Managing Communication

ACTIVITY 1

1.1  Knowledge and information required for stakeholder in different organisations

Stakeholders refers to the person or group of individuals who owns their share within an organisation and affect or being affected by company's decision, objectives as well as actions. They can be employees, shareholders, management, government statuary, investor, donor etc. Stakeholders are of two types:

• Internal:-People having managerial decision power within the organisation is knows as internal stakeholders such as management or board of directors etc. Internal stakeholders of Richardson requires knowledge and information about the company's performance, operational costs and financial data such as profit margin, ROI, current ration etc. for decision making process. This information will help in enhancing the efficiency and performance of company by formulating better strategies or by improving the current processes.
• External:-These are group of individuals that are present outside the organisation but get affected by the company's operations and decisions. It includes investors, customers, lenders, suppliers etc. Customers require information and knowledge about the CSR activities, legal compliances and services offered by Richardson before applying for any training program (Broom and et. al., 2014). This information will help in assessing the effectiveness of particular course and its benefits which support in making decision.

1.2 System used for communicating knowledge and information

Communication refers to the way of exchanging the information by writing, speaking or through any other medium. A company uses number of methods in order to communicate its information to different stakeholders. Following the methods used in communication system of Richardson:

• Meeting and briefings:-It is an most effective way of communicating information about the company. This method is used to communicated information to internal stakeholders (Coombs, 2014). Meeting are arranged among the managerial and key persons for discussing about important factors present within the company or for formulating strategies for future course of actions.
• Manuals:-This is an another method used for communicating information to internal stakeholders. Richardson can provide manuals to its employees for informing them about rule & regulations of country as well as about their duties or responsibilities.
• Emails and brochures:-It is an written form of communication which Richardson can use to inform their customers about services provided by company. Brochures will reflect about various training courses provided by company along with their duration, price and activities involved.

1.3 Barriers to effective work place communication

For the execution of operations effectively it is very essential the required message is conveyed appropriately between communicators. But along the way there are number of barrier present which creates misinterpretation and misunderstanding of conveyed messages (Barriers to Effective Communication, 2018). Following the potential barriers that may arises during communication at workplace:

• Barriers in verbal communication:-It is used for both formal as well as informal communication and its effectiveness is depend upon the tone selected, active listening, focus and clarity. Improper use of these criteria create barriers in communication. So for overcoming this prudence of sender and receiver is important.  
• Technological barriers:-Various technologies are used by Richardson such as email, telephone etc. for circulating its urgent messages. Poor network or disturbance in LAN   may leads to misunderstanding and misinterpretation of
• Lack of clarity:-Clarity while writing a formal mail or notice is very essential as inappropriate message may create barrier. As lack of clarity may leads to misinterpretation of message (Jeung, Park and Rho, 2014). While writing a message communicator must avoid excess use of technical word, jargon and ambiguous in order to eliminate barriers.

2.1 Impact of value and culture factor in communication

Values is defined as belief or standard of behaviour that an individual have and on the basis of which they takes decision in particular situation. Values influence the behaviour and choices of words that are being employed for conveying the message. Apart from this culture is refers to a set of values, beliefs, custom and languages which are well practised in society.   

Culture and communication are inseparable and have reciprocal relationship. Hence, in an organisation communicated information and its interpretation is very much affected by cultural differences (Suryanarayana and et. al., 2015). For example: In case of low context culture plays a crucial role people have to communicate more effectively and clearly for being understood. As Richardson operates its business operations in different countries throughout the world. So, its operation may influenced by cross culture differences and is required to be managed for its proper functioning.

2.2 Uses of technology and its benefit as well as hinder the communication process

Companies uses number of digital technologies for eliminating the physical barriers of communication. An organisation uses technologies for speeding up communication as well as information flow. It includes technologies such as email, video conferencing, mobile phones, internet etc. These tools can be beneficial or they may create hinder in communicational process.

Benefits:-

• It help in fastest transmission of any message and in effective manner by eliminating physical barriers in communication.
• Use of these technologies help in reducing complexity and are time as well as cost efficient.
• These technologies can also be used to deliver information in visualisation form such as in the form of power point presentation.

