Business Communication
Introduction/Thesis statement
Industrial growth is an enhanced process, which retails around clear and effective communication processes. Employees’ performance revolves around teamwork, which can only be possible if their communications are distinct, clearly defined and follows certain norms. With instances of constant changes in technological processes, every company looks forward to establishing proper communication links within organization departments while maintain good information flow between employees and managers.
Management communication is one of the managerial roles that consider the use of proper language in business environments to develop workable relationships through enhanced interpersonal and intrapersonal roles (Akinchan, 2012). Communication management is always core and is regulated through communication norms otherwise known as rules of language with an intention to develop a base for industrial growth and better performance among employees. In general, good language and maintained business ethics combine production efforts of different categories of company stakeholders who in this case might be employees, consumers of the company’s goods and services, investors, governments or the entire community (Akinchan, 2012). In management communication, process managers must be in a position to identify key objectives of good language, understand some of the theories and principles in management communication and clearly define communication channels and interpersonal roles.
This research identifies significant principles or rules used in business communication and determine whether such principles are both necessary and sufficient conditions for organization success in any proposed production. Some of the major objectives of this study include understanding of key elements of effective communication norms in business, an integrated approach in information deliver and communication standardization through technology. In other words, strictly following rules of effective communication in various industrial sectors and some of the advantages attached will help us understand the validity of this study.
Effective communication norms in a business setting
The basic underlying factor in effective businesses communication is to avoid instances of poor presentation, vague memos and boring conversation, which are considered as waste of time. Studies reveal five rules of effective business communicator which can never be violated if the intended message is to remain informative and adaptable (Akinchan, 2012). Communications such as memorability of the message, clarity of information, brief statements, focused discussions and committed communication are vital since they help a manager, an employee or any category of stakeholder to understand what he or she intends to communicate and determine whether such communication is important to the targeted audience(Akinchan, 2012).
First rule: Be memorable
A good business communicator should be creative and innovative enough to leave an impact in the minds of the audience. The message should stick in the minds of the audience, which way the audience will be in a position to put into practice directly or indirectly some of the discussions. If the communication is forgotten immediately a person stops communicating, then the business might not have a base for growth and realization of the set objectives.
Second Rule: Be clear in your communication
The communicator must be in a position to understand his or her audience in order to create a message capable of persuading the entire target group. An individual must first know the content of the communication and, whether the communication is important for the audience. This rule allows a person to arrange his or her thoughts logically without skipping any important information. A clearly presented message has high levels of satisfactions and eliminates some of the doubts and bad perceptions employees might have concerning a production policy.
Third rule: Be Brief
A manger should be in a position to eliminate poor information and concentrate on making his or her presentation brief. In this case, an individual is supposed to give the audience enough, complete and organized information or opinion so that the audience can give their stand. While making presentation or when engaged in serious discussions, an employee or a manager should go deeper in his or her thought and include supportive information, which would help make the communication clearer and lively.
Fourth rule: Be focused
The communicator needs to explore his or her audience’s attention duration by delivering a highly comprehensive presentation. The communication should cover every little details of the business but at the same time be a coherent summery of the overall ideas.
Fifth rule: Be committed
A good business communicator should not be just a conveyor of information but should be in a position to express factual opinions that have measurable outcomes. In this case, an individual should demonstrate the value of the message by being in a position to debate the issues.
Management communication as an organization process
According to the article Management Communication: Written Channels, written communication is capable of lasting longer in the organization and will always be available for referencing. Organization management should motivate employees to communicate through written articles, memos, journals as short media messages. The result of this knowledge is for an individual to be in a position to apply some of these skills to real life situations (Lussier, 2008). A manager must understand that communication is very necessary for efficient performance in every business. Communication in business environment comes in two types. The first type is external communication in which employees and managers pass and receive information to individuals outside the business environment. The communication process proceeds between organization workers and consumers, investors or the entire community served by the organization (Andrews & Andrews, 2004). A communication manager must understand the impact any external communication will have on performance level of the organization. This call for pre-feasibility study of the eternal business environment in terms of information interception and acceptance, and observable reactions people give when they receive information for the first time (Daft, 2012). External communication is very vital in production cycle of any company since such consumers must have knowledge of the company’s products or services, the prices charged and any possible feature market shock. At the same time, company managers must keep side by side to market forces and changes in consumer demands (Rudani, 2013). Clear communication to external business environment enables a company to keep control of competitors by observing production trends or pricing policy of competing firms hence producing goods that are of higher quantity. In most cases, firms competing through price leadership apply external communication and finally design lower prices in order to attract more customers (Rudani, 2013).
Other than external type of communication, managers should be in a position to understand the role and importance of internal type of communication in the production history of the organization. Internal communication defines information delivery between employees and managers. This is communication occurring within the business environments of a particular organization. Internal communication controls every process developed within the organization and therefore must be clearly understood by every individual involved in production. At certain levels, internal communication is further divided into two aspects: interpersonal and intrapersonal communication in which case the intended message becomes complete if the receiver understands the message.
Stable production strategies underlie discussions and decision-making processes either which in most cases gain critics constructively or destructively (Akinchan, 2012). In either case of criticisms, employees and managers must lean on how to communicate their thoughts and ideas without posing instantaneous fight or emotional build up. An employee might retain high qualification when but if any of the elements of good communication is lacking in his or her involvements, the good image of professionalism is tainted. Therefore, in case of criticism, one must learn how to absorb the opposing forces without any possible damage of the existing relationships. Just as mentioned, criticisms become constructive if they result into enhanced relationships, allows industrial growth and expansion, improve quality of production and enable conflicting groups to solve problems in a more organized manner (Akinchan, 2012).
