The importance of effective communication in the workplace

The business environment is largely dependent on the communication of the different members in an organization. Effective communication is considered to be an effective part of any workplace and thereby it becomes the duty of any manager to ensure that the effective communication at a workplace is to be made a priority in order to ensure that the networking in an organization remains stable and that there exists no communication barriers between the different members of the organization so that the flow of information is sustained (Bargiela-Chiappini & Nickerson 2014).

With respect to communication, the interpersonal communication tends to form an essential part of the organization whereby the information is exchanged between two or more people. The interpersonal communication is often taken to be an area of study or research which seeks to understand the manner in which an individual can achieve personal as well as professional goals. According to Kernbach,  Eppler and  Bresciani (2015),  the interpersonal communication has contributed six distinct categories of inquiry and these have been discussed as follows:

• The manner in which the humans tend to adapt to verbal as well as nonverbal communication
• The way in which message is processed and produced.
• The manner in which uncertainty tends to influence the behavior of an individual
• Relational dialects
• Deceptive communication
• The use of technology during the procedure of communication.

The interpersonal communication between two individuals and the knowledge sharing which takes place between them is often considered to be the interpersonal communication. However, it is important that in this communication style, the different individuals have a certain knowledge about one another and tend to share details. The interpersonal communication takes place between two sisters. Between a son and his father, an employer and the employer, the teacher and the student and other such relations (Mai & Hoffmann 2014). Although this aspect can be described to be dyadic in nature, but is generally between small and intimate people and groups. According to Rubtsova et al. (2015), this type of communication can take place with the help of face to face settings, media platforms, social media, and other related platforms.

As stated by Moshiri and Cardon (2014), the interpersonal communication looks out for various elements which contribute to a positive experience for an individual. These elements are elements like personality, knowledge structures, social interaction, languages, non-verbal signals, emotional experience and the influence with respect to conflicts and other aspects. Moreover, aspects like family relationships, communication across lifespans and other aspects also have a strong influence on the interpersonal communication in an organization. The interpersonal communication which takes place in an organization tends to have a positive influence on the workplace environment and contributes to a better performance.

Personal communication can be described as the communications with the medium of private letters, memos, emails, interviews and other telephonic conversation mediums. The personal communication can be described as more professional in nature which means that it is done through mediums like private letters and memos. The personal communication is considered to be a crucial part of an organization whereby the different members whether from the senior management or the junior management tend to communicate with one another by making use of various mediums (Thomas & Stephens 2015). This kind of communication is generally used by the different firms in order to disseminate the information from one source to another.

Personal communication: A crucial part of any organization

It can be rightfully stated that both the personal as well as the interpersonal communication aspects are considered to be a crucial part of the organization as they go a long way in ensuring whether the firm has been successful in its communications systems or not.

However, although communication is believed to be used for disseminating the information in an organization and to act as a medium to ensure that the different individuals in an organization are able to communicate with one another effectively, communication is often considered to be an art of persuasion and influencing.  The art of persuasion is crucial in daily life and at a certain point of time any business is either persuading someone or getting persuaded. Based on this aspect, the advertising industry tends to survive whereby they persuade the different people to purchase a product. Very often a relationship in an organization may largely depend on the manner in which the parties tend to influence one another and persuade each other as per their needs. According to Chaudhri (2016),   the crucial aspect of persuading lies in in the identification of a need. When a need is arised in a particular situation then it becomes considerably easier for the different members to see to it that their need is achieved. Once this need is figured out, the persuasion becomes easier for any organization at large.

According to Young and Hinesly (2014), the art of persuasion in a business setting becomes essential because the different patties in a firm need to be influenced upon the manner in which these parties are required to carry out their business processes. Hence, to practice the art of persuasion, a business manager needs to follow the adequate steps:

Identification of the goals of the organization

The first crucial step which is involved in the art of persuasion and influence is the identification of appropriate foals of the organization. For instance, the goal of the organization may be to ensure a work place stability in the organization and to achieve the sales target and then it needs to plan for the same and form adequate strategies.

