Effective Communication Strategies For Managers In Organizational Change

The Importance of Effective Communication

Critically analyse how you would use business communication theories to “convince” the publics of your company to adhere to the new business policy.

In today’s competitive business world, management is continuously under pressure to maintain a positive working environment to ensure that employees perform at their highest capacity to achieve corporate objectives. During day-to-day business operations, managers face a number of issues that are necessary to be communicated to employees or senior level personnel. As per Guffey and Loewy (2012), effective communication tools ensure that managers are able to clearly share the information with employees and top-level management without any problem. Communication is referred to a process or act of using sounds, words, behaviours or signs in order to exchange or express information, idea, feeling or thoughts (Neuliep 2017). It involves encoding and decoding of information. In recent years, the importance of effective communication has increased as the requirement of knowledge workers has grown. The companies which are able to retain talented employees gained a competitive advantage over their competitors, and in order to retain knowledge workers, managers are expected to use effective communication tools to maintain a positive relationship with employees (Ru-Chu 2013). The thesis statement of this essay is that managers can use different communication theories for convincing employees regarding an organisational change without causing any workplace disputes. This essay will analyse how managers can use communication theories for effectively managing an organisational change. Further, recommendations will be given for managers to implement effective communication strategies at their workplace in order to avoid workplace disputes and implement a positive working environment.

Effective communication strategy is the key to business success which enables managers to retain skilled employees and create a positive working environment. Kaul (2014) stated that effective communication is crucial for the development of an organisation because it helps managers to perform basic functions such as planning, organising, controlling, and motivating. Effective communication is purposeful, supportive, flexible and achieves intended outcomes. It also required good listening skills, understanding, professionalism, awareness, empathy, and openness. Effective communication leads to establishing a positive organisational culture which defines as a pattern of shared assumptions and beliefs. In a positive organisational culture, employees learn about appropriate behaviours, and they are able to share them with new members. In an effective organisational culture, managers are able to effectively implement organisational change policies without raising any workplace disputes (Conrad & Newberry 2012, p. 115). In order to establish a positive workplace culture, it is necessary that employees are familiar with the organisational structure of the enterprise. An organisational structure provides information about how authorities and responsibilities for decision-making are shared or distributed within a corporation. It involves reporting relationship between employees and managers, range of duties, ways decisions are made and communication flow with the enterprise. Formal organisational structure involves complexity, formalisation, centralisation and hierarchy. A clearly defined organisational structure removes confusion, and it increases the efficiency of communication at the workplace (Sigmar, Hynes & Hill 2012, p. 302). Therefore, it can be stated that effective communication is the key to the effectiveness of a business because it creates a positive working environment that is able to adapt as per market changes.

Establishing a Positive Organizational Culture

Before embarking any organisational change strategy, managers should develop a comprehensive communication strategy that assists staffs in understanding the proposed changes and establishes the priorities of the change strategy. While implementing an organisational change, managers should develop a clear communication plan to avoid any issues (Bisel, Messersmith & Kelley 2012, p. 133). Managers should communicate consistently, frequently and through multiple channels to the employees such as focus groups, speaking, video, training, writing, bulletin boards and others. The information about the organisational changes should be communicated to all employees as soon as the information is available. Doppelt (2017) argued that managers must provide a significant amount of time to employees in order to required clarification, ask questions and provide input. It is necessary that employees must be involved in the change process. Managers should clearly communicate the mission, vision and objectives of the change management effort. Effective communication is the only way through which employees are able to understand the context and purpose of the organisational change. Providing answers to employees’ questions assist in avoiding conflict between employees and management while implementing an organisational change. Managers also require listening to the employees and understanding their concerns which will assist in avoiding defensiveness and excuse-making (Sharp & Brumberger 2013, p. 6). They should also hold interactive workshops and forms in which employees can come together and share their concerns with others and find solutions to their issues. These factors are essential part of an effective communication strategy that can be used by managers while implementing organisational change and it can assist them in avoiding workplace disputes.

In order to convince employees regarding the implementation of a uniform dress code, the manager can use business communication theories which will avoid informal issues in the workplace. Implementing a dress code brings consistency in the workplace. According to the study of Karch and Peters (2017, p. 1), implementing a dress code has a direct influence on the job satisfaction level of employees and a uniform dress code increases employee satisfaction levels. The job satisfaction directly influences the performance of employees, and a uniform dress code is more likely to improve the productivity of employees. However, managers face difficult while implementing a uniform dress code because employees did not like to tell what to wear. In order to address these issues, managers can use effective communication theories for ensuring that employees are able to understand the importance of a uniform dress code, and they follow the dress code as well (Welch 2012, p. 246). As per Weber’s Classical Organisational theory, corporations should implement a bureaucratic organisational structure in which roles and responsibilities of the employees are clear, structured and hierarchical (Alexander 2014). It avoids confusion, and it will enable managers to ensure that employees are able to understand the importance of a uniform dress code and why it is important for the organisation. In a hierarchical model, employees can easily communicate with their supervisor regarding the issues faced by them due to the implementation of a uniform dress code (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra 2014, p. 183). The supervisor can either solve such issues or forward it to his/her seniors so that they are able to perform resolves such issues. A hierarchical communication theory avoids any confusion between employees and the management, and it ensures that conflicts did not arise between employees while implementing an organisational change by managers such as implementing a uniform dress code.