Limitations:-

• Use of technology give rise to various malpractices such hacking, viruses and fraudulent actions.These malpractices may corrupt the data which is important for organisation which hinder the communicational process.  
• Dependability over technologies may leads to managerial inefficiency as they are more depended over technologies to convey their messages instead of communicating by themselves physically. (Kramer, 2014).
• Inappropriate choice of technologies may results in communicational barriers that can distort the core information of message. Company like Richardson has to manage its multinational networks, as incorrect selection of technology may leads to misinterpretation of its information.

Richardson should evaluate all the essential positive as well as negative aspects of particular technology for avoiding any barrier or misrepresentation in communicational process.

2.3 Impact of communication processes on policies and procedures

Policies is defined as set of principles, rules and plans which are used in decision making process by an organisation to accomplish its long-term goals. On the other hand precision meaning procedure refers to the step by step sequences of actions that must be followed for the completion of a particular task.

 Policies and procedures created by an organisation have an great impact over the overall communicational management. Richardson is a global sales training company which provide coaching to salespersons for enhancing their selling skills they required for building trust, credibility and create differentiated value (Abel, 2014). It deliver its services in more than 41 countries world wide. Organisational policies and procedures suggest methods as well as principle of communication. Richardson encourage open network communication so that employees can communicate their perceptions directly without moving through complex formal structure.

ACTIVITY 2

4.1 Communication audit 

It refers to evaluation of organisation's ability to share, receive and send information with its internal stakeholders. Communication audit also assists manager in identifying about changes happened within an organisation which have an direct impact over the decision making of company.

Communication audit was conducted over Internal communicational process of ALDI by using questionnaire for its employees and its findings are given below:-

• ALDI have less transparency in its communicational process which requires improvement for enhancing organisational efficiency.
• ALDI uses hierarchical structure for communication and is required to apply flatter organisational structure that help in simplifying management procedures. As this hierarchical structure delays the operations of organisation.
• Communicational tools used by organisation is also not effective due to which information is not communicated properly to employees. So ALDI can use various communicational tools such as intranet or emails through which it can communicate securely throughout the organisation (Rickard, 2015).

From the internal communication audit of ALDI, it has been clear that, though employees  understand and follows the direction of authority still they want company to simplify the communicational process. Reduction of complexity will help in improving time management and also bring efficiency in operations.   

4.2 Theories of organisational communication

Organisational communication refers to the process through which interaction promote coordinated actions toward common goal. There are number of theories developed by researchers to create an understanding about organisational communication which are as follows:

• Attraction-selection-attrition framework:-Communicational practices within an organisation is depend upon the culture of an organisation. This theory suggest that communication skill must be developed according to the psychology of employees within an organisation (Caballero, 2014). For developing better organisational communication framework, ALDI  must develop communication system and planning according to psychological preference of its internal stakeholders.
• Contingency theory:-According to this theory communication system within an organisation is  depend upon the attitude which a company reflect toward its employees. Contingency theory consider both internal as well as external environment for selecting appropriate channel of communication to convey information. ALDI must identify the ways which employees prefer and on the basis of which communication system must be formed.
• Group think:-This theory explains that an organisation must develop an communication system for considering the group thinking of employees instead of taking higher authority preferences into consideration. Application of this theory will help ALDI in formulating better strategy toward achieving higher growth within the marketplace by inviting views or ideas from its employees.

4.3 Plan for improving communication

An effective communication system within an organisation help in performing operations effectively and also help in achieving higher marketing success. For improving the communication system of company, ALDI must perform following actions:

• Consensus and survey:-ALDI can conduct survey over its employees for identifying challenges and barriers faced by them. While communicating. (Fuller and et. al., 2017). This information will help manager in taking better decisions and in improving the communication system of company.
• Planning workplace communication:-This action will help in determining the policies and procedures of communication. Planning will help ALDI in improving the operational effectiveness and accomplishment of organisational goals.

Responsibility for improving the communication:- HR Manager of ALDI must ensure that employees should actively participate in decision making process for formulating better strategies. They must also ensure that both upward and downward communication process must be followed for improving operational efficiency.

Time Scale:- For improving the communicational process within ALDI, company will require at-least 6 month for implementing and getting positive result by performing its actions.

