The organizational strategy in transcribing departmental meeting minutes

Group Communication

One of my main tasks at work is to transcribe the minutes of the weekly departmental meetings; thus, since my report requires me to present the minutes of the meeting in a concise, yet organized, form, I use the organizational strategy or method of writing. In the organizational strategy, I take into account how the information is presented in a document -- in my case, the minutes of meeting for the department. According to Chandler (1995), the organizational strategy involves dividing the information in the document into three main divisions: the introduction, body, and conclusion.

In the organizational strategy, these three divisions are specified further. The introduction becomes the part where the "major point" of the document is stated. This part may be likened to the 'lead' of a journalist's news article -- it allows the reader to know what the document is all about, supported by information discussed later in the second part (body) of the document. The second part of the document, meanwhile, contains additional information or a "reinforcement" of the primary message stated in the introduction (first part of the document). Thus, in my case, the second part of the document includes the resolutions and background information given by the department members concerning the agenda of the meeting. Background information may include the history of the problem discussed, or the process used by department members to formulate the resolution to the problem. Lastly, the last part of the document includes the resolution itself, as well as a summary of the previous discussion stated in the body of the document.

Chandler, F. (1995). Fundamentals of Business Communication. Chicago: Richard D. Irwin, Inc.

The organizational strategy that I use in communicating with the other department members in the workplace influence the way I think or construct ideas and information when it comes to processing and using them in decision-making processes with the organization. This belief that written communication (or any form communication, for that matter) has influences and affects the way we think is based on the principle that "All Messages Have a Content and a Relational Dimension" (Adler, 1998:19). This principle is divided into two components: the content and relational dimension of the message given to another communicator/s.