Determining the approach which has to be adopted by the organization

The next step involved the determination of the approach which is to be adopted by the organization in order to approach the goals. The approach largely determines the long term results and thus, there exists various ways with the help of which an individual or a business can approach the solution. It may be done through logic, through factual information, through values and emptions, through invoking of higher authorities or through the breakdown of work into different segments.  Determination of this approach is crucial.

Interpersonal Communication: An essential component of the workplace

Preparing evidence

In order to persuade anyone the business is required to ensure that they have adequate evidence at their disposal so that their approach is backed by adequate evidence and support (Darics 2015).  This means that in order to persuade someone, adequate proof of the service must be provided. Moreover, the client in case needs to be provided with adequate proof that the business will fulfill their needs. Moreover, the client must understand how the service provided by the business shall benefit the client at large.

The use of the appropriate language

Appropriate language is required to be used in order to persuade someone to take in the business deal or to ensure that the customer on the other side of the business feels that they will be gaining in a business transaction. Moreover, the business language is required to be appropriate in the sense that it needs to avoid the statistics and needs to be simple and gentle. The person involved in the act of influence and persuasion needs to be assertive in nature but not be very strict.

Another aspect which is important to consider in the scenario of an effective communication having been made a priority in an organization is that the individuals in an organization need to prioritize whether to make use of a personal network,   in order to influence others or limit themselves to organizational networks only. A personal network can be rightfully described as a set of human contacts which are known to a person and interacts with them on a personal level. This personal network is a group which cares about one another, are dedicated to maintaining a relationship with each other and perform a set of activities. In a personal network it is very important for the organization to maintain string relationships for mutual development and the growth of the organization (Kalugina, Volkogonova & Chaplitskaya 2015).  In general, the personal networks in an organization can be formed with the help of the knowledge about who knows you, the aspects you are aware about them, what information do they have about you, what are the relationship goals and how do the two people bond with one another.  The personal networks are mutually beneficial in nature and is highly concerned with the concept of peer group. Moreover, personal networking tends to ensure that the performance of the overall organization improves. The large organizations often support this networking in a hope that production improves and thus various tools are developed to ensure that effective communication functions as a priority.

The Art of Persuasion: Influencing and persuading in daily life and at work

Another kind of communication is the grapevine communication whereby the organization tries to learn something informally    and unofficially by means of rumors and gossips. This information is generally passed on through a word of mouth and in a confidential manner using colleagues and friends (Mayfield & Mayfield 2017). Although the grapevine communication also forms an integral part of the organization, the personal networking is largely encouraged.

Therefore, from the given analysis on the different aspects of personal and interpersonal communication and the different parts of persuasion and interests, it can be rightfully stated that    an effective communication forms a crucial part of any organization and that in order to ensure success in a firm and make effective communication crucial, a business would be required to ensure long term sustenance.

Communication can be considered to be a crucial aspect of the organization. Hence, it thereby becomes the duty of the manager to ensure that the effective communication becomes a priority of the organization. However, communication cannot be just limited to the various business aspects but also needs to be associated with the different sustainability as well as corporate social responsibility activities. Moreover, the sustainability of the organization`s communication activities also need to be considered effectively. Hence, with respect to this, the following section will discuss the importance of communicating sustainability in an organization.

