THE ESSENCE OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Can you imagine how life is going to be, if there is no standard and accepted forms of communication? The immediate situation that I can visualize is the chaotic event of ordinary life. People will eventually see what others are doing are for their mutual benefit. Everything seems to be for individual interest only. Most of the time people engage in surface acting behavior and there is a tendency of social loafing in group activities. In short, people actually don’t care on good interpersonal communication. In addition to that, there is an absence of the quality of work life found in any organization. Off course, nobody wants this scenario to happen in his or her life.
In order to improve the quality of work life, we need to understand and establish proper communication process. The communication process involves steps between a source and a receiver that result in the transference and understanding of meaning. The sender initiates message by encoding it through the right channel. The receiver, then, will encode the message. The message which is understood by the receiver will be given a feedback. Meanwhile, the message which is not relevant, unwanted or overflow will only become noise. The basic foundation of communication is when we speak, the speech is the message, when we write, the writing is the message, and when we gesture, the body movements and facial expressions are the message.
Communication plays an important roles in any event. In my Organizational Behavior class, I shared some interesting activities with the students. I had asked Ali, Sumping, Ricky and Junior to communicate with their audiences in the following activities;
Activity A :Ali – A Fireman asking crowds not to be close to the fire affected area (knowing
that most of them are the owners, families, or relatives of the victim families).
Activity B : Sumping – A teacher instructs students to quickly stand in-line at the morning
assembly gathering in the school open space/compound (knowing that the sky is dark up
there).
Activity C :Ricky – A saleman promoting a home product to the lady house owner (knowing
that the owner already has the similar product/competing product).
Activity D :Junior – A doctor gives a last advise to his patience before entering the operation
room.
Those activities were successfully done by the students, but off course with lack of some effective communication skills... well this was because they were not serious in their acts. They however proved the fact that intonation, body movement and facial expression as the elements of nonverbal communication should be correctly applied with the oral communication. Another important point that can be used in activity C for example is a written communication mentioning about the product advantages.
Culture barriers are also important thing to ponder in a discussion on effective communication. Different cultures have different meanings on the languages and nonverbal acts. The term, politically correct communication, means that certain words do stereotype, intimidate and insult. An example is to choose what is the correct usage of the words, senior citizen and veteran in a particular country? Remember also that when we eliminate words because they are politically incorrect, we actually reduce our options for conveying messages in the clearest and most accurate form.
In any organization, grapevine is another most common medium of communication. It can be defined as rumour. It is perceived as being more reliable than formal communication. There are three characteristics of grapevine. First, it is informal and not being controlled by management. Second, it is perceived by most employees as being more believable and reliable that formal communications. Third, it is largely used to serve the self-interest of those who use it. Employees has to be careful with grapevine as it also creates ambiguous situation and anxiety. Nonetheless, for the management it serves as an insightful information.
The latest and massive use of networking software such as Facebook has uplift medium of communication into greater height. People everywhere are connected instantly and frequently. However, this is not the formal communication tool. The use of e-mail has become the formal medium of communication that are being used routinely by most organization especially in government organizations. Yet there are benefits and drawbacks of e-mail.
E-mail messages can be quickly written, edited, and stored. They can be distributed to one person or thousands with a click of a mouse. They can be read, in their entirety, at the convenience of the recipient. And the cost of sending formal e-mail messages to employees is a fraction of what it would cost to print, duplicate, and distribute a comparable letter or brochure. Information overload is a drawback. It’s not unusual for employees to get a hundred or more e-mails a day. Reading, absorbing, and responding to such an inflow can literally consume an employee’s entire day. In essence, e-mail’s ease of use has become its biggest negative. Employees are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish important e-mails from junk mail and irrelevant messages. Another drawback of e-mails is that they lack emotional content. The nonverbal cues don’t come across in e-mail. They can be cold and impersonal. As such, it’s not the ideal means to convey information like layoffs, plant closings, or other messages that might evoke emotional responses and require empathy or social support.
