EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION





Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages. In an organization context, communication is often used by managers to interact with their subordinates, peers, supervisors, customers, suppliers and the general public. Communication can be done in a variety of ways either orally or written. Non-verbal gestures or body language such as posture, gesture, eye contact, etc. are also considered a form of communication.

Since the invention of technology, specifically, the internet, communication can be done technologically via emails, teleconferencing, broadcasting online. Lately, the most popular form of online communication used worldwide are the social networking sites such as facebook and twitter. 

However, an important point about communication is that communication is considered effective when people understand the message and people respond to the message the way the sender wants them to. If the receiver of the message fail to respond according to the expectations of the sender, this is called miscommunication.

The picture below is a classic example of miscommunication. As you can see, what the customer wants and the end result is totally different.

(Source: Communication images)





Mistakes due to miscommunication can have a tremendous effect on the organization. It could tarnish the image of the organization, and the organization may have to spend thousands of dollars on public relations activities to restore their image.

BERILMU ATAU TIDAK?

Ilmu lebih berharga dari emas dan wang ringgit. Betul tak? Betul lah. Emas dan wang ringgit boleh hilang begitu sahaja, tapi ilmu di dada akan tersemat sampai mati. Tapi ilmu yang macam mana yang harus dicari? Ilmu yang boleh memberi manfaat bukan saja untuk dunia tetapi juga untuk akhirat. Ilmu untuk kita hidup di dunia, ilmu untuk kita bawa ke akhirat. Ilmu untuk kita memilih yang baik dan yang kurang baik.

Orang yang berilmu adalah orang yang bijak menentukan jalan hidupnya sendiri.....adakah anda orang yang berilmu?

POSITIVE VS NEGATIVE MANAGERS

(Source: Positive Thoughts Images)

According to Mary Parker Follet, management is the "art of getting things done through people". A manager's role is to supervise, direct and motivate the people (his/her team) that perform the job. To ensure productivity, managers must motivate his/her team. Motivating people to do the job is one of the most difficult tasks for managers. As people have unique characteristics, the manager must find the motivator factor for each member of his/her team. Easier said than done!

Before a manager can motivate his/her team, he/she must first and foremost maintain a positive attitude. Susan M. Heathfield in her article in About.com, "What Makes a Bad Boss Bad" lists a number of traits of a negative manager which includes failure to communicate, use disciplinary measures inappropriately, may not have concrete goals and expectations, take credit for successes, fail to provide rewards or recognition, does not accept constructive criticism or feedback and continually searches for fault in employees, among others. In my opinion, a negative manager is also an unmotivated manager. If so, how can they then motivate their team?

Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft, indicated that a good manager is a manager that creates a productive environment for his/her team, sets achievable and relevant goals, likes people and is a good communicator, build morale by telling their employees that they matter, and also a “hands on” manager that is a manager who takes up a task/project that is less desirable. Good managers often have a positive attitude and they normally are self-motivated.

In summary, managers with a positive attitude will be able to lead their team efficiently and effectively to achieve goals.  What type of manager do you want to be?

FUNCTIONS OF MANAGERS

According to Goodman, Fandt, Michlitsch and Lewis in their book Management: Challenges for Tomorrow's Leaders, management  is defined as the process of monitoring and coordinating resources effectively, efficiently and in an effort to achieve the goals of the organization. Resources include people, money, raw materials, technology and processes. Managers are responsible to coordinate these resources and establish goals for the organization.  What do managers do? Essentially, managers perform these basic functions:planning, organizing, leading and controlling (POLC). The following is a good article which I have taken from Citeman.Communities newsletter briefly explaining the basic functions of management

Functions of Managers

by V S Rama Rao on May 7, 2012

The functions of managers provide a useful structure for organizing management knowledge. There have been no ideas, research findings, or techniques that cannot readily be placed in the classifications of planning, organizing, staffing, leading, and controlling.

Planning involves selecting missions and objectives and the actions to achieve them; it requires decision making, which is choosing future courses of action from the alternatives. There are various types of plans, ranging from overall purposes and objectives to the most detailed actions to be taken, such as ordering a special stainless steel bolt for an instrument or hiring and training workers for an assembly line. No real plan exists until a decision a commitment of human or material resources or reputation has been made. Before a decision is made, all that exists is a planning study, an analysis or a proposal; there is no real plan. The various aspects of planning further.

