The process of management is a process of fully mobilizing people's enthusiasm, improving the efficiency of institutions and achieving the same goal of enterprises by exerting various management functions. In a sense, communication is the essence of management. Management is inseparable from communication, which permeates all aspects of management.
The so-called communication is the exchange of ideas and information between people, and it is a process in which information is passed from one person to another and gradually spread widely. Barnard, a famous organization management scientist, believes that "communication is a means to connect members of an organization to achieve the same goal". Without communication, there is no management. Poor communication is an old problem in almost every enterprise. The more complex the organization of an enterprise, the more difficult it is to communicate. Often, many constructive opinions at the grass-roots level have been stifled by layers before being fed back to senior decision makers, and the communication of senior decision-making can often not be presented to all personnel in its original form.
This paper first expounds the function of communication in management, then analyzes several common communication obstacles, analyzes the factors that cause communication obstacles, and then analyzes how to carry out effective communication management, and gives detailed examples and introductions.
The first part is the role of communication in management.
Modern enterprises, between people, between departments, between the upper and lower levels of enterprises, and between other aspects, especially need to communicate with each other, understand each other and exchange information. However, in real life, people often cross an invisible "wall" and hinder each other's communication. Although modern communication equipment is magical, it can't penetrate this invisible "wall". If the long-term communication channels are not smooth, information is not exchanged, feelings are not harmonious, and relations are not harmonious, it will affect the work and even make the enterprise go from bad to worse. Careful analysis, we will see the existence of this "wall" at any time. For example, in the production activities of enterprises, some business departments are not clear that their production activities should be coordinated with the production plan of the whole enterprise, and some even pursue their own private interests by hook or by crook, regardless of the interests of other business departments, and are even more unwilling to cooperate with other departments. They didn't think of doing this. What adverse consequences will it bring to the production activities of the whole enterprise? For example, some managers are subjective and arbitrary, and one person has the final say, but they don't listen to the opinions of their subordinates. It is even harder to criticize their mistakes. They don't know how to communicate frequently between superiors and subordinates. If their opinions and suggestions are ignored and indifferent, their enthusiasm and sense of responsibility for the enterprise will be dampened, and their subordinates will be negative and boring. In this way, once an emergency happens in an enterprise, all employees need to come up with ideas and find ways to tide over the difficulties, and employees will be indifferent and will not have any enthusiasm and enthusiasm. Therefore, we should manage modern enterprises well. It is necessary to continuously strengthen the exchange of information, data and feelings within the enterprise, so that employees can clearly know the company's principles, policies and conditions, and gradually establish a mature and perfect communication system.
The general manager of an American company attaches great importance to communication among employees. He once had a "pioneering work", that is, all the small round tables used by four people in the company restaurant were replaced by rectangular long tables. This is a major change, because when using small round tables. It's always those four people who know each other very well sit together for dinner. However, changing to a long table is different. Some strangers have a chance to sit together and chat. Staff in the research department can meet marketers or manufacturing engineers from other departments, and they can exchange views and get the information they need through mutual contact. Moreover, it can inspire each other and collide with "sparks of thought", and the company's operation has been greatly improved. The role of communication in management is multifaceted, among which the following three aspects are prominent:
1. Communication helps to improve individual and public decision-making. Any decision will involve what to do, how to do it and when to do it. Whenever encountering these urgent problems, managers need to get a lot of information from extensive communication within the enterprise, and then make decisions, or suggest relevant personnel to make decisions in order to solve the problems quickly. Subordinate employees can also take the initiative to communicate with superior managers and put forward their own suggestions for reference when leaders make decisions, or gain the approval of superior leaders through communication and make their own decisions. Communication within the enterprise provides information for various departments and personnel to make decisions and enhances their judgment ability.
2. Communication encourages employees to work in a coordinated and effective way. All departments and positions in an enterprise are interdependent. The greater the interdependence, the higher the necessity of coordination, and coordination can only be achieved through communication. Without proper communication, managers will not fully understand their subordinates, and subordinates may have a wrong understanding of the tasks assigned to them and the work they are required to complete, so that the tasks cannot be completed correctly and satisfactorily, resulting in damage to the interests of enterprises.