Developing a Comprehensive Communication Strategy for Organizational Change

The communication theory implemented by managers for organisational change should be implemented after analysing different barriers to organisation at the workplace so that the theory facilities effective communication at the workplace. The factors that cause barriers to communication include inappropriate words, prejudice, discrimination, poor leadership, deception, noise, interference, attitude and behaviour of employees and managers, barriers to listening and interruptions in the communication flow (Jenifer & Raman 2015, p. 348). In order to address these barriers of communication, managers can implement communication models such as Lasswell’s communication model, Shannon and Weaver model of communication, and Schramm circular model of communication. In Lasswell’s communication model, there are five important components which include who, says what, in which channel, to whom and with what effect (Sapienza, Iyer & Veenstra 2015, p. 612). In order to convince employees for implementing a uniform dress code, the senior management issues an order for a uniform dress code through hierarchical channel to employees. The feedback of employees has not been positive so far, and they are resisting the uniform dress code policy. Although this model is effective in establishing a hierarchical model, however, it did not take into consideration barriers of communication. Shannon and Weaver model of communication analyse all these aspects along with noise at the workplace that creates barriers to effective communication. This model can be implemented by managers while convincing employees regarding implementation of a uniform dress code because it will assist managers in understand the noise or issues face by employees due to this decision (Al-Fedaghi 2012, p. 13). The concept of noise improves the overall communication process and it is a two-way process through which the manager is able to understand the issues face by employees due to a uniform dress code, and he/she can implement policies for address such issues. Therefore, based on effective communication strategy such as Shannon and Weaver model of communication, the manager is able to effective implement an organisational change policy such as implementation of a uniform dress code.

In order to establish effective communication channels at the workplace, following recommendations can be implemented by managers for ensuring that certain factors are available in their business communication model which improve its effectiveness. One of the primary elements of an effective communication model is transparency between the management and employees (Ceschi, Dorofeeva & Sartori 2014, p. 213). Managers should keep employees informed about the company’s goals and general operations of the business. It will establish an open door policy at the workplace and employees will also be able to give their feedback to the management. Transparency builds employee loyalty which also results in increasing retention rates at the workplace. Managers should improve both vertical (employee-to-manager) and horizontal (peer-to-peer) communications (Argenti 2015). Effective communication did not just rely on sharing of information; it also focuses on ethical nature of the interaction. Ethical communication includes honesty, commitment, openness to other views, and consensus building. Managers should not discriminate against employees based on caste, race, religion, background, age, or gender. Each employee should be treated equally, and managers should take into consideration their issues and feedback while taking business decisions. Managers should also issue a regular update memo which includes information regarding deadlines, projects, and announcements in the company. While implementing organisational changes policies, managers should leverage their leadership to implement change in the workplace (Lam 2013, p. 203). In order to create changes such as the implementation of a uniform dress code, managers, executives, and directors should be the champions of knowledge sharing, worker engagement and transparency. These recommendations can assists managers in establishing an effective business communication model that focuses on reducing workplace conflicts and establishing a positive working environment. Effective communication also assists in implementing organisational change at the workplace after addressing issues of employees.

Using Business Communication Theories to Implement a Uniform Dress Code

From the above observations, it can be concluded that business communication plays a crucial role in the success of an enterprise since it assists in reducing workplace conflicts and establishing a positive working environment. Effective communication assists managers in performing actions such as planning, organising, controlling, and motivating which ensure that during organisational change policies, disputes did not arise among employees. In order to convince employees about the implementation of a uniform dress code, managers can implement different business communication theories such as Weber’s Classic Organisational theory which ensure that a hierarchical model is situated at the workplace that avoids any confusion between employees. Lasswell’s communication model focuses on the flow of motivation to ensure that each individual receives the message. However, this model did not take into consideration the barriers of communication. Managers can implement Shannon and Weaver model of communication because it assists in analysing the issues faced by the employees due to organisational change, and they can implement policies for addressing these issues. These models can ensure that the manager is able to understand the issues faced by the employees that are caused due to the implementation of a uniform dress code. They can implement appropriate policies for addressing these issues which will ensure that disputes did not arise in the workplace and employees are satisfied with the organisational policies. Various recommendations are given in the essay as well for managers to improve business communication such as honesty, transparency, openness and consensus building should be available. The communication should be ethical, and managers should not discriminate between employees based on race, caste, religion or beliefs. These policies can assist the manager to convince employees to follow a uniform dress code after addressing different issues faced by them.

References

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