IMPORTANCE AND BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

The ability to communicate well has always provided advantages to those who possess it. Communication has a rich history, and its traditions can still be seen in modern-day communication concepts.

Ancient Heritage for Communication Principles

The ancient world, both the East and the West, depended heavily or oral communication. For example, in ancient Greece and Rome, it was necessary to communicate well on one's feet when dealing with matters in government assemblies and the law courts. As writing became more important as a permanent record of communication, authors and books on written communication principles appeared.

Communication principles originating in the East, particularly China, are based on and connected with the importance of bureaucratic traditions. For centuries, Chinese political theorists were concerned with the problems of communicating within the vast government bureaucracy as well as between the government and the people. As early as the fourth century, these theorists were advising rulers and government officials. Their advice slated that information should flow smoothly upward and downward. The theorists also encouraged rulers and officials to minimize bias and falsification of sources and to resist the influence of cliques and opportunists.

Hence, some of today's principles of writing are founded on a mixture of ancient oral and written traditions. Business communication is one offshoot from an earlier world where communicating well was a foundation of learning.

Lifeblood" of Every Organization

An organization is a group of people associated for business, political, professional, religious, athletic, social, or other purposes. Its activities require human beings to interact and react, that is, to communicate. They exchange information, ideas, plans; order needed supplies; make decisions, rules, proposals, contracts, and agreements. Communication is the “lifeblood” of every organization. People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation; thus it is no surprise to find that at the root of a large number of organizational problems is poor communications. Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, intergroup, intra-group, organizational, or external levels.

Communication can be considered as a personal process that involves the transfer of information and also involves some behavioral input. Communication is something people do. It has all to do with relationships between people and consists of the transfer of information and understanding between parts and people in an organization, and the various modes and media involved in the communication. Another way of looking at communication is as ‘an interpersonal process of sending and receiving symbols with meanings attached to them’ resulting in the exchange of information and shared understanding between people. So a measure of the effective management of interpersonal communication is that information is passed, and relationships are built.
Organizations are becoming more dependent on horizontal communication channels. With increased complexity, information needs to flow quickly between specialists rather than go up and back down the hierarchy, with its inevitable delay and message distortion. So when we look at the changes that are taking place in organizations today, it is clear that managers, to be effective, require communication performance at high levels of excellence. Communication is the “lifeblood” of every organization.

Internal Communication: A vital means of attending to company concerns is through effective internal communication – downward, upward, and horizontal. A vital means of attending to company concerns is through effective internal communication---downward, upward, and horizontal. It helps increase job satisfaction, safety, productivity, and profits and decreases absenteeism, grievances, and turnover.

When employees receive appropriate downward communication from management, they can be better motivated and more efficient. They need not only clear job directions and safety rules but also facts about organizational strategy, products, and viewpoints on important controversial issues. They are concerned about employee benefits-health care, insurance, promotions, pensions, training, work environment, retirement. In all, the many pressures from employees force employers to be accountable for their decisions through effective downward communication. Employers who communicate effectively have more productive employees.
 Likewise, upward internal communication has become increasingly more significant. Many executives sincerely seek frank comments from employees, in addition to the usual periodic reports. Successful managers listen closely to opinions, complaints, problems, and suggestions, especially when these are clearly and effectively stated. As a response to increasing global competition, some companies are developing new management styles, which make input from employees an integral part of important decisions affecting the company.
Effective horizontal communication between peers is also essential in organizations in order to solve problems, perform job duties, prepare for meetings, and cooperate on important projects. For example, if you think about the time spent listening to and making requests, writing notes and memos, and discussing and writing about projects, you soon realize that communication is the medium through which an organization accomplishes its goals.
Among various ways of communicating within companies are memos, reports, meetings, face-to-face discussions, teleconferences, video conferences, and electronic mail.
External Communication: Messages to persons outside the company can have a far-reaching effect on its reputation and ultimate success. The right letter, proposal, report, telephone call, or personal conversation can win back a disgruntled customer, create a desire for a firm's product or service, help negotiate a profitable sale, encourage collections, motivate performance, and in general, create goodwill.
Furthermore, communications to the public regarding social accountability have become significantly more important during the past two decades. Because of demands by many special interest groups (labor unions, environmental groups, government agencies, political action committees, and others), the media, business organizations, and political groups are seriously concerned about enhancing their public image. Important are well-planned public speeches, tactful replies to comments and criticisms, free informative pamphlets, annual reports, 10-K reports, and image-building interviews with the news media. All these messages should he transmitted with an emphasis on honesty, openness, and concern for the public.

