Reading: Lesson 2 - Communication Management

7.2.A - Communication Management

1. ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

1. A culture is the shared values, beliefs, and behavior patterns of a group of people. The group may be a corporation, a nation, or any other organized group. An organizational culture is the collection of beliefs and patterns of behavior that are shared by people within an organization. Each business has its own internal culture that influences the way formal and informal communications occur. Factors such as the type of business, the personalities of its leaders, and its operating procedures create this organizational culture. An organizational culture often influences the way people interact with each other and with people outside of the organization. The culture of an organization influences the communication climate. Cultures differ widely among firms. Cultures may be very closed, very open, or somewhere in between. A closed culture is one that relies on top-down decision making and adheres to numerous rules and strict disciplining for violations of established procedures. Rigid rule making and authoritarian leadership can breed distrust and secrecy while discouraging creativity and decision making at lower levels. In such organizations, communications tend to be quite formal. Experts refer to this type of organization as having a closed communication system.
   
2. When trust and confidence prevail among employees, an organization is said to have an open communication system. This type of culture encourages creativity and problem solving at all levels and supports communication and information sharing. Trust, supportiveness, risk taking, and decision making influence whether an employee will like or dislike working for a company. In turn, these factors help determine how productive employees will be. Most organizations have neither a fully open nor fully closed culture. Sometimes a business may change its culture. A comfortable culture for one person, may not be comfortable for another. Some employees prefer a culture with primarily an open communication system, whereas others prefer a culture with primarily a closed communication system. Employees often change jobs in search of an organization that has a set of beliefs, values, and practices suited to their needs.
   
3. A communication network is the structure through which information flows in a business. Communication networks can be formal or informal.
   
4. A formal communication network is the system of official channels that carry organizationally approved messages. These channels generally follow the reporting relationships in the firm. Formal communication flows upward, downward, and across the organization in a prescribed manner. Typically, certain information, such as budget allocations, flows downward from top-level managers to lower-level managers. Other information, such as requests to use budgeted funds, flows from the bottom to the top of the organization. Upward communication includes oral and written reports from lower-level to upper-level managers. Usually, upper-level managers rely on lower-level managers for information that deals with new or unusual problems, the quality of employee performance, and the way employees feel about their jobs and the company. Supervisors receive upward communication from their subordinates about such things as project status and suggestions for making a task more efficient.
   
5. Organizations with closed, rather than open, communications are less likely to benefit from upward communication. Upward communication is subject to distortion, especially in corporate cultures that are relatively closed. Supervisors, for example, might withhold or distort upward-flowing information when problems appear to reflect negatively on their performance. On the other hand, a supervisor might exaggerate information about successes. In a closed culture, employees often fear revealing negative information and avoid making honest criticisms. Downward communication in organizations occurs mainly by memos, emails, reports, and manuals. To be effective, this information should be timely and clear. In organizations with closed communications, there is often no opportunity for feedback, because information does not flow upward easily. However, in open cultures, employees receive downward-flowing information at meetings and their feedback is welcome.
   
6. Lateral communication flows horizontally or across the organization. For example, the production manager in one plant might want to know what problems other production managers face. Perhaps common problems could be solved jointly. However, many organizations do not have easy and fast channels for such communications. In a business with an open corporate culture, lateral communications are more likely to exist. One communication expert has estimated that 80 percent of poor management decisions occur because of ineffective communications.
   
7. Like formal communication networks, informal networks exist in all organizations. An informal communication network is the unofficial way that employees share information in an organization. The most common informal networks include small informal groups and the grapevine. Informal networks rely heavily on interpersonal communications and email. A great deal of communicating occurs among small informal groups, especially among employees who get along well together. These employees may or may not have the same supervisors, but often they do. They share information about the organization, assist one another in solving work problems, and look after one another. Members may even support one another when conflicts arise with other employees. Most employees belong to a small informal group.
   
8. Managers should be aware of informal groups. Often informal groups have more influence than managers do over the behavior of individual workers. It is extremely important that informal groups support the efforts of the entire business. If they do not, informal groups can interfere with business goals and, in turn, hurt morale and decrease productivity. Managers often work closely with informal group leaders to obtain support and test new ideas. An extensive amount of organizational communications occurs in an unofficial way through interpersonal relationships. Employees working side by side, for example, generally talk about their jobs and about personal matters. These conversations are normal and usually do not interfere with work. Employees also talk together on breaks, in the hall, or around the drinking fountain.
   
