Communication in the management

Managerial communication is the activity that supports managers in their interactions with one another and with workers inside their businesses. Transferring information from one person to another requires effective communication. Through managerial communication, efficient information exchange between managers and employees is ensured, with the aim of ensuring that everyone is working towards a common objective (Baack, 2012). Organizational communication and interpersonal communication are the two main types of managerial communication. Additionally, there are other means for managerial communication to take place, including written, nonverbal, and spoken. All of these are significant in business contexts and compliment one another. This essay discusses the various corporate contexts in which managerial communication is used.
Effective Communication norms in a business setting

Communication in business settings differs from the ordinary communication in that it entails complex set of unwritten rules that govern speech, written correspondence as well as body language that varies in different cultures around the world. It is important for all the parties communicating in a business setting to have an understanding of the norms that govern their interaction. One important norm when communicating in a business context is conciseness of the message. Business people normally work with limited time, and it is therefore important to get the point across quickly. Effective communication thus entails the use of concise and straightforward language ensuring the message pass across completely and in a way that encourages efficient action. Another important component of an effective business communication is the completeness of the message (Mind Tools n.d.). To be able to ensure complete communication, one needs to plan carefully to ensure adequate information passes to the recipient first time because leaving a critical message can lead to a series of irreparable problems. Further, active listening is a crucial part of effective business communication. Through listening, one not only shows respect to the person they are conversing with but also get a chance to understand their perspective. It is also a norm in business communication to respond promptly. Responding to all stakeholders timely including employees, suppliers or prospective customers is important enables one to build the much-required reputation. When conducting business communication, it is important to put the audience at ease or to be considerate. It is therefore important to open the conversation to question and clarifications. Good business communicators make a norm to provide a moment for the other person to ask a question or seek clarification after finishing a statement before they can proceed to another point. Lastly, confidence is a crucial component in an effective business communication in that it adds credibility to the message being presented. Effective business communicators present their data in clear and commanding tone that shows a high level of knowledge of their subject.

Role of interpersonal communication both as a manager and as an employee

Interpersonal communication is very important both to the managers and employees. It refers the process of transmission of information and common understanding from a person to another. Organizations cannot achieve their goals and objectives without having effective interpersonal communication. For managers, interpersonal communication serves as a bond that links them to their employees and is a crucial component of their relationships. Not only do managers utilize interpersonal communication to pass orders and instruction to the employees but also use the same channel to coach, teach and mentor the employees. The managers further utilized the interpersonal communication to counsel the employees as appropriate and foster professional friendship (Mishra, Boynton, & Mishra, 2014). The organization effectiveness and efficiency increases when employees are coached on their roles and responsibilities. Employees also need interpersonal communication skills since they work in teams amongst themselves. In these teams, they interact to come up with solutions for organizational issues. An employee may be appointed to lead such a team, and with interpersonal skills, one is able to steer the team to the achievement of success. Employees also through interpersonal communication are able to suggest ideas to their managers which can be used in improving the workplace. Hierarchical barriers may sometimes affect the interpersonal communication, and the solution to this is reducing chains of commands.

Overcoming Barriers to communication

Barriers to communication result from different reasons including lack of appropriate communication skills, lack of adequate knowledge on the subject, emotional turbulence, language barrier, hierarchical barriers among others. To communicate effectively, it is important that one finds a way of overcoming these barriers as they prevent effective communication from occurring. One way of overcoming the barriers has clarity in once thoughts. One needs to be clear about their objective and what they intend to convey. It is important to arrange once thoughts in proper order and then communicate as appropriately. Systematic communication with clarity in thought ensures the message is appropriately receive and acted upon if the need be. Another important way of overcoming communication barriers is knowing and understanding the needs of the audience (Weber & Friedman, 2000). It is critical for the communicator to be emotional and sensitive towards the needs of the recipients of their message. Therefore, it is important to have an understanding of their behavior, nature, culture, as well as religion. The message should then be structured in their context to avoid unnecessary biases. For instance, when talking to a person without adequate knowledge of technical jargons, one should not use them. Another method of avoiding barrier to communication is through seeking the advice of others before embarking on a communication process. One should seek the advice of people who have been in such a communication context to understand how to structure one’s message. Another way overcome communication barriers retention of consistency about the message throughout the communication process. The message being passed across the need to be in tandem with the organizational goals and policies.

