New Communication Structure
Kevin Williams
COM 425 Mary-Catherine Ferguson
11 April 2016

As a Petty Officer First Class in the United States Navy I understand the importance of broad leadership and effective managerial skills to mentor, train, and develop tomorrow’s Sailors. I have the ability to adapt to any situation and having the proper set of communication skills are vital to that success. I have been charged with researching, proposing, and developing a new communication structure for this organization. This paper will address the implementation of new concepts that are a crucial for the successful communication within our organization. The key concepts that have been identified and will be discussed are the following: active listening, organizational culture, conflict resolution, formal and informal communication, and leadership strategies. Organizational culture has a direct impact on communication and can be described as a negotiated order that emerges through interactions between participants, a negotiated order influenced by people with symbolic power (Hallett, T, 2003). These concepts will strengthen our organizations communication and ensure the successful completion of our strategic long term goals.
The first concept that will be addressed is active listening. Participants within our organization often do not engage in active listening or pay close attention to others' messages. They are often too busy thinking about their own needs and planning what they want to say instead of focusing on what their relational partners have to say. This needs to change, but one must first understand active listening. Active listening “means being fully engaged in paying attention to your relational partner's communication with you.” (Kreps, 2011) This means to give the speaker your complete utmost attention and focus in more on their verbal and nonverbal behaviors while taking into account the full extent of what they are trying to communicate (Kreps, 2011).
Active listening will enable us to better gather relative information and insights into the life of the organization. There is a lot we can learn, especially since they may have a different vantage points and organizational experiences. Active listening and people skills are essential in any organization. Effective communication requires the ability for one to sell themselves, network, and build professional relationships within an organization. Building relationships, listening well, and resolving conflicts are important skills that we need in this organization. Let’s face it, you cannot do it all on your own. Teamwork is the ability to work effectively with other team members, and organizations which are crucial to the development of strategic short and long term goals. Effective team communication can mean the difference between success and failure of an organization (Kreps, 2011).
The second concept is organizational culture. Every organization has a culture. Organizational culture refers “to the collectively held underlying beliefs, logics, and legends concerning organizational life that organizational participants learn and use to guide their behaviors.” (Kreps, 2011) In our organization, I believe it is safe to access we have a strong organizational culture that governs and directs everything from how we dress, communicate, behavior, and our personnel conduct both on and off duty. Our culture is one of professional arms that is free of discrimination, sexual misconduct, assault, and that provides equal opportunity for all (Kreps, 2011).
Strong culture organizations exert a great deal of influence over their members. In our organization it is crucial to the mission that all members met the utmost highest standards. There is no room for below average ability or sub-standards behavior. Culture affects our communication with others in the workplace by understanding and showing respect to others regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, age, nationality, religion, and sexual orientation. The military is a very diverse culture. Organization's culture also encourages organization members “to accept culturally approved beliefs, values, and attitudes as their own.” (Kreps, 2011) Organizational culture provides common language, values, attitudes, and vision about the organization's future. This enables communication, collaboration among members, and promotes a professional work environment which allows organizational goals to be met (Kreps, 2011).
The third concept is conflict resolution. Conflict is an unavoidable part of interpersonal relations and organizational life because each relational partner has different goals, ideas, and strategies for addressing organizational issues. Not understanding how to manage interpersonal conflicts due to poor or the lack of skills can damage organizational goals, create anger and hostility, and degrade interpersonal communication. Therefore it is important to address and discuss ways to mitigate conflict within the organization. Integrating conflict management skills within the workplace is a crucial part of strategic interpersonal communication. Effective interpersonal conflict management involves mediating these differences and disagreements between individuals to develop solutions to problems (Kreps, 2011).
Within the organization skills such as these are unfortunately lacking, but we are looking to increase/promote such skills. Having the wrong approach while trying to engage or mitigate conflict often can cause more hostility and greater problems. Conflict management skills can help the organizational perform more productive by avoiding these problems and facilitate productive conflicts forums for solving organizational issues early on (Kreps, 2011).
There are three steps to get us to effective interpersonal conflict management. The steps are to focus on the other person’s point of view, avoid the hostility trap and stay focused on the issues at hand, and look more for commonalities between your perspectives. For the first step remember to focus and do not fail to truly hear the other person’s ideas. This is where active listening comes into play again as we discussed earlier on. The second step remember to avoid hostility and to remained determine to stay on topic nothing but the topic at hand. Even if the discussion becomes hostile try to stay on topic by defusing any hostility and focusing on sharing information about your areas of disagreement and agreement. The third step try and remember to find common ground areas that you both agree on. Then you can further focus and discuss any other areas that you may differ on the topic at hand (Kreps, 2011).