9. The informal transmission of information among workers is called the grapevine. In a grapevine, one person informally talks to another, and that second person talks to another, and so on. Informal messages travel quickly through the grapevine and can be distorted, because they are often based on unofficial, partial, or incorrect information. That is why grapevine messages are often labeled rumors. Very often, however, grapevines convey accurate messages. For example, when a formal memo announces that a manager has just retired for “personal reasons,” the grapevine may provide the actual reason. The manager may have been asked to quit but was given the opportunity to resign voluntarily. When Erica Komuro calls Sabrina in Accounting, she may also learn that the rumor about the vice president’s resignation is true. Generally, managers should not interfere with grapevines. Grapevines often fill the social needs of workers to communicate about their work lives. Only when a grapevine message is inaccurate and negatively affects company business should managers attempt to correct the situation.
   

2. CHANGING ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

1. Changing organizational culture can be one the most difficult challenges for managers. A recent study found that 96 percent of managers believe that some cultural change is needed in their organizations and over 50 percent believe a major culture overhaul is required. For an organization to be effective, its culture must match the requirement of its industry. For example, companies involved in the rapidly changing consumer technology industry must be able to attract a technically skilled, typically younger, workforce and be highly innovative. A large number of these companies are located on the West Coast on a corporate campus with open cultures. Many companies are finding that they are now competing in a rapidly changing environment and need to become more innovative. How to do this becomes the challenge. In 2014, wireless company Sprint hired Marcelo Claure as the new CEO. His challenge was to transform Sprint into a highly competitive and dynamic company. In the spring of 2015, Claure and the top executive team at Sprint gave up their corporate offices and moved to cubicles and open spaces. Claure moved from a 1,400-square-foot suite, the size of many houses, to a cubicle. The new open environment has the look and feel of a high-tech company that is shaping the future.
   
2. Changing culture requires changing the beliefs and patterns of behavior that are shared by the people within an organization. Culture change requires consistent communication. The first step is to define the organizational culture needed. Managers need to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the current culture. Communication should provide a clear message as to why the culture needs to change and a clear vision of where the organization needs to move. Expected behavioral changes needed to overcome weaknesses should be outlined. The second step is to align the culture and strategic priorities. Because strategy is achieved through employee behavior, many managers believe that culture is more important than strategy. Teams within the organization should communicate and provide feedback to help set priorities, assign responsibility, and create timelines for achieving goals. The third step is for managers to support the change process. Managers need to focus on results and support behavioral changes by recognizing accomplishments, coaching employees, and removing barriers. To improve the chances of cultural change success, managers should start by focusing on a few critical behaviors that have the most cultural impact and work with key individuals in the organization who can move the change outward. This often requires expanding communication to include informal peer networks to help spread the news throughout the company.
   

3. MANAGING TEAMS EFFECTIVELY

1. Managing teams is a vital skill for managers. Teams of individuals with different skills and backgrounds often work together on complex projects. To obtain the best results, managers must be able to ensure that all ideas are heard and considered. This helps produce better results and stronger buy-in to the team’s recommendations. Managers often prefer team meetings when open communication is needed to encourage discussion and feedback. Team members doing the hands-on work often have good ideas about how to improve their work quality and efficiency. However, team meetings also have disadvantages. The chief disadvantage is the excessive time meetings take. Good managers overcome this weakness by careful planning and by following suggestions such as those shown in the Figure below. A second major problem with team meetings occurs because of differences among those who attend the meetings. For example, an outspoken person may tend to dominate, whereas a quiet person may say nothing. Neither situation is desirable. The person who leads the meeting should encourage but control discussions, so that the team hears and discusses all ideas. Two methods used to encourage group thinking and problem solving are the nominal group technique and brainstorming. 
   

   
   

2. The nominal group technique (NGT) is a group problem-solving method in which team members write down and evaluate ideas to be shared with the team. For example, assume a manager needs to solve a long-standing problem. The manager begins by stating the problem and then follows the steps described in the Figure below. The NGT encourages each team member to think about the problem, and it gives the quiet person and the outspoken person an equal opportunity to be heard. Private voting encourages employees to choose the best solutions rather than spend time defending their own suggestions. This technique has been proven very effective. 
   

   
   

3. Problems arise in business for which prior solutions do not exist or are no longer acceptable. One technique for handling such situations is brainstorming. Brainstorming is a team discussion technique used to generate as many ideas as possible for solving a problem. A team leader presents a problem and asks team members to offer any solution that comes to mind. Even wild and imaginative ideas are encouraged. The team should make no attempt to judge any ideas as good or bad while brainstorming is under way. Only after participants have identified all possible solutions should they begin to judge the usefulness of each one. Often, an idea that appeared to be impractical or unusual when first presented may become the best solution to the problem. Brainstorming is frequently used to deal with problems that need especially creative solutions, such as when generating new product ideas and creating advertisements.