The Value of Communication Skills in the Workplace - Research Paper Example

The Value of Communication Skills in the Workplace Introduction: Communication in any organization reflects on the transmission of information from one individual to another. It focuses on a message being clearly understood by the receiver of the message. Managers within an organization mostly encounter challenges in this regard since they are responsible for communication among all employees. Thus an important part of the process of communication in an organization involves the message being communicated well by the sender to be able to be understood by the receiver. This requires significant communication skills. Guo and Sanchez believe that “if the idea received is not the one intended, communication has not taken place; the sender has merely spoken or written” (Guo & Sanchez, 2005, p.78). The present study focuses on the skills of communication that are necessary within an organization for achieving successful communication between the organizational employees. Communication skills have a significant value of its use in business organizations. Need for Effective Communication in an Organization: As Guffey & Loewy reflect in their views, effective communication is essential within an organization for advancements of the organization. Organizational members including leaders, managers, supervisors and employees need to communicate well among themselves. Proper skills of communication are hence necessary both within the organization as well as outside. Excellent communication skills enable an organization to advance more than others. In today’s organizations there is a greater need to understand different data, figures and words where written communications also prove to be highly significant (Guffey & Loewy, 2010, p.30). It can thus be said that communication in any form proves significant in order to pass any message internal or external to an organization. Guffey & Loewy also mentioned that today’s business organizations reflect dynamic trends where there is tremendous need for excellent communication. This is accompanied by flattened hierarchies of the organizational managements, expansion of the management based on teams, use of innovative technologies for the purpose of communication particularly where the office works occur anywhere and at anytime, diverse workforce, as well as enhanced focus on business ethics (Guffey & Loewy, 2010, p.30). Hence it can be realized that modifications in businesses in the present times require that organizational members are strong in their communication capabilities. This would enable messages to be communicated effectively. Effective decision-making may be obtained in this way with exchange of needful information. Also, effective communication would allow contacts with colleagues who are working for the organization at remote areas, thus meeting the requirements of ethics and accountability. The Importance of Communication in the Workplace: The Problems of Communication Failure: According to Manning, Curtis & McMillen, failure to properly communicate within organizations has been associated with low morale and poor performances of such organizations. In highly successful organization, the importance is more since there are involvements of new people and procedures when a company succeeds. If there is a failure in communication, important tasks may remain incomplete (Manning, Curtis & McMillen, 1996, p.329). Thus it can be said successful organizations are more in need of effective communication that enhances and improves their performances as well. Failure in communication may affect the needful messages from being transmitted successfully. Hartley, Chatterton & Bruckmann in their studies discussed that communication problems within organizations more occur with the diverse cultural backgrounds of the organizational members. Different people from different backgrounds tend to communicate in different manners; hence their codes of communication vary. The language in this regard holds importance of the greatest level and it has been obtained that in the present times, the English language has become the primary language of communications in organizations across the world. With the rapid changes in technology, and the increasing usage of the internet and World Wide Web, the use of English has also increased (Hartley, Chatterton & Bruckmann, 2001, p.57). Thus in regard to effective communication, the use of proper English can also be considered to have high significance, without which there might be a failure in effective communication within the organization. Thus the importance and need for effective communication skills in workplaces can be understood. The Value of Communication Skills in Workplaces: According to Mcintosh & Luecke, communication skills prove beneficial for the careers of organizational members since they lessen the chances of misunderstandings among the members. Good communication skills not only allow members to effectively communicate their messages to other in the workplace, but also enable the members to perform better and improve. Communication skills are highly essential for leaders as well. With strong skills in communications, leaders are able to communicate their purposes, ideas and direction to the followers or the team members. This enable successful completion of any particular work (Mcintosh & Luecke, 2008, pp.4-5). Thus the need for effective communication applies for employees as well as the leaders of an organization. Mcintosh & Luecke also discussed in their studies that the value of communication skills can be more understood if the consequences of communication failures may be known. Generally damages occur as a result of poor communications within organizations. This may either have immediate effects or at times effects for a long period of time. These damages may be categorized into three divisions: lost time and effort, tension and stress, and missed opportunities. If communications are not made properly, then instructions may be wrongly interpreted leading to wrong execution of works thus wasting time as well as efforts. Secondly, if the environment of the workplace is too much stressed and filled with tension, chances are that the performances are less productive. Such interpersonal training often result from poor communication (Mcintosh & Luecke, 2008, pp.5-6). Thus it can be realized that knowledge of the damages that may occur from failure of communication can help the members to learn about the importance and skills of communication within an organization. It can also be discussed here that if communications fail between parties, misunderstandings are bound to occur that may not easily be forgotten by the members. Such miscommunications may have serious effects on the performances and activities of an organization. When some tension prevails in an organization, the effects and stress of that tension generally spreads across the organization and affect future communications as well, particularly in cases where jobs require continuous need for communication among the members. This involves the leaders, the managers and the employees as well. As Goodall, Goodall & Schiefelbein mentioned in their studies, in order to avoid such failures in communications in workplaces, strong communication skills prove to be valuable for all organizational members. Communications when performed consciously takes into consideration the needs and expectation of other members around. It gives respect to diversity in culture, gender, race, religion, age socioeconomic differences It also require balancing strategies, business ethics and the resultant consequences (Goodall, Goodall & Schiefelbein, 2009, pp.7-8). Thus it can be realized that conscious communication in this regard assists in the successful communications within organizations. It exhibits responsiveness of communication as a practice that considers communication as an ongoing process where events lead each other subsequently developing the purpose of communication within the organization. Based on the views of Goodall, Goodall & Schiefelbein, the significant value of communication skills within workplaces can be understood where such skills would require the organizational members to effectively speak, listen, relate, write as well as respond in the workplaces. Skills are required both in human communication and in electronically mediated communication. While human communications would involve conversations, meetings, and interviews, electronically mediated communication would involve communications based on the use of technologies like phone conversations, texts, and so on. Conclusion: From the above study it can be concluded that for an organization to be successful in performing their activities, effective communication is a must. Poor communication leads to failure in the exact delivery of messages among the members leading to damages. In order to avoid such circumstances, the skills of communication can be understood to be of extreme value in business organizations, where organizations might learn to effectively communicate either through human communications, or through the use of technologies. Thus it may be concluded communication skills have a significant value of its use in business organizations. References Goodall, S., Goodall, H.L. & J. Schiefelbein (2009). Business and Professional Communication in the Global Workplace. Connecticut: Cengage Learning Guffey, M.E. & D. Loewy (2010). Business Communication: Process and Product. Connecticut: Cengage Learning Guo, K.L. & Y. Sanchez (2005). Workplace Communication. JBPUB. Retrieved from http://healthadmin.jbpub.com/borkowski/chapter4.pdf Hartley, P., Chatterton, P. & C.G. Bruckmann (2001). Business Communication. London: Routledge Manning, G., Curtis , K. & S. McMillen (1996). Building Community: The Human Side of Work. Minnesota: Whole Person Associates Mcintosh, P. & R.A. Luecke (2008). Interpersonal Communication Skills in the Workplace, Second Edition. New York: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn Read More