Communicating Persuasive messages

The preceding article defines the various modes of correspondence and communication mediums in a business organization. It emphasizes the importance of good collaboration from the top all the way down to ensure company growth and efficiency. It goes on to detail the critical communication elements that enable the communication process to be completed. It also explores the vital role of the downward interface and how it relates to the job satisfaction of the employees, the commitment of the organization towards its employees and how likely it is to affect the employees leaving the organization.

The article also focuses to analyze the various cultural factors that may affect communication in the business setting. The norms, practices, attitude, beliefs, and values of the employees and managerial staff towards work are some of the cultural factors identified in this article as dependents of the way communication flows and its interpretation. It suggests the need for change in some cultural aspects and promotion of a universal and positive organizational culture so that the effect of communication is felt equally and the desired results are easily achieved. It stresses on the importance of clarity in messages, precise instructions and encouraging feedback from the top leadership, as well as using some communication mediums to their employees, so that feel motivated, they will be more committed to their work and will not contemplate leaving the organization.

According to the article, the internal activities of communication in a business entity determine the way how the entity achieves its set goals and objectives. All forms of communication be it downward, horizontal or upward are determinants of an organization’s effectiveness. The managers and the employees have a symbiotic relationship in that they need each other to survive and become productive. Thus, there should be enough flow of information regarding all departments to keep everyone informed. The employees have ideas that they can offer to the management to improve on a particular product or service while the manager may provide counsel or other forms of assistance which is not a material gain and goes a long way in improving the performance of an organization (Ferrell and John 42)

It also identifies the causes of the problem in an organization when the top leadership lacks the practical communication skills and has inadequate communication. Most of the agencies give more priority to technological advancements and competencies and overlooks the critical role of communication. Through communication, the managers need to act like responsible leaders and get to understand the needs of their employees, and how to address them, which has not been the case in many organizations. Most of the managers are never trained on the practical strategies of communications, their relations with the subordinates become difficult. Instead of communicating clearly, they leave them more confused, and they feel misunderstood especially in matters relating to their execution of duties and their expectations. The managers at times fail to communicate to their employees deliberately, because of looking down at the employees and devaluing them. This should not be the case because everyone in the organization plays an important role to ensure its progress.

The article also focuses on how the top leadership seems to exercise their authority through the information power. The managers use the several sources of power, such as the control of information and knowledge, controlling of the scarce resources, their formal authority, and the managing of the decision-making processes among others so that they can apply their power and influence over the employees. They at times tend to withhold information and disburse it when they deem it necessary for the employees to get hold of it, thus using it as a source of power. By doing this, the employees are left powerless in that they cannot offer their input and lowers their motivation and the commitment to work.

With the little information they get , they struggle to execute their duties, and as a result, the effectiveness of the organization dwindles. Therefore, the emphasis is put on ensuring that managers are timely in providing access to quality information regarding the competitive items, and finances among others that will improve the performance of an organization. Organizations ought to invest and make use of communication and technology to ensure everyone in the organization has access to the required information.

Also, the article points out the out on the significance of the relationship between the managers and the employees in regards to how their communications patterns affect the performance of an organization. It shows the difference between a manager who displays friendly qualities, uses non-verbal communication and who advocates for the openness in communication versus the one who is unfriendly, antisocial and has no will to communicate. The latter is most likely to receive inadequate and negative feedback from the employees while the other one receives positive feedback and recommendations on areas that need improvement (Ferrell and John 42)

That communication relationship between the two managers and their subordinates shows how it affects the level of job satisfaction and employees’ commitment to work. Thus, a positive correlation should be nurtured and a conducive working environment so that employees levels of comfort to increase and consequently increase their productivity. This reduces the incidents of employees adopting deviant behavior and the possibility of leaving their work.

As much as all types of communication in an organization is critical, downward communication seems the most appropriate in ensuring that everyone receives the information regarding his or her department. It should, therefore, be open and accessible to all without having people that hinder the flow of the information for their gain. Organizations ought to prioritize information dissemination to the employees for better organizational outputs. It is vital because it will help the employees to realize their significance and contribution to the organization and thus understanding that they are valued which will lead to more commitment to the organization and hence more productivity due to job satisfaction.

Additionally, this form of communication ensures that the employees appreciate the chain of command in an organization and thus communicating through the downward approach evades the by-passing of the hierarchy. Also, when this mode of communication is efficient, it enhances the appropriate guidance, explanations, and instructions regarding the issues that might be troubling the employees thus increasing the efficiency of an organization. If the top leadership fails to offer such guidelines and instructions to subordinates, some may underperform or fail to perform at all to avoid confrontations with the management should anything go wrong. Explanation of policies of the organization is made possible by this mode of communication, thus ensuring that everyone gets a chance to understand the organization in a better way (Drucker 44). The article above focuses on the higher productivity of an organization and the level of job satisfaction based on the communication in the workplace but with an emphasis on the downward mode of communication. I expected that the article would outline and describe the several methods of communication in an organization before settling on one and giving it all the credit as to how it improves the effectiveness of the organization.

