Essay: Report For Lead And Manage Effective Workplace Relationships Of Communication And Consultation.

Discuss about the Report for Lead and Manage Effective Workplace Relationships of Communication and Consultation.

In order to manage effective workplace relationships it is very important for an employee to reinvent himself in the current workplace. It is important to maintain a positive attitude and respect diverse values and perspectives. In order to maintain relationship in the workplace, it is the responsibility of an individual to encourage others to share problems related to work and to help them. A good work relationship is beneficial as working in the organization becomes more enjoyable and the employees becomes more creative and innovative. [1]

The report highlights the issues of policy conflicts in the organization. JKL industries have some cultural issues, which affects the work performance of the employees. The new manager has to resolve the issues. In order to resolve the issue, the manager has to use emotional intelligence. Rigid organizational culture creates discrimination among the co-workers. Discrimination in the organization creates communication gap in the organization. The report mentions previous experience of the manager in this respect. The second answer is about confrontation with the team in the meeting. The manager has responsibility to convince the team member and the employees about the values of dynamic culture in the organization. The manager takes assertive communication style to resolve the issue. The answer highlights different types of networking in a business and their implications. A networking plan is developed to analyze the scenario. The networking plan consists of networking activities, time schedule and rationale of the activities.

JKL industries is an Australian owned company that mainly sells forklifts, small trucks as well as spare parts to industry. The company also delivers value to customers as well as investors through their highly trained, motivated and professional workforce. Head office of JKL industries is located in Sydney. JKL industries have negotiated the sales rights to a range of medium and large trucks after being in a business that mainly dealt with forklifts and small trucks. In other words, JKL industries changed into an overseas supplier. The company is mainly looking forward to increase their market share in selling. As a result, structure of the organization needs to change to incorporate these big changes. These changes are likely to cause problems in the organization, as it will involve huge cost.

Communication and consultation are essential in an organization as it helps to develop people in an organization. A good communication and consultation is central to the management process. Without communication and consultation, the issues that were faced by the organization were that it lacked an overarching approach to information management. It also faced slow responses to internal and external customer needs. Communication and consultation is also needed to avoid poor sense of employee engagement and responsibility for work performance. The main role of the communication consultant is to put in place the right communication plan with the adapted media. They are also responsible for developing a message that is required for various phases of the project. [2]

Business and strategic planning of JKL industries includes its mission and vision. The mission of the company is to deliver value to its customers as well as investors with the help of their highly skilled and motivated workforce. The vision of the company is to develop and unlock the potential of its customers. JKL has mainly developed strategic and operational plan to drive and direct business over the next five years. Strategic Plan of JKL is to become the leading supplier of forklifts as well as medium and large size trucks. [3]The operational plans are as follows:

(a) The three most important communication objectives

JKL will enlarge obtainable braches to incorporate the sale of medium and large trucks within 12 months.

JKL will depart from the rental market and shut the rental division within the next 18 months.

JKL will continue the selling of forklifts and enlarge their share of market by 7 percent within the next 12 months.

JKL also propose its operational plan to comprehend strategic objectives. The main characteristic of its operational plan includes human resources, physical and financial resources as well as performance management. The primary objective of the organization is to be solution-oriented as well as focused on the requirements of customers. The main stakeholders of JKL are its clients and customers. [4]

(a) The three most important communication objectives are as follows:

Increased productivity – With the help of good communication skills, an organization will be able to anticipate problems and co-ordinate workflow. A good communication will help to develop relationships and promote commodities and services.

Stronger Decision-Making – The ability to communicate effectively will increase productivity in the organization.[5]

Strong Business Relationships – With the help of effective communication skill, the impression about the company can be enhanced. Without an effective communication, individuals tend to misunderstand each other as well as misinterpret information. This leads to failure of ideas among the employees.

