Introduction
Optimization of organizational activity is an essential indicator of the competitiveness of any company, especially in the face of constant global challenges. One of the tools for achieving goals is special communication skills that help improve performance in general and individual business processes in particular. Effective communication between employees in a team affects many aspects of the workplace, including employee engagement, morale, and job satisfaction, and hence the company’s overall success. With current trends requiring timely and fast communication between multiple departments in many large companies, effective communication across teams at different scales is becoming one of the essential skills for every employee. Moreover, there are many positive correlations with various measures of personal achievement and success at the company level, which will be discussed in this paper. Finally, communication in a virtual environment highlights a significant point, which is an urgent agenda in any organization.
Goals and Objectives
The goals and objectives of each organization are based on its mission and vision. These aspects form the vector of the company’s development, to which business processes should be oriented. Effective communication acts, in this case, as a tool to achieve these goals. First, this paper will discuss the advantages of this tool with specific examples from scientific sources. Effective communication, namely changing communication processes or training employees in the appropriate skills, really contributes to approaching the goal or vision of companies. For example, studies show successful practices for building personal relationships within a team in the IT sector in a virtual environment, while the introduction of a culture of communication, diversity, and inclusiveness contributed to an increase in sales and the attractiveness of vacancies in the retail sector (Cripe & Burleigh, 2022; Dal Mas et al., 2022). Since many tasks in each company are similar, the positive dynamics of this tool can be asserted.
Satisfaction
Employee satisfaction in the workplace is a direct determinant of a company’s success. Many studies have proved this thesis; in particular, it emphasizes the importance of the atmosphere in the team as a regulatory factor for this indicator (Wikaningrum & Yuniawan, 2018). Although the relationship between team communication and satisfaction is more complex and multi-component, a positive trend is observed. In particular, many companies set their goals for employees’ personal growth and success, highlighting the staff as the principal value and the key to the organization’s development (Wikaningrum & Yuniawan, 2018). As a result, the mechanisms of team interaction become an internal factor in the value culture of the company and, accordingly, its performance indicators, which often appear in financial reports.
Involvement
Involvement in the work process is the cause of the employee’s interest and the connection between personal interest and the desire to fulfill the company’s goals. At the same time, this factor is a consequence of satisfaction, and its relationship between improved financial performance and effective communication has also been proven by research (Duthler & Dhanesh, 2018). Here, the individual characteristics of workers should be taken into account since the characteristics of beliefs, nationality, and corresponding principles and character traits play functional, if not motivational, roles (Duthler & Dhanesh, 2018). By improving processes and communication skills, employees reduce toxicity and focus more on specific tasks; personal interest is extrapolated to the group scale. The remaining task of leaders is to direct the team’s interest in line with the company’s goals.
Culture and Corporate Ethics
The standards for effective communication include, among other things, relatively specific skills and generally accepted etiquette, which in turn create a unique culture of communication within the team in the company. As a rule, the established norms are formed within the team and are not dictated from the outside since there is no need for control. In turn, external features form the so-called corporate ethics, which is already dictated by management. Effective communication between these levels of the hierarchy in the organization contributes to creating standards that satisfy modern global trends, do not contradict the company’s mission, and meet each employee’s needs (Dal Mas et al., 2022). The key feature of this phenomenon is the formation of a value base, which is increasingly a critical determinant of an employee’s choice of a vacancy.
Formats and Channels
The communication format plays a vital role in forming an effective communication strategy in a team. The verbal type is closely intertwined with the current online opportunities provided by video and audio calls, allowing contact with the interlocutor almost anywhere and anytime. Non-verbal communication can replace lengthy verbal procedures with the help of body language and glances, but only under the condition of high coherence and understanding of each other in the team. Written communications can also be associated with the virtual environment, with channel diversification specifically in the virtual environment benefiting the team’s effectiveness, as studies show (Morgan et al., 2014). While this format deprives the process of some non-verbal tools anyway, its use is often much more motivated by the benefits of accessibility and convenience that make up for any disadvantages.
Styles
Communication styles in a team are individual and, in practice, are a complex system of each component of the existing classification. However, to build effective team communication, they should be taken into account by the interlocutors. This ability is emotional intelligence and will be described later. Passive team members tend to hide their ideas and thoughts, while aggressive team members are more likely to express them at any, even inopportune, moment. Passive-aggressive is inherently vague, while assertive can offend the other person while being completely sincere. The process of building effective communication consists of minimizing these risks, the correct distribution of roles according to the company’s goals, and introducing a culture that will protect against conflicts with acceptable behavior of team members.
Skills
Active Listening
The critical aspect of effective communication is teamwork skills, which are mostly unique and typical for any team. Taking into account the peculiarities and specifics should lie on the shoulders of the leaders who manage this process. The first skill is the ability to listen carefully: without this skill, it is impossible to establish communication between two or more interlocutors. A clarifying question during a dialogue that arose as a result of the respectful attitude of the interlocutor can often save much time in the future. This skill is closely intertwined with attentive reading when it comes to business correspondence in a virtual environment: at the level of interaction, these abilities are equal; what distinguishes them is the focus of action.
Respect
Critical thinking is distinguished among the skills of effective communication in a team, but if we go further, then this aspect unfolds to respect for the interlocutor and opinion. Respect also includes an emotional component that discourages toxic relationships, aggression, or anger when faced with opposing opinions. A further consequence is critical thinking, which allows one to take different points of view, regardless of one’s own. In a team, despite a precise distribution of roles, everyone can become the author of an idea for optimizing a process due to the ability to look from the outside. Another consequence of respect is openness, contributing to the easy implementation of new changes. In addition, team members will experience much less stress and hide their opinions and grievances if they know their point of view will be considered.
