EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION: TOWARDS A SUCCESSFUL ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT

By B. J Ojo (Ph.D.) Department of Pedagogical Sciences Haramaya University,Dire Dawa, Ethiopia E-mail babaojo2002@yahoo.com & Umera- Okeke, Nneka Department of English Haramaya University Dire Dawa, Ethiopia E-mail paulinferd@yahoo.com Abstract This paper examined the overall importance of communication to the development and effectiveness of any organisation. It explored the strengths, impacts, skills and barriers to effective communication within and without the organisation. Based on the synthesis of available literature on communication in relation to organisational and managerial effectiveness, suggestions were offered for the skills and conditions necessary for effective communication in a dynamic organisational.

Introduction The importance of effective communication cannot be over emphasised in our day to day life as human beings. Communication is the lifeblood of an organisation. Without effective communication among different parties, the pattern of relationships that we call organisations will serve no ones need very well. As observed by James et al (2006), miscommunication has contributed to the equivalent of cardiovascular damage in more than one organisation. Communication is critical for all levels of human behaviour. Mans ability to think and transmit those thoughts through the communication process provides the binding element for all social interaction. (Burton and Thaka, 2006). Communication has been seen as a very great factor in the success or failure of human endeavours. Various studies have revealed that effective communication is vital to managerial success and that communication is important to managers for certain reasons which include: a) it provides a common thread for the management processes of planning, organizing, leading and controlling; b) effective communication skills can enable managers to draw on the vast array of talents available in the multicultural world of organisations; and

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c) managers spend a great deal of time in communicating; when not conferring with others in person or on telephone, managers may be writing or dictating memos, letters, or reports or reading messages sent to them (James, et al, 2006). In a complex technological society, our quality of life and survival depend on countless successful interactions with other people, mediated through markets, networks and various kinds of organization. Without these intricate and largely unseen webs of communication, our economic prosperity, social welfare and cultural life would be undermined. By its nature, communication seems time consuming and very demanding. This is because, in order to be effective, communication requires each party involved to make some efforts to understand the other. Organizations are complex and phenomenal whether operating in the private, public or voluntary sector. As a consequence, effective communication can help the organization to achieve Satisfied repeat customers, rather than unhappy ex-customers; Well motivated employees, rather than an expensive industrial dispute; A positive reputation in the wider community, rather than an international boycott of its products; Innovative and creative strategies, rather than inefficiency, indecision and resistance to change (Blundel 2004).

The question is why is communication such a critical issue for organizations? Communication becomes critical because of the challenges that the organization faces daily, which include: the formal structures, reporting arrangements and procedures; cultural diversity, across the countries, organizations, departments, employees and other organizational stakeholders;

intense political, financial and time pressures, with competing managerial priorities and demands. This type of challenges makes communication in organizations often an uphill task. ( Blundel, 2004). All the key functions of an organization: planning, organizing, directing, and controlling depend on effective communication for proper execution. Nicholas (1962) in his study, found that white-collar employees communicated 70% of the time. Directing requires effective communication; all good leaders encourage effective communication by having established channels or means of transmitting information to people. Other studies especially that of Pincus (1986) which was a survey of some nurses at a U.S. hospital to measure the impact of communication on major job factors found out that the dimensions of communication satisfaction that involve relationships were positively correlated with job performance. Employee attitude and performance were found to be influenced mostly by the communication climate, personnel feedback,

and supervisor communication. The study supports the contention that managers who wish to have satisfied and productive subordinates need to focus on effective organisational communication. In another study, Schedc (2000) compared patients reactions to different types of communication behaviours used by physicians. Patients were asked their reactions to different communication behaviours and rated the doctors in such areas as their professionalism and caring, how responsible they were for bad outcomes, and how litigious the patient would be in response. It was found that when doctors greet patients with a smile, sit down to talk and make direct eye contact, they create an impression of trustworthy health care provider. Other behaviour that form opposite perception, e.g., avoiding eye contact, a hasty demeanour, etc, were found to have a demonstrated negative effect, which can make a difference in terms of litigation risk. Jan Hall (2006) observed that as people begin to take the quality of what they buy for granted, they become more interested in whom theyre buying it from. The reputation behind the product or service is more and more important. This can only be achieved through effective communication. A survey of 252 personnel and marketing managers was carried out in New York and Hawaii in 1974 to determine in the order of importance the skills they felt every business administration graduate should have. The results showed that communication is a widely accepted important function of management (Megginson, et al 1983). All the evidence clearly shows that written and oral communication skills are critical not only in obtaining a job, but also in performing effectively on the job. This was supported in a study by Garry L. Benson (1994) which was a survey on 175 managers of the largest companies in America. One of the key questions in the study concerned the factors and skills and most important in helping graduating business students obtain employment. The results showed that written and oral communication skills were the two most important factors or skills in obtaining employment. Many other studies confirmed this all important aspect of managing. For example, Kane (1993) submitted that strong interpersonal and communication skills appear to be of primary importance in the hiring decision. Other surveys by Powel and Collier (1990) confirmed that communication is a skill desired by the business world. The study, among other things, asked the American Society of Personnel Administrators to assess the skills necessary for managerial success. The result showed that the top two skills for successful job performance were interpersonal and human relation skills and the top two skills for managerial success were the abilities to work one-onone and to gather accurate information (Paul et al, 2006). Williams Jr.(1978), Moss (1995), Roebuck (1995), Bredin (1994) and Christenson (1995) all noted that most chief operating officers rate employee communication skills as vital; that there is a direct correlation between employees communication and probability, and their making good profit really goes hand in hand with good communication. The importance of good communication can best be summarized by a senior executive who noted that: The best business plan is meaningless unless everyone is aware of it and pulling together to achieve its objectives. Good communications are lifeblood of my enterprise, large or small. Communications are essential to keep our entire organization functioning at maximum levels and to make the most of our greatest management resource- our people (Hersey, et al (2006, p.296).

