Free Research Paper On Significant Principles Of Management Communication Used To Successfully Achieve Organizational Objectives

Abstract

The vitality of communication in business environment is all but surprising. While interacting with subordinates and establishing partnership or building business connections, communicators need to abide by a set of communication rules that would best convey their intentions, build trust, and create a working atmosphere conducive to the achievement of organizational goals. Communication skills can prove effective when disputes among subordinates reach a critical point fraught with the demoralization of other employees. An efficient human resource specialist or manager can assume the role of a mediator conciliating those in conflict. On the whole, good management communication skills help business executives and senior managers overcome communication barriers, build economic and cooperative ties with foreign partners, recruit foreign specialists, resolve internal disputes, lead the teams of professionals and group meetings, and connect with the audience.
Keywords: communication, management, dispute, nonverbal, interpersonal
In business matrix, management communication is critical to whoever seeks to build efficient and loyal teams of professional subordinates and large client bases. Proper techniques of communication allow speakers to communicate ideas and organizational goals to personnel, build trust, produce a creative microclimate, and reach agreements with customers. Proper communication skills and approaches based on ethics, egalitarianism, and respect are important for not only managers and human resource specialists, but also employees dealing with clients on a regular basis. There may come a time when rift within the seemingly tenacious organizations transpires threatening to undermine discipline and cause the drain of valuable talents. Communication techniques and methods of dispute resolution become the indispensable tools of finding trade-offs and achieving conciliation between arguing parties. Overall, management communicative norms, techniques, and approaches, whether in verbal or nonverbal interpersonal communication, are of extreme importance since they allow overcoming communication barriers, building economic and cooperative ties with overseas partners, recruiting foreign specialists, resolving internal disputes, leading the teams of professionals and group meetings, and connecting with the audience.

Effective Communication Norms in Business Setting

Norms, or the ways of behavior or official standards are critical in business settings. McLean (2010) noted that business communicators must be ethnical, which helps build the reputation of trustworthy individuals. The objective of business communicators is the establishment of healthy relations with the audience by building trust. A speaker needs to be an ethical communicator by avoiding manipulating the audience. This is not to say that enthusiasm and passion do not fit into business communication. What are abnormal are insult, sarcasm, and other impolite and uncivil communication forms. Ethical communicator must remain egalitarian by engaging in writing and speaking communication in such a way that is relevant and comprehensible to all readers and listeners regardless ethnicity, race, gender, and other features. Trustworthiness, respect, and egalitarian treatment shape such complex norm of business communicators as ethics, a set of rules and principles regulating appropriate behavior. In addition, preparedness and clarity are about as important for business communicators as concision and punctuality are (McLean, 2010).

The Role of Interpersonal Communication

Baack (2012) stated that one-one-one contact was still one of the most important forms of management and business communication. Communication interactions defined as interpersonal occur day in and day out between two or more individuals, such as coworkers, clients, suppliers, and other people in the marketing channel, between members of government agencies, between employees and supervisors, and a wide range of publics. These interactions have the potential of building loyalty, trust, and other positive components of smooth and effective relationships or producing hostility, distrust, and disharmony. To quote an example, Bill Marriott, the owner of the chain of hotels called the Marriott International, cultivates positive personal relationships with subordinates involving hugs, shoulder patting and mentioning people by first names, which turns into quality service. Herb Kelleher, the cofounder of the Southwest Airlines, also focused on the happiness of employees as a prerequisite for high-quality services (Baack, 2012).
Philosophy Doctor Clyde Warden (n.d.) stated that understanding the recipient, discussing differences in paradigms, or viewpoints, reducing defensive communication, using numerous channels, nonverbal and verbal feedback, persuasive communication, showing a positive attitude, engagement in active listening and meta-communications and gender difference recognition. As far as I am concerned, during the acts of interpersonal communication, I have used persuasive communication and a positive attitude towards the speaker, paid a very close attention to nonverbal cues and communication means like gestures, posture, posture, and facial expression that prove helpful in decoding or facilitating the interpretation of communicators’ ideas.