(b) The communication strategies for work teams to meet organizational needs are as follows:

Clearly communicate goals and objectives with every department: An effective communication strategy will help the work teams to have a clear understanding of the aims of the company as well as the mission. When work teams feel more engaged to the company, they are more likely to communicate openly with other workers. [6]

Strengthen company Communication: Work team communication can become more effective between phone calls, emails as well as text messages. Communication can be strengthened if the company communication can take place in a single location.

Allow everyone to contribute: Top-down communication strategies can leave some workers feeling detached. This can be avoided by allowing open communication among all workers. This will help the team workers to meet organizational goals.

Information should always be available: To meet organizational goals by efficient communication strategy, it is important to make information available at all time.

The communication strategies for individual employees to meet organizational needs are as follows:

Inclusive communication strategy: An inclusive communication strategy should be employed in an organization for individual employees to meet organizational needs. This strategy invites all the members to become a part of a decision taken by the company.

(b) The communication strategies for work teams to meet organizational needs

Interaction process should be result-oriented: An effective communication should be result-oriented. In other words, it should focus on obtaining productive results to the organization. 

Verbal – Verbal communication is the most effective communication that involves the use of words in delivering the intended message. The two most important forms of verbal communication involve both oral and written communication. Written communication involves documentation done with pen and paper. On the other hand, oral communication is a form of verbal communication that involves formal communication such as lectures. [7]

Visual Communication – In today’s world, visual communication is the most important form of communication. JKL will make communicate with the help of visual aids such as graphic design. [8]

(d) It is the responsibility of the management to consult with the employees regarding the health and safety matters. The management should consult the employees by the introduction of the measures that will substantially affect their health and safety at work. It is the duty of the management to give training to the employees regarding health and safety. Information about pay and conditions of employment is indispensable to all employees. Management is required by law to provide employees written statements identifying the main contractual details within two calendar months of the beginning of employment. Some contracts of employment include vital terms and conditions additional to those that must be set out in written orders. Management is required by law to provide the employees enumerated pay statements whenever payments are made.

Figure: Grievance procedure

(Source: Created by Author )

Portfolio

Communication Type	Description	Outcome
Verbal Communication	Sales Consultants	The first type of communication will be both oral and written that will include face to face conversation
Non-verbal communication	Operation Manager	The communication with operation manager will include non-verbal communication as there is always a distance between the employees and managers
Visual Communication	Managing Director	Managing directors are mainly communicated with visual communication strategy that involves video calls.

Management feedback

The feedback that is provided by the management to the employees are as follows:

Employees face inadequate consultation that results in risks. As a result, Communication and consultation are, needed that will avoid poor sense of employee engagement and responsibility for work performance.

The employees face problems related to inadequate communication. It is very important to implement a transparent communication so that the workers feel free to communicate.

There is a lack of overarching approach to information management.

The management had identified poor general awareness among the employees. As a result, the code of conduct of the company should be transparent to all the employees.

As per the complaint of the employee, there are no incentives among some other employees of JKL industry to accommodate non-Christians in the Christmas celebration. This scenario indicates presence of rigid culture in the organization. Among the several policies, two important policies that influence the conflicts are resistance to change and avoidance of conflicts. Management team of JKL industry has low emotional intelligence as per case study.

(c) The two methods of communication

Emotional intelligence has two aspects such as personal competence and social competence. Personal competence needs self awareness and self management to manage a team. Social competence of a manager requires social awareness and skill of relationship management. Social competencies of a manager require capability to interpret the behavior of the employees and team member. Due to lack of this skill, the management team avoids any conflicts arises in the organization. [9]

The unresolved problem creates communication gap among co-workers and also between employees and management. If the racial discrimination faced by the employees are not resolved at time, this may increase dissatisfaction of the employees and increases turnover in the company. Cultural distance among the employees resists the collaboration among the team members. Lack of collaboration affects the share of knowledge and creative ideas among the team members.

