Introduction
A good relationship between internal customers from separate departments improves productivity and eliminates wastes.
There are three distinct departments in the organization I work for, estimating, production and finance. The relationship between these departments and how they communicate is vital in the flow of work from one from one department to the next, and ultimately the flow of work to our external customers. To some degree each of the departments is linked to the others, relying on each other to be able to complete their separate goals.
To perform efficiently, each department in an organization needs to work towards group goals and visions. "A well crafted group vision serves as an umbrella under which can be gathered an enormous variety of personal aims consistent with it." (Whitley, 1991 pp28). If a company is going to run effectively, each department needs to communicate in a manner where vital information can be accessed easily.
A culture between departments of being part of an overall team needs to be bred into an organization. Each department needs to work towards "shared philosophies, ideologies, values, beliefs, expectations and norms" (Doraisamy, Internal Marketing slide 12). Just as important to a work culture is a culture outside of normal working hours, it is said that ?a team that plays together works together'.
Discussion
I work for an organization that has 3 offices in the one building, one for estimating, one for finance and one for production. Although each department communicates to a degree what they are up to, people seem to know more about their own department then the one next to them. Once a week all departments meet to converse where they are and what they are doing and what aspects ...