Criminal Justice Major Reflects on Importance of Communication in the Workplace

Communication is essential in any organization because, without it, nothing would ever get done efficiently. In order to get tasks done in an appropriate amount of time, it often requires members of an organization to work together in order to complete the task.

For example, a boss may delegate parts of an assignment to different members of their team, which means that not only must the boss communicate well with the members of their team, but the members of the team must also be able to communicate with each other. If the members of the team, or the boss, cannot communicate effectively, the task will most likely not be completed properly or in a timely manner.

This would result in the organization not functioning properly and not becoming as successful as it may have the potential to become. With my internship specifically, I mainly only communicate with my boss. This makes things slightly easier as I only have to worry about communicating effectively with one person instead of a whole team of people. However, it is very important that I do communicate properly with my boss as I am completing research which, if not done correctly, could have a very negative impact on the organization.

The research that I am doing is used to track homicides in different counties in Connecticut and track the cases to see if they have been solved or not. If I do not conduct my research properly or log my information correctly, it would display inaccurate results about cases, which could negatively affect the families of the victim, and it could also misrepresent the homicide rates in each county. This is why I make sure that I am very certain of how my boss would like me to do the research before conducting it because I want to ensure that I am doing my work properly.

I believe that the most useful tactic in communication is asking questions and gaining clarity. Often times I feel that in a job people are afraid to ask questions and that is when mistakes happen because the original task was not understood.

I do understand this fear of asking questions, however I’ve learned that more often a boss would be angrier that you didn’t ask a question rather than when you do ask a question. For example, I was sent a new assignment the other day by my boss and I didn’t completely understand part of what she was asking me to do. I then sent her another email to clarify how she wanted part of it done and she was happy that I had asked so that I can do my assignment properly.

The Bergami Summer Internship Program is funded through the generosity of Board of Governors member – and former Board Chair – Sam Bergami ’85 EMBA and his wife, Lois, and the Division of Student Affairs. The students are blogging about the experience throughout the summer.