Improve Workplace Communication Skills

• Communication skills are essential for career success and are highly valued by employers across various job levels.
• On average, workers send and receive 178 messages daily through various channels like telephone, email, and face-to-face interactions.
• Business executives spend a significant portion of their time (75-80%) communicating, highlighting its importance.
• Poor communication can lead to errors and negative consequences, as shown by examples from the LAPD and the medical field.
• Top qualities employers seek include leadership, teamwork, and both written and verbal communication skills.
• The top 10 communication skills are: public speaking, nonverbal, verbal, interpersonal communication/relationships, how to give and receive feedback, teamwork, openness & transparency, listening, persuasion, and conflict management.
• Recognizing the importance of communication and continuously improving communication skills is vital for professional and organizational success.

Communication Principles

• Communication is unavoidable, even silence and absence.
• Communication is strategic, aimed at instrumental (task-related), relational (how people regard one another), and identity goals (presenting a desired image).
• It's irreversible, as words and deeds are remembered.
• It is a process that should be examined in its context, and it's not a panacea, meaning it won't solve all problems.

Basics of the Communication Model

• Sender transmits a message.
• Message is any signal triggering a response.
• Encoding is the sender's choice of words/nonverbal methods.
• Channel (medium) delivers the message.
• Receiver notices and attaches meaning to the message.
• Decoding is attaching meaning to the words or symbols and may not always be accurate.
• Feedback is the discernible response of a receiver to a sender's message.
• Noise interferes with message exchange and can be physical, physiological, or psychological.
• Context influences communication, including physical, social, chronological, and cultural dimensions.

Communication Channels

• Choose message delivery channels for effectiveness, considering the situation.

Channel Characteristics

• Richness is the amount of information sent via a channel (e.g., facial expressions, tone of voice). Rich channels help understanding.
• Speed refers to how quickly messages are exchanged such as Synchronous (high speed, instantaneous channels) and Asynchronous communication (lag between transmission and receipt).
• Control involves the degree to which one can manage the process: Written channels allow message control through editing, but lack guaranteed reception whereas Face-to-face allows control over the receiver's attention.

Delivery Considerations

• Oral communication is ideal for personal messages, those needing visual support, and when instant feedback is needed.
• Written communication is best for formal tones, complex ideas, final words without discussion, and when a record is required.
• Consider the organization's culture, as some prefer email while others use voicemail.
• Using multiple channels can increase message effectiveness.

Communicating in and Beyond Organizations

• People need a system for managing information flow to avoid confusion, called communication networks.
• These are regular patterns of person-to-person relationships.

Formal Communication Networks

• These are systems management designs and can dictate who should talk to whom.
• Organizational charts show authority relationships and communication flow.

Downward Communication

• Occurs when superiors send messages to subordinates
• Improves coordination, individual performance, morale, consumer relations, and industrial relations.
• Includes job instructions, job rationale, indoctrination, and feedback.
• "Clear communication between boss and worker" is most vital for job satisfaction.

Upward Communication

• Occurs when messages flow from subordinates to superiors.
• Can convey what subordinates are doing, unsolved work problems, suggestions for improvement, and feelings about the job/workplace.
• Managers should encourage upward communication by being willing to listen and valuing ideas.

Horizontal Communication

• Lateral communication is between members of equal power.
• Some cases, lateral communication is between people of different areas: Accounting calling maintenance.
• This serves purposes, such as task coordination, problem-solving, information sharing, conflict resolution, and building rapport.
• Forces like rivalry, specialization, information overload, and lack of motivation can discourage communication between peers.

Informal Communication Networks

• Alongside formal networks exists informal communication networks ("the grapevine"), pattersn based on friendships, shared personal/career interests, and proximity among workers.
• Informal networks serve useful functions, such as confirming/expanding/expediting formal messages, contradicting official messages, and circumventing formal channels.

Personal Networking

• Networking is deliberately meeting people and maintaining contacts for career information, advice, leads, and helping others.
• Tips for creating personal networks: View everyone as a networking, be sensitive to personal and cultural factors, treat contacts with gratitude and respect, help others, and get referrals to secondary sources.

Ethical Dimensions of Communication

• These can help communicators decide how to act ethically:

Guidelines

• Utilitarian Approach: Does the action provide the greatest good for the greatest number?
• Rights Approach: Does the action respect everyone's moral rights (truth, privacy, noninjury)?
• Fairness/Justice Approach: Is the action fair and free of discrimination/favoritism?
• Common Good Approach: Does the action further the common/community good?
• Virtue Approach: Does the action promote the development of moral virtue?
• Professional Ethic Approach: How would impartial peers judge the action?
• Publicity Test Approach: Would one be comfortable with the public learning about their behavior?