When it comes to communicating with the people within your business team - whether that be your staff, supervisors, partners, or investors - we refer to this process as organizational communication. The textbook definition is known as sending and receiving messages among interrelated individuals within an environment or setting to achieve individual and common goals. So, what’s this all have to do with anything? Well, when it comes to organizational communication, there’s a delicate balance between the methods you use, and it’s highly contextual.
Business expert Marcus Joseph Debaise stresses the different methods of organizational communication, and what they each say about your inquiry. Anymore, most in-office communications are performed via e-mail, Skype or FaceTime, and even text message. Business partners, investors, and even employees no longer have much need to leave their desks, so most correspondence is done over the internet. These methods of communicating within your business are great because they’re quick and easy for everyone involved, however they can take a toll on your company morale over time.
Never underestimate the value of face-to-face communication, even in 2019 or 2020. The best businesses will organize opportunities for a face-to-face staff meeting, individual employee reviews, and holiday luncheons. This allows for quick and easy communication about daily operations, and still gives the opportunity for employees to build a personal professional relationship with you and give honest, constructive feedback.
“Successful organizations require skilled communicators,” says Marcus Joseph Debaise. “Your supervisors should encourage honest and respectful communication within the company, and foster an open channel of communication at all times.” So, it’s more than a simple e-mail memo or breakdown of today’s tasks, it’s fostering the overall morale your company is trying to achieve.
This communication channel can require a bit of trial and error before finding what works for your company, but it serves as a great opportunity to collect honest feedback on your company’s communication, goals, ethics, and morale. Organizational communication is an umbrella term that, today, fits a plethora of topics - from stress management, to interviewing, to creating positive work relationships, and conflict resolution.
Consider this - organizational communication is the gateway to your business becoming a finely-tuned, smooth operating instrument. Marcus Joseph Debaise also stresses the importance of connecting your workers with other workers, and not just with you. Not only is it important that you, as an owner or supervisor, has contact with each of your employees, but it’s equally important that your employees are talking to one another. Be sure each of your employees has easy access to various departments such as human relations, employee services, and so on.
Organizational communication, as a whole, is a way of caring for your employees by keeping an open channel for them to raise any necessary concerns, needs or wants. Not to mention, having this communication with your employees will open them up to communicating openly and freely with you. As Debaise himself says, “Knowing where your employees are at mentally within their work day is just as important as knowing where they are physically within the work day. Care for them, and they will care for you.”
