Proposal for a New Communication Structure in an Organization

 

Proposal for a New Communication Structure in an Organization

  Thesis

Organizations and people depend on clear, concise, and correct communication skills in order to meet the companies’ established goals, their own needs, and expectations. Agarwal (2010) affirms that, effective communication in an organization assists workers to perform their jobs and responsibilities and promotes motivation by informing the employees and altering their altitudes. Such point of view was supported by Kreps (2011) who cited that, a good communication structure serves among other things, four functions within an organization: monitoring, feedback and control, motivation, emotional expression, and information exchange.

This paper outlines a proposal for a new communication structure in an organization. The paper will discuss five concepts that will help the organization succeed from the point of view of how such concepts are deemed necessary for effective communication within an organization.  The concepts that will be proposed in this paper include key principles of human communication, key relational communication skills, formal and informal communication, and leadership strategies.  These concepts would, if implemented assist the organization to achieve an effective communication.

Key Principles of Human Communication

People skills are deemed essential and necessary in all organizations. For instance, Agarwal (2010) perceives effective communication as a building block that assists in conflict resolution, listening, relationships, networking, and understanding everyone in an organization. However, in order to achieve these and other benefits associated with effective communication, the four key principles in communication must be considered whenever communicating within organizations. These include:

1. Communication is a process
2. Communication is irreversible
3. Communication is transactional
4. Communication includes both content and relationship dimensions

Communication Process

Communication refers to a process in which data is sent from a source to the intended audience with a meaning that is perceived by the receiver (Agarwal, 2010). Companies which want to grow should have a concise functioning communication process. Agarwal (2010) argues that, without proper communication process, organizations will not be able to accomplish their visions and mission. Instead, such organizations will experience frequent chaos resulting from misunderstanding within the workplace. It is only through effectively transmitting message(s) from one person to another that information and ideas can be exchanged.

Literature cites that, communication process involves five basic elements including sender (encoder), message, channel, receiver (decoder), and feedback. In order for communication to take place, there must be a clear purpose (expressed as message) (Agarwal, 2010). The message passes from the sender through some medium (channel) to the receiver or indented audience who then decodes the purpose or message that was initiated by the sender. Agarwal (2010) ascertains that, if an organization uses the communication process effectively to the later element, the process will guarantee transference of “intent” from one person to another. The communicator can use feedback to assess or check the communication process’ effectiveness.

Communication is Irreversible

Literature cites that, what people communicate and do matters (Agarwal, 2010). This is justified from the point of view that, once people communicate, the message becomes part of the relationship. The irreversibility communication principle will keep an organization aware of the importance of choosing what to communicate and where to communicate or perhaps not to communicate anything. Agarwal (2010) points that, once an individual communicates something there is no way to take the message back. Such argument is true for all communication forms including gestures, posture, and facial expressions. Therefore, this principle will educate the organization to be careful regarding what to communicate thus avoiding passing wrong messages that might harm the organization in one way or the other.

Communication is Transactional

Transactional implies that communication is an ongoing and continuously changing process (Agarwal, 2010). That is, people are changing, the people with whom they are communicating are changing, and their environment is also changing. Agarwal (2010) cites that, in any transactional process, all elements exist in relation to each other. Such relationship serves to inform the organization that, there can be no source of information without a receiver. That is, any one communicating anything within the organization should be aware that, at least there is someone who will receive information and that such message will have a particular impact within the organization (Agarwal, 2010). Moreover, this principle assists in understanding that, every person reacts to communication on the basis of aspects such prior experience, background, attitudes, self-esteem, and cultural beliefs. Therefore, considering these factors whenever communicating to employees, will guarantee positive feedback.

Communication Includes both Content and Relationship Dimensions

The content refers to what people speak or write while relationship refers to the communicator’s role with respect to the recipient (Rai & Urmila, 2009). In other words, a statement made by the organization’s Chief Executive Officer to workers yields a different result than the same statement made by a co-worker. For instance, a supervisor might tell an employee “come to my office”. In this case, the content refers to the command that the supervisor gives the employee. The supervisor should have requested “could you please go to my office”. Ideally, this communication dimension will assist the organization to understand that, message content affect the relationship within the workplace in different ways. Therefore, it advisable to choose the right message content whenever communicating.

