WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION: A STUDY ON INFORMAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION, Essays (university) of Business Management and Analysis

Download WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION: A STUDY ON INFORMAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK WITHIN AN ORGANIZATION and more Essays (university) Business Management and Analysis in PDF only on Docsity! 1.0 INTRODUCTION Over the years, different studies concluded that top management is necessary to build the right infrastructure of communication within the organization. When an organization grows, it is easier to be entrapped in a complicated system of communicating. Opposing to this, practices such as: honesty; integrity; and reward; create trust among employees. Workplace communication is definitely affected by the infrastructure of the organization, but this is not the only parameter. Forty-five years ago, James Granger (1970) described a number of obstacles that companies faced in order to gain an effective communication. He identified: the existence of fear among employees; the inertia due to a non-rewarding system; the sense that management did not care about their problems; the fear that disagreement will block their promotions; and the lack of supervisory accessibility and responsiveness. To cope with that, Granger claimed that companies should take three actions, in order to change radically the environment: (a) the management should start building trust between them and employees; (b) the management should put a premium on integrity; and, (c) they should get out of their offices and find out what's going on, in their organization. The second section of this paper relates to the workplace communication with emphasis in informal communication network within the organization. The review includes an extended survey on communication and communication process, communication channels and barriers of communication. Different aspects are presented through comparisons of academic studies, theories' synthesis and discussion of findings. 1 2.0 DISCUSSION 2.1 Communication and Communication Process According to Scott (2005), communication is about sending, receiving, and understanding information and meaning. He claimed that "receiving" and "understanding" are the most important operations in the communication process, since the response of the receiver defines whether the communication attempt is successful or not. He further defined two types of communication that are related to workplace communication; the effective and the efficient communication (Scott, 2005). Effective communication, when the message of the sender has a successful decoding from the receiver; and efficient, when the communication is done effectively at a low cost. Communication process is the procedure where a sender and a receiver communicate. This scheme incorporates the "encoding-decoding" operations and describes the usual transfer of the message. McShane and Von Glinow (2003) have illustrated this process by adding the feedback and communication barriers: Figure 1: The Communication Process (Source: McShane, S.L. and Von Glinow, M.A. (2003) Organizational Behavior: Emerging realities for the workplace revolution. 2nd edition. Boston, McGraw-Hill, p. 324.) In communication process, feedback is considered an indispensable component, since it contributes correctively to the new inputs of information, or even works towards the adjustment of sender and receiver. As Guo and Sanchez (2005) asserted, lack of feedback corresponds to one-way communication, where there is no possibility of response. On the contrary, two-way communication is more accurate and information-rich. To this extent, combining with Scott's findings, the adoption of two-way communication, could direct an organization to effective and efficient communication. 2.2 Communication Channels Messages and information travel around in following ways: • The verbal communication • The non-verbal communication • The technology-aided communication, which accommodates e-mailing, instant messaging, micro-blogging, ontology, and communities of practice Verbal communication is considered the spoken and written modes. Non-verbal communication on the other hand, is the communication that transcends the written or spoken word (Gabbott and Hogg 2001). Gabbott and Hogg (2001) identified that non- 2 Bidya (2009) agrees with Sinickas (2001), regarding the open communication channels, and adds that open communication should be administered and if possible monitored since it may direct to the employees' detachment towards the organization. Furthermore, open communication is related to trust which in turn is very fragile (Conchie and Burns 2008). Therefore, this is difficult to build and easy to lose. In their study Conchie and Burns (2008) identified that workers' trust intentions, are minimally affected by good news, while they are biased toward bad news. However, a good way to increase trust within organization could be through open communication. Thomas et al., (2009) have clearly stated that communication is a mean to develop trust and cultivate employee's involvement. They defined as trust the "embedded beliefs about the other party", which are shaped through information and communication. In addition, according to their findings, interpersonal trust is related to open communication. In upward communication the most important think