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Organizational Communications
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Grow Your Communication
Effective organizational communication is crucial for every workplace strategy. It’s a key component of success that allows the staff to organize, plan, motivate, and control the operations of the organization while making day-to-day work a bit easier. It’s the foundation of every business, no matter the industry or the size of the company.
Without organizational communication, misunderstandings and dissatisfaction can kill collaboration and prevent success. Its impact on employee experience, workplace trust, collaboration, and employee engagement make it an essential part of every workplace strategy. Here’s everything you need to know about this vital prerequisite for building a successful business.
What Is Organizational Communication?
Organizational communication is the transfer of information within non-profits, companies, government agencies, corporations, and other organizations through all channels and forms of communication, allowing them to function, connect with stakeholders, grow, and contribute to society, Master’s in Communications explains. In other words, it’s the sending and receiving of messages among interrelated people within a specific organization or environment to reach individual and common business goals. In the past, organizational communication was all about leaders giving public presentations, but today it involves all levels of interaction in companies and organizations.
What Is Effective Organizational Communication?
The key to effective organizational communication is to share the right information with the right organization members at the right time through the right communication channel.
According to Forbes, effective organizational communication has the following five elements:
- Empathy – the ability to comprehend other people’s feelings and to step into their shoes creates strong human bonds that allow business and team leaders to understand their employees and make better decisions.
- Positive communication – phrasing messages in a positive way to build and maintain an effective communication channel. This helps employees to listen instead of resist.
- Clarity – the messages sent to organizational members are always clear and specific.
- Assertiveness – this helps improve communication and gain trust with everyone in the organization. Being assertive means expressing thoughts and feelings in a clear, direct, and respectful manner without judging others.
- Self-reflection – devoting time to self-reflection allows employees to develop effective communication within the organization. Leaders, especially, should know the importance of thanking the person that has helped them in some way or conversing with those that need help to better understand their task and overall role in the organization.
Types of Organizational Communication
- Formal Communications
According to the level of formality, communication can be formal or informal, says Smarp. Being formal, specific, and clear allows a proper flow of information in the organization, informing everyone about the business goals through standardized and carefully crafted messages. For example, guidelines, safety rules, and work arrangements are communicated through printed documents or emails to employees. - Informal Communications
Even though most workplace conversations are formal, informal communication is also important. It’s spontaneous and free flowing taking place between small groups of employees or one-on-one. It helps spread information and ideas faster in the workplace, as well as develop new ideas. Examples include chats, dialogues, phone conversations, etc. - Horizontal Communications
Horizontal communication is the communication that takes place between groups, teams, or individuals that are at the same hierarchical level. This type of communication helps break down silos and improves collaboration across different departments in the workplace. - Vertical Communications
This type of communication occurs between vice presidents or CEOs, team leaders, and employees. Without it, sharing guidelines, ideas, or feedback will be impossible.
Other types of communication include:
Internal Communications
The purpose of this communication is to educate, instruct, persuade, inform, motivate, control, entertain, caution, and direct people in the organization. It occurs within the organization, among different groups of employees, among people within, and between employees and employers.
External Communications
External communication addresses the public, potential customers, media, press, competitors, the government, and other people outside the organization. It takes place through various channels such as phone calls, brochures, notices, letters, press conferences, press releases, business meetings, etc., Management Study HQ explains. Examples of external communication include marketing communication and corporate communication.
- Marketing Communication
This is a type of external communication as it refers to the means adopted by the organization to share messages about its brand or product directly or indirectly in order to persuade customers to purchase. It’s exchanging information about the organization or company’s product or service to customers. It includes direct marketing, advertising, packaging, printed materials, sponsorships, sales presentations, PR activities, online presence, etc. - Corporate Communications
While organizational communication builds strong company culture, corporate communication focuses on establishing and growing commerce and shaping the company’s PR image. It’s external-facing and refers to the way organizations and businesses communicate with various external audiences such as customers and prospects, media and general public, key stakeholders, third-party regulators, etc., stated by the Northeastern University Graduate Programs.
