Effective Organizational And Business Communication: Diagnostic Tools, Key Findings, And Action Plan

Diagnosis and Reflection

Discuss about the Effective Organizational and Business Communication.

The purpose of this essay is to understand the various diagnostic tools associated with the effective communication in business operations of an organization. The various issues associated with the diagnostic tools are also discussed in this essay. The diagnostics tools like Johari Window Model, Assertiveness Questionnaire or Communications Style Questionnaire is also discussed in this essay.  The various key findings observed with the issues are also explained in this essay. The key areas that required improvement in various communication tool is also discussed in this essay that help to make all business operations to perform in much better and efficient manner.  The literature review is also done for the essay that describes all the important theoretical or behavioural aspects associated with the issues of diagnostics tools of communication. The various concepts or key models associated with issues of communication are also discussed in the literature review. The various theories that are used for the effective communication is also described in the literature review. Further, at the end of the essay, an action plan is also formulated by considering all the events or activities associated with the issues related to diagnostic tools for the next six months. This action plan explains all the period in which all issues can be solved and measured in effective manner.   

Communication:

Communication is the integral and important component in the life of an individual that is necessary to convey the message, feelings, and ideas on other. The communication skills of the people can be assessed using 5 diagnostic tools such as Johari Window Model, Assertiveness Questionnaire, Communications Style Questionnaire, and others.

Johari Window was developed by the Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham. Johari Window model helps in addressing one’s communication skills, and developing mutual understanding among individual within the group or organization (Lim and Jamil, 2013). This model is given below:

Open: The open pan of the Johri window states that here the persona him or herself and other well know about his or her attitudes, personality, behavior, feelings, skills, perception, and emotions. The person is very open to other (Bradbury?Jones, 2015). There is no hidden aspects and information about the person from others.

Blind: In this case, the person oneself is not aware of his or her habits, behavior, skills, and others while other knows about him or her very well. A person is interpreted very differently by the other people, from whatever the person his or her self expect.

Johari Window

Hidden: It states the information that is known to the person him or herself about him or her but hidden from others (Slusky and Goodrich, 2016). The information hidden may be very personal to the person such as experience, fears, and secrets.

Unknown: This states that some information are unknown to the person him or herself as well as others for example; talents, skills, and abilities of the person (Lim and Jamil, 2013).

The communication style questionnaire is drafted to evaluate and identify the communication style a person uses. The communication styles are given below:

Active communicators are those persons who are straightforward, active participants, expressive with body language and words in communication process. At the same time, connectors are those persons who consider others in discussion and their views (Hasson, 2015). Purposeful communicators are very logical in their communication and are practical at workplace. Similarly, thinker communicators are those who support their words with the facts sought out by them rather than emotions and feelings. The thinkers are very happy to talk about the abstract concepts and ideas (Tzoannopoulou, 2015). They are communicators that are more effective in small group rather large.

In aggressive communication style an individual shares his or her feeling and provide solid advocacy to his or her view and opinion in the way contradicting and violating the rights and opinions of others (Lotus Group, 2012). This communication style lacks of self esteem, emotions, and is abusive both physically and verbally. At the same time, people following assertive communication style share the information about them with the others and support their views and opinions affirm but does not try to refute the ideas, and views of others. People in this communication style give much importance of their self esteem, their time, their emotional and physical needs, and are very respectful of rights of other along with their own view (Flannery, 2016). Similarly, in case of passive communication style, people do not clear express their feelings, protect their rights and meet their needs and desires. It includes higher needs of self esteem in communicators. They do not respond to the hurtful situation and tolerate the grievance but to certain limit after a threshold of tolerance they outburst (CN, 2017).  Furthermore, in passive aggressive communication, people are very different with their appearance from whatever they actually are. People in this style appear as passive but act out as aggressive communicators in indirect way.

