
March 27, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Olivia
Haha, I didn’t have a ‘proper’ job, but I was sorta employed to help out at the school bookshop during the holidays to sell books to the freshmen.
Well, lucky for me I didn’t face too much crap at work. Maybe its because I’m still a student there, or maybe its because I’m too young (abt 15 at that time) to be given crap. Oh well.
But some of my friends who are working part time have told me stories about demanding customers and egoistic supervisors. And I do know that office politics and a certain unspoken rule is omnipresent in a company. Personally, I think companies should value their employee’s abilities over seniority. Of course ranks have to be respected, but the company should not be too adverse to younger employees speaking out!