Relevant legislation

Australian Human Rights Commission Act 1986 (Cth) is applicable to mitigate religion discrimination in the work place. Racial discrimination Act 1975 can also be applied to resolve conflicts. These laws prohibit unfairness in the work place. [10]

Following the policies of Human rights service department of Australia, the first requirement to bring diversity is to respect everyone in the workplace. As a manager, the policy would be motivating the employees to accept diversified culture. One of the objectives of Australian government is the cultural inclusion in work force. When employees have different values and different cultural background, punitive action may be detrimental. Therefore, the management team can take supportive training to increase knowledge about cultural diversity. In order to handle this situation, the manager needs to play a role of leader, who can establish a high valued culture in the organization. Implementation of zero tolerance policy in the event of discrimination may be effective.

Changes in policy in JKL industries and suggestions to resolve the issues

When the non Christian employees are excluded in Christmas celebration, the management team needs to communicate directly with the employees who are showing rigid behavior. Passive aggressiveness is reflected in the exiting culture of JKL industries. In order to mitigate the cultural distance and passive aggression, the new manager can organize an open discussion forum, where employees of different cultural background can take part and share their views about own culture and other’s culture. This can change the perception of employees of JLK industries showing passive aggression. Moreover, reward system for the employees, who behave well with other employees irrespective of cultural background, may be effective. At the time of recruitment, the HR department can sign an agreement with the employees to show decent behavior in the work place.

(d) Management responsibility for health and safety matters

Problems coming from the team

The resistors believe always in home culture. Therefore, they may be unwilling to take part in the meeting. The narrow belief of the employees is hard to remove. Other members of the management team may resist the procedure. They may behave aggressive attitude and walk out from the meeting. Rigid thought restricts them to accept the good aspects of cultural diversity. [11]

In order to handle the aggressive behavior of team member and other employees, the manager can take a strong leadership position. The manager can highlight some examples of organizational failure due to having rigid cultural practice. They needs to be motivated about the fact that professional skill and knowledge is more important in an organization compared to rigid cultural practice. The manager can set an organizational goal such an expansion of business in the international market. In order to achieve the goal, cultural diversity is very much important. Examples of organisational success of Giant firms in the world due to having dynamic work culture can motivate the team member.

Communication style

The default communication strategy of the manager is assertive styles of communication. The manager wants to retain this style in resolving the problems. The main characteristic of this style is to save own right and be respectful to other communicators. The problem solver needs to be good listener first. Problem and grievances of all the members require to be given priority without any bias. At the time of communication, the facial expression and word choice needs to be firm and positive. [12]

Previous experience

The same communication style was adopted during working in multinational organization in Australia. New group of chairperson joined the organization. Therefore, the employees were unwilling to accept the organizational change. The team member and the employees had to accept new rules and regulations. New measurement of work performance, organization process was set. A communication gap was created between the top management and the employees. A sensitive position had been taken to mitigate the gap. [13]

Network in an organization is a group of employees, who work together to achieve a common organizational goal. Three form of networking are observed in an organization. Operational networking, personal networking and strategic networking are different form of networking.

Figure: Different types of networking

(Source: Machin, 2014)

The purpose of the operational networking is engaging team member into work process to work efficiently. Building up strong relation with co-workers is key behavior of operational networking. Stakeholders such as both internal and external members are involved in the operational network. Internal members are employees of different department in the organization, team members of management and external stakeholders are customers, suppliers and distributors. The allocated task for each member signifies clear criteria for membership in the network. After building relationship, everybody works to achieve a common organizational goal. In the operational networking, trust between management and stakeholders is one of the important aspect. The external stakeholders help the organization to identify potential opportunity and threats in the market. [14]

The purpose of personal networking is enhancing personal skill along with the professional skill. The high performers of the personal networking have characteristics such as work diversity, awareness about own capabilities and abilities of other team member, dynamic nature, investment of time and effort to enhance relationship in the network. The formal network has structured process of meeting. In the informal network, the relationship with the colleagues is built up overtime. The network highlights several information regarding facts, issues about the internal and external work environment that affect performance of organization.

