Management Communication

GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES

OPEN UNIVERSITIES AUSTRALIA

 

 

COM21

Management Communication

 

STUDY GUIDE

 

 

 

© Griffith University 2019

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including photo-copying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior written

permission.

These materials may only be distributed to students enrolled in this course.

 

CRICOS Provider: 00233E

 

 

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CONTENTS

Unit Introduction ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1

Unit Aim ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 1

How to use this Study Guide…………………………………………………………………………………………… 2

MODULE 1 ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 3

Week One: Management and Communication ……………………………………………………………………….. 3

1.1 Introduction: Managers in Organisations …………………………………………………………………. 4

1.2 Who is an Effective Manager? ……………………………………………………………………………….. 7

1.3 Strategic Management Communication ………………………………………………………………….. 8

1.4 Strategic Conversations ………………………………………………………………………………………… 8

1.5 Leadership, Management and Communication: A Symbiotic Relationship …………………. 10

1.6 Applying Key Communication Themes ………………………………………………………………….. 10

1.6.1 Cultural Ethos ………………………………………………………………………………………… 10

1.6.2 Adaptive Management Behaviours ……………………………………………………………. 12

1.6.3 Cultural Leadership …………………………………………………………………………………. 12

Week Two: Management Ethics and Social Responsibility …………………………………………………… 15

2.1 Your Own Ethics ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 16

2.2 Making Your Ethics Clear ……………………………………………………………………………………. 18

2.3 Ethical Decisions ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 19

2.4 Behavioural Traits ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 22

2.5 Social Responsibility …………………………………………………………………………………………… 22

2.6 Applying Key Themes to Communication ………………………………………………………………. 23

MODULE 2 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 25

Week Three: Evolution of Management Thinking …………………………………………………………………. 25

3.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 26

3.2 The Evolution of Management Thinking ………………………………………………………………… 27

3.3 The Classical Perspective …………………………………………………………………………………… 29

3.4 Humanist Perspective …………………………………………………………………………………………. 31

3.5 Learning Organisations ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 32

3.6 Sustainable Development ……………………………………………………………………………………. 35

3.7 Applying Key Themes to Communication ………………………………………………………………. 36

Week Four: Communication Networks ………………………………………………………………………………… 38

4.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 39

4.2 Workplace Relationships …………………………………………………………………………………….. 40

 

 

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4.3 Defining Relational Situations ………………………………………………………………………………. 41

4.4 Communication Competencies …………………………………………………………………………….. 44

4.5 Different Types of Workplace Relationship ……………………………………………………………. 45

4.5.1 Superior/Subordinate Relationships ………………………………………………………….. 45

4.5.2 Peer Relationships ………………………………………………………………………………….. 46

4.5.3 Problematic Relationships ……………………………………………………………………….. 47

4.6 Applying Key Themes To Communication …………………………………………………………….. 49

MODULE 3 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 51

Week Five: More Communication Networks ………………………………………………………………………… 51

5.1 Communication Networks ……………………………………………………………………………………. 52

5.2 Network Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………………………….. 53

5.3 Key Concepts In Network Analysis ……………………………………………………………………….. 54

5.4 Communities of Practice ……………………………………………………………………………………… 55

5.5 Inter-Organisational Relationships and Networks …………………………………………………… 57

5.6 Network Organisations ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 58

5.7 Applying Some Key Communication Themes ………………………………………………………… 59

MODULE 4 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 63

Week Six: Managing Communication and Diversity …………………………………………………………….. 63

6.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 64

6.2 Valuing Diversity ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 66

6.3 Ethnocentrism and Monoculture …………………………………………………………………………… 68

6.4 Ethnorelativism and Pluralism ……………………………………………………………………………… 69

6.5 The Changing Workplace ……………………………………………………………………………………. 69

6.6 Minority Groups in the Workplace ………………………………………………………………………… 71

6.7 Communication Challenges …………………………………………………………………………………. 72

6.8 Applying Some Key Communication Themes ………………………………………………………… 72

Week Seven: More Managing Communication and Diversity ………………………………………………… 74

7.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 75

7.2 The Glass Ceiling ………………………………………………………………………………………………. 75

7.3 Cultural Ethos ……………………………………………………………………………………………………. 78

7.3.1 Recruitment Initiatives ……………………………………………………………………………… 78

7.3.2 Career Advancement ………………………………………………………………………………. 79

Contents continued …

7.3.3 Diversity Training ……………………………………………………………………………………. 80

7.4 Indentifying Strategies for Awareness …………………………………………………………………… 81

7.5 Multicultural Teams …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 82

7.6 Applying Some Key Communication Themes ………………………………………………………… 82

MODULE 5 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 85

 

