Write a minimum 2-page paper on ANY topic relating to Chapter 6: Communication, Coaching, and Conflict Skills. Discuss both pros and cons of your topic. Include a minimum of 2 academic sources OTHER THAN your textbook.

Communication

Introduction

For this assignment I have chosen to write about Communication as it is an important aspect of the overall functioning of an organization. Communication is what gives meaning to the use of information transfer process. Communication has been defined as the process of convening information and meaning (Lussier & Achua, 2012, p. 193). This definition is very concise but very deep. The effectiveness of a communication process depends not only on the information transferred but also the understanding of the information by the involved parties. We normally see people arguing about certain things but no party seems to understand the actual meaning intended by the sender. This is what can be called an ineffective communication.

There are two broader categories of communication i.e. written communication and oral communication. The two fundamental phase of communication for both oral and written communication is sending and receiving the information and its meaning.

Sending and Receiving Information

Leaders need to possess the quality of both effectively sending and receiving the information and its meaning in the communication process. Leaders must be able to organize the information for the communication process that is easy to understand for the audience. If it is written communication, the leader must write in clear words and be able to write in a language that is easily understood by his/her followers. When it comes to oral communication, the leader must be clear and careful in choosing his/her words. If on the other hand the leader is on the receiving end of the information process, he/she must be able to read the written messages and even if the written text is not clear, the leader should be able to extract the meaning from it. If the text is still not clear, the leader must not reach to wrong conclusions and request for more information to clarify the situation. In receiving oral messages, the leader must be a good listener. This is one of the fundamental skill when it comes to business communication process (Brownell, 1986).

Pros and Cons of the Communication Process

The whole communication process depends on the behavior of the people who are involved in the communication process. Their personality traits and the handling of the communication process make the process either effective or otherwise non-effective. Following are the advantages and disadvantages of the communication process.

Advantages: For a leader, communication is much more than the transfer of information. Communication is a tool to build meaningful relations in an organization. It can help the leaders acquire the information they need to increase the productivity of the organization they are leading. It is the effective communication where the leader can get an awareness of the needs of the followers and try to prevent/resolve the conflicts and problems that arise when these need are not met. Leaders can use communication process to build trust among his/her followers. Leaders can use communication process to influence others, get other’s attentions, persuade other to follow them towards the achievement of their goals and control situations in an organization (Barrett, 2006).

Disadvantages: The communication process is always not as effective as it expected. The leadership sometimes opt for communication tools that are not effective in the situations they use in. Communication process can lead to negative implications if the statements that are presented by the leader are in the question form. This leaves a room for the followers to think of answers that might not respond effectively to the situation in hand. Leaders might sometimes provide too much contextual information which instead of providing clarification, create more confusions. Leaders might opt to communicate too softly, but the followers may consider it a weakness and do not take the message conveyed by the leadership seriously (Barrett, 2006).