3. Communication helps leaders motivate subordinates, establish good interpersonal relationships and organizational atmosphere, and improve staff morale. In addition to technical and coordination information, employees need inspiring information. It can make leaders understand the needs of employees, care about their sufferings, consider their requirements in decision-making and improve their work enthusiasm. People generally require a proper assessment of their work ability. If the praise, recognition or satisfaction of leaders can be passed on to employees through various channels in time, it will cause some work motivation. At the same time, good interpersonal relationships within enterprises are even more inseparable from communication. Ideological and emotional communication can enhance mutual understanding, eliminate misunderstanding, estrangement and suspicion. Even if it can't be fully understood, it can at least be understood, so that enterprises can have a harmonious organizational atmosphere. The so-called "everyone thinks in one place and works hard in one place" is the result of effective communication.
Part II Obstacles to Effective Communication
I. Obstacles to organizational communication In management, a reasonable organization is conducive to information communication. However, if the scale of the organization is too large and there are too many intermediate levels, the information transmission from the top decision-making to the subordinate units will not only easily lead to information distortion, but also waste a lot of time and affect the timeliness of information. At the same time, top-down information communication, if there are too many intermediate levels, will also waste time and affect efficiency. According to some scholars' statistics, if the correctness of a message is 100% in the hands of top managers, it may only be 20% in the hands of message recipients. This is because, in this kind of information communication, the competent departments at all levels will take the time to screen the received information, filter it layer by layer, and then report the information out of context. In addition, there are a lot of subjective factors in the selection process, especially when the information sent involves the sender himself, which often leads to information distortion due to psychological reasons. This situation will also make information providers afraid and unwilling to provide key information. Therefore, if the organization is overstaffed, the organization setting is unreasonable, the responsibilities between departments are unclear, and the division of labor is unclear, which leads to multiple leaders, or because people have something to do and people are overstaffed, it will cause certain psychological pressure on both sides of communication and affect communication.
Second, personal communication barriers.
1, obstacles caused by personality factors. Information exchange is largely restricted by personal psychological factors. Differences in individual nature, temperament, attitude, mood and viewpoint will all become obstacles to information communication.
2. Obstacles caused by the gap between knowledge and experience. In information communication, if the gap between the two sides' experience level and knowledge level is too large, there will be communication obstacles. In addition, individual experience differences also have an impact on information communication. In real life, people often do things by experience. An experienced person often considers information communication comprehensively and carefully; And a novice is often at a loss. The characteristic is that both sides of information exchange often process information according to the general understanding of experience, which widens the gap of mutual understanding and forms communication obstacles.
3. Obstacles caused by poor personal memory. In management, information communication is often transmitted step by step according to the organizational system. However, when transmitting the same information according to the hierarchy, it is often influenced by the individual quality, thus reducing the efficiency of information exchange.
4. Obstacles caused by different attitudes towards information. This can be considered from different levels. The first is to understand the differences. In management activities, it is still common for many employees and managers to ignore the role of information, which has caused great obstacles to normal information communication. The second is the concept of interest. In a group, different members have different views on information and choose different emphases. Many employees only care about the information related to their own material interests, but not the information related to organizational goals and management decisions, which has also become an obstacle to information communication.
5. Obstacles caused by mutual distrust. Effective information communication should be based on mutual trust, so that the upward reflection can be taken seriously and the downward decision can be implemented quickly. Managers should listen to opinions without prejudice when communicating information, and encourage their subordinates to fully clarify their opinions, so as to realize real communication in thoughts and feelings, receive comprehensive and reliable information, and make wise judgments and decisions.
6. The communicator's fear and personal psychological quality will also cause communication obstacles. In management practice, the success or failure of information communication mainly depends on the comprehensive and effective cooperation between superiors and superiors, leaders and employees. But many times, these cooperations often become obstacles because of the fear of subordinates and the personal psychological quality of both sides. On the one hand, if the supervisor is too dignified and gives the impression that it is inaccessible, or the manager lacks the necessary sympathy and is unwilling to sympathize with the situation, it will easily arouse the fear of the lower-level personnel and affect the normal communication of information. On the other hand, poor psychological quality is also a factor that causes communication obstacles.