The communication and engagement of the organization`s sustainability aspects with the stakeholders can be described as an integral part of the transformation process which is to be adopted by the organization at large and it is crucial that the different mega businesses have a strong impact on these activities (Pearson 2017). Effective communication as well as engagement is a critical part of the organization so as to develop an adequate part of the organizational strategy and provide a response to the environmental as well as social risks as well as aspects. This also has a long term impact on the culture of the organization. The different activities in which the organization engages in involves the employee volunteering, social and equal opportunities good, and other related activities. However, these sustainability activities have certain methods in the manner in which they are required to be communicated. These ways are as follows:

• Development of a brand identity in order to represent the manner in which the efforts have been taken by the organization.  Thus, the sustainability aspect of the organization can be largely communicated or aligned with the efforts of the overall brand so that it becomes well known and recognizable. This further adds to the reputation of the organization in the long run (Golob et al.2017). The image of the organization improves in the eyes of the consumers.
• Creation of a memorable theme and title: In order to communicate sustainability, the creation of a memorable theme and title are crucial which shall then go a long way in ensuring that these competencies are largely linked to the organization. Sustainability needs to be ensured in the organization and creative measures to approach the customers need to be made.
• Moreover, another popular method in order to promote the sustainability aspects of the organization comprises of taking advantage of the technology which is present. This technology includes tools and measures like the use of Social media whereby the activities as adopted by the organization can be shown to all the members. Secondly, QR codes can be used whereby the sustainable messages and communication can be easily spread around responsibly.  Moreover, various online surveys and contests with rewards can be held. This will not only serve as a proper measurement tool but also be able to enhance the sustainability communications in an organization.
• Moreover, the organization needs to ensure that there exists transparency in the different sustainability activities which shall communicate the main purpose of organization to the different stakeholders (Golob et al. 2017). In addition to this, the activities of the organization need to be made positive so that the different stakeholders can understand the primary purpose of the firm.

The next manner in which the organization needs to communicate its sustainability activities to the stakeholders is through crowd sourcing. As the different members of the public already have an adequate idea about the activities, the method of crowdsourcing needs to be adopted to encourage the public to perform well (Andersson 2016). The context which needs to be sourced is required to be quite relevant whereby the context and the message needs to be made relevant. No big terms need to be used and the firm just needs to ensure that the message goes across the desired target market.

Another method which may be adopted by the organization in order to ensure that the organization is successfully able to communicate the different aspects of the organization related to sustainability related to target audience is by forming strategic partnerships. A method to communicate the message of the firm is to build the credibility of the brand and form mutually beneficial partnerships which shall assist in ensuring that the sustainable by association works well for the organization.

Lastly, in order to attain success it is important for the organization to understand the target audience (Bortree 2014). Once the organization is able to understand the targeted audience, then the communication style can be altered successfully and it can be made more successful in nature.

Hence, communication of the sustainability activities is not an easy task and requires adequate planning and related activities in order to ensure that the sustainability activities of the organization are communicated effectively to the stakeholders.

As discussed previously, the communication of the sustainability activities is often considered to be a crucial aspect of the organization however, even the communication of the sustainability activities like the corporate social responsibilities can be a difficult task and in order to ensure success any organization will be required to take considerable measures in order to ensure that the members are successfully able to communicate with respect to the CSR activities.

The different CSR activities have become highly popular in an organization, however, in order to ensure success, it becomes important that the organizations communicate their CSR activities reasonably. The CSR activities recently have become a primary activity to the main business of the company and there has been a considerable increase in the different CSR activities of the organization (Bortree 2014). Given that the different organizations have increased their engagement into the CSR activities, it is important to communicate so that the stakeholders are aware of their moves. However, an aggressive approach will be very poor for the organization as they will be termed as greenwashing.

A righteous approach towards communicating the corporate social responsibility activities of the organization will be that the company does not need to be afraid of the media as the media goes a long way in assisting the organizations to use media as a medium to help the csr activities come out to the public (Raina & Roebuck 2016). Moreover, a second approach which an organization needs to ensure that the public does not need to be underestimated means that the different CSR activities need to be properly communicated to the members as the interest of the public has grown adequately over the last few years. Moreover, in case they understand the topics then they get more inquisitive about the activity.

