Free «Relationship between Group Mechanisms» Essay Sample

Introduction

Communication plays a vital role for strong business relationships. Managerial communication is an important aspect in every organization that defines the success in achieving its goals. In order to achieve the goals and aims of the organization, communication stands as an integral part that cannot be undervalued. It is a function which supports managers to communicate among themselves and with their employees within the organization. This paper explores how managerial communication affects the relationship between group mechanisms such as teams and company’s performance.

The effectiveness of a team is usually enhanced by the presence of a manager to keep the members motivated in the process of achieving their goals. Any team will not be in a position of achieving its objectives in case of poor management (Kottler & Englar-Carlson, 2010). Nevertheless, it does not mean that the suggestions made by others are useless. Manager must always be in a position of accepting constructive ideas of other team members.

Types of Managerial Communication

There are two types of managerial communication: interpersonal and organizational. Interpersonal type usually takes place between two or more individuals at the workplace, while organizational one exists at its different levels.

Organizational communication is divided into formal and informal types. Formal communication follows a hierarchy at the workplace or communication between personnel to get work done. Informal communication has nothing mutual with the hierarchy levels or designation of individuals; it just means a communication to know what is happening around.

A successful manager needs to communicate efficiently with his subordinates, expressing views clearly for the team members. He or she must give tasks, conduct meetings, and generally communicate ideas to others. The following two ways of managerial communication include verbal and written communication.

Verbal communication means only oral use of words to connect with no written records. Thus, managers ought to choose right words and be extremely careful about their speech. Half of effective communication is skilled listening. As manager mingles with other managers, workers, and clients, he or she must listen to their recommendations or complaints and act on them. Active listening requires asking of questions and feedbacks on what one has heard, to let others know that he or she is truly interested in what they say (Flatley, Rentz, & Lentz, 2011).

It is one of the most common ways of communication. The forms of it include seminars, presentations, and group discussions, but verbal communication can take place over the phone, through face to face interactions, or be addressed to a group of subordinates. A favorable impression is made by personal skills such as greeting people positively, using positive body language, and understanding cultural differences.  Positive body language, hand movements, eye contact, and smiles are important parts of successful verbal communication in achieving the desired impact.

Written communication is done through letters, emails, notices, reports, manuals, and other written records. Email is one of the most dependable modes of communication with juniors, as one can return to previous emails anytime in the future.  Notices must be displayed on the main notice board of the company, including pertinent dates and relevant information for everyone to read. Managers must be able to write clearly, precisely, and correctly. That is why written skills are essential for managerial potential (Moshiri, 2010).

Communication flow has two directions: upward and downward. Upward communication takes place in sharing information from employees to managers about job responsibilities, nature of work, and general views on the organizational processes. Downward communication is an inverse procedure, when information moves from managers to their subordinates in the form of various tasks, orders, and directions (Levi, 2011).

Managerial Communication Model

People in the business environment should develop a communication network since workers cannot reach success on their own. Communication network is depicted in a model of the communication process that makes its concept clear and easy to understand.

Information is passed through from the sender to the receiver. Group communication involves the transfer of information among members and also the co-construction of meanings that will enhance or bedevil the group. Effective communication has to provide clear and well-understood messages. Feedback is a message that overturns the procedure. It means the reply to the message that can be peripheral or interior response.

This model improves the communication process in the organization. The transmitter can be any instrument such as computers, phones or other devices. The sent and received signals depend on the method of communication. It is the simplest type of the working communication procedure, and this figure demonstrates how communication takes place in the organization.

The organization incorporates its goals and objectives, mission, vision, philosophy, values and ethics to overall practices by teaching them to its members. Language plays an important role in the process, because what and how leaders communicate with members of the organization determines the culture and behavior established in the workplace. Thus, members of the organization understand what kind of organization they are working for. Employees learn what direction the organization seeks to take. Communication could also be used to motivate and inspire employees in the organization and resolve conflicts (Laughlin, 2011).

Without doubt, communication model is useful for the organization, because it helps to transmit values to employees, motivate and inspire them, establish the direction, and contributes to conflict management.

The Importance of Managerial Communication

The reasons for the importance of managerial communication at the workplace are the following: necessity for the exchange of ideas among employees within the organization; diminution of working duplicating; need for achieving goals within the desired time frame; addressing of problems and complaints from team members to their managers; effective setting of goals and targets for managers and the whole organization. Managerial communication also plays a vital role in the time of crises, because its efficiency works as a lifeline during crisis situations and binds the staff together.