Effective communication and organization performances
In order to create a platform for formal discussions without possible fall out in ideas, managers must take their employees through elementary training on issues of discussions and problem solving through good communication (Horwitz, 2001). The impacts of effective communication are classified; as Pygmalion effect and relationship dynamisms. Pygmalion effect is defined as the corner stone of effective communication and can possibly create process dynamics. With some of the principle attached to Pygmalion effects, employees’ training on effective communication creates a foundation for a revolutionized industrial growth and outmatching performances. The general belief under Pygmalion effect is that in an organization have limited expectations on industrial results, employees‘s performance will be inclined towards limited growth (Horwitz, 2001). However, with improvement in organization expectation, effective communication will prepare employees to adjust on their performance levels thus reciprocating the organizational costs of production through exceptional results. Similarly, employees are urged to limited their provocative statements and also should understand that effective communication at workplace is the only way to solve issues rather than engaging in chaos. Such an understanding only becomes realistic is the receiver of the massage is in a position to interpret information positively even if the information is touching on personal life (Horwitz, 2001).
Under relationship dynamism, managers should initiate proper understanding between men and women within the workplace (Daft, 2012). Workers must consider gender compatibility in the work environment. In an environment where both men and women are involved, there are significant differences in interests, opinions approaches to problem solution and above all, conflicts are common phenomenon (Daft, 2012). In either case, subjecting employees to regular training enables them to develop resolution skills, which can be used in such an environment. The whole process aims at making each gender group familiar with his or her workmate through effective communication.
In the whole system, effective communication is considered to complete, systematic, timely, easy to understand and easy to adapt. Where any of the five characteristics are missing, there are chances of fallout due to misunderstanding (Daft, 2012). The discussion should be complete in the sense that the receiver of the message should build hypothetical statements. For example, instead of a manager saying, “I did not mean this project,” the message becomes complete if such a manager states, “I did not mean this project but meant this one here.”
Challenges to effective communication in an organization
In order to understand the needs for imparting employees with good communication skills, one should be familiar with some of the problems affecting effective communication. The most common barrier to effective communication is resistance to other people’s idea and inability to change individual perceptions. Some people will always remain rooted to their ideas and cannot open their mind for wider discussions (Bell & Smith, 2010). On the same note, some people cannot stand longer and compelling discussions without breaking into a fight. These are all areas to understand before involving a person in heated discussions with an objective to changing their perceptions. Managers must understand that employees are from ethnic backgrounds and culture plays a lot in shaping one’s perceptions. Another important barrier to effective communication is personal ego and interest (Bell & Smith, 2010). An employee might be resistance to particular ideas if his or her stance is directed towards some benefits. In that case, the communication process is oblique and might not be towards the intended goals. This is a challenge to the entire organization and managers must learn adequately how to deal with such cases (Bell & Smith, 2010). Communication is meant to propel industrial growth by bringing to the attention of those involved the proposed methods to be applied. However, managers should understand that not every employees with be pleased with the proposals. In various instance employees are always resistance to change and it might take time to adapt and feel part of the process.
Conclusion
In general, effective communication is built from individual ethics and exploratory business cultures. Ethics is business revolves around issues of morality and the ability of an individual to accept a right or wrong done. Ethics is deeply rooted in moral behaviors and explicitly helps one to explain his or her points illustratively without making other strain to retrieve important points in particular statements. Certain practices are considered important in industrial growth and without clear presentation, any company would not stand a better chance of proceeding with the require levels of production. Communicating financial information requires high levels of clarity, introducing a new production process needs the project manager to communicate clearly and describe every process entailed. If the financial report is unclear, mistrust usually sets in and this becomes the initial stage of business collapse (Bell & Smith, 2010). In this case, financial accountants must employ the required technologies to enhance eligibility of the report. This might take into account the use of computers and computer application, proper record keeping as proof of the report being released and use of simple and clear accounting language that can be understood by all important users of such information.
Different scholars reveal the importance of ethical decisions, which are made by both company managers, employees and the entire corporation (Bell & Smith, 2010). In the world of business, employees and company managers must always strive to remain truthful, respect the right of other workers within and outside the organization and keep the company’s production objectives in mind throughout. Every employee should be in a position to speak freely and with determination to revolutionize the performance level of other workers (Bell & Smith, 2010). On the same note, a productive company should give employees freedom to associate and communicate freely with each other, criticize some of the processes and projects. This will give project developers and process managers to be careful with the kind of proposal they present for execution.
According to the article Management Communication: Verbal and Nonverbal Channel, the most critical element in management communication is for the organization to put in place plans of training employees on the best approach to give while ensuring effective communication within the organization and outside organization (Bell & Smith, 2010). Employees must be trained to understand both the internal and external factors affecting organizational growth. Advance studies show that about 72 percent of new employees do not clearly understand areas of their involvement and must therefore undergo production orientation to familiarize with particular company requirements (Bell & Smith, 2010).
References
Akinchan, Buddhodev, Sinha (2012). Business Communication: The Mainstay of an Efficient Business. http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CCoQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fpapers.ssrn.com%2Fsol3%2Fpapers.cfm%3Fabstract_id%3D2152883&ei=zlpwU6y_EsHKOfr6gPAE&usg=AFQjCNFzbe61N46UQzI3P3pAH752Ja_DdQ&sig2=KjszKRxEZf49DIqwDDDwng&bvm=bv.66330100,d.ZWU
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