Interpersonal Commitment - Essay Example

Interpersonal Commitment A business entity is composed of human beings that interact with each other half of the time they are awake during the typical five day weekday. This type of interpersonal commitment among a group of people inside a company lead to the formation of a workplace environment called organizational or corporate culture. Organizational culture is a system of shared actions, values, and beliefs that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members (Schermerhorn & Hunt & Osborn, 2003, p.262). This essay discusses the organizational culture of a company the author served as an employee in the past. I worked in an organization a few years ago as an administrative assistant for a firm in the financial services industry. My job duties included satisfying the needs of a staff of 50 employees. Since I had the opportunity to interact with a lot of people in the firm doing work related tasks I had the chance to observe the behavior of the employees and how they interacted with each other in formal and informal settings. In this company employees were entitled to a 15 minute break every two hours, thus socialization among employees manifested itself lively. The first social rule I learn from my colleagues was to limit social interaction outside of work and during breaks with the managerial staff. My co-workers told me from the start that nothing good could come out of it. The rule was flexible and when the bosses would joke around with us we would treat them as friends. The second week after I started with this company I was invited to a lunch at a restaurant with a group of eight colleagues including the general manager. I was told later that this treat was an initiation tradition every new employee would enjoy and the boss would always pay for the meals of everyone. People in this firm loved the hiring of new employees. The behavior of everyone at work was internally quietly monitored by the employees for social positioning considerations. It was important for an employee to know who is who and which people can be trusted. Employees that attacked the work of others during meeting or who kept too close a relationship with a supervisor or manager is someone who could not be trusted. The general perception of such an individual was that this person is willing to step over anyone to get ahead in the corporate world at any cost. This type of person would be ridicule by the group on a personal level. The employees would call these individual names behind their back and would compose jokes based on him / her as the main character being ridiculed and laughed at. Other reasons to make fun of another employee were based on the wardrobe the person put on to come to work. There was a person in this company that always wore the most outrageous and horrible looking ties. In the morning before the start of the workday a group of employees would gather around waiting for this person’s arrival to make a joke about the tie the person came dressed with. A custom of the company that united the staff was the daily round of fresh donuts during the first morning break. The donut ritual was financed through a piggy bank system in which everyone whenever they could place a few dollars in a piggy bank jar with a donut drawing in the belly. A member of the staff selected sequentially would get a free extra 30 to 45 minute break of driving to Dunkin Donuts to buy the delicacy bonanza for everyone. As an assistant I got invited to drive the person in a company BMW a few times a week. This daily event serves as an opportunity to unite the staff, feed their morning hunger and a social event that everyone looks forward to. Another byproduct of this ritual is the attitude of ensuring nobody in the firm ever went without getting a good lunch. Everyone would ensure to cover each other back during lunchtime to treat colleagues if a person was short on lunch money. Business networking is the process of establishing a mutually beneficial relationship with other businesspeople, potential customers and employees within the company (Ward, 2008). The role of networking inside this company was imperative for the proper functioning of the firm. The social interaction among the employees helped the productive of the firm. Cooperation and teamwork foster an environment in which there was open communication and trust among the workers that allowed the managers to establish relationship with their employees that contributed to the professional development of the staff. The social interaction during breaks created a special environment in which people could talk about work related matters in a direct manner since bonds of trust were built through the social interaction session promoted by the company. In other places I have worked in the past people were in constant conflict and preferred to keep to themselves which hinders the possibility the development of unity. A united workforce produces more during work hours. Other positive byproducts of building a corporate culture with a family atmosphere is a reduction in employee turnover rate, greater efficiency and reduced work errors as a consequence of hostile work environment. The top companies worldwide have utilized the power its human capital working as a unit in full harmony and synergy to develop work systems in which the quality of the output of the staff resulted in greater benefits for the firm. For example the computer giant Dell Corporation in the 1990’s outsourced its main work function to concentrate on having a smaller staff of happy and easy going workers with human skills to deal the full time customer service commitment of virtual business model in the customer received its products directly to their homes purchased from the manufacturer. In the financial firm I work in the past the company was not a multination authority as Dell Corporation, but the custom made training the company provided its employees is a human resource investment very few firms worldwide are will to assume despite the positive consequences the company will obtain in increased employee productive which will pay off itself multiple of times before the new technology comes into play. Non of these variables have no validity if the human resources of the company are not functioning well. The social element of workers helping each other out and creating bonds based on social interaction are proof more things can be accomplished in a work setting with a unified force. Social interaction at work is a business variable that serves an important function. A staff that gets along and respects each other professionally are a unit that add value to a company. The human capital of a corporation is an intangible asset that differentiates the pretender from the players in the business world. The experience I had in the financial firm showed me the value of building a work environment in which the people of the company think of their colleagues as people they can trust and communicate with in open fashion. When the lines of communication are open work related problems can be solved faster. I hope my next job has an organizational culture similar to the one I had the privilege to work for in the financial services institution. References Schermerhorn, J., Hunt, J., Osborn, R. (2003). Organizational Behavior (8th ed.). New York: John Wiley & Sons. Ward, S. (2008). Business Networking. About. Retrieved April 7, 2008 from http://sbinfocanada.about.com/cs/marketing/g/busnetworking.htm Read More