Slides prepared for my UHS 2062 UTM, Skudai, Malaysia students, based on the references given. These slides are just as guidelines to initiate further readings.
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Communication in an organization UHS 2062 LECTURES at UTM Skudai. Prepared by Siti Rokiah Siwok, August 2009 [email protected]
Transcript
1. Communication in an organization
UHS 2062 LECTURES at UTM Skudai.
Prepared by SitiRokiahSiwok, August 2009 [email protected]
2. Let me begin with a question:
What do you want in life?
3. What do you want in life?
4. Consider this : Some facts of life
Whatever you want to achieve in life..communication is VITAL to
achieve what you want to achieve.
Happiness is will not be meaningful if you have nobody to share
your feelings with.
Business is about your ability to market your ideas and convincing
the other party to agree with you.
How much you learn depends on how much you listen and interact with
the people who teach you.
Your ability to change for the better depends how much you know
about yourself..this take intra personal communication.
5. ..and this too.
Medical researchers identified that a whole range of health threats
can result from the lack of close relationships:
A lack of social relationships jeopardizes physical wellbeing to a
degree similar to cigarette smoking, high blood pressure etc
Socially isolated people are 2-3 times more likely to die earlier
than those with strong social ties ( marriage, friendship,
religious and community ties all seem to increase longevity).
Poor communication can contribute to coronary heart
disease
6. Do you know that..?
Communication is the way for us to survive?
As our sense of identity comes from the way we interact with people
around us.
Deprived of communication, there will be no sense of
identity.
The case of the The wild boy of Aveyron
7. Communication : A social need
We communicate for :
Pleasure (to have fun, to have a good time etc)
Affection (to help others , to let others know that I care
etc)
Inclusion ( because I need somebody to talk to.. etc)
Relaxing ( helps me to unwind/feel less stressful..)
Fulfilling a need ( I want it to be done today .)
Fulfillment of a practical goals( I need a hair
cut!....)
8. Organizational Communication
One of the main characteristics of effective employers and
employees is to be able to communicate effectively.
Ideas, visions, knowledge, opinions or complains will not get
anywhere without communicating them to relevant others.
9. Organizational Communication
Organizational communication may be classified into four
types:
Upward communication
Downward communication
Business communication
Informal communication
10. Upward communication(UC)
UC is the communication of subordinates (lower levels ) to
superiors or of employees to managers(upper levels).
The ideal practice is for employees to speak directly to the
management with an open door policy .
Quality of UC contributes to employees satisfaction.
However, it is not be practical if every employee communicates with
the manager for several reasons such as : the volume that reaches
the management & employees feel threatened by
managers.
11. Serial communication
In situations when open door policy is not possible, serial
communication is adopted, in which message is relayed from an
employee to the superiors ( according to hierarchy) until the
message reaches the top.
12. Serial communication
Disadvantages of serial communication:
The message (content and tone) changes as it moves from person to
person.
Bad news and complaints are seldom conveyed, partly due to the
stress associated with delivering the bad news (McKee &Ptacek,
2001, in Aamodt, 2007). The reluctance to convey bad news is called
MUM (minimize unpleasant message ) effect { Rosen & Tesser,
1970 in Aamodt, 2007}.
Effectiveness of the communication depends on the physical
proximity of the sender and the receiver, especially with informal
communication channels. However, proximity does not play a role if
the message is being communicated electronically such as the e-mail
( Valacich, Parantia, George &Nunamaker, 1993 in Aamodt,
2007)
13. Serial communication
The MUM effect affects the organization as important information is
being kept from the upper levels.
For the employees , the MUM effect is a form of survival, i.e
nobody has to be the bad news bearer (the one who communicates the
bad news to the management).
14. Facilitating Upward communication
To overcome the disadvantages of serial communication, several
methods are utilised:
Surveys
Focus groups
Exit Interviews
Suggestion boxes
Third party Facilitators
15. Surveys
Surveys are usually conducted annually by an outside consultant who
administers questionnaires, asking employees to rate their opinions
on factors such as: pay, working conditions, supervisors etc
Surveys also give opportunity to employees to give suggestions and
to list complaints.
The consultant then analyse the responses and then report to the
management.
Results of the surveys are use to create the action plans for the
coming year (Robb ,2004 in Aamodt 2007).
16. Surveys
Surveys are only useful if the results are being taken seriously by
the management.
Some organization share the result of the survey with their
employees, as an act to increase trust .
