EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT EFFECTIVE AND EFFICIENT COMMUNICATION AS TOOLS FOR COMMUNICATION AS TOOLS FOR

PERFORMANCE PERFORMANCE   

OGUNBAMERU A. OLAKUNLE

DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

OBAFEMI AWOLOWO UNIVERSITYILE-IFE

   JUNE 2010

     JUNE 2010

Definition Definition

An interchange of thoughts or opinions through shared symbols. The 3 things to know about communication:

How to talk so that another person listens and understands?

How does one listen?How do you know if you have

been heard and understood?

Effective Communication Effective Communication

• Effective communication is a two-way process - sending the right message that is also being correctly received and understood by the other persons. For communication to be effective, it is important to understand how the people you are interacting with may interpret your message. We obtain information through our senses, and it is therefore recommended that your communication includes aspects of the visual, auditory and kinaesthetic language to appeal to all listeners.

• Effective communication is a process through which the sender conveys a message that the receiver readily receives and understands. It is a two-way process instead of a one-way process.

How Effective?How Effective?

• Communication effectiveness is difficult to quantify. One place to start is to review client satisfaction surveys to make sure you ask them about communication. Then be sure to monitor how clients score you and your team in this area.

• Another place to look is sales close rates. If they are falling off, you may want to interview or survey prospects who did not buy from you to find out if communication style was a factor in their decision.

• Also look at employee retention rates. Have they improved since the introduction of new communication techniques or have they worsened? I think you might find that being more efficient in your communication techniques is not necessarily an improvement.

• A blend of real human interaction is required for a truly successful outcome. It won't happen by itself, but it doesn't take much to add a personal touch. At the end of the day, your clients and your team will judge you more on the experience than on the information.

Difference Between Effective Difference Between Effective and Efficient Communicationand Efficient Communication

Effective communication clearly expresses the objective that it's intended to do. No matter how long the communication is but if it reaches the targeted audience clearly it is called effective communication.

On the other hand efficient communication is one which is short and crisp. Efficient communication is likely to be quick and to the point. But an efficient communication can also be effective. Therefore effective communication gives more importance to the conveying the point to the listeners whereas efficient communication gives importance to the amount of time taken in communication.

Importance of Effective Importance of Effective Communication for Communication for Organizational Performance Organizational Performance Effective communication and

managers' communication skills are an extremely important issue for effective organizational behavior. Effective business must succeed in all its aspects in order to both correspond to the newest market trends, and satisfy customers’ demands.

Therefore, among the most important and vital for any organization are:

Internal communication - between management and employees

External communication - between the company’s staff and clients, suppliers, vendors

Lack of effective communication may Lack of effective communication may lead to:lead to:

• Misunderstandings • Lack of information • Decrease in employees’ performance • Decrease in company’s turnover, as a resultIneffective or poor communication is frustrating

for employees, and becomes a source of a conflict. Managers' inability to clearly express their thoughts, ideas and demands leads to employees' inability to perform work well, according to the company’s demands. Such a situation may take place when an employee is not truly aware of what is requested of them. This decreases the satisfaction an employee gets from the job.

Benefits of Effective and Efficient Benefits of Effective and Efficient Communication in the WorkplaceCommunication in the Workplace• If a manager is able to communicate their ideas

clearly, and concisely, so that employees definitely know what is asked of them, the subordinates will, consequently, perform their jobs correspondingly. On contrast, an aggressive way of managing reports results in employees’ getting more and more frustrated, often guessing what their real faults were.

• A good style of management, as well as a positive approach to communication, ensures that an employee and a supervisor understand each other, and are more effective at the workplace.

• Effective communication in the workplace provides employees with a clear understanding of what is demanded from them, with knowledge of what to do and what to expect. For organizations, such a communication style creates effective performance of the staff, and, consequently, increases customer loyalty and profit.

Barriers to Effective and Efficient Barriers to Effective and Efficient CommunicationCommunication

• No matter how good the communication system in an organisation is, unfortunately barriers can and do often occur. This may be caused by a number of factors which can usually be summarised as being due to physical barriers, system design faults or additional barriers.

• Physical barriers are often due to the nature of the environment. One, for example, the natural barrier which exists, if staff are located in different buildings or on different sites.

• Two, poor or outdated equipment, particularly the failure of management to introduce new technology, may also cause problems. Three, Staff shortages are another factor which frequently causes communication difficulties for an organisation.