Communication is the medium through an organization accomplishes its goals.

·         It leads to greater effectiveness.

·         It keeps people in the picture.

·         It gets people involved with the organization and increases motivation to perform well.

·         Increase commitment to the organization.

·         It makes for better relationships and understanding between: boss and sub-ordinates; colleagues; People within the organization and outside it.

·         It helps people understand the need for change: how they should manage it; how to reduce resistance to change.

Effective Communication is therefore critical to the success of an organization because –

1.      Organizations today are becoming more complex both in structure and technology.

2.      Economic and market conditions are forcing greater efficiency and quality at minimum cost in manufacturing and services.

3.      Government legislation requires managers to interpret the changing implications for policies and practices in their own organization.

4.      People at work have high expectations from their employers – not just high wages, but also greater personal job satisfaction.

Overall Communication Costs  

In multinational corporations, thousands of hours are devoted daily to interviews, conferences, memos, reports, employee manuals, letters, advertising, new articles, bulletins, newsletters, and other messages. Time is the chief element in the overall cost of written and oral communications. For example, the time spent just in written tasks can occupy much of the working day, In a survey of four professional areas, a substantial number of respondents, none of whom was employed as a writer, indicated that they spent from 29 to more than 50 percent of their time writing.

                                       Managers         Technical        Clerical           Social Service
                                                                 Workers          Staff                  Workers
                                          49.4%              40.7%             29.1%                  51.6%

Among other costs of communication in organizations are materials (stationery, office supplies, postage, computer disks, software), equipment, and fixed charges, such as heat, rent, light, and depreciation. Important developments and adaptations of office technology, such as computers, electronic mail, and video conferences can help in various ways to reduce the time and costs of communicating efficiently. Consider also the wasteful cost of unclear, incomplete, inaccurate, inconsiderate, and unduly long or late communications. Ineffective messages that alien ate customers are more expensive than effective ones because they destroy goodwill. Poor messages often require several additional messages. Furthermore, in fields such as aviation, construction, medicine, mining, oil drilling, and others, poor instructions can result in loss of life and loss of money.

Top Five Benefits of Effective Communication in the Workplace

Communication is central to all aspects of life. It’s a critical skill for maintaining your personal as well as professional relationships. With the encroaching social isolationism of the digital age, it’s more important than ever for businesses to actively promote and foster healthy communication in the workplace.

 

The Internet has changed the way we interact as a species. As a direct result of this transition, more and more graduates are entering the workforce with malformed sets of social skills. Like it or not, it’s your job to teach the skills that people used to learn in school. Helping promote open and honest communication within your workforce will create a rock solid foundation for all of your company’s operations.

If your business is mired in the “dark ages” of workforce management, it may be time for a human relations facelift. Get rid of the rigid hierarchies and closed-door policies. Take steps towards creating an environment that’s actually conducive to openness and honesty. If you begin to create a workspace brimming with healthy interpersonal relationships, you’re likely to see many if not all of these five incredible benefits.
Transparency: Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could actually trust all of your employees? If you knew for a fact that no one was wasting company time on recreational websites or calling in sick without actually being sick? If you begin to roll back archaic closed-door policies, take down web blockers and encourage your employees to communicate honestly without fear of repercussions, that ideal could be your reality. When you treat your employees with honesty and respect, it comes back at you tenfold. Employees don’t lie or steal company time when they feel respected. Open communication is the best way to create that respect.
 Innovation: As your employees begin to open up to you and each other, you’ll notice a greater degree of cooperation among the force. By fostering a collaborative atmosphere, you’ll help your most competent employees innovate at a rapid pace. Synergy is a real thing. If all of your human assets aren’t communicating with each other in an effective way then you aren’t getting as much from those assets as you could be.
Team Building: You can transition your company culture from one of cooperation to one of collaboration. Communication is the key to making a workforce operate like a team. If your employees feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, they’ll put in more effort while they’re on the clock. You’ll also discover that others will start filling holes in your workforce voluntarily just to keep things running smoothly. A payroll works for money, but a team works for success.
Faster Project Completion: This is a direct result from the creation of a team environment. Teams accomplish tasks and projects faster because the more competent members seamlessly pick up the slack for the members that are having a hard time. It’s like clockwork.
Increased Revenue: All four of the previously mentioned benefits culminate in stronger production, which generates more revenue and greater business success. Communication is the one intangible attribute guaranteed to make your company more successful. Take things up a notch with high degree mass communication improvements today.