Communication acts as light in a dark room. Perhaps, for normal human being, it can also be considered as an air. Life will not be interesting without the presence of communication. Thus, we have to appreciate it by really communicating well and effectively… good luck!
by Jakaria Dasan
School of Business and Economics
Universiti Malaysia Sabah
In order to improve the quality of work life, we need to understand and establish proper communication process. The communication process involves steps between a source and a receiver that result in the transference and understanding of meaning. The sender initiates message by encoding it through the right channel. The receiver, then, will encode the message. The message which is understood by the receiver will be given a feedback. Meanwhile, the message which is not relevant, unwanted or overflow will only become noise. The basic foundation of communication is when we speak, the speech is the message, when we write, the writing is the message, and when we gesture, the body movements and facial expressions are the message.
Communication plays an important roles in any event. In my Organizational Behavior class, I shared some interesting activities with the students. I had asked Ali, Sumping, Ricky and Junior to communicate with their audiences in the following activities;
Activity A :Ali – A Fireman asking crowds not to be close to the fire affected area (knowing
that most of them are the owners, families, or relatives of the victim families).
Activity B : Sumping – A teacher instructs students to quickly stand in-line at the morning
assembly gathering in the school open space/compound (knowing that the sky is dark up
there).
Activity C :Ricky – A saleman promoting a home product to the lady house owner (knowing
that the owner already has the similar product/competing product).
Activity D :Junior – A doctor gives a last advise to his patience before entering the operation
room.
Those activities were successfully done by the students, but off course with lack of some effective communication skills... well this was because they were not serious in their acts. They however proved the fact that intonation, body movement and facial expression as the elements of nonverbal communication should be correctly applied with the oral communication. Another important point that can be used in activity C for example is a written communication mentioning about the product advantages.
Culture barriers are also important thing to ponder in a discussion on effective communication. Different cultures have different meanings on the languages and nonverbal acts. The term, politically correct communication, means that certain words do stereotype, intimidate and insult. An example is to choose what is the correct usage of the words, senior citizen and veteran in a particular country? Remember also that when we eliminate words because they are politically incorrect, we actually reduce our options for conveying messages in the clearest and most accurate form.
In any organization, grapevine is another most common medium of communication. It can be defined as rumour. It is perceived as being more reliable than formal communication. There are three characteristics of grapevine. First, it is informal and not being controlled by management. Second, it is perceived by most employees as being more believable and reliable that formal communications. Third, it is largely used to serve the self-interest of those who use it. Employees has to be careful with grapevine as it also creates ambiguous situation and anxiety. Nonetheless, for the management it serves as an insightful information.
The latest and massive use of networking software such as Facebook has uplift medium of communication into greater height. People everywhere are connected instantly and frequently. However, this is not the formal communication tool. The use of e-mail has become the formal medium of communication that are being used routinely by most organization especially in government organizations. Yet there are benefits and drawbacks of e-mail.
E-mail messages can be quickly written, edited, and stored. They can be distributed to one person or thousands with a click of a mouse. They can be read, in their entirety, at the convenience of the recipient. And the cost of sending formal e-mail messages to employees is a fraction of what it would cost to print, duplicate, and distribute a comparable letter or brochure. Information overload is a drawback. It’s not unusual for employees to get a hundred or more e-mails a day. Reading, absorbing, and responding to such an inflow can literally consume an employee’s entire day. In essence, e-mail’s ease of use has become its biggest negative. Employees are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish important e-mails from junk mail and irrelevant messages. Another drawback of e-mails is that they lack emotional content. The nonverbal cues don’t come across in e-mail. They can be cold and impersonal. As such, it’s not the ideal means to convey information like layoffs, plant closings, or other messages that might evoke emotional responses and require empathy or social support.
Communication acts as light in a dark room. Perhaps, for normal human being, it can also be considered as an air. Life will not be interesting without the presence of communication. Thus, we have to appreciate it by really communicating well and effectively… good luck!
by Jakaria Dasan
School of Business and Economics
Universiti Malaysia Sabah
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