Communication and Organizational Performance

The role of communication is becoming a progressively significant aspect in the understanding of the value of insubstantial assets of the organization. Communication taking place within the company is linked to higher level of service & performance creating social & communication capital, grounded in organizational relationship. Thus, it is very crucial for the management of the organization to be able to evaluate internal communication. Although management has long recognized the significance of internal communication, it is often seen from the management perspective rather than perspective of an employee. According to researchers, in order to meet the needs of the employees, it is vital to research into employee preferences for content & channel of internal organizational communication (Richmond & McCroskey, 2009).

Communication inside the organization is considered as a critical aspect in measuring the performance of the organization. As per the researchers, there could be four reasons why any organization fails to change, that are, distrust, conflict, insufficient communication, & poor interpersonal communication skills. It is said that 70% of the change programs fail & the principal reason noticed for such failures is poor interpersonal communication.  But in spite of this internal communication is said to be an under researched field. Academics comment that there is a lack of research & theoretical understanding on the internal communication. Marinating employee relation is equally important as maintain the public relation, still it often goes undervalued & understudied since public relations doesn’t have key responsibility for internal communication (Alessandra & Hunsaker, 2003).

Internal communication is now days becoming progressively recognized as a critical communication function. According to the studies done, it is being said that within next few years, change management & internal communication wound be the 2^nd crucial function after the corporate communication (CIPD, 2009).

Communication is the activity of transmitting information through the exchange of information, messages or thoughts, as by writing, visuals, speech, behavior or signals. It is the meaningful exchange of information between two individuals or group of people (Pincus, 2013).

Organizational communication is a criticism, analysis & consideration of the role of communication in organization. The main focus of organizational communication is on the role of communication in improving the life of the organization & output of the organization. A business can succeed only when all the organizational objectives are effectively achieved. Effective communication is important for manages in the company in order to perform the basic management function, i.e. planning, organizing, leading & controlling. Communication functions as the basis of planning. All the critical information should be communicated to the managers who in turn should communicate the plans in order to implement them. Organizing also entails effective communication with others about their task to be performed in a job. In the same way managers as the leaders of the organization should communicate effectively with their juniors in order to attain the team objectives. It is impossible to perform the controlling function without oral & written communication (Pace & Faules, 2009).

Internal Communication and Employee Engagement

Intra organizational communication is nothing but the various ways in which the communication takes place within the organization. Effective communication with the organization assists in:

• Promoting motivation by clarifying & information employees working in the organization about the task that needs to be completed by them, in the manner in which they’ll be performing the task & how can they improve their performance if it is not satisfactory or not reaching the expected point.
• Communication is a basis of information to the members of the organization for the process of making the decisions, as it assists in assessing & identifying alternate course of actions.
• Communication also plays an important role in altering the attitudes of an individual, i.e. a knowledgeable or a well-informed employee would have a better attitude than that of a less-informed individual. There are various channels which help in molding the attitude of an employee, i.e. journals, organizational broachers & magazines & numerous other forms of written & oral communication.
• Communication also assists in socializing. In the modern life of today the only presence of another person nurtures communication. It is also said that a person cannot survive without communicating (Lange, Mitchell, Stewart & Vila, 2008).

Being above all the reasons reflecting the importance of internal communication, it is very important for a customer advisory team to have a proper internal communication channels because the team directly deals with the clients or the customers. If they customer advisory team does not have proper internal communication channels, they’ll surely fail to provide best services to their clients (Melcrum, 2010).

Tamkeen is an organization situated in Bahrain; the company was established in 2006 and it is a semi-government organization. The organization was setup under Law # 57 as a part of the country’s national reform initiative. The organization is tasked with making the private sector the key driver of economic development.

Tamkeen’s mandate rotates mostly around the developing Bahrainis to permit for their effective competition in the labor market. Moreover, drives improved the efficiency & productivity among business & simultaneously assist in generating value added job prospects in the Kingdom.

The organization has introduced over 200 programs & initiatives focusing on areas like entrepreneurship exposure among many others, customized employment scheme & financing skills & funding.

The company is supported by three pillars- delivering results, improving quality & customer centricity. The initiatives of the organization endeavors to continuously respond & address the primary economic challenges being faced by Bahrain’s & business at numerous stages of their development- from students to senior executives & from start-ups to mature organizations.

In this era, Tamkeen plays critical, impactful &distinct role In the national economic development’s landscape, having more than 14000 Bahrainis & business.

Tankeen’s vision is to empower Bahrain’s to contribute & prosper to the national economy.

The mission of the organization is to create opportunities for the individuals in Bahrain, as well as enterprises in Bahrain to develop. The other missions include is to make Bahrainis the employees of choice for semi-skilled employees. And to make the enterprises in Bahrain more resourceful, in order to capture the opportunities available in market (Malmelin, 2007).    

• Inspiring
• Knowledge sharing
• Partnership
• Transparency & Integrity
• Impact & Quality driven
• Equal opportunities

The motive of Tamkeen is to be the catalyst of change towards the prosperous economy (Clampitt & Downs, 2007).

Internal Commination Channels proposed for Customer Advisory Team at Tamkeen

In order to help the organization to reach at the top in Bahrain would be to have stronger intra organizational communication channels. Through this report, I’ll be proposing few modes of internal communication which Tamkeen can adopt in order to have strong communication channels inside the organization (Akkirman & Harris, 2012).

