Unit-5Effective communication

Presented byN.Vigneshwari

Imagine for a while that all people in the world are dumb and deaf. Nothing worthwhile would have ever happened in such a world except eating, drinking and other natural biological functions. What makes the difference between the ancient human race and the modem human being, is the art of communications. Therefore, the communications should be proper, appropriate and pleasant.

In every organization, communication is a three way process for each employee, as given below:

(i) To one, employee is working for-supervisors/managers (ii) To the persons working for him-subordinates/junior

employees (iii) To the persons one works with, the peers, counterparts,

customers and suppliers (both internal and external) Thus, communication is a three way process and every

employee should communicate effectively in all the three roles,

Upward communication means communicating with seniors. The senior executives would have assigned specific tasks to their junior employees. In their busy schedule, they mayor may not be able to check the progress in the task assigned. It is the duty of the junior employee to inform the senior at periodic intervals about the progress of the special task in hand. They may get stuck in the process and may not be able to progress further due to genuine problems. It is important at that stage to inform this to the senior and take his advise. There is nothing wrong about it.

The senior will not mistake such communications as an unnecessary query posed by the employee. When the employee comes across an obstacle and is not able to cross it inspite of his best efforts, even with the help of peers, he should inform the senior at the earliest possible opportunity. The senior can quickly find a way out for the problem. The senior may not be able to explain the solution in great detail, again since he has no time. The junior should listen carefully; stop the senior when he does not understand. Later the junior should try out the idea given by the senior in all seriousness and report back to him. The employees should also inform the seniors when the job has been completed successfully.

Every employee should communicate with juniors. The junior employee will not have the same education, experience or expertise as that of the senior. Therefore, the senior has to communicate with the junior patiently and in detail. The juniors may require repetition of the message at times. It is the responsibility of the seniors to align their juniors with the vision statement, mission statement and quality policy. Such alignment will come onl y out of hard work on the part of the senior and his allocating enough time for this purpose. The senior should not get agitated when the junior takes time to understand or implement.

The communication is not restricted to shop floor work, but is also about the behaviour and mannerism of the employees. Sometimes it should be aimed at developing the personality of the juniors. Communication should emphasize teamwork, quality in all activities, total quality management and latest developments in the field of work. The senior should coach the employee to improve the skills day by day.

Communicating with peers is equally important. This has assumed significance since the organizations have to establish customer-supplier relationships to practice TQM. Adequate communications is essential between customers and suppliers. The suppliers should be told about the requirements. Similarly, the suppliers should give information to the customer about the product or service delivered, its strengths and (if unavoidable) weaknesses.

The concepts discussed about external customer-supplier relationships apply equally to internal customers and suppliers. The relationship should be right. The customer has to bring out the defects in clear terms. It could be in a polite manner, but without losing the point. Instead of waiting for written communications, the suppliers can visit the customer to find out, initially the requirements and later whether the supplied item meets the requirements. Similarly, the customer can disturb the suppliers as many times as needed to clarify his doubts on the item. The employees should work for a win-win situation with peers, customers and suppliers.

Communications is a never-ending process. The management should be a catalyst for effective communications across the organization. Monthly Board Meetings and Quality Council Meetings are the forums for communications. They should be used to share the views about quality and related information. There should be departmental and interdepartmental meetings, problem solving sessions which contribute to effective communications. In addition, the organizations could bring out periodic newsletters, bulletin boards, etc. for enhancing communications. They could issue circulars periodically to popularize new ideas or share success and concerns.

Total quality management – Subburaj Ramasamy

Thank you