TABLE OF CONTENTS

Executive Summary.1

Career Goals and Qualifications..3

Industry Outlook and Career Profile6

Job Shadow Experience .17

Communication Challenge.30
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Executive Summary

This portfolio contains my work and research about the communication

involved in the Human Resource Management profession. The documents included

in this portfolio demonstrate my personal and critical understanding of my chosen

field and my desire and ability to pursue a career in Human Resource

Management. Preparing this portfolio and experiencing the Dream Job Project

has equipped me with the skills needed to begin pursuing a career in this industry.

After compiling and conducting research, written documents and giving a

presentation about this career field, I am well equipped and acquainted with the

profession of Human Resource Management. My time spend job shadowing a

professional in the field and researching this career path has allowed me to develop

a clearer view of my future career plans against the backdrop of the leadership and

advocacy and business culture. I have developed an understanding of the

professional constraints, organizational climate and language, and the nature of

work as a communication and business professional in the financial industry.

Ultimately, this portfolio illustrates the goals I have for my professional career and

how my qualifications are aligned with the standards that are needed.
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The following elements are included in this portfolio:

o My Career Goals and Qualifications

o Industry Profile and Career Outlook

o Shadowing a Professional

o Communication Challenge
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Career Goals and Qualifications

My Career Goals

My career aspiration is to work in the financial field as a Human Resource

Manager or Training developer. I have developed both long-term and short-term

goals associated with my path to this profession. My short-term goals include:

o Pursuing my Masters degree in Communications

o Continuing my education about and in the Human Resource

Management career path

o Secure an entry-level position within the financial industry

My long-term goals include:

o Continuing to gain work and professional experience as a team lead in

the financial industry.

o Advance to a Human Resource Manager or an administrative position.

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A career as a Human Resource Manager in the financial industry appeal to

me for a few reasons. I thrive in helping people get accustomed to new

environments through the knowledge I have gained in my leadership and advocacy

major. Also, I am passionate about how people can help others become more

financially stable through investment and saving. Lastly, a career in the Human

Resource field would provide me with opportunities to further my knowledge of

leading and training employees as well as personal and professional growth as I

further my own education.

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Qualifications

My acquired academic qualifications for this profession are:

o Bachelors of Arts in Leadership and Advocacy Communication from

Winona State University, May 2017

o Bachelors of Science degree minor in Business Administration from Winona

State University, May 2017

o Completion of communication and business related course work:

Technical writing
Accounting classes
Organizational Communication
Business Law
Business Management
Communication Research Methods and Senior Seminar
o DECA State and National Qualifier 2011-2014
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Industry Profile and Career Outlook:

Human Resource and Training Development

By:

Ashley Ayers

Winona State University

CMST 366

Dr. Swenson-Lepper

10/14/16
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Industry Profile:

The human resource career is found in many different industries. I will be looking at it

through the financial activities industry. According to Selectusa.gov, Financial Industries and

markets in the United States are the most liquid and largest in the world (2014). There was also

$104.7 billion exported in the United States in financial service in 2014 (Financial Services

Spotlight, 2014). The Financial Industrys main purpose is to help people save, manage and

raise their money, according to the seven Pillars Institute for Global Finance and Ethics. This

type of industry is both a good and a service depending on what area of finance the human

resource manager is in.

Stakeholders

Stakeholders are defined as a person, group or organization that has interest or concern

in an organization. according to the Business Dictionary (2014) It also says stakeholders can be

affected and can affect the organizations actions, their policies and objectives. The list below

gives five examples of stakeholders in the financial industry.

Banks: Banks are stakeholders for the financial industry because they are in

charge of in the inflow and outflow of money. These type of corporations is also

considered a stakeholder because banks work closely with their consumers giving

them the ability to make informed financial decisions for private and public

institutes.

Investors: Investors are considered stakeholders in this industry because they put

money toward making financial improvements in the economy. They also are

striving to make financial decisions to make a profit and do not put their money
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into products or services that are not going to produce a significant profit for

themselves or their company.

The government: The government can be considered a stakeholder for the

financial industry because it controls all the financial procedures for the United

States. It ensures that taxes are paid and that the budget is done accordingly for

the citizens. The government also has financial control based on who they let

become financial monopolies and which ones they have laws against.