4.4 Measures for evaluating success

For achieving the success in communication system planning within an organisation it is very essential for a manager to use various measures in order to identify the progress of its plan. Following are the SMART measures that can followed for evaluating the success:

• Feedback:- Under this the HR manager implement this communication planning within the organisational system and collect feedback about application of this plan from its employees.
• Comparative analysis:- Collected information will be assessed and then comparison should be performed between current outcome with standard result  (Mueck, 2015) .
• Outcome based evaluation:- This comparison will help in identifying the the limitations of plan. These limitations must be rectified for establishing a proper control over communication process for its success.

ACTIVITY 3

3.1 Effectiveness of own communicational skill

Personal communicational skill are very essential for a person as it help in improving the working efficiency. As an manager of ALDI, it will help in managing team work much effectively. Following is my personal communication audit:

• Written communication skill:-Within an organisation most of the information are circulated through written communication medium such as email, notices etc. An individual must have good writing skill in order to communicate right message to right individual (Cahn and Abigail, 2014). I am quit good  in written communication.
• Use of Information and communication technology:ICT play an very essential role while communicating message in most speedily manner. I am well skilled and have knowledge of using information technology.
• Body language:-It is an most effective and important part of communication. So, it is very essential for a person that its body gestures must present the same message which that individual is conveying I usually fail to carry proper body language during conversation.

3.2 Application of interpersonal skill theories

Interpersonal theories help an individual in improving its communication skills. Following are the interpersonal skills:-

• Attribute theory:-It is one among these which suggest that attributes are consider as internal or external process which defines the understanding as well as interpretation behind one's behaviour. This help HR manager in identifying the point of view or reaction of individuals while communicating with them. This will assists in simplifying the interaction process.  
• Uncertain reduction theory:-This theory suggest that an individual can reduce the uncertainty in relationship by developing knowledge and understanding. Hence, by applying this theory HR manager can improve relationship with its employees by minimizing uncertainty.
• Expectancy value model:-This theory more focuses on interactive and complex nature of attitude. It evaluates the belief and attitude toward the object. Expectancy value theory influences communication by presenting social influence in change of attitude. By applying this theory HR manager will better understand the attitude of its employees toward a particular action of management.

3.3 Feedback for others

 Feedback forms essential that assist in evaluating the effectiveness of communication process. Being HR manager of Aldi, following are the individuals that can be approach to provide feedback that help in identifying the communicational effectiveness:

• Supervisor:-HR manager of Aldi can take feedback from their supervisors and can also get recommendation for improvement. HR manager can ask their supervisors  to express their views regarding communicational effectiveness during presentation.
• Subordinate:- They can also take feedback from their subordinates to identify the effectiveness of their communicational skills. They can get feedback during meeting with their subordinates.
• Friends:-HR manager of Aldi can also take suggestion and recommendation from their friends while having conversation with them. This help in improvising the communication skill of HR which further help in enhancing their organisational operation.

3.4 Plan own Personal Development

Development of personal communication skill is of vital importance for an individual to adopt (Rickard, 2015). For developing my personal communication skills I will go through mentioned below planning:

CONCLUSION

From the above report it can be summarized that communication is very essential for improving the performance and efficiency of an organisation. So it is very essential to evaluate about cross cultural differences and  users of information before selecting a communication system. An effective communication system will help in increasing motivation in workplace and organisational success.

REFERENCES

• Abel, M. T., Microsoft Corp, 2014. Means for provisioning and managing mobile device configuration over a near-field communication link. U.S. Patent 8,718,554.
• Austin, E. W. and Pinkleton, B. E., 2015. Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication campaigns. Routledge.
• Broom, A., and et. al., 2014. The troubles of telling: managing communication about the end of life. Qualitative health research. 24(2). pp.151-162.
• Caballero, A., Honeywell International Inc, 2014. Managing data communication between a peripheral device and a host. U.S. Patent 8,868,803.
• Cahn, D. D. and Abigail, R. A., 2014. Managing conflict through communication. Pearson.
• Coombs, W. T., 2014. Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. Sage Publications.
• DeMarco, S. J. and Szczerba, R. J., Lockheed Martin Corp, 2016. System for predictively managing communication attributes of unmanned vehicles. U.S. Patent 9,383,750.

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