Communication in Organization: The Strengths and Weaknesses Affected Communication Skills - Term Paper Example

Communication in Organizations Communication is the keystone for social interaction. Effective communication should have a strategic meaning; preserve the required opinion among the targeted audience in the attainment of the required goal. According to Adler, Rodman and Sevigny (2011), the four prominent areas of communication include verbal or nonverbal, interpersonal, group, and public. The foundation of communication style is anchored on the way human beings naturally think and organize information i.e. it is related to the inherent nature of human beings. The paper below discusses the strengths and weaknesses that affect one’s communication skills. The discussion will be based on personal experience and aspects requiring improvement to enhance my performance during presentations. Audience analysis will also be discussed to improve the aspects of effective presentation. The prominent weakness that characterized my earlier communicative interactions is the possession of low esteem. When addressing a group or audience, I normally became nervous due to the notion that people are more focused on my appearance rather that the information I am discussing. To some extent, this prevented me from effectively expressing and vividly arguing my points. However, I countered that problem by including enjoyable situations to divert the attention of the audience to the topic of discussion. I also possessed a weakness with non-verbal communication skills whereby my body could indicate a different answer from what I have spoken. Instead of gathering courage and confidence when conversing with friends, I used to speak unapologetically and often exhibited slumped body posture. Occasionally, this weakness caused passive-aggressive characteristic that led to use of facial expressions that could not express how I felt inside. For instance, I could laugh out of anger or pretend to be cooperative when the genuine motive was to annoy others. I focus on improving non-verbal communication skills because it is as crucial as verbal. My body expressions should not portray a different message from that being discussed verbally. My experience has taught me that ineffective verbal or interpersonal communication skills leads to a feeling of being alienated, depressed, confused, resentful and unable to mature or progress. This is because a person cannot vividly express his or her problems. Most of the attempts in addressing such issues were rendered oblivious because of the resentment I possessed towards any solution. The poor performance that characterized my earlier education levels is a product of ineffective interpersonal communication skills. My past presentations were dominated by surmountable annoyances and grievances that I could not identify their build up. However, in having interacted with different groups of people, I have currently gained commu8nication insights that have changed all this. I have realized the importance of thinking first before expressing my ideas in public. This enables me to have sensible issues to discuss with people. The reform strategy is to gain self control and associate with other people in the required frame of physical wellbeing. Self control enables me to portray respect towards the audience. This transformed me into an assertive communicator whereby I could have the required eye contact with the audience, a relaxed body posture, and use of a calm and clear tone of voice. I use my eyes, hands and facial expressions well and focus on other people’s gestures to understand their body language. The transformation made me feel connected to the audience, confident, and in control of my life. It also enabled me to experience maturity as I could address issues and problems as they arose during presentation. The maturity in communication enabled me to perform excellently in my recent presentations whereby I could argue my points appropriately and in a respectful manner. The patience associated with advancement in communication strategies enabled me to listen carefully to the queries being raised by the audience without interrupting or develop resentment. This enabled me to provide satisfactory responses and created enough time to correct and identify any omission in regards to the topic being presented. The feeling of competence and control over the presentation eliminates any discrimination attitudes that may affect the presentation. The success of the application of these communication measures has enabled me to develop a positive attitude towards presentation; thus making the experience enjoyable. Amid the acquired insights, presenting to an audience consisting of many intellectuals causes nervousness. In order to improve on presentation skills, the audience pointed out that I should change my piercing eye contact and overbearing posture. I also realized that I tend to over dominate others in a bid to be more competent and feel in control. My attempt of clarifying arguments leads to use of a loud and demanding voice which impacts negatively towards the audience. My frustration absorption level is still low, and this may cause angry outburst that undermines the value of the presentation. Perfect presentation would require a presenter who can take responsibility for their mistakes and look for effective solutions. My future presentations will also be dominated by a sense of humor to attract the audience’s attention. Audience Analysis Analysis of the audience involves the considerations of all human features that may affect the worth of the presentation topic. The audience is the management and production team for Mobile-phony Company. The company is involved in the manufacture of high-tech mobile phones. The products are unique in that they are capable of receiving verbal instructions. The audience population is approximately 200 professionals. All the audience members have attained a minimum of undergraduate degree, with 40 per cent of them possessing a masters in various fields related to business management. This indicates that the use of technical terms is not prohibited. The population ranges in age from an approximate of 22 years for the recent college graduates to 70 years for the semi-retired experts and members of the management board. The presence of older people in the audience implies that the presentation should be brief and straightforward to curb boredom. The gender ratio of the audience is 43 per cent female and 57 per cent male. Additionally, 68 per cent of the members are married while 32 per cent are not. The audience is made up of members of diverse ethnic backgrounds: Approximately 10 per cent Asian, 40 percent White, 30 per cent Black, 8 per cent Hispanic and 12 per cent others. All members of the audience earn a pretax annual income of 35 000 to 60 000 dollars. This implies that the quality of presentation cannot be affected by the anticipated high price quotations. The product being presented uses new technology and, therefore, I do not anticipate any experienced users. It is expected that customers who like playing video games and sending text messages will resist the technology being presented. However, those that like instant messaging will embrace the technology. I also anticipate that engineers and web designers will require fewer introductions to the technology. However, the management and human resources personnel will require comprehensive introduction to the technology that includes directions, definitions and background. References Adler, R., Rodman, G., and Sevigny, A. (2011). Understanding Human Communication. Second Canadian Edition. Don Mills: Oxford University Press. Read More