Effectivee Communication at Workplace

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2 IRC S INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH IN SOCIAL & MANAGEMENT SCIENCES ISSN: APRIL-JUNE2013 Dr.Ankita Goutam Associate Professor (Humanities) Technocrats group of Instituions Bhopal (M.P.) Effectivee Communication at Workplace Once a human being has arrived on this earth, communication is the largest single factor determining what kinds of relationships he makes with others and what happens to him in the world about him. Virginia Satir Effective communication can be defined as; 'Passing relevant information, in a style and form that is clearly understandable, to the right person at the right time. Abstract We are social beings gathered and filled led with the people around us, and to exist ourselves we communicate with each other.in our personal lives,we need others to share and exchange our views, solve problems,we need them for friendship,comfort,,love and security,and at workplace in order to achieve our goals and objectives. To achieve these goals we need to communicate with each other. It is the glue that holds a society together. The better we are at communication, the more effective we are at achieving our hopes and dreams (Alessandra, Hunsaker, 1993). The present study aims at investigating the diverse forms of communication particularly in English if practiced effectively will help the employees in the diverse workplace settings. Effective communication in the workplace plays a prominent role in developing long lasting rapport with the members,which will also lead to a work in progress The paper further focuses on the fact that communication in the workplace can take many forms and has a lasting effect on employee motivation. If employees feel that communication from management is effective, it can lead to feelings of job satisfaction, commitment to the organization and increased trust in the workplace. INTRODUCTION Fundamental and vital to all managerial agerial functions, communication is a means of transmitting information and making oneself understood by another or others. It is the glue that holds a society together.the ability to effectively communicate with other people is an important skill. Through communication, people reach some understanding of each other, learn to like each other, influence one another, build trust, and learn more about themselves and how people perceive eive them. People who communicate effectively know how to interact with others flexibly, skillfully, and responsibly, but without sacrificing their own needs and integrity. The ability to communicate enables people to form and maintain personal relationships. And the quality of such relationships depends on the caliber of communication between the parties (Brennan, 1974). Workplace communication skills has become the most desired aspect in organizations, wherein employees are urged to improve their spoken and listening skills, along with their body language. This article deals with improving interpersonal communication skills in the work environment. The effective tips mentioned here provide readers on how to make good verbal communication a seamless part of their work life. The importance of verbal (oral and written) communication is a major challenge for managers because they are responsible for providing information, which results in efficient and effective performance in organizations.it is the creation or exchange of thought,ideas, emotions, and understanding between sender(s) er(s) and receiver(s). It is essential to building and maintaining relationships in the workplace. Communication is considered to be the backbone of 80

3 today s multi-cultural business world.although managers spend most of their time communicating (eg. sending or receiving information), one cannot assume that meaningful communication occurs in all exchanges (Dunn, 2002). Once a memorandum, letter, fax, or has been sent, many are inclined to believe that communication has taken place. However, communication does not occur until and unless information and understanding have passed successfully between sender and the intended receiver. It is a significant part of a manager s job. In today s team-oriented workplace, the development of good interpersonal communication skillss is an important key to success. Effective communication in the workplace happens with effort, that effort must include participation and agreement between supervisors and employees because everyone has similar goals and everyone must work with the other to achieve the goals.to build the competence and commitment of employees, a professional has to communicate effectively. Through effective communication, a manager can mobilize the employees behind an organization s vision and inspire a conscious and concerted team effort to attain the vision. Effective communication demands that the parties involved in communication have a shared and clear appreciation of the various definitions and parameters about which information is being exchanged. According to Achieve Solutions Value Options (a service for managed behavioral health care), a sense of common purpose can be the key in getting along with your coworkers. If you do not understand your department s or organization s goals and objectives, ask your boss. If you and your coworkers focus on common purpose, tasks become easier and results more predictable. In the spring of 2006, the Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management surveyed human