Another procedure which must be used by the organization is that the different members of the organization should check whether the message which is to be communicated with the organization is successfully aligning with the different activities of the organization. In case any company as any good CSR practices then then they can easily communicate with the stakeholders. However, in cases these activities are no present in the organization then they should not communicate (Tench, Sun & Jones 2014). It needs to be understood that the companies who engage in such activities tend to be noticed adequately by the stakeholders but even then they are required to undertake adequate steps so that they can become popular in the eyes of the customers. Another aspect to be considered that the over dissemination in the communication of CSR activities need to be avoided. The different messages by the organization often face pressure from the stakeholders and thus this risk needs to be measured and adequate steps need to be taken.  They need to ensure that the portrayal gap is avoided and that the different members of the firm tend to ensure that the issues are understood and their impact on the different stakeholders are easily measured.

With respect to the sustainability of the organizations functions it can be stated that with the advent of technology, it is important for the organization to ensure that the different activities of the organization are carefully saved and kept a record for in order to ensure that the organization is successfully able to ensure the sustainability of the firm at large (Bell & Muir 2014). Moreover, it also needs to be ensured that sustainability of the activities ensures long term achievement.

Therefore, from the given analysis, it can be rightfully stated that business communication within the organization as well as outside the organization tends to play a key role as it goes a long way in ensuring that the company is able to portray its true image in the business environment. The firm at large is largely dependent on the support of the different stakeholders and thus for this reason, ensuring effective communication in all business aspects is essentially crucial. For this reason, the communication of the CSR activities of the firm tends to play a major role in a firm as it helps in building the image of the firm at large.

The managers should make the effective communication a main priority as this will help in reducing the crisis from the organization in an efficient manner. Crisis management is one of the critical organizational kind of function. The different kinds of failure will be resulting in serious kind of harm to the different stakeholders along with losses for the organization. There can be different kinds of crisis which can be faced by the different organizations and this will be causing huge damage for the different shareholders along with the organization in a negative manner. The crisis will be creating three kinds of related threats which is inclusive of financial loss, public safety and loss of reputation of the organization.

In the times of crisis in the organization, this is essential for the organizations to implement crisis management plan which will be helpful in reducing the different kinds of issues in an effective manner. The effective kind of crisis management plan helps in handling he threats sequentially as this is designed in such a manner which will help in protecting the organization along with the different stakeholders from the different kinds of threats and reduce the entire impact felt by the different threats as well (White 2016).

With the help of the crisis management and the communication plan helps in indicating that the crisis management communication plan is designed in such a manner which helps in preventing and lessening the damage of the crisis which can affect the entire organization along with the stakeholders. It is suggested that the crisis management will be integral part of the effective communication plan and the different businesses are required to have a crisis management plan which helps in ensuring that the organization is successful in managing the different kinds of issues in an efficient manner. It is critical in nature to communicate efficiently with the different internal staffs along with the clients along with the media as well. In order to be more precise, timely along with relevant information is essential in nature during the time of emergency and crisis which can affect the overall productivity of the organization in an appropriate manner.

The internal crisis management communication goal is essential in nature as this will provide a proper and detailed accurate and timely information which will help in preventing rumours and the inaccuracies. The communication plays a major role wherein templates of message must be kept ready all the time as this will help in saving energy and time as well. With the implementation of the same, this will assist in preventing the lot of errors that might occur after the actual emergency has taken place (Coombs 2014).

Additionally, the business crisis communication plan is essential which will help in setting up post disaster plan and schedule and the most essential information can be communicated when this is essential in nature and gain more competitive advantage in it. The crisis management plan is reference tool and it is not blueprint and the CMP helps in providing lists of the different key contacts information as per the different steps which are required to be taken in crisis as this will help in guiding and managing the crisis effectively. Moreover, this helps in reducing the misinformation and this assures the effective communication flow which will increase the timeliness of the messaging in an effective manner.

