Communication Behaviors and Organizational Culture - Research Paper Example

Communication Behaviors and Organizational Culture The performance in an organization is dependent on various internal and external factors. Indeed, the management, employees, and other stakeholders must be wary of these factors since they define the success of the organization and that of individuals in an organization. Notably, some of these factors depict personal attributes, personality, values, and qualities, which influence individual performance in an organization. Since, individuals are unique then their contribution to the organization is equally unique. Communication behaviors and organizational culture are some of the factors that define the mode of operations and performance in an organization. The two factors can apply individually or intertwine in an organization. In this context, organizational performance may refer to levels of customer satisfaction, quality, and quantity in production, sustainability, motivation, and compliance to set standards. Moreover, communication in the workplace is very fundamental since it defines how different stakeholders relate in an organisation. On the other hand, organizational culture derives a lot of significance in an organization in that it defines the uniqueness of operations in the workplace. Notably, there can be an interface between communication behaviors and organizational culture since the design and implementation of organization culture is the mandate of the same management. At the same time, the interface of communication behaviors among the managers and organizational culture can have subtle effects on the organization and its performance. This leads us to the research question, which seeks to establish how communication behaviors, organization culture, and their interface affect organizational performance. This paper aims at discussing how communication behaviors, organization culture, and their interface affect organizational performance. Communication in the Workplace Communication in the workplace refers to the process of collecting, transmitting, receiving, and interpreting messages, which defines how people generate and share information in the workplace (O'Toole, 2008). Communication plays a significant role of establishing an understanding of how an organization functions (Liang et al, 2010). Organizational communication measures the levels of transmitting information about the organization from the organization to the stakeholders. It has direct and indirect influence on organizational performance (Garnett et al, 2008). Notably, communication applies to all stakeholders in an organization. Indeed, there are two types of communication in an organization, which includes internal organizational communication and external organizational communication (Rho, 2009). Specifically, internal organizational communication may be horizontal, downward, or upward depending on the source and recipient of information. Downward communication is the most dominant and it involves the flow of information from the management to the subordinates. The information in this communication relates to job instruction, orders, job description, organizational goals, and company policies (Rho, 2009). Effective downward communication ensures that employees understand and adhere to the objectives, mission, and overall strategy of an organization thus improving its performance. Indeed, employees will seek to perform to the organization directives thus ensuring productivity that will reflect the organization’s aims, which will guarantee customer satisfaction and increased returns. On the other hand, upward communication refers to the flow of information from the subordinates to the management. Such information relates to work progress, challenges, opportunities, recommendations, aspects of other competitors, and feelings about the organization and the management (Rho, 2009). Upward communication is very fundamental as it gives a response and evaluation of the implemented organizational strategies. This helps the management to correct, re-design, improve, or maintain the organizational strategy with a view of enhancing its effectiveness. As a result, upward communication boosts organizational performance. Horizontal communication involves the sharing of information between stakeholders at the same level within the organization (Rho, 2009). As the stakeholders share information, they boost organizational performance as they discuss on how to improve the effectiveness of the organizational strategy and policies. Ideally, upward and horizontal communication enhances employee satisfaction, which motivates them to perform better (Rho, 2009). Furthermore, external organizational communication relates to communication between multiple organizations and the organizational environment (Rho, 2009). This communication enhances compliance to industry standards, promotes fair competition, and derives a better understanding of the industry. This helps the reference organization to think critically on how to survive and gain competitive advantage in the market. As such, the organization seeks to improve its performance in the industry. Notably, an effective communications strategy seeks to offer information that is accurate, timely, efficient, and reliable. Ideally, effective communication improves efficiency in the organization thus leading to better performance and resultant customer satisfaction. It also focuses on maintaining the level of performance and enhancing the level of understanding the organization functions. This can lead to better employee performance and large retention rate as employees enjoy the satisfaction derive by the communication (Simmons, n.y). Moreover, managers use communication to generate enough information and enhance certainty in making organizational decisions. This streamlines operations and guarantees satisfaction of stakeholders in an organizations thus boosting performance. Indeed, previous researches show that communication plays a very effective role in enhancing organizational outcomes. Most assuredly, communication can influence the perceptions and opinions about the management, employees, and the organization thus deriving an understanding that motivates performance (Myers & Sadaghiani, 2010). Furthermore, the management uses communication as a managerial tool to share information with the employees, coordinate organization operations, and enhance effectiveness, which will consequently promote organizational performance. Therefore, communication is very