Organizational Communication Success and Failure Essay

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Organizational Communication: Success and Failure

Communication with others is an essential and necessary thing everywhere. Students have to communicate with their teachers and classmates and employees have to communicate with their clients and boss. There are many factors that affect how communication goes (American Psychological Association, 2013). The purpose of this essay is a reflection of the successes and failures of real-life organizational communication. The focus will be on a work organization of communication .The aim of this essay is for you to critically evaluate the effectiveness of communication by way of a successful and unsuccessful communication. The essay will give a description of two communication scenarios within the work organization. This will include what the context or situation was, who was communicating to who, where, when, how and why communication was taking place. This will be followed by an evaluation of whether the communication attempt was a success or failure. There will be an analysis of the scenario. In this section there will be a reflection on theories and principles of communication learnt in the course. These will be used in providing an analysis or rationale of why the communication was successful or not. Finally suggestions for the improvement in the case of failed communication will be given.

SCENARIO 1

The scenario involved a situation where employees were raising grievances concerning their safety in the workplace. As workers of steel manufacturing industry we felt the organization was not giving us adequate security and protection in the course of our work. I was selected by other employees in the organization to forward their grievances to the organization .I had to present our grievances to the unit manager and what also state what the employees expected from the organization with regard to the grievances raised.as their representative I secured an appointment with the manager where I presented all these and clearly explained everything as the workers wanted. There was a need to ensure that the workers made their grievances in the best way possible which could be most effective.

Evaluation and analysis

The communication in this scenario was a success as the grievances of the employees ended up being addressed. Effective communication is extremely essential for the success of every organization. There are various factors that led to the successful communication in this scenario. These factors are either individual level factors or organization level factors.

Individual-level factor

When looking at the individual level factor we see that the communication was effective due to the presentation of the information .the message was conveyed in a written form which was clear .this included only the essential facts which were put in a direct way which the manager could easily understand. Once the message was received and understood then a detailed discussion began where the employee gave an explanation of what was indicated in writing. This topic required a long and detailed discussion which had to be done in person. Therefore holding a discussion with the manager on the issues was an effective medium used hence the communication was effective. Choosing a wrong medium could lead to a problem with retention of the message (Fosset, 2010). Therefore when the details were discussed using a written back-up meant that the information would not easily be forgotten or lost. This communication channel used also impacted the overall satisfaction of communication in the scenario. The concept of communication in person allows a great impact of the message which is intended. This means that getting immediate and truthful feedback is possible. Effective managers take time to listen and understand what is being conveyed to them. There are channels which are easily ignored which can leave the one passing the message not satisfied. For instance face-to-face communication backed with written communication was quite effective in this scenario. The communicator in this case has knowledge of communication skills and how to use them in the most appropriate way therefore the communication was successful. As on of the most important aspects of communication is listening, the manger implemented the strategy of taking time to listen to the employee, make eye contact and pay attention .listening attentively made the manager grasp everything the communicator was saying ( Anderson, 2013).

Organizational-level factor

Corporate organizations are social systems that have many interactive forces. These forces need communication so as to work together.in order to practice god communication skills there is need for an understanding of good communication within the organization and then this is made part of the corporate practice and policies. Therefore from the organizational level good communication skills should be made part of the organization culture.

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in this organization both informal and formal communication are used. Informal communication is associated with interpersonal communication .informal communication is part of the organization and hence there is effective communication in the organization. The organization also has an upward communication approach in place. This means that information can be transmitted from bottom level to top level in the organization ( Anderson, 2013).This is the case of the scenario where the employees were able to let their grievances known to the management of the organization. Openness in communication with superiors in the organization is also encouraged. This openness is required in both sending messages and receiving messages between the subordinates and superiors. Openness in sending messages in the organization requires that there is complete honesty whether the information being conveyed is positive or negative. Openness in message within the organization requires the willingness to listen to whatever message being conveyed without jumping into conclusions even when the message is not what one wants to hear. Within the organization level there is also employing f mangers who have good communication skills. A requirement of all leaders in the organization is good communication skills. This means that leaders in the organization have good communication skills which will ensure organization communication is a success.in the case scenario we can see that the manager was a good listener and therefore the communication in that case was effective can say that one of the most important cultural values in the organization is effective listening. The organization advocates for effective listening at all levels of communication in the organization.

SCENARIO 2

The scenario involved some changes in the organization being communicated to the employees. There was some new equipment that organization wanted to introduce for the employees to use. This information was communicated to the employees through the procurement manager. This information was conveyed through emails that were sent to the employees informing them of the new equipment they are to start using. However this change was not fully implemented as the employees resisted this change. Most of them expressed their dislike for the new equipment and some opted to completely stay away from them and continue carrying out their operations the way they did previously (Tanner, 2013). The employees influenced each other into resisting the new equipment. The employees also feared the unknown; they were uncertain of the exact reason as to why the organization brought the new equipment and they feared for the security of their jobs. Most of them thought that these equipment's were meant to complexly replace them .They therefore feared that they would loose their jobs to the equipment. This led to the organization spending more on the change than what they had stipulated. This is because some of the equipment broke down and they had to be replaced.at the same time the organization had to carry out some thorough training sessions which could have been avoided by a simple demonstration by the procumbent manager (Dea, 2013). All this could have easily been avoided if the message of this change could have been communicated in a better way.

Evaluation and analysis

Communication in this scenario was a failure as the change failed to take off as intended. For the few who embraced the idea ended up spoiling the equipment or having a lot of difficulty in operating them. There are various factors that led to this communication failure between the procurement manager and the employees. First of all the medium thetas used to convey this message was wrong. The choice of the medium for communication was poorly done. Any communication system is only effective if it can deliver the message that is intended appropriately and effectively. Emails are only sufficient for short and quick messages in the scenario the information contained so much about the equipment. This could have been better conveyed through a discussion or an illustration of how to use the equipment. There are people whose understanding are poor and have to get some demonstration before a concept sticks. Therefore writing emails with a description of how to use the equipment was not enough. Wrong choice of medium can lead to poor retention of the message.in this scenario especially for those who like demonstration it was difficult to retain the information they had read in the emails ads they required a more practical approach so that the information can fully stick. This is the reason why those….....

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