Introduction
Research on Communication in Organizations is of great interest to scholars in the field, businessmen and managers committed to improving labor production processes, and in general, all those who in their daily activity use communication as a fundamental axis of their interpersonal relationships. Organizations have understood the value of communication as a strategic resource to develop and survive in a highly competitive world, where closed or isolated structures prevent effective decision-making. Many of the current problems in organizations are produced by the lack of effective communication, both internally and externally. Therefore, effective communication in organizations is of utmost importance,since the success of any organization and the image it wants to give both outside and inside depends largely on it.
Communication and organization
According to McCaskey, MB (1979), managers can improve their understanding of communication between people by handling images, settings, and body language. If a manager in an organization talks about making a "career end", what is he trying to say? Does he see the life of the organization as a game? Are you seeing a risk or are you nominating yourself for a hero role ?; Or is he just saying he's going on a project anyway, regardless? The truth is, we can't know what he's saying. It is too easy to interpret the metaphors that others use to accommodate our own meanings but we ignore the fact that metaphors have idiosyncratic meanings that should be heard.McCaskey describes three ways that managers convey messages about themselves and the ways they view the world. He encourages viewing these forms - his metaphors, his office settings, his tone, and his accompanying body language - as communication. Like speech or mathematics, these are languages that can be learned. With his skill, a manager can see and hear what is really happening when people speak, what hidden messages they are sending all the time. McCaskey gives some tips on what to see and hear when trying to understand others, but be very careful with simplistic interpretations as all messages occur in context.your tone and your body language accompanying your speech - by way of communication. Like speech or mathematics, these are languages that can be learned. With his skill, a manager can see and hear what is really happening when people speak, what hidden messages they are sending all the time. McCaskey gives some tips on what to see and hear when trying to understand others, but be very careful with simplistic interpretations as all messages occur in context.your tone and your body language accompanying your speech - by way of communication. Like speech or mathematics, these are languages that can be learned. With his skill, a manager can see and hear what is really happening when people speak, what hidden messages they are sending all the time. McCaskey gives some tips on what to see and hear when trying to understand others, but be very careful with simplistic interpretations as all messages occur in context.McCaskey gives some tips on what to see and hear when trying to understand others, but be very careful with simplistic interpretations as all messages occur in context.McCaskey gives some tips on what to see and hear when trying to understand others, but be very careful with simplistic interpretations as all messages occur in context.
For example, if we find that our people are not doing what we want them to do, the mistake may be ours, says Klain, G. (2000). It seems simple for leaders to agree that their subordinates do what they are asked to do, but research shows that it is not that simple. Sometimes leaders just give orders for actions without explaining why. And other times they don't go out of their way to show their intentions in a clear way. Why don't people follow the simple instructions? Sometimes it seems that sharing is silly. It could be called insubordination, or lack of motivation. Maybe there are big organizational barriers that we need to clarify. It is not difficult to find all kinds of problems in the company and in the employees. Klain and his colleagues have studied business and military leaders for many years,And they have encountered another problem: many leaders do not have the ability to give clear instructions, this is one of the less common skills and leaders rarely receive training for it.
As Harriman, B. (1974) mentions, a well-designed program can help subordinates tell management how to improve their own tasks as well as the overall effectiveness of the company. He tells the story of the steps a company took when it was in serious trouble. He first discusses the theory of "up and down" communications, which his company used to design its own "upward communications" program, then describes each part of the program, explaining how it adjusted, which stones they tripped over, and what kind. of successes they experienced and ends by summarizing the crucial points of the program that may be applicable for other organizations facing similar problems.Effective interpersonal communication is recognized as basic to any successful human endeavor. In fact, the problem of communication has become the most coined phrase of our time. Tom Lehrer - satirical writer - got tired of hearing so much about the problem of communication between young and old, rich and poor, black and white, that he said: 'It seems to me that if someone is having a lot of communication problems, they will The best thing to do is shut up. Ignoring that good advice, Harriman's company has developed a communications theory that, once approved and applied, has helped solve attitude and operational effectiveness problems.he got tired of hearing so much about the problem of communication between young and old, rich and poor, black and white, that he said: "It seems to me that if someone is having a lot of communication problems, the best thing to do is shut up.". Ignoring that good advice, Harriman's company has developed a communications theory that, once approved and applied, has helped solve attitude and operational effectiveness problems.he got tired of hearing so much about the problem of communication between young and old, rich and poor, black and white, that he said: "It seems to me that if someone is having a lot of communication problems, the best thing to do is shut up.". Ignoring that good advice, Harriman's company has developed a communications theory that, once approved and applied, has helped solve attitude and operational effectiveness problems.it has helped solve attitude and operational effectiveness problems.It has helped solve attitude and operational effectiveness problems.
