Communication within organisations
Communication
In organisation the employees communicate in different ways, every single day. They have talk in meetings, have group discussions and negotiate over the telephone, they write memos, emails, draft letters, reports, and sending faxes in emergencies. The organisation gives out the advertisement in TV, posters, in store advert and many more count as communication,
Communication is most important base for develop the business, the communication with other department give the right idea of where is business is, this kind of meeting need to held most often in organisation like SPACE, a medium organisation like that have to keep up to date with it's different departments.
Communication in business can be both formal informal. When employees are doing their jobs communication will be formal and concerned with work. Theses including meeting, telephones conversations writing memos and reports. When they stop for a chat with colleagues they communications are informal.
Formal Communication:
Formal communication was designed primarily as a means of controlling agency activities and personnel through the circulation of authoritative policies and procedures stating what was to be done when, where, how, and by whom. Formal communication has always been considered the "regular" system (or "channels") of communication within organizations. It is impersonal (station to station), official, and, in most cases, written.
Purposes: The purposes of formal communication are to command, to instruct, and to finalize matters through the application of regulations.
Advantages of formal communication: Proponents of formal communication argue that:
* Because formal communication is official, it is more binding and thus more likely to be obeyed.
* Formal communication saves time and effort that would otherwise be consumed in informal talks, in discussions, and perhaps in arguments.
* Formal communication avoids the embarrassment of face-to-face contact between the parties when the subject of communication is sensitive or painful.
Disadvantages of formal communication: Formal communication has also been widely criticized on the following bases:
* It is too rigid, in that it limits information within the department to that sanctioned by the chief or supervisor.
* It fails, in most cases, to identify the reasons behind the message; and this lack of explanation can be very frustrating to the recipient.
* It is costly in terms of secretarial effort, reproduction costs, and delivery time.
Informal Communication: Informal communication is based on the realization that an agency cannot be effective without personal interaction among workers and their voluntary support of organization goals. Informal communication is personal, unofficial, ...
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* It is too rigid, in that it limits information within the department to that sanctioned by the chief or supervisor.
* It fails, in most cases, to identify the reasons behind the message; and this lack of explanation can be very frustrating to the recipient.
* It is costly in terms of secretarial effort, reproduction costs, and delivery time.
Informal Communication: Informal communication is based on the realization that an agency cannot be effective without personal interaction among workers and their voluntary support of organization goals. Informal communication is personal, unofficial, and mostly verbal.
Purposes: The purposes of informal communication are to educate through information sharing, to motivate through personal contacts, and to resolve conflicts through participation and friendship. It seeks to involve workers in organizational matters as a means of maintaining their enthusiasm, loyalty, and commitment.
Advantages of informal communication: Proponents of informal communication advocate its use for the following reasons:
* Informal communication is less official and less threatening. It can therefore enhance the flow of new ideas and plans without the fear of ridicule or punishment.
* Informal communication is personal, which imbues it with the enthusiasm and zeal of the participants rather than dry, bureaucratic logic.
Disadvantages of informal communication: On the other hand, informal communication is not a solution for all organizational ills. Opponents of informal communication make the following arguments against its use.
* It is too loose and therefore difficult to define or apply systematically.
* It can result in the spread of inaccurate information and half-truths. If carried to an extreme, it can result in second- and third-hand information being presented as
Looking at the communication from the organisation structured point of view. In hierarchical structure, the lines of communications from top to bottom will be longer then in a flat structure. It's likely there will be far less contact between those at the top and those at the bottom, in small organisation its boss can do everything he/she will be in control he/she can talk to the staff formally or informally, but in charity organisation such as SPACE this practically impossible.
Methods of communications
There are two main categories of communication - spoken, they called Oral and written
Oral communication:
This kind of communication can be face-to-face, over the telephone, use of technology such as answer machine, voice mails, pagers peepers and many more.
