The Importance of Communication - Personal Statement Example

 The Importance of Communication Introduction The importance of communication has always been emphasized in different facets of life. Whether the exchange of messages transpired between two parties involving just the sender and the recipient, or in a more complex organizational setting with different members and departments interacting and collaborating, the communication process needs to be performed in a smooth and comprehensible way to avoid misunderstanding and potential conflicts. This was evidently realized during the case study which was conducted as a group in the organizational communication course module. In this regard, the current discourse aims to present a reflective essay on the challenges that were encountered while doing the research; as well as one’s personal learning about organizational communication, as a whole. The Challenges Encountered while Doing the Research Since the research work was done as a group, there were challenges that were encountered in terms of different factors affecting the way the group was expected to perform and deliver the identified outcome. In every group endeavor, there were initial challenges in terms of aligning each member’s time, skills and abilities, and efforts toward the fulfillment of the group’s goal. In this particular situation, the goal was to come up with a comprehensive case study which focused on miscommunication during a funds transfer transaction within a bank setting. To do this, it was crucial to initially identify the competencies and capabilities of each members, as well as skills and talents. This is necessary to be able to assign roles and responsibilities and to equitably delegate tasks. Thus, during the process of group formation, members were able to agree on a group leader who governed all the tasks, roles, performance, and coordinating among members to ensure that various phases of the case studies are complied with effectively according to a definite time frame. Thus, at this particular phase alone, the challenges encountered were as follows: (1) carefully assessing skills, talents, abilities, and roles that each member would assume; (2) deciding who the group leader would be; (3) agreeing on the delegated tasks and responsibilities; (3) coming up with an outline of scheduled tasks to be delivered by each member depending on a time frame; (4) agreeing to meet or correspond on a particular schedule and venue; and (5) exchanging relevant personal details (names, addresses, contact numbers, and available schedules). While doing the actual interview from the bank, the members encountered challenges in terms of locating appropriate contact persons, seeking the necessary approvals, and meeting the contact and authorized personnel on their most accessible time frame. Further challenges were met when the actual interviews were conducted. There was a need to make the necessary preparations in terms of designing the most appropriate questions that would generate the needed responses. Since bank personnel are always perceived to be busy, it was difficult coordinating with the bank personnel for their available time to accommodate the interview, and likewise ensure that the time stipulated also conforms to the members’ available time. Finally, during the interview, there were challenges of maximizing the time allotted for this purpose to gain as much information as needed and useful for the research. The group members realized that since bank transactions are predominantly private and confidential, the information divulged was treated with much sensitivity and only the general miscommunication scenario was revealed. The exact details had to be omitted due to the need to abide by laws of privacy and confidentiality. After the interview and collection of all relevant information, the members need to integrate all of these into a comprehensive written report. With specific areas divided among members, one was assigned to integrate everything into a cohesive report prior to submission. In this regard, after completion, other members where requested to review the report, provide appropriate comments and suggestions for improvement, and do the necessary editing, revising and finalization. Personal Learning about Organizational Communication The whole group work experience was instrumental in enhancing one’s knowledge on organizational communication, as well as in working as a group. In terms of organizational communication, one learned the following: (1) misunderstanding in communication is a natural occurrence in organizational settings; (2) people make mistakes and cause errors in communication entries; (3) a check and balance mechanism should be in place to appropriately and immediately identify setbacks, lack of information, and loopholes that could create chaos and conflicts in communication processes; (4) erroneous entries could be immediately corrected when likewise detected immediately; (5) there must be control mechanisms, including sanctions for violations of policies or erroneous entries to prevent future occurrences; and (6) feedback must be incorporated in the communication process as a way of finding out discrepancies, making clarifications, and gauging the performance of employees, on a regular basis. According to Martires (2004), “it is best to view communication in terms of a configuration of interacting elements. Communication should be designed so that the various elements complement, rather than negate each other” (p. 87). In a bank setting, too many levels and divisional segmentation have evidently shown that communication was stalled. Wrong or poor attitudes among workers may cause them to misunderstand each other or their superiors. Likewise, managers should not be bogged down by excessive details furnished to them by their staff to avoid confusion. The reaction by the recipient to the communication is, by and large, the main criterion that determines its success or failure. To the extent that perception and understanding of the message by both sender and receiver do not take and follow the same vein due to certain factors, communication can become warped and twisted. Just like what happened in the bank, the recipient of the correspondence from the manager of the bank transfer form should have immediately detected the lack of currency by which the transaction was to be processed. If the recipient had immediately noted this in the first place and called the attention of the manager through an immediate feedback, then, the error could have been immediately corrected. Likewise, the manager, as the sender, should also monitor the reaction of the recipient by simply asking if all information have been relayed or indicated. By doing so, errors could immediately be detected and any delay in transaction for the fund transfer could have been avoided. Conclusion The criterion to use in determining whether communication is successful or not is the congruence between the senders’ purpose of the message and the way it is received by its recipients. Two ways of achieving this are through perceptive observation and keen listening skills on the part of both sender and receiver. In the particular case study, the experience was replete with opportunities of learning and appreciating organizational communication through identifying a common scenario of miscommunication that still pervades contemporary organizational settings. Through the challenges encountered by various members of the group, each member learned time management skills, scheduling, conformity to abide by roles and responsibilities, and to regularly monitor progress of work, as required. In addition, the case study was also instrumental and contributory to recognizing that organizational communication is a crucial element of the organization’s success. By ensuring that proper policies, procedures, control mechanisms, as well as a system for check and balances exists, organizations have put in place proper procedures for identifying potentials for miscommunication and misunderstanding; as well as in correcting these. The whole experience was therefore beneficial as one truly appreciated the theories and concepts learned on organizational communication and appreciated how these were evidently applied in actual contemporary organizational settings. While there is value in identifying where weaknesses in communication patterns and processes occurred; what matters most is determining how these errors could be avoided in the future. Reference Read More