Perspicuity and Concreteness
Eliminating ambiguity from communication contributes to the accuracy of the utterance. This construction gives the speaker confidence that they will be understood correctly, and the interlocutor has no maneuvers left to think out the message. As a result, the percentage of errors decreases, and the risks of the human factor and the likelihood of letting the client down (Lehman et al., 2019) decrease. On the part of the speaker, with ambiguous statements, the interlocutor may not understand the motive and convict the partner of secrecy – many options that will not improve the atmosphere in the team. Clarity also saves time, as a well-formulated phrase is more quickly analyzed by a colleague, mainly if it uses the active voice; there are no phraseological units and complex vocabulary only if the specifics of the workflow do not require it. Otherwise, communication time increases significantly, business processes are stalled, and the company is likely to lose profit and the employees – the opportunity to develop.
Empathy
Empathy promotes understanding, establishing closer personal contact, and making it possible to feel more comfortable in the team. In this case, to improve efficiency, it is proposed to change the point of view on things that seem negative in the workflow context for the employee (Lehman et al., 2019). For example, the opinion of a team member contradicts the majority, but the rightness has not been proven. In this situation, the employee should consider the process as healthy competition and not a reason for frustration or resentment. Attention to views and opinions, like respect, should be shown in speech using constructions that mention the critical principles of the point of view of the interlocutors so that they see the depth of understanding on the part of the employee. At the same time, empathy can bring communication in a team to a high personal level of trust, which even slightly separates it from the level of work processes, putting the values of respect above potential conflicts.
Emotional Intelligence
Vital emotional intelligence helps understand the interlocutor’s emotions, realize one’s emotions, and abstract them. EQ helps to extract communicatively significant information from difficult situations and operate with them. Often, this skill convinces and guides customers. The level of EQ determines how a person will build communication, solve complex problems, and deal with difficulties. A high level of emotional intelligence helps build a successful career, be productive, build teamwork, and stay motivated (Presbitero, 2021). In a virtual environment, this ability is most valuable since a person often does not see non-verbal signs betray the interlocutor’s state. However, the development of this skill also leads to an understanding of the characteristics of representatives of other cultures, which also introduces the concept of cultural intelligence (Presbitero, 2021). The correlation between the effectiveness of communication in a team and the presence of these abilities is also proven by this study.
Completeness
Completeness is practically equal in meaning to sequence since, for the most part, it reflects a person’s ability to keep actions and words in agreement. In this case, team members will be much more comfortable communicating with each other if all their actions are predictable and motivated. Otherwise, inconsistent behavior does not allow building at least some long-term plans to create a well-functioning mechanism of roles and actions. Understatement, silence, and complexity should be leveled by appropriate motives, which in turn meet the requirements of the interests of the company and the team at the same time. The full implementation of goals within the framework of business processes is possible only with the consistent work of each of the employees, while it is crucial to separate improvisation and creativity from inconsistent behavior.
Virtual Environment
As a result, implementing these skills in the office environment is quite obvious, but it has its specifics in online communication. First, the absence of non-verbal cues in written or audio interactions can contribute to conflicts due to misunderstandings, even if the interlocutors did not pursue this goal. This competence is part of emotional intelligence, which must now be realized even in such limited conditions, together with respect and empathy. Secondly, culture plays a vital role as a separate complex ability, including knowledge and erudition, empathy at the level of emotional intelligence, and appropriate communication norms. Thus, even in absentia, a value base and an unspoken code of communication are formed in the team. Finally, the competencies of technical capabilities become a tool for operational functionality and the ability to bring non-verbal symbolic signs into this kind of communication. Accordingly, the employee must understand such technologies to build a healthy atmosphere in the team.
Conclusion
Any company that explicitly involves teams of people in its business processes needs to implement practical communication skills, either by implementing a code or by learning or adopting good practices. It promotes engagement, satisfaction, and ethical team spirit, which determines the organization’s success. The classification of such communication allows updating knowledge in this area to adjust the relevant skills of employees. It should be noted that, for the most part, competencies are common to many processes, regardless of their specifics. These facts make effective communication a unique and affordable tool for optimizing business processes, improving financial performance, and achieving other goals dictated by the mission and vision of the company. As seen in the figure above, it can be said that effective communication is at the heart of any success of an organization, in the middle of which are happy and motivated employees.
References
Cripe, K. M., & Burleigh, C. (2022). Examining leadership skills, behaviors, and effective communication for virtual IT project managers. Team Performance Management: An International Journal, 28(3/4), 223-237. Web.
Dal Mas, F., Tucker, W., Massaro, M., & Bagnoli, C. (2022). Corporate social responsibility in the retail business: A case study. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 29(1), 223-232. Web.
Duthler, G., & Dhanesh, G. S. (2018). The role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and internal CSR communication in predicting employee engagement: Perspectives from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Public Relations Review, 44(4), 453-462. Web.
Morgan, L., Paucar-Caceres, A., & Wright, G. (2014). Leading effective global virtual teams: The consequences of methods of communication. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 27(6), 607-624. Web.
Lehman, C. M., DuFrene, D. D., & Walker, R. (2019). BCOM (with MindTap, 1 term printed access card) (MindTap course list) (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.
Presbitero, A. (2021). Communication accommodation within global virtual team: The influence of cultural intelligence and the impact on interpersonal process effectiveness. Journal of International Management, 27(1), 100809. Web.
Wikaningrum, T., & Yuniawan, A. (2018). The relationships among leadership styles, communication skills, and employee satisfaction: A study on equal employment opportunity in leadership. Journal of Business and Retail Management Research, 13(1). Web.