 

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Week Eight: Managing Change Related Communication ……………………………………………………… 85

8.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 86

8.2 What Is Organisational Change? ………………………………………………………………………….. 86

8.3 Products and Technology ……………………………………………………………………………………. 87

8.3.1 Exploration …………………………………………………………………………………………….. 88

8.3.2 Cooperation …………………………………………………………………………………………… 89

8.3.3 Ideas and Communication Champions ………………………………………………………. 90

8.4 Changing People and Culture ……………………………………………………………………………… 90

8.4.1 Approaches to Implementing Change ……………………………………………………….. 91

8.5 Applying Key Themes to Communication ………………………………………………………………. 92

Week Nine: More on Managing Change Related Communication …………………………………………. 95

9.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 96

9.2 The Need For Change ………………………………………………………………………………………… 96

9.2.1 SWOT Analysis ………………………………………………………………………………………. 97

9.3 Resistance to Change ………………………………………………………………………………………… 97

9.3.1 Force-Field Analysis ……………………………………………………………………………….. 98

9.4 Change Implementation Tactics …………………………………………………………………………… 98

9.5 Creating Environments for Change Communication ……………………………………………… 100

9.6 Glossary ………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 101

9.7 Applying Key Themes to Communication …………………………………………………………….. 102

MODULE 6 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 105

Week Ten: The Integration of Strategic Planning and Communication ……………………………….. 105

10.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 106

10.2 Goals, Plans and Performance of Communication ………………………………………………… 106

10.3 The Right Messages …………………………………………………………………………………………. 108

10.4 Criteria for Effective Goals …………………………………………………………………………………. 110

10.5 Applying Key Themes to Communication …………………………………………………………….. 111

Week Eleven: Communicating in Difficult Times and Crisis Situations ……………………………….. 113

11.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 114

11.2 Planning in Turbulent Times ………………………………………………………………………………. 115

11.2.1 Contingency Plans ………………………………………………………………………………… 115

11.2.2 Scenario Building ………………………………………………………………………………….. 116

11.3 Shaping a Crisis Plan ……………………………………………………………………………………….. 117

11.3.1 Prevention ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 117

11.3.2 Preparation ………………………………………………………………………………………….. 117

11.3.3 Containment …………………………………………………………………………………………. 118

11.4 Applying Key Themes to Crisis Communication ……………………………………………………. 119

MODULE 7 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 121

 

 

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Week Twelve: Understanding Public Relations ………………………………………………………………….. 121

12.1 Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 122

12.2 Identifying and Defining Publics …………………………………………………………………………. 122

12.2.1 Internal Publics …………………………………………………………………………………….. 123

12.2.2 External Publics ……………………………………………………………………………………. 123

12.3 Prioritising Publics ……………………………………………………………………………………………. 124

12.4 Perceptions and Public Opinion …………………………………………………………………………. 125

12.5 Perceptions of the Organisation …………………………………………………………………………. 126

12.5.1 Internal Publics …………………………………………………………………………………….. 126

12.5.2 External Publics ……………………………………………………………………………………. 126

12.6 Women and Minorities ………………………………………………………………………………………. 127

12.7 Points to Remember …………………………………………………………………………………………. 127

12.8 Applying Key Themes to Communication …………………………………………………………….. 128

Week Thirteen: Where Have We Been? ……………………………………………………………………………… 129

 

 

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UNIT INTRODUCTION

UNIT AIM

Whether you work as a junior or middle manager or as the Chief Executive Officer, to operate efficiently

you need well developed management communication skills. COM21 Management Communication is

a second level unit in the Business Communication major that is part of the Griffith University Bachelor

of Communication degree introduced in 2012.

