Academic Practitioner Article Critique - Essay Example

Running head: Academic Practitioner Article Critique Academic Practitioner Article Critique Insert Insert Affiliation Academic Practitioner Article Critique Goodman and Trussman go into great detail on how communication is detrimental to the normal processes involving change programmes in management positions. Many times communication is misplaced and quite a number of definitive statements are left out of impersonal memos, bulletins, etc. Communication can lead to many problems and management has many concerns with this issue. To retain good employees and to insure proper communication, Goodman and Trussman have compiled an in depth report on how crucial proper communication is in a company both internally and outwardly as well. This paper will do a complete summary on the information found in the report done by Goodman and Trussman and hopefully gain some new and insightful knowledge into the problems in proper communication. Academic Practitioner Article Critique Communication is the essential concept in regards to any type of gradual change within a company. The philosophy of improving and constructing a more effective business management relationship between employee's and other professionals has long been understood to come directly from proper communication outlets within the establishment of any company. This holds a lot of truth when there is the need to keep the work environment amicable so companies are able to retain the best workers to do the jobs that are required within the business structure. Without this vital tool between management and employee's, there would be a wide variety of problems far exceeding what exist now. These would pose considerable delays in any type of quantifiable progression in change programmes. The article by Goodman and Trussman thoroughly discusses how detrimental good communication truly is. Also, it is introduced how very serious internal communication is if there is to be a correct type of movement of change in programs involving management change programmes. It is duly noted and factual that communication has a direct impact in the areas of: reduced resistance, minimizing uncertainty, and to gain an improved involvement and commitment as changes progress (Goodman & Trussman 2004). Therefore, it has been evidenced that if there is a flaw in the internal communication areas, which this article emphasizes between two companies, then there will be definite draw backs in initiative changes. Communication is directly relative to employee job satisfaction, so it is found that where this tool is lacking it greatly affects job performance and comfortability of the employee in the work environment. Goodman and Trussman (2004) give a percentile of 50% of employee's claiming that communication t hat is centered internally has been on a negative downward spiral since 1997. Due to this, there is work being done to try and correct the obvious problems. First, better methods definitely need to be implemented and more clear strategies need to be laid out to guarantee the problem areas in communication can be corrected as well as dissatisfaction within an employee's job. Furthermore, by insuring the proper method in which to develop communication as well as the content that communication should hold, are key areas to work and strategize upon in order to solve the equational problems found within communication errors (Goodman & Trussman 2004). There are three stages that the communication process goes through, but before it can ever get to the initial stage the timing and medial has to be accurate. The three stages that Goodman and Trussman (2004) discuss are unfreeze, move, and refreeze/sustain. Also, strategies have been devised to assist in the various stages of change that management programs go through. These strategies have been depicted in the article by Goodman & Trussman (2004) as ones that offer understanding and improved theories in the areas that generate readiness for change, persuasive communication, active communication and managing or sharing information about the change. The media utilizes different techniques in order to better facilitate these strategies which are well known to be associative with verbal, written, and now that computerized communication is more assertive, this electronic tool is used as well. Basically, any means that are being performed to offer better communication are not going to make that much of a difference if the sender is not thoroughly explaining what he or she is trying to relate. This is also true for the receiver of the information. There can easily be misunderstandings if the wrong interpretations are made. This is why it is imperative to always have open channels available so that any misconstrued ideas can be cleared up right away. The whole purpose that this article is attempting to relay is how crucial it is to have proper communication channels, even though the success rate can be mixed using any of the alternatives available (Goodman & Trussman 2004). Another one of the important attributes of proper communication is involving gathering t he employee's input on new changes so that better ways can be established to construct the new phases and to deter any uncertainty in the process. There are times where management and employees perspectives of program changes clash. This is a good point because in order to guarantee that everything is going to transform smoothly it's good to know the thoughts and opinions of not only those in management positions but also the employee's thoughts and views as well. From a majority of manager's thoughts on the problems occurring from change programmes, they feel that the employee's simply are not involved enough and pay barely any attention to any internal communication. Their feelings then are that the employee's really don't have a right to complain about any outcomes arising because they simply do not participate in any of the meetings leading up to the changes anyway. Often times the management feels that staff places to much of a burden on them in expecting them to have all the necessary answers involving any type of change. Very rarely is it found that those in more formal positions learn of any new, imperative information before anyone else does. Employees simply fail to believe this and because of the lack of trust and dissatisfaction with the company, by the employee, a good percentage of businesses suffer from high turn over in employment. On the other hand, instead of management carrying the feeling that their staff is stressing them for information, they should work harder to develop more of an open communication with their employee's. If this type of theoretical assessment were followed then perhaps management, in many major companies would realize that the more information they are willing to share and discuss with their employee's, the higher the quality work they will receive from them (Goodman & Trussman 2004). When giving consideration to employee's thoughts on the affects of change programs and how well communication is in relation to it, it is found that opinions differed from company to company. At Pubco, many found out about proposed changes through a variety of different ways. Some of these were through a variety of different ways. Some of these were through a public committee report, while a percentage of others discovered the information during staff meetings. There were still quite a few that found out through regular office gossip. Even though there was communication about the changes that were going to take place, employee's still felt that there was not a well informed system set up to explain how the proposed changes would directly affect areas of pay, overtime, and bonuses. Also, they felt they were given no type of consultation on what to really expect when the changes took place. Because of how much of the information is given so impersonally and seems to be lacking pertinent details, the majority of employee's voiced a strong preference to have fact to fact meetings rather than receiving emails, bulletins, reports, or phone calls (Goodman & Trussman 2004). In conclusion of the summary of this article on communication processes and change programmes, it is undoubtedly clear that there are some necessary changes that are going to need to be made. Rather than management providing information to its staff in a so impersonal matter they should rather sit down and discuss information they are aware of in a group or individual sitting. The reason for this is simple, views and opinions differ. There needs to be a definite understanding on what changes are going to take place and what they are going to entail. Memos, phone calls, reports, etc are just to lacking and don't offer the specifications that are necessary which leads to a lot of uncertainty in a company. Quite possibly, if a more personal concern is given before any changes take place, then there would not be so many employees' carrying the idea that management is not considering their concerns or misunderstandings. The definite finding here is to utilize communication properly instead of utilizing methods that seem detached from whom they are obviously affecting. By handling change in companies more personally then a better commitment to the coming changes will be more concisely interpreted by everyone from employees to management. References Goodman, Joanna & Truss, Catherine (2004) 'The Medium and the Message: Communicating Effectively During a Major Change Initiative' Journal of Change Movement, Vol.4, No.3 217-228 September 2004 Read More