Communication Style Questionnaire

The above model is representing different communication such as regressive communication, stationary communication, flowing communication, active communication, and proactive communication. This model mainly focuses on the active and proactive communication (Solvi, 2012). The active communicator is one who is the initiator in the communication process while the reactive communicator is one who reaches and response to the communicated message from others. The proactive communicators most usually uses non verbal communication pattern to answer.

Interpersonal self assessment questionnaire helps in understanding and getting aware of the interpersonal skills. The questionnaire is in the form analyzes the person in term of listing skills, verbal communication, emotional intelligence, working in groups and reams (SYN, 2016). This questionnaire helps in indentifying the basic interpersonal skills of an individual.

Based on comparing the above models with my skills, I found two key communication issues in me. One is that I am not good in non verbal communication as my body language is not compatible to my words. It realized it in an professional even where I gave an presentation. My body motion was not good and perfectly matching with the words to support my verbal communication. It made my impression and presentation bed before my superior and even my colleagues or group members. Another issue is improper listening. If one does not listen properly and attentively, it may cause issues in one’s work.  I also have this issues because of that I had to suffer. Actually, My boss was assigned a work and instructed but I did not pay attention to the instruction given by my boss and started my work. After half completion of the work, my boss was reviewing the work where he found that I am doing the assignment in wrong way and I was rebuked. Where, I identified that effective listening skills is necessary in effective communication and interpersonal relation.

Based on these evident and references, it can be said that in every filed it is necessary for an individual to have effective communication skills such as effective verbal and non verbal communication and other skills for accomplishing their responsibilities and roles timely. These evident provide the basic that how communication gap can create the loss to the company and to individual. Therefore, everyone needs to develop their personal communication for establishing effective communication.

The literature review related to business communications basically focuses on various central and shared issues related to control or coordination by the means of effective communication in any organization or business. The research on business communication is considered from its initial stages and how it works significantly or effectively in communication process in any organization is also analysed in the literature review. According to Chester Barnard, the effective communication is considered as the heart in various process of the management and he also recognized importance of the effective communication in various business operations of the organization (Cardon, 2015). The movement of human relationships in 1940 also helps in analysing the fact that the communication process in any organization should occur in two way manner to make it more effective and significant. This also helps in estimating the role of communication in effective decision making process in an organization and also visualises attitude or satisfaction of employees on the basis of upward as well as downward flow of communication in an organization or business. The listening gap and lack of effective body language in the employees are the most vital issues that can affect the effective business communication process of an organization. These are the issues which are diagnosed in the first part of the essay that is in the reflection and diagnosis section.       

Assertiveness Questionnaire

The research for various impacts on performance of the employees due to the feedbacks as well as research on climate was started way back in 1950. The various methodologies like ECCO (Episodic Communication Channels and Organizations) were developed to completely focus on various issues related to the upward communication flow in the organization (Grunig, 2013). Odiorne was the first to use term called Communication Audit that basically assess the various perceptions of employees communication related to management and its accuracy in the entire auditing process. The methodologies related to communication audit provide a significant approach to analyse or study the various systems of effective communication in a business organization.

The effective communication is considered as the most important or dominant aspects of any organization in the present scenario to do the business. The impactful relationship between the employees and the management may be possible due to effective communication and will be beneficial for effective business operations or activities of the organizations (Rajhans, 2012). The capabilities or efficiency of organization can be developed or enhanced with help of various process of effective communication. The effective communication helps in better coordination between the employees and the management to achieve various organizational objectives. This also plays significant role in various process of problem solving, decision making or change management.  

The employees are able to get all the information related to their job profile, organization or environment with help of internal communication. The effective communication will help the employees to be motivated, build trust or share their emotions with other employees in the organization and also helps them to remember their accomplishments in the organization. Communication is the tool that helps the employees or management to understand each other and their roles in the organization. The various needs of employees in the communication process are also described by D’Aprix in hierarchical manner that explains all the above points that are mentioned (Krum, 2013). According to Lukazewski, human dimension is the vital factor that weakens the practices of management in any organization. The lack of interactions between the employees or top management can be caused due to ineffective communication and that gap in communication can cause significant impact on various business operations or activities of the organization.