 

This unit will provide a detailed understanding of the principles of management communication and

develop the capacity to communicate effectively as a professional. There is a strong emphasis on

practical communication skills which will be framed within an unfolding theoretical discourse.

 

The unit emphasises key elements of communication processes that are vital to working effectively and

ethically in a global society. It will familiarise students with emerging communication issues and

strategies, and the challenges and opportunities these bring to any management task.

 

This Study Guide is broken into seven modules:

• Managers in organisations

• Evolution of management thinking

• Communication networks

• Communication and diversity

• Managing change related communication

• The convergence of planning and management in the face of crisis

• Understanding external communication.

On completion of this unit, students should have developed an understanding of the following core skills,

policies and theories:

• The role of communication in a manager’s job

• The Learning Organisation

• Communication networks and analysis

• Communities of practice and network organisations

• Valuing diversity

• Managing change related communication

• Implementing change communication and strategies for innovation

• Managing and communicating in crisis

• Managing team conflict

• Understanding external communications

• Managing perceptions and public opinion – internally and externally.

After successfully completing this course students will have developed a solid knowledge of the

principles of effective management communication and their application in the following key areas:

 

 

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• Communicating as an effective manager

• Understanding the relationships between leadership, management and communication

• Understanding personal and organisational realities of management ethics

• Understanding evolutionary trends in management thinking

• Recognising glass ceilings as a metaphor for minority issues and discrimination

• Recognising ethnocentrism and ethnorelativism and their impact on workplaces

• Converging planning and communication in response to difficult times.

• Developing strategies for effective management communication

• Understanding meanings for Publics and public opinion.

 

HOW TO USE THIS STUDY GUIDE

The study guide is broken into weekly sections and the information regarding the set reading(s) for each

week is detailed at the beginning of each week. The textbook, readings and study guide are designed

to work together to provide a broader view of the topics being discussed. You will notice we have

included some ‘recommended’ rather than ‘required’ readings. These are for students who are

particularly interested in the topic being discussed and provide additional relevant material useful for

assessment tasks.

In COM21 Management Communication the textbook is:

Management, 2018, 6th Asia-Pacific edition, Australia, Cengage Learning written by Danny Samson,

Timothy Donnet and Richard L Daft

OR the older edition of the same textbook:

Management, 2015, 5th Asia-Pacific edition, Australia, Cengage Learning written by Danny Samson

and Richard L Daft.

Throughout the Study Guide, the relevant page numbers from both these editions of the same textbook

will be provided for all information that is quoted or referenced.

Please be aware that the Griffith University Library has the ebook of the 2015 edition of this textbook

only. There is no ebook for the 2018 edition at this stage.

It is available through Unibooks.

 

We have also provided a range of Independent Learning Tasks (ILTs) for each week. These tasks are

designed to encourage you to take a deeper approach to your study and help you to explore the key

concepts and tangent issues. These tasks are also designed to work as an online tutorial that will build

your skills and understanding in preparation for completion of your major assessment items. The ILTs

are a compulsory part of your study and form part of your overall assessment.

 

We believe these ILTs are important in enhancing your learning experience and in providing an

opportunity for you to work with your peers. We have allocated marks for their completion. As you work

through each task, share your ideas with your peers on the Discussion Board. Don’t just post your

thoughts, read through the comments made by other students and respond to their ideas. This will help

you to see other perspectives on the topic being discussed and may alert you to ideas you had not

considered. The aim is for you to debate and unpack concepts with your peers. Your tutor will oversee

these discussions but will not be actively involved. They will provide general weekly feedback on this

 

 

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work. They will provide marks and specific, private feedback on the 2 of the 10 week interactions

nominated by you.

In addition to your learning tasks you are required to produce a 2000 word essay (Assessment 2, due

Monday Week 7) and a 2000 word report (Assessment 3, due Monday Week 14). More information on

Assessments 2 and 3 are also included in the Unit Outline.