Role of international and intercultural interpersonal communications in today’s global business

Interpersonal communication is not only applicable to the internal setting of the organization but extends even beyond international borders. Over the past few decades, multinational corporations operating globally have become an ordinary phenomenon. One important consideration in international communication is the cultural component. Culture encompasses beliefs, attitudes, and values shared by a group of people. In addition to influencing the clothes the member of the group wear, the movies they watch, and the food they eat, it affects their expectations from the communication standpoint. For instance, in some cultures, when male members of the community are taking the female have to keep quite. Therefore, a good communicator needs to orient himself or herself with the culture of the audience to be able to communicate without unnecessary barriers. Organizations need to invest in training of their employees towards building strong business relationship internationally through appropriate intercultural communication. Normally, specific managers are trained in intercultural communications, and they help their organization in undertaking business in the international context such as negotiating with global suppliers and engaging in interpersonal communications with the customers (Bovee, Thill, & Raina, 2016). It is important for intercultural communicators to avoid barriers such as ethnocentrism where one views their culture as superior to others. Such a perception can lead to intolerance and increased difference with partners. In the contemporary world business and industries are no longer local or regional as they have to cross boarders and cut across cultures. Intercultural communication thus serves to the role of ensuring smooth flow of information between people from different cultures around the world.

Verbal and nonverbal management communication

Despite the popular believe that verbal communication is more relevant than the non-verbal one, this may not be the case. Verbal communication might be more common, but both of these communications types are important in the business setting. Verbal communication entails spoken words. Some of the components of this form of communication are presentation, meeting, conferences as well as face to face interaction between different parties. Further, phone calls to text messages as well as electronic mails forms components of verbal communication. On its end, non-verbal communication entails constituents such as facial expressions, body language, hand gestures and other cues. In one-on-one communication setting, it is possible for both verbal and non-verbal communication. “Verbal communication in person offers the richest communication channel, because information transfers in the forms of verbal cues, facial expressions, bodily movements, appearance, the use of space, the use of time, physical contact, and the potential to supplement messages with other media, such as written notes, symbolic items, and electronic media” (Baack, 2012). In intercultural setting, it is critical to be sensitive when using non-verbal communications because different meanings can be inferred by different people. For instance, in some cultures, hand gestures, some facial expression, and fidgeting may be taken as meant to offend the other party. It is therefore crucial for employees working in a global setting to be trained on both verbal and non-verbal communication. Even when communicating locally, non-verbal communication is important as it help communicators in putting emphasize to their message.

Approaches for effective written management communication

The engagement of the audience regarding a presentation as well as encouraging active following of the information is the most important responsibility to ensure that what is written is valuable. It is necessary to note that the written communication is very significant regarding business management despite being not referred when the term communication is used. Written communication in the management involves components such as memos, applications, letters, contracts as well as reports (DeVito, 2015). Some of the most commonly utilized written communication includes memorandums, policy letters in the business, and job application letters. All the workers at various levels of an organization ought to have the three mentioned communications throughout the company.

The written type of communication is mostly applicable when the management writes to the workers or employees and; therefore is very simple and straightforward. For example, when there is a new strategy that is chosen by the organization, the management drafts a written communication policy document, signs it, and distributes it to all the stakeholders in the group. Moreover, it has to be noted that the hierarchical process assists in such a widespread distribution of the required information or messages regarding the company policies.







Approaches for engaging an audience during presentation and encouraging active listening

For a speaker to deliver efficiently the information that he intends it is essential that he engages the audience and encourage their participation. Therefore, it is crucial that the public speaker follows through a six-step process that will enhance the quality of their presentation. In a consecutive order, the procedure should include, formulating a strategy, learning about the audience, anticipating potential hindrances that may hinder effective communication, preparing the presentation materials, anticipating the likely questions that the audience may pose, and adequate practice before the presentation (Trenholm, 2017). It is essential that the presenter dedicates sufficient time to efficiently perform each of the steps that will help to build his confidence and encourage people to listen to him effectively.

At the onset of the presentation, it is critical that the presenter speaks audibly and passionately that will make the audience to pay attention to what he is communicating. Moreover, it is appropriate, to begin with a joke, which will make the audience laugh and perceive the speaker as engaging thus will be inclined to listen to them. Furthermore, a humorous comment is likely to assist the audience to relax. In addition, it is imperative that the speaker maintains eye contact with the audience that will influence it to pay attention to the presenter. Consequently, it is advisable that the speaker should not glance at the presentation aids such as the PowerPoint presentations since this will create the impression that the speaker has not mastered the information that he is presenting. The reader should also permit the audience the chance to ask questions that will enhance their comprehension of the information thus will be likely to listen actively.



