Organizational Communication

Introduction

Organizational communication is one way of receiving and sending messages and information among interconnected persons within a specific setting or environment in order to achieve common and individual goals. In addition, the organizational communication is a highly related, ethnically dependent, and, therefore, not isolated phenomenon. There are different means of transmitting information, which include face-to-face, mediated, and written channels. The organizational communication focuses mainly on building of relationships, recurrent interpersonal interactions, interested external publics, and internal organizational members. Communication occurs in a complex open system that is influenced by its external and internal environments and impacts them at the same time. Additionally, it involves messages and their flow, directions, purpose, media, and also persons and their attitudes, relationships, skills, and feelings. The organizational communication assists in accomplishing tasks connected to specific responsibilities and roles of sales, production, and services (Mumby, 2012). Again, it acclimates to variations through organizational and individual adaptation and creativity and it completes the tasks by means of the conservation of policy, regulations, which support continuous and daily operations and procedures. It helps to develop relationships through enhancement of the human messages, directed to persons within the organization. Such messages may concern their fulfillment, attitudes, satisfaction, and morale. Communication assists in coordinating, controlling, and planning the operations of the organization through management.

Organization managers should spend most of their time interacting in one way or another through meetings, memos, face-to-face discussions, letters, reports, and e-mails. However, most of the employees regard communication as one of the important sections of their work; particularly, the service workers outnumber research and production workers altogether. The production processes highlight superior teamwork and collaboration among employees in different practice groups. In addition, a sea-change in communication skills has led to the transformation of both the organization and work structure. Therefore, communication technologies and practices are more important in all organizations, though, they are possibly more significant in knowledge-intensive sectors and organizations, which are of great importance to public science and science organization management. The organization should ensure communication is carried out effectively and efficiently in order to achieve its objectives and employ different communication concepts.

Concepts of Communication

Active Listening

This concept approaches the organizational problems, which occur due to normal day-to-day procedures of any undertaken activity. In an organization, active listening is achieved even without spending long sessions listening to complaints, personal, or otherwise. The effectiveness of active listening is achieved by affirming it from the ground, as a result of simple attitudes of the operator. The organization should not use it as a technique unless its essential attitudes are in conflict with its key concepts.

Active listening is important in an organization since it enhances changes in people, though, there is a common notion that listening is one of the passive approaches. The research and clinical evidence have clearly demonstrated that the sensitivity of listening is the most effective mediator for group development and individual personality change. Also, it is listening that has led to changes in individual attitudes toward others and themselves and brought differences in their personal philosophy and basic values. Those people who spend their time listening are able to understand new issues and can mature emotionally. Again, they are less defensive more exposed to their experiences, less authoritarian, and more democratic. Active listening enables people to be sensitive since they tend to make listening clear and listen to themselves with care, thus develop thinking and feeling. Those members belonging to a group tend to listen more to each other in order to be less argumentative and get ready to integrate other points, which are under consideration.

Active listening has promoted the reduction of threats that occurred when employees criticized ideas of each another and made them feel better due to worthwhile contributions. Moreover, listening enhances development of detailed information, builds deep understanding, alters listener's attitudes, and creates positive relationships in an organization, thus, listening is a growing experience of the listeners (Wager, Castle Bell, Minei, & Robinson, 2014). The active-listening approach is implemented in an organization by ensuring that its environment does not present a threat to the employees and management. The organization should create a moralizing, critical, or evaluative climate. There should be an atmosphere of freedom, and equality, warmth, understanding, permissiveness, and acceptance. As a matter of fact, in this climate an individual feels safe and is able to incorporate new values and experiences into a communication concept of the organization.

The organization can achieve active listening by means of developing a constructive behavior. However, there is an attitude that should enable the speaker to wait when he/she feels they might not be understood. The organization managers should be consistent listeners with deep understanding since they are likely to be listened to by other employees. The organization should ensure its employees are potential listeners who will be ready to welcome new ideas. This is achieved with the help of the organizational managers who are great active listeners respectively and have understanding that makes other employees hear and understand them. In active listening, everyone should have sincere interest in the speaker in order to be effective.