is the quantity of information, while in downward and lateral the quality of information exchanged. Thomas et al., (2009) presented a theoretical model based on their findings: Figure 3: Theoretical Model of Perceived Communication, Trust, Experienced Openness, and the Effect on Employee Involvement in Organizational Goals (Source: Thomas, Gail Fann et al. (2009) The Central Role of Communication in Developing Trust and its Effect on Employee Involvement. Journal of Business Communication, 46(3), p. 289) Kaul and Pandit (2008) divided the workplace communication to task-oriented and relationship-oriented. They found that the most important aspect of communication is pragmatics, which is the practical use of language to communicate. In task-oriented communication the accuracy of information is necessary, while in the relationship-oriented politeness is much more significant. Managerial attitude which derives from the structure of organization and the managerial style has an immediate impact in the communication milieu. Khatri (2009) concluded that in most cases, there is a communication gap between superiors and their subordinates. This gap comes from the power distance. As a result, high power distance organizations appear symptoms of inertia, low participation and low performance among employees. Such symptoms usually enrich a poor communication environment and maintain a culture of inadequacy. According to Imberman (2003), communication is a key to employees' involvement. Making people involved through the sharing of information creates a strong potential to motivate different aspects of their performance. Upward communication is a process, where employees' ideas, responses, critiques or plans are shared with their superiors. Kraut et al., (2002) have described thoroughly informal communication and proclaimed it as an integral component of any organization. Informal communication is crucial for coordination to exist, since it depends on four top human's necessities: (a) the physical proximity, (b) the instinctive need to communicate, (c) the sense of being a member group, 5 and (d) the hierarchy. Moreover, they introduced the use of technology as a mean to overcome barriers in terms of making it more effective. Also, they separated formal from informal communication by registering some of their characteristics which are presented in the figure below: Figure 4: The formality dimension of communication (Source: Kraut, Robert A. et al. (2002) Informal Communication in Organizations: Form, Function and Technology, White Paper, p. 5.) In addition, Subramanian (2006) claimed that informal communication appears between people, due to proximity, perception of each other as a reliable or knowledgeable member, friendship and trust. He, moreover, has given some characteristics of an informal communication which are presented below: Figure 5: The characteristics of an informal communication network According to Subramanian (2006), informal communication is called grapevine. A further research made by Crampton et al., (1998) who examined the grapevine activity a little earlier concluded that it is an inevitable part of the organization. In addition they have researched the factors that influence it revealing the idea of the existence of an informal communication network. The interesting part of this study was that the authors investigated whether this network could be controlled or not by management. If the formal communication network, appear to have inconsistencies and vulnerabilities in terms of the flow of information within the organization, this is the opportunity for the grapevine to take place. Ambiguity, threatening, insecurity and overstress are factors that support the creation of an environment of mistrust. Subramanian (2006) asserted that both formal and informal communication is like blood to any living organization. The attempt to devalue any of it, may direct to organizational chaos. He introduced the significance of rumor and gossip as components of the informal communication network and framed the grapevine as a standard uniform grey code. 6 3.0 CONCLUSIONS These days' "command-and-control" communication approaches are unlikely to generate positive responses in employees (Denning, 2008). Workplace communication is much more complex and affects organization's evolvement. Moreover, it is true that technology- aided communication has high penetration. Although technology has evolved and dominated communication channels, the face-to-face contact remains untouched and continues to be a top-level priority for all employees. Personal contacts empower business relationships, create trust and resolve ambiguities. Informal communication networks are important entities for the organization. In this study I recommend that they should be maintained and in parallel be ingrained with a more innovative communication channel; Communities of Practice. If the organization succeeds in turning the informal communication network to a network, it is expected to increase its agility and cope with internal and external challenges. 7 APPENDICES APPENDIX A Barriers to Communication (Source: Longest, B.B. et al. (2000) Managing health services organizations. 4th edition, Baltimore, MD: Health Professions Press, p. 808-810.) 10 APPENDIX B The Lewis Cultural Types Model (Source: The Lewis Cross-Cultural Communication Model: http://www.best-career- match.com/cross-cultural-communication.html#lewis) 11