Effective Communication
Communication is a vital factor in any project and especially in today’s workplace. Without effective communication ideas cannot properly be expressed, deadlines could not be met, basically people would not be able to do their jobs efficiently. This week , three different forms of communication in the workplace were examined . These modalities proved to be very informative about how communication can be effective.
Email
Although this is probably most common, email doesn’t show the appropriate urgency of meeting a deadline or show how a person really feels about a particular part of a project or any other job responsibility. Messages through email can be sent very quickly and through great distances without having the other person(s) in attendance.
Voicemail
Voicemails can help show a sense of urgency and convey a real sense of emotion but the delivery can be a problem. Voicemails are dependent upon when the other person checks the message and cannot be sent to more than one person at one time.
Face to Face Interaction
This modality is probably the most traditional method of transferring information. Through face to face interaction ideas, emotions, and importance can easily be transmitted. In the past, this form of communication was totally dependent upon having that other person(s) in your immediate presence, but through modern technology we can now send video messages as easily as we would an email.
Each of these modalities have their own strengths and weaknesses and depending on the situation each could effectively be used in any project.
Norris I agree that email correspondences are one of the most common forms of communication with in the workplace and that they don’t always show the urgency that the sender might want to convey. It is challenging to use emotion in writing. You also wrote how each mode of communication has its “own strengths and weaknesses depending on the situation.” There are going to be times when face-to-face interactions need to be the case and others when a short email will suffice.
ReplyDeleteNorris, you make a terrific point about the necessity of communication success being dependent on the technology used to communicate. I believe while email is used daily and by just about everyone, the technology of email (along with texts and Tweets) are considered almost ephemeral, in that once you read them they pass through your short-term memory and don't have sticking power. Voicemail, while more immediate and able to convey tone, intent and inflection, is dependent upon telephony technology which most people consider outdated and I believe this also may lend the message to pass quickly through short-term memory. Among the three, the face-to-face has the immediacy of an email or text, with the tone, inflection and non-verbal communication necessary to help the receiver of the message process the information more rapidly and contextually.
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ReplyDeleteHi Norris, you asked, "Which of these three modalities do you feel you are most likely to use in the workplace?" The modality I feel that would most likely be used in the workplace is f2f modality. For example, f2f is conducted either casually via a walk-around monitoring technique or in passing. On the other hand, formal meetings are the following: kickoff meetings, initiation meetings, interview meetings, or team meetings. They are all in person in a synchronous teleconference that all stakeholders have agreed to participate by appearing at a pre-arranged timed meeting. Today, we can appear on Skype too.
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