Sociological Theories and Concepts

Running head: 1-3 JOURNAL: MILESTONE ONE PREPARATION 1

1-3 JOURNAL: MILESTONE ONE PREPARATION 5

1-3 Journal: Milestone One Preparation

Artis Johnson

Capstone Colloquium

Mr. Adam Grodek

Southern New Hampshire University

October 29, 2022

Life in today's workplace can be challenging and come with many obstacles. The workplace issue that I would like to discuss is the lack of communication in the workplace. This could be the root cause of many other issues. Where there is a lack of communication in the workplace, this could indicate that there is a lack of trust between employees. It could also be an indication that there is an issue with hierarchy/bureaucracy status as well. Communication is a way that we exchange information. This can be via phone, e-mail, text message, verbal, or physical. Certain sociological theories play a major role in workplace issues.

Lack of communication in the workplace could be because one feels superior to others. This is relevant to the interactionist theory. In the military, when some Soldiers are promoted to a high authority rank, they lose a sense of humanity. In the civilian sector, you may relate this by saying a CEO has more power and authority than a receptionist while completely disregarding that all are human first. I have witnessed firsthand hazing. When someone gains promotion to a new position, they go through a process where those who are "superior" to them belittle them and make them feel less than others as a process of initiation.

Conflict theory focuses on the competition among groups within society over limited resources (Hayes, 2022). Often in a workplace, people will withhold information to gain praise and to glorify themselves. This could be due to competing for a promotion or position. Lack of communication could also be related to conflict theory due to pay inequalities, office sizes, work hours, workload, and career training opportunities. Most people think of physical abuse when they hear the word conflict, but it is much deeper than that. Many times, before it has gotten to that point, the conflicts needed to be correctly resolved, possibly due to a lack of communication.

One might view lack of communication in the workplace as a functionalist as trying to solve why there is a lack of communication in the workplace, who is involved, what the issues are, where they are stemmed from, how long this has been occurring, and how is this affecting the workplace mission and environment. As a functionalist, they are more concerned with why the issue is occurring. Therefore, the functionalist theory could assist with the lack of communication because they are more interested in reaching the root cause and building from that in the hope of reaching a resolution.

References:

Hayes, A. (2022, August 23). Conflict theory definition, founder, and examples. Investopedia. Retrieved October 21, 2022, from https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/conflict-theory.asp#:~:text=Conflict%20theory%20focuses%20on%20the,dominance%20of%20the%20ruling%20class.