Benefits of Effective Communication in Your Career

A Valuable Job Requirement

In careers requiring mental rather than labor, the only key to progress is through effective communication of knowledge, ideas and proposals, to others who need or should receive them.

If we read job opening advertisements in different newspapers, strong communication skills would be a must in most jobs’ description. If we talk about different job titles, communication requirements might be as follows: 

Job Title	Communication Skills
Finance Associates	Must be able to communicate clearly to clients and other finance professionals
Fiscal Officer	Superior writing and presentation skills
Product Manager	Develop and communicate product objectives and strategies
Senior Sales Representative	Excellent communication and follow-up skills; ability to write proposals and quotations.
Contracts Administrator	General knowledge of proposal preparation: Good Oral/Written communication skills.

In careers like internal/external customer relations, public relations, marketing, HR, sales, etc. Almost in all sort of fields, producers, editors, researchers and writers are always needed.

Communication is a major responsibility is many areas, including government and nonprofit organizations. In congressional and senatorial offices at state and national level, communication skills are a major plus as there works a number of people handling correspondence, preparing speeches, helping write Legislation, communicating with business. As we know Government is country’s biggest business, so needs a large no. of effective inter departmental communicators.

Even as an accounting professional, if you don’t know how to communicate your crafted reports to the targeted people then those reports would be a flop.

A Must for Promotion

Ability to communicate effectively is a prime requisite for promotion. Some people rate communication as one of the most important aspects of business leadership. Those who cannot communicate effectively either orally or in writing remains “buried” in lower, dead-end jobs. Top management’s 60 to 90 percent of working days consists of communication – Speaking, writing and listening.

It is confirmed from many surveys and articles over the past decades that for promotion and success in any business, effective communication is essential. Surveys conducted on top level executives have proved from their responses that Business Communication, Business letter and Report writing, and written & oral expressions are the subjects most valued in their career growth.

Challenge of Communication in the Global Market

The way you communicate both within and outside your own country will affect everything you accomplish. Your ability to speak and write effectively will also make a difference to your organization. Developing the right attitude and preparing adequately are crucial to effective communication in the international marketplace. These qualities will help you to be effective in dealing with international business people outside your organization. In addition, becoming flexible in attitude and methods of communicating will help you to be effective in dealing with issues within your organization.

Developing the Right Attitude

"To the customer, you are the company." This good advice comes from public relations experts. Your attitude when dealing with customers, clients, and the public reflect on the company you represent. When you deal with international business people, your attitude will reflect your country and your culture.
 You may realize that special and important communications can make millions of dollars of difference to your company. But you should also be aware that the daily routine messages are just as important. Each message communicates the essential quality and culture of your company and can either build goodwill or destroy it.
Doing an honest job enthusiastically and competently helps both the doer and the receiver. Answering even routine inquiries should and can be an interesting challenge. For example, an insurance company correspondent may often receive similar questions from policyholders who have lost their insurance policies. Though lost-policy cases are familiar to the insurance staff member, they certainly are not routine to the reader. Thus a good approach is to send a personalized, helpful message, sensitive to the reader's viewpoint.
Messages written to international clients, customers, suppliers, and other business contacts must be especially sensitive to audience concerns. Goodwill toward your organization is at stake as well as goodwill toward you as a representative of your country.

Preparing Adequately

Most people can learn to communicate effectively for business if they are willing to devote whatever effort is necessary to prepare them adequately. In addition to the proper goodwill-building attitude, the following qualities are desirable:

■ Careful, sound judgment when choosing ideas and facts for each message
■ Patience and understanding, even with unjustly insulting persons
■ Integrity, backed up by a valid code of ethics
■ Reasonable facility with the English language
■ Applied knowledge of the communication process and principles and of successful methods for   sending and receiving messages
■ Knowledge of the cultural conventions of your audience

Becoming Flexible
Today's workplace is increasingly diverse in age, gender, and national origin. Diversity has brought problems to organizations, but it has also brought strengths. Changing demographics have contributed to changes in management styles, making effective communication central to success in carrying out the organization's business.
Many companies now offer seminars or other kinds of classes in handling diversity issues in the workplace. Today's managers and workers need to be flexible in the way they deal with others; problems can be avoided by keeping an open mind and being willing to make extra efforts in communication.
One of the most sensitive issues is language. Although English currently appears to be the international language of business, many workers in U.S. companies do not speak English as their first language. Effective communication in organizations with a multinational workforce takes flexibility and an awareness of the important components of language use. These components involve the major issues of communication, including how to effectively address various audiences and how to choose effective communication channels and information. To focus on errors in speaking or writing Standard English is to risk failure of your communication objectives.

