Question

What communication channel would you choose to communicate an impending company-wide layoff? News about the company picnic? New corporate quality goals that will require significant changes in how your subordinates perform their tasks? Explain your choices.

"Communication is a process by which information and understanding are transferred between a sender and a receiver, such as between a leader and an employee an instructor and a student, or a coach and a football player" (Daft, 2016, page 262). For the first example I would do a verbal communication to my employees. I would gather them all together and announce what was happening and proceed with as much truthful0 information that I was aware of and answers for them as much as possible and if they wanted to speak one on one with me I would make the best possible time to speak with them and give them that respect. News on a company picnic, I would do what my company has done my superiors posted pictures with little attending slips for people to fill out if they were able to make it. Or if there is not a lot of face to face occurrences I would do emailing with the announcement. New corporate quality goals I would ensure that all my tasks are easy enough to manage for their position, and make sure I had an understanding of the tasks so if I needed to assist I would be available for my employees then proceed with a meeting and demonstrate and explain what is expected as the end result. Communication is personally my number 1 important aspect of my work, military basically drilled it into my brain and being in a civilian profession now was a hard adjustment because many places do not communicate in a way that would be effective.

agree or not?

If you wanted to communicate nonverbally with your team to create a sense of trust and teamwork, what would you do?

In (Daft, 2016, page 281) nonverbal communication is "messages transmitted through action's, behavior, facial expressions, and tone of voice, accounts for over one-half of the entire message received in an personal encounter." Any task I ensure that would that I speak to them as adults and demean there work ethic. As well as ensure that I can demonstrate the task with confidence so that there is no doubt in my employees mind of my work practices. Answering any questions to the best of my knowledge for the employees and if I can not answer the question finding the answer for them and getting back to them about it.

Answer 1

What channel of communication would you choose to effectively convey an impending company-wide layoff? News about the company picnic? New corporate quality goals that will require significant changes in how your subordinates perform their tasks? Explain your choices.

Because a company-wide lay off is non-routine, a leader would have most success with face-to-face communication, or by using a telephone. “Non-routine messages often are characterized by time pressure and surprise” (Daft, 2015, p.278). This is a non-routine message because company lay offs are normally a surprise to everyone. It is extremely important for a leader to select the correct channel of communication, and failure to do so might directly affect productivity of the company at a high level. In my opinion, it is cowardly for a leader to simply send a memo to those affected by the lay-offs and then hide in his office with no other communication. However, it is important to also send a memo so that there is documentation of the current lay-off situation; it would be best to hand this out after the face-to-face conversations. When leaders speak directly to those affected, it eliminates the possibility of the spread of false information.

For less worrisome information, such as company picnics, as it is a routine message, can be communicated through lower channels such as a memo or a letter. These can be sent out via email or paper channels.

For new corporate quality goals, especially ones that require significant changes in how my subordinates perform their work, I would use channels of redundant communication. I would accomplish this by sending the same message utilizing many different channels. I would first speak personally to the people affected by the new corporate quality goals, and those employees that have to change their performance of tasks in some ways. Right afterwards, I would write a follow-up email to those same employees with the key points that we discussed in the meetings, in which they can use for reference.

If you wanted to communicate nonverbally with your team in order to create a sense of trust and teamwork, what would you do?

Nonverbal forms of communication require electronic communication, including text messages, blogging, and emails. In order to create a sense of trust and teamwork with my team, I personally would start a group text with everyone on my team. I believe that this helps strengthen the relationships between the team as a whole because they can effectively communicate quickly.

References:

Daft, R. (2015). The leadership experience. (6th ed.) Cengage Learning. Boston,MA.

Smeltzer, Larry R., and Marie F. Zener. "Development of a model for announcing major layoffs." Group & Organization Management, Dec. 1992, p. 446+. Business Collection