17. Focus groups
Focus groups are group interviews (Morgan, 1998).
A focus is a qualitative research method with a widespread use in
various applicative fields (such as market research or NGOs
research), and a fairly moderated use in social sciences (mainly
sociology and psychology) (Barbour, 1995; Baban, 2002; Boan, 2006;
Goldman & MacDonald, 1987; Greenbaum, 1988; Howard, Hubelbank,
& Moore, 1989; Powell & Single, 1996).
The responses obtained from the focus group is the then passed on
to the management, without telling the names of employs who
participated in the focus groups.
18. Exit Interviews
Exit interviews are interviews done with employees voluntarily
leaving the organization .
It is an excellent source of information as the real reason/s will
be revealed.
19. Suggestion boxes
Suggestion or complaints boxes is another method to facilitate UC.
(or the toll free numbers ).
The greatest advantage of the suggestion or complaints boxes is
that employees can immediately communicate their feelings
anonymously.
Suggestion and complaints boxes work equally well with
customers.
For the boxes to be beneficial, management must respond to the
suggestions and complaints in a timely manner.
20. Suggestion boxes
One way to respond to the suggestions or complains is to place the
suggestions and complaints on the bulletin board or to post them on
the organizations intranet along with the managements
responses.
Some organizations take suggestions seriously and reward employees
who give useful ideas such as money-saving ideas or cost saving
ideas.
21. Third party Facilitators
The use of third party facilitators, such as liaison and
ombudsperson ,is another way to facilitate UC.
A third party facilitator takes the complaints and suggestions of
the employees and personally work with the management to find
solutions .
The advantage of this method is the neutrality of the ombudsperson
, who works for a solution acceptable to both the employees and the
management (Hirshman, 2003 in Aamodt, 2007)
22. Downward communication(DC)
DC is the communication from superior or management to
employees.
DC considered a major method in organizational communication to
keep employees informed and to convey vital information crucial for
the employs to perform their jobs.
23. Methods in downward communication
Bulletin boards (electronic and non-electronic)
Policy manuals
Newsletters
Intranets
24. Bulletin Board
A method in DC .
The main use is to communicate non-work related opportunities such
as scholarship , optional meetings and items for sale.
It is not an appropriate place for important information such as
change of policy or procedures.
Advantage: low cost and wide exposure to employees and visitors,
especially placed at strategic places .
There is also electronic bulletin boards called networks
.
25. Policy Manuals
Policy Manuals is the place for posting important changes in policy
or procedure.
The Policy Manual contains the rules employees must operate;
written in highly technical language, although they should be
written less technical so that employees feel encouraged to
read.
The contents of the policy manuals are binding contracts by courts;
thus must be updated each time policy changes. This is usually done
by sending updated pages to employees so that they can replace the
old ones with the new pages.
26. Policy Manuals
Policy manuals are usually hundreds of pages long and so many
employees do not want to read them.
To reduce length problems, most organizations have two types of
company manual: (1) A policy manual (very specific and lengthy,
containing all the rules and policies under which the organization
operates) (2) The employee handbook (shorter and contains only the
most essential policies and rules, as well as general summaries of
less important rules)
27. Newsletter
Newsletter s are designed to bolster employees morale by discussing
happy or innocous events such as birthdays, births and ballgame
scores.
A good source of information for celebrating employee successes,
providing feedback of how well the organization is doing ,
introducing new employees and to remind employees of organizational
changes .
Newsletter can be printed or electronic (sent through email or
intranet).
28. Intranet
Many organizations are using intranets to replace bulletin boards,
newsletter and company manuals .
Intranets are organization-wide versions of internet.
One of the most useful aspects of intranets is the speed , besides
its 24-hour availability , paperless and savings on postage and
printing.
Intranets are common resources for : online employee handbooks,
FAQs, activity calendars etc
29. Business Communication
This is the communication which relates to the business related
information among employees, management and customers.
Methods include:
Memos
Telephone calls and faxes
Email and voice mail
Each method has its advantages and disadvantages
30. Informal communication
Informal communication happens everywhere including the workplace
.
Often, informal communication is transmitted through grapevine, a
term which can be traced back to the Civil War.
Informal communication provides information, power and
entertainment.
Most people consider contents in informal communication to be
inaccurate or distorted, research shows that it contains a great
deal of truth.
31. The process of communication
Communication is a process
Examples of models:
Linear
Interactional
Transactional
Communication is not something that we do to others but do WITH
them.
32. Communication is mutually influencing one another