7. Obstacles caused by intuitive choice deviation. Receiving and sending information is also a form of perception. But for various reasons, people are always used to receiving some information and discarding others, which is the selectivity of perception. The obstacles caused by perceptual selectivity are both objective and subjective. Objective factors, such as the different intensity of each part of information and the different value to the receiver, will make some information easy to attract attention and be accepted, while others will be ignored. Subjective factors are also related to personal psychological quality in perceptual choice. When receiving or forwarding information, it is easy to listen to what meets your own needs and has immediate interests, but it is not easy to listen to what is unfavorable to you and may harm your own interests. All these will lead to information distortion and affect the smooth communication of information.
The third part is the management of effective communication.
I. Channels and methods of communication The life of information lies in communication. Therefore, in order to effectively manage information communication, we must work hard on information transmission.
1, the principle of fast and economical information transmission should be implemented. The so-called "more" means that in quantity, that is, more information is transmitted per unit time; Fast refers to speed, that is, information transmission should be rapid and timely, and a valuable piece of information may become worthless if it is transmitted too slowly; On the good side, in terms of quality, we should eliminate all kinds of interference in information transmission and maintain the authenticity of information; In terms of efficiency, economy requires transmitting as much information as possible in a short time with less overhead. In information transmission, these aspects are interrelated and mutually restricted, and should be coordinated with each other.
2. Distinguish between different objects when transmitting information. On the one hand, it refers to the purpose of transmitting information, on the other hand, it refers to the confidentiality of information transmission. Information is valuable, but the value varies from person to person, and the same information has different values for different people. Therefore, we should pay attention to the goal of information transmission and ensure the effectiveness of information. It is necessary to study the different needs of different objects, track the sight of information recipients, ensure the quality of information transmission, and reduce ineffective labor. In addition, when improving the pertinence of information transmission, we should also pay attention to the scope of application of information, give consideration to the confidentiality of information, and prevent information from spreading in a large area, causing unnecessary psychological burden to employees and affecting team morale.
3, to properly control the number of information transmission. In management, due to the different roles of rating agencies, each team member considers different issues. Therefore, when transmitting information, we should pay attention to controlling the quantity. In other words, the information that should be known to subordinates must be transmitted as soon as possible, and the information with limited application scope should be kept confidential. In this regard, we should pay attention to two tendencies: one is that the information is too confidential. Employees in the same enterprise, department or team keep secrets from each other, which hinders mutual understanding and coordination. Some information materials that should be kept secret are not communicated to the lower departments in time, which leads to information occlusion, unwarranted suspicion and affects the satisfaction of personal social needs. The other is the tendency to spread information at will. When transmitting information, we don't consider the confidentiality of information, don't choose the object of information transmission, and spread the collected information at will, which leads to information confusion. For managers, we should also pay attention to the review and cleaning of information, and we should not poke all the information into the meeting, which will increase the burden of the meeting and cause psychological fatigue. In short, these two tendencies will lead to gossip, which is not conducive to organizational unity and affects team morale and work efficiency.
4. Control the use of direct delivery and informal channels. The so-called direct transmission is leapfrog transmission, leaving the management information system aside and letting the communication parties talk directly. In management, this method can't be used too much, but it can be controlled under some special circumstances. For example, first, in order to quickly deal with major problems in management; Second, because the bureaucracy of the higher authorities is serious, it will hinder the prescription. Third, information with particularly strong timeliness needs to be reported to decision makers at the first time; Fourth, materials that involve personal privacy and need to be kept confidential. In order to relieve the psychological pressure of communicators and control information transmission, some enterprises have set up general manager reception days and general manager mailboxes. For the downward communication channel, some managers often insist on sending information directly to the departments in need and implementing the "feedback" system. For informal communication, we should also implement effective control, because although in some cases, informal communication can often achieve the effect that formal communication can not achieve, it may also become a channel for spreading rumors and gossip, resulting in side effects. The control of information communication is a management art and an important part of improving management level. In order to improve the management level, managers must control and manage information communication.
