Structures Available to Small Voluntary Organizations - Case Study Example

Structures Available to Small Voluntary Organizations The communication process is largely defined as being a sequence of events in which a given sender is able to transmit a certain given message to a particular recipient. As long as the recipient is able to understand it, the message being communicated can either be in nonverbal or verbal form. The communication process involves a number of basic steps that are seen to be encoding, the chosen medium of message transmission, the decoding and giving back of feedback by the recipient1. In the case study, the existing process of communication is seen to involve the volunteer supervisor as being the sender and the other volunteers being the message recipients. However, despite of there being a rather thorough interview process for volunteers that is aimed at determining the skill-need matches as well as a prior verbal scheduling of all the volunteer times, there seems to be a pertinent problem with the communication process at the organization as the volunteer supervisor constantly did not have the projects ready for the volunteers to work on during their previously agreed upon volunteer time slots. This persistent lack of a communication plan and clear communication processes is seen to have resulted in there being diminished enthusiasm for the cause fronted by the volunteer organization2. There are a number of different communication processes that can effectively be used by small voluntary organizations; these processes which include the horizontal communication processes, diagonal communication processes, lateral communication processes and vertical communication processes. Horizontal Communication Processes: Horizontal communication structures and processes which are also referred to as lateral communication are defined as being the flow of messages across the different functional areas at a given level within the organization. In lateral communication processes, people working at the same level within an organization are able to communicate directly with each other without their having to go through the different levels of the organization3. Lateral Communication Processes: Lateral communication processes and structures are seen to involve communication which occurs between individuals that do not stand in any form of a hierarchical relationship with each other4. Diagonal Communication Processes: Diagonal communication structures and processes are seen to refer to communication that occurs between an organization’s workers and managers who happen to be located at different functional levels within the organization. Diagonal communication is a recent communication structure that was introduced in an attempt to try and address the challenges posed by most new organizational forms such as project based and matrix organizations whose communication processes are not easily captured by horizontal and vertical communication. Vertical Communication Processes: Vertical communication is seen to occur between people who have been positioned in a hierarchical structure and typically involves both downwards and upward communication flows. Generally downward communication is seen to be more prevalent as compared to upward communication and as opposed to its being merely the passion on of information to subordinates, it is also seen to involve the management of the message town as well as the display of skill in the delegation of duties and tasks so as to ensure that these tasks are performed by the right people. Upward communication flow is basically the transmission of messages and information from the organization’s employees to its management5. These different communication structures and processes can be divided into a number of different communication channels these are: Formal Communication Channels: The use of formal communication processes mainly involves oral and written communication channels. Formal communication processes are designed to follow the existing chain of command within the formal organization. In formal communication, the communication is seen to flow from the manager to his particular immediate subordinates. Each message recipient the undertakes to re-transmit the message in the selected form to the staff members at the next lower management level as appropriate. In this manner, the message is able to progress down the chain of command while fanning out until all the various individuals that are required to have the particular information are able to receive it6. Informal Communication Channels: It is not possible for a small voluntary organization to be able to operate in a completely structured and formal environment. Communication between the different operations of an organization often do not flow as smoothly as intended a fact that has resulted in most small voluntary organizations developing channels of communication that are found to be outside the established hierarchical structure. Informal communication processes are important in an organization as they serve to help in filling in the omissions and gaps in the formal communication channel7. Unofficial Communication Channels: It is important for managers to recognize that most of the communication that happens to take place in small volunteer organizations is mostly of an interpersonal nature. News such as memoranda, the revision of procedures and policies and the minutes of meetings are found to be common conversational subject throughout any given organization. As such the development of a grapevine is seen to be part of the unofficial communication process within a small volunteer organization. Grapevines cannot necessarily be termed as either being good or bad as they serve an important in that they act as a barometer of the current attitudes and feelings of an organization’s employees. How the Voluntary Organization can be able to Improve Appropriate communication and Ensure Integration of systems of Communication In the case study of the small volunteer organization, the main communication problem is seen to be that the volunteer supervisor is unable to invest enough time to effectively communicate projects to the different delegates as she is heavily engaged in a number of other different projects. This