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Effective organizational communication is crucial for every workplace strategy. It’s a key component of success that allows the staff to organize, plan, motivate, and control the operations of the organization while making day-to-day work a bit easier. It’s the foundation of every business, no matter the industry or the size of the company.
Without organizational communication, misunderstandings and dissatisfaction can kill collaboration and prevent success. Its impact on employee experience, workplace trust, collaboration, and employee engagement make it an essential part of every workplace strategy. Here’s everything you need to know about this vital prerequisite for building a successful business.
Organizational communication is the transfer of information within non-profits, companies, government agencies, corporations, and other organizations through all channels and forms of communication, allowing them to function, connect with stakeholders, grow, and contribute to society, Master’s in Communications explains. In other words, it’s the sending and receiving of messages among interrelated people within a specific organization or environment to reach individual and common business goals. In the past, organizational communication was all about leaders giving public presentations, but today it involves all levels of interaction in companies and organizations.
The key to effective organizational communication is to share the right information with the right organization members at the right time through the right communication channel.
According to Forbes, effective organizational communication has the following five elements:
Other types of communication include:
The purpose of this communication is to educate, instruct, persuade, inform, motivate, control, entertain, caution, and direct people in the organization. It occurs within the organization, among different groups of employees, among people within, and between employees and employers.
External communication addresses the public, potential customers, media, press, competitors, the government, and other people outside the organization. It takes place through various channels such as phone calls, brochures, notices, letters, press conferences, press releases, business meetings, etc., Management Study HQ explains. Examples of external communication include marketing communication and corporate communication.
Communication is the foundation of any business’ success. Business is all about continuous interactions between employees, managers, and clients or customers.
With effective organizational communication, all relevant parties can participate in the flow of information and reduce the risk of misunderstanding, frustration, and lack of trust, Poppulo explains.
Reasons why it’s important include:
In general, there are two different methods of organizational communication, written and verbal.
Examples of written communication are emails, letters, proposals, memos, social media, policies, and training manuals.
These are a better option than verbal communication when immediate feedback isn’t necessary, when the recipient is out of reach, when the message is complex or highly detailed, and when a permanent record of the message is required.
Verbal communication, on the other hand, includes phone calls, face-to-face meetings, teleconferencing tools, town-halls, etc., Chron explains. It’s more suitable when the message is timely or urgent, simple or straightforward, when instant feedback or interaction is necessary, and when a permanent record isn’t needed.
Each method of communication offers multiple possibilities or communication channels to ensure efficient internal communication. These channels can be described as means through which organization members communicate and interact with each other. Not using the proper channel can make it hard for employees to be aligned with team and organization goals, drive innovation in the workplace, break down silos, and achieve success. Communication channels can be segmented into several groups, but we’re going to explain some of the most-commonly-used ones within an organization:
All-employee meetings are known as town-halls where all organization members gather to share information, often about the state of the overall company. The aim is to let everyone hear the information at the same time. It’s a great chance to speak, debate, and make leaders more personable.
Whether talking to employees about their workloads or making formal announcements, how and when the message is communicated is crucial for effective organizational communication. This, in turn, ensures success of an organization.
Some of the goals of effective communication include establishing and encouraging employee voice in the organization, creating a positive employee experience, helping to reduce the risk for misunderstandings, improving communication and collaboration across departments, improving procedures and processes, building positive relationships between leaders and employees, etc.
Employers should ensure all these goals are met and all employees communicate effectively across the entire organization by developing a successful organizational communication strategy.
Here are several strategies to ensure effective organizational communication:
Communicative strategies are means, ways, or plans of sharing messages to achieve a particular purpose. According to Elcomblus, these are:
By knowing the 7 Cs of communication, employers can learn how to communicate with their employees more clearly and effectively. According to Education Executive, these are:
Positive communication in organizations increases employee and team efficiency, their confidence, company productivity, and employee engagement, as well as ensures a great working environment and stronger management.
Small Business gives a few examples of positive communication, such as framing messages in a positive way, being brief and specific, offering to help, taking some responsibility, etc.
Negative communication, on the other hand, leads to low productivity, low morale, conflicts, increased turnover, and stress.
Examples of negative organizational communication include using over-inflated language, conveying important messages by email, not returning to emails or phone calls, etc. Tips for encouraging positive communication and avoiding negative communication in organizations include clearly expressing expectations, being more concise, listening and engaging, and choosing the appropriate communication channel for your message.
Every organization has a unique culture which is a set of values, norms, and principles shared among organization members. The organizational culture tells employees everything from where to eat and what to wear at the workplace to how to communicate with coworkers and leaders. It tells employees what they should be quiet about and what is ok to discuss. According to CQ Net, some cultural variables that affect communication are feelings of psychological safety at the workplace, leadership behavior, abusive or destructive leadership, organizational centralization, and job control and autonomy.
Every organization faces specific barriers, but here are the most common ones found in organizations:
Clear organizational communication ensures all organization members from entry-level staff to senior management, understand the organization’s goals and culture, and how it presents itself to clients and customers. In this working environment, the employees’ voice is encouraged and sought out using various communication channels.
Some of the benefits of effective communication across organizations include:
There are three basic functions of organizational communication. According to Study, they are to inform, motivate, and persuade.
Employee engagement is essential for work satisfaction. Employees today want to be involved in their work, are committed to their coworkers, and enthusiastic about the organization they work for. Poor communication, however, can contribute to low engagement which directly affects the overall company success, Social Chorus explains. Business leaders should know and understand that engaged employees lead to increased productivity, long-term employee retention, and improved work quality.
Clear communication is vital for all aspects of businesses. However, here are three areas where organizational communication is especially important in today’s ever-changing business environment:
Organizations and companies that go through change need to pay attention to the things employees have to do differently to achieve overall success. There are many change-management theories, but they all focus on a single idea – that a change never happens in isolation. This means that one change affects the entire organization and all organization members. Good change management is required to encourage employees to adapt to the change and embrace the new ways of working. Change management communication is part of the change management strategy that informs stakeholders about the nature of the change, reasons for it, and the effect it will have on them. No matter the nature of the change, change management communication is crucial for helping all organization members move from where they are now to the preferred “future state”, Your Thought Partner explains.
No organization can achieve success and business goals without effective organizational communication. Ensuring two-way communication between superiors and subordinates is a must in today’s business environment. Not only does effective communication create a positive working environment and satisfied employees, but it also increases productivity and efficiency, resulting in organizational success in many ways. Make organizational communication a focus in your business. Start making changes in your organization today. Not sure where to begin? Contact Ascend Communications at now!