Empathize with others: put yourself in the shoes of your listeners. This way you're more likely to see things from their perspective. Then you can choose the proper channel and the right words to transfer your message (cfr. infra).
Use multiple channels: this increases clarity because (1) it stimulates different senses and (2) it takes into account that people have different abilities to absorb communication.
Match your words and actions: actions speak louder than words. When nonverbal messages contradict official messages as conveyed in formal communications, people become confused and the official message loses its focus.
Tailor the message to the audience: different people in the organization have different information needs. Individuals in organizations vary in the type of information they need to know, their preferred channel for receiving the information, and their understanding of language, so you should take this into account and tailor your message to your audience.
Remember the value of face-to-face communication when dealing with change: as we shall see immediately, some channels are more rich than others. Especially in times of uncertainty, it is appropriate to use a rich channel to convey ambiguous and nonroutine messages.
Channels: understand that some channels have different effects on different audiences.
To conclude, I want to give some additional information to these last two. As a manager in the 21st century, you can make use of a wide variety of communication methods thanks to the rapid progression in information technology. These include: face-to-face, telephone, group meetings, formal presentations, memos, traditional mail, employee publications, bulletin boards, audio and videotapes, hot lines, electronic mail, computer conferencing, voice-mail, teleconferences, and videoconferences. As a manager, it is of crucial importance that you select the appropriate method/channel to communicate a specific message. Recent research has found that channels differ in their capacity to convey information. Some are rich in that they have the ability to (1) handle multiple cues simultaneously, (2) facilitate rapid feedback, and (3) be very personal. Attachment 2 shows us the hierarchy of channel richness. The rule to choose one channel above another depends then on the fact of whether the message is routine or nonroutine. For example firing a person by sending him/her an e-mail isn't quite effective. Instead, sending an e-mail to let him know that he/she's invited for a personnel party this Saturday do is so.
As a conclusion we can say that effective communication is of extreme importance if you want to be an effective manager. However, this doesn't mean that good communication skills alone make succesfull managers. We do can say that нf the suggestions made here to communicate effective are applied in a correct manner, then a lot of problems for a manager can be avoided and surely the company as a whole will benefit from this.
2.7. Decveloping Trust inside the organization
Ethics and values have always been an important part of business, but they are now looked at more closely as there have been many instances where they were not adequately defined. According to Szwajkowksi in “The Myths and Realities of Research on Organizational Misconduct”, managerial ethics are “principles that guide the decisions and behaviors of managers with regard to whether they are right or wrong in a moral sense.” Szwajkowski, Eugene W. “The Myths and Realities of Research on Organizational Because not every manager and individual follows the same principles, ethical dilemmas occur. It is crucial for a manager to first develop a list of core values for himself in order to be consistent in his business practices. As a manager handles each situation with these values, trust is built.
It is difficult to decide which values a manager should pay more attention to. According to Stephen Robbins's in “The Essentials of Organizational Behavior” trust is defined as a “positive expectation that another will not - through words, actions or decision -- act opportunistically”. Robbins, Stephen P. Essentials of Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002. He goes on to present that trust is multi-dimensional and therefore encompasses a vast range of values within it. The Five Dimensions of trust that he mentions are as follows:
· Integrity: honesty and truthfulness
· Competence: Technical and interpersonal knowledge and skills
· Consistency: Reliability, predictability, and good judgement
· Loyalty; Willingness to protect and save face for a person
· Openness: Willingness to share ideas and information freely Robbins, Stephen P. Essentials of Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002
By developing each of these qualities, a manager will encourage a trustworthy environment in his relationships with his employees as well as his superiors.
As Robbins suggests, trust is something that we expect as the outcome from a person through our experiences with them. Over time, we get a sense of how that person behaves and acts accordingly to our behavior. Trust is a rather sensitive issue to most people and requires that managers act appropriately to gain the trust needed to lead effectively. It is dangerous to lose trust of an employee as they may not respect your judgment without it.
Managers who want to engage in trustworthy relationships with their workers, according to Robbins's guidelines, must follow certain practices that show integrity, competence and consistency. Robbins, Stephen P. Essentials of Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2002 Without these three characteristics, all aspect of trust becomes meaningless. The normal day to day actions of a manager affect the level of trust that each employee will have in him/her.
Managers of different levels and cultures prioritize trust differently. This is evident when evaluating how managerial decisions can build trust through the Managerial Linkage System. In “Managerial Leadership at Twelve O'Clock” Charles Kerns, describes that on one end of the managerial scale is an untrustworthy manager who accomplishes his goals with lies and deception to obtain the numbers. On the other end of the scale is a manager who uses the trust of his workers to accomplish the same numbers. It is clear that the untrusting manager is taking a shortcut through the managerial system from 12-9 and the trusting manager has taken the time and effort to move along from 12-3-6-9 as shown in the figure below. Kerns, Charles D. PhD, MBA. “Managerial Leadership at 12 o'clock.” Graziadio Business Report. Summer 2002.