Integrated Marketing Communications
Organizations use this approach to brand and coordinate their communication efforts. It’s a plan that assesses the strategic roles of different communication disciplines which are combined to provide consistency, clarity, and maximum communication impact, Lumen explains.The Importance of Organizational Communication
Communication is the foundation of any business’ success. Business is all about continuous interactions between employees, managers, and clients or customers.
With effective organizational communication, all relevant parties can participate in the flow of information and reduce the risk of misunderstanding, frustration, and lack of trust, Poppulo explains.
Reasons why it’s important include:
- Defining and feeding the culture – it promotes successful leadership by creating a culture where good communication can flourish. An organization with an open approach to communication, means an open and transparent culture.
- Getting things done – it allows organization members to be informed about everything from meetings to requirements and tasks so that they can make informed decisions and get the job done on time.
- Employees connecting meaning to their roles – it informs and clarifies their tasks, the method of performing the tasks, and how they can improve their performance. Good communication makes well-informed employees which improves their attitude.
- Driving results –it improves procedures and processes, creating greater efficiencies and lower costs, SHRM explains. When everyone is well-informed about what’s happening, what happened, and what is expected to happen in an organization in order to meet business goals, you can expect good results.
What Are Methods of Communication?
In general, there are two different methods of organizational communication, written and verbal.
Examples of written communication are emails, letters, proposals, memos, social media, policies, and training manuals.
These are a better option than verbal communication when immediate feedback isn’t necessary, when the recipient is out of reach, when the message is complex or highly detailed, and when a permanent record of the message is required.
Verbal communication, on the other hand, includes phone calls, face-to-face meetings, teleconferencing tools, town-halls, etc., Chron explains. It’s more suitable when the message is timely or urgent, simple or straightforward, when instant feedback or interaction is necessary, and when a permanent record isn’t needed.
Communication Channels – Definition and Examples
Each method of communication offers multiple possibilities or communication channels to ensure efficient internal communication. These channels can be described as means through which organization members communicate and interact with each other. Not using the proper channel can make it hard for employees to be aligned with team and organization goals, drive innovation in the workplace, break down silos, and achieve success. Communication channels can be segmented into several groups, but we’re going to explain some of the most-commonly-used ones within an organization:
1. Emails
Email is an example of a written communication channel and it’s the most popular option in the workplace because it’s fast, easy to use, and accessible on any device. Employees use it to stay connected with each other and stay informed about the organization’s news and updates. Emails are perfect for keeping a permanent record of communications or forwarding sensitive documents.2. Meetings
Face-to-face meetings are considered the most effective and intimate way for teams to communicate, especially when it comes to lengthy conversations. That’s because it lowers the chances for possible misunderstandings allowing for facial expressions, body language, and other nonverbal communication. Apart from face-to-face, meetings for remote teams can happen virtually through Zoom, Skype, and other means of video conferencing, Podium explains.
3. Employee Newsletters
With a little bit of creativity, this type of communication channel can be an excellent way to keep employees up-to-date with relevant information while engaging them.
Employee newsletters can be used to share CEO’s messages to employees, send organization updates, announce important news, celebrate wins, or introduce new hires.
4. Instant Messaging (IM)
This type of communication channel is great for direct and simple communication between teams. Employees are notified right away if a coworker, team leader, CEO, or anyone else sends them a message, and they can quickly type out a reply.
Some organizations use messaging platforms such as Yammer, Chatter, and Jive that allow creating tasks and sharing files in the message threads.
5. Intranet
Intranets are private internal networks that facilitate communication, information sharing, and collaboration between employees. Their primary purpose is to help employees securely store information about the company, communicate with each other, and collaborate. In this way, they can be more productive and achieve better business results.
6. Plasma Screens
Plasma screens are used for circulating news, encouraging participative discussion, sharing views, and advertising videos across the organization. This type of channel allows consistent presentation of important information as well as complementing information on other types of communication channels.