Communication in undeniably a critical factor that ensures the company runs well and is productive, however, in her article the author focused on one approach of communication overlooking the other approaches that are equally significant in ensuring that organization’s success. She has emphasized the downward approach of communication ad failed to discuss the bottom-up plan, which is also essential in determining the employee’s needs by allowing them to communicate freely to the top leadership. It has shown bias in encouraging the managerial team only to communicate to the subordinates instead of supporting the participatory communication for all individuals in the company.

The article has identified only the cultural factors and perceptions towards work that affect the communication effectiveness in the workplace. It has failed to consider other factors that affect effective communication in any organization. Factors like individual and social factors are also critical determinants in the way a person receives and interprets information, thus overlooking such factors has had an enormous impact communication was not in order. For example, the level of education of an employee will determine how he or she receives, decodes and acts on information. The article did not mention or discuss such critical factors (Ferrell and John 42).

From the article, I expected to find the several definitions of communication, types and more specifically the one that has been discussed –the downward approach. Assuming that a person with a very low level of education stumbled upon such an article, they would have difficulty in comprehending its contents whereas the material is in the public domain. For such an article, I would expect that a plethora of communication definitions are outlined for the audience to connect and follow.

The article has emphasized the availability of information to every employee so that they can act on it at will. The argument is that the more an employee is equipped with more knowledge, the more committed and satisfied with the job he/ she is. Whereas this is true to some extent, an employee should not possess all the information that pertains an organization. An organization, especially that produces a myriad of products with other competing companies, thus, enabling the employees to have all the information at their disposal is not necessary (Bovee& John, 36. All employees are not loyal and are in the company because they have to earn a living, thus, given an opportunity, they may trade the sensitive information to rival companies for monetary or other gains. Therefore, as much as it is essential to have employees access information as asserted by the article, it ought to have shown when they should be limited to the privilege of all organization’s information and get only the one that affects their departments and specific duties.

The article seems to cast aspersions on the top leadership regarding their dissemination of information to the employees and the poor relationship between them. They seem not to consider the problematic employees who might be the cause of the relationship and contributing to the poor flow of information. The article emphasizes that the downward communication that is the information flow from the top leadership is the determinant to the success of an organization. It fails to consider other factors that might lead to the downfall of an organization such as the financial aspect among others. Additionally, there are workers who have personal issues such as laziness and are unable to act on information even if provided. There are others whose intellectual level is not so high, therefore, regardless of availing the information to them, they will always have trouble to use that information no matter how helpful it is. The article should have explained how to deal with such individuals who, willingly or not refuse to act on the information that is released to them, and provide solutions in such case (Ferrell and John, 40)

The article also criticizes the managerial leadership for lacking efficient communication abilities and lacking trainings to improve on the communication aspects. It fails to stipulate the roles of a good communicator because in most cases, people talk and think that they have delivered the message as required only to receive negative feedback. The paper ought to describe the essentials of a person who is viewed as an excellent communicator in a business setting. A manager should establish cordial relations with the employees in order to run an effective business. The article asserts that the managers usually use instruments of power to exert their influence to the subordinates. Whereas a manager should distinguish him/herself from the employees, they ought not to show it to the employee’s faces making them feel inferior. They should display authority honorably so that they earn respect due to their work, but not because of their intimidations to the juniors (Drucker 44)

The article also identifies several pros of using the downward approach of communication other that than the overall of increasing the effectiveness and success of the organization. It however fails to acknowledge and identify the disadvantages that come along with the said approach. Just like any other method, the approach has pros and cons, the article ought to have outlined some of them rather than solely advocating for its exclusive adoption in the organization. Once a reader is equipped with both pros and cons of such a method, he/she is in a better position to understand, weigh, and determine whether adopt that approach. It should have started how time consuming the approach is because it has to follow levels of hierarchy thus by the time it reaches the employees it might have been distorted or lost significance. As much as enhancing better relationship is the responsibility of workers across the organization, the article should have indicated that the approach might also contribute to the deteriorating of such relations. The article should have indicated that the approach may at times create frustrations among the employs thus affect the output and general productivity of the employees , as much as contributing to the lack of enthusiasm that further lowers the productivity (Drucker, 48)

Work Cited

Drucker, Peter F. What Makes an Effective Executive (Harvard Business Review Classics). Harvard Business Review Press, 2017.

Bovee, Courtland L., John V. Thill,. Business communication today. Pearson Education India, 2014

Ferrell, Odies C., and John Fraedrich. Business ethics: Ethical decision making& cases. Nelson Education, 2015.