Bailey Olson

18 April 2023

ENC 1102

Professor Gonzalez

Corporate Communication: An Analysis of Different Workplace Environments and Coworker’s

Verbal and Nonverbal Communications

“Water cooler talk.” It’s a common phrase known to most people as a nice way to say

“gossiping”. Workplace chitchat is not a new concept, as long as humans have been around there

has been drama. However, small talk is not the only kind of communication done in the

workplace; there are serious emails, board meetings, and phone calls that all contribute to the

environment of a company. Through reading and analyzing multiple case studies and articles as

well as conducting my own interviews on the topic, I have become very educated on the subject

of workplace environments and communications.

After extensive searching I have found some sources that have educated me on the topic

of workplace environment and communication as well and given me examples of how I could

conduct my own research on the topic. All articles, books, and journals that are cited in my

research paper were found on Google Scholar and they are all scholarly, peer reviewed, articles.

There is a common theme in the articles I have found, they all discuss how workplace

environment has an effect on both communication and work ethic within the workplace.
Additionally, I have pulled at least one idea from every source that will help me as I model my

own research after the research I have read.

The first source I will be discussing is “Impact of Employees' Workplace Environment on

Employees' Performance: A Multi-Mediation Model.” (Zhenjing, et al., 2022). This study

explores the impact of workplace environment on employee engagement and performance by

distributing and analyzing 314 surveys. Although I will not be using surveys in my own research,

I will be conducting interviews, the questions in the surveys were asked on a Likert scale which

was helpful because it showed me different type of questions, I could ask to get data. The second

source I cited is “Workplace Communication.” Organizational Behavior in Health Care

(Borkowski, et al., 2021). Similar to my first source, this article discusses different types of

communications that take place in the workplace, specifically those between managers and their

employees. This article was very helpful to me because I interviewed subjects in both entry level

jobs and those in higher managerial jobs so the analysis of relationships between managers and

employees was beneficial when formulating my questions. These two sources are similar because

they provided me with important information about employee engagement and communication.

The final three sources I analyzed are all case studies and although they are from different

people, countries, and years they all provide similar results. The first study, “Impact of

Workplace Quality on Employee’s Productivity: Case Study of a Bank in Turkey.” (Leblebici,

2012) presents the analysis of working environment of a foreign private bank in Turkey and

examines the relationship between the workplace physical conditions and employee’s

productivity. The results of this study essentially show that poor work conditions (including poor

workplace communication) lead to low employee productivity. Additionally, “The Influence of

Internal Communication on Employee Engagement: A Pilot Study.” (Karanges, et al., 2015)

comes to a similar conclusion. Using surveys and analysis this study confirms that internal

organizational and supervisor communication support workplace relationships based on meaning

and worth have a “significant part to play in developing and maintaining optimal employee

engagement” (Karanges, 130). Essentially, positive workplace communication leads to positive

work environments and vice versa. All the studies I analyzed sing a similar tune including my

final source used, “Factors of Workplace Environment That Affect Employees Performance: A

Case Study of Miyazu Malaysia.” (Naharuddin, et al. 2013), which analyzes workplace

environment and its effect on employees performance. A large factor of both workplace

environment and employee performance is communication between both coworkers and

managers.

From reading and analyzing the sources above I have learned so much more about the

effects communication, workplace environments, and employee performance have on each other.

After reading these articles and studies I was able to formulate my own questions and conduct

my own interview in the most efficient and professional way possible. If I had not read these

sources first, I would not have been able to conduct my interviews as well as I did and my

research would not be as in-depth or analytical.

As for my primary research, I conducted multiple interviews with an array of subjects

from different jobs, ages, and backgrounds. I believe that interviewing multiple different types of

people was the most effective way to get the most diverse and accurate data for my research as

opposed to having people from similar backgrounds as a control. All of my interviewees were

over the age of 18 and consented to the interviewing process, no real names will be used in this

paper. In my interviews I asked four open-ended questions and one closed-ended, multiple

choice, question. I created my own questions based on what I believed would be the most
beneficial to answer the question I presented in my research proposal; “How does one’s work

environment affect their communication in the workplace?”