5. Information feedback is also needed during information processing. This is a reliable way to ensure the accuracy of information. This feedback requirement is two-way, that is, the lower authorities often provide information to the superior leaders, and at the same time accept the information query of the superior leaders; Superior leaders should also provide information to subordinates frequently, and at the same time give feedback to the information provided by subordinates to form an information cycle. Generally speaking, no matter what information processing, feedback is needed, but the ways can be different. Information with practical value can be used to make decisions and take actions; Information that has no practical value or is temporarily useless must be answered and fed back in time. A simple and effective control method is to feed back the information processing to the information provider regularly. Doing so, on the one hand, can improve the pertinence and reduce the blindness of information providing departments; On the other hand, it can strengthen the psychological communication between the sender and receiver of information, improve team morale and mobilize the enthusiasm of employees to participate in management.
1. Formal communication and informal communication channels Formal communication refers to information transmission and exchange within the organizational system according to certain organizational principles. For example, official correspondence between organizations, document transfer within organizations, holding meetings and regular information exchange between superiors and subordinates. In addition, tours, technical exchanges and market surveys organized by groups are also listed here.
The advantages of formal communication are effective, serious, binding and easy to keep secret, which can maintain the authority of information communication. This method is generally used for the transmission of important information and documents, organizational decision-making, etc. Its disadvantage is that communication is rigid and slow because it depends on the transmission of different levels of organizational systems.
Informal communication channels refer to information exchange and transmission outside formal communication channels, which are free to choose communication channels without the supervision of organizations. For example, members of the group exchange views privately, get together with friends and spread rumors and gossip, all of which are informal exchanges. Informal communication is an organic supplement to formal communication. In many organizations, most information used in decision-making is transmitted through informal information systems. Compared with formal communication, informal communication can often adapt to the changes of the situation more flexibly and quickly, omitting many complicated procedures; Moreover, it can often provide a lot of information that is difficult to obtain through formal communication channels, and truly reflect employees' thoughts, attitudes and motives. Therefore, this kind of incentive can often play an important role in management decision-making.
The advantage of informal communication is that the form of communication is informal, straightforward and fast, and it is easy to know the "inside information" that formal communication is difficult to provide in time. The basis of informal communication is good interpersonal relationship in the group. Its shortcomings are that informal communication is difficult to control, the information transmitted is inaccurate and easy to be distorted and misinterpreted. Moreover, it may lead to small groups and small circles, affecting the stability of people's hearts and the cohesion of groups.
In addition, informal communication has a predictable pattern. Psychological research shows that the content and form of informal communication can often be known in advance. It has the following characteristics:
First, the fresher the news, the more people talk about it;
Second, people who have an influence on people's work are most likely to be discussed;
Third, the most familiar people are most talked about;
Fourth, people who are related at work are often easily involved in the same rumor;
Fifth, people who have more contacts at work are most likely to get involved in the same rumor. Managers should pay full attention to these laws of informal communication, so as to put an end to negative "gossip" and use informal communication to serve organizational goals.
Modern management theory puts forward a new concept, namely "highly informal communication". It refers to the use of various occasions, through various means, to eliminate all kinds of interference, to maintain the continuous exchange of information between them, so as to form a huge, informal and open information exchange system in a group and an enterprise. Practice has proved that a high degree of informal communication can save a lot of time, avoid the sense of restraint and caution in formal occasions, solve many problems that have been difficult to solve for many years in a relaxed atmosphere, and reduce the friction of interpersonal relationships within groups.
2. Upward communication channels
Upward communication channel mainly refers to the information exchange between group members and grass-roots managers and management decision makers through certain channels. It has two forms of expression: one is layer-by-layer conduction, which is reflected step by step according to certain organizational principles and procedures. The second is leapfrog reflection. This means reducing the middle level and allowing decision makers and group members to talk directly.
The advantages of upward communication are: employees can directly reflect their opinions to the leaders and get a certain degree of psychological satisfaction; In this way, managers can also understand the operating conditions of enterprises, form a good relationship with subordinates and improve the management level.
The disadvantages of downward communication are: in the process of communication, subordinates have psychological distance due to different levels, forming some psychological obstacles; Afraid of "hard work", afraid of retaliation, unwilling to reflect opinions. At the same time, upward communication is often inefficient. Sometimes, due to special psychological factors, after layers of filtering, the information is misinterpreted, and the result is counterproductive.