fundamental in the management, operations, relationships, and performance of individual employees and the entire organization. Organizational Culture There are many definitions of organizational culture. In this context, culture may refer to shared assumptions, values, beliefs, attitudes, goals, and communications, which guide the conduct of individuals in an organization (Mgbere, 2009). Organizational culture leads to conformity and uniformity of behaviors in an organization. As such, there are common notion that an effective organizational culture is fundamental to the organizations success. Therefore, organizational culture can be a business asset as it boosts organizational performance. Notably, any organizational has a unique culture, which entails organizational communication. The management of an organization can use organization culture as a managerial design, shared understanding, or as a constraint of management rationality. These aspects play a fundamental role in organizational performance. However, organizational culture can also lead to adverse effects in an organization. Indeed, certain cultures do better than others do and only strong cultures can boost performance. More so, organizations, which adopt changes in their cultures, are more likely to perform better since they will be flexible to changes in the industry. Indeed, ‘adaptive cultures’ promote improved performance. Conversely, unharnessed organizational culture limits or destroys organizational performance. Ideally, the commitment of the employees and the management to the shared values, objectives, beliefs, and communications will enhance performance (Alvesson, 2012). Indeed, such a commitment promotes shared understanding and unity of purpose that motivates organizational performance. At the same time, the management associates organizational culture to organization performance as it helps them to establish a competitive advantage in market (Awadh & Saad, 2013). Ideally, organizational culture facilitates goal attainment and positive motivation, which encourages the employees and management to associate with the organization and derive a sense of belonging and responsibility that would ultimately improve organizational performance. As such we can establish the fact that organizational culture has a direct influence on organizational performance and hence the need to establish a strong, adaptive, and effective organizational culture. Worth noting is the fact that communication is one of the aspects of organizational culture and thus the significance of designing and adopting effective communication behaviors in an organization. As such, the interface of communication behaviors and organizational culture promotes organizational performance. Notably, we may need to discuss organization performance to derive the significance of the interface. Organizational Performance Notably, there have been various researches addressing the dynamics of organizational performance. Some researchers define organizational performance as the organization’s capacity to achieve its mission using sound management, consistent commitment, and ethical means (Wentland, 2009). Organizational performance may refer to the level of achievement to which an employee or a manager fulfills the mission of the company (Awadh & Saad, 2013). Ideally, in measuring organization performance, we address the actual output as compared to the forecasted output in an organisation. Such measurements may include financial outcomes, market returns and market shares, and shareholders returns (Wentland, 2009). At the same time, this may relate to effectiveness levels of communication behaviors in an organization. Indeed, communication analysis can form a good basis to measure organizational performance. Additionally, the strength, adaptability, and effectiveness of organizational culture can also be a measurement tool to organizational performance. Actually, organization performance may relate to the measurement of effectiveness and efficiency in the operations, which seek to achieve the organizational goals (Awadh & Saad, 2013). It may also relate to the ability of the organization to establish effective and sustainable relationships with the environment (Wentland, 2009). The measurement of organization performance will significantly boost the organization’s morale to achieve its goals. Assuredly, organization performance has a fundamental impact on the organization culture since it promotes productivity (Awadh & Saad, 2013). With this in mind, we can now relate the interface of communication behavior and organization culture to organizational performance. Interface and Organizational performance Many factors influence organization performance in any organization. Such factors may include leadership styles, social relationships, and organizational culture. Nevertheless, the establishment of effective communication behaviors is the most dominant feature that enhances improved performance in an organization. Indeed, lack of perfect communication channels in an organization would jeopardize the operations and productivity of any company. Furthermore, it is clear that there is an interface between communication and organizational culture. Indeed, we can address organizational culture more effectively from a communication perspective. Communication influences organization culture in various ways and hence the interface. Since communication and organizational culture influence organizational performance individually, we can derive how the interface equally influences organization performance. Ideally, communication develops organizational culture through communication technology and globalization. Organization culture must embrace technology and seek to adapt to the global trends that manifest through communication channels. More so, organizational communication entails verbal and non-verbal modes of passing information, which has significant effects on the working environment (Zadro, 2011). These effects define organizational culture. Notably, two forms of communication, which include surveillance and ethical communication, play a critical role in creating organizational culture (SAGE, 2012). This is because the two forms of organization communication influence the employee behavior and define their perception towards their position in the workplace. Consequently, this determines organization performance since the derived perception determines employee satisfaction and motivation to work in the organization. A positive perception will lead to improved performance and