Customers: Financial customers have stake in the financial industry because of

how they invest and control the finances in their own personal lives. They have

stake when they decided how to spend their money and where to spend it.

Customers have control as to which companies succeed based on which ones they

give their finances to and which ones they dont.

Financial employees: Financial employees for companies in the financial industry

are stakeholders in multiple ways. They support and encourage the exchange of

money between banks and consumers. Financial employees are also responsible

for accounting for the needs of customers that invest in their products and how

they choose to invest in the financial industry. The employees help direct and

advise the consumers on which companies or where to place their money for the

best profit.
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Current Challenges to the Industry

The financial industry has many challenges because it is such a large industry. The

people in this industry also face challenges because of the rise in identity theft and the changes in

technology. The first challenge that the financial industry faces is cyber security which is similar

to identity theft. Cyber security is defined as measures taken to protect a computer or computer

system on the internet against unauthorized access or attack. (Merriam-Webster, 2016). The

term cyber security was first used in 1994 when computers and online shopping first began. This

was also the start of online identity theft. Financial service consumers are hit by 39% of cyber-

attacks as compared to 17% in other industries (Galea, 2015).

Another challenge that the financial industry faces is the change in technology. This is

caused by upgrades in cellphones, computers and credit cards. The financial industry continues

to grow with the trends of technology such as credit card chips and online banking. These are

changes that have changed how investors and consumers have had to adjust in the financial

industry. This challenge also goes along with the rise of cyber security which causes those in the

financial industry a switch in how they change technology in a secure and safe way. It is also

costly to the financial industry to change the credit cards and hardware for credit card chips.

There are lots of challenges that each industry faces but the financial industry struggles

with promoting growth and sustaining profitability in an environment while keeping interest

rates low, according to CyrusOne (n,d.). The cost for sustainable products and services are on the

rise in the United States as are the demands for conserving the economy. Consumers in the

financial industry want products that are eco-friendly but the costs cause many difficulties for

the industry itself. Many services in the financial industry gain their profit through interest rates
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and it is a challenge for them to keep those rates low in an economy that is pushing sustainability

onto its products and services.

Predictions for the Financial Industry

The financial industry has been growing and will continue to grow in the upcoming years

according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015). One thing that the financial industry will do

in the next 10 years will be to increase security among banks. With the heightened awareness of

cyber theft and the need for security among the financial industry, in the next 10 years, the

industry will be tighter on their security. (Bureau of Labor Statistic, 2015).

Another specific thing that the financial industry will do throughout the next 10 years will

be to compete beyond financial services. According to an article by Philip Ryan (2015) about the

top 13 predictions for the future of banking, banks will compete for more than just financial

services. They will continue to compete for customers and clients and they will do whatever it

takes to have more customers banking with them. This also goes along with the banks being

more flexible to their clients and more aware of their needs. There will be more competition in

the next 10 years with more banks forming so it is important that financial workers change their

way of adapting to customers so they stay with their bank.

Finally, there are statistics that show that this industry will change through the increase of

Union workers in the financial industry. In 2012, the percent of Union workers in the Financial

industry was 1.9% whereas in 2015 it was at 2.4%. With the increase of Union workers, it is

predicted that this number will continue to slowly increase in the next 10 years. This will

increase those companies that are trying to make financial industry workers in join the union and

those that are already in it to stay actively involved.

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Career Outlook

Dream Job

My dream job is being a Human Resource Coordinator at a large corporation or a

business just starting out.

Job Duties

As a Human Resource Coordinator, there are many different aspects to the job and many

of them change depending on the industry and what type of company the employee works for.

Human resource managers are mainly responsible for recruiting and screening prospective

employees, training employees, planning and implementing employee benefit program, payroll

and handling staff issues such as mediating disputes and directing disciplinary procedures. A lot

of human resource managers also work closely with the managers of a company to make sure

who they are hiring is what they need for the company.

The recruiting and screening process is a daily duty for many Human Resource managers

because of the frequent turn over in many companies. Along with this duty, HR managers also in

charge of leading and sometimes making training sessions for new employees in the company.

They train them on the procedures within the company, acquaint them with the building and area

in which they will be working and introducing the new employee to their manager for whom

they will be working.