Dr Y. A. Fasasi: Issues in the Management of Technical and Vocational Education in Nigerian Secondary Schools

What is Communication? Much has been said or written about communication, the question that should be addressed or that would be addressed in this paper is what is management/organisational communication and how can managers be effective and efficient in their communication? Businesses are concerned with communication in several special ways. Some businesses build and install communication equipment, such as fax machines, video cameras, CD players, printing presses, personal computers and telephones. Other companies create some of the messages or content that those technologies carry, such as movies, books, and software, all in an effort to communicate effectively interpersonally and with their customers. Organisational Communication is important in every business. People in organizations need to communicate, to coordinate their work and to inform others outside the business about their products and services. This concept or term is relatively new; this may not be far from the fact that communication itself was not an important part of managements vocabulary until the late 1940s and early 1950s. But as organizations became more people-conscious in the humanistic approach and as behavioural scientists began to apply their research to organizations, communication becomes important to managers, and it is needed by all employees. Fielden (1964) says the ability to communicate should be chosen as an executives most essential qualification for promotion to higher levels. Communication involves language behaviour of speakers and listeners and the context within which they operate. Hybels and Weaver (2001) defined communication as a process in which people share information, ideas and feelings. It involves spoken and written words but also body language, personal mannerism and style which add meaning to a message. Communication is the act of exchanging information. It can be used to inform command, instruct, assess, influence and persuade other people (Leslie and Byars, 2003). Communication is the process of transferring meaning in the form of ideas or information from one person to another. (Megginson, 1983). Snell (1999) sees communication as the transmission of information and meaning from one party to another through the use of shared symbols. A true transmission and interchange of meaning between people includes more than just the words used in their conversations. This is because words mean whatever your body language wants them to mean. This includes shades of meaning and emphasis, facial expressions, vocal inflections and all the unintended and involuntary gestures that suggest real meaning. Being a skilled communicator is essential to being a good manager and a team leader, in order to absorb information, motivate employees and deal effectively with customers and co-workers. This will determine his success or otherwise on the job. The importance of communication to an organisational life is enamours. Apart from the key to effective management, it is as necessary as the bloodstream is to a person. Without it, employees cannot know what their associates are doing; management cannot receive information inputs and give instruction. Coordination of work becomes impossible and the organisation will collapse for lack of it. Cooperation becomes impossible because needs and feelings cannot be shared with

others. Rue and Byars (2003) submitted that communicating effectively is an important managerial skill for several reasons which include: Managers must give direction to the people who work for them. Managers who fail to give clear guidance often find that employees perform their jobs poorly because they do not understand what is expected of them. Managers must be able to motivate people. Communication fosters motivation by clarifying to employees what is to be done to improve performance. Good managers use their ability to get employees to be excited about their jobs. Managers must be able to absorb the ideas of others. Managers must be able to persuade other people.