For the purpose of remaining anonymous, each person I interviewed will have an alias. I

interviewed Mackenzie (age 20), Brooke (age 18), Carl (age 54), Alden (age 29), and I will be

using my (age 20) own personal answers to the interview questions as well. Although all the

interview questions were created by me, some were based on research I found in my sources. For

example, the one closed ended question asked subjects; “In your opinion which relationship do

you think is more important in the workplace: Coworker relationships or employer-employee

relationships?” I based this question off of the study “Workplace Communication.”

Organizational Behavior in Health Care (Borkowski, et al., 2021) which focuses on the

relationships between managers and their employees. The results to this question seemed to be

based off age and job status, Mackenzie (age 20), Brooke (age 18), and myself (age 20) all

agreed coworker relationships are more important whereas Carl (age 54) and Alden (age 29) said

employer-employee relationships are more important. Besides from the age of those interviewed,

the job statuses of those with similar answers are also similar, Mackenzie (age 20), Brooke (age

18), and myself (age 20) all work entry level jobs in the food industry where Carl (age 54) and

Alden (age 29) both have managerial positions at their respected companies.

A total of five questions were asked during the interviews, the first open ended question I

want to focus on is “From the jobs you have had explain the best work environment you have

experienced and why you think it was good.” I was very surprised that all interviewees answered

similarly, all subjects said their current job has the best work environment of any they’ve ever

worked. This shows that regardless of age or work status, employees will stay at a workplace that

they believe has a good work environment longer than one that doesn’t. In addition to all subjects
agreeing they enjoy their current job more than others, when asked to elaborate on their answer

they all said something about how their coworkers are what make the company an enjoyable

place to work. More specifically, Carl (age 54) said (of current company) “It’s like a family; the

people are nice, and everyone gets along with no drama.” and Brooke (18) said “The managers

and employees are very nice and personable which creates a good environment to work in.” Both

of these responses show that coworkers are what make the work environment enjoyable. I would

like to note that this was the first question asked in the interviews and I did not tell the subjects to

comment on their coworkers, they created these answers fully on their own based on the

questions that I read verbatim to them.

My second open ended question asked was “From the jobs you have had explain the

worst work environment you have experienced and why you think it was bad.”

The next two questions I asked subjects relate to the communication aspect of my

research; the first question related to this that I asked was “What are the most common forms of

communication you use with your coworkers? (Formally or informally? Verbal or nonverbal?

Explain.)”

The fifth and final question asked during the interviews was “Do you believe that the job

environment that you are in changes the way you communicate with your coworkers?” The

answers to this question were surprisingly similar to the results from the first question asked.

Mackenzie (age 20), Brooke (age 18), and myself (age 20), all agreed that work environment

does change the way we communicate with coworkers. More specifically, Mackenzie (age 20)

said “working in a bar has a much different environment than a normal restaurant (for example a

nicer restaurant).” On the other end, Carl (age 54) and Alden (age 29) both said that work

environment does not affect communication with coworkers. Carl (age 54) said “treat everyone
with kindness and respect regardless of the environment.” I believe that job status plays a bigger

part in these answers than age. Both Carl (age 54) and Alden (age 29) are at higher, long term,

positions at their companies, because of this they answered differently because regardless of

what job they go to they still have a high reputation to uphold. On the other hand, Mackenzie

(age 20), Brooke (age 18), and myself (age 20) are all in entry-level positions and do not plan on

staying with those companies indefinitely. As a result, we can be more relaxed at our jobs and

communication will change based on whether or not management is around and the physical

environment of a job (like a nice restaurant versus a bar).

References

Guo, Kristina L. “Workplace Communication.” Organizational Behavior in Health Care, by

Nancy Borkowski and Katherine A. Meese, Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2021, pp. 71–102.

Karanges, Emma, et al. “The Influence of Internal Communication on Employee Engagement: A

Pilot Study.” Public Relations Review, vol. 41, no. 1, 2015, pp. 129–131.

Leblebici, Demet. “Impact of Workplace Quality on Employee’s Productivity: Case Study of a

Bank in Turkey.” Journal of Business, Economics & Finance, 2012, pp. 38–49.

Naharuddin, Nina, and Mohammed Sadegi. “Factors of Workplace Environment That Affect

Employees Performance: A Case Study of Miyazu Malaysia.” International Journal of

Independent Research and Studies, Apr. 2013, pp. 66–78.

Zhenjing, Gu, et al. “Impact of Employees' Workplace Environment on Employees'

Performance: A Multi-Mediation Model.” Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 10, 2022.