HR Managers have tedious work such as planning and implementing employee benefit

programs and payroll. For larger companies, these roles are split into different people but for

smaller companies, all these roles are done by the same person. Also, most larger companies
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have benefit programs already made and the HR manager just applies them to their employees.

They are also in charge of payroll and keeping track PTO (paid time off) for employees. In most

companies, the HR managers are the middle person between the employees and the CEO or

manager. It is their job to work through disputes between employees or make sure that the

procedures are being followed by the employees and if they are not, then they are in charge of

disciplinary procedures. According to a personal interview with Wendi Arnston, a Senior HR

Manager at Deluxe Corporations, being organized and being able to think on your feet when

situations come up is a very important skill in human resource.

Important Qualifications

There are various qualifications that a person needs in order to apply for a job in Human

Resource other than having a college degree. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015) states that

the top three qualifications to obtain this job are decision-making skills, interpersonal skills and

leadership skills. These skills are listed as important because they all require the HR manager to

be organized and a leader to get their duties done.

Some of the roles of a Human Resource manager include hiring, firing and critiquing

employees which make for the experience in decision-making important. They must balance the

strengths and weaknesses of all the employees and decide what is best for the company as a

whole. Human Resource managers work closely with the General Managers or CEOs of a

company to ensure that they are hiring the right people that the company needs. They must also

make decisions that ensure employees are following company policies so there is equal

opportunity for all.

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Another qualification is interpersonal skills which are vital in many careers but human

resource managers in particular because they train employees and must develop positive work

relationships. Interpersonal skills include communicating well with others and listening to others

needs. These skills are important in this career because how the HR manager communicates with

the new employees and current employees determine how they communicate with each other.

Lastly, leadership skills are qualifications because HR managers are in charge of

directing and overseeing many operations within a company so they must coordinate activities

and ensure that employees are completing what is assigned to them. HR managers are in charge

of coordinating events such as team building among a staff team and training new employee

classes.

The top three in-demand human resources skills are recruiting, screening and employee

relations (Flavin, 2016). Recruiting and screening are both qualifications that an employee needs

a little experience and the rest can be learned on the job in the specific company. Recruiting in

the form of finding new employers for certain jobs and screening each employee to see if they

qualify and have passed a background check for the job. Employee relations is similar to

interpersonal relations where the human resource manager has positive relations with their

employees and leads by example so the employees have positive relations with each other.
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Current Career Path Statistics

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2015), the job outlook for the Human

Resource career path is expected to grow 9% between 2014 and 2024 which is faster than

average for all occupations. The starting salary for human resource jobs earn the lowest 10%

which is under $61,300. The average salary after several years of experience is $104,440. The

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections program states that there were 122,500

people employed as Human Resource managers in 2014. It is also predicted that there will be

133,300 people employed with the title of Human Resource manager in 2024, a 9% increase.
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References:

Arnston, W. (2016, October 11). Personal Interview. Senior Human Resource Manager. Deluxe

Corporation.

Bhala. K. T. (2016). The purpose of finance. Seven Pillars Institute for Global Finance and
Ethics. Retrieved from: http://sevenpillarsinstitute.org/mission/the-purpose-of-finance

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2015). Occupational Outlook Handbook,

2016 17 Edition, Human Resources Managers, on the Internet

at http://www.bls.gov/ooh/management/human-resources-managers.htm (visited October

6, 2016).

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor. (2015). Industries at a Glance, 2016-17

Edition, Financial Activities, on the Internet

at http://www.bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag50.htm (visited October 6, 2016).

CyrusOne. (2016). Top issues facing the financial Services Industry. Retrieved from:

http://www.cyrusone.com/blog/top-issues-facing-the-financial-services-industry/

Flavin, B. (2016). 8 human resources job skills employers want most. Rasmussen College.