In the strategic network, future risks and challenges are given priority. It focuses on valuable relationship with the organization, which can help in organizational development.

Figure: Strategic networking framework

(Source: Darbi et al. 2016)

Strategic networking focuses on the needs of the organization considering what resources the organization has. After making analysis of gaps in access information and required resources, a plan is built. The plan is about relationship portfolio. The relationship portfolio helps to identify the relationship, which values most to the organization. The value of relationship is determined based on relative contribution of the stakeholders and their interest on the organization. The network identifies weak relation and strong relation. Further analysis is done to improve network and resource allocation in the organization. Strategic networking requires substantial effort of the manager, who can devote time and effort to build effective relationship with the stakeholders and the team members. For a new manager and leader, formulation of strategic networking is comparatively difficult. [15]

The operational networking is suggested for the JKL industries. Collaborative work gets first priority in this networking. In order to implement the networking in the organization, the manager requires good problem solving skills, information-gathering skills. Interpersonal communication skill is another important requirement. This skill is required to communicate organizational information with the employees and tem members. The manager needs to have skill to gather relevant information, which can lead to the organization development in future. Relationship needs to build considering both short term and long term goal. [16]

Previous experience

In the previous company, strategic networking was applied. The previous company belongs to the same industry in which JKL operates. During the working period, the company faced loss in the production. Therefore, strategic networking was taken. As immediate fund was needed in that company, relation with new venture capitalists was built. The venture capitalists helped by providing funds and also in strategy formulation. Good relation with suppliers helped the company in crisis period. They provided raw materials in credit for months. Social networking was used to build business relationship. The loss-making period lasted for few months. A consultant was recruited to overcome that situation. The team members were motivated to stay in the company. Collaborative work, diligences of the employees brought the company back on the track. After a few months, the company started to regain the profit.

Networking activity	Person	Schedule	Rationale for networking activity
Meeting with the key suppliers with whom Sam has issues.	Sam	1st month	This meeting would help both the sales person and the suppliers in addressing the issues. The meeting would be doe in the presence of manager. The sales person can communicate with the suppliers about the delayed devilry date ad about unwillingness to keep the cost down.
Building good relationship with the customers by increasing the values	Sam	1st to 3rd month	For the benefit of the organization, good relationship with the customers is necessary. Aggressive attitude towards the suppliers may hamper the business. The customers need to make realized that JKL values the need of customers and the delay in supply is unintended. The networking can mitigate the communication gap between the customers and suppliers. The management needs to use their emotional intelligence in formation of networking.
Collaboration with new suppliers	Sam	3rd month	The new supplier may be more reliable for the sales man. New relation improves the supply chain of the company.
Removing communication gap with the customers	Alex	1st to 2nd month	Alex has issue with the understanding of the customers. Alex needs to realise the organizational objective. As a sales person, he needs to understand the specificity of his role and the purpose. He has perception that customers do not understand the deal and assumes them as fool. However, management requires making him realize that keeping positivity is necessary from business perspective.
Training of Personal integrity and sustained effort.	Alex	2nd to 3rd month	The sales person requires motivation to bring positivity in performance. Trust and integrity is important for the networking. Therefore, Alex needs to give effort to build good relation with customers. Lack of communication skill may be a reason that he fails to convince the customers about the products.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that communication and consultation are essential in an organization as it helps to develop people in an organization. Personal competence needs self awareness and self management to manage a team. It has also been concluded that it is the duty of the management to give training to the employees regarding health and safety. The management team can take supportive training to increase knowledge about cultural diversity. Without an effective communication, individuals tend to misunderstand each other as well as misinterpret information. The manager can set an organizational goal such an expansion of business in the international market. The primary objective of JKL industries is to be solution-oriented as well as focused on the requirements of customers. The relationship portfolio helps to identify the relationship, which values most to the organization.

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