Final Organizational Communication Post

Based on the themes we have discussed, describe one major change that you would make to an organization you are familiar with. This change could have to do with the organization of space or time, the use of team-based work, management practices, gender relations, or any number of other themes we have covered.

First describe the current organization. Then describe the limitations you see in the way things are currently run. Then describe the changes you would implement providing clear details of the change. Finally, describe how these changes would make things “better”.

As you write this paper refer to Chapters 2, 3, 4, 11. Do this by discussing which approach or approaches to organizational communication the setting currently seems to rely on. Then discuss which approach to organizational communication your proposed changes are based on. In other words, think of yourself as an organizational communication theorist and argue for certain principles.

You can also use chapter 11 to discuss to what extent the changes you propose will encourage people to act mindfully, with integrity, and ethically.



An organization that I am very familiar with is the Saint Mary’s College food provider, Sodexho foods. They supply all the food for the dining hall, the cyber café, the a la carte section in Madeleva Hall, Dalloway’s, and caters any additional event on campus. The food services staff works very hard all year round to make sure that students and staff eat well balance, well prepared meals. However, there are a few major changes that should be made so that students use the Sodexho services more.

The biggest change that must be made is their organization of time. The change does not need to be made so that the workers are more efficient like Taylor’s time and motion studies (Eisenberg, 72). Rather, the time the organization is opened and running for people to use needs to be readjusted. The current hours for the main meals of lunch and dinner are as follows: Lunch 11-2 pm and dinner 4:30-7 pm. In addition, one meal option is available at dinner until 7:30pm. Though three hours for each mealtime seems like a good idea and plenty amount of time for students to get to eat, many students are not able to get to the dining hall in time. Athletic practices, musicals, homework, and extracurricular activities are just a few of the things students are doing instead of making it to dinner on time. Also, if students make it to the dining hall by 7 pm, the food is usually left over from earlier in the night. This means, the warm cookies are no longer being made, the pizza is cold and left in the pan, and this makes the few dining options even smaller. Most college campuses have multiple dining halls and at least some of them will be opened later for the students’ convenience. However, Saint Mary’s College does not have this option.

Another change that needs to be made is the menu that is served everyday. It is obvious that the staff makes an effort to have different meal options and at every meal. However, there are some things that should be replaced. For example, hamburgers are always available. Most students, however, would like to have a healthier option like a chicken cesar wrap. In addition, the vegetarian section is very limiting to students that chose this option. It is oftentimes the same sorts of food, rice, white pasta noodles, and grilled vegetables. Little creativity is put into the vegetarian menu. However, it is possible to improve upon the service hours and the menu options with a few simple procedures.

In order to make the dining hall better, it needs to be opened later. Sodexho would probably argue that there are other services available on campus that are opened later for students. However, the cyber café is always fried, greasy food and the hours for Dalloway’s are sporadic and hard to follow. The dining hall simply needs to be opened to a later hour so that athletes and busy students are able to eat a meal without rushing. Secondly, the menu options need to be reevaluated. There are many ways in which this could be done. An easy way would be through surveys. Students should fill out surveys about the food service and exactly what type of food they would like to see in its place. Though surveys are sometimes passed out in the dining hall, they never ask for specific suggestions for meals. Rather, they usually ask if you are happy with the food service. If you answer “no,” there are no more questions about why you are unhappy. Surveys are also a great way to find out overall customer satisfaction with the company.

Along with the surveys, quality-improvement teams would help the food service. These teams have goals, which “are to improve customer satisfaction, evaluate and improve team performance, and reduce costs” (Eisenberg, 241). This type of team would greatly benefit Sodexho because it would enable a lot of brainstorming. The more ideas that are available, the more the service and food options will improve.

Organization through space could also be improved in the dining hall. During nice meals such as Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, the lights are dimmed and music is playing softly in the background. This setting is very nice for the customers, better known as students, to relax in. Reorganizing the setting through the use of lighting and music makes the area a lot more enjoyable. The more enjoyable it is, the more students will use the services and in turn, earn Sodexho money.

Sodexho seems to follow the human relations approach to management. This approach wants people “to feel united, tied, bound to something, some cause, bigger than they, commanding them yet worthy of them, summoning them to significance in living” (Eisenberg, 82). Though it does not seem like the kitchen staff or dishwashers would feel this way about the company they are working for, I think that they do feel this way for Sodexho. Barry Bowles, the Saint Mary’s College Sodexho manager, tries hard to be inclusive with his team of workers. At every big event, Bowles is energetic and leads his team well. Also, he is on campus nearly every day of the week making sure the services run smoothly. Sodexho hires many mentally challenged employees to do certain tasks around the dining hall. These employees are just as significant part of the team as any other member. The management of Sodexho is excellent and does not need to be changed.