Retrieved from: http://www.rasmussen.edu/degrees/business/blog/human-resources-job-

skills-employers-want-to-see/

Galea, D. (2015, August). The financial industry's biggest threat. Database and Network

Journal, 45(4), 24. Retrieved from

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=EAIM&sw=w&u=umn_winona&v=2.1&it=r&id=GA
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LE%7CA427422280&asid=5249b1650807d745b16803f804c9e8e5

How to become a human resource manager. (2016). Human Resources Edu. Retrived from:

http://www.humanresourcesedu.org/human-resource-manager/

HR professionals manage a valuable resource: People. (2016). All Business Schools. Retrieved

from: http://www.allbusinessschools.com/human-resources/job-description/

Ryan, P. (2015, October 8). Top 13 predictions for the future of banking. Retrieved October 13,

2016, from http://bankinnovation.net/2015/10/top-13-predictions-for-the-future-of-

banking/

SelectUSA. (2014). Financial services spotlight. The financial services industry in the United

States. Retrieved from: https://www.selectusa.gov/financial-services-industry-united-

states
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Shadowing a Professional

Ashley Ayers

Winona State University

CMST 366

Dr. Swenson Lepper

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Shadowing a Professional

Shadowing someone doing their day-to-day job and hearing their passion for their career

is an amazing opportunity when someone is not sure of what field to go into when they graduate

with a degree. Job shadowing a professional in the field for eight hours that I hope to go into or

someone who holds my dream job is a requirement for my undergraduate organizational

communications class. This opportunity is to help us determine what job we would like to obtain

and if our dream job is actually what we think it is. My dream job is to be a Human Resource

Manager or Training developer. I would like this job to be in the retail or financial industry when

I graduate college. For this project, I job shadowed Wendi Arnston, the senior Human Resource

Manager at Deluxe Corporations. The headquarters of Deluxe is in Shoreview, Minnesota where

they have a call center, financial services and where the CEO and HR managers work. Deluxe

Corporations is a check and e-check supplier for businesses among suppling other financial and

product needs for small businesses. I job shadowed Wendi on Tuesday October 11th, 2016 from 8

a.m. to 4 p.m. I will explain some things I learned while job shadowing at Deluxe Co. by sharing

about my interviews, I will apply Deluxe Co. to organizational communication concepts and

theories. Lastly I will tell about my reactions from the job shadow experience and how the

opportunity of job shadowing a Human Resource Manager is going to help me in my future

career.
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What I learned During my Observations and Interviews

Since I was not exactly sure what my dream job was going into this project, job

shadowing a Human Resource manager and seeing different positions available through

communications was very helpful. While job shadowing Wendi Arnston at Deluxe Corporations,

I learned what type of education was required for HR mangers and what their day-to-day job

looks like. A HR manager positon requires a bachelors degree in HR, Business Administration

or Communications. Senior HR managers like Wendi are recommended to have a Masters in HR

or Business and having experience helps the hiring process. Some duties Wendi, a senior HR

manager has is to oversee and assist the HR managers across the company. They also interview

possible employees and do follow up phone interviews after they consult with other HR

managers within the company to compare notes on the prospective employee. Another role that

this job has is to set up meetings with other departments to make sure everything is running

smoothly and keep employees up to date on payroll attendance policies. Lastly, another major

role that senior HR Manager has is to train employees as well as train HR managers on how to

review employees for raises job performance.

Some of the activities I did while job shadowing included:

Interview and overview of the job

When I first arrived at Deluxe Corporations, we took a tour of the office and then sat in

Wendis office to hear about what the day would look like and what her job entailed.

There were some meetings that I could attend while shadowing but there was an

interview that she was conducting that I sat in on another HR manager daily tasks.
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During this time, I also learned about the history of Deluxe and what states and countries

they are located in now.

Corporate Communications

The next part of my day consisted of shadowing Nancy, a Corporate Communications

specialist at Deluxe. Nancy explained how she works with internal communications

which is within the organization of about 5,500 employees. Another Corporate

Communications role is external which deals more with public relations and relaying

information from within the organization to outside organizations. While shadowing

Nancy I learned that she does a lot of writing and technical edits for other departments in

Deluxe and has to constantly simplify the messages so the employees with read what she

is sending. Nancy explained that the three big questions she needs to ask when sending

information within the organization is, what do they need to do? When do they need to do

it by? And do they need to respond to this email or memo? Corporate Communication

also includes updating training materials and new employee handbooks so they work

closely with the Human Resource managers of an organization.

Call Center

Another part of the job shadow day was sitting in on a call center representative and

hearing how this employee and customer interaction is. The call center jobs only require

a high school degree or GED and are an oral intensive and tedious job. This part of the

organization is open from 7am-7pm and needs a certain number of workers on-call at all

times for when customers call to order checks or other products. A call center

representative is in charge of answering the phone when it rings and pulling up the

customers information quickly so they can sell as many products as they can while they
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are on the phone with them. The Human Resource Manager does not work directly with

all of the call center representatives but they do work with the team leads of the call

center. Their job is to make sure all the employees are doing their job and not being the

first ones to hang up the phone with a customer to show great customer service.