The various Intra organizational communication channels that can be used by the customer advisory team at Tamkeen are:

• E-mails:Electronic mail is one of the most common & preferred of communicating or sharing information to the employees in the organization. It is the mode of exchanging digital messages from a sender to one or more receivers. Modern electronic mail (E-mail) operates throughout the internet or other computer networks. Email systems are built on store & forward model. The email server accepts, delivers, forwards & stores the messages. Even though users & their computers are not online simultaneously, the message is delivered. This mode of communication is widely used in every organization & is one of the most common modes of communication because it is organized, formal, convenient & accessible mode of communication.
• Circulars:These are also known as fillers, are the most effective wat of communicating with the customers or employees. Numerous organizations use fillers to invite employees for a meeting or luncheons or to impose policies & dress codes. These can also be used as a tool for advertising. There are various benefits of using the fillers, but filler must contain some features to be most effective. Moreover, distribution of fillers is crucial for fillers in business communication. Fillers is fastest and cheapest way of distributing the information to a large set of people (employees). Fillers are also highly informative, depending on the level of information needed. For instance, a firm needs only a few lines of copy to notify staff about the seminar. Fillers can also be non-obstructive & informal, i.e. employees are free to read them or ignore them.
• Meetings: It is a gathering of two or more individuals that have been assembled for a purpose of attaining a common objective through verbal interactions, like reaching agreement or sharing information. There could be virtual or face to face meetings, as facilitated by communications technology, like video conference, a telephone con call or a conference call via skype. There could be various types of meetings such as:
• Board meeting, i.e. a meeting of organization’s board of directors.
• Ad hoc meeting, a meeting called for a special purpose.
• Kick off meeting, the first meeting with the client of the project & project team to confer the role of each member of the team.
• Pre-Bid meeting, it’s the meeting of various contractors & competitors to visually inspect tender for the future project. These meeting as generally called by future client to ensure all the organizations bidding are aware of the specifications & services expected from them.
• Investigative meetings, are usually called while leading an exit interview or pre interview or a meeting among the representative & investigator.
• Management meetings are the meetings amongst the managers.
• One-in-one meetings are between the 2 individuals, usually between manager and his subordinate to discuss the overall performance.
• Team meetings are the meetings typically between a manager & his team members.
• Reports:Written reports are the documents that present silent & focused content to a specific set of audience. These are often used to display the results of an inquiry, investigation or experiment. Reports are generally prepared in education, business, science, government & other fields. Few instances of reports include annual report, audit report, etc. There are also the customer service satisfaction reports which can be used by Tamkeen in order to improve their services.  
• Town hall meetings: This is an American term given to an informal event, meeting or function. It has been derived from the England traditional meetings. Mostly these town halls are open to all the employees in the organization & mostly conducted at the floor of the office. The people attending these town halls can openly raise their opinions & ask the questions. The town halls are called for specific objectives such as
• Communicating new policies, regulations & rules which an organization is accommodating to its working.
• Rewarding employees for their good work done or to provide incentives & recognition for their
• Informing staff regarding organizations future plans for expansion.
• Preparing & communication employees about the upcoming projects and clients.
• Calendar Block: In today’s world of new ideas & innovation, corporates use diverse ways of managing their time & meetings efficiently. Companies have calendar block attached with emails or outlook where other individuals can view available slot of the concerned person on specific time & date. So the people can fix their appointments or meetings with them in that calendar that helps the other individual to be informed about the availability/occupancy of time of the individual  (Bennett, Owers, Pitt & Tucker, 2010).
• Intercoms:These days’ organizations install telephone on the workstations of every employee which have a unique extension number associated with them from where an employee can call the other employee within the organization, free of cost.
• Lync:This is the latest technology within the company that enables the employees to talk with each other via messages; lync is also called as instant message facility that allows employees to contact the other colleagues at far end within the organization (Riel & Fombrun, 2007). 

Though Tamkeen follow open door policy for their employees, wherein they can reach out to any level of management regarding their concerns & issues. However, it is advised to follow a correct line of communication, i.e. the first point of contact should be the immediate supervisor. The employees should discuss their concerns & issues with their line supervisor and they’ll further take employee’s concern to the next level or they’ll ask the employee to contact the next level (Clampitt, Phillip, 2000).

Conclusion

Internal communication is an essential for employees as well as organizational success. It allows organization to be more efficient & it is integral for employee engagement.

References

Akkirman, A., and Harris, D. Organizational communication satisfaction in the virtual workplace. Journal of Management Development, 24(5), 2012, 397-409.

Alessandra, T and Hunsaker, P., Communication at Work. Fireside, Simon & Schuster, New York, NY, 2007.

Bennett, J., Owers, M., Pitt, M., & Tucker, M. Workplace impact of social networking. Property Management, 28(3), 2010, 138-148

CIPD. Employee attitudes and the recession. London: CIPD, 2009.

Clampitt and Phillip, communicating for managerial effectiveness, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA, 2009.

Clampitt, P., and Downs, C. Employee perceptions of the relationship between

communication and productivity: A field study. Journal of Business Communication, 30(1), 2007, 5.

Lange, A., Mitchell, S., Stewart-Weekes, M., and Vila, J. The Connected Republic and the Power of Social Networks: Cisco Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), 2008.

Malmelin, N. Communication capital: Modelling corporate communications as an

Melcrum. Melcrum Social Media Survey 2010 London, 2010.

organizational asset. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 12(3), 2007, 298-310.

Pace, R Wayne and Faules, Don F, Organizational communication, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 2011.

Pincus, J. Communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and job performance. Human Communication Research, 12(3), 2013, 395-419.

Richmond,V and McCroskey,C, Organizational communication for survival: making work, Pearson/Allyn & Bacon, Boston, MA., 2013.

Riel, C.B.M. van and Fombrun, C.J., Essentials of Corporate Communication, London: Routledge, 2011.