Introduction to effective communication in the workplace
Effectual communication, personal and interpersonal skills are not simply significant for the development of a company yet also for the survival purpose of a business. As per Nave (2014), there needs to be a correct synchronization amongst leaders and their employees to comprehend the prerequisites of potential customers and serving them effectively. This understanding would help both managers and employees to evolve in careers with the business as well. It has been identified that effective personal, interpersonal communication and listening skills have become the fundamental aspect in every organization to successfully run the internal operations. The current report attempts to evaluate the need for personal and interpersonal communication within the ABC Company.
As mentioned in the preceding sections of the report, the researcher attempts to discuss the various aspects of personal and inter personal communications, which are briefly enumerated as below:
Business is full of uncertainties if focused on the current changing market dynamics. Therefore, it is important for both managers and employees to inculcate a problem-solving attitude and communicate accordingly to avoid conflicts. In this context, it may be worth to note that the problem solving skill is rare and effective for business and hence the same may be nurtured with due care and cautions within the workplace, in order to promote the future leaders for the firms. The learning through problem based situation may have certain advantages in terms of effectiveness to the business, understanding the impact of the event and take corrective actions, as necessary. However, problem solving skill may not be construed to be based on concrete theoretical framework and most of the time may act on the basis of real life problem scenario.
Businesses are changing its leadership styles from autocratic to participative to emphasise more on innovation and creativity. Hence, resources need to have a decision-making attitude and communicate their perception of management to retain the spirit of innovation. Decision making may be construed to be one of the most crucial aspects of inter personal communication as the same largely impacts on the success or failure of the overall organisational communication channel. The success of personal and inter personal communication skill majorly depends on the decision making skills of the participants in the communication channel. However, the management may need to evaluate the decisions undertaken by the staffs or lower level managers in the backdrop of organisational requirement. There seems to be a clear line of demarcation between decision making skill and effective decision making skill and the management may need to focus on the later aspect.
The need for personal and interpersonal communication in ABC Company
Employees of ABC Company need to square with their opinions. They need to maintain an assertive communication process with concerned people and inculcate the ability to express both positive and negative ideas with honesty (Bonaccio et al. 2016). It has been established that the assertiveness of the staffs or the resources in the organisation’s communication channel may act as a stimulator for the effective delegation of roles and responsibilities. However, it may also be noted that the assertiveness does not surpass the aggressiveness of the staffs which may result in the failure of communication hierarchy within the operations.
Sometimes, employees fail to place their opinions or negotiate with management if assigned with excessive work burden. This often leads to employee de-motivation. Therefore, negotiation communication is significant, where employees can negotiate the terms and condition with management to improve the work culture and better productivity. A good negotiation skill may benefit the organisation in terms of any deal acceptance considering its terms and conditions beneficial for the business. However, the negotiation should be a both way process and the managers may need to adhere to the same failing which the suppliers and other stakeholders may feel left out and insecure in terms of corporate goals and objectives. The managers should remember that the negotiation should result in a win-win situation.
Credibility
It is important for the internal members to have the quality of being trusted by others. This can be the effective aspects that can gain the adequate confidence of other employees or managers, which would act as a strong source to persuade and convince others through communication.
Listening
Quintanilla and Wahl (2015) determined that listening is one of the most significant aspects of communication. It is important for the employees to hear the perspectives or opinions of other person and to place their viewpoint accordingly. This creates better space for much logical and rationale discussions than arguments and conflicts.
Reciprocation
Lastly, the reciprocation approach needs to be made, where employees would have already gained the confidence of others with the ABC Company and they would be allowed to communicate their point of view without any restrictions.
In terms of personal contact, employees form a set or group with other people sharing similar interests. Herein, employees prefer or feel free to communicate in a group or within its personal networks (Hahn et al. 2016). This often creates a negative ambience, where other employees from different background are not included in any discussion and employees stay limited in terms of knowledge exposure to the network.
How problem-solving and decision-making impact organizational communication
Moreover, the grapevine is also a negative communication aspect, where employees conduct unofficial and personal communication within the workplace as an outcome of gossip or rumour. This not only humiliates resources but also degrades team spirits.
