Introduction
Communication inside the organization plays a vital role at any level. Today, inside any organization we shall find employees engaged into interpersonal communication (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). It refers to the way of communicating on a face-to-face basis, and discussing upon the objectives, needs and expectations of the assigned tasks. However, there are certain theoretical concepts and attributes associated with it. Such communication is accurate, honest and helps in building interpersonal relationships amongst different employees of the organization. It is more termed as supportive communication, which further comprises of coaching, counseling, and direct communication. The thesis of this paper shall focus upon personal work experiences that are related to the concepts of supportive communication.
Coaching & Counseling
Before explaining the supportive communication, it is important to understand the concepts of coaching and counseling that are closely associated with it. Coaching refers to a process or an approach, through which the leader or the coach or the head of the team will be assisting the group members (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). They will be providing necessary information, training, and advice on several working issues within the organization (Craig & Allen, 2013).
On the other hand, counseling refers to first of all identifying the problem concerned with personality, attitudes and emotions specifically within the organization (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). It then provides suggestions to improve the same. Today, inside any organization, supportive communication plays an important role in informing important messages to the employees of the organization. The managers of the organization will be adapting the ways of both coaching and counseling as per the needs of the employees of the respective organization. Consider, an example, wherein the manager will be required to inform the employees about a given project. He will be leading the team and will be explaining them the project details. He will inform how to carry out the work and how to complete it within given timeframe. However, the same manager will also be playing a role of the counselor in such organizations.
Consider, an example, wherein the employees are demotivated and are not enthusiastically participating in the routine work activities. He thus, will be required to boost the motivation levels of the employees, and accordingly, provide them with a dosage of a positive mindset toward a given work. He thus, acts like a counselor providing counseling sessions to the employees to make them work, and at the same time, assisting them in their various needs.
Attributes & Barriers of Supportive Communication
There are often barriers found within the organization, which will distort the process of communication (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). Consider, an example, wherein we often found that one or two members will not be aligned to the instructions of their respective leader either due to anger, competitiveness, aggression or avoidance. Due to such behavior, they will first not agree to the norms and guidelines of their leader.
Further, they will discontinue their regular routine activities. It might also happen, due to a dissatisfaction factor at a given working place inside the organization they might left the organization altogether. Under such circumstances, the manager or the leader needs to find out the root cause of issue, and accordingly work upon it so as to improve the daily process of communication.
Consider an example, wherein there is a team working for an assigned project, and there are ten members in it. Now, out of these ten, two of them disagree to work due to communication gap or due to their personal issues either with the manager or with the organization. At this juncture, if the manager does not communicate with them, and find out the root cause of such an issue, the case would become worse. Hence, he needs to improve the process of communication with them, and accordingly should try to solve their respective issues.
Improving Supportive Communication
There are eight different attributes of such supportive communication. It is more of problem-oriented, congruent, and descriptive in nature, specific, owned, and conjunctive (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). It is thus, important for each and every employee of the organization to learn and understand the process and techniques of effective Supportive Communication.
Communication can be improved by improving the listening skills. A good listener makes direct eye contact, avoids distracting actions, exhibits appropriate body language, and does not talk in between. He avoids interrupting, but asks questions at the end to the respective speaker. The transactions between the speaker and the listener will seem to be quite smooth. Consider an example, wherein the manager will be providing instructions to the employees about an assigned project. The employees need to listen to it carefully so that they are aware of the roles and responsibilities associated with this project. They can ask queries, but only when they have heard all the details of the project. Thus, it is important to improve the listening skills at such junctures.
Employees should avoid deflecting channels, and rather reflect more on what has been told or said in a given session. It has been found that, the major disturbing sources for effective communication include distortion, overload, misinterpretation, emotions, and ambiguity (Brønn, 2014). Hence, it is more important to find out solutions to overcome all the disturbing sources and improve the communication within the organization (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). They should avoid talking or interpreting in between, while the speaker is delivering his speech. They should maintain the environment of the decorum. They should not make false or funny comments in between, which would disturb the entire environment of the session. They should practice such ways, which would improve supportive communication.
During the annual meeting, the top-level management will be communicating about the key plans in the future and the objectives to be met in the future. The employees should listen to them carefully, so that they can plan their strategies and accordingly, achieve the objectives of the organization (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). In order to reduce ambiguity and distortion, they need to try for smooth transactions for communication (Bell & Smith, 2010). They can frame stories or develop an analogy so as to visualize and remember what was told during such session or meeting or any other discussion.
