Student
communication skills
The primary communication challenges in the way this announcement was made is lack of communication skills. The vague response of the speaker caused misinterpretation of the message being delivered. Presumably, lack of appropriate non-verbal cues and eye contact caused the managers to misunderstand the message and make assumptions about Mr. Olsen 's response. It was an example of downward communication.
"When communicating down the chain of command, management should give careful thought to possible consequences of messages as illustrated in the opening case"1
Poor information management commenced rumors in the workplace, since the employees were uncertain about the ongoing situation in the organization. The management was not able to control the grapevine.
"The grapevine is informal vehicle through which the messages flow throughout the organization".2 Obviously, the company did not practise open-door policy, since all the information was based on the assumptions and the management did not take any measures to stop it in the organizational level. Lack of this ability enabled the information to flow outside the borders of the organization, where it went out of any possible control.
There are multiple ways of how this situation could have been handled differently.
It is crucial to maintain the policy in the company, which states that all the decisions taken on the managerial level should be transmitted by the means of formal channels, such as Public Relations Department, Human Resources Department etc.. The written communication channel should not be neglected, in the given case the manager could have sent the memos, which could have denied the wrongful information.
There was also poor vertical communication between Mr Shield and his subordinate vice presidents. They could have contacted him to confirm their suspicion on his resignation.
Digital failed to recognize the way communication flows (vertical, horizontal, lateral and
The primary communication challenges in the way this announcement was made is lack of communication skills. The vague response of the speaker caused misinterpretation of the message being delivered. Presumably, lack of appropriate non-verbal cues and eye contact caused the managers to misunderstand the message and make assumptions about Mr. Olsen 's response. It was an example of downward communication.
"When communicating down the chain of command, management should give careful thought to possible consequences of messages as illustrated in the opening case"1
Poor information management commenced rumors in the workplace, since the employees were uncertain about the ongoing situation in the organization. The management was not able to control the grapevine.
"The grapevine is informal vehicle through which the messages flow throughout the organization".2 Obviously, the company did not practise open-door policy, since all the information was based on the assumptions and the management did not take any measures to stop it in the organizational level. Lack of this ability enabled the information to flow outside the borders of the organization, where it went out of any possible control.
There are multiple ways of how this situation could have been handled differently.
It is crucial to maintain the policy in the company, which states that all the decisions taken on the managerial level should be transmitted by the means of formal channels, such as Public Relations Department, Human Resources Department etc.. The written communication channel should not be neglected, in the given case the manager could have sent the memos, which could have denied the wrongful information.
There was also poor vertical communication between Mr Shield and his subordinate vice presidents. They could have contacted him to confirm their suspicion on his resignation.
Digital failed to recognize the way communication flows (vertical, horizontal, lateral and
References: Robert n. Lussier. Human Relations in Organizations, 7th ed. Toronto: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Schwind, H., Das, and Wagar. Canadian human resource management, A strategic approach, 9th ed. Whitby-ON: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd.,2010. Three things left to do 1. Editing (grammar, spelling and good writing skills) 2. Inserting comments 3. Merging the last two paragraphs or reducing the words to 500 (currently it is 538 words)