Communication process:
The main purpose of effective communication in an organisation is to energize its employee’s performance and enable them to carry out all the operation carefully (Lee, 2004). Organisations should be capable of understanding information quickly, should be able to send and receive information strategically necessary information. When deciding about company’s policy and strategies that will go to be adopted, there is a need to develop a continuous and useful communication process.
Communication moves in three different directions: horizontally, upward and downward. In downward communication we can use managers to convey their messages or communicate their fellow workers and sub-ordinates. Upward communication moves from lower level towards higher level. In horizontal communication information is shared at same level of employees in effective manner (Bratton and Gold, 1994, 261). Downward and upward communication must be balanced because it is essential for both to maintain standard of communication (Hartley and Bruckmann, 2002, 2).
Communication should be balanced and equivalent process between receiver and sender in order to effective information from both sides. The ability of communicating well is essential for small organisations to perform well and for cooperation in society. We can see that even in small companies there is two-way communication (Blundel, 2004, 5).
Theories of communication:
There are number of theories about communication process but according to our need in this research we have described few which are given as follows. Laswell presented his theory of communication in 1948. It focussed on the idea of mass media and its efficiency rather than the information, thought and meaning presented in message. According to this theory one has to be able to quantify and observe the alteration on receiver’s side, which interchange it into understandable element in the process of communication. The understandable constituent is called an effect. It is basically worried about the effectiveness of communication and this is very essential in every part of life (Wood, 2004, 56). Employee satisfaction and functional operation satisfaction can be achieved through effective communication. Shannon’s and Weaver’s presented their theory in 1949 name as ‘Mathematical theory of communication’. According to this theory there is a possibility of sending large information through an identified channel and determines the capacity of every channel through which information can be forwarded. (Wood, 2004, 20)
Laswell divided the communication issues into five main questions and Shannon donates to be model with the concept of coding and decoding. Interpreting imagination into words is called coding. Determining characters into ideas and imagination is called decoding. Coding and decoding is constant process when people are in contact and talk to each other. After decoding any new information and ideas receiver will try to translate it into new knowledge form. (Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, 2007)
Communication in an organisation:
For many years companies and their mangers have concentrated towards the service standards for customer and for the better facilities for customers. Thus it was the supreme priority of companies to provide such excellent services and meet the higher standards of customer care. For this purpose the companies focussed on effective communication with their customer. But during the recent years companies have started to give same importance to their employees to improve their efficiency. Multi-national companies have begun to understand that they should treat their employees in same manner because they are keys in the success of any company. Internal communication between employees and higher management is no longer a soft function but it has become an essential part of organisation to raise its performance. (Argeni, 2007, 137)
Internal communication has become a fine tool for creating a good image of company’s policy and strategies in the mind of employees. At the same time this communication process helps the organisation to transfer its best knowledge to its workers which is very vital in raising its performance standard. (Dolphin, 2005, 171)
Internal communication may be defined as transferring of information between individual and number people in the form of groups at different levels, area of specialization and differing values of workers. These transactions are effects the designing of policies and day-to-day activities in the organisations. (Dolphin, 2005, 173)
Effective communication system needs only three essential things which help to create this system. First point is that the informative messages must spread in the company in order to get everyone know about it. Such message consists of information like new appointments, changes in organisation and big sales. There should be database system in the company from which any information required can be gathered by the person who requires it. This type of information is well-organised and person needing it can take action by having well-organised knowledge. Examples of such information are client registers, instance telephone books and personal benefits information. The third basic thing which person needs to know is that from where he can find proper information that is vital for him. This can be informed and reminded by sending informative emails and organising group meetings in the company (Aberg, 2000, 182). The most significant reasons of the deficit in internal communication in the company’s are verbal communication channels: management, superiors and meetings (Robertson and Gray, 2005, 26).
Channel for communication internally and externally:
Organisations have three fundamental ways delivering information. Formal speech by managing director and casual conversation between two employees in the organisation comes in the circumstances of verbal communication. The technique of conveying information by sender through facial expression or gesture can be referred to as non-verbal communication. Third one is written communication and it can be in the form of written note to co-worker about annual report or any information delivered in written manner. Video machines and electronic emails have modernize the verbal communication and written communication patterns. (Bratton and Gold, 1994, 259-260)
There are two types of communication ways formal and informal. The chain of command in an organisation or hierarchy structure is considered as formal communication. The informal way of communication is based on social relationship and is independent of hierarchy. It is often know as grapevine and it is important for employees to tell about organisation to fulfil their need to know about it. (Bratton and Gold, 1994, 261)
Communication can be in two forms one is direct communication and other is transmitting communication. In direct method the communication is held personally between two individual and small groups of people. In transmitting method the information can be transferred through web to small group of people. In this communication process we use mass communication for transmitting our information; it can used on large scale to address larger audience and can be used to communicate between small groups in offices. (Aberg, 2000, 174)
Cross-cultural problem in communication:
Communication is an essential part of any work we do daily and we interact with people having different cultures, attitudes and habits when we are working in a multi-national organisation. For effective and positive communication we need to know about the culture and their trends. It is said that all communication is cultural and it describes that the people in different origins have learnt speak in different way to convey message and have learnt to non-verbal gestures to express themselves. People do not act same way daily and hence it depends on their mood, personality and habits with a great influence of culture with it. (Lebaron, 2003)
This is still a challenge to manage communication process among the people having different cultures because anything can go wrong with slight mistake. So we need to avoid any misconception in such situation. This can lead to conflict or can increase the existing conflict. Cross-cultural communication can be determined and summarized by the examples of behaviours, ideas and attitude involving four variables such as time, face and face savings, non-verbal communication, fate and personal responsibility.
Non-verbal communication across cultures:
This type of communication is widely essential and vital during interaction with people of different cultures and its vitality is multiplied across cultures. It is more emphasized on its importance because if the written or verbal message is unclear during communication across culture and we can have idea from their non-verbal expressions that what they are trying to express.
Conclusion and suggestions:
It can be seen from above discussion that communication plays vital role in the improvement of business growth whether it is internally or externally. The overall design of company’s communication system should be well designed and well organized. Multi-national companies still lack in the ability to hire the professionals to enable continuous flow of communication and create a unique system in which information is delivered on regular basis. It is seen that there is no permanent worker in the company who cares for this important issue and no body has the ability to concentrate on such issue. There is a need of permanent employee who can manage such operation frequently.
It can be seen that communication has not been paid so much attention and was not considered as an essential part of business. It does exist but was not considered as important in companies as it should be considered. There is always need of organised communication process for large and small multi-national companies in order to mange its operation effectively around the globe and this will give them vital feedback from their subsidiaries. Both employees and management should realize the importance of this process especially in situation when production department and offices are far away. There should be an internal bulletin for the company in print form or sent to employees through email in pdf-form to create an efficient system of communication.
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