Key Relational Communication Skills

There are a number of key relational communication skills that promote effective communication within an organization. These include but not limited to active listening, self-disclosure skills, relational needs such as affection, control, and inclusion; co-orientation, and interpersonal conflict management skills.

Active Listening

Active listening is one of the fundamental components not only for relational communication but also for effective communication. A good communication structure should train employees not only to focus fully on the speaker by actively showing verbal and non-verbal listening signs (Kandlousi, Ali, and Abdollahi, 2010). All speakers would like listeners to demonstrate active listening by responding to what they communicate. According to Agarwal (2010), appropriate response to listening should be both non-verbal and verbal. That is, it should include smile as an indication that the listener is attentive to the message. The other active listening sign is the posture. An active listener should lean slightly sideways or forward while sitting (Agarwal, 2010). Additionally, an active listener might slightly slant his head or rest the head on one hand.

Moreover, an active listener should look at the communicator. Although the eye contact might be intimidating, when combined with smiles, eye contact will encourage the communicator. The other active listening sign is a reflection of speaker’s facial expressions. Agarwal (2010) argues that, reflection show sympathy and empathy in emotional circumstances. However, attempting to consciously mimic speaker’s facial expressions might be inattention signs. Agarwal (2010) recommends that, an ideal communication structure should enable communicators to identify these and other active listening signs.

Self-Disclosure Skills

Self-disclosure refers to communication skills that involve voluntarily telling someone something about yourself thereby enabling him/her to understand you. Barker and Gower (2010) reported that, people mostly like seeing both leader’s professionalism and humanity. Information about communicator’s present state is more bonding and likely to make clients feel related than information about his skills and success. While building rapport, the communicator should be aware that, he/she is not telling the other people things that are obvious to the public, but private and confidential information. Therefore, this communication structure will train communicators how to use self-disclosure as a rapport-building technique, thereby helping them to improve their communication skills and build long term relationship not only with employees, but also with clients. That will assist the organization to increase its sales and make friends.

Relational Needs

The other relational skills that a good communication structure should outline are inclusion, control, and affection. Inclusion refers to people’s need to be recognized as important contributors in any human interaction. Kreps (2011) cites that, if inclusion feeling is a baseline condition for a good human existence, then organizations should consider the need to make a difference through control. The term control refers to people’s desire to both make difference in their social environment and to impact on what happens. On the other hand, people seek a sense of being liked. Kreps (2011) argues that, friendship and other intimate relations serve affection. This explains why the absence of relationships leads to alienation feeling that people might have from time to time. However, a good communication structure will assist an organization to mitigate alienation among employees.

Co-Orientation

Co-orientation concept is based on the idea that, two people can actually have similar perception regarding the same object. The greater the similarity (co-orientation), the more efficient will be the communication from one person to another. Studies show that, organizations are undergoing dramatic changes (Kreps, 2011). Perhaps, this is because stakeholders exert more influence on organization’s responsibility within the society. Similarly, stakeholders are likely to view such developments quite differently than organization does. Therefore, the proposed communication structure will assist in identifying the relationship between groups within the organization and assist in building a co-oriented communication structure that will ensure mutual understanding between stakeholders and organization.

Interpersonal Conflict Management Skills

The essence of effective communication skills in managing interpersonal conflict is to be found in the presence of consistency between what people think, what they say verbally, what their bodies communicate, and deeper values within their heart (Kreps, 2011). Understanding such aspects might be challenging for any organization. However, the proposed communication structure will assist this organization to understand and respond to interpersonal conflict through appropriate cultural lenses. For instance, the structure outlines various things that communicators should avoid in order to create a safe space in which to manage interpersonal conflict. First and foremost, communicators should not assume that his truth is the general truth (Kreps, 2011). This is because what is true for one person might not be true for another. Secondly, in order to ensure effective interpersonal conflict management, communicators should not insist that other people must agree with their ideas.  Thirdly, people should not unconsciously assume that anyone within an organization will perceive things the same way. Instead, it is advisable to check out other people’s concerns (Kreps, 2011). Therefore, it is justified that, the proposed communication structure will offer good tools for resolving interpersonal conflicts thereby fostering good relationship within workplace.

