600 Wk1 Db1 Res1 (75 Words)

Respond to…

Communication skills are important to organizational success because they determine how effective your organization’s message is being understood. Understanding is the final step in the communication process that validates the transmitting and receiving of the message. In his book, Management Communication, Donald Baack defines communication as, “Communication is the transmitting, receiving, and processing of information”. If any one of these three components is missing or incorrectly composed then the communication cycle breaks down and the message is lost. For an organization to grow and continue operations, recruiters must recruit and hire talent with good communication skills so the message is not lost.

When communication breaks down in the workplace a number of issues can arise which ultimately result in an increased cost of doing business. Take for example a company that decides to run a promotional campaign for product “A”. The company does not tell the manufacturing section that they are running a promotion for product “A” and guaranteeing customers it will be on the shelves for the holiday season. Company salesmen go out and secure orders telling customers that they will have this product for the holiday season and customers are relying on this product for increased sales.

When the manufacturing section starts to get large orders for product “A” they realize that they cannot make enough product “A” in time to fill the orders because it was not on their production schedule. Manufacturing will have to retool other lines to meet the demand for product “A”. Retooling means that the employees will have to work overtime during the holiday season (low morale), changing a line means there will be defective or substandard parts during startup (re-work), and customers who were in the production schedule before the retooling may not get their products as promised (dissatisfied customers). All these items result in increased operating costs and loss of customer goodwill.

Effective communication skills to avoid this situation could have included; notifying the manufacturing section of the promotion and the anticipated number of product “A” that would be needed over the holiday season so they could plan accordingly; interfacing with the scheduling department to work the increased demand into the production schedule, and  notifying workers ahead of time that they may need to work overtime so they can plan for it accordingly.