5.2. The Objectives of Communication

Internal communications in a business between owners and managers, managers and other staff, and between office and shop floor workers, will have the following objectives:

To provide information on a whole range of matters from organisational goals, costs and performance to simple routine matters such as canteen opening times.

To give instructions on a host of tasks that will help the organisation function effectively and achieve objectives, such as how to organise production, how to design an advertising campaign, how to fill out order forms, etc.

To improve team work. Better communication between managers and workers can improve worker morale if they feel their opinions are being considered. Working in teams relies on effective communication between members to get work done.

To communicate how well individual workers have performed in their jobs either informally or formally via annual job appraisal reviews and to recommend appropriate training and career moves.

The objectives of external communications with other people and organisations will include:

1. Providing information, such as information on end of year profits to the Inland Revenue or accident statistics to the Health and Safety executive and so on.

2. Giving instructions, such as orders to suppliers, worker selection criteria to employment agencies, credit arrangements to banks and many more.

3. Confirming arrangements, for example, the date, time and venue for a meeting, or travel times and arrangements with transport operators.

4. Receiving feedback, both internally, for example from workers regarding new working methods, and externally, for example about consumers’ opinions of new products.

5.3. Verbal Communication

In general, communication can take two forms:

1. Verbal communication involves people talking either face-to-face or over a telephone or satellite link. It requires oral and listening skills.

2. Non-verbal communication refers to all other forms of communication which do not require speech. Information is written and transmitted either by hand or on a computer, and will usually be paper-based.

The easiest way to communicate is simply to talk to people. Today people can talk to each other all over the world using a telephone. However, verbal communication is often complemented by facial expressions – for example, frowning at another person’s suggestion – and by body language such as a shrug of the shoulders to suggest indifference. Non-verbal forms of communication such as pictures, graphs, and letters may also form the topic of verbal discussion. Therefore, to be truly effective, verbal communication requires both sound and vision.

Methods of verbal communication include:

Face-to-face communication. The most common method of verbal communication is a face-to-face meeting where people can see who they are talking to. Face-to-face communications include interviews, such as those held to appoint job applicants, and business meetings.

Typically, managers will use business meeting to set business objectives, monitor progress and business performance, discuss new ideas, plan for the future, discuss and make decisions. Well-run meetings usually require the following key ingredients:

• A strong chairperson who is able to keep people to the point and encourage everybody to have their say, yet at the same time prevent certain individuals from dominating.

• An agenda issued in advance of the meeting, with a clear list of topics for discussion.

• A group of people who are capable of keeping to the point and who are willing to listen to each other, make compromises, and reach a solution.

• A secretary who is able to take notes of points and matters arising from the meeting for future reference. These notes can be used to produce minutes of the meeting.

Cascading will often follow senior management meetings at which decisions have been made. This involves setting up a series of meetings between lower-level managers, supervisors, and operatives to pass on and discuss the senior managers’ business decisions and ideas, and how they will be put into effect.

Videophones. These allow users to see and hear each other by means of a built-in camera and small monitor in their telephone sets. Videophones are more expensive to buy than ordinary phones, but they use the same network, and call charges are the same. Business users are likely to find videophones useful because they allow users to make eye contact and to gauge body language, which is an important part of communications.

Videoconferencing. This is a service which allows groups of people in different places to be linked using sound and vision. Videoconferencing may be a quicker and cheaper way of achieving a face-to-face meeting than having people travel over long distances. Satellite links can be used to link people in different offices all over the world.

Telephones. Many firms, even quite small ones, operate an internal telephone system allowing staff all around the building to be in contact with each other. This kind of telecommunications system can speed up decision-making and so increase business efficiency.

Mobile phones. Many firms now issue mobile phones to staff who need to travel away from their offices. Cellular phones are portable handheld telephones which can communicate with other cell phones using special communications networks. These networks relay signals from a series of base stations located around the country.

5.4. Non-Verbal Communication

A large amount of communication is undertaken using non-verbal methods. These can include memos, minutes, reports, letters, bulletins, etc. These are used because it is simply not possible to tell everybody everything they need to know using verbal communication methods. Even if there were time to do this, staff are unlikely to remember everything and will need information written on paper to refer to later.

Paper-based communications have an important role in organisations. However, too much paperwork can result in heavy information flows and very poor communication if staff ‘switch off’ and do not bother to read it.