7. Town-halls
All-employee meetings are known as town-halls where all organization members gather to share information, often about the state of the overall company. The aim is to let everyone hear the information at the same time. It’s a great chance to speak, debate, and make leaders more personable.
8. Broadcast Voicemails
This communication channel is a great way to get information or message heard. Instead of calling everyone to share information, a message is sent at the same time to as many people as needed. It is especially useful for communicating with an organization’s salesforce, a group that is generally not in the office.Strategies for Improving Organizational Communication
Whether talking to employees about their workloads or making formal announcements, how and when the message is communicated is crucial for effective organizational communication. This, in turn, ensures success of an organization.
Some of the goals of effective communication include establishing and encouraging employee voice in the organization, creating a positive employee experience, helping to reduce the risk for misunderstandings, improving communication and collaboration across departments, improving procedures and processes, building positive relationships between leaders and employees, etc.
Employers should ensure all these goals are met and all employees communicate effectively across the entire organization by developing a successful organizational communication strategy.
Here are several strategies to ensure effective organizational communication:
- Define and understand the organization’s internal audience to ensure all employees and stakeholders get relevant information based on their departments, job roles, location, preferences, needs, and interests.
- Link communication to employer’s overall strategic plan, including the mission and vision of the organization, and core company values.
- Ensure two-way communication to help establish and maintain healthy workplace culture.
- Know the right segmentation of content and audience using the right communication tools so that employees get engaging and relevant content on time.
- Be honest and as complete as possible when delivering messages to support employees and increase their engagement.
- Choose the right communication channels to distribute the right content. For that purpose, many organizations are considering modern employee communication solutions.
- Implement the right communication technology. This involves eliminating outdated options such as Intranets, and implementing mobile-first internal communication solutions.
- Monitor and measuring internal communication efforts to determine what works and what not.
- Leverage data to make improvements and informed decisions.
What are the 7 Types of Communicative Strategies?
Communicative strategies are means, ways, or plans of sharing messages to achieve a particular purpose. According to Elcomblus, these are:
- Nomination –presenting a specific topic in a clear and honest manner, sharing only relevant information.
- Restriction –constraining the reaction or response within a set of categories.
- Turn-taking –knowing how to speak and when it’s your turn.
- Topic control –asking questions and evoking response to keep the interaction going.
- Topic shifting –introducing a new topic based on the previous one.
- Repair –sending more comprehensive messages to overcome communication breakdowns.
- Termination –ending the interaction with verbal and nonverbal signals.
What are the 7 Cs of Communication?
By knowing the 7 Cs of communication, employers can learn how to communicate with their employees more clearly and effectively. According to Education Executive, these are:
- Clear – being clear about your message or goal when writing or speaking.
- Concise – sticking to your point and keeping it brief.
- Concrete – ensuring your message is concrete so that the employees understand exactly what you’re telling them.
- Correct – using correct information free from any spelling or grammatical mistakes.
- Coherent – using consistent tone and flow of the text and relevant and connected points to ensure logical communication.
- Complete – sharing all the necessary information so that the employee can take action.
- Courteous – being open, honest, and friendly in your communication while keeping the employee’s viewpoint in mind.
Positive vs. Negative Communication in Organizations
Positive communication in organizations increases employee and team efficiency, their confidence, company productivity, and employee engagement, as well as ensures a great working environment and stronger management.
Small Business gives a few examples of positive communication, such as framing messages in a positive way, being brief and specific, offering to help, taking some responsibility, etc.
Negative communication, on the other hand, leads to low productivity, low morale, conflicts, increased turnover, and stress.
Examples of negative organizational communication include using over-inflated language, conveying important messages by email, not returning to emails or phone calls, etc. Tips for encouraging positive communication and avoiding negative communication in organizations include clearly expressing expectations, being more concise, listening and engaging, and choosing the appropriate communication channel for your message.
