Posts Tagged: "Communication in Business"

There are two major types of small groups, primary and discussion groups. The primary group is more informal in nature. Members get together daily or very regularly. The primary group is less goal-oriented and often there is conversation on general topics and not discussion on specific topic. Primary groups are not bound by any rules and are highly flexible.

Discussion groups are highly formal. These are characterized by face-to-face interactions where group members respond, react and adapt to the communication of other participants. A discussion group has one or more leaders. Members of discussion groups have common characteristics-geographic location, social class, economic level, life style, education level, etc. finally, members of a discussion group have a common purpose or goal. The strength cohesiveness and longevity of the group depends upon the type of goal. One important type of discussion groups is the problem-solving group. Such groups are of four types depending upon the tasks they perform:

1. Fact finding group
2. Evaluation group
3. Policy making group and
4. Implementation group

This kind of division occurs only where the group is big and the problem is complicated.

Participation in small groups

Participants in small group communication have certain responsibilities these are:

What is Consensus?

The concept of consensus has become quite familiar and desirable means of informal business communication not only in the political fields but also in the commercial spheres as well. It is a common agreement of opinion on a given problem among the majority of people in a group or community. The board meeting of commercial organizations takes certain decisions through consensus. Sometimes, merely a copy of resolution is circulated among the members of a particular group to get their approval. When the decisions are taken unanimously, the unity of the group is recognized. It projects a good image of the business house and the status of the organization is raised. It also suggests high morale of the management to the employees, customers, shareholders, and other people.

Consensus does not mean that there exist no opposite views among the members of the group. Of course, perfect unanimity should not e expected because it cannot exist. As consensus does not imply perfect unanimity, it implies that the majority of people express a particular view, which is accepted as the consensus by all the members including those who actually oppose it. The dissent of the opposition is sacrificed in the interests of the harmony among the members or in the larger interests of the organization.…

Grapevine is an informal channel of business communication. It is called so because it stretches throughout the organization in all directions irrespective of the authority levels. The management can use grapevine to supplement the formal channels of communication. Though it carries some degree of error and distortion, efforts can be made to correct it. Ignoring the grapevine is nothing but to ignore a valuable source of communication. The management can eliminate its negative consequences and, at the same time, it can nourish its positive benefits. The managers have to learn to manage and control it.

1. The management can open up all the channels of organizational communication to present the facts positively before the employees and thereby can fight the negative messages with the positive weapons of facts and figures.
2. Better job design and better quality of work life can easily bring the grapevine under the control of the management.
3. It also prevents the boredom, idleness and suspicions among the employees.
4. The negative consequences of the grapevine can be easily eliminated if the management is successful in creating trust-relationship with the employees.
5. The rumors flourish beyond limits when the employees are not well informed by the management regarding the policies, objectives and the work procedure of the organization.

…

Grapevine communication:

Grapevine is an informal communication network, which ignores formal channels of communication and spreads rumors and gossips at all levels of the business organization. Although every business-organization has its formal channels of communication, the informal channel of communication called grapevine also operates in it. It can be easily found that a large portion of the communication in almost every business house is not formal or pre-planned. The employees communicate through informal channels as they do their jobs. It is neither pre-planned nor deliberately motivated by the management. It is neither written nor documented or recorded. Therefore, it refers to any communication that takes place outside the prescribed and pre-planned channels of formal business communication. It is not set with the lines of organizational hierarchy. As it has no set rules and regulations, it is not confined to a particular direction. It just spreads like a grapevine.

Importance of Grapevine in business scenario:

Though the structure of the grapevine is not so well defined, as that of the formal channels, it should not be taken for its weakness. The messages flowing through grapevine have greater speed than that of the messages flowing through the formal channels. The grapevine may carry equally vital message through it for the achievement and success of the organization.…

Communication in its simplest sense involve two or more persons who come together to share, to dialogue and to commune, or just to be together for a festival or family gathering. Dreaming, talking with someone, arguing in a discussion, speaking in public, reading a newspaper, watching TV etc. are all different kinds of communication that we are engaged in every day. Communication is thus not so much an act or even a process but rather social and cultural ‘togetherness’. Communication can be with oneself, god, and nature and with the people in our environment. Interaction, interchange, transaction, dialogue, sharing, communion, and commonness are ideas that crop up in any attempt to define the term communication.

Communication is important both for an individual and also for the society. A person’s need for communication is as strong and as basic as the need to eat, sleep, and love. Communication is the requirement of social existence and a resource in order to engage in the sharing of experiences, through ‘symbol mediated interaction’. Isolation is in fact the severest punishment for human being. Grown-ups, children, and old people all need to communicate. Society punishes criminals by locking them up in solitary cells, thus starving them of the basic need, and indeed the fundamental right to communicate.…

What is a meeting?

A meeting is a gathering of people to present or exchange information, plan joint activities, make decisions, or carry out actions already agreed upon. Almost every group activity or project requires a meeting, or meetings, of some sort. In business organizations, different meetings of executives and employees are held to dicuss and debate upon certain matters for taking collective decisions. At these business meetings different proposals are discussed in the light of their pros and cons, and consensus is reached through interaction and influence among various persons. In business, meeting is any focused conversation that has a specific purpose, like taking decision of share capital,issue of dividents,issue of bonus shares, etc.

Purpose of business meetings:

Business meetings are held:

Every business organization conducts meetings of the employees, owners and other stakeholders.The company form of organization has to hold different kinds of meetings at various stages of its existence: from the stage of commencement of business to ultimate stage of winding up.

How to organize an effective business meeting?…