Performance review process

The last part of the job shadow day was sitting in on a phone conversation with the

Senior Human Resource Manager, Wendi and three other Human Resource managers

across the country in Deluxe. This time was set aside so that Wendi could walk through

the process with the new HR managers on how to write and conduct performance

reviews. The performance reviews were done once a year at the beginning of the year and

are done by the team leads in the company. The HR managers role in this is to evaluate

the reviews and determine if they were done correctly so everyone is getting a fair raise

each year. Along with the HR managers evaluating and reviewing the employees they are

in charge of, the employees first evaluate themselves and that plays into how their

managers review them. If an employee rates themselves as higher than their manager

thinks, than it is a good learning experience for the employee on how they can improve

their job performance.

The professional advice for people considering this type of work is to have people skills

and how to communicate well with people but to be firm in your decision making. The type of

communication needed in this job and be successful is to take others into consideration but to

still make decisions with the CEO or manager at the end of the process of gathering information.

The Human Resource managers job is also to relay information to a company and making sure

they are all on the same page with policies and procedures.
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When new employees enter the organization, it is the HR managers job to teach this, verbal

workplace communication behaviors should be learnable; these behaviors are socially created

and collectively agreed upon (Keyton et al., 2013).

Applying Terms and Theories of Organizational Communication

By applying organizational communication terms and theories from the class to the career

of Human Resource Management and to the experiences I had while job shadowing, I can better

understand how this organization runs.

Centralization: According to Katherine Miller in Organizational Communications:

Approaches and Processes (2015), centralization is defined as managerial control over

decision making and employee activities (p.21). During my job shadow, I saw

centralization happening among the organization by the Human Resource manager

having control over employee procedures and policies. Human Resource managers work

closely with CEOs and mangers of an organization or company to control employee

activities to make sure everyone is doing their job. They also want to make sure

employees are arriving to work on time so the organization can be as profitable and

efficient as possible. Centralization needs to happen in this type of organization that is in

the financial industry because they are dealing with high security information such as

bank accounts and customers purchasing history. This type of management or

centralization ensures a healthy balance of watching employees activities and the

managers being in control of what is happening within the organization.

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This type of organization centralizes its management and control to the CEO Lee Shram

and the HR managers and team leaders for each department.

Human Resource Approach:

Human Resource managers use the Human Resource approach every day when they

communicate to their employees and relay messages to them. This approach is defined as

a combination of classical and human relations approach to combine all employees inputs

in reaching organizational goals. (Miller, p. 45). The Human Resource approach

emphasizes the importance of communication among all the employees and that is done

through verbal communication. According to Barley and Kunda (2001), interpersonal

skills and the ability to collaborate and work in teams is a communication skill that

employers look for when hiring. Another aspect to the Senior Human Resource

management job is teach the other Human Resource managers how to review and give

performance reviews to the employees they are managing. Before the HR managers

review each employee, the employee reviews themselves and their performance in the

past year. This situation shows the human resource approach because the organization

first consults the employee on how they are doing and then they review them. This

approach gives the employee an opportunity to contribute to their review and make their

thoughts and ideas known to their managers. This approach is also referred to as the

family metaphor and as a human resource manager, it is their job to help improve

relationships among co-workers and managers.

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Network roles:

Network roles plays a huge role in Human Resource managers role by how they connect

employees with each other. It is simply defined as the way individuals are connected to

each other and that is their job with the new and current employees in their organization

(Miller, p.67). Those that talk to many people within the organization would be

characterized as group members and connect with others while at work. This also

increases the more that employees identify with their organization and this can also be

called task interdependence. Task interdependence refers to the degree to which team

members identify with, and intend to help, one another both through their actions, and

through providing resources (Johnson & Johnson, 1999). Human Resource managers

also plan socials and employee meetings so that others can get to know each other within

a large company so that they can go from being isolate to being characterized as a group

member. Isolate employees are defined as those that are not connected to others within

the organization and dont pursue employee relations. Human Resource managers can be

characterized as bridges or liaisons within an organization. A bridge is an employee that

communicates to those outside their group, this could be a corporate communications

employee that works in public relations or with external communications. A liaison is an

employee that talks to two or more people in the organization that have different

connections in the organization. At Deluxe Corporations, the liaison could be the