The Role of Intercultural and International Interpersonal Communication in Today’s Global Business

Baack (2012) suggested that business ventures and individuals could take advantage of numerous business opportunities in the contemporary business environment. The exploration of yet undiscovered cultures and establishment of social contacts within countries or potential customers abroad stimulate the expansion of sales and markets. Cultural differences within the USA allow American companies to recognize a number of advantages. Plenty of cultural groups, such as Asian Americans and Hispanics, present the opportunity of winning strategic segments of target markets. An abundant pool of new workforce with multiple interests and perspectives injects energy into the operations of US companies. As is the case with Canadian companies that find ready consumer markets in the USA, the first thing many entrepreneurs do is expand their international business programs into countries with a great deal of cultural affinity. Still, businesspersons are sure to transfer their international programs to countries that are not culturally and linguistically affined. An efficient business communication implies the adjustment to and understanding of cultural distinctions and aspects (Baack, 2012). As shown in the example of Canadian companies the intercultural and interpersonal communication will be instrumental in entrepreneurs’ diversifying the circle of customer markets and recruiting more talents.

Verbal and Nonverbal Management Communication. Effect Written Management Communication

According to a UN specialized agency, International Civil Aviation Organization (2012), efficient verbal communication included writing and speech as means of conveying a message. Involving both interaction and extra speech enhancement nonverbal cues, oral communication succeeds in reaching a focused intended audience while written communication often targets a large number of dispersed information recipients. Depending on the objective, organizations tend to use both verbal communication channels. Arab British Academy for Higher Education (n.d.) stated that a communicator needed to strive towards simplicity, to clarify the objective of the letter, present all figures and facts in the simplest possible way without flowery language, much less ambiguity, and to mind the public relation aspect for the sake of company image. It is recommended that a business communicator make a shift from you to we-attitude in order to win communicator’s favor, show interest, and make tone sound courteous, make use of persuasion, resort to positive language, and prioritize coherence, sincerity, the tactfulness of approach, and care for culture.
Baack (2012) suggested that there were different nonverbal communication elements, such as body movements, gestures, eye contact, touch, facial expression, voice tone, and physical distance. While it is advisable that managers not crowd a person, physical distance alone can imply the degree of trust. Touch may include such signs as patting on the back and a firm handshake. Eye contact involves the knowledge of when best to interrupt the visual contact not to expose one’ attitude as excessively aggressive. Body movements or the lack thereof, such as standing still, reflects confidence and situational control (Baack, 2012). Clearly, shoulder patting or a firm handshake are excellent attitude communication signs, so is posture like slouching that alone does much to communicate the idea of uncertainty and the weakness of argumentative position that could potentially create a false, albeit lasting first expression. Wood (2006) summarized that nonverbal communication signals, the important elements of neurolinguistic programming, had been found to launch the positive evaluation of sellers’ trustworthiness and trust-building traits. Graham, Unruh, and Jennings (1991) concluded that such nonverbal communication channels as body movement, facial expression, and voice tone conveyed as much as 93% of the attitude ciphered in the message sent to a recipient.

Approaches to Engaging audience and Ensuring Active Listening

Helmer (n.d.) suggested that an efficient introduction could help communicators engage the audience. To do so, they need to describe a character or a scene, to share a personal experience, to relate the topic to the audience, to explain one’s interest in the problem raised, to put a provocative question, to present an amusing, remarkable or troubling fact, to show a compelling visual image, or to offer a humorous anecdote or observation. Beyond that, it is advisable to present speech goals or thesis and make a cursory preview of major points and content. Furthermore, speakers should define unknown terms, apply specific examples, make statistics meaningful, use analogies, and build the involvement of audience. Experts insist on the relevance of using summaries and previews, transitions and signposts, using clear verbal devices by avoiding obscure pronoun references (Helmer, n.d.).

The Effective Methods of Conflict Resolution

Doherty and Guyler (2008) believed informal negotiation to be any type of person-to-person interaction, whereby communication participants seek to reach an agreement that is both mutual and informal by discussing a matter of dispute and working out a settlement by compromise or an agreed deal. With no third party usually privy to the negotiation process, participants engage in bargaining, each looking to secure the best terms. Mediation is thought to be an intermediation, by which an unbiased mediator, whether external or internal, is requested to arrange for arguing parties to exchange their understandings as to issues and feelings and forge an agreement that would improve the situation. Facilitated dialogue or facilitation implies the involvement of experts external to organizations like independent consultants in possession of proper experience and skills. Organizations may invite such experts so that will facilitate the meeting between parties in conflict.
Conciliation is the method that calls for the involvement of third parties seeing that a conflict that remains unresolved has entered a new phase of further escalation. Human resources specialists, and senior or line managers, or even conciliatory agencies like the Advisory, Conciliation, and Arbitration Service can act as conciliating actors who hear parties in conflict out, collect required information, and proceed to suggest a piece of advice and help with finding resolution. Contributing to conciliation, arbitration is a technique, by which specialists listen to and assess evidence from both parties to make a judgment regarding the best option for performance restoration. Litigation is the final method, by which an employee or an employer resorts to law, whether it be in the form of civil litigation or employment tribunals (Doherty and Guyler, 2008).