vice versa. At the same time, communication and the mode of sharing and exchanging information in an organization stands out as the most fundamental element of organization culture (Lotich, 2010). Effective communication develops a smooth running of internal processes, which promote good relations with employees and other stakeholders within and outside the organization. These relations define the organization culture. As such, good communication behaviors in an organization derive strong organization culture, which promotes organization performance. Ideally, communication manages organizational culture since it informs employees and other stakeholders of the changes in the organization thus enabling them to adjust to the new organizational culture (Zadro, 2011). This manifests adaptive cultures, which have a resultant effect of boosting organizational performance. However, employees who receive the communication and choose to ignore the changes may limit the performance of the organization since they will fall out of the organizational culture. Furthermore, communication passes organization culture from the organization to the new employees. Indeed, activities like employee orientations, training sessions, team building, and interactions with the management seek to communicate the organization’ environment and its cultures to the new employees. Notably, if the management uses effective communication to inform the new employees on the dynamics of the organization, then the organization can prepare for better performance from the new recruits. Most specifically, ethical communication entails the passage of accurate, ethical, and timely information from the management to the employees in an open manner (SAGE, 2012). Where the organization has a culture of using ethical communication then the employees derive motivation to perform in the organization. Ethical information ensures that employees have the necessary and adequate information to guide them in the organization. Additionally, ethical communication seeks to recognize the value and contribution of employees in the success of the organization (SAGE, 2012). This builds organization loyalty. Ideally, an organization, which has a culture of appreciating its employees, derives improved performance since employees are motivated to perform and remain in the company. Most assuredly, communication involves the availing of the relevant information to the employees. Organizations, which have a culture of making relevant information accessible to the employees, enjoy better performance since the employees derive willingness to give back to the organization in form of quality participation. Conversely, we have organizations, which have a culture of using poor communication behaviors. This leads to communication breakdowns and conflicts in the organization, which consequently discourages and limits employees from performing well (Lotich, 2010). Additionally, consistency of information in an organization’s culture enhances performance. However, where organizations lack consistency in passing information to the employees, the employees tend to think that the management is putting up a front, which discourages their performance. Therefore, consistency in verbal or non-verbal communication is very important in an organization as it defines organizational performance (Zadro, 2011). As such, the type of communication that an organization adopts plays a significant part in designing organization culture. Indeed, the adopted mode of communication develops an organizational culture, which would either inhibit or empower employees to perform. Organization performance highly depends on employees’ motivation to work. More so, ethical communication develops a healthy organization culture, which abhors respect and integrity in the organization (SAGE, 2012). These attributes are significant in improving organizational performance. Ultimately, we can ascertain that good communication leads to healthy organizational culture that ensures smooth running of operations in an organization thus enhancing organization performance. Conclusion In conclusion, I find that organizational performance depends on various internal and external factors. Notably, communication behaviors and organizational culture are some of the factors that influence performance in an organization. Indeed, communication behaviors, organization culture, and their interface affect organizational performance. This paper discussed how communication behaviors, organization culture, and their interface affect organizational performance. Organizational communication refers to the process of collecting, transmitting, receiving, and interpreting messages, which defines how people generate and share information in the workplace. It takes two forms, which include internal organizational communication and external organizational communication. Ideally, an effective communications strategy seeks to offer accurate, timely, efficient, and reliable information. Assuredly, communication influences the perceptions and opinions about the management, employees, and the organization thus motivating performance. On the other hand, organizational culture refers to shared assumptions, values, beliefs, attitudes, goals, and communications, which guide the conduct of individuals in an organization. Notably, the management applies healthy organization culture in variant ways to boost organizational performance. Furthermore, communication influences organization culture in various ways that define organizational performance. Indeed, communication manages and develops organizational culture through communication technology and globalization. Specifically, ethical communication plays a fundamental role in the creation of organizational culture, which motivates employees to perform. As such, effective communication behaviors in an organization derive strong organization culture, which promotes organization performance. References Alvesson, M. (2012). Understanding Organizational Culture. Thousand Oaks: SAGE. Awadh, a., & Saad, A. (2013). Impact of Organizational Culture on Employee Performance. International Review of Management and Business Research, 2(1), 168-175. Garnett, J. L., Marlowe, J., & Pandey, S. K. (2008). Penetrating the performance predicament: Communication as a mediator or moderator of organizational culture's impact on public organizational performance. Public Administration Review, 68(2), 266-281. Liang, X., Ndofor, H. A., Priem, R. L., & Picken, J. C. (2010). 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