 

 

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MODULE 1

WEEK ONE: MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION

By the end of this week, students will be familiar with some of the basic elements of management

communication. These include:

• Overview of the responsibilities of managers

• Definition of management communication

• Understanding the elements that create effective management communication

• Understanding the role of communication as the manager’s constant daily activity

• Understanding how leadership, management and communication share a symbiotic

relationship.

REQUIRED READING

Samson, Danny, Donnet, Timothy & Daft, Richard L, 2018, Management, 6th Asia-Pacific

edition, Australia, Cengage Learning. Chapter 1, Chapter 17.

or

Samson, Danny & Daft, Richard L, 2015, Management, 5th Asian-Pacific edition, Australia, Cengage Learning.

Chapter1, Chapter 17.

RECOMMENDED READING

O’Hair, D, Dixon, L, & Friedrich, G, 2005, ‘Leadership and Management Skills, Strategic

Communication in Business and the Professions, 5th Edition, Houghton Mifflin, Boston. pp. 148 – 176.

 

 

INDEPENDENT LEARNING TASK 1*

The set textbook presents a New Manager Self-test ( Samson, Donnet & Daft 2018, p.

4; Samson & Daft 2015, p. 3)

 

1. Complete the questionnaire and score yourself.

2. Write a short piece (100–200 words) about what you have learned from the

Questionnaire about your own management skills.

 

Post your response on the Discussion Board and comment on the work of your

peers in the ILT1 thread under the link ‘Post your response to ILT1 here.’

 

 

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* A NOTE ABOUT INDEPENDENT LEARNING TASKS

The Independent Learning Tasks (ILTs) are peer-learning activities and while your tutor will give weekly

feedback, it will be general in its nature and not specific to individual students.

 

The idea of these tasks is to give you an opportunity to practice some elements of analysis or delve

more deeply into some aspect of theory that will help you develop a deeper understanding of the Unit

content. It may also help you respond to your assignment tasks. The more you get involved with your

peers the better your collective and ind

ividual understanding is likely to be.

Part of your mark will be based on your own responses and your responses to other students. These

Independent Learning Tasks represent an important part of Assessment 1. To access all the information

on Assessment 1, go to your Unit Outline.

 

 

 

1.1 INTRODUCTION: MANAGERS IN ORGANISATIONS

In business, Managers are responsible for effectively managing, informing, mentoring, motivating,

coaching, instructing, supporting and reporting on all activities conducted by the organisation. All of

these tasks are driven by communication.

 

Making a difference as a manager today and tomorrow requires a different approach from yesterday.

Successful departments and organisations do not just happen– they are managed to be that way.

Manages in every organization pacemaker challenges and have an opportunity to make a difference.

Flexibility and agility are important new approaches and capabilities of managers and their

organisations. (Samson, Donnet & Daft 2018, p. 8; Samson & Daft 2015, p. 9)

 

Much has changed in the workplace over fifty years. Earlier concepts of traditional, hierarchical

mechanistic management structures, predominately using a top down communication style, are now

balanced by more organic structures. Organic structures tend to have a flatter management structure

and communications are often vertical, horizontal and lateral, allowing for a more creative response to

innovation across the organisation.

 

In reality, many contemporary organisations are a hybrid of mechanistic and organic management

structures and styles, modelled to fit the needs of the organisation and as a reflection of their work

culture. Nonetheless, the enduring notion that management is the process of planning and coordinating

work activities and tasks to be completed efficiently and effectively with and through other people

remains the constant principle.

 

 

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DISCUSSION POINT. Mechanistic organisational structures are pyramid shaped, with decision making

and power concentrated at the top. They have rigid communication lines with authority based on

position. Organic organisational structures have a flattened horizontal shape. Decision making is at all

levels. Communication flows are based on current needs. Authority is based on expertise. They are

fluid, dynamic and ever-changing.

 

Think about your own workplace experiences and reflect on which of those organisations were more

mechanistic or more organic in their structure. What did that feel like? How are they different?

 

*A NOTE ABOUT DISCUSSION POINTS.

Throughout this study guide you will find these discussion points. They are there for you to follow through

as a personal and reflective moment about the issue at hand. Sometimes they will direct you to specific

short reading or to a YouTube clip.

