Importance
of Communication in an Organization
Effective
Communication is significant for managers in the organizations so as to perform
the basic functions of management, i.e., Planning, Organizing, Leading and
Controlling.Communication helps managers to perform their jobs and
responsibilities. Communication serves as a foundation for planning. All the
essential information must be communicated to the managers who in-turn must
communicate the plans so as to implement them. Organizing also requires effective
communication with others about their job task. Similarly leaders as managers
must communicate effectively with their subordinates so as to achieve the team
goals. Controlling is not possible without written and oral communication.
Managers devote a great
part of their time in communication. They generally devote approximately 6
hours per day in communicating. They spend great time on face to face or
telephonic communication with their superiors, subordinates, colleagues,
customers or suppliers. Managers also use Written Communication in form of
letters, reports or memos wherever oral communication is not feasible.Thus, we
can say that “effective communication is a building block of successful
organizations”. In other words, communication acts as organizational blood.
The importance of communication
in an organization can be summarized as follows:
Communication
promotes motivation by informing and clarifying the employees about the task to
be done, the manner they are performing the task, and how to improve their
performance if it is not up to the mark.Communication is a source of
information to the organizational members for decision-making process as it
helps identifying and assessing alternative course of actions.
Communication also
plays a crucial role in altering individual’s attitudes, i.e., a well informed
individual will have better attitude than a less-informed individual.
Organizational magazines, journals, meetings and various other forms of oral
and written communication help in moulding employee’s attitudes.Communication
also helps in socializing. In todays life the only presence of another
individual fosters communication. It is also said that one cannot survive
without communication.
As discussed earlier,
communication also assists in controlling process. It helps controlling
organizational member’s behaviour in various ways. There are various levels of
hierarchy and certain principles and guidelines that employees must follow in
an organization. They must comply with organizational policies, perform their
job role efficiently and communicate any work problem and grievance to their
superiors. Thus, communication helps in controlling function of management.
An effective and efficient
communication system requires managerial proficiency in delivering and
receiving messages. A manager must discover various barriers to communication,
analyze the reasons for their occurrence and take preventive steps to avoid
those barriers. Thus, the primary responsibility of a manager is to develop and
maintain an effective communication system in the organization.
