Why Is Effective Communication Important?

Why Is Effective Communication Important?IntroductionEffective spirtplace converse skills be among the skills we assume every worker picked up along the way. The problem is that non all the communication skills and habits we picked up at home, in school or social circles are appropriate in the workplace. whatever people would be fired immediately if they communicated in the workplace the way they do at home or among friends.Understanding how to speak, write and manage your nonverbal centres is critical to your success at work. As you will discover from a few surveys we will review, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, Human Resource Managers, and otherwise pedigree leaders rate communication skills highest among the skills needed to advance in the workplace.Written by Peter Adebi, organization development expert, leadership coach, and human resource consultant, this seminar, Achieving best Workplace Success through Effective Communication, is designed to help you acquire the skil ls you need to be an good communicator.What is Communication?Communication is simply the sending of a message to another person. The person sending the message first needs to formulate the message in his head. This involves determining the meaning that the vector intends to convey to the other person. To formulate the meaning of the message, the sender usually draws upon his background attitudes, perceptions, emotions, opinions, education, and experience.The message is then sent to the listener through both verbal talking and non-verbal gestures. The person receiving this message then interprets its meaning. To do this, the listener uses his background, attitudes, perceptions, emotions, opinions, education, and experience.Effective communication exists between two persons when the person receiving the message interprets it in the comparable way as the sender think it. Sounds really simple doesnt it? Well, it can be.Communication is essential for achieving motorcoachial and orga nisational effectiveness. Without communication, employees will not be able to aware of what their co-workers are doing, will not befuddle any idea about what their goal are, and will not be able to assess their performance. In absence of manoeuvers of communication, supervisors will not be able to give instruction to their subordinates and management will not receive the nurture it requires to develop plans and take finis.Good communication always helps employees run more involve in their work and helps them to develop a better understanding of their jobs. Clear, precise and timely communication of information also prevents the occurrence of organizational problems. Effective communication is essential for achieving organizational goals, but ensuring such communication has been a major problem for most organization.Although the word communication is often used, there has been no consensus among communication experts regarding the definition of communication. In general, commu nication whitethorn be defined as the abut by which the information is exchanged between individuals. in that respect are many comp wiznts to communication. Consider verbal communication skills, listening skills, written memorandums/email, telephvirtuoso skills and non-verbal communication. Also, reflect upon all the people we communicate to subordinates, peers, supervisors, customers, and groups of people. In addition, ponder nigh of the reasons, why we communicate to get and give information, to discipline subordinates, to make assignments, and so on.Why is Effective Communication Important?We already know that communication is a big part of our daily existence. Even when we dont want to communicate, the very actions we take not to communicate such as being quiet in meetings, avoiding people, declining to respond to emails or give feedback, communicate nearlything about us.In a survey of 480 companies and organizations conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Emplo yers and published in the Wall Street Journal, effective communication ability ranked first among the desirable person-to-person qualities of future employees. commendation December 29, 1998. Wall Street Journal, Work Week, p. A1.In a internal survey of 1000 human resource managers, oral communication skills are identified as valuable for both obtaining employment and successful job performance.reference Winsor, et al., 1997 In yet another survey, executives in Fortune 500 companies indicate that college students need better communication skills, as well as the ability to work in teams and with people from diverse backgrounds (Association Trends, 1997).The point of these examples is that honing your communication skills should be a priority for you as you seek to advance in the workplace.ResearchAlthough many articles and books have dealt with interpersonal and organizational communication, most of them are not based on systematic research findings. However, the Real Managers Stud y (conducted by Fed Luthan, Richard M. Hodgetts and Stuart A.Rosenkrantz) is based on original research in communication. The researches observe managers at work in various organizational setting and also studies the self reports submitted by them to understand the process of communication in organization. They developed the managerial communication model to explain the different style of communication used by the managers and to provide a modeling for understanding how managers communicate in organization.Henri Fayols Contribution to CommunicationIn formal organizations, the design of communication channels is based on the assumption that all the divisions and discussion sections are self contained and do not facilitate communication among employees at the same level. This poses the serious problem when circumstances demand such communication. If an individual wants to convey some message to an individual from another department, the message has to be passed up to the highest man agerial level and then down to the individual. The reply from that individual is also received in a similar way, leading to huge delays.Chester Barnards ContributionChester Barnard felt that communication played an important role in shaping organizations. According to him, Communication forms one of the three primary elements of an organization, the common goals and willingness to serve customers beings the other two elements. Communication links the number of the divisions of an organization with organizations goal and facilitates and enhances cooperative action among the individual and department of the organization. Communication whether written or oral, helps an organization attain its golas, but it can also give rise to problems. For instance, if a particular message is misinterpreted, an inappropriate decision may be taken. This decision may be taken. This decision may result in losses to the organization in long-run.Barnard related communication to the innovation of authori ty. According to him, for authority to be delegated from a manager to sub ordinate, all communication originating from the manager must be clearly understood by the subordinate. He believed that a manager should try to understand the meaning of the message before communicating it to his subordinates. Barnards indentifies seven communication factors that helps establish and maintain objectives authority in an organization.The member of an organization should be aware of all the available channels of communication.Every member of organization must have access to specific formal channel of communication.Communication with an organization must follow the shortest and most direct path.All communication should involve the use of entire, formal line of communication.Competent persons should serve as communication centers.There should be no interruption in the time of communication during the functioning of an organization, andAll communication should be authenticated.Who is Responsible for Communicating in effect?Managers share the responsibility in communicating effectively with the individual employees themselves. The manager is 100% responsible for communicating effectively with their employees.This includes establishing an open and trusting climate for communication, as well as demonstrating good communication techniques to their employees. The employee is 100% responsible for taking advantage of the climate for communication to express what is important and relevant. For example, it is expected that a manager will ask are there any questions? after giving an employee an assignment, but it is also expected that an employee will say, I have a question, if one should occur to the employee, without waiting for the manager to ask.The following communication is useful for organizational communication.Non verbal communicationDownwards communicationUpward communicationLateral communicationInteractive communicationBarriers to Effective CommunicationA number of obstacle m ay restrict the receivers understanding of a message. These interruption act as barriers to communication, which may totally prevent communication, or delete a aprt of the message, or convey the wrong meaning. Some of the barriers to effective communication are discuss below.Filtering This refers to the manipulation of information by the sender so as to obtain a favorable opinion from the receiver about the project in which there is significant draw close but does not inform him of the project that are lagging behind.Selective perception A person perceives information on the basis of his needs, values, experience and background. His personal interest and expectation influence the way he decodes information. For instances, if an interviewer believes that women give more priority to their family than their professional career, he is likely to perceive thisCharacteristics in all female applicants, regardless of whether the applicants feel that way or not.Defensiveness People intentio nally attempt to block communication when they feel that other person is threatening their self pick up and prestige. They react in a defensive manner by the making sarcastic comments, by the passing judgment on the others, ot by questioning the motives of the other party. This type of defensive behavior impedes effective communication.Language As per our first assignment, an organization has different kind of people from different cultures. In such cases vocabulary is one of the important factor for communication towards different cultural people. Because each employee may have a different meaning or pronunciation for the same word. The business units of a company operating in different geographical territories may also use terms and phrases in a unique way. Hence, the sender has to modify the style of communication depending on the people he is addressing (workers, clients or business partners).