Organization Communication Analysis II
Ethical Violations
According to Clair (1998), today organizations experience a number of unethical behaviors. Recent studies have shown that employees report having participated in one form of misconduct at employment during their cause of work. Mukherjee (2005) has revealed in his findings that the unethical behaviors experienced by employees includes lying, reporting to work late, participating in abusive behavior, violating rules, misusing the internet, sexual harassment, and discrimination. In addition, Clara (1998) has affirmed that most of these ethical violations go unnoticed since there is fear that once reported the perpetrators will be punished. These findings and other leading corporate scandals like the Enron, WorldCom and others have increased awareness and prevalence of wrong doing in business organizations. Mukherjee (2005) has established that organizations do minimize these kinds of unethical behavior by ensuring focus on the role of ethical leadership. Additionally, Mukherjee has stated that the ethical leadership is the normative appropriate conduct that is demonstrated through personal and interpersonal actions and relationships. These conducts can be promoted to the followers in a two way communication (Mukherjee, 2005). Ethical violation will have an effect on interpersonal communications in the organization. For instance, if the ethical violation behavior is a sexual harassment from a superior manager to a junior employee, it will be turned into a topic of gossip discussion in office especially by those who do not like the senior manager. The close allies of the perpetrator will always dismiss as propaganda aimed at bringing down the accused.
In fact National business Ethics Study has over the years found that intimidation of employee by the employer is the most common form of ethical violation today in the work place. Additional findings from other organizations have also established that intimidation or bullying, which uses some form of verbal abuse, has been used by the employer against the employee. These findings further indicated that the employer uses these unethical violence and abuse to intimidate the employee so as to change the perception of power in the organization (Mukherjee, 2005). Indeed when employees are intimidated communication at such time should emphasize violation of safety regulations and the overall behavior expected to be observed by all the members. Otherwise, failing to follow simple safety requirements may lead to serious threats to lives of all employees who may lose their productivity or compensation claims thus the organization always emphasize these rules. Additional findings by Mayer, Kuenzi & Greenbaum (2011) found that the intercultural and diversity conflict also changes when there are ethical violations in the organization. Further findings established that the conflicts are increased depending on the type of the ethical violations.
Therefore the organization communication climate could be seen as the holistic perception that employees have in relation to procedures, ethical policies and practices in the organization. In addition, the communication climate will be affected by any ethical violations on the organization (Clair, 1998). The communication theory that would apply to an organization experiencing serious ethical violations is the cognitive dissonance. This theory advocates that those experiences that are not compatible with an individual’s beliefs and actions are usually the motivation for the individual to avoid them. In the process of avoiding these dissonance feelings, people end up avoiding opinions that are opposed to their own and those that are responsible in changing what they believe in order to conform to their actions. Surely as established by Mukherje (2005), employees will always keep the rules and abide by the consequences at the work place when they have a clear knowledge of all the rules, regulations, the safety standards, and the behavior expected of them of them. Consequently, effective communication strategy should be put in place, so that all employees become aware of any developments that reinforce the already stated expectations. Without a doubt (Clair, 1998) has revealed that this will minimize the cases of ethical violations since when employees are regularly informed of the consequences of abuse like sexual harassment, they will be aware of the communication channel and those cases will greatly reduce.
Technological Malfunction
Technological malfunction Organizations sometimes face serious technological malfunctions which may result in a major crisis, in the organization. All organizations now use different types of technologies, and they are increasingly becoming reliant on them. These technological advancements are not only limited to machines and tools but they also include practices and processes like management. Malfunction could occur anytime and may cause uncertainty and stress to the organization and such a crisis may result in a disaster. For example, technological malfunction like the breakdown of computer system in the organization may cause processes to come to a standstill and this can cause a great stress in the work place. Crisis is often inevitable in large organizations especially when complex systems are used. Thus, all organization activities would include organizational decisions, which largely depend on individuals on how they gather, process, and communicate within the organization. Issues that hamper processing of information, such as missing information would impact negatively on the productivity and performance of the organization. At the time of such a crisis, there is bound to be poor quality of decisions with serious consequences, because interpersonal communication ethics is affected (Mayer et al., 2011). In addition, during technological malfunction, the perception of power will shift to those who are perceived to have the right technological expertise to save the situation. A good example is when new software is introduced into the organization and a malfunction is experienced, the persons in the IT department will be looked upon as the leaders at the time of that crisis and will be expected to lead others on the way forward. Since it is believed that they know it all in this field, they will be expected to give directions to ensure a smooth and flawless of work in the organization.
