Organizational Communication And Conflict Management

Active listening and Active listener

Discuss about the Organizational Communication and Conflict Management.

Chatterjee and Subramanian (2013) opined that the organizational communication is a vital factor for both the organizations and the employees. In the effective communication process, it is essential for all the people to listen actively. Effective communication is a two way process in which the active listening process leads the business towards success. On contrast, the ineffective listeners lead the business as well as their career towards failure. In communication process, listening is the most essential skill that impact on the job effectiveness of a person. Furthermore, it affects the quality of relationship that the one has with the coworkers. Bodie (2016) defined that the active listening is the ways of obtaining important information, understanding as well as respecting the viewpoints of the speakers, and leaning from others opinions. The major difference of the active listening from only listing is the active listeners put more concentration and deliver responses regarding the message conveyed or shared to them. The active listening process helps the listeners to remember what is said by the speakers. The three effective steps of effective listening process include comprehending, retaining, and responding. In order to more precise, Bodie (2016) stated that comprehending the first step in listening process and the shared meaning between the parties. The second step is listening where memory of the listeners is the essential factor. Information is retained by the listeners and the meaning of the message depends in the listeners’ ways of acceptance. Responding is the process of interacting with the speakers (Kawamichi et al. 2015).

Following the statement of Asemota (2015), a person needs to adapt certain strategies in order to become a more active listener. The listeners should observe the behaviors and the body languages of the speakers in order to understand speakers’ viewpoints. In some cases, it has been noticed that the actual meaning of a message is different to the speakers and the listeners. This happens due to poor understanding and employee relationship between these two parties. Through observing the behaviors of the speakers the listeners would able to understand the true meaning of the massages that are conveyed by speakers. Bodie et al. (2015) added in this context, the active listeners should know the difference between responding and interrupting. Through interrupting the speakers, the listeners might distract them from the message that they were about to deliver. In such cases, if the speakers are distracted from the actual meaning of the messages, they fail to make the listeners understand about it. On contrast, the listeners would able to encourage the speakers more through responding against the messages. Further, this would clear the meaning of the messages and common concept would be built between these two parties.

Benefits of good listening in workplace

Purdy and Manning (2015) mentioned the benefits of the good listening process in context the workplaces. Good listening process helps to gather accurate information, develop trust, reduce conflict, and motivate others. In the communication process, active listening helps to gather more accurate information. For example, in some cases the employees gather information and apply those wrongly because of not listening actively. As a result, some situations are deteriorated instead of being solved. On the other way, the god listeners could understand the information more accurately and implement them properly.

Besides, the good listening process helps to develop trust and establish good relationship with the coworkers (Bodie et al. 2015). Though making active interaction with the speakers, the listeners value the viewpoints of them. In such cases, if the speakers do not listen actively, they might obtain incorrect instructions and hence the entire project might fail. In order to build trust, the listeners should pay attention to the messages or the instruction that are provided to them. Through this, they would able to outline their own strengths and weaknesses in the implementation process. It helps them to collaborate with the coworkers and gain trust of others (Purdy and Manning 2015).

Kawamichi et al. (2015) manifested that conflict arises when the individuals feel misunderstood or mistreated. For example, if an individual fails to understand the message or instruction clearly, the seniors would not want to provide the important tasks. As a result, the conflicts would be increased. The opposite scenario would be noticed in the case when the individual listens actively. Furthermore, the individuals are able to be involved effectively through active listening process. The one’s involvement motivates others to be engaged in the discussions and organizational operations as well.

As per the discussion of Spaho (2013), the downward communication is the process in which the information flows down through a formal chain. In order to more precise, the information, messages, and instructions flow from the superiors to the subordinates. Through this particular communication process, the leaders communicate with all the stakeholders about the goals, decisions, strategies, policies and procedures. In this context, it is essential to mention that it is the most common form of communication process.

However, Nan et al. (2012) opined that some key problems are there in this communication process. The major problem is that the information or the messages might be distorted as it passes through multiple levels. In some cases, it has been seen that when the information reached in the lowest teams, the actual meaning of the information and the instructions are changed. The reason behind this is the difference between the abilities of the mediums in understanding the message and their perfectibility to convey it. Gallois and Giles (2015) added in this context that slowness response system is another major problem. Mainly, in dynamic working environment, it becomes more problematic in interacting with all the stakeholders. The messages take time to go down and go up again along with the response of the stakeholders. Then the responses on the leaders back go down again. The entire process is time consuming band thus it results problems. These problems create interpretative problems for which conflict arises among the employees (Gallois and Giles 2015).

