Communication at Work - Management and the Communication-Intensive Organization - Essay Example

COMMUNICATIONS INTRODUCTION Communication provides new relationships and friendship, good and warm attitude of friends and colleagues. Communication is useful for discovering who we are. According to Gamble the essential elements of communication are people, messages, channels, noise, context, feedback, effect. It is necessary to define main characteristics of communication: Communication is dynamic Communication is irreversible Communication is really dependable from cultural background Communication depends on human ethics Communication is based on competence Communication is transformed and changeable1 Gamble admits that main communication skills are nonverbal communication and listening. Nonverbal communication expresses implicit information. Nonverbal communication involves: voice (intonation, speed of talk), body language (kinesics), clothing, artifacts, space (environment factor), colors (association and meaning), time (communicative value), touch (haptics) etc. All these elements are in constant interaction. The purposes of nonverbal communication: 1. Message complementation (complements and reinforces verbal communication) 2. Message contradiction (words spoken are positive and nonverbal signal are negative or visa verse) 3. Replace verbal communication 4. Message intensification (it provides message with additional emotions) 5. Message regulation (it regulates and modulates conversational turn)2. The necessary communication skill is listening. Listening is used with the purpose to set appropriate goals, to understand main ideas or thoughts, to retain information, to evaluate and to analyze someone's behavior, etc. Listening is important to let sender known that he is being listened to. It involves also asking questions about the topic being discussed, paraphrasing, repetition, visualization, etc. The main barriers affecting communication process are: desire to be always right; fear, not listening, running away, dreaming, etc3. DESCRIPTION OF SITUATION Jennie was new employer of our management team and we were sent to a business trip. At the same time I was studying at the university and working. It was difficult for us to start communicating, because we were a little bit embarrassed and confused as we saw each other practically for the first time. Situation took place in train: March, 2005, 4:00 p.m. Jennie: I see you are not reading at all, are you Me: Sorry What Jennie: I mean the book I noticed you haven't read a line in the last half an hour. Me: (laughing and then smiling) Yes, you are completely right. You know I have to read it, but I'm not able to collect my thoughts. It is too stuffy in the carriage! Jennie: As far as I see you are not greatly interested in book. It doesn't hold your interest. Maybe the book is too abstruse and complicated for you Me: No, it is okay. But you are right, it is rather boring, but I need to read it for my classes. You see, I'm studying at the university. Jennie: (shrugging her shoulders) There is a cute phrase suitable for you: it is a labor of labor rather than that of love. Me: You know I'm fond of literature, but I don't like Joyce the author of the novel as the result I feel I'm getting bored with the whole course more and more. Jennie: (sarcastically) I see it is the course that irritates you, not the book. Me: Frankly speaking, I don't think that the course is too boring and bad, the first two weeks were really interesting and fascinating and the lectures were gripping maybe I'm the reason not the course Jennie: I'm sorry, but you look completely confused. I understand that the course is okay. I see that you would have chose art instead of literature. Am I right Me: Oh, they wanted me to achieve something in life. I know that but You know they thought it would be practically impossible to find perspective job with the degree in Arts. Therefore they sent me generous allowance for my tutorials. But now I realize that I'm just wasting my time. Literature is not mine I feel that I'm spending their money in vain. Jennie: They chose your course instead of you. But they didn't ask whether you like or dislike literature. And now you are afraid they will be disappointed because of money Me: Yes, I know they have not been right. Anyway I feel guilty. You persuaded me that they had no right to do that and now I'm a little bit angry. Jennie: I think everything can be changed for better. You should try and only then to complaint that nothing can be changed. Never give up! ANALYZING OF SITUATION The situation illustrates Gable's model of multichannel nature of communication. With the help of intonation I let my colleague know that I'm really confused and upset. During the communication process mentioned above we shared meanings by the means of sending and receiving messages. Gamble's model of communication was used in the situation. It means that communication is like a circle and sending/receiving responsibilities were shared between me and my colleague. This model helps to create more effective communication and to influence each other. According to Axley the situation is built on pragmatic and reflective strategic models. The purpose of the used pragmatic strategy is to emphasize the creative traits and characteristics of human communication. This strategy highlights different principles. It is necessary to admit that the strategy is used also to arrange new acquaintances, because it modifies and directs the situation. The situation presented is unique in many ways. Pragmatic strategy shows that communication process is motivated. It is directed to achieve set purposes. Communication in train shows also that the dialogue is based completely on the nature of human experience (observation, meaning, affect, motive, action)4. The presented dialogue is characterized by certain degree of adopted directness and free expression of emotions and feelings. Jennie's directness in the dialogue involves explicit influence and the efforts to direct my thoughts. Such Jennie's direct style completely formed the direction of the conversation, its content and pace. Her aim was to reveal my true predilections and inclinations. She used great number of open questions5. I expressed my ideas and feelings in order to see fresh reaction of unknown person. I tried to use the best of my communication skills such as perceiving different points of view, understanding of beliefs of other person, active listening and responding skills, gaining confidence and using positive reinforcement. I think that my best skills are connected with nonverbal communication, especially body language. I used such elements as smiling, laughing, shrugging shoulders in order to intensify positive attitude and gain her favor. Nonverbal communication operates on the subconscious level and I tried to influence my future colleague in such a way6. I'd like also to admit my weak points of our communication. The weakest moment is fear and it was difficult for me to start communication. I was afraid of failure and therefore my intonation was rather low and unconfident. Because of fear and embarrassment my sentences were incomplete and scrappy. I was afraid, because I couldn't understand whether she is interested in listening me or not. I was anxious about what I was saying and my speech was similar to Joyce' novel "Ulysses". It is known that its main peculiarity is the stream of thoughts. The same was with me. Jennie's negative point was obtrusiveness and absence of positive nonverbal communication. Her voice was a little bit caustic ("I see it is the course that irritates you, not the book") and therefore our first communication was not successful at all. Jennie's communication skills in comparison to mine expressed feelings and described them accurately. I failed with this point and I failed even to reveal my own feelings. I failed also with the next points: gaining insight into Jennie's communication, evaluating her words, monitoring the nonverbal signals (they were absent at all), and encouraging open expression. But I succeeded in attracting her attention and interest7. CONCLUSION During research it was found out the main functions of communication process: understanding and insight, setting relationships with meaning, influencing and affecting8. It is possible to improve communication if people think what they are going to say and what the reaction may be. It is necessary to think and then to speak and not vice verse, because later people can be disappointed of what they have said. There is a saying: "words once spoken you can never recall". The next point of improving is to try to listen attentively and with openness. It would be pleasant for sender to realize that a person has understood everything. It is necessary to use nonverbal communication in particular body language (face expression and smile). References Axley, Stephen. 1996. Communication at Work: Management and the Communication-Intensive Organization. Westport, CT: Quorum Books. DeVito, J. The Interpersonal Communication Book. New York: Harper Collins, 1995. Gamble, Teri Kwal & Gamble, Michel W. 2004. Communication Works. Australia: McGraw-Hill College. Hargie, Owen. Skilled Interpersonal Communication: Research, Theory, and Practice. London: Routledge, 2003. Read More