Hence, it can be identified from the above statements that effectual interpersonal communication at any organization is fundamental to a well-performing, high-functioning team. Interpersonal communication expertise had been the capability to converse significant information and supervise societal communication with other colleagues, including both the up and down lines of the business. It has been assessed that successful, sincere communication can definitely bind resources together. In case the resources are interacting with every other within the workplace, everyone seems to be making efforts towards developing a superior team (Motter & Santos, 2017). Resources who seek forward to converse with other employees are relatively motivated regarding working more in the organisation a spending good amount of time with high engagement. Effective interpersonal relationship with the leaders also plays a fundamental role. Herein, leaders tend to identify the potential and weaknesses of its resources, based on which they provide their inputs and direct them to conduct a performance with high productivity. Hence, it can be stated that good interpersonal communication certainly leads to form positive energy within a team and increases the degrees of employee loyalty (Kirilova & Angouri 2017).
Byrne (2018) determined that effective interpersonal communication is still more significant in the case of a diversified workforce. With the combination of nationalities, genders, races, commitment towards the job, it becomes simple for resources to unintentionally offend one another. In the case of encouragement, appreciation and staff review regulations are not apparent, the workers belonging to the minority group often tends to feel discriminated by the management. Strategies that evidently represents out the exact efforts organization takes to apply the rewards and consequences can definitely clear the air. Apparent guiding principles always tend to guide employees with the efforts that can be taken to treat each other and simultaneously direct them to avoid unwanted conflicts as well. Hence, interpersonal communication with the internal members definitely helps the organization to maintain transparency, which helps resources to understand and comprehend the strategies taken by management and the reasons behind it. Hence, the possibilities of employee conflicts are extremely low in this case. Moreover, it is also determined that negative interpersonal communication between employees causes a negative working environment, which affects the total atmosphere (Myers et al. 2018). The human resources department of the ABC Company needs to ensure that every manager and employee maintain a good interpersonal communication channel between them to maintain a healthy working relationship.
Conclusion
Based on the discussion and analysis cum evaluation of the personal and interpersonal communication in business context, as performed in the previous sections of the report, the researcher may derive a concluding statement, which highlights the fact that it is significant for ABC Company to identify the effective communication methods and channels and train the employees accordingly. The management of the brand shall spread awareness regarding the communication efforts employees can follow to create products with the system and avoid unnecessary negative interaction through personal networks or grapevines. Finally, it may be concluded that a successfully designed communication channel within the organisation monitored and controlled by the management may significantly contribute towards the attainment of organisational goals and objectives in most cost effective and efficient manner and thereby sustainability in the market for the long-run.
References:
Bonaccio, O’Reilly, O’Sullivan, S.L. & Chiocchio 2016, Nonverbal behaviour and communication in the workplace: A review and an agenda for research. Journal of Management, vol 42, no. 5, pp.1044-1074.
Byrne, G 2018, This is a talk: a talk about workplace communication, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Hahn, White, C.R. Ventura, & Meholic 2016, An Introductory Analysis of Nonverbal Communication in the Workplace, Cambridge University Press, Melbourne.
Kirilova, M & Angouri, J 2017, Workplace communication practices and policies, In Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language (pp. 540-557), Routledge.
Motter, A.A & Santos, M 2017, The importance of communication for the maintenance of health and safety in work operations in ports, Safety science, vol 96, no. 6, pp.117-120.
Myers, Cranmer, G.A, Goldman, Z.W., Sollitto, Gillen, H.G. & Ball 2018, Differences in Information Seeking Among Organizational Peers: Perceptions of Appropriateness, Importance, and Frequency, International Journal of Business Communication, vol 55, no. 1, pp.30-43.
Nave, S 2014, Communication in the Workplace, In Routledge Handbook of Migration and Language (pp. 125-129), Routledge.
Quintanilla, K.M. & Wahl, S.T 2015, Business and professional communication: keys for workplace excellence, Sage Publications.