Strategies for Communication with different types of People
The strategies for communicating with different people will vary. Hence, one needs to learn the art of communication while communicating with the extroverts or introverts type of people within the organization (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). Introverts and Extroverts refer to a personality of an individual. Introverts are individuals that are shy in nature, are not open to discussion, will not speak too much, and will not oppose to any instructions. On the other hand, Extroverts are the individuals that are not shy, are straight-forward, will provide the comments accordingly, are open to discussion, and will oppose to anything, if they not found comfortable. Thus, any employee within the organization needs to learn the way of communicating effectively with different types of people (Hinde, 1972). They, however, should encourage the introverts so that they can also provide their inputs and opinions for a given discussion.
Communication Process
A communication process comprises of elements such as sender, receiver, encoder, decoder, and transmission medium (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). Hence, depending upon the communication mediums, the media richness will also vary. There are many different forms of business communication and each of them plays an important role in helping these employees to communicate with each other.
Basically, there are two types of business communication existing in the given business environment. These include – the internal communication and the external communication (Liu, 2012). Internal communication is meant for the employees to communicate within their peers, their coordinates, their managers, and other senior people of the organization. On the other hand, external communication deals with the communication between the employees of the organization and the outside entities such as other company personnel, government personnel, vendors, clients, customers, press representatives, media people, and legal representatives (Argyle, 1972).
Modes of Communication inside Organizations
The major modes of communication inside the organization will happen through face-to-face communication, video conferencing systems, telephonic discussions, and through mails and memos. It has been found that, inside I.T. organizations, the projects have failed due to lack of communication (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012).
The level of professionalism and communication approach will vary as per the levels of the organization. As we move along the ladder toward the upper direction, the professionalism approach will discuss, and people will focus more upon the communication approach. Thus, for a communicating to be effective and successful, it is important to maintain the body posture, the body language, need to listen to what has been said, and act upon it accordingly (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012).
Personal Examples on Supportive Communication
I would now like to narrate personal instances, wherein we shall find the importance of supportive communication inside the organization. I had been working in a project, wherein there were people of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Now, it was the responsibility of the Human Resource Department to train all these people from the perspective of communication. They need to be informed on how communication will be taking place, and what all shall be included in the briefing sessions. But, due to lack of sufficient training, and lack of awareness on supportive communication, there were several conflicts on a day-to-day basis within my team. Even, the manager got confused and had no idea on how to proceed under such a situation.
It was thus, important for the project team to understand the needs of different cultural languages, ways of communicating, and the communication gestures so that we can work in a better collaborative fashion. It would have further helped us to complete all the project deliverables on time, and accordingly achieve the objectives of the organization.
Consider another personal example, wherein I was directly interacting with one of the clients. He was a prospective client for the organization, and I was handled the responsibility of taking projects from him. I met him first time, at his office, and I provided my introduction. We then started discussing on the various issues of his work. I focused upon the core advantages that he would gain by working with our organization. In between, I used to listen to all his needs and also answered several queries asked by him. It was important to keep patience, remain cool & calm, and communicate effectively in order to gain project work from him. I, finally, succeeded in getting the desired tasks from this client, which was an ultimate achievement for me as well as for my organization. I thereby, realized the importance of supportive communication, at such important junctures.
Conclusion
Communication is an important means to speak to people, to inform to people, to discuss with people, and to develop relationships and networks with people (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). The company needs to be careful in using the words and in selecting the language. Communication is a tool that will help in understanding the needs of the clients, the issues of the legal authorities, and the problems of the employees of the organization. Hence, a concentrated effort will be required from all the departments of the organization in the direction of communication by utilizing proper means and proper methods.
Business communication from the business perspective is important for marketing, customer relations, brand management, public relations, community engagement, and corporate relations. Speakers thereby generally imply, while listeners on the other hand, generally infer on a given topic. We should not get confused between infer and imply. We need to analyze the given topic of conversation and accordingly need to utilize the words related to imply and infer (Carlopio & Andrewartha, 2012). As a result, we shall avoid such mistakes and make our inter-personal communication better.
References
Carlopio, J., and Andrewartha, G. (2012). Developing Management Skills: A comprehensive guide for leaders. Australia: Pearson Publishers.
Craig, C., and Allen, M.W., 2013. Sustainability information sources: employee knowledge, perceptions, and learning. Journal of Communication Management, 17(4), pp. 292-307.
Brønn, P.S., 2014. How others see us: leaders’ perceptions of communication and communication managers. Journal of Communication Management, 18(1), pp. 58-79.
Bell, A., and Smith, D.M., 2010. Management Communication. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Argyle, M., 1972. Non-verbal communication in human social interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Hinde, R.A., 1972. Non-verbal communication. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Liu, B.F., 2012. Toward a better understanding of nonprofit communication management. Journal of Communication Management, 16(4), pp. 388-404.
