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Written Assignment Unit 4

“Organizational Communication”

Department of Business Administration, University of the People

BUS 5113 - Organizational Theory and Behavior Program

Instructor: Professor Doctor Ram Shukla

December 2, 2022
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Abstract

Regarding Saylor (n.d.), organizational communication is an essential tool for effciency and

productivity of a working organization, which is defined as a manner of “sending and receiving of

messages among interrelated individuals within a particular environment or setting to achieve

individual and common goals”. The business outcome of the organization is blooming only when

effective communication is flown inside the organization.

Background of the Case Study

At a local processing plant, supervisors and employees were facing low quality of mail sortation

resulting in mis-sorted, mis-delivered, and mis-sequenced mail. Delivery was being delayed and

mail returns were unacceptably high. Machine performance was substandard and overtime usage

was high. Employee performance was not being addressed for fear of union shop intervention.

Customer complaints continue to rise. The current performance of 93% was below the

breakthrough goal of 98%. The plant manager summoned the leadership team to discuss possible

solutions to this ongoing problem. In research of the Case Study, the report will examine the reason

leading the failure of the new improvement plan and then provide recommendations and

suggestions for improvement.

Communication issues in the case

Regarding the communication in the local processing plant, many issues had been figured out,

inter alia including:

First of all, it was witnessed that the unqualified processing standards resulting in mis-sorted, mis-

delivered, and missequenced mail have arisen from the poor internal process communication inside

the plant.
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Secondly, the pressure on the staff of the plant caused by fear of union shop intervention leads to

they fail to receive feedback from the managers and supervisors. This results in the failure of their

function and poor work activity as well as an enormous proportion of complaints from clients.

In addition, there is no attendance of subordinates in the discussion for implementation of the plan

in regards of the current low-standard situation and productivity-improving implementation plan

and these subordinates could not know the expectation and effective plan for implementation.

Last but not least, the improvement plan was constructed to improve the working process quality

of employees, none of the floor management staff is provided with such a plan because they were

not the decider in the plant. Therefore, they are not aware of any plan and/or any decision was

made without any required information dissemination and communication for implementation

provided to them.

Communication channels that were bypassed

The channel organizations use to communicate greatly affects how information is passed on.

Communication can be verbal. Effective managers use more non-verbal communication channels

(Allen and Griffeth, 1997). In the case study, many communication channels were bypassed.

Employee involvement is also necessary when programs are being implemented. Every member

of the organization should be part of or play a role in the design phase of the program. However,

in the discussion for the breakthrough improvement plan, there is a bypass and no involvement of

subordinates in the signifiant discussion. In addition, none of the floor management staff is

provided with such a plan and the communication channels with the staff were bypassed, which

lead to miscommunication of one implementor of the plan. All in all, the communication manners

(such as direct meetings, written documents, or electronic communications with the subordinates

and floor staff were bypassed, which was the main cause of the low work outcome.
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Solutions for implementing the improvement plan effectively

For the effective understanding and implementation of the improvement plan, the communication

is vital inside the plant (Shrm, 2022). Firstly, in regard of the discussion of the impovement plan,

all the employees of the plant (i.e both managers and subordinates) should participate and be

disseminated the meaning of the plan and its implementation schedules of each member, each

department, and the whole plant in connection with the plant. Second, all participants of the

improvement plan should be clearly understood the plan for implementation. For effective fllow

of the plan information, the following communication channels should be taken into account: face

to face, workshops, questions and answers sessions, plant, group and team discussion,

telecommunication channels (such as WhatsApp and Zoom cofference), Intranet, training via

Videos, Webcasts and progressional emails (Shrm, 2022). In the regard, the outcome is that all

improvement plan elements are correctly and properly understood and implemented by all

employees in the mail process of the plants for work efficiency and productivity.

Conclusions and suggestions for effective program implementation.

The success of organizations is based on the fact of how their members communicate. This is

proven via the best preparation, feedback and practice obtained from the communication to

guarantee the understanding and implementation correctness (Stahl, 2022). Comprehensive

communication is a significant management manner in all organizations. There are enormous

channels to smooth comprehensive communication to meet individual and whole goal (for

instance, to introduce new company policy, to obtain employees’ feedback, or to implement a plan

for a team, group or organization as a whole) (Stahl, 2022). In a nutshell, proper and

comprehensive communication will result in the efficiency and productivity of the organizations

on their end.
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REFERENCES

Communication in organizations. (n.d.). In Encyclopedia of small business. Reference for

Business. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Clo-Con/Communication-in-

Organizations.html

Saylor (n.d.). In Survey of communication study, Organizational

communication. https://resources.saylor.org/wwwresources/archived/site/wp-

content/uploads/2012/05/COMM001_Wikibooks_-Survey-of-Communication-Study_Chapter-

11_5.11.2012.pdf

Shrm. (2022, August 1). Managing organizational communication. SHRM.

https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-

samples/toolkits/pages/managingorganizationalcommunication.aspx

Stahl, A. (2022, October 12). The secret to successful communication. Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ashleystahl/2018/07/27/the-secret-to-successful-

communication/?sh=655c34172df0