ORGANISATIONAL COMMUNICATION

Communication is the sharing of information for a variety of purposes including informing, persuading, motivating or influencing. There are two general ways of delivering the information: formal and informal communication channels.

Formal communication is organized and managed information that is shared with relevant individuals in order to secure coordinated action throughout the organization. Formal communication channels are based on an individual’s role in the organization and distributed in an organized way according to the established chain in organizational charts.

Examples of formal communication within an organisation would be meetings, conferences, reporting and presentations.

On the other hand, informal communication in the workplace satisfies a variety of social and emotional needs, and are not based on the positions individuals occupy within the organisations.

Informal communication is casual and spontaneous in which does not follow the organisation’s chain of command. Examples of informal communication would be e-mail, phone calls, office talk, or gossip.

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 organisation.

ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE

Organisational Culture is a set of shared values, often seen as the unwritten rules that guide employees towards acceptable and rewardable behavior.

Roger Harrison’s four-culture typology theory describes four types of organsiational culture and are as follows:

A Power Culture is when an organisation concentrates managerial power among a few. Power Cultures have few rules and little bureaucracy, decisions are centralized around one key individual.

In a Role Culture, people have clearly delegated authorities within a highly defined structure. Typically, these organizations form hierarchical bureaucracies. Power derives from a person's position and little scope exists for expert power.

A Task Culture, teams are formed to solve particular problems. Power derives from expertise as long as a team requires expertise. These cultures often feature the multiple reporting lines of a matrix structure.

And Atomistic (Power) Culture exists where all individuals believe themselves superior to the organization. This is not a favorable approach and could hinder a firm, because the concept of an organization suggests that a group of like-minded individuals pursue the organizational goals.

The type of culture that the NSW Rugby Union employs would be that of a Role Culture. In each function or department, individuals are assigned a specific role or job. My colleagues and I have a job description listing the tasks each of us is responsible for. Role culture enables large organisations like the NSW Rugby Union to spread tasks among their employees and ensure key tasks are covered without unnecessary duplication. This is particularly useful for in the NSW Rugby as they have specialist departments. E.g. sales, marketing, development, operations, media, etc. Specialist roles should increase productivity as employees are completing tasks they are fully trained and experienced to do. 

POWER AUTHORITY CONTROL & COMPLIANCE

Power and authority are tools in management if they are used appropriately and effectively. The most effective way in my experiences that management can gain the control and ensure compliance amongst employees is through empowering them. Empowering employees results in increased initiative, involvement, enthusiasm & innovation. Empowerment involves the delegation of responsibility, accountability and authority necessary to succeed in one's work.

Benefits of empowering employees include the following:

• Job satisfaction and a sense of meaning in the work you do can be the most powerful reward the employee can get.

• Motivates employees to put more effort to achieve higher wages or performance bonuses given.

• Task-specific knowledge is the best way to identify and solve problems to increase productivity through better decisions taken by persons on the job rather than the management.

• Encouraging & getting the employees involved to play an active role in their work place gives them the feeling of responsibility to perform better. (Sense of belonging in the work place).


• Empowerment also points towards a career development path, motivating people to work harder and perform as managers, even if they are currently not holding managerial positions.


• By delegating authority to run the day to day business to those who are involved in the task, people become energized and interested to forge ahead.


• Minimizing the layers of supervision, reducing costs and creating agility within a business that is so important in today’s fast phased global environment.

GROUPS TO TEAMS

Below is a table that compares groups to teams. While the two may seem the same it is important to know the differences and utlise their advantages in the appropriate situations.

Both groups and teams offer opportunities for organizations and classrooms, however it is vital to know the differences. Groups have a strong individual focus and teams have a strong collective focus meaning teams require individual and mutual accountability where groups do not. 

Katzenbach and Smith (1993) provide a clear distinction between work groups and teams.  A work group is a collection of people working in the same area or placed together to complete a task.  The group’s performance is the result of people coming together to share information, views and insights.  The focus of groups is individual performance and actions within are geared toward it.  All teams are groups, but teams are a special subset of groups.  They establish a working definition:  “A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable." (p.112) 

It is helpful to identify the characteristics of teams and groups, noting which are common to both.  By understanding the differences between these two concepts we can begin to create an appropriate environment for each and determine the conditions in which each is effective.

REFERENCES

•       Katzenbach, J. R. & Smith, D. K. (1993). The discipline of teams. Harvard Business Review, 71 (March-April), 111-146.

MTBI PERSONALITY TEST

After completing the Myers Briggs Personality Test it is evident that the most prominent personality type I possess would be that of ‘the performer’ or also known as ESFP.

Performers tend to have the following personality traits:

• Live in the moment, experiencing life to the fullest
• They enjoy being around people and are excellent team players, focused on completing the task at hand with maximum fun and minimum discord
• Active and outgoing in nature, they find pleasure in new experiences and tend to rush into things
• Take a hands-on approach in most things. Because they learn more by doing rather than by studying or reading
• Study can be difficult however they tend to do well when interested or can see relevance in what is being learnt, a practical learner
• Observant, practical, realistic, and specific, they make decisions according to their own personal standards
• Generous, optimistic, and persuasive, they are good at interpersonal interactions

My shadow side would be the negative side of INTJ and characteristics of these include: 

• Go quiet or withdraw from people
•  Have a negative view of the future or situation
• Openly criticise other people
• Stop adapting to changing circumstances
• Being single-minded or stubborn
• Not taking sufficient account of current realities
• Not expressing appreciation for the contributions of others, particularly where it hasn't been fully competent
•  Not delegating
• Making errors of fact, and appearing to make decisions irrespective of the facts

I could best develop my shadow side by taking the following approaches:

•  Be mindful of other people and allow others to contribute to the development of projects
• Expressing appreciation for work done, even when it falls short of the my personal standards
• Investigate the facts, and document them, before making decisions based on them
• Take time to consider the impact of the my actions on other people’s feelings
•  Looking for and acknowledging positive contributions and areas of agreement, rather than just seeing flaws and areas of disagreement

PRESENTING... THE RIGHT WAY!

Presenting can be daunting and when someone is not a confident presenter it can turn into a very embarrassing and traumatic experience, both for the presenter and the poor audience.

When presenting to a group of people it is vital that you first research and thoroughly know the topic matter. You need to become an expert on whatever it is you are presenting on.

When preparing for the presentation it is important to consider who you are presenting to and why?

It is beneficial to know what we want to achieve from the presentation and who we are presenting to, if we know who our audience is we can connect on a more personal level with them. For example, do we want to inform, motivate, persuade or to entertain. Understanding what we want to achieve, the audience and how to keep them engaged is the foundation to a great presentation.

The following presentation is an example of what a sound presentation should be like and a rather interesting topic matter.

Malcolm Gladwell: Choice, Happiness and Spagetti Sauce!!

Malcolm the presenter keeps his language relevant to his audience and simple throughout the presentation. Malcolm engages his audience with confidence and speaks clearly and loud enough to project his voice so the entire audience can hear. Malcolm tends to elaborate the key points of his topic and ensures that his audience captivates the importance to what he is saying by providing interesting examples that relate to the key ideas of his presentation.