The Impact of Organizational Culture on Communications and Vice Versa
Every organization has a unique culture which is a set of values, norms, and principles shared among organization members. The organizational culture tells employees everything from where to eat and what to wear at the workplace to how to communicate with coworkers and leaders. It tells employees what they should be quiet about and what is ok to discuss. According to CQ Net, some cultural variables that affect communication are feelings of psychological safety at the workplace, leadership behavior, abusive or destructive leadership, organizational centralization, and job control and autonomy.
A High-Performing Culture vs. High-Touch Culture
A high-performing work culture exists in creative, productive, and engaged workplaces. In other words, it’s a great workplace that works well with highly productive and motivated employees. All employees are given the necessary resources to meet and exceed their individual and team goals in order to accomplish organizational goals. Clear communication between employees and managers is an important attribute of a high-performance culture. When expectations and goals are clearly stated, employees can easily meet their individual and organizational goals. High-touch culture is one in which employees have access to tools that make it easier for them to do their jobs more efficiently and ensure a positive customer experience. In other words, having a positive experience at the workplace will help them deliver a better customer experience, LinkedIn explains. And, good internal communication is imperative for employees’ satisfaction, which, in turn, can result in customer satisfaction.Barriers to Effective Organizational Communications
Why High-Performing Culture Includes Customer Experience Monitoring
Positive customer experience is crucial for business success. Satisfied employees working in a great working environment with good internal communication can deliver a better experience to customers. An organization with a high-performing culture uses a set of processes to monitor, oversee, and organize every interaction between the organization and the customers throughout the customer lifecycle. This collection of processes is known as customer experience management or CEM/CXM. That’s why customer experience, employee experience, and good organizational communication are all connected and vital for business success.
Every organization faces specific barriers, but here are the most common ones found in organizations:
Generalizing Messages to Various Target Audience
Lack of personalization is one of the most common barriers to effective communication in organizations. When employees get messages that are not relevant to their job roles or not of their interest, which happens if leaders generalize messages to different target audiences, they are more likely to ignore future communication.Lack of Clear Strategy
Communication won’t be effective if it lacks strategic direction. Without a clear strategy, the organization doesn’t have identifiable business objectives. This negatively influences employees’ attitudes and sense of purpose in the organization. For them, the organization would have an uncertain future which may feel threatening to them.Lack of Cultural Understanding
In multicultural teams and organizations, cultural awareness is vital. A person’s cultural background may affect the way they act and behave, especially when it comes to communication. That’s why it’s important to build cultural knowledge, withhold assumptions, and listen actively which includes paying attention to the words used, the context, and the way words are said.Wrong Message Type
Organizational communication won’t be effective unless the right type of message is chosen for every occasion. For example, a written message is not appropriate for resolving conflicts between employees.Poor Coordination
Lack of coordination within an organization can hinder the progress and success of any business. An example of poor coordination is when CEOs inform the press about a reduction in workforce before they announce it internally.Benefits of Clear Organizational Communication
Clear organizational communication ensures all organization members from entry-level staff to senior management, understand the organization’s goals and culture, and how it presents itself to clients and customers. In this working environment, the employees’ voice is encouraged and sought out using various communication channels.
Some of the benefits of effective communication across organizations include:
- Increased employee engagement, productivity, and creativity
- Higher quality of products and services
- Increased morale of employees and employee job satisfaction
- Increased levels of commitment and trust
- Improved workplace relationships
- Reduced staff turnover
- Higher acceptance of change
- Reduced costs
- Less industrial unrest
- Reduced absenteeism
What are the 3 Functions of Organizational Communication?
There are three basic functions of organizational communication. According to Study, they are to inform, motivate, and persuade.