Organization Culture

This communication concept was initially derived from a metaphor of the organization, which is considered as something cultivated. According to different practitioners and academic research in the past decade, communication is as a climate, which is practical and should be developed by the organization within its environment in order to promote beliefs and values, and handle people. Organization leaders should develop and control its culture as the leaders' unique talent is to determine their ability to understand and control its environment. So, they have an ultimate act to destroy a culture if it is dysfunctional. The organization is identified by its culture, which includes the legends, language, meanings, rituals, norms, beliefs, and values because they give the picture of how organizational activities are done. The organizational culture displays what had been worked on and what had been good in the past because these practices are always accepted by long serving members without any question. The organization should ensure that its new employees learn its legends because they belong to it and are part of organizational activities.

The organization should develop a norm, which is an expected behavior that determines the patterns within the organization's environment. The norm is important because it is the intriguing aspect of culture that points the employees to phenomena, which is below the surface and is powerful, though not visible and unconscious to a certain degree (Bellot, 2011). Culture is important since it groups different characters and personalities within an organization and creates a norm that will promote certain behavior within its environment. Culture is achieved through examination of the organizational competing demands, such as their external and internal environments, flexibility, and control. In addition, such conflicting demands create the two axes of the rival value model. On the one hand, those organizations focusing on internal environment should emphasize the information management, integration, and communication. On the other hand, those focusing on external environment should stress growth, interaction with external environment, and acquisition of resources. As for the organizations focusing on flexibility, they should promote spontaneity and adaptability, while those interested in control are advised to concentrate on cohesion and stability. Therefore, the combination of these organizations should come up with organizational culture, which is shown in their theoretical analyses.

The internal process model includes a control or internal focus, whereby the communication and information management are utilized for achieving control and stability. This model is also called a ‘hierarchical culture’ since it comprises the enforcement of attention, rules, and conformity to technical matters. The internal process model always reflects the customary theoretical model of public administration and bureaucracy, which depends on the procedures and formal rules as control mechanisms. The open system method comprises the focus on external flexibility where adaptability and readiness are utilized to enhance the achievement of external support, growth, and acquisition of resources. This model has been called developmental culture because it is connected with innovative leadership that has vision and concentrates on the external environment.

The Key Principles of Human Communication

Human communication entails receiving and sending of non-verbal and verbal messages between at least two people. The essential principles of human communication are to study some of the popular factors, though, there is an erroneous beliefs concerning communication. The organization should make certain it understands the existing myths and the reasons they are untrue in order to help eradicate the likely barriers and pave the way for more efficient and effective learning that regards communication. Furthermore, it should be sure it communicates a lot in order to improve its communication as practice makes perfect. The practice may aid the organization to make its communication perfect if it practices right habits. The inability to get rid of a bad habit might lead to decline and ineffectiveness. It is significant for an organization to practice and learn effective principles. If two persons are closely related, none should explicitly communicate wants and needs, and each should be aware of this. It is assumed that this problem is at the root of several interpersonal difficulties (Rodriguez, Khosla, Say, & Temmerman, 2014). The employees must be aware that group or interpersonal conflict is a reliable sign of the fact that the group or relationship is in trouble. Since, there is an inevitable conflict in groups and relationships. An effective management of conflict can lead to actual benefits for the relationship and the individuals. Leaders are not made but born, while good communication skills are learned. Leadership abilities are developed through human communication principles, group leadership, and unique group communication. Self-presentation skills will enable the organization to present itself as confident, approachable, likable, and credible. In addition, negative qualities are mainly displayed through communication skills. Friendship is based on relationship skills and can enable a person to enter a good relationship, interact with organization members, and work with colleagues. The necessary skills involve maintaining, repairing, initiating, and dissolving associations of all kinds. Interviewing skills enable the organization to interact in order to gain information and to present it successfully to get the job it wants, and participate effectively in a diversity of other interview types. Leadership skills and group interactions will help the organization effectively participate in task group and in a relationship, such as informative, brainstorming, and problem solving. The organization will be able to manage fear through public presentation and speaking. With the help of this skill, it is possible to communicate information to both large and small audience, and influence their behaviors and attitudes.

Leadership Strategies

Leadership strategy offers the roadmap for the creation of leadership culture and talent. The organization with skilled leaders, who undertake business strategy, is likely to success. However, it should precisely define and understand leadership culture based on the collective actions of informal and formal leaders acting together to influence its success. The organization should adopt changes even if it has all the leadership positions on its charts. It helps to implement strategies, support innovation, adopt changes, and address the agendas. This concept will enable the organization to clearly identify the number of required leaders. Also, it identifies the important skill and works collectively and individually in order to achieve the success. It will enable the organization to identify other issues that should be considered, which includes its current talent systems, potential leadership, and support of culture. These strategies are critically analyzed according to the view on the present and future conditions.