The changes that I suggested were to change the space and time organization and to better serve the needs of the customer. These changes could be implemented into the organization quite easily and they would increase the integrity of Sodexho foods. “Integrity is a mindful state of acting purposefully to fulfill the promises and commitments you make to others” (Eisenberg, 346). The promises that Sodexho has already promised are to serve the students well and incorporating the suggested changes would increase their integrity.

Overall, Sodexho Foods is a very well run company with excellent management. However, some changes need to be implemented to make it more desirable to its customers. By making the changes that were suggested, Sodexho could increase their teamwork mentality, increase customers and profits, and serve the needs of the customers exceptionally well.

Eisenberg, Eric M., H.l. Goodall, Jr., and Angela Trethewey. Organizational Communication Balancing Creativity and Constraint. 5th ed. Boston, New York: Bedford/ St. Martin's, 2006.

Human Relations and Human Resource Approach

Discuss the differences between the human relations and human resource approaches to management. Pay particular attention to how they approach the issue of worker participation.

The human relations approach differs from early views of management because it considers the needs of individuals. It focuses on the fact that people want to feel unified, part of a team, like they are making a difference, and they are a significant part of life. In addition, the human relations approach believes that creativity and dedication will come naturally when an employee is empowered in the workplace.

Elton Mayo studied humans and their working environments and came up with some definitive observations. He saw that people were part of a group, and not just an individual. People are influenced by the group and do not act according to their own self-interest. Finally, he found that decisions are based on emotions. Throughout his studies he concluded that the environment of work did not matter as much as the human interaction available to the employees. The basis for the Hawthorne effect is that increased attention equals increased productivity. This approach concludes that human relationships allow business to run smoothly. Open communication is honored and any differences are negotiated through negotiation. This is very different from classical management that held very different expectations from its employees.

Classical management thought that a stable company would come from strict adherence to policies and order. Human relations approach encouraged personal happiness through communication. A negative side of classical management is that it is too constraining and employees must participate in thoughtless routinized practices. The downside of human relations is that with encouraged communication comes possible deception and dishonesty. Also, if the employee is not happy, they will not be productive. Both the classical management approach and the human relations approach have positive and negative sides. However, the human relations approach differs from the human resources approach in many ways that will be discussed in the following paragraphs.

The human resources approach is concerned with the “total organizational climate as well as with how an organization can encourage employee participation and dialogue” (Eisenberg, 87). Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs refers to the needs that every human has before they can reach their potential. This means that if someone is satisfied, his or her self-actualization will continue to inspire productivity. However, if basic needs such as food or shelter are not provided, then having these needs will encourage more productivity then initially available. Another way to explain Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is to discuss them as an upward pointing arrow. At the bottom of the arrow are necessary physiological needs such as food and clothing. After this is safety needs such as shelter, security and employment. Next is love and a sense of belonging, respect from others, and affection. The penultimate need is self-esteem and this includes salary, status, opportunities and responsibilities. Finally, self-actualization will occur. However, not everyone can achieve self-actualization.

Employees such as the maintenance workers or people that remain in very monotonous jobs may not ever achieve self-actualization. This is because they are separated by class and cannot reach their full potential. This is where human resources and human relations approaches differ. Human resources gives people the chance to feel needed and achieve greatness. However, there are still people that cannot get to this level. Contrastingly, in human relations, everyone is able to communicate and express their needs. Every worker can convey their feelings to even though there is division of labor; they are able to remain productive. This is not possible for the human resources approach because some jobs are not designed to express the hierarchy of needs.

The human relations approach and the human resource approach also differ in that human relations is more superficial then human resource. Human relations wants positive and happy employees. It focuses more on the psychological factors and tries to make everyone happy. One example of this would be painting the office walls to be a warmer color. Though it might make the room look better, it's not really going to change an employees opinion about the company. This causes it to be more superficial then the other human resource approach. Human resource approach uses teams rather then a hierarchy approach. The entire organization is questioned and challenged, making it more substantial. Workers tend to be more satified in this approach because their input is used to benefit the company. Participation is increased by rearranging the work structure to be more democratic and focused on worker empowerment. This approach increases worker satisfaction by avoiding the superficial tendencies of the human relations approach. Though the human relations and human resources approaches are very different, but both strive to have workers be as productive as possible.