Written communications:
This kind of communication can be sent by mails, transmitted electronically. They can include illustration or graphics as well as text. A letter is most obvious example of a business communication, notices on notice boards, it includes newsletters brochures and catalogues, advertising products also count as written communication.
The method of communication chosen will depend upon various factors.
* The reason for communication
* The person who receiving it
* The satiations whether it's urgent or ordinary
* The complexity of the message
The mail communication methods in my work place are;
* Face to face
* Email
* Telephone
* Fax
* Letter
Face-to-Face
When one member of staff communicating with other members of staff, by face to face, with out using no electronic equipment, this communication will occur.
This communication is most common in most of the organisation, when staff is not getting along with face to face with face to face other member of staff, the organisation will not be more effective.
At SAPCE most of the time staff from other departments need to communicate with the administrative department face to face, so they can up to date with all the letters and etc, these type is most obvious in SPACE because, there only six staff in organisation in its such a small office premises.
Example 1. When the manager is getting her new messages from admin staff.
Email
Most external communication will be based on email system at SPACE. The main customer for the organisation is students, for them its easy to use and they will get quick responds from the SPACE.
From SPACE point of view, it's much cheaper, not taking too much physical place to store the incoming mails. Emails can prepared and send it to receiver at any time of the day, the with in minutes the person will get the message. Complex information can be sent and because the details are written down there is little risk of misunderstanding, which could happen if they communication via telephone. Email can be send simultaneously to group of customers, for example the people who want new studio to work on, which make it easier than sending a letter via post. And most importantly it more confidential all the email system are protected by a password and user ID so that only named members staff can access the mailing system.
Example 2: When admin staff send a responds to new members about available studios at SPACE.
Telephone
At SPACE telephone communication can be used in internal and external, because the organisation has six staffs they most of the time use the intercom, in that way staff can save their time. In external way most of the time in working day calls coming from different kind off people. Such as the customers, studio offers, charity requests and etc.
By using the telephone system the matter is get done immediately, no need to leave a matter to longer.
Example 3: responding to members queries
Fax
Fax machines are versatile, useful and cheap for the SPACE organisation. They mainly use fax for transmitting the documents over distance quickly and easily. They use the fax for only to communicate with other charity organisations, to bank, and to their head office.
They use fax because, there are some documents which need to be seen paper and its also proof for both side (the sender and the receiver)
At SPACE they use the fax most habitually, most of the time they do fax with different charity organisation, so they know where they get cheap studios, and they also send their up-to-date information to the head office.
Example 4: sending new members payments and the copy of the payment type (cheque, credit card receipts and etc)
Letters
Every single day number of mail will be delivered to the organisation like SPACE, some are routine items but others will contain important, if not critical, information. It is therefore vital that that mail is correctly stored and delivered as soon as possible. This is why in some large mailrooms the staff starts earlier than the rest of the office staff. The mails usually collected by the different departments and delivered to the individual staff. End of the day a large amount of mail needs despatching, some of them will be National some of them will be International all of mails have be prepared to be post.
At Space they will receive application form from the new members, and they also send off the monthly newsletter via post.
Example 5: sending news letter to the members, and receiving application forms from new members.
Example No
Example
Suitable or non - suitable
Face - to - Face
When the manager is getting her new messages from admin staff
Suitable, because the manager have opportunity to clear who exactly called in while she is away and what is the responds.
2 Email
When admin staff send a responds to new members about available studios at SPACE.
Suitable, because its quick, also can add the exact location in map attachment.
3 Telephone
responding to members queries
Either way, because it could be answer in email, or by face to face. More cheaper. By telephone its quicker.
4 Fax
sending new members payments and the copy of the payment to head office (cheque, credit card receipts and etc)
Suitable, because it's paper proof and more quick to head office.
5 Letters
Sending news letter to the members, and receiving application forms from new members.
Either way, news letter is effective by letter but at the same time its cost a lot, it could be done by email which is more cheaper and quicker.