Introduction
Communication is an important component of positive worker relationships in any organization. Whatever type of communication two employees have, not only has an effect on their relationship but also on the overall organization because organizations are a system (McCroskey and McCroskey 1). Worker satisfaction is also dependent on the type of organizational communication because good communications among employees produce satisfied workers. For instance, many employees in our organization found it difficult to work with a new employee at our workplace who never held back her opinions about people and what she thought of their work. This employee is one among many employees I have worked with. Nonetheless, my organization mainly thrives on teamwork. In my team, we are only three employees (including myself), with varying personality traits. This paper is a comprehensive description of the personality profiles of my colleagues. In subsequent sections of this paper, an explanation will be given to show how our organizational culture and orientation supports employee communication styles.
Team Personality Profiles
As mentioned in the above section of this paper, our organization operates in teams. John is the leader of our team. He is a thinker. He has an introverted thinking mechanism where he mainly perceives issues from intuition. However, his thought process is based on logic and rationality. His careful emphasis on detail is the main reason for his appointment as our team leader. John not only lives in a world of theoretical possibilities, he always searches for different ways for improving our team’s performance. Since John lives in “his own world”, he analyzes issues and develops believable patterns and solutions to solving team problems.
Though John is our team leader, he is not attracted to the prospect of having control over his team members. One reason we like him most is his high level of tolerance and understandability. However, there are situations where we push his limits and overstretch his patience. In such situations, John becomes very rigid. Often this occurs when he feels like his personal principles have been violated. Based on his personality traits, we came to understand that John is very independent. Often, he adopts a very unconventional approach towards (almost) everything he does. In an environment where he is able to nurture his creative genius, John excels. We mainly use this positive trait to present our team problems to him. Indeed, John never fail to gives us solutions. John also lays very little emphasis on traditional and popular values. In this regard, he has a very complex character and he would not hesitate to stand by what he believes is the absolute truth. Though usually, we barely understand what John tries to say (for example, when he tries to make us understand his unconventional thoughts), he does very little to tailor his arguments (or truth) in a way we all understand. This trait makes us wish that John would understand that though he has many great ideas, it would mean nothing if he is the only one who understands them.
Vivian is probably the strongest personality we have in our team. She has a very externally driven personality trait, which is aimed at accomplishing team objectives. She is a performer. Rarely does she use her internal discretion in performing tasks except for instances when she has to do tasks that are based on how she feels about them. Unlike John, Vivian loves people. Her life revolves in a universe of possibilities and she exudes a lot of life. This is the main reason she is loved by many in the workplace. She does not shy away from this attention. In fact, she often tells us that she loves to be the center of attention, and this is why she always loves a little drama in the workplace. It is important to mention that, Vivian likes to make Jokes about John’s personality because she thinks John is very “uncool”. Though John is our team leader, Vivian rarely hesitates to make fun of his introverted character. However, she obeys her superiors (John in particular). Vivian once mentioned that, due to her love for drama, she normally likes to “push the buttons” of her superiors. However, John does not mind this. They share a very open and dramatic relationship.
Vivian’s vibrant personality complements John’s problem solving and critical thinking skills because she somewhat acts like John’s right-hand person in performing team tasks. Their relationship is defined by the fact that, John comes up with amazing ideas to tackle team problems and Vivian acts as the implementer of such ideas. For instance, Vivian is a very good problem solver and most of the problems she solves are implemented within the framework of John’s ideas. Though the problem solving ideas are not originally hers, Vivian does a better job at it because she has very strong interpersonal skills. Vivian also has a very strong allure to her personality that prompts people to listen to her because they believe she has their interests at heart. McCroskey and McCroskey affirm that,
“performers make decisions by using their personal values; they are usually very sympathetic and concerned for other people’s well-being. They are usually quite generous and warm. They are very observant about other people, and seem to sense what is wrong with someone before others might, respond warmly with a solution to a practical need” (McCroskey and McCroskey 98).
Organizational Culture and Orientation
Depending on the nature of organization, different companies adopt different organizational cultures. McCroskey and McCroskey (3) observe that there are four main types of organizational culture: collaborative, creative (adhocracy), control and competitive (market) cultures. However, the collaborative organizational culture is very dominant in our organization. The collaborative culture is a friendly and open type of culture. This type of organizational culture is very inclusionary and it perceives leaders as mentors or parents of one big extended family. In this type of culture, group cohesion is paramount and relationships are forged for long-term benefits. Teamwork, participation and cohesiveness are also highly emphasized in this type of culture because there is a strong concern for people (McCroskey and McCroskey (13). From this understanding, it is inevitable to note that, the collaborative organizational culture complements the collective communication style in our organization. The organization’s system works in small teams. These teams collectively work towards realizing the organization’s goals. Team cohesion is therefore complemented by the collaborative organizational culture because every team member has an important role to play in their respective teams. The merging of different roles defines the success of the organization and the collaborative organizational culture defines the success of role mergers.
Conclusion
The “performer” and the “thinker” traits define my colleagues’ personality profiles. John is the thinker and Vivian is the performer. Both personality traits complement one another in a very effective way because Vivian implements team resolutions that John recommends. Each team member is very good at implementing his or her roles. Consequently, team excellence is easily realized. However, the organization’s collaborative culture oils the wheels of this success machinery because team members are encouraged to work in mutual benefit of the organization. Conversely, worker relationships and organizational relationships are fruitful.
Works Cited
McCroskey, Richmond , and McCroskey James. Organizational Communication for Survival: Making Work, Work. Boston: Pearson Education, Inc., 2005. Print.