can be corrected by the creation of a Horizontal top down communication structure that can effectively be used by the particular supervisor to communicate and delegate projects to the volunteers. As opposed to simply relying on prior verbal scheduling of the volunteer times, the volunteer supervisor can undertake schedule volunteer times using e-mails and memos so as to communicate the schedules, she can also undertake to employ the services of another volunteer who will be responsible for maintain the volunteer schedules as well as communicating the assigned projects to the volunteers. This can greatly help her in freeing up her time so as to effectively deal with some of her other work concerns. The volunteer organization can also undertake to adopt a Diagonal communication process that will allow for there to be effective communication between the volunteer supervisor and the managers8. The establishment of clear communication channels between the two will ensure that other department managers desist from putting numerous demands on the volunteer supervisor as they will be constantly made aware of when she is currently engaged in some other work related affairs. The roles of the volunteer supervisor should also be clearly spelt out and communicated to her so as to prevent her being encumbered with functions that she is not necessarily supposed to be engaged in her current job capacity. To better improve the integration of the communication channels within the organization, the volunteer organization could undertake to try and pool information from such as recruitment and training, documentation and the advertising departments so as to eliminate any redundancies before information is sent out to the volunteers. This will help in greatly reducing the demands being made on the volunteer supervisor by the managers in addition to wasting less money and time on the corporate end in addition to saving the managers from having to wade through tons of useless information. The position of a corporate communications manager with a background in communication and new training technologies can also be developed by the organization to help in developing and implementing improvements designed to help in the integration of its communication systems and prevent any information overload of one party. The communication manager can also develop a daily e-mail update that will serve to integrate information across the different departments in the organization and its volunteers. This system will reduce the time that the departmental managers waste in attempting to obtain new information as well as greatly help in notifying the volunteers of any changes in their volunteer timings. Recommendations on the Possible Improvements that can be made to the Organization’s Existing Approaches to the Collection, Dissemination and Storage of Knowledge and Information The volunteer organization currently uses a verbal system for data collection, storage and dissemination of information and knowledge. This use of this verbal system is seen to play a great part in the interviewing of new volunteers and the scheduling of their volunteer plans. As a result of the ineffectiveness of this system, the volunteer supervisors is seen to be a poor communicator as the system does not provide for her to be able to communicate with the volunteers and assign them their projects. Verbal communication systems are also seen to have the drawback of their often keeping highly inaccurate records. To remedy this situation, the volunteer organization can undertake to implement a new and more accurate computerized system that will be responsible for data collection during the interviews, storage of the information and the scheduling of the volunteer timings9. The volunteer supervisor can then undertake to feed the projects for each volunteer into the system and the system will then disseminate this information to the volunteers by sending them notifications indicating that their volunteer projects have already been assigned. The system can be managed and coordinated by the corporate communication manager. To better disseminate its information, the organization can also opt to invest in storing its data on cloud computer servers. This will ensure that the organization’s information is easily accessible. Recommendations and Methods by Which the Organization can be able to Improve its Access to Systems of Knowledge and Information Electronic access mechanisms can be improved and a computer system be developed to would allow for all the various concerned parties to access the organization’s systems of knowledge and information and any other related information via system portals10. The computer system would allow the creation of memo’s and notifications which would be sent to members of the organization to help in ensuring that they all have access to the relevant knowledge and information that they may require. After the creation of this electronic computerized system for the organization, attempts should also be undertake to create trainings sessions where the volunteers and members of the organization can be provided with training on how to access and use the system so as to obtain any required information and knowledge. Conclusion While the communication processes at the volunteer organization are seen to be relatively quite poor, it is possible to improve them by using a number of communication processes such as the creation of a well designed communication plan. This plan can either be designed to have a horizontal top-down structure to help the volunteer supervisor to be able to disseminate information on projects to the volunteers as well as a formal diagonal communication structure to help in improving communication between the volunteer supervisor and the departmental managers. It is also vital that an appropriate communication integration policy be implemented so as for the organization to improve general access to information and knowledge. References Kaul Asha. Effective business communication. New Delhi : Prentice-Hall of India, 2003. Booth, T. A. (2008). Organisational Conrmunication. Business Intelligence Journal ,120- 122. pp. 3-4 Singh Kavita. Organizational behaviour : text and cases. 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