Organisational Communication (Byte Size Skills Course)

Organisational Communication Course In this course, we introduce theoretical frameworks of communication which can be applied to people in organisations. Also we establish the importance of communication at all levels and within all areas of organisations. "Why don't you people communicate?" is far too often the exasperated outburst from customer to supplier, from supplier to customer, from subordinate to manager, from manager to subordinate and from colleague to fellow colleague. If the most common saying for failure is one of "I was never told", perhaps the next most common saying would be "But I was never asked!". The problem with organisations is that they consist of more than one person. Without them there would be perfect linkage between operations; the sort of ideas given by theorists such as Fayol would be faultlessly carried out via principles such as unity of command and direction. Agreed goals could be worked towards unerringly. There would be a sharing of perfect knowledge on product and technical information. Customers would provide unambiguous specifications; suppliers would provide goods and services which exactly fulfilled these requirements. The results of actions undertaken would be effortlessly carried back and further action taken as appropriate. There would be clarity of understanding of thoughts, feelings and emotions. However, often this doesn't happen by the very nature of ourselves as human beings, the tasks which are to be accomplished in the work situation, and in our increasingly complex living environments. We can, therefore, look at communication as being an enabling factor which allows us to perform the work of the organisation. We can look at effects on and barriers to this process. Clearly it is extremely important for us to understand how these might arise, if we are to take a determined look at...