The untrusting manager's shortcut disregards the concerns of the workers and in turn ignores the quality of output to the customers. This will effect worker retention times and create poor customer satisfaction. Though this manager may achieve sales targets the first time around it will not last. The second time through the cycle the results will begin to drop off due to poor management and a lack of trust. Conversely, the trusting manager gains the trust of the workers and forms a great relationship with them. Worker retention is much longer and they tend to do a much better job caring for the customers. With happier customers will come the increased sales. The second time around the cycle, the trustworthy manager will have an easier time achieving the same or improved sales. The Managerial Linkage System demonstrates that having employee trust will cause business performance to increase.
3. Can we learn how to become an effective manager?
Last decades, many visions thought that we could learn how to become an effective manager. We could refer to the success of many institutions where MBA programs are offered. Many young high intelligent business men are taught how to become successful. Nevertheless the success of these business schools, there is a lack of correlation between scholastic standing and the success in business. Clearly, what a student learns about management in graduate school, does not equip him to build a successful career in business.
For Livingstone S. (1971) the reason for this failure could be found in the fact that Myth of the well-educated manager, By:Livingstone S;, 1971,, Harvard Business Review p.82.:”they don't learn from their formal education what they need to know to perform their job effectively. The tasks that are the most important in getting results usually are left to be learned on the job, where few managers ever master them simply because no one teaches them how.”
Formal management education programs typically emphasize the development of skills which enables the future manager to solve problems and to make decisions (`respondent behaviour). But little attention is given to the development of skills required to find the problems that need to be solved (`operant behaviour'). Furthermore, the problem solving in the classroom is seen as an entirely rational process, while in reality human emotions make it hard to deal with the problems objectively.
As the research of Norman H. Mackworth revealed Originality, By: Mackworth N.H., 1969, , in The Discovery of Talent p.242., the distinction between the problem-solver and the problem-finder s vital. He concluded that managers not only should be able to analyze data of financial statements or other written reports, but even more important they should be able to scan the business environment for less concrete clues that a problem exist. These perceptual skills are extremely difficult to develop in the classroom and must be developed on the job.
We should ask our self the question: Are there people who have more managerial skills than others, because they are able to learn from their experience what they need to know to manage effectively. Livingstone S (1971) found three characteristics of men who learned to manage effectively.
· Need to manage: to be able to manage effectively, you should have a strong desire and satisfaction to influence the performance of others. Many of those who aspires high- level positions are driven by the expectations of high salaries or high status, but are not motivated to get effective results through others. Those managers don't learn how to develop an effective managerial career, because there is a lack of willingness to manage. They are not able to devote enough time and energy to find a suitable way to manage. So the need to manage is a crucial factor in determining whether a person will learn and apply in practice what is necessary to get effective results on the job. For example, managers who are outstanding individual performers, but with a lack to motivate others or to delegate tasks to subordinates, rarely advance far up the organizational hierarchy because they will be blocked by low performances of a large number of subordinates.
· Need for power: Since managers are primarily concerned with directing and influencing subordinates, they should be characterized by a high need for power. We could refer to the above chapter about leadership and power.
· Capacity for empathy: The capacity for empathy is ”the ability to cope with the emotional reactions that inevitably occur when people work together in an organization” (Livingstone S. 1971). Managers who are perfectly capable to learn from their job experience, or who are able to apply management techniques successfully, often fail because their affinity with others is entirely intellectual or cognitive. They are emotionally blind. They are not capable to deal with the emotional reactions that are crucial in gaining the willing cooperation of subordinates. It is very difficult to teach people how to cope with human emotions.
So we could conclude that there should be a combination of inborn characteristics and acquired knowledge and experience to become an effective manager. There are people wit a higher needs for managing and power and having a bigger capacity for empathy than others. But these features are no guarantee for success. They should be combined with technical and conceptual skills acquired during management education and job experience.
But the effective manger is one, who is able to adapt his personality, skills, knowledge and relationships in such a way that it fits the demands of their specific situation.
4. Decoding: retranslating a sender's message. Difficulties may occur here, especially in intercultural communication.
5. Feedback: returns the message to the sender and provides a check on whether understanding has been achieved.
Attachment 2 Robbins, Stephen P. (2001). Organizational Behavior. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, p. 295
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