Verbal communication plays a leading role in facilitating relationships within a business. It enables leaders and management to communicate the mission, vision, goals, and objectives of the organization to various departments, such as information technology, human resources, logistics, etc. at different levels. Furthermore, managers utilize verbal communication to steer the organization in the right direction through oral guidance: giving orders to employees, making requests, discussing the agenda and concerns of the organization during meetings, giving praises and acknowledgements to employees (Moshiri, 2010).

The role of verbal communication within the organization also contributes to strengthening its foundations, because communication encourages relationships, camaraderie, and collaboration among individuals in the work place. Essentially, people in the organization get to know each other through verbal communication. Thus, verbal communication develops healthy relationships in the organization, while, at the same time, it serves as a tool of preventing or mending conflicts between its members. The important role of verbal communication within the organization is best observed in handling conflicts between individuals. Conflict resolution is handled through open face-to-face communication mediated by a representative from human resource department. Through verbal communication misunderstandings are resolved between the members of the organization (Flatley, Rentz & Lentz, 2011).

Verbal communication is also beneficial in dealing with people outside the organization, which is best observed in organization’s public relations practices. The organization’s reputation and accountability could both be established through external verbal communication. For instance, the way in which the organization handles press releases and conferences will reflect on its image and reputation. Another case of its importance is how customer service representatives communicate with consumers. Consumer loyalty depends on the ability of representatives to deal with consumer concerns through oral communication.

On the other hand, organizations could also rely on written communication, which could be advantageous in various circumstances. Written communication is useful, because it saves time. For instance, leaving a note in someone’s office could save time, because, instead of waiting for the person to arrive and communicate with them verbally, people could leave those notes and go back to doing their other tasks. Written communication means are also practical, when one needs to communicate with many people. It saves time and effort, too (Moshiri, 2010).

Long pieces of information should be communicated using written reports to ensure that every valuable piece is included in the manuscript. Besides, it would serve as a reference for those, who need the information instead of putting complicated pieces to memory. Generally, written communication is practical, because it saves time and can be used for communicating with a large audience, using large pieces of information, facts and figures as references (financial reports, annual reports, etc.) (Guffey & Nagle, 2000).

Effective communication means healthy discussions for quicker and better results. All individuals work as one team, and there is a proper delegation of responsibilities among team members. The result of effective communication is felling of secure between employees and a sense of ownership towards organization.

Tips for Effective Managerial Communication

Researchers emphasize on the following tips for effective managerial communication: interaction with the team members on a regular basis; promotion of morning meeting at the place of work; development of listening and writing skills; work in the team.

Morning meetings help to cooperate with team members on an open stage and plan all working day. Conference room, meeting area or any noise free zone should be chosen for communication. Working in isolation has a bad influence on the communication process between employees and superiors. That is why workers must work together as well as report their managers to keep them informed of the latest progresses at the workplace (Guffey & Nagle, 2000).

Required Skills for Effective Managerial Communication

Good manager must possess certain skills for effective managerial communication that consist of body language and overall personality of the manager, appropriate and presentable dressing, facial expressions and gestures, honesty, relevant speech, concentration, and self-confidence (Kottler & Englar-Carlson, 2010).

In the context of change, electronic communication prevails, but face-to-face communication is favorable for sensitive issues. Managers have to express their views in a positive way that keeps the mind in the right state of balance and opens resolutions to the problems. Quarreling and shouting leads to no solution and makes the situation worse than it has been. Thus, successful manager must be positive, never lose his temper and take care of pitch and tone. Speech must be convincing and confident for its awareness. It is necessary for managers to be well - dressed. There are also language skills such as recognizing positive and negative statements and interpreting body language.

Barriers to Effective Managerial Communication

There are specific barriers to effective managerial communication: physical, perceptual, emotional, cultural, language, gender, and interpersonal.

Physical barriers may be comprised of marked boundaries, closed office doors or screen separating persons of different status, large or isolated working areas. Perceptual barriers are related to different worldview of people, which may interfere with communication. Emotional barriers are seriously prejudiced by fears, mistrust and suspicion. The period of getting used to varied cultures shared in the organization may hinder communication. As a result, there can be also language barriers. Gender barriers are mostly affected by speech pattern differences between the two genders. Interpersonal barriers may arise, when a person distances himself from others due to personal reasons (Seagal & Jaffe, 2008).