Corporate Communications employee that works internally and writes memos for

different departments to go to the organization as a whole. They represent one department

to connect with another department. It is also shown that those employees that are

connected to the organization that they are a part of, increases their task performance and
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sense of achievement. According to Wang et al. task interdependence could arouse a

sense of responsibility among journalists, improving individual performance and

resulting in cooperation (Wang et al. 2011). This shows that employees have a sense of

responsibility and cooperation when they are connected within the organization more.

While job shadowing Wendi, it was evident that it is her job along with the other Human

Resource managers that the events they put on are impactful on employees. They strive to

encourage relationships within the organization and notice impact on how the employees

performance and connections are while at work.

Newcomer information-seeking tactics:

I saw newcomer information-seeking tactics and information seeking strategies in the

Human Resource management job by how new employees know about the organization

and their interviews. This tactic is how new employees gain information on an

organization and job either before an interview or within their first few days of working.

New employees usually go through a training process once they are hired to help them

understand the norms within an organization and Deluxe Corporation is no different.

Senior HR manager Wendi Arnston described it as a long extensive training program,

new employees go through a 6-week training process and once they finish that, they still

work closely with their manager to make sure they understand (Wendi Arnston). Some

ways that Deluxe Corporation avoids the information seeking strategies that many new

employees use is a time when new employees get together to ask questions after their

first few days of work. This gives the new employees a chance to ask questions to the

Human Resource manager and to not need to use indirect questions to others. Indirect

questions can be useful in some situations but in most, they cause confusion since the
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employees are not going straight to the source which would be their manager or HR

manager who hired them. All of these forms of information-seeking tactics are using

different forms of communication. Some are using non-verbal by observing or using

surveillance, others are using verbal communication by asking overt, indirect or

disguising questions. Testing limits and third party can be characterized also by verbal

communication but also by forming relationships by finding answers. One of the top

business schools in the nation, Harvard, a few of their professors said that

communication is central to the very existence of organizations (Kleinbaum et al.

2008). This shows that any of these forms of communication is crucial in an organization

such as Deluxe Corporation that is expanding in multiple states and countries. Human

Resource managers are important in the newcomer information-seeking tactics because it

is their job to lay out all the information to the new employees so they dont need to

spend a lot of their working hours seeking information.

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Reactions to What I Have Learned

Through this assignment and job shadow, I have learned many things about the HR

Management job and the financial industry that Deluxe Corporation is. This day was similar to

what I expected in the aspect of a big organization that has a lot of different branches within it. I

did not expect the differences in jobs and roles within the organization to work so closely with

each other both physically and how their roles were intertwined. One thing that disappointed me

while job shadowing was the amount of time that the employees put in their work each week.

The organization as a whole makes it easy for the employees to eat, be entertained and hosts

other activates so the employees have almost everything they need at work. During the job

shadow, I was excited that I got to meet and network with so many different departments within

the organization so I could see what area I would enjoy working in the most and what areas I

would not enjoy.

I thought the most rewarding part of this job was the effects of seeing the employees that

that Human Resource managers hires succeed in their role. When hiring employees, the HR

managers only know so much and hope that the person they hire stays with the organization and

succeeds. A frustrating or demanding part of this job is the time commitment that it involves.

Wendi, as the Senior Human Resource manager usually arrives at work between five and six in

the morning and will usually stay until about six or seven at night. This career demands a lot of

an employees time but I was surprised that there is so much work to do that she works at least

60 hours a week. Overall, I really enjoyed my job shadow experience and am thankful that I got

to see many different departments and how they all work together so I can have a better

understanding of how they all work together.

