So, I know it's Sunday, and this isn't exactly my typical approach to "Sunday Science", however, the science of operational communication is extremely important in leadership and that is why I felt it was an important topic to discuss this week
Experts agree that effective communication
processes are a core element to the success of an organization. The purpose of communication
is to inform, guide, or provide data or information so that an organization can
operate at its highest capacity or potential. Communication is influenced by
multiple factors including cultural orientation, personal goals, emotions,
perceptions, and the flow of information as well. Anyone who has worked at any
level of an organization can attest that there are some things you would
willingly communicate to a co-worker, but not necessarily to a boss. Similarly
there are things you might share with a co-worker above or at the same level of
superiority as yourself, but not necessarily to a subordinate. There are
several pertinent types of communication cycles that happen with in any
organization, they include downward communication, horizontal communication,
and upward communication.
Downward communication is the process of
communication in which information flows from upper management to employees and
front line staff. Downward communication is the type of communication that is
most often thought of when considering organizational communication. Management
is responsible for communicating information to employees. Without this
process, employees are not given information they need to do their jobs. Management
must communicate to employees many things, such as what they are expected to do
in their particular role, what impact or purpose their role serves in the
mission, vision, or strategies of their organization, important policies and
procedures and pertinent changes or adjustments to these policies or
procedures. Downward communication is expected by employees. Without this guidance
the overall success of an organization is severely disadvantaged, as is all
other levels of communication cycles within the organization.
Horizontal communication occurs when information
is shared between employees with the same level or a similar level of
superiority. This includes interdepartmental communication. This type of
communication is a key element to day to day operational processes. For an example,
in the health care setting, a horizontal communication process begins when the
front desk receptionist communicates to the medical assistant that a patient
has checked in for their appointment and brought records to be reviewed by the
doctor. The sender is the receptionist, the message is that the patient has
checked in and brought records, and the receiver is the medical assistant. The
message must be encoded and decoded in a clear and concise manner in order for
the message to be properly and effectively delivered.
If the receptionist verbalizes this information
in an effective way the medical assistant will have all the information that
they need to get that patient into the exam room, take their vitals, and ensure
that the doctor receives their records to review prior to entering the exam
room. If the receptionist communicates this information poorly, for instance if
she just simply checks the patient into the computer without verbalizing that
the patient brought records for review, the medical assistant might just put
the patient into the exam room without being aware that the patient brought
records. Upon entering the exam room the doctor may or may not receive this
information directly from the patient. In either circumstance either the
efficiency or effectiveness of the visit is compromised.
It is clearly illustrated in this example
that horizontal communication is essential to operational functions of an
organization. Where problems occur in organizational communication is when
horizontal communication is occurring amongst employees, with regards to issues
that should be communicated in an upward fashion. For example, organization X
was experiencing an operational issues in which the doctors were receiving too
many messages taken by the receptionists that could’ve been screened by
clinical staff and resolved with less effort and involvement by the physician.
This problem resulted in a new policy in which all messages are now sent to the
nurses to be screened for physician review. Seems like a solid solution to the
problem. However, there are only three nurses on staff and twelve doctors,
making it difficult for the nurses to screen patient questions efficiently in a
timely manner. This is an issue that should’ve been addressed utilizing upward
communication, but instead, the nurses simply complained about this situation
amongst each other, and with other front line staff members, creating a lot of
negative attitudes amongst staff members and negatively impacting employee
morale. In addition as an added consequence of this new policy, receptionists
are now receiving additional phone calls from disgruntled patients complaining
that they called with a problem several days ago, and have yet to receive any
feedback or follow up from the office regarding their concern. Employees are
left thinking “this is obviously an issue. Why isn’t upper management doing
anything to solve this problem?” The answer is simple, they aren’t even aware
of these repercussions that stemmed from the policy change. Negative horizontal
organization happens when management is preoccupied by their own roles as a
leader, and can even unknowingly discourage access to communication platforms
by simply not making themselves available for these types of conversations. It
is one thing to say “my office door is always open” placing the responsibility
on the employee to bring these topics to your attention, and entirely another
thing to say “hey, do you have a minute? I would like to hear your insight on
how things are going”. Managers and leaders need to remember that the employee
is there to do their job, it’s not their responsibility to initiate these types
of conversation, which in my experience has been the pit fall of many management
fails I have experience in my career. Lack of upward communication, overload of
downward communication, and communication barriers often stem from the source
of poor leadership skills. Management overturn can be saved by promoting
communication at all levels of an organization.
