QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION

Quality Of Communication

Quality Of Communication

A good communication system must be in place for the team concept to work. Open, honest and detailed communication is critical and it must take place on both the interpersonal and professional levels. In addition to a regular information exchange about daily tasks, the interpersonal communication between team members is very important. It creates the core from which mutual support and trust grow. The development in the beginning may be slow, difficult and frustrating, but the rewards will be cooperation, prevention of misunderstanding, and maintenance of equilibrium between members. Communication in a group is paramount to meeting the objectives of any team.

Project Managers use meetings as a way of communicating with the project team and the executive steering committee members of the project at hand. Communication offers positive effects because members feel they are able to express their ideas freely, are kept informed of relevant issues and able to respond without being judged. Communication is an essential part in the development of a workgroup. The types of communication structure determine leadership, roles and status within the group, group morale and cohesiveness, and it limits or enhanced productivity. Different types of communication are needed for different tasks (Hammond Kleiner 2002). If a group's goal is relatively simple, a centralized communication network in which interaction between members is limited tends to increase effectiveness.

In a more complex environment, with a focus on problem solving, a decentralized communication network would be more appropriate. The choice of a communication network might be more effective if decision-making strategies are outlined in advance and if the urge to stabilize the structure too early is resisted, as there is considerable resistance to change once these structures are established. Awareness of these issues is usually low and it is one of the tasks of the group leader or facilitator to bring them to the attention of the group. Communication standards, as well as performance, are raised if the group has clear performance- oriented goals, an appropriate task strategy to accomplish those goals, and a clear set of established rules in order to tolerate inter-member conflicts and to promote feedback to ensure that information is properly interpreted and understood. 

Effective Communication at Work

Effective communication is an essential component of organizational success whether it is at the interpersonal, intergroup, organizational, or external levels. Although all of us have been communicating with others since our infancy, the process of transmitting information from an individual or group to another is a very complex process with many sources of potential error (Salomon and Schork 2003). There are a wide number of sources of noise or interference that can enter into the communication process. This can occur when people know each other very well and should understand the sources of error. In a work setting, it is even more common since interactions involve people who not only do not have years of experience with each other, but communication is complicated by the complex and often conflicting relationships that exist at ...