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Kaitlyn Daisy
Tom Hall
November 11, 2016
Organizational Communication

Organizational Interview Paper

From the time, you enter high school to the time you start college, there is a question that
is constantly being asked to young people. Teachers, Peers, Parents, and that one Aunt on your
Moms side of the family all want to know: What do you want to be when you grow up? I
dread this question; I had come to loath it by the time I was a senior in high school because I had
no idea what I wanted to be. I often joked that I would be a trophy wife if I ever got in shape
enough, but then my Mom started getting scared that that was my real plan. I sat down and
thought, I like art, why not be an art teacher? What about a photographer? I could become an
actress! Or maybe I can hide away forever and not have to deal with this? Eventually in my
sophomore year of college at Iowa Central, I figured it out: I would be a Communications Major!
Then came the other questions from all the relatives, Well, what is that exactly? How much can
money you make doing that? Is that a real major? All the questions left me spinning and I felt
like I was right back at square one. I didnt know what job exactly I wanted to have, I just know I
like to communicate! Then I started my Organization Communication class with Tom Hall.

The assignment was to write a paper about organizational communication and talk to
three people in the career field I would be interested in got me to consider my options without
fear. Public relations had always been on the list of options for me so I took my first interview

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with Jeff Brand who is the Associate Professor of Public Relations at the University of Northern
Iowa. I wanted to know more about PR and the different types of PR from a seasoned
professional. I got that and much more from the interview. I connect a job in PR to CCO or
Communicative Constitution of Organization. My next interview was with the wonderful Gayle
Pohl who is an Associate Professor of Communication Studies at UNI. She gave more
information on how to make it and what to expect for a career in PR. She said, You have to be
careful about the people because there is a group of people that is so kind, and so generous, and
then there is another group of people that is ego driven and hungry, to the point that they will do
anything to get to where they want to be. So, you must be astute enough to separate them, and
understand the line. She also gave me a very honest view point of UNI and how she would like
to see their evaluation process improve within the organization. This suggests how the chain of
command could be improved and makes me think of some classical approaches. My final
interview was with Nichole Harken an instructor of Communication Studies at UNI; I was not
able to meet with her in person but got her to fill out my interview questions and email them to
me. Ideology was a large part of what I took from her interview, that Harken wants the way she
teaches communication to enter our work, relationships, and how we live our lives. Saying, I
would rather have a student who has learned about emotional intelligence and went forth and
worked on becoming a more emotionally intelligent person rather than someone who memorizes
the information but is still a jerkwad. All three of my interviews showed me the machine-like
aspects of an organization. Machine like when it comes to all of them working in a way to make
UNI prosper, as well as turning out students that can go work in organizations.

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I asked each interviewee what a typical day in their field was like. Each one of them had
a similar answer: Every day is different, and it is far from typical. Pohl spoke of all the
committees she is on and the teaching, speaking with students, and grading involved in her work
day to day. These like Harken and Brands responses of also talking to students and coworkers,
to teaching, and keeping up to date with the latest news to in connection to what they are
teaching. This all lends itself to the machine metaphor, that organizations are specialized,
standardized, and predictable. (Miller, 2014, p.19). Each interviewee has a specialized way they
do things. For Harken, she likes to place more value on making her students better people then
making sure they all have As. Whereas Brand is somewhat new to teaching at UNI and gives
more of what working in PR is like because he worked in PR for so long. Its standardized in
many ways too because each professor must adhere to a lesson plan, and since all the classes my
interviewees teach are Communication studies based, they all put a large importance on the value
of being able to effectively communicate. Gayle Pohl talks of the predictability of having a job in
PR, in that you always need to be ready to go, and be up on the latest, which Jeff Brand makes a
large point of saying as well. In PR, the more information of the here and now about what is
happening the better able you are to handle situations that lend themselves to having a put
together presence.
Harken, Brand, and Pohl each brought up excellent points in their interviews about the
chain of command at UNI. Brand finds that it is helpful having someone with tenure watching
over him, a very top-down communication style works well for him. On the hand Pohl wishes
there were more of an open communication style, particularly when concerning evaluations.
Rather than a self-evaluation system, she would rather see a system in place where younger staff
and older facility could evaluate and interact with one another on an even level. In this system, it

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would make learning from one another increase as well as open relationships up to building ideas
about lesson plans and other things that could be better for UNI as an organization. Harken
doesnt have any comments on chain of command at UNI, she enjoys the work place atmosphere
of the communication department.

Whilst talking with Brand and Pohl about a career in PR I got a firm grasp that you cant
compare PR to anything. Public Relations is like CCO or Communicative Constitution of
Organization suggests that, CCO theorists try to understand the complicated processes through
which our interactions create, re-create, and change organizations. (Miller, 2014, p.83). In my
opinion the job itself is about what to say or to create when something happens in relation to an
organization. Brand previously held a career in crisis PR mostly talked about whatever the crisis
its most important to create a sense of control over the organizations problem. It is about creating
and re-creating the image that an organization is doing whatever they can to fix a crisis, and then
go back to being a strong organization and maintaining that image. We spoke of crisis like
organizations having food contaminations and how to approach crisis PR for such a problem.
Brand said, They want to get past the crisis, they want to let people know that they have
handled it effectively. Part of the challenge would probably be how to recall it, get the
information out there. Pohl spoke of the change part of CCO, that you should always watch for
things in PR changing and be flexible to said changes.
Harken as well as Brand and Pohl for this matter put a large emphasis on Ideology. The
book quotes (Eisenberg and Goodall, 1997, p. 153) in saying that, ideology structures our
thoughts and controls our interpretations of reality (Miller, 2014, p.105) I say this because of
the way Harken talks about teaching her classes. She doesnt want to have a student learn all the

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course material for a test and then have it leave their brain. She wants to have the things she
teaches about change the way her students live their lives and how they communicate. Harken
says she hates grading because she sees no merit in it. This is understandably a preference she
has but can do nothing about because it is a standard in the United States educational system and
an ideology that has been placed on education for a very long time. Rather she would want one
to step back and not only recognize the theory she just talked about but how to act and react in
said situation. For a future job in an organization you should be learning these skills to lower
conflict. In addition, it is paramount that one can talk in ways that will make people listen as well
as talk to you.

I learned a lot from all three of my interviews, I reaffirmed for myself that I am in the
correct major for me. From Pohl, I learned that flexibility not only in the career of PR is
important because it makes you more able to handle anything put into your lap. I also learned
from her that creativity can put you ahead of the curve in the PR world because it can make you
a better problem solver as well as a better co-worker and employee. She told me to be my own
third party and have a high tolerance level if I want to work in PR. Brand taught me that thinking
critically can make the difference in every situation. By thinking critically, you are better able to
find solutions, communicate effectively, and reduce the number of possible mistakes. He says
future employers for not just PR want a well-rounded person in their organization. So, I should
do as many internships as I can make myself not only a better candidate, but a better person as
well. Harken by far taught me the most though. She says being able to communicate effectively
is not enough. You need to be a good writer as well, read as often as you can, and watch people
and their interactions with one another and always look for ways to make yourself better.

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Reference
Miller, K. (2014) Organizational communication: Approaches and processes. Boston, MA:
Wadsworth.