The major barriers to active managerial communication are workplace politics and partiality. It is severely unprofessional for the manager to be partial to any of his team members. The skilled manager should speak to all team members, and each employee must be preserved as one. The lack of communication creates misunderstandings and problems at the workplace, because employees feel ignored (Flatley, Rentz, & Lentz, 2011).

The responsible manager must also stay away from nasty politics, which increases the stressing situations. Managerial communication is improved by patient listening and careful speeches. Noise is one of the biggest barriers to operative communication. Hence, manager ought to be neither too soft nor too loud for effective managerial communication.

There is also a need for conference or board rooms, where employees can communicate successfully without any disturbances. Sharing information at all levels is crucial for effective managerial communication, too.

Role of Managerial Communication

Effective managerial communication plays the pivotal role in completing tasks, knowledge sharing, discussing different ideas, evaluating all pros and cons of strategies. Managers have to suggest with their team members before implementing a new policy. They must communicate to make subordinates clear about what is expected from them by determining their key responsibility areas.

Effective managerial communication also leads to transparency among team members and their motivation. Poles and responsibilities are delegated.  Communication on a regular basis develops a sense of loyalty towards work and organization among team members. It helps to sort out differences in a positive and healthy method (Guffey & Nagle, 2000).

Verbal communication facilitates knowledge sharing and development of the organization. It is true that information and knowledge could be shared and established through written means as well as verbal ones. As a consequence, the organization can develop ideas that will be an immense advantage for the business (Moshiri, 2010).

Communication between business people also leads to improved social relationships; communication is the language of relationships. Nowadays, work environment lacks the skills and knowledge to communicate effectively in order to achieve the business goals. The businesses may have all the data and statistics from outside supplies, but the information that their managers and colleagues have is poorly shared or rather remains unspoken. Furthermore, the manner in which people communicate can essentially be the center of bad communication in the place of work. Preferably, people must converse clearly, at a peaceful rate, using a sensible language, and with an appealing attitude. Bad communication is a significant concern to deal with in the place of work, although it may not entirely be simple (Levi, 2011).

The essential role of managerial communication during critical and crisis situations must be mentioned, as it gives a sense of security to the employees. Thus, it is vital in stress management.

Improving Managerial Communication

The first way for improving managerial communication at the workplace is true knowledge of team members by their leaders. The manager must remember all names of subordinates, find out whether they understand their responsibilities and roles as well as messages from the manager. Improving listening skills will automatically develop communication skills, because a patient listener is always a good communicator. Employees should patiently listen to their managers (Laughlin, 2011).

Communication with team members on a common platform and expressing thoughts in the positive way are significant for the organization. These personal effects can reduce misunderstandings, conflicts, and problems. Finally, not all places are suitable for communication. Therefore, the manager must know where to communicate and give instructions.

Conclusion

Managerial communication is the lifeline for every organization. It determines its success and future growth. The effectiveness of any organization is dependent on how close members work together. A personnel needs to communicate with each other and representatives of other levels of hierarchy for the fulfillment of job responsibilities and maintenance of respectable relationships at the workplace. Problems disappear, when they are discussed, and new ideas and strategies are applied. Managerial communication is essential not only for mutual understanding, but also for increased productivity in the organization, its effective work and results.

In a group, lines of communication must be open to everyone. Ideally, every member of the group must talk to, listen to and give feedback to everyone else in the group for providing reliable communication. Through communication model, one can easily understand the whole process of communication in the organization.

Nonverbal communication, like in personal conversation, usually leads to the establishment of the understanding. Having the understanding is crucial for establishing strong business relations with customers and colleagues. First impressions can affect a business deal. Benefits of knowledge of nonverbal communication in a business setting are unlimited. Therefore, a business management needs to train all its employees on communication.

Communication is important for upholding a dynamic place of work. Harmful consequences of poor communication in the place of work can be conflicts, poor morale, and negative organizational structure. Furthermore, bad communication can create a negative working environment. Bad communication negatively impacts a business and reduces productivity, while excellent communication greatly improves the chances for business success of its teams as well as all company performance.