Trip report

Adapted from an assignment created by Paul Glanting

Trip Report

When you return from a business trip or conference, you’ll likely be expected to document your activities and share

what you accomplished or learned. The biggest mistake you can make here is to write it in narrative or chronological

style. Narrative style usually means you’re using a lot of “I” statements (e.g. I arrived at the tech conference at 9 am to

register and participate in a meet and great. Then, I attended the first workshop). You do not want to adopt this style of

writing. Instead , be considerate of your reader and categorize information from the audience’s perspective – by the

results you achieved, what you learned, what you observed, or the people you interacted with. Or, in our case, by

vocabulary, dress code, behavior, and values.

For this as signment, I want you to “take a trip” to a professional setting in order to observe and consider the behavioral

norms of people in it and the values they reflect . It’s important to be aware of (and probably adapt to) the behavioral

norms of one’s workplace to better serve your employ er, clients, and co -workers. Just like how the personalities of the

companies will differ, the behavioral norms (value systems, expected behavior, vocabulary) will also differ.

For example, a college classroom has its own behavioral norms , and in order to adapt and function within the classroom ,

one must manifest certain behaviors and adopt an identity kit of sorts. Perhaps most importantly, behavioral norms

form as a result of value systems or common objective. In other words, most everything, from the dre ss code to the

daily interactions that occur within the operations , is a reflection of the value system that lies beneath. Behavioral

norms will often be significantly different from each o ther. For example, the behavioral norms of a workplace will be

diff erent than th ose of a place of worship. And, even within these behavioral norms , there are sub -norms , as different

work environments contain different penalties.

This assignment will require you to do some firsthand res earch and observe (or take a trip to ) a workplace.

Your task:

To study the behavioral norms of a workplace and make inferences about the behavioral norms of this setting. You must

list the specific workplace you’re observing.

I’d like you to detail the facts of the behavioral norms of this setting. Some things you can look for:

Vocabulary – is there a set of vocabulary one would have to know to function in this setting.

Behaviors – how should people in this setting conduct themselves? What is e xpected of th ose engaging in this

setting ? Is it an easygoing environment? Is it a bit more conservative? What’s the general mode like?

Dress code – what kind of uniform (if any) would one need, in order to navigate this discourse? Is there a formal

dress -code upheld? Is it a more casual atmosphe re where formal dress would be laughed at?

Feel free to list any other observations you make about what will comprise the “identity kit” that’s needed to exist in this

setting .

For every observation, try and think about what values the observation reflec ts? What does this discourse value? How

do things like the dress -code , the vocabulary, the expected behavior reflect these values?

With regards to the last bullet point, when you make inference into what values/goals the observations represent, it

may be helpful to think about what the discourse values as a whole are . For example, if we think about a discourse like

the military, it’s likely accurate to say the discourse values discipline, uniformity, order, hierarchy, etc.

Formatting: This report should b e single spaced, include paragraph breaks between paragraphs, make effective use of

the formatting tools available to you (bold, italics, headings, etc.), and be organized in a way that is easy to read and

understand.