resource professionals to determine what skills are necessary for a professional to meet the needs of tomorrow s workforce. The report noted that, the five most frequently reported applied skills considered very important for any professional are : Professionalism/Work Ethic (83.4 percent), Teamwork/Collaboration (82.7 percent), Oral Communication (82.0 percent) Critical Thinking/ Problem Solving (72.7percent), and Written Communication (71.5 percent) (Casner-Lotto & Barrington,2006, p. 20). Communication skills are one of the officer s most important weapons on the street. While many hours of instruction are provided on firearms, most officers will use their firearms infrequently throughout their careers. In contrast,effective communication skills are essential on a daily basis,yet very little emphasis is placed on this important skill in most academy training (NCBI, n.d., p. 2). Employees are the organization s brain cells, and communication represents the nervous system that carries information and shared meaning to vital parts of the organizational body. Effective communication brings knowledge into the organization and disseminates it to employees who require that information. Effective communication minimizes the silos of knowledge problem that undermines an organization s potential and,in turn, allows employees to make more informed decisions about corporate actions. Effective communication is one of the most critical goals of organizations (Spillan, Mino, & Rowles, 2002). Recent research evidence suggestss that an effective manager is one who spends considerable time on staffing, motivating, and reinforcing activities (Luthans, Welsh, & Taylor, 1988). In contrast if there is an internal communication gap existed within an organization there is usually a breakdown in the way information is been sent from the sender to the receiver. A study based upon conversationss among the customer service representatives tells that if there is an internal communication gap it becomes difficult for anyone to effectively achieve goals. The customer service representative and/or unit leaders main responsibility is to relay information to the peoples with whom the organization serve. If changes are not communicated with the employees than they may risk the chance of giving the incorrect information among the colleagues. 81

4 Communication barriers can pop-ucreate misunderstanding and confusion. To be an effective communicator and to get your point across without at every stage of the communication process and have the potential to misunderstanding and confusion, your goal should be to lessen the frequency of these barriers at each stage of this process with clear, concise, accurate, well planned communications (Fowler & Manktelow, 2005). Skilled communicators are able to build rapport with coworkers and business associates, which can help to complete the project efficiently and successfully. They know whose expertise to tap when they need assistance and are adept at resolving conflicts and building consensus among team members while achieving the goal (USA Today, 2002). The skill of listening too plays an important role when we talk about "upward communication." There are many avenues through which management can send messages downward through a business organization, but there are few avenues for movement of information in the upward direction (Nichols & Stevens, 1999). Unclear communication not only results in errors and missed deadlines, but also lies at the root of many other serious workplace issues, such as low employee morale and poor job performance. Managers should invest the necessary time to ensure that project goals and instructions are free of ambiguity and foster an environment that encourages the open exchange of ideas (USA TODAY, 1999). By successfully getting your message across, you convey your thoughts and ideas effectively, if not done successfully, causing a communication breakdown and creating roadblocks that stand in the way of your goals-both personally and professionally (Fowler & Mankelow, 2005) may deteriorate the performance of both a communicator and communicate. To get through these barriers and gaps, make the performance effective in the working place some tips are suggested to help managers to bridge any communication gap were (Fortune 1994): 1. Listen actively for the subtext of people's words. 2. Persuade rather than command. 3. Target your words to your audience. 4. React to content, not to people's manner of expressing themselves. 5. Let people know that criticism is welcome. 6. Make your intentions clear before acting. 7. Assume that people take responsibility for what they say. It is very much necessary to get your message across successfully, as/since it leads to progressing. To do this, you must understand what your message is, what audience you are sending it to and how it will be perceived. You must also weigh-in the circumstances your communications, such as situational and cultural context (Fowler & Mankelow, 2005).Consistent inattention to communication, its functions and malfunctions, hampers the efficiency and profitability of organizations and stifles the development of those who inhabit them. As long as we ignore, rationalize, or deny our failures as communicators, for that long will we shrink from responsibility rather than grow toward our intellectual, emotional and contributive potential. (Breman, 1974).) Conclusion Communication is the glue that holds a society together because it is important in every aspect