Concepts and Problems in Communication

Communication is the exchange of ideas, opinions and information through written or spoken words, symbols or actions. Communication is an important part of our world today. The ability to communicate effectively is considered a prized quality. But people in the world are not alike. These differences, however, can cause problems in sending/receiving messages. Simply these are the hurdles in the way of communication and anything which blocks the meaning of a communication is a barrier to communication.

Recognizing barriers to effective communication is a first step in improving communication style.  Do you recognize these barriers from your own personal and professional experience?

Encoding Barriers: 

The process of selecting and organizing symbols to represent a message requires skill and knowledge.  Obstacles listed below can interfere with an effective message.

1. Lack of Sensitivity to Receiver: A breakdown in communication may result when a message is not adapted to its receiver.  Recognizing the receiver’s needs, status, knowledge of the subject, and language skills assists the sender in preparing a successful message.  If a customer is angry, for example, an effective response may be just to listen to the person vent for awhile. 

2. Lack of Basic Communication Skills: The receiver is less likely to understand the message if the sender has trouble choosing the precise words needed and arranging those words in a grammatically-correct sentence. 

3. Insufficient Knowledge of the Subject: If the sender lacks specific information about something, the receiver will likely receive an unclear or mixed message.  Have you shopped for an item such as a computer, and experienced how some salespeople can explain complicated terms and ideas in a simple way?  Others cannot.

4. Information Overload: If you receive a message with too much information, you may tend to put up a barrier because the amount of information is coming so fast that you may have difficulty comfortably interpreting that information.  If you are selling an item with twenty-five terrific features, pick two or three important features to emphasize instead of overwhelming your receiver (ho-hum) with an information avalanche.

5. Emotional Interference: An emotional individual may not be able to communicate well.  If someone is angry, hostile, resentful, joyful, or fearful, that person may be too preoccupied with emotions to receive the intended message.  If you don’t like someone, for example, you may have trouble “hearing” them.

Transmitting Barriers:

Things that get in the way of message transmission are sometimes called “noise”.  Communication may be difficult because of noise and some of these problems:

1. Physical Distractions: A bad cellular phone line or a noisy restaurant can destroy communication.  If an E-mail message or letter is not formatted properly, or if it contains grammatical and spelling errors, the receiver may not be able to concentrate on the message because the physical appearance of the letter or E-mail is sloppy and unprofessional.

2. Conflicting Messages: Messages that cause a conflict in perception for the receiver may result in incomplete communication.  For example, if a person constantly uses jargon or slang to communicate with someone from another country who has never heard such expressions, mixed messages are sure to result.  Another example of conflicting messages might be if a supervisor requests a report immediately without giving the report writer enough time to gather the proper information.  Does the report writer emphasize speed in writing the report, or accuracy in gathering the data?

3. Channel Barriers: If the sender chooses an inappropriate channel of communication, communication may cease.  Detailed instructions presented over the telephone, for example, may be frustrating for both communicators.  If you are on a computer technical support help line discussing a problem, it would be helpful for you to be sitting in front of a computer, as opposed to taking notes from the support staff and then returning to your computer station.

4. Long Communication Chain: The longer the communication chain, the greater the chance for error.  If a message is passed through too many receivers, the message often becomes distorted.  If a person starts a message at one end of a communication chain of ten people, for example, the message that eventually returns is usually liberally altered.

Decoding Barriers: 

The communication cycle may break down at the receiving end for some of these reasons:

1. Lack of Interest: If a message reaches a reader who is not interested in the message, the reader may read the message hurriedly or listen to the message carelessly.  Miscommunication may result in both cases.

2. Lack of Knowledge: If a receiver is unable to understand a message filled with technical information, communication will break down.  Unless a computer user knows something about the Windows environment, for example, the user may have difficulty organizing files if given technical instructions.

