The Significance Of Communication In Organizational Settings

Discuss About The Organizational Dissent Events And Communication Channels.

Viorica and Emanoil (2018) define communication as any action, intentional or non-intentional to another person that recognizes the message. Interaction is at the core of human life, our interactions throughout our lives, in business and personal lives. In firms, communication is the driver for the growth of the company. Put differently; communication plays a significant role in organizing a company. When used professionally, communication is intended to relay a particular message that relates to the workings of a firm or the professional environment that it was used, in this context communication is intentional and specific. The study of communication in business is not a new subject, way back as far as the 1950s, the significance of competent communication in organizations was studied (Cova et al., 2018). The same study points out that relevant communication is the ability to relay the context or the comprehensibility of the information. The purpose of this essay is to show the significance of interaction in an organizational setting. The paper will explore the different models of communication and their effects on a company, it will also explore ethics surrounding communication within the company and their impact on the setting and operations.

ommunication within a business is paramount, it is the basis for the operations of the institution and have to be handled and presented carefully. The different forms of communication, specifically within organizations, include non-verbal, verbal, written, intercultural, and interpersonal communications (Viorica & Emanoil, 2018).

An organization is a vast place with large amounts of information moving around. The structure of the company itself is sophisticated, formal and central. Its complexity is evident in the number of departments that interact with each and affects the operations of one another. That said, the management of these departments originate from a single and central point, usually the firm's headquarters, thus, the communication will always come from that central point and trickle down to the different departments as required (McDonald, 2015). Therefore, from the top downwards, the communication is formal and very specific to avoid any confusion. The vastness of a company means the interaction within it is also complicated. McDonald (2015) also states, organizational communication, complex and vast as it is, is precise and intended for a particular function. These functions take three main categories, production function, maintenance function, and innovation function. Production function involves setting the standards for systems, which means creating protocols for the firm's operations, in other terms, creating x to accomplish y, which, of course, is for organizational performance.

Section One

Maintenance function comes in the picture after the company has established itself. This function is useful to continue the communication within the firm to keep the standards of the company. Regarding communication, McDonald (2015) writes, the organization maintains its existing, helpful communication platforms and mediums to retain the current organizational communication.

And finally, innovation function. In this instance, the institution improves its communication through innovation. Suh, Harrington, and Goodman, (2018) give the following example if a firm’s size increases and more departments or branches emerge, then the institution, through innovation, changes its systems to improve and accommodate the changes.

Krzy?anowski (2018) classifies the major types of organizational communication as internal and external communication. Internal communication is the exchange of information between managers, leaders, and employees. It bears many forms from documents, electronic communications, meetings, and face-to-face communications to telephone calls.  The functions of internal institutional communications are almost limitless. It serves as a platform to inform of organizational transformations, changes or developments. Through internal communications, CEOs and senior managers have a chance to improve on the employee morale and satisfaction by exploring employee complaints and answering questions. In addition to this, internal communication is also useful during employee training, for example in the instance of a new development that the employees are not familiar with, training is necessary to inform the employees. These developments may include new business strategy, product unveiling or review and customer service management.

Internal communication is also functional during employee compensation and issuance of benefits. Employees are rewarded through benefits, which include but not limited to- promotions, bonuses, and awards. Salaries are issued through statements and pay slips. These are written forms of internal communication (Chudnovskaya, 2016). Finally, internal communication is crucial in planning business strategy meetings and unveiling the final strategy. At these meetings, Raluca and his colleague Romulus (2018) state that the leadership determines the risks so they can maximize its profits and avert a loss. The company needs to stay safe at all times, and a strategy meeting is a way to improve safety and to get any profits, the firm has to externally do business. It is here that external communication comes in.

External communication, meanwhile, is the communication intended for anyone outside the organization, ranging from shareholders to customers.  Its forms are almost self-evident, advertising, building the company brand and image and shaping public opinion on issues that are paramount to the company. Like internal organizational communication, external communication is beneficial to the institution’s survival. Some of the functions of external corporate communication include advertising and promoting products and services offered by the company (Rezaei et al., 2011). Any time a new product is released, or there is an improvement on the services offered, then the customers have to be informed, enter, external organizational communication.

Types of Organizational Communication

Another function is branding and brand advertisement. McGehee et al. (2018) give the importance of a brand to any business today. They state that companies have to have a brand, an identity, which is established during strategy management meetings and then communicated to the public through external communication. Regularly, companies will communicate its brand to the public through advertisement to demonstrate their values and image. Finally, still on beliefs, the company can also communicate issues that are important to it. For example, Apple coined the brand 'Think Different' to describe its values of pioneering technological innovation and to promote their new product iPhone and iPod. At this point, Apple was communicating its values while at the same time sharing with the public those issues that are important to them.