Pentland, AS (2012) has identified in his research three aspects of communication that affect the performance of a team. The first is energy, which is measured by the number and nature of exchanges between team members. A simple exchange is defined as a comment and some acknowledgment, for example, a "Yes" or a nod. Normal conversations are often made up of many of these exchanges and in a team environment more than one exchange can be zoomed out at a time. The most valuable form of communication is face-to-face, the next most valuable is communication by phone or video conferencing, but with one exception: technologies become less and effective when more people participate in the call or conference.The least valuable forms of communication are text messages and email.
If many people are asked what instructions mean, they reply that it is telling people what you want them to do, and perhaps some indications of how you want them to do it, says Klain, G. (2000). The logic is that if we do this, each team member will be able to follow instructions and the team will work like a well-oiled machine. If we are concerned that some unpredictable elements might arise, we could give the team some contingency actions to get the job done under certain circumstances. A limitation of this approach is that there can be failed attempts. We assign tasks, which explain what to do, but we forget to explain why they have to be done. In a study,Klain and his colleagues examined the written military instruction statements distributed during a navy exercise. Less than 20% of these orders mention the purpose of the mission. Their observations suggest that through their attempts, trained leaders allow their subordinates to work more independently. When employees can see what the leader really wants to achieve, they don't need to remember all the steps to take. Instead they can make their own adjustments without frequently looking for the leader. Subordinates who understand the intent of the job react better and use their own judgment, without expecting permission.They can recognize opportunities that were not part of the original plan and can move on instead of just finishing work and waiting for the next task to be assigned. They can recognize errors, specific inconsistencies and anticipate problems. In no time, they will be able to improvise instead of nervously trying to get on with every little task. On the contrary, when a leader is not clear in her explanations, employees are confused as to why to do such tasks, and they doubt the logic of the plan. These employees should expect the leader to guide them whenever the situation changes or something unexpected happens.they will be able to improvise instead of nervously trying to keep up with every little task. On the contrary, when a leader is not clear in his explanations, employees are confused as to why to do such tasks, and they doubt the logic of the plan. These employees should expect the leader to guide them whenever the situation changes or something unexpected happens.they will be able to improvise instead of nervously trying to keep up with every little task. On the contrary, when a leader is not clear in his explanations, employees are confused as to why to do such tasks, and they doubt the logic of the plan. These employees should expect the leader to guide them whenever the situation changes or something unexpected happens.
Harriman, B. (1974) exposes the serious communication problems that were documented in a study carried out in 1969 in the New England telephone company, which found a strong aspiration of employees to play a greater role in decisions that affect the company and its work. The results also indicated that the majority of employees wanted to improve the overall effectiveness of the company as well as their own jobs. Top management saw the need for a more accurate, timely, and unfiltered flow of communication within the company to help them perceive and react to changes effectively. Consequently, the company developed a program that responded to these needs and demands. As it is based on the theory of bottom-up communication,We call it "upstream communications program." The theory that guided his 1969 study and the resulting program is that communications in a hierarchical society or organization work on the gravitational principle. Downstream Communications are generally better and often more accurate than those that want to be at the highest levels. Rather, upstream communications have to be piped and pumped, with a minimum of filters, to be effective. The reason for this difference is in people's perception where as subordinates to survive or succeed, they must develop a keen understanding of the real motives, character and personality of people with a power over them. For example, to survive in a white society,Most blacks have developed their perception of a white man's intentions and attitudes, in the same way that a blind person develops a keen sense of hearing.