 

They are presented as an extra thinking exercise that will help you gain further insights into the principles

and concepts being discussed throughout the semester.

 

A manager’s responsibilities are many and varied, but include:

• Being the corporate face, representative or point of contact for an organisation or a work

team within an organisation

• Monitoring information and its flow

• Networking both internally and externally

• Entering into transactions and negotiations with workers, leaders and other managers

within the organisation to effectively coordinate activities

• Planning and scheduling work activities

• Allocating physical and human resources to different work teams and activities

• Directing and monitoring the work of team members

• Monitoring and informing human resources management activities

• Adapting to changing situations and unexpected events that may directly affect work flow

or the workplace

• Engaging with innovation within the workplace on product and management levels

• Remaining current within your professional or functional expertise.

Management can be defined as having four main roles. These are:

• Assessing and monitoring. The first task of a manager is to ensure that the current

activities of the organisation are functional and under control. Systems need to be

developed and monitored to ensure the organisation is meeting its current targets and

vision. Failure to do so can stifle any other future vision, goals and aspirations of the

organisation. Business runs on cash flow and day to day production and management

detail must be strictly adhered to. Monitoring operations is an ongoing process.

 

 

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• Planning. An organisation needs managers who can set out its future goals and develop

detailed strategies about how the organisation may achieve growth. In these days of

globalisation and turbulent finance, this planning has become both regular and crucial to

securing the organisation’s future.

We are surrounded by stories of organisations that failed to make the right moves resulting

in their markets and clients moving away, either locally or offshore. In the age of

information, we see tastes and trends moving rapidly. Many times these changing trends

and tastes are predictable. Today, managers need to be more than content experts. Not

only do they need to be able to motivate, innovate, communicate and build solid workplace

relationships with their colleagues in order to succeed, they need to be across their internal

and external communication in order to be able to adapt quickly to changing business

environments.

• Organising. The current management ‘buzz’ is transactional management. This term

describes how the vision of the organisation transforms into processes, systems and work

activities that are going to be effective within the organisation’s available resources. This

responsibility rests with the Board, often developed in tandem with a small leadership team

from within the organisation. Their role is to fulfil the ‘big picture’, deliver vision and mission

statements, aims and objectives. ‘Organising involves the assignment of tasks, the

grouping of tasks into departments, and the allocation of resources to departments’

(Samson, Donnet & Daft 2018, pp. 12-13; Samson & Daft 2015, p. 13). Managers work

with the leadership team and the wider organisation to transform that vision in reality

through negotiation and transactional processes, systems and work activities to implement

this vision.

These transactions, by necessity, may lead to the development of a new structural design

for the organisation or even the engagement of innovative management models resulting

in the integration of new work teams, either structured or self-managed.

The term transactional management implies and requires the constant engagement of

communication skills and models: messages sent and received, identification of noise and

interference, feedback techniques, emotional intelligence, active listening, an

understanding of non-verbal communication, together with an understanding of the

organisational culture. The many wider cultural backgrounds of employees also need to be

consistently and sensitively engaged. People from other cultures often work to a non-

mainstream set of social and workplace values.

• Leading. In any event, these innovations, new systems and processes are then fed back

up into the leadership team and discussed, changed, tested and ultimately verified. The

role of the manager then becomes the implementation of change, potentially establishing

or rebuilding teams towards the development of functional new systems and processes.

In modern organisations, change is the only certainty. Organisations run the risk of being

left behind in today’s global market and business environment which is ‘morphing’ itself

faster than at any time in human history.

Managing for change and communicating these changes is the challenge for modern

managers.

 

 

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1.2 WHO IS AN EFFECTIVE MANAGER?

