Communication
There are seven parts to the communication model. They are: 1) the communication source, 2) encoding, 3) the message, 4) the channel, 5) decoding, 6) the receiver and 7) feedback. (Robbins, 2003) If any of these areas become confusing for the either the sender or receiver the overall message will be compromised or issues can occur. Recently my agency conducted a “climate control” assessment in which areas that needed to be worked on were addressed with the employees and the Attorney General. One of the areas that came up from the majority of employees was the lack of communication and the way communication was delivered to us. Our manager is very good at her work skills, but communication has become a problem. When she is communicating with us, there is often a lack of one of the seven steps in the communication model.
The strength of our organizations communication is the fact that upper management has tried to address the issues that employees have with the poor or lack of communication that we receive from our manager. They have conducted interviews and have put programs into place to help employees bring up communication issues immediately instead of waiting until it’s too late. The weakness within our agency in regards to communication is that even with some of the programs they have developed, our manager still does not seem to think she has a problem with her communication skills and little has changed in the way she presents herself and her messages.
Our management approach detracts from effective communication simply because no follow through seems to come from our complaints. Our upper management begins addressing our communication issues but there never seems to be any follow through. An example of this include: setting up communication trainings for employees, but not having the manager attend trainings.
When reading an article by the Air University, they made some good points in regards to an open door policy when it comes to communication. “Subordinates who are comfortable with their supervisors on the job are willing to question procedures or orders they do not understand and to make innovative suggestions that may help their organizations to improve. To encourage such constructive contributions, managers and supervisors need to develop and use an effective and mature method to create a climate in which all employees feel comfortable asking questions; ultimately, a strong relationship exists between good communication skills and good leadership. (Beck, 1985)
In our agency, our manager claims that she has an open door policy, but when we approach her office to ask questions her non verbal communication tells us that she does not want to be bothered. This occurs more frequently than not. We have just learned to find someone else to ask questions to in order to avoid any attitude or grief that she gives us in regards to her open door policy.
In an article titled, “Human Relations: Conversations and Interviews” the author talks about how communication and management should work. In our agency this style is not fully functioning at this time. There are gaps and holes in the communication styles and methods that make it impossible to be able to do our jobs to the fullest.
“Management is essentially working with and through people. Communication makes that possible. Effective interpersonal communication skills are as important to success in business as are effective written messages. Although all communication between and among humans is interpersonal in some ways, the term, interpersonal communication, typically refers to communication in which the relationship is more important than the specific business purpose of the message.” (Bowman, 2002)
In conclusion, our agency definitely needs to work on better communication skills between management and the employees. We have had more than fifteen people quit over the last two months due to the stress management has caused due to the lack of good communication skills. Instead of approaching an individual and speaking to them in a professional manner, our manager chooses to treat us as though we are children and does not put forth a clear message to us. She refuses to try to work on any issues that have been brought up with upper management, and in turn upper management has not followed through with the programs and trainings they had told us would be implemented. Although there are definite communication issues within my agency, I can only do my part and make sure that when I am communicating with someone, that I give a clear message with follow up to any confusion that may have occurred during the delivery of the message.
Reference
Robbins, Stephen P. (2003). Organizational Behavior. Prentice-Hall.
Beck, Major Charles E. (May 1985). Air University Review. Retrieved June 9, 2006, from The Open-Door Policy:Communication Climate and the Military Supervisor Web site: http://www.airpower.maxwell.af.mil/airchronicles/aureview/1985/may-jun/beck.html
Bowman, Joel (2004, August 21). Business Communications: Managing
Information and Relationships. Retrieved June 11, 2006, from Human
Relations: Conversations and Interviews Web site:
