Effective Communication
It is essential to promote the use of effective communication to increase productivity and performance in the workplace. Organizations that have communication issues tend to lag in their performance. Some of the benefits of effective communication include fostering understanding among employees and employers on the expectations of their work. Additionally, with effective communication, every party becomes aware of their roles and responsibilities. It is also easy for stakeholders to register their disappointments and encourage better work ethics when communicating better. As much as organizations need better communication systems for a conducive work environment, most places lack the strategies to effect the changes. Training among new employees and existing employees is therefore encouraged to create a culture of excellent communication methods.
Conflict and Negotiations
One of the training to be administered involves conflict and negotiations. Since the workplace comprises people who view life from different perspectives, it is natural that conflict is bound to happen (Neely & Mosley, 2018). To mitigate the risk of conflict, training on causes of disputes, dealing with arising issues, and negotiation skills are essential. Different organizations have various causes of conflict. However, some of the typical conflicts include staffing, leadership, coordination between other departments, personalities, and distinct working styles (Neely & Mosley, 2018). Staffing involves the hiring of new employees at the organization. During staffing, conflicts arise since existing members may find it hard to accept and welcome new members. The presence of new employees creates a sense of competition in the company.
Since individuals have different leadership styles, some members may not align with the rules given or the set of governance experienced at work. Work departments create conflicts since they are all interdependent (Neely & Mosley, 2018). When one department fails to deliver their work in time, they may affect a different work area. Since employees are of different backgrounds, they get to possess a variety of personalities and working methods. After learning the common causes of conflict at work, the training proceeds to educate on mitigating the risk of disagreements. Some conflict resolution methods are team building activities after staffing to break the tension between the new and existing employees. During team building, members understand their differences and hence learn ways of coexisting with each other.
Negotiation skills are a significant way of preventing disagreements. When employees understand how to initiate negotiations, they get to have harmony among themselves and their managers. During the negotiations training, the first step is letting the team know the importance of negotiations while drawing back past experiences (PON, 2020). When team members see how the lack of negotiations affected their past colleagues, they get devoted to learning ways of preventing similar occurrences. The next step involves teaching the staff different approaches to negotiations (PON, 2020). Some of the strategies include win-win situations and compromises.
By role-playing various negotiation methods, most individuals understand the skills, making it easy to practice daily. With the knowledge of ways to communicate and negotiate situations, they would quickly get what they need from the other while avoiding conflicts. After teaching on ways of practicing negotiations, it is essential to test the applicability by observing how members implement it in their workplace (PON, 2020). The implementation of such skills enables the mitigation of the risk of conflict.
Constructive Criticism
Constructive criticism is offering feedback that helps individuals acknowledge areas that need improvement (BT Editors, 2019). Through the criticism, employees or managers offer and take negatives in a welcoming way that helps them improve their work conditions. Since it is customary to correct people while working, learning how to do it objectively fosters productivity and motivation. The delivered criticism focuses on what could be improved instead of dwelling on what has gone wrong (BT Editors, 2019). Organizations that have trained on ways of using constructive criticism are at a better advantage than others.
The first step in constructive training criticism is educating about it and giving examples. During the training, I will offer reading materials that teach how feedback is vital for the organization’s growth. It is also essential to create scenarios between supervisors, superiors, and other peers in showing the applications of such criticism. For instance, acting situations where an employee has done a poor job, and their supervisor needs to correct them enables everyone to see approaches that promote stability and growth. Easing the superiority among supervisors and subordinates also makes individuals comfortable when giving criticism.
After educating and giving scenarios on constructive criticism, trainees must get a model of what they learn. For instance, offering constructive feedback during the training shows them the actual application of the same. Additionally, asking them to provide feedback about training sessions open them up to trying that in their coming days at work. Supervisors and other superiors taking feedback also make it comfortable for employees to follow on the same path. Through the positive intake of criticism, the relationship between different stakeholders also strengthens, and thus trust is built, letting people open to giving and taking corrections and feedback (BT Editors, 2019). The above steps would be impactful when teaching and fostering the use of constructive criticism at work.
Cultural Aspects
Cultural backgrounds are of significant influence in organizations and business settings. Most employees and managers tend to be from different cultures, which impacts the organization in positive ways. When cultural differences are promoted and valued, members can quickly reduce conflicts while individuals stay in a conducive working environment. Cross-cultural training helps members learn the usefulness of culture in the workplace and therefore know how to value it (Bayer et al., 2017). Besides traditional ways of facilitating the training programs, it is vital to establish virtual programs to impart cross-cultural competence.
The first training program will involve meet-ups with employees and educate them on the importance of cultural differences (Bayer et al., 2017). Through the use of bonding activities, the team will learn how to identify each other’s differences and embrace that in their daily lives. Competitive games like soccer will help members form solid bonds and realize their cultural differences should not affect their cooperation at work. Additionally, training the management on treating employees without discrimination plays a significant role in fostering cultural differences (Bayer et al., 2017). Equal treatment prevents discrimination that would otherwise be affected by culturally different people. Issuing pamphlets on different cultures helps trainees self-aware of their culture, thus motivating them to understand other people’s way of life.
The success of the training would get measured by the bond seen among members and the various ways activities got carried out. The virtual training includes video games (Bayer et al., 2017). Playing a variety of video games enables employees to see the importance of having variety in life, as with matches, only playing one of them gets dull with time. Therefore, it is essential to note that the presence of different people from various cultures helps keep the workplace a more productive place. Through observing and learning from colleagues different from them, individuals become open-minded and thus improve on performance.
Barriers to Communication
Effective communication is vital among people and should therefore be practiced. There are, however, barriers that affect communication. Some of the obstacles include organizational, personal, status, and semantic barriers (Chitraleka, 2019). Administrative barriers involve the policies kept that affect communication. Some of the policies entail the mode of communication channels such as upward, downward or lateral methods. For instance, most communication channels get done from management to other subordinates (Chitraleka, 2019). Through training, having sessions where employees are required but not allowed to communicate with their seniors help everyone identify the dangers of the upward mode of communication.
Personal barriers to effective communication involve the attitude individuals have for others. For example, when a leader feels in power and fails to respect those below them, they tend not to listen to what is being said (Chitraleka, 2019). The training also brings people with limited knowledge on better ways of communication. This inadequate information on communication and ways of improving effectiveness leaves people ignorant of how they pass information to others. Through this step, employees realize that lack of knowledge of communication is a barrier. The status of individuals is another barrier since people tend to ignore those who do not seem crucial while only pay attention to those of a similar or higher level.
Semantic barriers entail how individuals listen and interpret symbols in daily life. The linguistic abilities of people vary hence causing a constraint when communicating (Chitraleka, 2019). In the program, trainees will communicate in their native language. This step will create misunderstandings and hence make the team realize that language is a barrier to communication. It is essential to consider languages and their interpretation across every party involved (Chitraleka, 2019). In conclusion, effective communication is vital since it ensures clients and stakeholders understand each other. Learning practical communication skills promote the productivity and performance of individuals and organizations at large. Therefore, a lot of effort must be put to ensure people master the art of communication.
References
Bayer, C., Jellá, J., Kapoor, A., Matts, R., Murdoch, H., Woodruff, H., An, B., Guerlain, S. & Brown, D. (2017). The simple methodology for developing and evaluating cross-cultural virtual training systems sieds 2017. In 2017 Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium (SIEDS) (pp. 289-293). IEEE. Web.
BT Editors. (2019). Constructive criticism – Definition, examples & tips | Business terms. Business Terms. Web.
Chitraleka, B. (2019). What are the barriers of communication? Economics Discussion. Web.
Neely, P. R., & Mosley, M. (2018). Communication problems in management. International Journal of Research-Granthaalayah, 6(9), 34-40. Web.
PON. (2020). 10 negotiation training skills every organization needs. PON – Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Web.