3. Lack of Communication Skills: Those who have weak reading and listening skills make ineffective receivers.  On the other hand, those who have a good professional vocabulary and who concentrate on listening, have less trouble hearing and interpreting good communication.   Many people tune out who is talking and mentally rehearse what they are going to say in return. 

3. Insufficient Knowledge of the Subject: If the sender lacks specific information about something, the receiver will likely receive an unclear or mixed message.  Have you shopped for an item such as a computer, and experienced how some salespeople can explain complicated terms and ideas in a simple way?  Others cannot.

4. Information Overload: If you receive a message with too much information, you may tend to put up a barrier because the amount of information is coming so fast that you may have difficulty comfortably interpreting that information.  If you are selling an item with twenty-five terrific features, pick two or three important features to emphasize instead of overwhelming your receiver with an information avalanche.

4. Emotional Distractions: If emotions interfere with the creation and transmission of a message, they can also disrupt reception.  If you receive a report from your supervisor regarding proposed changes in work procedures and you do not particularly like your supervisor, you may have trouble even reading the report objectively.  You may read, not objectively, but to find fault.  You may misinterpret words and read negative impressions between the lines.  Consequently, you are likely to misunderstand part or all of the report.

5. Physical Distractions: If a receiver of a communication works in an area with bright lights, glare on computer screens, loud noises, excessively hot or cold work spaces, or physical ailments, that receiver will probably experience communication breakdowns on a regular basis.

 Responding Barriers:

The communication cycle may be broken if feedback is unsuccessful.

1. No Provision for Feedback.  Since communication is a two-way process, the sender must search for a means of getting a response from the receiver.  If a team leader does not permit any interruptions or questions while discussing projects, he may find that team members may not completely understand what they are to do.  Face-to-face oral communication is considered the best type of communication since feedback can be both verbal and nonverbal.  When two communicators are separated, care must be taken to ask for meaningful feedback.

2.   Inadequate Feedback.  Delayed or judgmental feedback can interfere with good communication.  If your supervisor gives you instructions in long, compound-complex sentences without giving you a chance to speak, you may pretend to understand the instructions just so you can leave the stress of the conversation.  Because you may have not fully understood the intended instructions, your performance may suffer. 

Barriers to Effective Business Communication

Each person’s mind is a unique filter. Problems with communication are more likely to occur when communicator’s filters are sharply different. The message sender’s meaning and the receiver’s response are affected by numerous factors, such as

1.      Conventions of meaning

2.      Differences in perception of reality

3.       Values, attitudes and opinions

1. Conventions of meaning

There are a lot of meanings for a single word. So, it may mislead the reader from the real meaning. Miscommunication may occur due to the use of ‘Denotations’ and ‘Connotations’.

Denotations: Denotation is the dictionary definition of a word. It means name, object, people or events without indicating positive or negative qualities. These words don’t have clear meanings. Such words are: Car, Desk, Book, House, etc.

Connotations: A word that separates the meanings of a word from its usual definition is called connotation. These have clear meanings. Such words are: BMW, BC book, mental house etc. So, use of denotations instead of connotations may mislead the reader. Choose connotations & denotations wisely.

Euphemisms: Sometime people use indirect or gentle words to refer to something unpleasant, to make it acceptable. This is called euphemism. It also creates problems for the receiver because it is hard for him to access the real meaning. 

2. Differences in perception of reality

Because of changing world, everyone has its own concept of reality. Each person’s mental filter is unique. In our daily interactions with others, we make various abstractions, inferences and evaluations of the world around that may cause problems in the way of communication.

Abstraction: It means selecting some detail and omitting others. It may cause problem in communication. One must always try to avoid Slanted statements. That’s why news reporters are said to quote the statement of a person as it is to show it a fact or true statement.

Inferences: It means conclusion on the basis of assumptions. But for some situations inferences proves fruitful but for some situations it is risky & sometimes dangerous.

Evaluation: It is a person’s own perception or opinion towards a certain fact. So, difference in perception may become a hurdle in communication.

3. Values, attitudes and opinions

Communication is also affected by the Values, attitudes and opinions of the communicators. People react favourably when they receive agreeable message. Occasionally people react according to their attitude towards a situation rather than to the facts.

Closed Minds: Some people hold rigid views on certain subjects. They don’t consider facts and maintain their views. Such person is very hard to communicate with.

Sender’s creditability: Usually people react more favourably to that communicator who has credibility.

So, Values, attitudes and opinions may also become hurdles in the way of communication.