of our lives. In order for any relationship to work properly we have to learn to communicate effectively with each other. The importance of communication hasn't changed from the time in which John Brennan wrote The Conscious Communicator in 1974 to the time Shel Holtz wrote Corporate Conversations in The fact still remains that in order for any business whether entrepreneur, partnerships or corporate offices or academics to succeed we have to communicate with someone to voice our ideas. In our working environment, we need each other in order to achieve our goals and objectives. It is a selfperformance, as real evident fact that workplace communication plays a vital role in employee motivation and changes are taking place in modern organizations which confront the new reality of tighter staffing, increased workloads, longer hours and a greater emphasis on performance, risk-taking and flexibility. Employee communications have a crucial role to play in the management effort to reorient employees perplexed by changes, or inform and motivate those who adapt more readily. Within this general need to communicate there 82

5 exists the specialized requirement for effective communication as an outcome of managing an organization s employee relations. None of these goals can be achieved without communication as it is the heart of the business, is the most important of all entrepreneurial skills. The destiny of the business depends on the quality of your relationships. Your ability to transmit information helps both clients and employees feel they can communicate with and ultimately trust you (Black Enterprise, Charles, 1998, pg 116). The literature review tells about the importance of internal communication.it provided the researcher with background information on the different ways and the different styles of communication. Needless to say, facewithin organizations. to-face communication seemed to remain the number one style of communicating Research has also found that a lack of communication within an organization can decreasee productivity, lower moral and be the cause of other serious workplace issues. The development of a strategic internal communication strategy and its implementation can provide a number of benefits to organizations, such as keeping employees motivated and engaged, and sharing clear, consistent messages with employees in a timely manner (Black Enterprise, Clemons, pg 46). Today s organizations are run by multi and cross-functional teams which show little tolerance for unquestioned authority. To deal with this situation, the art of persuasion and the effort to find the correct emotional match with your audience is necessary. This match means that it is not enough for communication to be a one-way ticket (Torrington and Hall 1991). There has to be downward and upward communication. Effective downward communication allows decisions taken by the management of the organization to be converted into action by employees, also boosts teamwork, trust, better relations, productivity and fewer chances of rumors and miscommunication. Furthermore, it allows for a consistency of action, and it may stimulate a greater commitmentt on the part of employees. Upward communication helps managers to understand both business and personal issues that affect employees. In addition, creative suggestions from employees help management in decision making and improvement of the organization. REFERENCES [1] Alessandra, T & Hunsaker, P. (1993). Communication at Work. Fireside, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY. [2] Brennan, J. (1 974). The Conscious Communicator; making communication work in the workplace. Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. Reading, MA [3] Charles, K. (1998). Peak Performance the art of Communication. [Electronic version]. Black Enterprise. August 1998, pl17(1) [4] Clernons, J. (2003). Avoiding a communication breakdown: keeping employees informed benefits business. [Electronic version]. Black Enterprise, Sept 2003 v34 i2 p46 [5] D'Aprix, R. (1996). Communicating for Change: connecting the workplace with the marketplace. Jossey-Bass Publishers. San Francisco, CA. [6] Fink, A & Kosecoff, J. (1 998). How to Conduct Surveys a Step by Step Guide. Sage Publications, Thousand Oaks. [7] Galvin, R. (1996). Communication: the lever of effectiveness and productivity. (Managing Innovation). [Electronic version]. Daedalus. Spring 1996 v125 n2 p137(10). [8] Holtz, S. (2004), Corporate Conversations:a guide to crafting effective and appropriate internal communications. Arnacom, New York, NY. [9] Nucifora, A. (2003). Employees are customers too. The Business Journal. Retrieved June 19,2005 from EbscoHost. [10] MSN Encarta Premium (2005). Retrieved May 2005 from MsnEncarta Premium Magazine Center (2005). Communicating well on the Job[Electronic version]. USA Today. November v i260 p 9(1). RetrievedMay 2005 from [11] MsnEncarta Premium Magazine Center (2005). Poor Communication Stifles Productivity [Electronic version]. USA Today. September v128 i2652 p9. Retrieved May 2005 from http: [12] Salant, P & Dillman, D (1994). How to Conduct your own Survey. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York, NY. [13] Schonfeld, E. (1994). Communication goes flat. Fortune. September 5, 1994 v130 n5 p16(1). [14] Surveyconsole. (2005). Retrieved May 2005, from [15] Tannen, D. (1994). Talking from 9 to 5: how women 's and men 's conversational styles affect who gets heard, who gets credit, and what gets done at work. W. Morrow 83