Comparatively speaking, downward communication is relatively easy and condescending, and even communication facilities such as radio and television can be used; It is more difficult to communicate upward, which requires grassroots leaders to go deep into reality, reflect the situation in time and do meticulous work. Generally speaking, the traditional management mode emphasizes downward communication, and the management style tends to be authoritarian; Modern management mode is a combination of downward communication and upward communication, emphasizing information feedback and increasing the opportunities for employees to participate in management.
3. Downward communication channel managers send various instructions and policies to the lower levels of the organization through downward communication. This information usually includes:
1) job description.
2) Description of work content.
3) Policies, procedures and rules that employees should follow.
4) Employee performance feedback.
5) Various activities that employees voluntarily participate in.
The advantage of downward communication channel is that it can let the lower authorities and group members know the organization's goals and leadership intentions in time, and increase the centripetal force of employees and their sense of belonging to the group. It can also coordinate activities at all levels within the organization, strengthen organizational principles and discipline, and make the organization machine run normally. The disadvantage of downward communication channel is that if this channel is used too much, it will create the impression that subordinates are superior and arbitrary, which will make subordinates have psychological resistance and affect group morale. In addition, because the information from the highest decision-making level needs to be transmitted layer by layer, it is easy to be delayed and shelved, and there may be misinterpretation and distortion of the information afterwards.
4. Horizontal communication channels
Horizontal communication channel refers to the information transmission and exchange between individuals and groups at the same level in the organizational system. In enterprise management, horizontal communication can be divided into four types. First, the information communication between the enterprise decision-making level and the trade union system; Second, information communication between top managers; Thirdly, information communication between departments and middle managers in enterprises; Fourth, the information communication of ordinary employees in work and thought. Horizontal communication can also take the form of formal communication or informal communication. Usually the latter method is the majority, especially when the formal or pre-drawn information communication plan is difficult to achieve, informal communication is often an extremely effective remedy.
Horizontal communication has many advantages:
First of all, it can simplify procedures, save time and improve work efficiency.
Second, it can make all departments of the enterprise understand each other, help cultivate the overall concept and cooperation spirit, and overcome the selfish departmentalism tendency.
Third, it can increase mutual understanding and accommodation among employees, cultivate friendship among employees, meet employees' social needs, and improve employees' work interest and attitude.
Its shortcomings are: there are too many clues in horizontal communication and a large amount of information, which is easy to cause mixed theory; In addition, horizontal communication, especially communication between individuals, may also become a way for employees to complain and spread gossip, which will have a negative impact on the morale of scattered groups.
5, text form
When the information of an organization or manager must be widely disseminated to others or the information must be kept, written forms such as reports, memos and letters are irreplaceable. The principles for using written communication are as follows:
1) The text should be concise, try to use simple terms and delete unnecessary terms and ideas.
2) If the file is long, a table of contents or summary should be added before the file.
3) Organize the content reasonably, and generally put the most important information at the front.
4) Have a clear and definite title.
6. Oral form Face-to-face communication with oral language is the most commonly used form of management. Effective oral communication requires correct code-switching, so that information exporters can transmit information in an organized and systematic way. As for this person's output, what conditions can effectively improve the communication effect? Relevant research shows that rich knowledge, self-confidence, clear pronunciation, good tone, sincerity, strong logic, compassion, openness, honesty, good appearance, humor, humor and friendliness are the characteristics of effective communication.
7. Non-verbal communication can strengthen the information conveyed by oral communication, and can also confuse and distort the information conveyed by oral communication. Therefore, it is very important to understand nonverbal communication, and nonverbal information can be expressed in many ways.
Use space to communicate the distance between people, whether standing or sitting, office equipment and furnishings will affect communication. In various organizations, different status and power are usually displayed through the arrangement of space. Top managers generally have spacious, well-sighted and high-grade offices, and hotels and restaurants of different grades can also be expressed through spatial information.
Using clothes to communicate people's different clothes can convey certain information to each other. Because clothes can obviously affect people's cognition of different status, different identities and different groups.
Communicating with the human body and its various manners can convey a lot of information, especially facial expressions, so understanding the meaning represented by body language is an important part of effective communication.
