The New Development Concerning Management Communication - Essay Example

The new development concerning management communication Rida Ahmed The term communication in all its forms is the most imperative moduleof leadership. A business belonging to any field; its success is dependant on high-quality communication management. This research is based on an analysis of case studies from various organizations, surverys conducted online & lectures from experts. The document aims to target people from all courses of life to propose them some guidelines for inducing good communication skills, at the same time evaluating different strategies incorporated by a number of firms & playing an important part in portraying the value & effectiveness of management communication. "The meaning of my communication is the response I get." (Communication Skills - Solutions 4 Training) this quote illustrates the success of a properly managed communication process. The response generated as a result of a statement shows how good an individual in getting his point across; required diligently in the fields of marketing, advertising & successful running any type of industry. Developing sound communication skills is not a difficult task. Practice, knowledge & confidence are the key factors in this aspect. Globalization has transformed & diversified the industries around the globe making it compulsory to interact with multicultural citizens. Every company is performing multiple roles of communicator & the promoter at the same time, raising questions about * what *how & *whom to say. Organizations talk about their need for better communication skills but are unsure of how to solve the issue. Organizing interactive workshops & seminars to highlight & practice the art of communication is required extensively nowadays. WHAT IS COMMUNICATION: Whether understanding & dealing with the employees of a company, targeting an audience, projecting a concept through media; all these acts are acquired via communication. The modern times require interaction with people around the world, without the barriers of time & space. The advance technology has made it possible to communicate with individuals thousands of miles away. All this technology & modernism has changed the way of interaction. According to Philip Kotler in his book Marketing Management (564), currently there are a number of communication platforms: ADVERTISING: it is a paid promotion of ideas, goods or services, for example print & broadcast advertising, motion pictures, brochures, billboards, posters, display signs etc. SALES PROMOTION: a selection of short term enticement to endorse product sales. For example exhibitions, coupons, tradeshows, contests, complimentary gifts etc. PUBLIC RELATIONS: a variety of programs intended to promote a product or company's image. For example speeches, seminars, charity donations, sponsored events, company magazines etc. PERSONAL SELLING: confronted interaction through presentations & question answer sessions with one or more potential clients. For example sales meetings, samples, fairs, tradeshows etc. DIRECT MARKETING: communicate directly with customers through a dialog. For example mails, TV shopping, catalogs, telemarketing etc. In normal life & principally in business & industries a special communication process is followed to ensure the effective transfer of messages. The communication process is takes place between a sender & a receiver through two communication implements, message & media. In between them, are the communication tools encoding, decoding of the message sent; feedback & response from the sender after interpreting the idea. A factor present in between is noise; it is the misrepresentation of the message being sent when it's not conveyed effectively. (Philip Kotler- Marketing Management- eleventh edition, chapter 19:565) A successful management depends on how well the organizations comprehend this process & expends it in the organization & business perspectives. Dorothy Carnegie described this phenomenon in a very effective manner by saying, "Business, social, & personal satisfactions depend heavily upon a person's ability to communicate clearly to his fellow men what he is, what he desires, & what he believes in." (Effective speaking, 1) CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION: Developing the image of a good communicator radiates a feeling of confidence & compels others to listen & engage intensely. In recent times, cross cultural dealings are a common sight. Many companies are hiring multi-lingual employees so as to cater to the demands of over seas clients. After extensive researches it is derived that different people are using different methodologies to design communication techniques especially for multi-cultural connections. Consequently, supporting the fact; effective communication guarantees an effective result. The Chuo University in Tokyo; is dealing with cross- cultural communication, overseas relationships & associated management & marketing issues as a research project in Singapore in collaboration with a team of four Japanese professors. The data is being collected from Singaporean managers & employees by conducting interviews & surveys & the initial work is ready to be launched as a book by the name Chuo University, Japan: Progress to date. (Cross-Cultural Management and Communication Research) This is just one example; many more projects are underway, around the world to manage & contrive virtuous communiqu. COMMUNICATION SKILLS: "Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people." The above quote clearly depicts the importance of communication. Nowadays, multi national & even small scale industries are encouraging their employees to learn the modern communication skills. The advent of new modes of interactions requires a revision of the old expertise. A case study of Solata's agency, Selling Communications Inc. edition comprised of the objectives to assimilate the sales & marketing activities of an agency & provide clients with a data base to install target marketing tactics. As a solution to help clients, SCI implemented Solata permission manager to build permission based data bases, Solata sender for sending integrated print & electronic interaction, Solata lead tracker for distributing leads to salespersons & calculating the results, & lastly Solata target seller; a fully integrated series of marketing & sales management. The very positive results after proper management communication were that the SCI gained loyal customers & a double digit annual escalation from almost every client. ( Change Management Case Study: Communication) An overview of the dealing ethics being taught in communication skills programs are: Creating a sound awareness & understanding regarding the principles of interaction. Develop a strategy for any obstructions & incorporate it to prevent hard feelings among employees or with clients. Cultivate an emotional control & use restrain to acquire information from others, at the same time handle criticism judiciously Mastering & endorsing confidence, hence managing all kinds of situations. Motivate the colleagues, using the art of persuasion; for attaining the apex of achievement by working & coordinating individual strengths & qualities into a team. Learning to work with an open mind, concerning a variety of opinions & rounding up a hypothesis. Ascertaining to work as an individual authority, therefore not giving away to others unnecessarily. Overseeing conflicts & devising a problem solving approach to deal with any impending obstacles. Employing the best of your communication skills so as to gain reverence & acknowledgement among peers. Preparing to upgrade listening & riposte proficiency to comprehend the habits & beliefs of others; be it co- workers or clients. Using a clear & upfront approach to convey ideas & perceptions & avoiding expression that may deprive the concept of its integrity. RELATIONSHIP OF COMMUNICATION & MANAGEMENT: Practicing sound communication in a business is the responsibility of every individual. The H.R. or human resource department in an organization makes sure that the company's communication strategy is clear & upfront. The managers need to interact with a number of people; the employees, the advertisers, marketers, senior personals. To successfully manage this wide range of contacts, it is vital to go through a training period so as to understand the objectives of management communication. Every individual has a natural ability to commune effectively. This ability can be further polished for lucrative results in management. An example of such a practitioner is Thailand, which has developed into a major production house for foreign investment in a number of industries like automobiles & electronics equipment etc. The trade persons & educational institutes have devised international educational programs to help the students & workers acquire a fluency in English language & communication skills. This step has been taken to ensure a better understanding of cultures & developing an ease to interact with international clients. (Faculty of Communication arts, 2007) Practicing communication management efficiently, allows an organization to: Discern their audience or the receivers of the message. Formulating awareness of the perfect medium to send the message, in accordance with the receiver. Consider the outcome of the message that has been sent in advance. Effectively get their message across the audiences Are concerned with the feedback & response from the audience & then calculate the effectiveness of the communication process used. An innovative cross cultural research program conducted in the Asia pacific region namely USA, Germany, Japan, Korea & Singapore; for the management practices resulted in a reclusive conclusion. The outcome was presented at the annual Academy of International Business conference in Vienna, and the Asian Academy of Management in Hong Kong in 1998. (Cross-Cultural Management and Communication Research) Steps are being taken to improve the faults that were evaluated. Such surveys & researches are also a form of management communication & are conducted so as to analyze the respective field & design improvement; keeping in mind, the concluded results. These acts are also conducted by various organizations & companies to evaluate their incorporated strategies in an annual report or in- house magazine. Each year the Marketing department of Environmental Protection Agency or EPA-Queensland prepares an annual report to be presented to the minister & the parliament & the Queensland community so to review the yearly monetary & operational performance. It is done in order to create awareness of the EPA's values, achievements, goals & declaration of supporting the government at the same time explaining the working of their agency along with the finance management. DEVELOPMENTS & ISSUES: An organization consists of many workers & each of them has a responsibility to manage communication. Managers are responsible for the motivation & inspiration of their workers. The employees are responsible for keeping in mind the standards of performance while working. Most of the time, their jobs are being perform with great dedication but still the company lacks the ultimate performance hence failing to achieve the optimum mark of revenue. This is basically the fault of inadequate communication. To cover this issue the management in many organizations are encouraging their employees to develop critical management skills for a better performance by learning to manage the challenges of management communication. The educational institutes are challenged to produces graduates with excellent communication skills, so they can perform extensively with the help of their eminence in management communication. To meet this assessment the Chulalongkorn University's department of communication arts has developed a new & improved course in international communication management.