Effective Communication in the Workplace
Importance of Communication Skills in Organizational Performance
Feb 12, 2009
Effective business must succeed in all its aspects in order to both correspond to the newest market trends, and satisfy customers’ demands.
Therefore, among the most important and vital for any organization are:
- Internal communication - between management and employees
- External communication - between the company’s staff and clients, suppliers, vendors
The Importance of Effective Communication for Organizational Performance
Lack of effective communication may lead to:
- Misunderstandings
- Lack of information
- Decrease in employees’ performance
- Decrease in company’s turnover, as a result
Ineffective or poor communication is frustrating for employees, and becomes a source of a conflict. Managers' inability to clearly express their thoughts, ideas and demands leads to employees' inability to perform work well, according to the company’s demands.
Such a situation may take place when an employee is not truly aware of what is requested of them. This decreases the satisfaction an employee gets from the job.
Benefits of Effective Communication in the Workplace
If a manager is able to communicate their ideas clearly, so that employees definitely know what is asked of them, the subordinates will, consequently, perform their jobs correspondingly. On contrast, an aggressive way of managing reports results in employees’ getting more and more frustrated, often guessing what their real faults were.
A good style of management, as well as a positive approach to communication, ensures that an employee and a supervisor understand each other, and are more effective at the workplace.
Effective communication in the workplace provides employees with a clear understanding of what is demanded from them, with knowledge of what to do and what to expect. For organizations, such a communication style creates effective performance of the staff, and, consequently, increases customer loyalty and profit.
Solutions
- A manager should make sure one’s communication style is positive and effective.
- The employees, if they understand the situation correctly, should communicate the problem to the supervisor, or to the higher management in order for the company to take certain measures for solving the problem.
- Any problems can and should be communicated both among the employees and up to supervisors.
- The atmosphere inside the company should be encouraging for effective communication so that employees, thanks to their management, clearly realize how important communication is for each staff member personally, and to the company in general.
- It is very important for communication to be ‘two way’, as Business Performance outlines, – employees should not only listen, but always have a chance, and be encouraged to ask questions, discuss, express own ideas.
- Feedback mechanisms and sharing best practices internally should be an integral part of organizational performance, and performance management system in particular.
Those who found this article useful, may also be interested in learning about Developing Effective Communication Skills. To learn about networking technologies for effective communication, read The Company Intranet and Video Conferencing.
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