People working together in groups to achieve some goal must have roles to play, much like the parts actors fill in a drama, whether these roles are the ones they develop themselves, are accidental or haphazard or are defined and structure by someone who wants to make sure that people contribute in a specific way to group effort. The concept of a role implies that what people do have a definite purpose or objective; they know how their job objective fits into group effort, and they have the necessary authority, tools and information to accomplish the task.

This can be seen in as simple a group effort as setting up camp on a fishing expedition. Everyone could do anything he or she wanted to do, but activity would almost certainly be more effective and certain tasks would be less likely to be left undone if one or two persons were given the job of gathering firewood, others the assignment of getting water, a few others the task of starting a fire, the job of cooking and so on.

Organizing then, is that part of managing that involves establishing an intentional structure of roles for people to fill in an organization. It is intentional in the sense of making sure that all the tasks necessary to accomplish goals are assigned, and it is hoped, assigned to people who can execute them best.

The purpose of an organization structure is to help in creating an environment for human performance.

Designing an effective organization structure is not an easy managerial task. Many problems are encountered in making structures fit situations, including both defining the kinds of jobs that must be done and finding the people to do them.

Staffing involves filling, and keeping filled, the positions in the organizational structure. This is done by identifying work force requirements, inventorying the people available, and recruiting, selecting, placing, promoting appraising , planning the careers of, compensating and training or otherwise developing both candidates and current jobholders so that tasks are accomplished effectively and efficiently.

Leading is influencing people so that they will contribute to the organization and group goals it has to do predominantly with the interpersonal aspect of managing. All managers would agree that their most important problems arise from people – their desires and attitudes to their behaviour as individuals and in groups and those effective managers also need to be effective leaders. Since leadership implies followership and people tend to follow those who offer a means of satisfying their own needs, wishes and desires, it is understandable that leading involves motivation, leadership styles and approaches and communication.

Controlling is measuring and correcting individual and organizational performance to ensure that events conform to plans. It involves measuring performance against goals and plans, showing where deviations from standards exist and helping to correct deviations from standards. In short, controlling facilitates the accomplishment of plans. Although planning must precede controlling, plans are not self- achieving. Plans guide managers in the use of resources to accomplish specific goals, then activities are checked to determine whether they conform to the plans.

Control activities generally relate to the measurement of achievement. Some means of controlling like the budget for expenses, inspection records, and the record of labour hours lost are generally familiar. Each measures, and each shows whether plans are working out. If deviations persist correction is indicated. But what is corrected? Nothing can be done about reducing scrap, for example, or buying according to specifications or handling sales returns unless one knows who is responsible for these functions Compelling events to conform to plans means locating the persons who are responsible for results that differ from planned action and them taking the necessary steps to improve performance. Thus, outcomes are controlled by controlling what people do.

source: http://www.citeman.com/20968-functions-of-managers.html#ixzz1uRCato93

RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PROCESS OF CONTROLLING AND PLANNING IN AN ORGANIZATION

 What is the the relationship between the process of controlling and planning in an organization?

To answer thia question, you must first understand what is planning and what is controlling. I have informed before that the functions of management are interrelated, starting with planning, organizing, leading and finally controlling. In planning, necessary activities are outlined to achieve goals. What results from planning is the mission, vision, goals and objectives of the organization as well as the policies, procedures, rules and programs to support the achievements of goals. Standards are also set in planning. Where planning is the process of outlining activities, controlling is the process of monitoring these activities to ensure that they are being accomplished as planned. Any deviation from what has been planned in the planning process requires corrective action to ensure that they are back on the right track. In short, planning set activities and controlling monitor the activities so that the planned activities are on the right track.

FORMAL VS INFORMAL ORGANIZATION

An organization is a social unit in which two or more people interact to achieve a common goal. A formal organization is the literal structure of the organization including its organization chart, hierarchical reporting relationships and work processes. The informal organization is the informal working relationships that develop in organizations. There are no formal hierarchy or line of authority as in formal organization. This informal working relationship contributes to the working culture of an organization.

MANAGERIAL ROLES AND MANAGERIAL SKILLS

When marking test papers, I have often noticed that students tend to confuse the terms managerial roles and managerial skills. In this tutorial session, I would like to stress on the difference between these two terms.