Effective methods of Conflict resolution

In the premises of communication, conflicts occur out of disagreement which are most times unavoidable. It normally results from having different viewpoints between the communicating parties. Various methods are normally employed in solving a conflict in the business setting. The first method used is the negotiation where the two groups that are having differences sit down and come up with a solution to their issues. The negotiation method is effective because as much as one tries to get what they want and that which favors them they also focus on the desire of the other opponent. The method is usually informal and can be performed from anywhere, and it also does not look into formal procedures. The two parties can decide to solve it on their own or to get a third party that will assist them in solving the conflict. The second method that can be used in conflict resolution is the mediation method. In this method, a third party is involved who should remain objective and impartial (Cheeseman, & Garvey, 2014). The mediator engages the parties to the dispute until an agreement is reached. It should be noted that the mediator does not take part in decision making. He or she is only responsible for ensuring that an agreement is reached.

The third conflict resolution method is through arbitration. In this, there is the arbitrator to whom the dispute is taken to and is allowed to listen to both sides. Each party is allowed to give their explanation of the situation as the arbitrator takes notes. He or she then come up with a binding decision for the parties to the dispute being adjudicated upon. The method is applicable if the parties are volunteering and it is usually confidential. Finally, there is the litigation method where the dispute is forwarded to the court. This method is more formal as compared to the rest of the methods. It follows a given procedure where each party has to present their case before a judge or a magistrate (Cheeseman, & Garvey, 2014). The decision is made by the judge after listening to both sides. This method can work especially when one side is not satisfied by the mediation or arbitration.

Techniques for leading teams and group meetings

One of the most daunting tasks for managers is leading a group or team. Managing a team entails bringing together different people with different perspective and worldviews and trying to think collectively. Leading a team requires different techniques to ensure it meets the desired goals with minimal conflicts. One technique of ensuring teams and group meetings run well is the identification of roles. The team leader needs to ensure that every team member has his or her role indicated. The purpose of this is to ensure time wasting and conflicts among the team members are minimized. Further effective management of teams and group meeting entails having the agenda for each meeting sometime before it is held. The agenda should be shared with all the members of the team to ensure they are well versed with the issues during the actual meeting or discussions. Another technique is ensuring the meeting is engaging where all members of the team have an opportunity to present their opinions (Levi, 2015). Scheduling of meeting needs to be done promptly to provide members with adequate planning time. Employees maybe in more than one project teams and thus providing adequate time ensure no team member is scheduled for two group meetings at the same time. Further, leading teams and group meetings entails having set rules and regulations that should be binding to all the members of the team. For instance, it needs to be clear the actions to be taken to a team member who come later or those who fail to attend a specified number of meeting. The purpose of rules is to ensure meetings run smoothly and the team is able to achieve the goals set when the team was formed.



Conclusion

From the preceding, various aspects of managerial communications is applied in different settings. A number of written and unwritten norms govern communication in business settings. For instance, concise message, straightforward language, and completeness of the message are examples of norms for communication in a business setting. Interpersonal communication applies both for managers and employees. Managers through interpersonal communication train, coach and mentor their employees while employees on their part use interpersonal communication amongst themselves especially in teams. Various methods are used to overcome communication barriers which are common during communication processes. Communication is also conducted outside the organization. In the contemporary modernized world, organization has to communicate with people from different countries and culture and thus the need for international and intercultural; communication. Conflicts that arise during communication are solved using various ways including negotiation, mediation, and arbitration.

















References

Baack, D. (2012). Management communication [Electronic version]. Retrieved from https://ashford.content.edu

Bovee, C. L., Thill, J. V., & Raina, R. L. (2016). Business communication today. Pearson Education India.

Cheeseman, H. R., & Garvey, J. R. (2014). Business law. Pearson.

DeVito, J. A. (2015). The interpersonal communication book. Pearson.

Levi, D. (2015). Group dynamics for teams. Sage Publications.

Mind Tools. (n.d.). How good are your communication skills? (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newCS_99.htm

Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving employee engagement: The expanded role of internal communications. International Journal of Business Communication, 51(2), 183-202.

Trenholm, S. (2017). Thinking through communication: An introduction to the study of human communication. Routledge.

Weber, A. S. & Friedman, G. (2000). Barriers to communication (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.[Video file]. Retrieved from https://fod.infobase.com/OnDemandEmbed.aspx?Token=10886&aid=18596&Plt=FOD&loid=9174&w=640&h=480&ref