( Faculty of Communication arts, 2007) Therefore it is being critically considered to study management communication in universities & other private management institutes so the students are well up to date of the international requirements in every field. The companies are joining hands with educational institutes & helping them in preparing the best to- be employees of the future. Organizations are usually concerned about just the symptoms instead of focusing on the root of their problems especially related to cross cultural interaction. They try all strategies to improve the collaboration between the cross cultural businesses systems & teamwork training; they fail to notice the lack of communication is the issue of conflict. They need to provide their people with an opportunity for coaching, establishing & enforcing a joint escalation. This can be achieved if there is a steady communication link among the managers & the team members so they can face conflicts & work together to resolve them. A number of strategies have been devised for better communication skills working together to remove the barriers to cross cultural interaction. The first three stratagem centre on the crux of conflict. The second three strategies focus on acceleration of inconsistency up the management chain. A case study from Solata Sender explains about a leading watch brand already generating new newsletters on a daily basis but looking to properly maintain an ongoing dialogue & assess the results, with clients who choose to receive information through print or emails. This was resolved by the company, by designing a template for a print newsletter for mail & for an e- mail newsletter comprising of news, ideas, special offers & trends of the watch business. This helped the company to improve its communication with target audience in the terms of marketing. Another issue being faced is managing inter - Religious employee based corporations. This problem is being addressed by many agencies. An inter- religious organization in order to create an event of more than 100 people, inclusive of all religious perspectives joined with other faith communities to sponsor the event encouraging people from a variety of faiths to come & interact together & forming an understanding by gaining exposure to different faith communities & cope with the problems & challenges being faced by them. All individuals were asked to communicate with people from other religions. The program turned out to be a huge success since it brought together so many people belonging to different religions to interact in pleasant environment.(Robert 2007) CONCLUSION: The new technology & information techniques have enabled the people around the world, interact with each other afar the restriction of time & space. The organization now is a compact space, the messages travel around it, decision making has become an important factor, and success can be attained if the employees work together with confidence & trust. Poor management skills are the cause of an industries failure. Improving the interpersonal communication skills can transform the way of communicating with others. Companies can improve their performance by motivating their employees to: Learning strategies to communicate with management to augment the results using least time speculation. Establishing good working relations with co workers & clients by increasing the respect level for management from essential departments. Developing leadership skills & strengthening diplomatic skills tp confront challenging situations. Dealing with various situations the management should be fully capable of meeting challenges. The cultural diversity in organizations needs to be treated with trust & respect so that the individuals are comfortable, hence able to interact & perform effectively. The following steps are important in management communication in any organization (University of Houston, 2002) 1. Conveying effective verbal messages 2. Efficient listening on the receivers end. 3. Perceptual clarity 4. Channel awareness & being attentive 5. Appropriate self disclosure 6. Effective nonverbal messages 7. Audience understanding All these skills need to be developed individually & soundly practiced to ensure a successful dealing & communication in organizations. REFERENCES Arens, F. William & Bove'e L. Courtland "Contemporary Advertising" fifth edition 1994 pg 100 - 105 Burnett, Nick. "Communication and Management Theory" (9 April 2001) [accessed 3 December 2007] Cannon, E. Robert. "Opening the lines of communication" (n.d.) Change Management Case Study: Communication: The Cannon Advantage[accessed 3 December 2007] Carnegie, Dorothy. "The quick & easy way to effective speaking: a revision" pg 1 Pocketes book New York. 1962 "Case Studies" (2004) SellingCommunicationsInc [accessed 3 December 2007] "Communication objectives" (21 November 2006) The State of Queensland (Environmental Protection Agency) Annual report 2005-06 [accessed 3 December 2007] "Communication Skills" (n.d.) Solutions 4 training [accessed 2 December 2007] "Communication Skills Training" (n.d) Impact Factory [accessed 2 December 2007] "Cross-Cultural Management and Communication Research" (n.d.) [accessed 1 December 2007] "Essential Management Communication Skills" Alliance Training and Consulting, Inc. [accessed 2 December 2007] "Interpersonal Communication involves . . . "(2002) Crisis Resource Centre, University of Houston [accessed 3 December 2007] Kotler, Philip. Northwestern University "Marketing Management" eleventh edition (2002) page 563- 570. "Management Communication Programmes" (n.d.) management communication: leadership [accessed 2 December 2007] "Program description" (12 April 2007) The Faculty of Communication Arts [accessed 3 December 2007] Weiss, Jeff & Hughes, Jonathan. "Harvard Business Review Article" (1 March 2005) Harvard business online [accessed 3 December 2007] Read More