Upward communication is the process of
communication in which information flows from employees and front line staff to
upper management. Upward communication is important because it allows managers
and leaders to be informed and aware of important aspects of the business or
organization that they might otherwise miss since they are not always involved
directly with day to day operation in the same way that employees are. Employees
deal day to day tasks and organizational processes in a much more involved
fashion than leaders or managers who oversee these tasks and processes in a
much broader manner.
Employees often see problems or issues
within the scope of their job first hand, they are able to identify obstacles preventing
them from doing their jobs to their full potential and are able to see
opportunities improvement. Policies developed or implemented by upper
management might seem solid, complete, purposeful, efficient, effective, and
well developed on paper or via the eyes of leaders or management. However,
employees are really the ones who are able to assess the value or effectiveness
of policies because the policies often either promote, enable, or hinder the
tasks and duties that the employees are responsible for on a daily basis. Employee viewpoints, opinions, suggestions, are
a key source of valuable information, perspective, and insight about important aspects
of an organization.
Upward communication is the most important
and often overlooked process of communication within an organization. One of
the advantages of upward communication is that information about problems,
obstacles, and concerns are often noticed or experienced first by front line
employees. This is because employees are perceiving these factors first hand in
“real time”. This means that by
encouraging upward communication and by enabling the access and ability for
employees to communicate openly with upper management, “real time” reactions or
nearly “real time” reactions to problems or concerns are supported. Anyone who
has any experience in management or leadership can support the fact that time
in business is money, and the sooner a leader or manager of an organization is
informed and aware of a problem, the sooner the problem can be identified,
analyzed, and addressed.
Another advantage of upward communication
is the value of the resource of employee perspectives on operational opportunities.
Employees are an organizations biggest asset. They determine the way customers
perceive an organization. They determine the success of failure of
organizational procedures and policies. They determine the culture of an
organization. A manager can establish what they wish a cultural environment of
an organization to be, however without the support of employees the point is
null and void. By promoting upward organization managers and leaders allow for
a similarly mentioned type of “real time” suggestion platform for employees to
voice their ideas about opportunities for improvement within an organization.
Furthermore, and more importantly in fact, facilitating this type of upward
communication promotes employee involvement and empowerment. When employees not
only feel, but see the worth or value of upward communication they are much more
likely to do so. If an employee feels discouraged to express their thoughts or
ideas about their organization the communication cycle between employees and
management is broken. If employees are encouraged to express these ideas, but
they do not see benefit or action from management based off this communication,
the process of organizational communication is still hindered. If employees are
encouraged to express these ideas, and are able to experience and see
quantifiable action by management based off their input, they are much more likely
to do so. Additionally employees in this type of environment are much more likely
to take ownership over their jobs, to be invested in the success of their
position and in the success of the organization mission and goals as a whole.
When empowering employees in this way, you encourage people not only to just
recognize, identify, and speak up about problems or opportunities, but to think
outside the box to develop innovative new ways of improving the organization as
a whole.
The main element of successful achieving a
solid upward communication cycle within an organization is trust. There needs
to be an open platform where employees feel safe to express their ideas or
perceptions. This means employees must feel safe to say things like “this isn’t
working” or “I see this as an obstacle” without feeling like expressing these
ideas will be perceived as though they are complaining, or as though they are
opposing or putting down ideas of management. Secondly, in order to build a
strong trust and an open channel of communication, action and quantifiable data
is required to insure that there is worth in bringing these ideas or
perceptions to the attention of management. Leaders can preach and lecture
about the need for upward communication, however without proving to staff that
leaders will listen and react to this information, employees will see no reason
or value to put themselves on the line by communicating in this manner and
therefor will be discouraged to do so. If employees communicate a problem,
action is required, if action is not feasible, acknowledgement at least can
affirm that this communication was heard. It is as easy as stating, “we heard
what you had to say, we agree with X, we don’t necessarily agree with Y, but
either way were are going to look into this issue further, and keep you updated
to see what we are able to do as an organization to address you concern.”
Thirdly, appreciation for input must be communicated. It seems simple, but just
acknowledging your appreciation to employees for taking the step to participate
actively in the organizational communication process is important.
Participation shows that employees care about their job, and it is the responsibility
of leadership to make it a point to reciprocate this action by extending
support and acknowledgement of each employees input and decision to participate
in supporting communication within the organization.
