Poor Communications
Does poor communication cause conflict?
Essay written by: jmurdoch
Is most conflict in an organisation is caused by poor communication? If we had perfect communication would conflict cease?
Consider for example, an e-mail asking for some information "yesterday" to stress how important this request is. The sender thinks e-mails are great as they travel at the speed of light and spell things out in black & white. The recipient may consider that if its in a e-mail then it can 't be that urgent because servers can loose, misdirect or delay an e-mails transmission. They may also consider that as the information was wanted "yesterday" its already too late to be effectively utilised. Both parties saw the same communiqué, neither read the same message. Each will blame the other for failing to communicate properly and conflict may result. E-mail flame wars are a high tech twist on whispering campaigns. And like the system of claims & loyalties in a feudal states the smallest e-mail spat can spiral out of control with careless use of the C.C. and B.C.C functions.
Drucker (1977)says that there are four fundamentals of communication:
communication is perception of the recipient not the utterance of the instigator
communication is expectation in that recipients will heed only what they are expecting to hear
communication makes demands of the recipient that they become someone, do or believe something
communication and information are different and largely opposite - yet interdependent
Employees need to know a number of things such as what is expected of them, how they are performing and how can they advance. If these are not communicated, on a regular basis, then role or expectation conflict will develop and motivation decline as the employee is berated for failing to meet the goals their superiors [are convinced they] assigned them.
But if this is all the communication they receive they may begin to feel like machines. According to Pearson &
Essay written by: jmurdoch
Is most conflict in an organisation is caused by poor communication? If we had perfect communication would conflict cease?
Consider for example, an e-mail asking for some information "yesterday" to stress how important this request is. The sender thinks e-mails are great as they travel at the speed of light and spell things out in black & white. The recipient may consider that if its in a e-mail then it can 't be that urgent because servers can loose, misdirect or delay an e-mails transmission. They may also consider that as the information was wanted "yesterday" its already too late to be effectively utilised. Both parties saw the same communiqué, neither read the same message. Each will blame the other for failing to communicate properly and conflict may result. E-mail flame wars are a high tech twist on whispering campaigns. And like the system of claims & loyalties in a feudal states the smallest e-mail spat can spiral out of control with careless use of the C.C. and B.C.C functions.
Drucker (1977)says that there are four fundamentals of communication:
communication is perception of the recipient not the utterance of the instigator
communication is expectation in that recipients will heed only what they are expecting to hear
communication makes demands of the recipient that they become someone, do or believe something
communication and information are different and largely opposite - yet interdependent
Employees need to know a number of things such as what is expected of them, how they are performing and how can they advance. If these are not communicated, on a regular basis, then role or expectation conflict will develop and motivation decline as the employee is berated for failing to meet the goals their superiors [are convinced they] assigned them.
But if this is all the communication they receive they may begin to feel like machines. According to Pearson &
References: DRUCKER, P (1977) People and Performance The best of Peter Drucker on Management: Heinemann. DRUCKER, P (1974) Management Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices: Butterworth. PEARSON, B & THOMAS, N (1991) The Shorter MBA: HarperCollins TOWSEND, R (1988) Further up the Organisation: Harper & Row Bibliography BUHLER, PM(1999) Supervision, Vol. 60 Issue 2, p16, 3p KREITNER, R et al (1993) Organizational Behaviour: McGrawHill PUGH, DS (1971) Organization Theory: Pelican PUGH, DS & HICKSON, DJ (1964) Writers on Organisations: Penguin THOMAS, AB (1993) Controversies in Management: Routledge