“It may take a while to work through the issues, but by focusing on the issues, encouraging compromise, and showing respect for the other person; you can encourage conflict resolution and set the stage for increased cooperation.”(Kreps, 2011) Effective interpersonal conflict is a great opportunity to build relationship, learn more about relational partners, others ways to view organizational life, and the ability to learn new strategies for solving organizational problems (Kreps, 2011).
The fourth concept is exploring the proper use of formal and informal communication. Communication within any organization can flow in many different directions and can take on various ways of being communicated through formal and/or informal channels of communication at all levels. Formal patterns of organizational communication follow the power hierarchy within the organization. The three types of formal communication that we will discuss are downward, upward, and horizontal. Downward communication “takes place when organizational leaders communicate down the power hierarchy to subordinate organizational members.” (Kreps, 2011) Upward communication travels back up the power hierarchy or organizational structure chart. This kind of communication allows members to voice their comments, ideas, and concerns to leadership to better facilitate the mission or strategic plan within an organization. All leaders/mangers should be open to this type of communication. This will assist in streamlining/correcting/improving any program or task. Horizontal communication “refers to messages that are shared between organization members who are on similar levels.” (Kreps, 2011)
Informal patterns of organizational communication do not necessarily follow along power hierarchy lines. These interactions are based on personal relationships that may transcend the formal hierarchy (Kreps, 2011). This leads to rumors within an organization known as the grapevine. Often most of this information is false, misleading, and decreases morale within an organization. Formal communication in the workplace is essential to provide members with clear, concise, and direct direction in regards to information about the organization. This should also help facilitate open upward communication back to include ideas, concerns, questions, comments, and constructive, effective feedback (Kreps, 2011).
The last concept is effective leadership strategies. Some of the best leaders are said to be able “to adapt their communication strategies to match the unique demands of the individuals they are interacting with, as well as the distinct situational factors they encounter in organizational life.” (Kreps, 2011) Organizations depend on effective leadership to provide organizational members with direction and guidance on how to accomplish tasks. Effective leaders should advise others about how to go about solve problems within the organization. Strategic leaders also help establish a clear sense of direction for how their organizations address current and future challenges. Formal organizational leadership roles that are found within our workplace are among the most visible and important roles performed by organizational participants. True leaders are trustworthy and establish credibility with their followers. In this organization, leaders must be, set, and lead by example at all times (Kreps, 2011).
I need all supervisors and leaders to continue to strive to be more of an effective leader/communicator. Effective leaders inspire employees who want to follow directives and do the right thing. If employees respect and believe in their leader, employees will want to share in the organizational mission and want to contribute to the organizations success. “The only way to get this to happen is for the leader to use strategic communication to establish strong, encouraging, and inspiring professional relationships with followers.” (Kreps, 2011) Essentially it is about overseeing the use of time, money, resources and personal talents to ensure they are being used to maximize the completion of our goals. We as leaders must ensure the right people process the proper level of knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform the tasks at hand (Motluk, 2011).
Naval leaders must ensure future enlisted leaders are skilled in things like leadership and communication. Our members today are the most highly skilled, trained, equipped and educated in the history of naval service. The United States Navy is also the most technologically advanced navy in the world. Today, with the advancements of technology, communication is flowing faster than ever. Supervisors/leaders at all levels often rely too much on electronic devices instead of talking face-to-face and engaging in analog communication with people. Face-to-face communication is often lost due to advances technology and dependence on electronic devices. Face-to-face communication presents a great opportunity to not just be a Supervisor, but it also allows you to demonstrate your leadership abilities to inspire others to excel. Be a Leader! (U.S. Navy, 2012).
Effective communication is the key to success for any organization. There is no doubt effective communication skills are necessary within this organization. Clear, concise, and correct communication is vital to effectively train new students, and safely operate these assets as a crew. The integration and implementation of these concepts will be in the form of formal communication and training within the workplace. This paper has addressed the implementation of new concepts that are a crucial for the successful communication within our organization. These key concepts that have been identified and discussed will strengthen our organizations communication and ensure the successful completion of our strategic long term goals (Kreps, 2011).

References
Hallett, T. (2003). Symbolic Power and Organizational Culture: Sociological Theory, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Jun., 2003), pp. 128-149. Published by: American Sociological Association Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3108622
Kreps, G.L. (2011). Communication in organizations. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Lawrence, P., & Lorsch, J.W. (1967). Organization and environment: Managing differentiation and integration. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Retrieved from https://content.ashford.edu
Motluk, A. (2011). A tool kit for the real world. New Scientist, 209, 5. Retrieved from http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19969-a-tool-kit-for-the-real-world.html?full=true
U.S. Navy. (2012). The Future in Now. Retrieved from http://www.navy.mil