During technological change, communication climate also changes, like when the breakdown in communication is as a result of inaccessibility of the servers, the use of emails and other communication devices relying on these servers will be stopped and favorable alternatives will be effected (Mukherjee, 2005). On the other hand, when there is conflict people will not communicate effectively and often people may take approaches that will worsen the situation. Therefore, technological malfunction make things worse for the employees because they create panic and increase misunderstanding. This is why there is a need to learn how to communicate effectively when there is conflict and make things better.
Technological malfunction will also affect the intercultural and diversity conflict management. A culturally diverse environment will always be plagued with stereotyping and other forms of biases and the situation is worsened further by any form of technological malfunction. When experiencing such crisis, communication could slow down and this makes it worse to manage such environment (Clair, 1998). In the case of Technological malfunction, the most appropriate communication theory is the social exchange theory because it is based on the reciprocity of the costs that have been incurred by an individual. This theory is focused on the outcome of an individual to different social interaction. Thus, individual member has to evaluate technology malfunction and get the help of expert. In addition, implementing an effective communication strategy should involve regular communication of the rules and regulation and the outcome of any violations. The rules could be printed and placed on the notice board for all members to read and understand whenever there is any malfunction in technological tools (Mayer et al., 2011).
Financial Loss
All business organizations are created with the aim of making profits, thus they can hardly continue when they are consistently involved in cases of financial loss. Therefore, when there is a significant financial loss in a business organization, drastic measure has to be adopted to save the organization from collapsing. To avoid running out of business in case of financial loss, most organizations are forced to cut operations, which includes lying off workers and closing the underperforming departments. Additionally, a substantial financial loss could easily lead to bankruptcy and organizations usually sell the business when they are faced with this kind of situation. Depending on the nature of the organization and the business they are involved a bankruptcy could have a serious ripple effect on other organizations and even the whole industry (Mukherjee, 2005). Furthermore, when an organization incurs an enormous financial loss there will be panic among the employees and intercommunication will increase drastically, because employees are likely to be put out of employment. Most of the intercommunication will be based on rumors, emails and phone calls which will affect the productivity of the organization. This implies that such panic will affect the already worsening condition, unless the management sends out clear information to remedy the situation, things could get out of hand (Mayer et al., 2011). However, the perception of power in such a crisis may not change so much as employees find themselves helpless, and depressed. The management will be convening meetings to map the way forward and what they will have to explain to the shareholders. Furthermore, the employees will be looking upon their leaders to find out the outcome of the crisis. In this circumstance employees will be focused with the organizations next action, for instance whether the organization will be acquired another organization or whether the employees will be retrenched and if so which departments will be affected. If there were any communication concerning any conflict, then that would take a back seat as everybody in the organization would be interested of their fate and the likely overall effect of such financial crisis (Clair, 1998). The intercultural diversity and conflict also affects the organizations stability because members of different groups will be drawn together, and each group will be drifting apart. Thus, cohesiveness within the group will be enhanced while intergroup will weakened as the group becomes the source of information and other rumors (Mayer et al., 2011).
Therefore, the overall communication climate in the organization will be affected as well because all members will be anxious and eager to know the outcome of the crisis, whether it will lead to a disaster or if it will end soon. The communication will be characterized with anxiety to find the final outcome of the crisis. In addition, there will be numerous close door meeting at various levels of management as well as increased communication with customers, suppliers, and the shareholders (Mukherjee, 2005). Thus, the face negotiation theory can be the best for use in this kind of conflict since it argues that individuals have facets which can be described as faces. These faces make up image of the individual, which is also the social self-worth in a public setting. The conflict will occur if the face is threatened with a crisis such as losing a job and yet the job is the source of their livelihood. The organization can adopt different approaches by making clear communication to the employees as well as communicating the outcome of the meetings and how the outcomes may impact on the employees. This is essential for psychological preparedness of the employees since those who will lose their jobs need to be provided with training and counseling in order to cope with stress (Mayer et al., 2011).
References
Mayer, D. M., Kuenzi, M. & Greenbaum, R. L. (2011). Examining the Link between Ethical Leadership and Employee Misconduct: The Mediating Role of Ethical Climate. Journal of Business Ethics, 95:7–16. Retrieved on 12/11/2012 from http://webuser.bus.umich.edu/dmmayer/Published
Mukherjee, S. (2005). Examining the Link Between Ethical Organization & Management and Business Communication. Washington, DC: New Age International.
Clair, R. P. (1998). Organizing Silence: A World of Possibilities. New York, NY: SUNY Press
