Getting path of parent folder of a file during a workflow execution

How can I get the parent folder/directory of a file during the execution of a workflow? I cant't find any actions i Automator that will give me this.

I want to make a general applicable automated workflow. The path can not be hardcoded in the workflow as different files and folders will be worked on each time the workflow is run.

The input to the workflow is a file or list of files. I want to be able to retrieve the path of the parent folder of these files at runtime.

Will I have to do this through AppleScript? If so, then how?

(in case you have seen my first post on this; it seems I wasn't specific enough so people didn't understand what I want to do. Therefore this second post. Sorry for the iconvenience)