The problems related to communication can be solved with implementation of various motivational practices to make business operations effective in an organization. Motivating is basically done by the top management like mangers to encourage or inspire the employees to perform in better manner. The mangers should interact with the employees on regular basis and should understand all the complexities faced by the employees during working hours and accordingly motivate them to perform better (Hamilton, 2013). The motivational practices should be implemented in such a manner that can provide maximum benefits to the organization and employees as well by improving business operations. This approach can be accomplished in effective manner only if the employees are able to make their professional and personal goals merged together to avail maximum benefits.

Model of Active Communication

The various methods of traditional management like Theory X can be used to motivate the employees in the organization. But, theory Y can be more right approach to motivate employees for longer period of time as based on organizational objectives or employee’s integration and also requires more efforts from the management. There should be enough mutual understanding or communication between the management and the employees that will certainly help the employees to analyse their role in various business operations of the organization and will motivates them to perform better to achieve all their targets (Cornelissen, 2014). The productivity of business will certainly be affected if there is lack in motivation for the employees. Increase in cases of grievances, declined productivity, wastage of resources or absenteeism among employees increased are the factors that indicates lower morale of the employees due to lack of effective communication. Employees who are motivated will be more loyal to the organization and will perform all his actions to achieve organizational goals or objectives. This will also improves their performance and quality in various business operations of organizations.          

Further, role of internal communication is more vital in implementing various motivational practices in an organization. The employees who are able to understand their roles in the organization perform better and also achieve the target given to them. At the same time, managers who are not effective in communication feel more frustrated and also surrounded by employees that are unhappy and not productive for the business operations of the organization. The effective communication is the most significant tool that creates a strong bond between the employees and the management to perform various business operations in the most efficient manner (Rajhans, 2012). The productivity factor of an organization is mostly enhanced or affected by the effective business communication. The effective communication will be more beneficial for the managers as they will be able to coordinate with their subordinates in efficient manner and will assign the required task according to skills of employees that can be beneficial for both organization and employees to improve their performance.

From the above it is found that an individual is different from other in terms of communication style, as communication skills is also a part of the personality that make one different from others. The communication skills must be developed effectively in an individual to make his or her task or work effective. As above I identified two basic communication issues with me such as listening gap and body motions incompatible to my verbal communication. The communication skills may be developed by going under the communication skills and development courses, and communication training. Toast Master is emerged as effective course and group make us to learn how to do effective communication. For developing the personal communication, the plan is given below:

Issues	Corrective action
Listening gap	Ø  Attend conferences and seminars thrice in one fortnight for next 6 months Ø  Participation in group discussion activities twice in a month Ø  Attend one interview once in one fortnight in a month
Not good body language	Ø  Presentation once in a weak for the next 6 months Ø  more formal and professional presentation and involving thrice in a month for the 6 months Ø  Join communication skills development workshops one in a week for next 6 months Ø  Watching Video presentation

Intrapersonal Skills Self-Assessment Questionnaire

The first issue in the action plan will be the listening gap. These gaps in communication can be fulfilled with various measures. These can be corrected by making conferences or seminars to be conducted thrice in coming six years. The group discussion for the various employees should also be conducted twice in a month to measure the issue of listening gap in the organization in more effective and efficient manner. Further, the personal interviews of the employees should be conducted by the top management once in each month of coming six months. These will certainly motivates the employees and makes them to perform better for the organization by accomplishing all their objectives and goals. 

Further, the next issue that occurs in the business operations is lack of appropriate body language of the employees in an organization. This issue can be measured or corrected by various appropriate actions. The presentation should be conducted for each of the employees in every week for coming six months. The presentation can be in formal manner to solve various communication issues related to business and will certainly enhance performance of the employees. The workshops can also be organized for the employees once in a week to enhance their communication skills that will certainly beneficial and productive for business operations of an organization. The video presentation can also be organized for the employees to improve their body language and their communication skills that will certainly help both the employees and organization for longer terms.

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