Downward Communication and key problems

According to Spaho (2013), the dependency on the formal communication channel creates motivation problems. The superiors fail to motivate their subordinates in contributing effective role in acquiring the ultimate objectives and goals. The information distortion and slow response system make the employees divorced from the ultimate goals. As all the decisions and strategies are come via multiple levels, the stakeholders find difficulties in understanding the individual roles and responsibilities. Hence, as a result, confusion level increases and uncertainty occurs. As explained by Gallois and Giles (2015), these several number of problems reduces the efficiency of the employees in performing various activities. Sometimes, the subordinates find difficulties in provide reactions and thus they prefer to delivering responses in order to save the time. On the other way, in some cases, the employees do not provided any opportunities to provide suggestions and their viewpoints. As a result, efficieciency goes downwards and hence organizational operations are affected.

Following the statement of Bouckenooghe (2012), formal communication and organizational culture are strongly related with each other. In most of the organizations, formal communication process is maintained. It has been found that the formal communication helps to increase the efficiency of the employees and create an effective work environmental culture. Siemens and Baker (2012) provided another viewpoint that if the organizational culture is well managed the effective communication process is enhanced. At the same way, if the effective communication process is applied in the organizational culture, the objectives would be more achievable. Furthermore, as the formal communication process creates a particular communication system, it becomes easy for all the stakeholders to pursue common procedure. According to Alvesson (2016), there is a need of cooperation and coordination in organizational culture. It helps the organizations to deal with the challenges and issues present in the workplace or the business. The formal communication system helps the stakeholders to coordinate. It has been found that the coordinated activities are done in more proper manner in comparing with the informal communication process.

Siemens and Baker (2012) stated in defining the organizational culture that it is the process that consist some shared attributes of the workforce. The key characteristics of an organizational culture are systematic pattern, symbolic expressions, collective values of shares, and many more. These characteristics are maintained with formal communication system. Thus, it can be stated that the formal communication system improves the organizational culture. Alvesson (2016) explained the relation of formal communication and organizational culture in different manner. Through effective communication process, the stakeholders are well aware about the planned programs and its management procedures. This helps them to establish a common working process and techniques which would help them to achieve the goal and objectives. Siemens and Baker (2012) added that establishing formal communication process in particular organization along with specific organizational culture is a long term effort. Therefore, it is hard to change the culture without changing the communication process, and vice versa.

Relationship between formal communication and organizational culture

Pignata et al. (2015) opined that the electronic mail is used in the businesses as one of the effective communication mediums. This particular communication process helps in acquiring the marketing purposes and coordinating with the business partners. The most common advantage of this process is it helps to reduce the cost of communication process. The key advantages of email as a communication medium are demonstrated in the below section:

Speed: Holtbrügge, Weldon and Rogers (2013) explained that the email helps to communicating with the stakeholders and customers in an instantaneous manner. This allows them for quick dissemination of information and thus they are able to gather fast responses from the other end. It becomes easier to run the business smoothly as it helps to solve the problems in a quick manner. For example, the SMEs are able to accomplish more activities in less time.

Lower Cost: As stated by Francis, Holmvall and O’Brien (2015), the switching process of physical mail to electronic mails helps the organizations to reduce the expenditure that was needed before. The significant savings are possible to in employee resources, shipping supplies, and postage costs. Furthermore, the organizations are able to reduce the cost of customer service support by email communication process rather than phone based services.

Efficiency: Pignata et al. (2015) discussed that the email process helps to increase the productivity by increasing the efficiency of the stakeholders. Through this communication process, the stakeholders stay connected with each other and they are able to solve problems with less time span. More specifically, the information is delivered through this process as per the needs of the individuals. Furthermore, the email communication process helps to save the time that is needed for small duration meetings. Through consulting by emails, the essential information can be shared.

Geographic barrier reduction: Holtbrügge, Weldon and Rogers (2013) added in this context that, the email communication process reduces the time zone and geographic barriers. The business partners and all the stakeholders operating across the world are able to stay connected and communicate effectively. The location where they are operating does not create communication barriers.

Choi and Readshaw (2015) mentioned that besides having the advantages, the email communication process has a number of disadvantages that might affect the organizational operations. The disadvantages of this process of communication are manifested in the below section:

Low Security: As per the statement of Kadashevich et al. (2015), the sensitive information, messages and instructions are shared within a second by a single click of mouse. As a result, it might harm the organizational operations by accidently sending the message to a wrong person or in a wrong time. After it sent, it does not matter whether it has been sent deliberately or accidently (Choi and Readshaw 2015). 