Formal and Informal Communication

This section will discuss the differences between formal communication and informal communication and how such differences affect the organization. The proposed communication structure suggests a balance of formal and informal communication in the organization in order to ensure effective communication. Although the two communication media have their advantages and disadvantages, an organization cannot function without either one of them. According to Agarwal (2010), hierarchical organizations use formal communication including e-mail, memos, speech, and/or meetings to inform employees of what is going on within the organization. On the other hand, informal communication is expressed through, rumors, personal note, overhead commend or gossip among employees within the organization (Agarwal, 2010). Therefore, using informal communication will assist employees to express their personal feelings such as like or dislike within the workplace.

In most cases, formal communication occurs when communicators use formal channels within the organization. According to Agarwal (2010), formal communication involves official matters which are done using specific procedures and rules established by the management. Formal communication helps in fixing responsibilities and maintaining authority relationship within an organization. However, formal communication is time consuming, cumbersome, and leads to many distortions at times (Agarwal, 2010). This justifies why organizations should balance the two communication media in the workplace.

On the other hand, informal communication arises out of communication channels that are less official and less rule driven. Agarwal (2010) cites that, informal communication is related to employees’ social needs. However, it does not follow authority lines compared formal communication. This explains why at times it is difficult to fix responsibility about information accuracy using informal communication. Nonetheless, organizations use informal channels to fortify formal communication channels. A study conducted by Agarwal (2010) show that, informal communication assists in expressing information that cannot be channeled via formal channels. Moreover, informal communication satisfies people’s desires to understand what happens in an organization thereby offering them an opportunity to express complaints, worries or dreads. Agarwal (2010) adds that, informal communication facilitates to ameliorate managerial decisions because more people are in the decision-making process. Therefore, it is justified that, organizations require both formal and informal communication since each communicates plays independent roles.

Leadership Strategies

For a leader to be effective, he/she ought to be an effective communicator. Kandlousi and Abdollahi (2010) concur with such argument and add that, an effective leader should inspire and encourage employees to aspire to succeed and believe in the organization’s goals. In most cases, if employees trust and respect their leader, they will be motivated to contribute to the organization’s success. This communication structure is based on various leadership communication strategies including verbal and verbal communication. Kandlousi and Abdollahi (2010) content that, although verbal communication is the most common form of communication within an organization, people pay less attention to words compared to non-verbal cues that accompany words. Owing to such argument, this communication structure recommends more use of non-verbal cues such as hand motions, facial expression, eye movement, and body structure. That is, leaders should strive to match their nonverbal signs to their words. This will render them more believable and trustworthy.

Leaders should also be able to adapt their communication style depending on their audience (Kandlousi & Abdollahi, 2010). This implies that, when listening to employees, leaders needs to have more directive style than whenever they are delivering a presentation to clients. Kandlousi and Abdollahi (2010) acknowledge the view that, leaders should be able to identify audience’s interests and characters. This will enable them to adjust their communication style depending on what audience needs and what will encourage them to react thereby meeting communication goals.

The other fundamental leadership communication strategy suggested in the proposed communication structure is active listening. Literature cites that, leaders should focus on both speakers’ nonverbal and verbal languages (Kandlousi & Abdollahi, 2010). Ideally, leaders should concentrate only on speaker and ignore outside interruptions such as speaker’s own wandering thoughts. Finally, leaders should be aware that, employees will always look to them as a model of how they should behave within the workplace under certain circumstances. According to Kandlousi and Abdollahi (2010), employees tend to imitate their leaders’ communication and actions. Therefore, if employees see leaders using active listening style whenever communicating to clients, they are likely to emulate them. The proposed communication structure suggests that, leaders should consider whether or not they want their employees to communicate in the same style to the same audience.

In conclusion, whenever people communicate, they transfer a particular message. However, effective communication can only be achieved via clear, concise, and correct communication skills throughout the organization. Once implemented, the proposed communication structure will facilitate effective communicate across the company via the recommended procedures and tools.

 

References

Agarwal, O.P. (2010).  Effective Communication-1.  Mumbai, IND: Global Media

Barker, R. T., & Gower, K. (2010). Strategic application of storytelling in organizations toward effective communication in a diverse world. Journal of business communication, 47(3), 295-312.

Inc.

Kandlousi, N. S. A. E., Ali, A. J., & Abdollahi, A. (2010). Organizational citizenship behavior in concern of communication satisfaction: the role of the formal and informal communication. International Journal of Business and Management, 5(10), P51.

Kreps, G.L. (2011). Communication in organizations. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education,

Rai, Urmila Rai, S.M. (2009).  Managerial Communication.  Mumbai, IND: Global Media

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