1.To Inform
The concept of informing within a company or organization is to provide information, news, or data to employees so that they can know the role they play and do their jobs effectively.2.To Persuade
Communication has the ability to change the behavior or attitude of all stakeholders. Usually, persuasion is used effectively when the person who gives the information is a trusted figure. The ultimate goal is to persuade internal and external stakeholders to take the desired action.3.To Motivate/Engage
Organizational communication can improve employee motivation, happiness, loyalty, and their wellbeing and mental health. If employees are treated with respect and trust, they will be motivated, confident in their work, and more productive. Successful organizations know the importance of a highly engaged workforce, so they implement employee engagement strategies to help their organization run efficiently.The Importance of Employee Engagement in Organizational Communication
Employee engagement is essential for work satisfaction. Employees today want to be involved in their work, are committed to their coworkers, and enthusiastic about the organization they work for. Poor communication, however, can contribute to low engagement which directly affects the overall company success, Social Chorus explains. Business leaders should know and understand that engaged employees lead to increased productivity, long-term employee retention, and improved work quality.
Employee Engagement Strategies
Here are some of the most commonly used employee engagement strategies suggested by BuiltIn:Upholding Company’s Core Values
The core values of an organization need to be clearly explained to all employees from day one, and reinforced regularly. These values should describe the organization’s ideals and what’s important for every team so employees can feel a sense of belonging.Providing Opportunities for Growth
Most employees won’t bother to stay longer at work if they don’t feel the company truly invests in their career. Providing opportunities for growth can keep them engaged and having a clear goal can keep them motivated.Recognizing Top Performers
Feeling that their work is valuable to the organization and helping the organization achieve the overall business goals can keep employees engaged. Showing them that their efforts are recognized and appreciated is a small step to helping them feel valued.Promoting Transparency
Informing employees about important decisions that affect them can help them understand what’s happening behind the scenes and how the entire organization works. If they feel like they are intentionally not informed about some important event or news, they may lose confidence in leadership.Critical Areas of Need for Organizational Communication
Clear communication is vital for all aspects of businesses. However, here are three areas where organizational communication is especially important in today’s ever-changing business environment:
Organizations and companies that go through change need to pay attention to the things employees have to do differently to achieve overall success. There are many change-management theories, but they all focus on a single idea – that a change never happens in isolation. This means that one change affects the entire organization and all organization members. Good change management is required to encourage employees to adapt to the change and embrace the new ways of working. Change management communication is part of the change management strategy that informs stakeholders about the nature of the change, reasons for it, and the effect it will have on them. No matter the nature of the change, change management communication is crucial for helping all organization members move from where they are now to the preferred “future state”, Your Thought Partner explains.
Examples of Organizational Change
There are many forms of organizational change. Some of them are changing a company’s policies, strategy, structure, culture, procedures, or technology. The change can be forced on an organization or planned. Organizational change can be incremental and slow, or radical. No matter the type of change, they are all about adjusting to new ways of working.1. Internal Mobility as a Part of Change Management
Internal mobility is the process of employees moving across different roles within the company or organization they work for. Smart Recruiters describes it as the most efficient method to achieving organizational success. Organizations shouldn’t overlook promising talent within their company. They should identify potential talent, build trust with their employees, consistently discuss career goals with team members, and mentor them to achieve their goals. This is an intentional change of the way someone works by using employees’ talents for personal and organizational growth.2.Engagement
Effective organizational communication ensures a two-way flow of information which helps executives and managers communicate better with employees, resulting in strong employee engagement. Great employee engagement contributes to individual and organizational performance and productivity, increasing the chances for overall business success.3.Workforce Alignment
Workforce alignment ensures everyone within an organization is on the same page. In other words, it’s a process of ensuring that all members of the organization understand, support, and share the organization’s goals and vision by implementing effective communication strategies. Therefore, clear communication is imperative for successful workforce alignment.Conclusion
No organization can achieve success and business goals without effective organizational communication. Ensuring two-way communication between superiors and subordinates is a must in today’s business environment. Not only does effective communication create a positive working environment and satisfied employees, but it also increases productivity and efficiency, resulting in organizational success in many ways. Make organizational communication a focus in your business. Start making changes in your organization today. Not sure where to begin? Contact Ascend Communications at now!