The Karpin Taskforce, commissioned in 1994 by the Australian Government, details its findings in the

2015 edition of Samson & Daft (pp. 38-40). The vision statement of the report (Australia 2010) detailed

some key focal points issues for Australian managers. These provide a benchmark for Australian

managers to strive for and need reiterating in this Study Guide. They are:

By 2010, Australian Enterprises and their managers should be focused on:

• Knowledge

• The ability to learn, change and innovate in the new marketplace, as the accepted

manager selection criteria, rather than gender, ethnicity or even prior experience

• The learning organisation as a standard philosophy for many Australian

enterprises, and as a major way to cope with change and turbulence

• Managers creating conditions conducive to learning for both individuals and the

enterprise as a whole, both across individual units and between the enterprise as a

whole, both across individual business units and between enterprises and their

external environments

• Employees being more motivated and skilled

• Quality acting as a guiding light within all organisations, with a customer-first

mentality being all pervasive.

(Commonwealth of Australia Enterprising Nation, 1995)

Each of these aspirations for the management of Australian organisations has, at its core, the practical

application of communication skills and models. Indeed, the greatest asset a manager may have in

today’s business environment is not how well they can build a car, but how well they can drive

communication, build relationships, actively listen and apply their emotional intelligence to interpret the

best way to transport their organisation safely towards its vision and goals.

 

An enormous part of a modern manager’s role is the management of communication.

These aspirations guide the journey of this Unit. The aim is to guide you through a number of learning

Modules that should assist you as an individual to be a more effective manager and communicator.

Mintzberg states that ‘quiet managers don’t empower their people – ‘empowerment’ is taken for

granted’. He identifies the ‘quiet words’ of managing as:

• Inspiring by creating the conditions that foster openness and release energy

• Caring by not slicing away problems, but by preventing and fixing problems and knowing

how and when to intervene and mediate

• Infusing by challenging things slowly, steadily and profoundly, rather than thrusting

change upon followers dramatically and in superficial episodes

• Initiating by finding out what is going on in the organisation, connecting with those at the

base and all levels, rather than parachuting directions from the top levels.’ (Mintzberg

1999, pp. 224-230)

 

 

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REALITY CHECK. Students should read the ‘Sharpstyle Salons’ Case for Critical Analysis in Samson ,

Donnet & Daft (2018, p. 43; Samson & Daft 2015, p. 44). This case gives a good insight into the

complexity of management and communication issues you will encounter in the workplace.

 

A NOTE ON REALITY CHECKS. These Reality Checks are designed to lead students back to real world

connections to ‘value add’ to this week’s topic. Sometimes this will be a case study or it may be YouTube

links or other media.

 

These Reality Checks are not part of any assessment, however we hope you gain some further insights

through participating in them.

 

 

 

1.3 STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT COMMUNICATION

Communication is everywhere. It is everything we say, see, hear, feel, touch and feedback to others.

Strong messages can also be delivered through silence, posture, facial expression, language,

interference, misinterpretation and sometimes, mischief. We spend most of our lives engaged in all sorts

of communication in an effort to understand our lives, both personally and in our work relationships.

 

What makes management communication paramount is that managers must have a clear purpose and

strategy around how and what they intend to communicate. They must be active and adaptive in order

to make the message clear and concise. No matter whether the message is as simple as a health and

safety briefing or as complex as a discussion around vision for a multi-national organisation, the basic

premise is the same – your message must influence colleagues to act in ways that achieve the vision,

values and goals of the organisation. Your job as a manager/communicator is to keep everyone on

message. The aim of this course is to impart theory, skills and tools that will help keep you on message.

 

 

1.4 STRATEGIC CONVERSATIONS

It can be argued that once you are effectively engaged in management communication, every

conversation is a strategic conversation. If you are on message as a manager, it often follows that your

team workers are also on message.

 

It’s not that you have to be robotic in your responses. Indeed it is the opposite. You need to be actively

listening, using open and inclusive communication lines, engaging with others and integrating feedback

and innovative ideas into the organisational structure and culture.

 

Strategic conversations constitute the managed implementation or modification of vertical, horizontal

and lateral communication mechanisms with integrity and acknowledgement of the value of everyone’s

voice. It is critical for managers to ensure that these communication lines are open and supportive within

the corporate culture of an organisation.

 

 

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Many organisations have charts that lay out formalised communication lines. These lines must be

managed in the same way as the production line is managed – with efficiency and economy. Many

times work culture or (sometimes work overload) means that the formalised communication lines have

become dysfunctional. This may be because they are no longer appropriate to the daily life of the

business or they have become overpowered by personality, or perhaps they were never a true reflection

of how communication worked within the organisation. Unfortunately, this failure is not uncommon within

organisations, especially older ones.

Dysfunctional communication lines need to be addressed quickly. All processes need to be in balance

or manafers will risk leadership, management and communication issues that can cripple innovation or

perhaps even cripple day to day operation of an organisation. Each strategic conversation, at its core,

should aim to break down any barriers to effective communication.

Your strategic conversations should be inclusive of the more informal, shadow networks that happen in

every workplace without any formal structure or charter. They are the chat and rumour circles and they

are powerful. Many of the most creative and innovative ideas in an organisation are discussed in lunch

rooms, coffee shops, smoking enclaves or at the pub. Part of your communication brief would be to set

up appropriate systems within your organisation to harvest this information. Some managers see these

shadow networks as suspicious and, indeed, they can become a complaints’ club, but experience has

shown that inclusion and respect work just as well in the shadow networks as they do in formal ones.

People do change if they know that their voices are being heard.

Simmons contends that about 80 per cent of grapevine communications are on business related topics

rather than personal, vicious gossip. Moreover, from 70 to 90 per cent of the details passed through a

grapevine are accurate (Samson, Donnet & Daft 2018, p. 724; Samson & Daft 2015, p. 708). This would

suggest that the ‘grapevine’ is a powerful and accurate force and must always be considered within your

strategies.

 

Another important element to consider is the use of strategic conversations to identify your knowledge

workers within the organisation. Knowledge workers are the natural allies of a communicator and

manager. Often, they are the embodiment of the workplace culture. They are most likely to be the ten

per cent who pass on accurate information and they are usually respected and listened to by their work

colleagues.

 

Knowledge is not impersonal like money. Knowledge does not reside in a book, a database, or a

software program; these contain only information. Knowledge is embodied in a person; applied

by a person, taught and passed on by a person. (Drucker 2003, p. 287)

 

Once you start engaging in strategic conversations with a clearly defined purpose, you will soon know

the state of communication within the organisation. An application of the communications models and

tools covered in COM 12 Business Communications will help you identify what is going on (or not).

People will communicate their position to you because communication takes up most of your work time.

 

 

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1.5 LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT AND COMMUNICATION: A SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIP

Although Leadership, Communication and Management Communication have different definitions, they

must work symbiotically to achieve the outcomes of the vision and goals of the business.

Leadership Communication is fed by the leadership’s character and the organisation’s values. It sets

the emotional climate of an organisation and is an expression of its work culture. Leadership

communication involves itself with setting the vision and mission by letting people know where the

organisation is headed and what it stands for. It drives innovation by making people comfortable with

doing things differently. It defines a pathway to success for people to follow. It places people within the

mission, culture and values of the organisation.

Management Communication has been defined as ‘purpose-directed, in that it directs everyone’s

attention towards the vision, values and desired goals of the team or organisation and influences to act

in a way to achieve those goals. (Samson, Donnet & Daft 2018, p. 703; Samson & Daft 2015, p. 687)

Management Communication involves the implementation of the vision of an organisation as expressed

through its mission statement and strategy plan by the practical application of negotiating and

transacting communication skills. It involves relationship and network building as instruments to benefit

the organisation, workers and other stakeholders.

Leadership Communication and Management Communication by definition must inform each other to

be effective. If the vision is unachievable or the transactions to achieve it are unworkable, the

organisation is headed for turbulent times. Clear, consistent communication is the best way to ensure

the success of an organisation.

It sounds simple enough but many managers find it daunting. Dealing with embedded work cultures,

difficult leadership and management styles, the politics of power, a lack of established networks, poor

morale, poor or out-dated policies and work practice and the inevitable fear of change – all go to make

management communication the biggest challenge facing managers today in our global marketplace in

our turbulent times.

 

 

1.6 APPLYING KEY COMMUNICATION THEMES

At the end of each week, we will regularly return to the key management and communication themes in

order to discuss them in the context of the week’s topic. This week we are setting up the base -line

information about these key communication themes.

 

1.6.1 CULTURAL ETHOS