On the other hand, behavior is also influenced by the place -which defines territoriality-, and other characteristics of the setting, points out McCaskey, MB (1979). Thomas Allen of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology studied communication patterns in research and development offices, where he found that beyond a distance of 23 or 27 meters, personal interaction drops sharply. This suggests that a manager should physically reach out to his people in the organization to talk to each of them, even if this means sacrificing space status for some members. When younger managers understand the dynamics of proximity, they can try to locate their offices next to the boss's. A manager can use the spaces in his office to influence the character of interactions there.For example, many managers establish their offices with two different areas. In one, the manager speaks to a person sitting on the other side of her desk. Such an arrangement emphasizes the position and authority of the manager. The first thing to understand about place is that it represents territory. Animals mark their territory and defend it against intruders, and so does humans. Fences and gates of all kinds separate what belongs to one person from what belongs to the rest of the world. The boundaries provide guarantees and privacy, protecting from unwanted intrusions by others. Depending on who they are and the kinds of interactions they want with others, people use physical spaces in distinctive ways.Managers can also examine their own setting to see if their arrangement influences behavior in ways that serve their purposes.
In one study, researchers found that the role of achieving empathy with the superior increases precision in inverse proportion to the power of the receiver in the structure, notes Harriman, B. (1974). By applying the theory of top-down communications to a business organization, it was found that subordinates "study" their bosses better than they commonly do, and bosses "study" their subordinates much less than they think. However, most management methods go against this theory, for example, formal job evaluations are always the evaluation of the boss to the subordinate. Furthermore, we have all observed that when bosses complain about communication in their organizations, it invariably means that their subordinates do not hear them clearly and effectively.Most of the formal communications programs in a company are top-down. Few formal programs are designed so that subordinates can speak and bosses listen. The key to downstream communications is that subordinates react more effectively to matters that they consider to be of the greatest personal interest to the boss. Among the various commands, policies, practices, and suggestions that come from above, subordinates select the ones most in line with their bosses' perception of the character, personal motivation, and type of priority. This trend helps explain why some managers "go without lights in the fog," while others get the effective answer. This indicates why what is well communicated by one boss fails when it comes from another.Effective communication changes the self-interest stimulation that each boss negotiates in a particular situation. Downstream communications should ensure that employees act in the best interests of the company and not just the best interests of the boss; the two conflicts that exist from time to time. To improve downstream communications, four principles should be followed: Know Yourself, Be Yourself, Send Selective Signals, and Listen to Signals.Four principles should be followed: Know Yourself, Be Yourself, Send Selective Signals, and Listen to Signals.Four principles should be followed: Know Yourself, Be Yourself, Send Selective Signals, and Listen to Signals.
On a routine day, a typical CEO spends an extraordinary amount of time meeting and talking to people, notes McCaskey, MB (1979). The innate part of a manager's communication is the image, the place, and the body movements he uses. Images, scenery, and body language are not simply aggregates of communication. They carry the messages and in some cases, they are the messages themselves. As such they are hugely important to an administrator. Still, managers often only pay attention to chance or worse, assume they are not gifted in these areas. The truth is that all of us use these ways of communicating - whether we realize it or not. The secret is knowing what is being communicated. Like math, French and accounting,these are languages that can be learned. Pictures, location, and body language rarely provide definitive information; but they provide the administrator with a path of knowledge that is not available in other message channels. With proficiency in these languages, a manager can develop instincts and good "insight" for a problem that holds a special appreciation. If managers put a lot of effort into these aspects infiltrated in their daily work life, they will improve their knowledge of communication with others.a manager can develop instincts and a good "feel" for a problem that has a special appreciation. If managers put a lot of effort into these aspects infiltrated in their daily work life, they will improve their knowledge of communication with others.a manager can develop instincts and a good "feel" for a problem that has a special appreciation. If managers put a lot of effort into these aspects infiltrated in their daily work life, they will improve their knowledge of communication with others.
There is a common belief that it is easy to communicate between people, such as speaking and hearing, but the reality is that communication is complex and challenging to manage efficiently. Communication in organizations plays a very important role. If effective methods of communication are not available, managers run the risk of reaching critical points such as misunderstanding, unclear priorities, confusing orders or the application of misinterpreted personal criteria, which can lead to an organizational climate of tension and little productive. Today, it is essential that executives know how to express, understand and present their ideas or instructions clearly at all levels of the organization.
Bibliographic reference
- Harriman, B. (1974). Up and down the communications ladder. Harvard Business Review. September-October 1974. 143, 144, 145. Klain, G. (2000). Why Won't They follow Simple Directions.? Harvard Business Review. February 2000. 14-16.McCaskey, MB (1979). The hidden messages managers send. Harvard Business Review. November-December 1979. 135,136, 138, 144.Pentland, AS (2012). The New Science of Building Great Teams. Harvard Business Review. April 2012. 65.