It provides a series of references to eliminate the leadership gap between the desired future and current situations. It ensures the initiation of a comprehensive leadership strategy, which should be driven by the business strategy and specific factors taken into consideration. These factors include behavior and skills that are required for creation of desired culture and implementation of the business strategy. The collective capabilities of leaders that work together across the boundaries and in groups are important for implementation of strategies, adaptation to changes, and problem-solving. There are qualities required for more than five years and qualities that individual leaders need permanently (Lambert, 2012). The organization will implement this concept through leadership culture, which is created by its leaders. This aim can be achieved by addressing some leadership challenges encountered in the course of its operation. It is important to achieve customized solutions, based on its leadership challenges and strategic business goals. It should be considerably successful at implementing individual and organizational leadership to simultaneously address needs and integrate practices of leadership development, and promote systematic improvements in the organization.

Formal and Informal Communication

Informal communication is the process of information exchange in various places and on different social occasions including parties and community meals. The superiors should gather information from the subordinates because it is hard to make by means of formal communication. In fact, the informal communication can be established by gesticulation, smiling, moving of the head, and by remaining quiet. The superior should complain about the subordinate to higher officials through informally, for instance, in the course of their conversation. Such a form of communication is advantageous to the organization due to social relationship, which is beyond the organizational restrictions. It is possible for a superior officer to gather a lot of information through this communication channel. The organization can get information concerning individuals and the state of its work. It should scrutinize the data carefully since there are high chances of getting distortions and rumors. The channel provides quick relay of the information because there is no set directions for passing such messages. Thus, one can get reports fast and effectively, which is great for any organization. The manager can pass the message in an open environment since there is no pressure from any small or big office and the employee’s reaction is collected easily. This form of communication establishes better human relations that relieves workers' tension and enhances formal communication. It is easy to solve difficult problems since there is freedom of communication that helps. Workers' social needs are satisfied because everyone needs good relationships with senior officers in the workplace. These relationships will make employees feel free and satisfied.

Formal communication occurs in the form of news and official messages, which flow through a recognized channel of the organization. Again, the communication may take place between a subordinate and superior, a superior and subordinate or among employees who are on the same departmental level. The management should initiate formal communication since they provide clear and precise directions (Kandlousi, Ali, & Abdollahi, 2010). This form of communication is presented in writing and it takes forms of manuals, policy, procedures memorandum, reports, rule books, and official meetings. It is easy for the organization to keep records for future reference in such a way. Such a form of communication allows the flow of messages in three directions: horizontal, upward, and downward.

Downward communication enables the organization supervisors to initiate communication to subordinate staff. It is used to give directions, instructions and orders, provide influential attitudes, behaviors and information of the subordinates. These communications include practices, procedures, feedback, and job instructions. It enhances the flow of supervisors' instructions to subordinates and confirms completion of certain tasks, provides suggestions and descriptions of how the task to be completed, and to provide comments on the subordinate's performance.

Upward communication occurs between supervisors and subordinates and provides a flow of messages from the former to the latter. Again, it is used for requesting, informing, reporting, and making suggestion by the upper bodies. The organization can use it to protect and influence certain decisions or actions of the management. An organization with a well-organized communication system will get much significance from the upward compared to downward communication.

Horizontal communication takes place across different business departments and between different members of the organization who are on the same level and share power. These channels involve coordinating and informing. The organization should ensure that the channel is effective because it is significant to such business operations as problem-solving, task coordination, information sharing.

Conclusion

The organization should facilitate the communication within and around it effectively and efficiently. It will achieve this goal due to different communication concepts, which should be pursued, fully implemented, and consistently employed. Active listening is one of the important concepts in an organization that enhances changes in people who support the notion that listening is one of the passive approaches. In addition, this concept has clearly demonstrated the sensitivity of listening, which is considered as one of the most effective mediators in group development and individual personality changes that promote communication in an organization. The leaders in should possess the required skills in order to undertake the organization's strategy, which is vital to success. This direction should be precisely defined and adjusted to leadership culture, which is based on the collective actions of informal and formal leaders acting together to bring success. Besides, the organization will develop the best communication through adaptation to changes, which often occurs, and possession of all the leadership positions on its chart. It will enable it to implement strategies, support innovation, adopt change, and ensure the agendas are addressed. The essential principle of human communication is to understand some of the popular communication factors. When the organization understands the current myths and the reasons of their existence, it can eradicate the likely barriers and invent the way for more efficient and effective learning of communication.