On the other hand, this is difficult in nature in managing the crisis management plan is handling the outsiders who may be the reason for misleading the entire information and this can end up in damaging the reputation of the organization. The precise kind of crisis communication plan is critical in nature during the crisis whether this is within the organization or to the public in general as well. Moreover, the effective communication in the media is essential and the excellent kind of public relation firm will help in developing strategy of communication which will help in recovering from crisis and rebuild the organization.

There are various kinds of steps which are being followed in the anticipating the crisis, which is the pre-crisis stage along with the crisis management team and plan is required to be analysed which will be helpful in handling the different issues in an appropriate manner. Boin, Stern & Sundelius (2016), has hypothesised that the there are few members who are common in the crisis team such as public relations, security and operations along with human resources. Proper training is essential which is required to be followed by the crisis management team in order to communicate the different steps which are essential in nature in managing the overall effectiveness and gain competitive advantage in an appropriate manner and aspect as well (Lachlan 2016).

The key component of the crisis management team training is the training of the spokesperson. The different organizational members are required to be prepared in order to talk to the different news media during the crisis as the media training are required to be provided before the hitting of the crisis in the organization and this will be helpful in managing and reducing the different challenges in an efficient aspect (Ulmer, Sellnow & Seeger 2017).

There are few steps which are required to be adopted by the organizations which are inclusive of the following:

The avoidance of the phrase named ‘No Comment’ as this will make the individuals feel that the organization is guilty of their performance and they are trying to hide something (Drennan, McConnell & Stark 2014)

Brief all the different spokesperson on the information of the latest crisis and this will help in conveying the different stakeholders in an efficient manner as well

The information is required to be presented in an appropriate manner which will be avoiding the nervous habits that the person interprets as deception (Fearn-Banks 2016).

The crisis management managers in the organization needs to pre-draft the different messages which can be used by them during the time of crisis and the managers can use the template during the time of crisis in analysing the different messages in an efficient manner. The usage of the different templates can be done by the personnel of the PR wherein the legal departments can provide the usage of the messages as this will help in saving the time during the entire crisis situation as the specific kind of information is simply inserted and the different kinds of messages are being sent and made available on the internet (Ki & Nekmat 2014).

There are various communication channels is required to be built by the different companies in order to designate the proper web page which will be suitable for the crisis management in the organization. Jin, Liu & Austin (2014), has hypothesised that the crisis web sites will be helpful in managing the different kinds of crisis which will help in anticipating the risks and this help in managing the same in an appropriate manner. The good PR firms can provide the in-depth of training which will ensure that the spokespersons can effectively and confidently communicate with the media and deal with the different situations in an efficient manner.

In the respective phase, the different organizations are returning to the business as usual and this will help the companies in handling the various crisis in an efficient manner. In this respective stage, the crisis is no longer the focal point of the attention of the management and this will require a little attention as to ensure that such issues do not occur in the future. The crisis managers in the organizations agrees that the crisis should be a learning process and experience which will be helpful in evaluating wherein the improvement is required to become more effective in their approach and become successful. In the post crisis management stage, this is essential to follow the different stages which is essential in reducing the crisis by implementing the crisis management plan and gain more competitive advantage as well. The steps are inclusion of the following:

Delivering all the different information which are being promised to the different stakeholders as soon as the information is known

Keeping the different stakeholders updated on the entire progression of recovery efforts which will be inclusion of the corrective measures and gain more competitive advantage ion the future to address the issues effectively (Booth 2015).

Conclusion

Therefore, from the above this can be concluded that it is crucial to recognize the crisis communication is important in crisis management process. Furthermore, the effective kind of communication is essential in nature in managing the crisis in the business environment. It is imperative to keep the different stakeholders informed internally through the different kinds of channels which will be used for the effective kind of communication and this is essential in sending out the effective and personal communication to the different clients as well. The public relations play a vital role in the crisis response which will be done by helpful in development of the different messages which will be sent to the different publics effectually as well.

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