Pay attention to the art of communication while clarifying the way of communication. According to the survey, in enterprises, production workers carry out 16-46 minutes of communication information activities every hour; For grass-roots managers, 20-50% of their working time is spent on language communication with various people, and if various forms of written communication are added, such as writing reports, the highest can reach 64%; On the other hand, managers spend 66-89% of their working time on language communication. Business leaders often have meetings, talk to people and go to the grass-roots level, a large part of which belongs to the content of communication information. Everyone in the enterprise has a lot of time to communicate, and communication should pay attention to art to be more effective, which is more important for the leaders of the enterprise.
Communication must have clear purpose, clear thinking and pay attention to expression. Before exchanging information, the sender should consider his intention and grasp the central idea. In the process of communication, we should use the language and gestures that both sides understand, and use the tone and expression appropriately. The wording should be clear and definite, but also pay attention to emotional nuances, so as to be accurate, so that the other party can effectively receive the transmitted information. It is necessary for the sender to make an appropriate explanation of the background, basis and reasons of the information transmitted, so that the other party can have a clear and comprehensive understanding of the information: if you want to assign tasks, you should conduct a comprehensive analysis of the tasks, so that you can correctly explain the tasks; If you are facing a violation of discipline, you should fully understand the situation and grasp conclusive evidence before criticizing and punishing it, so as to achieve satisfactory results.
Communicate honestly. The sender should be honest and credible, transmit true and reliable information to the other party, and maintain the persuasiveness of the information with his own practical actions. Not only that, but also sincerely strive for each other's feedback information, especially to sincerely listen to different opinions and establish mutual trust and feelings.
Communication should pay attention to the art of "listening". As a leader, in the process of communicating with employees, we should actively listen to opinions and be good at listening. Only by listening to information can he become an insightful leader. In other words, leaders should not only listen, but also understand what employees mean. Therefore, when listening to the other party, you should concentrate on it and don't be absent-minded; Secondly, don't be biased, don't interrupt the other party's speech, be eager to make an evaluation, or show impatience, which will make the other party unwilling to continue communication; Finally, be considerate, appreciate each other's emotional changes and hints, and get the message.
Communication should pay attention to the art of "speaking". To communicate with people, we should not only listen, but also speak and express our views. Be sincere and modest when expressing your views. If you expose yourself too much and pretend to be a prophet, even if you have the best opinion, it is not easy to be accepted, which will make people feel disgusted and alert. When you speak, you should be as concise as possible, express your meaning in simple and clear words, and your tone should be euphemistic and take your time. If you find that the other person has an absent-minded or bored expression during the conversation, you should stop or change the subject so that the communication can be conducted in a good atmosphere. Moreover, after indicating a certain meaning, it is best to pause for a while and give each other a consulting look. This gives the other party a chance to interrupt and respect each other's performance.
Third, the reform of communication system Communication skills and methods are important, but we must understand that communication is not only a temporary skill and method, but also an organizational system. To achieve effective communication effect, there must be institutional measures. According to the characteristics and development needs of enterprises, we should constantly reform and supplement the original communication system of enterprises.
Establish a common form of communication. In order to let managers and all employees better understand the situation of the enterprise, we can set up a column in the company's internal publications to announce employees' dissatisfaction and opinions, or distribute some brochures. And we can also establish a regular meeting system, at which we can communicate related work in time.
The workers' congress often holds workers' congresses, so that all kinds of employees can get together to express their opinions and put forward their own opinions. This is a very valuable way of communication. This kind of staff meeting does not mean once or twice a year, but aims at specific problems and encourages everyone to express their opinions in the form of meetings. The regular meeting system generally exists in enterprises, but most of the regular meetings belong to the gathering of people at the same level, and the information communication is limited. On the contrary, staff meetings are attended by a certain range of managers and ordinary employees, and members of different levels directly contact and communicate.
In short, in order to achieve efficient communication, we must constantly improve ourselves in practice, cultivate the quality of T-shaped structure (that is, wide knowledge and deep professional knowledge), clear thinking, sincere attitude, especially strong emergency thinking, so as to adjust the coping strategies in time.