Techniques for Leading Teams and Group Meetings

Carlock (2012) stated that efficient leaders led their team by their own example, that is, they show through action their dedication to empowering and developing teams, which involves feedback, openness, communication, and professionalism. Coaching implies a range of conducts that develop the talents of team members through the improvement of self-awareness and self-reliance. Participative decision-making implies the participation of team members in decision-making and planning. Informing is the proliferation of accurate and timely information by leaders on performance, objectives, and organizational strategy. Interaction with the team and showing concern is an essential combination of conducts communicating leaders concern with team’s contribution and morale (Carlock, 2012). Philosophy Doctor James Creighton (2004) noted that there were a number of group techniques for the improvement of meeting efficiency, such as defining problems and opportunities, generating alternatives, evaluating alternatives, choosing a course of action, defining the implementation plan, and establishing mechanisms that would determine approach efficiency. One of the most recognizable examples of the alternative generation technique is brainstorming (Creighton, 2004).

Concluding Remarks

Not only are verbal communication types like speech and writing important, but also nonverbal cues and elements like body movements, gestures, eye contact, touch, facial expression, voice tone, and physical distance play a central role in interpersonal communication. Effective management communication also implies the approaches to engaging audience and ensuring active listening by means of sharing personal experience, relating a problem to the audience, and putting provocative questions among other things. Efficient conflict resolution techniques include informal negotiation, mediation, facilitation, conciliation, arbitration, and litigation. Coaching, participative decision-making, informing, interaction with the team and showing concern are the major tools of leading teams while defining problems and opportunities, generating alternatives, evaluating alternatives, choosing a course of action, and defining the implementation plan are believed to be efficient approaches to leading group meetings.

References

Arab British Academy for Higher Education. (n.d.). Business communication skills. ABAHE.co.uk. Retrieved from: http://www.abahe.co.uk/Free-En-Resources/English-for-Managers-Business-Correspondance.pdf
Baack, D. (2012). Management communication. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Carlock, R.S. (2012, May). Assessment tools for developing and leading effective teams. (Working Paper). INSEAD. The Business School for the World. Retrieved from: http://www.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/doc.cfm?did=49811
Creighton, J.L. (2004). Using group process techniques to improve meeting effectiveness. Effective Meetings. Retrieved from: http://www.effectivemeetings.com/teams/teamwork/creighton.asp
Doherty, N., and Guyler, M. (2008). The essential guide to workplace mediation & conflict resolution. Rebuilding working relationships. Philadelphia, USA: Kogan Page Limited. Retrieved from: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/ebookviewer/ebook/bmxlYmtfXzIyNDM3OF9fQU41?sid=6bd4fdaf-f294-4722-8d53-562214d526aa@sessionmgr4005&vid=9&format=EB&rid=1
Graham, G.H., Unruh, J., and Jennings, P. (1991, January 1). The impact of nonverbal communication in organizations: a survey of perceptions. The Journal of Business Communication, 28(1). Retrieved from: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=35&sid=6bd4fdaf-f294-4722-8d53-562214d526aa%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4208
Helmer, J. (n.d.). How to engage your audience and keep them with you. Oral Communication Center, Hamilton College. Retrieved from: http://academics.hamilton.edu/occ/engagingyouraudience.pdf
International Civil Aviation Organization. (2012). Fundamentals of communication. ICAO.int. Retrieved from: http://www.icao.int/APAC/Meetings/2012_CMC/FUNDAMENTALS%20OF%20COMMUNICATION.pdf
McLean, S. (2010). Business communication for success. Arizona Western College. Retrieved from: http://www.saylor.org/site/textbooks/Business%20Communication%20for%20Success.pdf
Warden, C. (n.d.). Chapter 3: interpersonal communications. Warden’s Web. Retrieved from: http://cwarden.org/warden/downloads/busPsyc/Ch03.pdf
Wood, A. (2006, March 1). NLP revisited: nonverbal communications and signals of trustworthiness. Journal of Personal Selling and Sales Management, 26(2), 197-204. Retrieved from: http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=6bd4fdaf-f294-4722-8d53-562214d526aa%40sessionmgr4005&vid=25&hid=4208