People want to buy from, work for, invest in, and do business with people they know and like and admire. McGraw Hill ran an advertisement many years ago in the United States whose copy read: I dont know your company I dont know your companys product I dont know what your company stands for I dont know your companys record I dont know your companys reputation Now, what was it you wanted to sell me? (Adapted from Modern Management; edited by Robert Heller, 2006) Good managers need effective communication as the key to convince the customers to purchase a product or service, without good communication skills, managers will find it difficult to attract customers even if their companys products meet the customers needs. Since managers interact with people from all works of life, to be effective, they must be able to understand and accept other peoples viewpoints, must be persuasive in order to be accepted, because familiarity has been demonstrated to be closely correlated with favourable attitudes. An organizations identity or image will be laundered by perfect and effective communication often through public enlightenment and through their brand names. If the manager is incapable of doing this, the organization eclipses. Barriers to Effective Organizational Communication However, it has been established that communications can be interrupted and meaning they convey lost or trunked for certain reasons. Fisher (2006) asserted that as important as communication is to the organisational survival, the cooperate bodies contribute to its breakdown by paying lip service to good communication yet fulfil only one side of the bargain the directors directing the directed. Yet communication is by definition, a two-way process. Barriers to communication often prevent the sender and the receiver from achieving mutual understanding or the

Dr Y. A. Fasasi: Issues in the Management of Technical and Vocational Education in Nigerian Secondary Schools

fidelity of meaning necessary for effective performance. This communication barrier could arise as a result of a manager sending conflicting or inconsistent signals to the receiver. Secondly, a major communication barrier may arise when the source or sender lacks credibility with respect to the issue at hand. Barriers may arise as a result of a manager feeling reluctant to communicate with people just leaving everyone to guess. Good communication can encounter a breakdown as a result of receivers predisposition about the subject. His disposition to the sender of the message will determine his attitude to the message; positively or negatively. Status difference within the organization, organisational distance between the sender and the receiver equally determines or distort communication. Similarly, information loss in downward communication in organizations as a result of filtering poses serious problems. As information is passed from the top management level downwards through many organizational levels, much of the information is lost or distorted through time, channels and bureaucratic process. Perception might pose another barrier to effective communication. The way individuals perceive meanings differ, therefore, people in an organization may tend to select the information which they feel is important to them based on individual needs and cultural biases. The rest are ignored, no matter how important the message could be. This aspect of an individuals response to message may be influenced by his status, needs, education, culture, experience and his perception of reality. Emotion, distrust, language, time, noise (physical and psychological), group size, physical arrangements and information overload can distort a free flow of communication. Moreover, lack of planning, unclarified assumptions, semantic distortion, omissions, lack of coherence, poor organization, awkward sentence structure, platitudes, jargons and failure to clarify implications of information sent or lack of clarity and precision might be costly while sending a message within or outside an organization. These are some of the areas a skilled and effective manager should watch out for in order to communicate effectively. Communication patterns differ in various countries of the world with respect to the degree to which they are explicit or implicit. Therefore, communication becomes difficult in international environment because of language, culture and etiquette difference. Poor retention, poor listening and premature evaluation, distrust, threat and fear may pose serious threat to effective communication within an organization and set up. To overcome all these and others not mentioned in this paper, managers need a great deal of training in communication and information handling. In a recent study carried out by Ojo (2008) at Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia on the contribution of good communication to quality management and optimum performance among the work force, it was found that only 3% of the respondents agreed that there was a good communication system in the institution. 97% agreed that as good and as effective communication is, there was no room for it within the institution. As such, the idea of secrecy, gossips and a climate of general distrust especially between the local staff and the foreign staff is very high. This, coupled with the use of the local language has caused a lot of breakdown in communication and has hindered effective performance on many occasions. In the area of offering

suggestions,63.9% of the respondents said that such a practice does not exist in the university, whereas 32.5% percent said it exists but not in use; only 3.6% agreed that there is a strong suggestion system in place. The observation is that, only the top management members have the right to communicate with themselves. This has not helped in the effective management and performance within the system. Towards an Effective Communication: Challenges for Modern Managers The question that may likely be bothering every responsible manager at this point is what is the best pattern of communication in an organization? In trying to answer this question, Bavelas (1953) cited in Hersey (2006) conducted some classic experiments. In particular, Bavelas was interested in finding out or determining how two of the most widely used ways of structuring communication, i.e., the star and the cycle patterns can affect the efficiency of a groups performance as well as the groups morale. The first pattern which is the star pattern depicts the manager sitting in the centre of the organization; he communicates with the subordinates but the subordinates cannot communicate with each other except with him alone. This, by implication, represents the autocratic structure where the boss is the absolute being. On the other hand, the second pattern which is cyclic represents the participatory democratic pattern where the two-way communication channels are effectively being used. Within the group, communication flows and the manager at the centre controls effectively by allowing the subordinates to participate. It was found that even though communication was found to be faster and performance high with the first structure, but morale was low. The cyclic structure seemed somewhat slow, inaccurate, but the morale was high and the people happy with their tasks; no one was trying to sabotage the organization. It was equally revealed that in terms of problem solving, the star structure group could only rely on their boss for solution. This is because extra information was not allowed except the one from the leader; no one can use his initiative. But the cyclic structure group has a great capacity for problem solving because they pulled their information experience and other peoples ideas to solve the organizational problem. They were less dependent on their leader, thus they were more responsive and satisfied. The implications of these studies are that mere structure of communication pattern can influence how people feel and act in terms of independence, security and responsibility. Secondly, these structures can influence the total operational efficiency of a group in terms of speed, accuracy and adaptability. The lesson here is that the two structures are needed to move any organization forward. A manager must know how to integrate both in his leadership style and communicating. A manager can decide to operate the first structure where workers are inexperienced, not communicated, etc, but more democratic when and where people are experienced, motivated and responsible. Therefore, there is a need for different kinds of communication pattern as situations dictate. Adler and Kiggundu (1983) suggested that when managers communicate with receivers who usually speak different language; any or all of the following techniques can be adopted: a) Verbal behaviour:

Dr Y. A. Fasasi: Issues in the Management of Technical and Vocational Education in Nigerian Secondary Schools

Speaking clearly and slowly; enunciating each word without using colloquial expressions. Repeating each important idea using different words to explain the same thing. Using simple sentences. Using active verbs rather than the passive verbs.

b) Nonverbal behaviour: Visual restatement, e.g., graphics, slides and pictures can be used to emphasize an important idea Gestures, e.g., facial and gestures to emphasize the meaning of words. This link was recognized as early as 1605 by Frances Bacon who stated ...as the tongue speaketh to the ear, so the hand speaketh to the eye. (Umera-Okeke, 2007) Demonstration. Frequent pauses Summarization of important points

c) Interpretation: Silence dont fill a silence, the other person may either be thinking slowly or trying to interpret in his/her language Intelligence poor grammar or mis-pronunciation should not be equated with too poor intelligence. Difference if unsure, assume indifferent

d) comprehension: Understanding: do not assume that people understand you Check comprehension: have them demonstrate their understanding of the material to you. Do not simply ask if they understand. Let them explain what they understand to you.

e) Design: Breaks Second language learning is usually exhaustive, therefore take more frequent breaks. Small modules: Divide the materials into smaller modules Longer time frame. Allocate more time than usual for a presentation.

It could be of great help and assistance to every manager who wants to improve their communication skill to consistently refer to the ten commandments of good communication as documented by the American Management Association. (See Management Review, October, 1955 pp 704-705) Koontz and Weihrich (2004) gave a set of guidelines for improving communication within the organization: 1) Senders of messages must clarify in their minds what they want to communicate. 2) Encoding and decoding should be done with familiar symbols both to the sender and the receiver of the message. 3) Communication planning should not be done in vacuum. Other people (managers) within the organization should be consulted to make their own inputs. 4) Receivers needs should be considered before information are passed to them. It should be information that has value to the hearer so it doesnt pass as noise. 5) The tone of voice, the choice of language and the congruency between what is said and how it is said influence the reactions of the receiver of the message. Therefore, since the tone makes the music, the manager must always use the right tone for different situations. 6) Ensure a good feedback through questioning or requesting a reply to a memo and encouraging receivers to give their reactions to the message. They (Koontz and Weihrich) concluded that the rushed, never-listening manger will seldom get an objective view of the functioning of the organization. They wrote: ... people want to be heard, want to be taken seriously, want to be understood. Thus, the manager must avoid interrupting subordinates and putting them on the defensive... to elicit honest feedback, a manager should develop an atmosphere of trust and confidence and a supportive leadership style with a de-emphasis on status. Newstron and Keith Davis (1993) proposed ten guides to effective listening: 1) Stop talking 2) Put the talker at ease 3) Show the talker you want to listen 4) Remove distractions 5) Empathise with the talker 6) Be patient 7) Hold your temper

Dr Y. A. Fasasi: Issues in the Management of Technical and Vocational Education in Nigerian Secondary Schools

8) Go easy on arguments and criticism 9) Ask questions 10) Stop talking Conclusion To manage people at whatever level and in any sense at all, the manager must be able to communicate. This is perhaps because communication is an attitude of the mind. If managers dont want to communicate, or dont see why people should expect to have information or understand what is going on, then all the skills in the world wont create a satisfactory standard of communication in an organisation. Naturally, the way a manager behaves in an organisation. Naturally, the manager behaves and communicates far more loudly than what he says. Sometimes, management attitudes often destroy the basis of good communication. If what the manager says is more important than how he says it, the people (hearer) on the other hand may take the message as being less important than why the manager is saying it. Therefore, to get reaction from the hearers, they have to feel the right way about the message; communication has to work on peoples feelings as well as on their brains. So, the first and most essential for a good manager is not to develop the silver tongue, it is to demonstrate an attitude that places value on communication because in management context, what the manager says is more important than how you say it. (Scott and Rochester, 1984).

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