MANAGERIAL ROLES
 
Managers are the people who plan, organize, lead, and control the activities of the organization so that its goals can be achieved.  Managerial roles talks about the roles managers play in the organization. Henry Mintzberg identified three major roles of a manager as follows:

In interpersonal roles, the manager is responsible for managing relationships within and outside the organization. The manager must play a role as a figurehead, a leader and a liaison. In informational roles, the manager is responsible for gathering and distributing information to the stakeholders of the organization. Types of informational roles are monitor, disseminator, and spokesperson. Finally, in decisional roles, the manager is reponsible for processing information and reaching conclusions. Types of decisional roles are entrepreneur, disturbance handler, resource allocator and negotiator. (Refer to your notes for explanation on the different types of roles.)

MANAGERIAL SKILLS (MANAGEMENT SKILLS)

Being a manager is not an easy task as he/she is not only required to perform a job well, he/she is also required to manage, direct and motivate his/her subordinate to perform their job well. Therefore, being a manager requires a certain set of skills. 

There are three levels of managers namely first-line managers, middle level managers and top level managers. First line managers supervise the individuals who are directly responsible for producing the organization’s product or delivering its service. They carry the title production supervisor, section chief. Middle level managers supervises first-line managers or staff department. They carry titles such as marketing manager or department head. Top level managers provide the strategic direction for the organization.  They carry titles such as CEO, CFO, CIO or executive vice president.


The figure below indicates the skills managers must have and the degree of importance for each level of managers.

Conceptual skills is the ability to analyze complex information. It enables managers to process information about the internal/external environment of the organization and determine its implications. Top level managers need to have strong conceptual skills if they are to effectively accomplish goals.


Human skills is the ability to work effectively with people.  It involves motivating and disciplining employees, monitoring performance, providing feedback, improving communication and instructing employees. Human skills are most important for middle managers as these managers must coordinate efforts of the members in his group as well as other work groups within the organization.

Technical skills is the knowledge and the ability to use tools, techniques and procedures that are specific to their particular field.  Technical skills tend to be most important for first line managers as they must have the knowledge and the "know-how" to ensure that the products and services of their organization are delivered to customer. 


Hopefully I have cleared up the confusion between these two terms. Remember, managerial roles are the roles that managers play in the organization while managerial skills are the set of skills required by managers to be effective managers.

COMPARISON BETWEEN VERBAL AND NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Verbal communication is the sharing of ideas, opinions, feelings and expressions through word. It is a form of transmitting message by means of spoken words (oral expression), writing letters or memos.


Facial Expressions is a form of non verbal communication

Non verbal communication is the exchange of information, ideas, opinions and feelings by means of gestures, facial expressions, body language, etc..

THEORY X AND THEORY Y - THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

Theory X and Theory Y are theories of motivation formulated by Douglas Mc Gregor.  McGregor propose two contrasting sets of assumptions with which managers may view their subordinates. The factors include employee attitude toward work, management view of direction, employee view of direction and management style.

Comparison of Theory X and Theory Y
Theory X managers perceive that employees i) dislike work and will avoid it if at all possible ii) must be directed, coerced, controlled or threatened to get them to put in effort iii) avoid responsibility, and iv) requires authoritarian style of management. Theory X managers are often seen as authoritarian, preferring to tell subordinates what to do and how to do it.

Theory Y managers perceive that employees i) enjoy work and will actively seek it ii) self-motivated and self-directed iv) seek responsibility and wish to use their creativity, imagination and ingenuity in performing their jobs v) requires participatory style of management.  Theory Y managers are often uses participatory style of managing, preferring to consult with subordinates, asking their opinions and encourage them to take part in decision making.

Managers need to shift their employee attitude and attention from Theory X behavior to Theory Y behavior in order to achieve the desired organizational goals.

Managers can also motivate their employees with Theory X behavior by telling them in detail about what and how to do the work and always monitoring them. For Theory Y behavior, the manager can motivate them by giving rewards or promotions to enhance their work performance. Delegation and empowerment can boost their motivation level to work more efficiently.

WELCOME TO MANAGEMENT ZONE 101!!

I created this blog with the intention of creating an avenue to share information on courses that I teach that is Fundamentals of Management, Introduction to Human Resource Management and Business Communication. My source of information are from books, articles, journals, newspapers, other people's blogs, etc. I hope that you will find this blog useful as a reference to supplement the textbooks or lecture slides.