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Conclusion

On Tuesday October 11th, I job shadowed a Senior Human Resource Manager, Wendi

Arnston and it was a great eye opening experience. I was able to see many departments within

Deluxe Corporations and learn the roles of each department such as the call center, human

resource team leaders and corporate communications. Through this experience I was able to

articulate which area of communications and business I would like to go into and which ones I

am not as interested in. This paper describes the main experiences I had throughout the day and

connected the Human Resource career with terms and concepts from organizational

communications. Centralization is shown through the HR managers and CEOs of a company

having control of the employees whereas the Human Resource approach still lets the employees

have a voice within the organization. Network roles and Newcomer information seeking tactics

show how the employees connect with each other within the organization and how they adapt to

being new. These are shown through the Human Resource managers role because they work the

most with new employees and it is their job to plan events and connect employees with each

other in the organization. Not only did I learn more about the Human Resource career but I was

able to learn about the corporate world as a whole and what part I would best be used in.
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References

Arnston, W. (2016, October 11). Personal Interview.

Barley, S.R, & Kunda, G. (2001). Bringing work back in. Organizational Science, 12, 76-95.

doi:10.1287/orsc.12.1.76.10122

Johnson, D. W., & Johnson R. (1999). Learning together and along: Cooperative, competitive

and individualistic learning (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Kleinbaum, A. M., Stuart, T. E., & Tushman, M. L. (2008, July 31). Communication (and

coordination?) in a modern, complex organization. Harvard Business School Working

Knowledge. Retrieved form http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item5991.html

Miller, K. (2015). Organizational communication: Approaches and processes (7th ed.). Stamford,

CT: Cengage Learning.

Wang, C, -H., Yen, C-D., & Huang, T.-C. (2011). Task interdependenc, team conflict, and

performance of a journalists team: Clarifying the cooperative conflict perspective [In

Chinese], Journal of Management, 28, 427-446.

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Communication Challenge

By:

Ashley Ayers

Winona State University

CMST 366

Dr. Swenson Lepper

11/20/16
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Communication Challenge

Description of a Communication Challenge

The job and career of a human resource manager depends a lot on communication

internally and externally for an organization. A communication challenge that many human

resource managers face is the technology barrier when trying to relay information to employees

within an organization. There are many channels of communication that HR managers and CEOs

of companies use and it is a challenge to determine the most effective way to communication to

employees. Wendi Arnston (2016), a Senior Human Resource manager at Deluxe Corporations

in Shoreview, Minnesota, describes the technology changes in the recent years to be helpful and

challenging to the role of training and hiring new employees. Many organizations are switching

to conference calls over the internet or Google Hangout versus flying employees across the

country to attend a meeting. Arnston, who manages human resource managers all across the

country, explains a few of the technology challenges include finding times in all of their

schedules to discuss employee performances as well as training employees on new tasks when

they are not physically in the same place. Another way that technology is a barrier when relaying

information to employees in the human resource managers job is that a lot of their time is spent

sending and responding to emails about various meeting and policies that are put in place. The

exchange of emails can be helpful because it is efficient, but it also a challenge because

information can be broken up in pieces and can make it more difficult for all employees to be on

the same page about a new policy for information they need within the organization.

What makes the situation of technology communication in human resource management

so difficult to resolve is the increase of technology in our society and workplace. Since many
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organizations such as Deluxe Corporations have branches of the company in many states and

countries, it is important that they use technology to communicate to all employees but it

becomes problematic when information is miscommunicated across media such as work phone,

computer and tablet. Organizations such as Deluxe use databases to store all their customer

information which is a form of communication using technology and can helpful since all the

employees need the information. This form of communication can also be harmful to the

organization because if there is something important they need to know about the customer and it

is not properly documented within the database, it leaves room for miscommunication or

misinterpretation from another employee.

Description of Options

There are a few options that human resource managers and organizations can take in

order to cross the communication barrier through technology. According to Stone and Deadrick,

(2015), the use of technology by human resource managers helps reduce costs for the

organization by allowing training materials online on an organizations intranet instead of in

person. Although it would be the most effective for an organization to allow new employees to

all meet with the human resource manager for weeks for training, it is not the most convenient

and having training programs online allows the new employee to learn at their own pace on their

own time. Intranets have become more common forms of communication for large organization

because they allow information to be given to all employees and just the employees within that

organization. Human resource managers can still create the training materials and update them as

often as needed, but by having them available online rather than requiring new employees to

meet with the human resource manager, it allows for their time to be allocated other places and

for the new employees to have time to process what they are learning.
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Another option to combat the barrier of communication in technology for human resource

managers is to allow their role to do be done by multiple people. With another human resource

manager in charge of training and another in charge of hiring and recruiting, it allows for time to

be allocated in the right places for communication to be effective. Human resource managers

could also work more closely with corporate communication within their organization to help

them get information out to the employees more effectively and efficiently. Many organizations

are not big enough to have corporate communication specialist to relay information within

departments but even having a human resource managers role to do this for very important

messages would benefit the organization all being on the same page. Organizations have also

been using their intranet to relay all information such as meetings and what is happening for

someones birthday on a certain tab to ensure that all information is relayed to all employees

regardless of its importance to each employee.