Barriers to Effective and Efficient Barriers to Effective and Efficient CommunicationCommunication

• Finally, distractions like background noise, poor lighting or an environment which is too hot or cold can all affect people's morale and concentration, which in turn interfere with effective and efficient communication.

• System design faults refer to problems with the structures or systems in place in an organisation. Examples might include an organisational structure which is unclear and therefore makes it confusing to know who to communicate with.

• Other examples could be inefficient or inappropriate information systems, a lack of supervision or training, and a lack of clarity in roles and responsibilities which can lead to staff being uncertain about what is expected of them.

Barriers to Effective and Efficient Barriers to Effective and Efficient CommunicationCommunication

• Attitudinal barriers come about as a result of problems with staff in an organisation. These may be brought about, for example, by such factors as poor management, lack of consultation with employees, personality conflicts which can result in people delaying or refusing to communicate, the personal attitudes of individual employees which may be due to lack of motivation or dissatisfaction at work, brought about by insufficient training to enable them to carry out particular tasks, or just resistance to change due to entrenched attitudes and ideas.

Other common barriers to effective Other common barriers to effective communication include:communication include:

• Psychological factors  • Different languages  • Individual linguistic ability  • Physiological barriers  • Criticizing• Labeling• Diagnosing.• Praising.• Ordering• Threatening.• Questioning.

The Effect of Poor Communication on The Effect of Poor Communication on PerformancePerformance

The costs to your business of poor employee communication include:

• increased employee turnover • increased absenteeism • dissatisfied customers from poor

customer service • higher product defect rates • lack of focus on business objectives • stifled innovation

Employees will put in that extra "discretionary effort" when they are kept informed openly and honestly on aspects of their job and the business and they feel that they are being listened to with empathy.

Do's For Breaking the Barrier to Do's For Breaking the Barrier to Achieve Effective and Efficient Achieve Effective and Efficient Communication to Achieve Communication to Achieve Performance Performance

• Allow employees access to resources, self expression and idea generation. Express your expectations to others.

• Use less of absolute words such as "never", "always", "forever", etc.

• Be a good, attentive and active listener. • Filter the information correctly before

passing on to someone else. • Try to establish one communication channel

and eliminate the intermediaries. • Use specific and accurate words which

audiences can easily understand.

Do's For Breaking the Barrier to Achieve Do's For Breaking the Barrier to Achieve Effective and Efficient Communication to Effective and Efficient Communication to Achieve PerformanceAchieve Performance

• Try and view the situations through the eyes of the speaker.

• The "you" attitude must be used on all occasions.

• Maintain eye contact with the speaker and make him comfortable.

• Write the instructions if the information is very detailed or complicated.

• Oral communication must be clear and not heavily accented.

• Avoid miscommunication of words and semantic noise.

Do's For Breaking the Barrier to Do's For Breaking the Barrier to Achieve Effective and Efficient Achieve Effective and Efficient Communication to Achieve Communication to Achieve PerformancePerformance• Ask for clarifications, repetition

where necessary. • Make the organisational structure

more flexible, dynamic and transparent.

• Foster congenial relationship which strengths coordination between superior and subordinate.

• Focus on purposeful and well focused communication.

• The message of communication should be clear and practical.

• Get Proper Feedback.

Dont's For Breaking the Barrier to Dont's For Breaking the Barrier to Achieve Effective and Efficient Achieve Effective and Efficient Communication to Achieve Communication to Achieve Performance Performance • Be a Selective Listener, this is when a

person hears another but selects not to hear what is being said by choice or desire to hear some other message.

• Be a "Fixer", a fixer is a person that tries to find other person's fault.

• Be a daydreamer. • Use long chain of command for

communication. • Use too many technical jargons. • Jump to conclusions immediately. • Interrupt the speakers and distract him

by asking too many irrelevant questions.

The Importance of Effective The Importance of Effective and Efficient and Efficient CommunicationCommunication

All of us communicate. It forms the basis of our lives. Communication is an exchange of ideas, thoughts and feelings between two or more persons. We communicate our thoughts and feelings to our family members, friends  and colleagues every hour of our life. To be human is to communicate. Communication is composed of interactions among many elements and it is an ongoing process.

APPRECIATIONAPPRECIATION

THANKS AND GOD

BLESS YOU ALL