Impersonal communication: Pereira (2015) discussed that it is not possible to communicate with emotions and attitudes through email communication process. Thus, the person receives the mail might take the words in a wrong way. The email communication process involves both the stakeholders and the customers. In some cases, the mail from the leaders can be taken wrongfully and thus some of the employees decided to quit their jobs. Kadashevich et al. (2015) provided another example in context of communication with the customers. In some cases, when the company sends mail to its customers as a response against their services or products. The used words might be taken wrongfully by the customers. As a result, it affects the customer relationship (Francis, Holmvall and O’Brien 2015).

Misunderstanding: Choi and Readshaw (2015) opined that the formal email is based on some special words. The pronouns and popular jargon used in the emails might create conflicts in emails. As this particular communication omits the face to face conversation, the meaning of the emails might be distorted (Francis, Holmvall and O’Brien 2015). It might lead the person to the wrong direction and the organizational operations might be affected.

Future formal style of email as a communication medium: According to Francis, Holmvall and O’Brien (2015), the email will become more formal in style over time in the organizational communication process. The formal style would help to reduce the problems that they face in present. The style can be improved by applying more formal manner in the email communication process. It would be possible to reduce the conflicts that occurred in this process. It would help to improve the employee relation and the customer relation as well (Kadashevich et al. 2015).

Reference List

Alvesson, M., 2016. Organizational Culture. Sage Publications Incorporated.

Asemota, H.E., 2015. Nature, Importance and Practice of Listening Skill. British Journal of Education, 3(7), pp.27-33.

Bodie, G.D., 2016. Listening. The International Encyclopedia of Interpersonal Communication.

Bodie, G.D., Vickery, A.J., Cannava, K. and Jones, S.M., 2015. The role of “active listening” in informal helping conversations: Impact on perceptions of listener helpfulness, sensitivity, and supportiveness and discloser emotional improvement. Western Journal of Communication, 79(2), pp.151-173.

Bouckenooghe, D., 2012. The role of organizational politics, contextual resources, and formal communication on change recipients’ commitment to change: A multilevel study. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 21(4), pp.575-602.

Chatterjee, R.B. and Subramanian, K. eds., 2013. Excellence in business communication. Pearson.

Choi, C.Y.S. and Readshaw, N.I., International Business Machines Corporation, 2015. Proactive notification of availability status in email communication systems. U.S. Patent 8,935,337.

Francis, L., Holmvall, C.M. and O’Brien, L.E., 2015. The influence of workload and civility of treatment on the perpetration of email incivility.Computers in Human Behavior, 46, pp.191-201.

Gallois, C. and Giles, H., 2015. Communication accommodation theory. The International Encyclopedia of Language and Social Interaction.

Holtbrügge, D., Weldon, A. and Rogers, H., 2013. Cultural determinants of email communication styles. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, 13(1), pp.89-110.

Kadashevich, A.J., Marcus, J.B., Piziak, J.L. and Trivedi, P.K., International Business Machines Corporation, 2015. Minimizing the effects of email attachments on communication networks. U.S. Patent 9,160,695.

Kawamichi, H., Yoshihara, K., Sasaki, A.T., Sugawara, S.K., Tanabe, H.C., Shinohara, R., Sugisawa, Y., Tokutake, K., Mochizuki, Y., Anme, T. and Sadato, N., 2015. Perceiving active listening activates the reward system and improves the impression of relevant experiences. Social neuroscience,10(1), pp.16-26.

Nan, T., Yuelong, W., Aiqing, H. and Cheng, W., 2012. A downward signal processing method for rotary steerable drilling system based on signal similarity. Petroleum Exploration and Development, 39(1), pp.119-126.

Pereira, S.S., 2015. Standard Versus Non Standard An Analysis of Language used for Formal Business Communication through E-mails.

Pignata, S., Lushington, K., Sloan, J. and Buchanan, F., 2015. Employees’ perceptions of email communication, volume and management strategies in an Australian university. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 37(2), pp.159-171.

Purdy, M.W. and Manning, L.M., 2015. Listening in the Multicultural Workplace: A Dialogue of Theory and Practice. International Journal of Listening, 29(1), pp.1-11.

Siemens, G. and Baker, R.S.D., 2012, April. Learning analytics and educational data mining: towards communication and collaboration. InProceedings of the 2nd international conference on learning analytics and knowledge (pp. 252-254). ACM.

Spaho, K., 2013. Organizational communication and conflict management.Management: Journal of Contemporary Management Issues, 18(1), pp.103-118.