According to a study by Hecklau, et al. (2016) about the holistic approach for human

resource managers in the industry of changing technology, it is the human resource managers

job to become strategic when using technology to communicate. One of the main roles of a

human resource managers is to hire and promote those that the organization thinks would benefit

them the most. By the human resource managers being strategic on what the organization needs,

they are able to communicate where they need new employees and where they can use promote

from within. When the human resource manager communicates effectively either in person or

through technology to the current and prospective employees, it allows the employees to know

what is expected of them as well as what that organization is looking for in their company.
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My Response

While researching and reading about possible communication challenges that I could face

upon entering the career path of human resource management, it was also helpful to read the

possible alternatives. Since the use of technology is just going to increase as I enter the work

force, it is important for me to know how to use these forms of technology and also what makes

them effective. A few factors that I would consider when entering this career is how important

technology is to an organization and how heavily they rely on it on a daily basic. By looking at

the literature on this topic, there are many positive and important implications to having

technology as such an important part of an organization but there are also many challenges to it

such as miscommunication and misinterpretation.

A few terms and theories that can used to describe this challenge is the direction of

communication flow and styles of communication. According to Miller (2015, p. 52), classical

organizations rely heavily on downward direction of communication for workers whereas the

human relations approach does not rely as much. The human relations approach does not

eliminate the need for vertical flow of communication but it does emphasize the need for

horizontal communication. This approach shows the importance of communication among

employees and how beneficial their interactions are for their workplace performance.

Technology can be a helpful tool within the workplace for vertical communication so that the

managers and human resource managers can get information to all employees quickly.

Technology can also be a helpful for horizontal workplace communication and relations so that

employees can communicate to their peer and team based learning in the workplace can happen.
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Communication styles have been shaped differently since technology has been more

prevalent in our lives and our workplaces. Communication between employees and managers

supposed to be formal and have a goal of satisfying social needs according to Miller (2015, p.

53). With the increase of technology in society and our workplaces, it has left a gap of non-

verbal communication interpretations and fulfilling human needs. Technology can quickly

become an informal form of communication when not used properly like e-mail and cooperate

communication memos in the intranet of an organization. When technology starts to use slang

and contains information that is not needed for the task as hand for another employee, that is

when it takes on the form of being informal and not useful to the organization.

Experts such as Jen Schramm who writes for the SHRM (Society for Human Resource

Management) explains the challenges in the HR career in terms of new development of

technology. New technology has a goal of increasing flexibility and productivity for employees

but makes it difficult for human resource managers to plan and implement team building

activities. Schramm also notes that technology is vital in the workplace today and it is here to

stay.

After reviewing and considering the possible challenges that I could face when I pursue a

human resource career, I will be better prepared for when those situations occur. Ive looked at

the possible challenges that technology brings to communication in an organization for a human

resource manager. I have also connected the terms direction of communication flow and

communication styles when evaluating this problem and the possible alternatives.
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References

Arnston, W. (personal communication, October 11, 2016.) Senior Human Resource Manager at

Deluxe Corporations in Shoreview, MN.

Hecklau, F., Galeitzke, M., Flachs, S., & Kohl, H. (2016). Holistic Approach for Human

Resource Management in Industry 4.0. Procedia CIRP, 54, pp. 1-6.

doi:10.1016/j.procir.2016.05.102

Miller, K. (2015). Organizational communication: Approaches and processes (7th ed.). Stamford,

CT: Cengage Learning.

Schramm, J. (2016). Society for Human Resource Management. The Big Issues Facing HR.

retrieved from: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/0316/pages/the-big-

issues-facing-hr.aspx

Stone, D. L., & Deadrick, D. L. (2015). Challenges and opportunities affecting the future of

human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 25(2), pp. 139-145.

doi:10.1016/j.hrmr.2015.01.003