Relaxed Journalism VS Formal Business

During work this week, one of the things that I noticed was the difference in leadership styles during different types of meetings. One of the first meetings of the week was between my location’s branch of the company, including the CEO, and all the other branches of the company. In the conference room, I noticed a particular stiffness; I had not felt in a meeting within this company before. In other meetings this week, most people were very friendly, incredibly relaxed, and overall much more informal. As the week progressed, and I took part in more and more meetings, I noticed that they were stressed and therefore more silent, nervous, and reserved in meetings that also had their direct supervisor in attendance. In meetings between people of a similar rank, they joked around, relaxed and laughed much more than meetings between different power tiers of the company.

In particular this week, I noticed a clash between two departments. The clash started because of a dispute between time in the conference room. The beginning of the clash was two different teams, questioning why there was someone else scheduled at the same time as them in the space. As the clash escalated it became a battle between managers to convince their team supervisor that they had a right to have their meeting in conference room. By the end of the tiff, each team had convinced their highest level supervisor to argue for their rights to the room. What was surprising to me was not the nature of such difficulty within a company, but instead, how unclear the company’s rules and policies were. While there was a clear power dynamic within the company and other social queues within the company, for example dress and communication were expected to be quite formal, certain things like policies, rules for behavior and sales organization was up to the eye of the beholder.

Overall, I have loved my working in the environment NPM has because it is a desirable mix of formal and relaxed. Due to the journalistic, breaking news goal of NPR, NPM has a skew towards a relaxed work environment, but since NPM is a sales, marketing and finance branch of NPR, this particular location is run more formally than most typical teams at NPR, especially those focusing on journalism. I think the business and journalism industry of NPM is part of why it gives such a unique environment that is business formal with a relaxed twist. However, it also varies even within a company based off of the power tiers and who is represented in meetings.