A sense of community is one of the vital elements which assist in improving the wellbeing of a person in a community. A sense of community has four components namely; membership, emotional needs, integration and influence needs, and the shared emotional connections. The significance of these elements is based on the opinions a person has about the organization he or she works in. The reason behind these perceptions is because it is all these elements which have the ability of enhancing social cohesion.
The community that I am currently working is Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is one of the American companies which engage in the manufacturing computers, computer software, and other associated peripherals. The genesis of this company indicates that it is one of the first influential computer manufacturing companies which had the opportunity to popularize their graphical user interface. From the time it was founded, the company has managed to improve its economies of scale through opening several branches worldwide. As a result of that, one of the Apple Inc. retail stores that is chose to discuss is Bakersfield located in Valley Plaza in California, United States. Having been employed by the Apple Inc. at this retail shop for four years now, it has given me the opportunity of developing a strong sense of membership in the employee community. What I also like about my community is the sharing of ideas and as well as being united by the same objectives. The four elements of our community are discussed below.
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1. Membership
The first element of Apple Inc. electronic company is membership. With it, boundaries are one of the first five attributes which assist in defining membership attributes. When I am in my working environment, an employee is given the chance of selecting which department to work with. Basically, an individual can either decide to work with supporting Mac computers or internal operating system (iOS) department, internal operating system (iOS) or Central Processing Unit (CPU) department, respectively. In return, this constantly assists in drawing a boundary between workers, and in most cases it is easy to see advisors taking into consideration the side of their co-workers (myself included). Furthermore, with my community, such a sense of belonging is always met through splitting them into terms that is any group that reports to their manager is regarded as being a team.
In order to meet and associate with each team more effective, each team engages in weekly meetings so as to assist each team member to interact amongst themselves. This enables them to adopt a sort of mascot or nickname within the team. Also, each team is given the opportunity of competing with other teams in their department so as to assist in maintaining better performance stats. Language and dressing code involved business/professional outfit, as it is an institution dedicated to professional networking. This means that the weekly meetings we have assist in acting as one of the “ritual” aspects of my involvement with this community. This is vital because it assists in describing the behaviors of the team member.
2. Influence
Influence is also another element of a sense of community that is highly taken into consideration in my company. Considering my working experience with Apple Inc., I have had the opportunity of witnessing how my fellow employees and myself have had a great influence on the company policy and also that of the company to all of us. One of the core things that my community highly value is employee and customer feedback. From the time I commenced training after being employed, I learned how to offer effective feedback on various training modules, any of my working tools and equipment, and even that of my coworkers.
The presence of the “Provide Feedback” within all of our tools is the one which enables us to accomplish any task assigned to. Personally, I was able to offer several feedbacks regarding troubleshooting articles. This is what has enabled me to understand how influential I was taking into consideration some of the tremendous changes I had witnessed from such activities. My community had developed other new methods to aid in coaching and training. These mechanisms are vital because they assisted us not only to offer efficient customer services, but also to be informed technical support exports. Therefore, I belief such an influence is bidirectional. Typically, the influence of my coworkers and that I have to them and the whole of our department was ultimately manifested via leadership. Such an element remained to be high whenever I was actively involved with my duties.
3. Integration and Fulfillment of Needs
Integration and fulfillment of needs is another element of a sense of community which always entails an acknowledged interdependence within the community. Within the Apple Inc. electronic company, our management authority makes it to be well known to each employee on how their work is highly appreciated. The reason for that is because the realization of the goals or objectives of its establishment mainly depends on employees’ dedications. As a result of that, I can say that always feel very integrated into the entire community whenever the owner or the senior workers send emails expressing their appreciation for the work we do.
We always rely on the help, support, and advice that our coworkers and managers offer for any issue or issues that are associated the job. Conversely, my needs with this community entail feeling respected and appreciated. This takes into consideration effective communication and cooperation amongst my teammates. What had the potential of offering me a stronger identity is maintaining similarity with my fellow workers.
4. Shared Emotional Connection
The last element of a sense of community that we highly uphold is the shared emotional connection. Having the opportunity of working from home is one of the unique things I realized with my community. That is to imply that I can use video chatting mechanism to enhance my interactions with my manager or fellow workers. Although someone may perceive that this can end up hindering the establishment of emotional or personal relationships, the truth is that this is not the case. Always, team managers schedule a one-on-one or 1X1 communication where an employee spends at most twenty minutes video chatting with their team members listening and responding to calls, going through their stats, as well as addressing other concerns. Within my community, these “1X1” meetings are filled with several constructive criticism as well as the development of new goals and the means of realizing them. I, therefore, belief that this ultimately speaks or signifies the quality of interaction, that is the time spent with the management authority is not underutilized or is infrequent. On the same note, I have had the opportunity of developing external friendships with my coworkers.
As a result of that, contact hypothesis is paramount with my community. Other than being involved with one’s duties, part of the weekly meetings we had was to ensure that members are close to each other. Other than that, improving the quality of interactions is based on the social gatherings we used to have every Friday after presentations by speakers. Likewise, my community always depends on various closure events which all assist in improving group cohesiveness. Such group cohesiveness is maintained by the work that the members execute together for greater purpose. The sharing of critical event hypothesis is based on various circumstances which could absorb an “emergency”. For instance, my community raised awareness for Kidney Donor sign-ups. Unfortunately, my community was forced to look for an alternative means because their objective was not met.
5. Most pressing issue
My organization has been having the capacity of achieving some of the goals of its investment whenever I devoted my time and effort to the task assigned to. It is a series of events which made me not to be actively involved with the community in which cognitive discord ended up becoming at play. Truthfully, I stayed on the position which I had no clue on how to fulfill. But as time went by, I accepted my mistake after learning how to cope up with the truth. Seemingly, I had had wasted a lot of time which I could have utilized for the same of achieving the goals of career. Nonetheless, when I dedicated myself most with the goals of our organization, there was great honor because of the recognition I was given. After I could not continue staying involved, a sense of humiliation developed in me. At the end, I decided to avoid such close encounters until I had the ability of solving that anxiety. The spirituality or the spiritual bond of this community was mainly developed and established through fundraising events, retreats, socials, executive board meetings and the weekly meetings we had. Regardless of that, what bothers me I is the extent at which the impacts this activities have on personal lifestyle.
Conclusion
I can say that my membership in the Apple Inc. community is very strong. It is this job which enabled me to meet new friends outside as well as feel a sense of belonging that I always look for each day while working. This is because we are constantly empathized with the situation of each other so as to be able to understand a crisis a person might be in. It is important to understand that at times most leaders at Apple Inc. can ask something using provoking questions aimed at provoking an individual so as to get their views.
Regardless of that, in any community, it is vital to identify what qualifies successful membership, the significance of influence, the importance of integration and fulfillment of needs, as well as the emotional connections shared by members. It is this scenario that will aid in establishing the manner in which the sense of community works within certain communities. Even though the majority of individuals are engaged in diverse organizations, if ranked effectively, these four components will benefit such a community greatly. Consequently, it is important to instill a sense of community to group members because it will aid in creating secure, loving, welcoming, and safe working environment for all individuals. Considering the group cohesiveness and the appreciation I always received from the senior management authority, I can detect and testify that the four elements of a sense of community exists in our organization.
