Good Communication In A Company Makes It Healthy

The management efficiency of a company that defines objectives, plans its work and establishes action strategies depends – to a large extent – on the type of communication that it develops. Thus, it is good communication in a company that makes it healthy.

In this context, communication must be understood as a complex phenomenon, so that any minimal action can transform its complexity into a complication. This means that communication is not only understood as a spoken word, but also as behavior.

An organization that wants to be activated in its operation and grow needs to be based on modern premises of human communication, that is, it must create a communication philosophy or culture that governs its dynamics. Culture of which all the levels of the company are permeated and in which they base their actions.

Myths about communication

First of all, it is necessary to demystify some concepts about communication that, although they exceed the framework of business communication, allow each reader to make their translation to the sector where they are applied.

Notion of interdependence

Modern communication understands that the members of a company are not individual beings, but must be aware that they are participants in an organizational network, which at the same time is integrated into a vast social network -human ecology-.

In general, people consider themselves independent without assuming, in practice, the interdependence that belongs to the communicational fabric not only of their company but also of the social fabric.

Interaction and feedback

People believe that they are and act the same in the various systems (nuclear family, extended families, business, clubs, groups of friends, etc.).

On the other hand, modern communication maintains that our behaviors influence our interlocutor, just as their behaviors permeate our responses. Therefore, we do not communicate in the same way or in the same style in the various systems to which we belong.

Each relationship invites us to participate with some of our many facets : we are fearful and insecure in some interactions while, in others, we seem like teachers giving orders. These questions force us to think about behaviors in a recursive and circular way, when in general a situation is analyzed in a unidirectional and linear way.

The importance of context

The context of an organization has a code, rules, values ​​and beliefs ; therefore, any message within the labor jurisdiction must be interpreted under such semantics.

True communicational confusion occurs when a phrase is taken out of speech and used to manipulate dialogue. When, perhaps, that syntactic structure takes on another meaning, when it is immersed within a more global discourse developed in a place and at a specific time.

Content and form of the message

This conceptualization is key in the transmission of information in an organization (orders, reports, responses and subsequent actions, etc.). It refers to what communication scholars distinguish between the content of what is intended to be transmitted and the way it is communicated. Thus, the intonations and cadence of the speech mark an intention with which the message is dressed.

There are many opportunities in which affirmations are issued with a gesture and cadence of question and praise as disqualifying criticism. The complicated sequence continues when the other’s response is directed to the paraverbal, to trigger the basis of a discussion, in which each one undergoes a game of climbing over the other with the aim of being the owner of truth and reason. .

Verbal and paraverbal language

It is important to note that we communicate through two languages: verbal and paraverbal. The gestures, actions, cadences, tones, mannerisms, etc. with which the verbal speeches are accompanied they form a complex whole, difficult to distinguish.

Thus, while the first language – the word – is feasible to be mastered; the second is spontaneous and escapes the control of the will.

Organizational culture

Like an organization, each human being has a conceptual structure that is built in its evolution.

Family and sociocultural codes, scale of values, norms of conduct and belief system, ideology, politics, philosophy lead to attributing semantic frameworks to communication.

The speech and the words themselves are clothed with particular meanings that not only pervade our speech, but also the reception.

Based on the culture of a company, plans, strategies and consequent actions are demarcated. Reason why any movement of the organization (be it word or conduct) will be framed in this structure.

The assumptions

They are neither more nor less than the categorizations with which we group objects, subjects, situations, events, etc., but each categorization carries an implicit meaning. Hence, there are attitudes of the other that have more or less relevance, but not in themselves, but for the interlocutor’s belief system.

The ” I suppose ” is constituted as a relevant sign of communicational confusion and targets in a more forceful way in the gestures of the other. If a person frowns while we speak, we assume, for example, that he is bored with our speech. And on this basis, we react.

In human communication, this game is known as self-fulfilling prophecies : if I think the other is bored, I act accordingly and generate my initial assumption. Rarely do we ask the other about our assumption. In this way, an effect that can lead to a tedious and confusing dialogue would be blocked.

Metacommunication

Metacommunication implies making explicit what was understood from the transmission, increasing the possibility of a clear dialogue.

When the other says something, what we receive is what we mean from our conceptual structure. So, it is not what the other says but the meaning we give to what he says.

To understand the message of the other it is important to know their belief system and their universe of personal and cultural meanings. This allows the message to be clearly decoded. Thus, metacommunication in an organization is key to determining the transmission and reception of messages in a clear and coherent way. 

It is impossible not to communicate

An interesting point of the pragmatics of communication is to understand that even silences also communicate. Silence is an answer, although sometimes it is also the target of ambiguities. Reason why it is impossible not to communicate.

However, it is common to qualify a person who does not communicate or is not very communicative. Understanding this premise allows a leader to conduct himself through learning these types of responses and metacommunicating, that is, requesting that the person translate his silence into words.

Coexistence of multiple perspectives

Along the same lines, a work group coordinator, for example, must understand and accept that his interlocutors may have different points of view on the same issue. Therefore, there can be multiple realities.

Although the model of thought and knowledge to be applied responds to the design of the organization’s epistemology, people have a frame of reference that exceeds that of the company.

Respect for diversity is not only an important condition, but an ethic of life, since it is related to the concept of freedom, an element that must be taken care of in the dynamics of a company.

A healthy company

In conclusion, understanding that the emission and reception of a message depends on multiple variables implies considering communication as a complex phenomenon.

The management or leader must start from these premises to establish and maintain a communication channel in the company that is clear to all levels.

Thus, all the strategies implemented by a work team coordinator will be based on this paradigm. Therefore, they must not only get involved to increase the flow and fluidity of intra- and inter-company communication, but they also have to ensure that the information that is transmitted is clear and consistent.

Such communicational characteristics must be given both in the downstream communications, from the managerial levels, as well as in the uploads. In this way, it will be possible to know the repercussions of the information, its interpretation and its decoding and what were the noises or interferences that disturbed the transmission of the message.

The organization must be conceived as a system, open and flexible, permeable to the entry of information, of free communication and structured through clear rules and organized and dynamic functions. In fact, all these characteristics are made possible by the type of communication that takes place in the system-organization, which is the same structure of the system that favors the evolution of communication in a company.

From this systemic conception, the company will set the objectives, which must be known and well interpreted by all sectors of the same, with the aim of generating a participatory, responsible and joint attitude. Furthermore, such participation implies motivation for the employee and recognition in terms of belonging to the organization.

As we can see, the success or failure of the management of a company depends, to a great extent, on the quality of communication that develops in it and the effectiveness of the levels of prevention and resolution of the complication that are established.