Management Communications - Coursework Example

Management Communications Questions Technology and Communication In the contemporary scenario, the use of technology in the process of communication has gained prominence in personal as well as professional lives. Nowadays, modern businesses tend to incorporate a strong workplace atmosphere and foster organizational growth by prioritizing communication as one of the core business objectives. Moreover, the use of technology can impose number of positive and negative impacts on communication. In contemporary organizations, email, text messaging, instant messaging and social media are some of the most commonly used forms of technological advancements that are utilized with the aim of fostering communication amongst the employees, irrespective of their respective organizational job roles. The use of email has significant advantages of communicating with several people at once, reduce costs associated with communication through print mechanism and lessen time burden. However, security features, apart from the tendency of employees to neglect traditional lines of communication can also have negative impact on organization communication. Apart from emails and text messaging, organizational communication can also determined in the form of instant messengers that are capable of delivering pertinent information to several users at once, without compromising distance as a key factor hindering effective communication. Social media has also become a widely used form of communication in this modern day context, which is being utilized for sharing personal and professional information. Although social media is found to be helpful in sharing information effectively in different underlying business scenarios, it might play a key role in attracting cyber bullying, hindering the process of communication with loss of vital information. Technology has impacted verbal and non-verbal communication in a significant manner, since a majority of the technology-based communications remains dependent on non-verbal cues and restricts the use of verbal communication amongst the employees (Hooff & Wijngaert, 2005). 2. Visual Presentations In accordance with the work report, the visual presentations will be supported with the help of executing contemporary visual presentation techniques such as charts, graphs, images, videos and presentation slides. These tools are helpful in sharing significant information with others in a workplace that possesses the capability of providing an in-depth understanding of the information being shared with others. The work report on the recently undertaken project i.e. “A deployed four person team completed an off load, process and shipment of over 1200 items, valued at over $32 million dollars during a 29 hour period” will be presented in a visual manner with the help of presentation slides. Presentation slides are one of the most widely used techniques that facilitate sharing of information in the form of a visual aid, which is supported by the presence of clear, simple and consistent information. Visual presentation can enhance the effectiveness of information sharing by the ways of delivering an interesting speech, fostering the degree of credibility and motivation, providing pertinent knowledge supported by transitions and communicating relevant information within specific time limits. In addition, use of visual presentations can enable others to grab information within a short span of time and in a much comprehensive manner, which would assist in effective information sharing. Furthermore, use of visual presentations in communication can help in reinforcing verbal information and likewise enable the listeners to retain information for a longer period. Moreover, information sharing through visual presentations will be supported by saving of time, costs and efforts associated with sharing of information via traditional methods (Sampson, 2003). 3. Internal Communication Internal communication can play an indispensable part in sharing vital information amongst the employees of the organizations and other personnel comprising boss, peers and subordinates. While communicating with boss, it is essential to ensure effective communication since managing upward level of communication is crucial. Moreover, while communicating with the bosses, it must be ensured that their information is collected and also the views are recognized at the earliest. Moreover, providing boss with routine updates and restricting personal views in an official matter is another important factor that must be adhered while establishing communication with the boss. Prior to engaging in communicating with boss, it must be ensured that the information has been reviewed and focus is kept on conveying issues with boss rather than with peers and subordinates. Communicating with peers is another vital factor that must be prioritized with the aim of developing and maintaining effective relationship with them. Apart from communicating pertinent information, focus must be laid on receiving and analyzing communication with the help of effective listening skills. In addition, respect must be shown towards the viewpoints shared by peers and information from their side must be taken into concern for facilitating effective communication and decision-making. Asking for opinions along with avoiding negative information sharing is an effective tool towards ensuring that the shared information is efficient and is further able to attract the attention of the peers. Similarly, while dealing with subordinates, utmost attention should be paid over the avoidance of alienation, which might result through prohibition and use of scolding, treating views negatively, patronizing and ensuring their participation in decision-making. Furthermore, their views must be listened and decisions must be taken accordingly in order to support their opinions (Smith & Mounter, 2008). 4. Listening In the contemporary organizational scenario, a majority of the people are poor listeners, apart from very few of them who fall in the category of good listeners. People communicate with the intent of sharing pertinent information, however, lack of listening skills restricts their ability to retain and analyze information, which can hamper their personal as well as professional communicative skills. To enhance the listening skills of the employees and foster growth along with development of an organization, it is vital to ensure that the organization requires incorporating effective listening skills amongst its employees, which is facilitated by the use of several techniques. These techniques include the use of verbal instruction, duplication exercise, improvisation and paraphrasing. These tools require greater level of participation of the employees towards gathering suggestions and further making them to respond to the statements made by the speakers or the facilitators. Coaching and mentoring are some other widely used tools to enhance listening skills amongst the employees. To improve personal listening skills, emphasis must be laid on restricting excess speaking, preparing one selves towards listening and eliminating distractions. Moreover, personal listening skills can be enhanced by focusing towards showcasing empathy towards fellow employees, adopting patience and comprehending the meaning of what is being said (Downs, 2008). 