Elton Mayo

Question #2 : Interview

In order to discuss the work experience and organizational structure of a company, I interviewed Jennifer Wentz of Weis Markets. We discussed her career as an architectural draftsperson and I asked questions about her boss, the way Weis Markets runs, and what motivates her to accomplish her work. Throughout the interview I learned a lot about her career and the way her organization is structured. In this post I will describe the organizational theories that correlate with Ms. Wentz’s career and the changes in the organization since she first began at the company.

Weis Markets is a chain of grocery stores with a majority of locations in Pennsylvania. Ms. Wentz’s occupational title is an architectural draftsperson or as it is now considered, a computer aided drafting (CAD) operator. She works in a special building where she and a group of people draft store remodels and new store construction plans. She first began her career with Weis markets fourteen years ago. At this time she was completely in charge of her own project, which she drew by hand from conception of the idea until the completion. Ms. Wentz said that drafting by hand was more of an art and it required artistic skill. Some people were very good at it and others were not. However, the drafting career has changed tremendously since the use of computers.

Currently Ms. Wentz uses her computer to formulate plans. Nothing is drawn by hand anymore and she says that there are very few people that would want to revert to drawing by hand now that computers are so efficient. Instead of the need for artistic abilities, a vast knowledge of computers is needed so that you can put appropriate parts of the plans together. You now need to know what you have to draw as well as how to make the computer do that task in the most efficient way.
Another difference in her job from when she first began is that a CAD operator does not see a project through until its completion. Now the operator lays out the basic floor plan of a store and then sends it to a consultant that does the entire project. Ms. Wentz says does not like this current trend because she then has to go back through the project and check all of the consultant’s work, which she does not enjoy. This brought up the question of productivity and conditions in the workplace.

Ms. Wentz clearly stated that Weis does not treat its workers in an extra caring manner in order to increase productivity. She says that they always want to quickly change store plans and does not give the CAD operators enough time to fix them. In addition, the large workroom used for creating the building plans was separated into small cubicles a few years ago. This means that many people are highly productive and focus on the plan they are supposed to be doing. Opposing this positive point, others use their cubicles to cover up the work they are not doing. Disregarding those that misuse the cubicle, they were created to keep workers focused and productive.

The Weis architectural department has a hierarchy of workers. Hierarchy “refers to the vertical arrangement of power and authority that distinguishes managers from employees.” The architect of the department has to be licensed by the state the building is being built in and is the boss of the department. Then the department is divided into people working on new grocery stores and those working on remodeled stores. Each branch has an overseer. The operators that work in these departments are the lowest in the chain.

Weis Markets follows the human relations approach when dealing with their employees. Though there are no great efforts made to treat their workers exceedingly well, there are some attempts at an employee and boss relationship. When the CAD operators are pressured to redo a drawing at a moment’s notice, the boss advocates for them. He or she knows how long it will take a project to be redrawn, and lets the main boss know. This creates a relationship between he or she and the operators. Though plans are drawn on the computer, it is not a routine task like those that follow the classical management approach. Weis employees are told what to do, but they must also use their knowledge and individual skills to carry out a project. Overall, the attempt to increase worker productivity is superficial, which is a major theme in the human relations approach. Walls that are used to separate employees from each other and to give the office a home-like atmosphere, though Ms. Wentz says it is far from home-like. It is an extremely superficial way of satisfying the employees. The employees do not have a direct say in what goes on in the office like in the human resource approach. Rather, they are expected to increase their productivity because of the office environment, though that is often not the case. However, Ms. Wentz says that when people are not productive, it is their own choice to do so.

After my interview with Ms. Wentz I realize that there are definite strengths and weaknesses in the organizational theories of this chapter. Mainly I see that employees are trying their best to be productive in their careers even though their environments are not always inviting or inspiring. De-skilling a task to be so routine that you need absolutely no skill is not something that would inspire productivity or life happiness out of someone. A job should be interesting to the employee and offer some sort of emotional reward. I feel that Ms. Wentz’s job does offer her satisfaction after designing a project. Even though the environment is not designed for team work or a work place democracy, it is usually a place of productivity. The job technology andn approach has changed since she first began, though it is still something she enjoys.