The Importance of Effective Communication
Introduction
People in organizations typically spend over 75% of their time in an interpersonal situation; thus it is no surprise to find that at the root of a large number of organizational problems is poor communications.
Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, intergroup, intragroup, organizational, or external levels.
In this chapter we will cover the basic process of communication and then we will cover some of the most difficult communication issues managers face-providing constructive and effective feedback and performance appraisal.
The Communication Process
Although all of us have been communicating with others since our infancy, the process of transmitting information from an individual (or group) to another is a very complex process with many sources of potential error.
Consider the simple example:
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Terry: "I won't make it to work again tomorrow; this pregnancy keeps me nausious and my doctor says I should probably be reduced to part time.
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Boss: Terry, this is the third day you've missed and your appointments keep backing up; we have to cover for you and this is messing all of us up.
In any communication at least some of the "meaning" lost in simple transmission of a message from the sender to the receiver. In many situations a lot of the true message is lost and the message that is heard is often far different than the one intended. This is most obvious in cross-cultural situations where language is an issue. But it is also common among people of the same cuture.
Look at the example. Terry has what appears to be a simple message to convey-she won't make it to work today because of nausia. But she had to translate the thoughts into words and this is the first potential source of error. Was she just trying