5. Conflict In the workplace, one of the conflicting situations, which was experienced by me, is the inability of the employees engaged in shipment towards prioritizing their respective job roles. To deal with such conflicting situation, communication was utilized as an effective technique, which helped in ensuring that the conflict will get resolved. The resolution was positive owing to the reasons of appropriate understanding and acknowledgement of specific job roles of the employees by the establishment of a ‘collaborating conflict resolution style’. Since the resolution was positive and communication was effective in mitigating the conflicting situation stated above amongst the workers, such communication needs to be incorporated, which would benefit the organization in long run. Moreover, collaborating conflict resolution style can be incorporated within personal communication with the aim of collaborating with other employees and their viewpoints and ensuring that the outcomes will result into a win-win situation. Moreover, collaborating conflict resolution style can further help in fostering growth and productivity, thereby enhancing the overall level of understanding amongst the employees. In case the outcomes were ascertained to be negative in nature and the conflict gets escalated, the undertaken project may get subjected to withstand. Hence, it needs to be ensured that the communication process underlying the project undertaken is effective towards generating positive outcomes and avoiding further conflicts. Moreover, there must exist collaboration in the viewpoints presented by the employees, which will facilitate information sharing and task completion efficiently (Roche, Teague & Colvin, 2014). 6. Ethical Behavior In relation to the organizational example, it would be best to quote the instance of the recently undertaken project, wherein “A deployed four person team completed an off load, process and shipment of over 1200 items, valued at over $32 million dollars during a 29 hour period”. While undertaking the project, ethical standards pertaining to management communication were being utilized with the aim of making sure the fact that the work is effectively deployed and conflicts associated with the same are being avoided. Moreover, it is necessary to ensure that the workers are associated with having a high degree of ethical standard while performing their designated job roles. Since the undertaken project was able to successfully deliver shipment within time and restrict conflicting situations, hence, it can be duly considered as an example of communication in an ethical manner. The reason behind its association with maintaining ethical standards in communication is that the project was fostered through issuance of ethical policies and providing ethical training to employees prior to allocating them with their respective job roles. Moreover, the decision was made to communicate in a collaborative and horizontal manner incorporating ethical standards to ensure that there exists effective communication amongst the employees, which would further assist in delivering pertinent information to the fellow employees. Additionally, the employees would be able to ensure that they are able to develop sustainable workplace ethics and accordingly assist the management to accomplish the desired project objectives successfully (Darley, Messick & Tyler, 2001). 7. Group Communication While communicating in groups, there are several people who participate in the same with the aim of arriving at definite outcomes. Group communications involve discussions on intellectual topics, wherein there exists a group leader. This group leader is associated with organizing several discussions and creating a platform that supports effective communication. While engaging in-group communication, every employee acting as a participant gets a chance to share the viewpoints and ensure that the views are effectively transmitted to the remaining participants. Additionally, communicating in groups differ from individual communication in terms of relativity, information sharing, development of pertinent ideas, effective communication amongst the people and interpretation of final outcomes. Moreover, it is difficult to ensure avoidance of conflicts within in-group communication (Seeger, Sellnow & Ulmer, 2003). On the contrary, individual communication results in development of successive knowledge regarding valuable information through engagement of two parties in a controversy. Individual communication involves information sharing by a single individual, supported by listening by another individual. Moreover, individual communication can be categorized into two types i.e. intra-individual communication and inter-individual communication. Additionally, individual communication plays a decisive part in focusing on a particular discussion and arriving at particular outcomes with adopting a self-explanatory approach. Additionally, an individual communication is dependent on a single individual, who may intend to share his/her experiences by emphasizing a particular topic associated with the accomplishment of professional objectives. While communicating in groups, people might face number of unique challenges that can hamper the growth and progress of an organization. In this regard, a few of the challenges associated with communicating in groups are lack of listening skills, cultural differences and presence of attitude among others. Furthermore, gender biasness and hierarchy problems associated with communication might also hinder the flow of communication amongst the employees (Seeger, Sellnow & Ulmer, 2003). 8. Business Presentations While engaging with audiences during business presentations, it must be ensured that a rapport is established, which would be facilitated by prioritizing a number of steps. In a business presentation, the speakers must ensure that they knows about how the audiences maintain proper eye contact with them, dress themselves in a much formal manner and make better use of their ideas such as playing a game. Furthermore, to ensure that the messages spoken are delivered appropriately to the end listeners, the speakers must intend to search for opportunities that facilitate humor, develop and motivate flexibility, apply tools such as emotional connection to establish relationship with listeners and engage the listeners in decision-making through active participation. Additionally, the speakers can elaborate the stories that are capable of attracting their attention, influence and motivate them to listen and argue to what they are trying to convey. Convincing is one of the motivational strategies, which is used by speakers to convey their information. The factor of convincing enables the speakers to reveal that the delivered message is vital and effective for accomplishment of personal or professional objectives. To develop successive rapport with the individuals, it is necessary to ensure that collaborative motivational strategy is being used, which helps in arriving at definite outcomes (Duarte, 2013). References Darley, J. M., Messick, D. M., & Tyler, T. R. (2001). Social influences on ethical behavior in organizations. Psychology Press. Downs, L. J. (2008). Listening skills training. American Society for Training and Development. Duarte, N. (2013). Resonate: Present visual stories that transform audiences. John Wiley & Sons. Hooff, B., & Wijngaert, L. (2005). Information and communication technology in organizations: Adoption, implementation, use and effects. SAGE. Roche, W. K., Teague, P., & Colvin, A. J. S. (2014). The oxford handbook of conflict management in organizations. OUP Oxford. Sampson, E. (2003). Creative business presentations: Inventive ideas for making an instant impact. Kogan Page Publishers. Seeger, M. W., Sellnow, T. L., & Ulmer, R. R. (2003). Communication and organizational crisis. Greenwood Publishing Group. Smith, L., & Mounter, P. (2008). Effective internal communication. Kogan Page Publishers. Read More