All these forms of communication, whether internal or external, trickle down to either formal or informal communication. Official communication is a systematic relay of information from up to bottom or bottom-up. On the other hand, informal communication is none hierarchical and doesn’t always have a ‘who or when’ aspect. But that does not make them any less useful than formal communications. An example provided by Bisel, Messersmith, and Kelley (2012) argue informal communication can be used to verify the validity of a previously relayed formal communication.

For all types of communication, a media has to be chosen. The differences between media are numerous but the narrow down to a few. For verbal communication, the gap varies in their feedback time and their ability to relay meaning in the message, meaning their ability to convey cues. For nonverbal communication, the main difference is in how personalized the information is and the variety of languages used (Aros & Gibbons, 2018).

As previously stated, communication in a firm happens in a network or system. A network is a pattern the interaction and the communication take. The first type of system is a chain network. Garner (2017) defines chain networks as a formal network that passes the information from top to bottom. Usually from the CEO and top managers to middle management all the way down to employees. This type of information contains order and instructions. Organizations that majorly use chain networks are those with different branches or multi-national conglomerates. A different kind of system is the wheel network, where the communication is central, but there are no stops between recipients. In such a company, each recipient has a different function. This type of network is convenient for companies that are still growing but have multiple departments. And according to Popescu and Iacob (2017), all the departments have to be located at or close to the headquarters.

Functions of Internal Institutional Communication

Other types of networks for the firm include circle network where information is decentralized and is shared round from one person to the other. It is mainly useful for problem-solving and sharing ideas. It is primarily used by firms that are starting out or within big companies but only for departments in that company. And finally, the Y network, which involves the whole spectrum of systems. Communications here are done both horizontally and vertically between managers of the same rank, managers and employees, employees and employers and employees and managers.

For all types of networks to work, they rely heavily on informal communication. Informal communication, as previously discussed, is essential to an institution since it supports formal communication (Bisel, Messersmith, & Kelley, 2012). The benefits of informal communication are limitless; they act as an avenue to establish the validity of formal messages, it speeds up the delivery and receipt of official messages, it fills in the gap that may have been left with official information and adds on to the official communiqué. Informal communication manifests itself in the form of rumors, gossip, grapevine, and urban legends. Although rumors within the workplace have been condemned for being poisonous to the firm, it bears some significance to the existence of the firm. For example, rumors are a means by which individuals in a firm communicate; the collective can make sense of a formal message and explain its context (Lauring, 2011). Lauring goes ahead to say that they help manage the threat and in most people's view, rumors are viewed as helpful and not disastrous for the company.

Communication within an organization/institution is inevitable, for a business to exist there has to be communication. The different types of communication within or without the company are divided majorly into two categories, formal and informal communication. The company to communicate issues and notices that command the operations within the organization will use official notification. Directives, notifications for product launches, strategy meeting, salaries, and benefits are all forms of formal communication. Mao & Hale (2015) definitively say that these communications are specific and intentional. They are as brief as possible while relaying the information entirely; they contain dates and time as well as the intended recipient. Formal messages do not reach everyone at the same time, it moves from one level of management to the next and takes time between departments. Same goes for external communications as well. Before any information is released publicly, external partners and shareholders have to review the information that is intended for the public if it handles the message of the firm.

Functions of External Corporate Communication

After the information is released, whether internally or externally, informal channels of communications are opened, rumors within the company sometimes spread faster than the message itself. This helps speed up the process. Given that the information is straightforward and brief, it may at times be difficult to understand, a collective mind, through informal communication, help interpret the message, so that it is appropriately followed. The same is true for external connections. The customers or the investor sometimes misunderstand public communications, but the collective mind help interpret it even at that level. These two types of communication are essential to the organization. This essay argues that it is through these two channels alone that a business can survive and maintain an image to the public that is intended. In other words, the business builds a brand through these two types of communication.

In the future, we are going to be the leaders and employees of companies. The economy is proving to be more competitive; it will require a new range of creativity to survive. This writer intended to use the following ways in organizational communication. Informal communication is proven to me as the most effective way of communication in a firm. While it cannot be used to conduct formal corporate operations, it can be useful in the management of the company. For example, a new directive can be offered informally and verified for use with the department. This form of administration, management by walking around, is handy and quicker than the laid down rules of operation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the life of a business development is dependent on the effectiveness of its communication systems. That is why through innovation, companies try to come up with faster more effective ways to communicate either within itself or externally with clients, partners and investors. Since it is only possible to progress forward with communication, a company is left with little choice but to improve upon its media to get new customers and retain the existing ones. Excellent service is hinged on good communication, and excellent service is profitable.

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