Communication in Contemporary Organizations - Essay Example

Communication and Decision Making Contemporary organizations are facing fierce competition in the current business arena. As a result of this intense rivalry, organizations make thousands of knee-jerking decisions to survive in the challenging environment. These decisions are taken in uncertain conditions where lack of information often prevails; as a result this impairs the quality of decision made by the managers. The efficiency of the decision is reliant on how well the organization gathers and exploits information from its internal base & external sources. Competitive organizations encourage and facilitate effective communication between organizational members and allow smooth flow of information through different channels. “Communication and “Decision Making” are an inevitable aspect of organizational life and businesses often discern that ineffective communication seriously impinges on the quality of decision made by the decision-makers. According to O’Rielly & Pondy communication is defined as the process of sharing of information between two or more individuals or group to reach a common understanding. The definition of the communication encompasses the word information which is an ultimate prerequisite for effective decision making. Effective communication can spark off accurate and relevant information which can make a dramatic difference on the nature of decisions. Jones & George described that managers in business environment take two types of decision; programmed and non-programmed. Programmed decisions are routined and automatic decisions that follow established rules and guidelines, whereas non-programmed decisions are complex and they are taken in uncertain and unpredictable environment. Under such circumstances manager heavily rely on their intuition and information which are hidden in obscure communication channels to make decisions. The way a message is communicated does affect managerial decisions. Communication process starts when a sender desires to communicate with the particular receiver. For instance, a manager identifies that the administrative expenses are increasing rapidly and are hindering in between organizational goals. On the basis of that assumption he plans to reduce the salary of few individuals and in the process he aims to makes sure that after communicating the message they do not leave their jobs. The manager encoded the message and transmitted it in an unpleasant manner. He maltreated them which as a result infuriated the individuals. As a reaction to that scene, the employees expressed their resentment and decided to hand in their resignation. This shows that the way the manager communicated his message affected his decision and he was failed to accomplish his objective. The channel through which message is communicated can have a profound impact on the caliber of decision. Kreitner & Kinicki noted that employees are overwhelmed with huge amount of information transmitted over different communicational media. He described that managers can reduce this stress and can improve communication effectiveness by selecting their own choice of media. If an inappropriate medium is chosen than managers decision can be based on inaccurate and unreliable information. Consider an example of an employee; Marnie Puritz reaction to inappropriate use of email. She states that all the communication concerned with hiring and firings were sent via an email. Managers thought that they were using appropriate mode but the she and her co-workers felt that the managers were insolent. “I think that callousness with which email delivers news is a poor way to show leadership and it creates a lot of resentment. I was reprimanded via email which was really bad and criticism via email leaves you very belittled since you cannot respond.” Huber described that the rational model of decision making consisted of four steps; identifying the problem, generating alternative solutions, selecting a solution, and implementing & evaluating the solution. Managers initially use various mediums to glean information for eliminating the uncertainty concern from their decisions. Finally when they take a decision then it becomes mandatory to evaluate it in terms of different measures. The last stage of evaluation requires extensive feedback from the employees which again makes the entity of communication active. Russo & Schoemaker recognized that managers, who do not evaluate the results of their decisions, never learn from experience; instead of this they do stagnate and make dreadful mistakes repeatedly over the period of time. Personality traits of individuals can have an impact on the process of decision making. Smith conducted a research and described that man and women do communicate differently. Men are likely to be authoritarian and despotic whereas women tend to be more emotional. This trait has a strong impact on the practice of decision making. Men often take risky decisions in uncertain environment whereas the opposite stands true for women. This argument can be proved valid as we have more male entrepreneurs than female in the world. At the lower level of organizational hierarchy the employees often distort the communication patterns which can affect managerial decisions. Communication distortion occurs when an employee deliberately manipulates the content of a message which in result reduces the accuracy of information. Fulk & Mani described that employees engage in such behavior because of organizational politics or when they aspire to elevate their positions. Certain other communication barriers often reduce the accuracy of information. The way people process and interpret information is based on their own perception and experience which often disrupts the communication. Cultural factors, human egos, stereotypes and prejudices, inactive listening, interpersonal trust and semantic obstacles all of them distort information and are barriers to effective communication. All these factors are a breeding ground for ineffective decision making and managers need to comprehend on these aspects when making decisions. The emerging trend towards group decision making has also changed the dynamics of communication. Advanced technological developments have assisted group-oriented decision making in many ways. Video-conferencing, email & computer assisted tools have created an environment which nurtures group decision making. People situated in geographically dispersed areas can feel free to share their views and opinions to arrive at the best decision. Collaborative systems promote communication by enabling people to share information without the constraint of time and space (Turban, Aronson & Liang). Knowledge management systems have also enhanced the quality of decision making. These systems identify, select, organize and exploit the knowledge available in the organizational repository. The effective use of knowledge management system helps organizations to improve the quality of decision making and correspondingly reduce costs and increase efficiency (Kreitner & Kinicki). Read More