aTTN: Lady Taylor PhD (Leading Organizational Change)

Running Head COMMUNICATION AND BEHAVIORAL ISSUES 0

Daniel Ortiz

Communication and Behavioral Issues in Workplaces

LDR 531

Farooq Khan

University of Phoenix

February 21, 2017

Ordinarily, communication is considered effective when clear and concise information is passed to the target audience. Communication is critical in various aspects of business operations. Some of the areas where communication may be needed in a company include marketing, conveyance of good business practices to the public, and in day to day interactions among employees and between employees and applicants (Jones et al., 2004). Effective communication often yields success while defective communication, on the other hand, hampers the realization of companies' objectives and goals.

Some of the communication challenges that businesses have grappled with in some instances include lack of ethics in people’s communicative behaviors and poor communication strategies informed by wanting business cultures and leadership styles. Ethical considerations in communication dictate how managers deal with issues such as employee dissent and concerns from the public (Jones et al., 2004). Effective communication exists in places where a great deal of effort is put in place to close the gap between ethical standards and communication. For instance, when a business operates in the backyard of environmentally conscious individuals, such a business may only forge harmony with the communities by expressing its commitments towards its corporate social responsibilities (CSR).

In cases where the CSR is conveyed to the public, communication must be made in a way that it removes the focus from the economic concerns of the stakeholder while putting emphasis on specific initiatives that affect the community. Such efforts may include environmental restoration and empowerment of the local communities. When new employees are brought on board, the selection, subsequent training, and induction process should cover the organizational obligations to communities. When steps such as proper induction of employees are overlooked or when policies are miscommunicated to the newly hired persons, a company may end up with employees who may not observe policies and guidelines that influence organizational behaviors thus resulting in complaints from the public and at worse leading into legal tussles and ruined reputation (Lang, 2005). The lack of ethics in people’s communicative behaviors could be resolved by creating a business culture that strengthens ethical communicative behavior among employees.

Secondly, the communication between personnel from the human resources management (HRM) and applicants may reveal an undesirable business culture and the leadership style of an organization. When organizations have leadership styles that qualify as downright autocratic, employees who secure employment slots in such organizations may take up their jobs while at the same time feel demotivated after experiences that make them feel micromanaged and perhaps ignored. Such experiences may arise from bad experiences between workers and supervisors. Adopting more popular leadership styles such as the transactional leadership style may expand the pool of motivated workers who may perform optimally after being hired. In the transactional style of leadership, employee remuneration may be pegged on employee skills and the level of experience. Also, employees may be gifted when they demonstrate exceptional skills and performances in the course of their duties.

Whereas leadership development should be given priority in workplaces, the focus should be on deserving individuals across generational cohorts and not on the millennial alone. The perception of managers on old workers as a behavioral issue somewhat degenerated with the advent of technology (Shore, & Goldberg, 2005). It would not be strange to see organizations that are inclined towards hiring millennial communicate vaguely to the older applicants while attempting to explain the mismatch between the applicants’ skill and the roles outlined for the sought job. When organizations discriminate applicants by age, they would do so treacherously to ensure that they do not flout employment regulations.

Although leadership cycles profiles and leadership workshops have in many cases been formed to nurture leadership at workplaces, youthful employees have emerged as beneficiaries of such initiatives at the expense of the older employees. When workshops are held, and training conducted, the old and youthful employees ought to have equal chances of participation. Age bias does not only affect old employees but also their ilk who seek employment opportunities. Formulating policies that ensure level playing field for all qualified persons irrespective of age may create more suitable work environments with people of different perspectives, skills, and vision.

Companies that are dominated by young individuals may boast of cliques of energetic and innovative people who contribute effectively towards a company’s bottom line. Whereas these enterprises may indeed have active and progressive employees, they may as well lack incredible levels of vision, brilliant creativity and wisdom that the older employees bring to the workplace. The cries to have individuals perceived as ‘digital’ to some extent reduced the population of the older persons in employment positions Shore, & Goldberg, 2005). Perceptions that paint older employees as less efficient could be dispelled during workshops. Such workshops would breed a crop of leaders who understand and appreciate age as an element of diversity and not as a factor that hampers success and hinders the realization of a company’s objective (Lang, 2005).

The appeal to have young people who demonstrate a greater understanding of technology has, therefore, impacted on the population of the old employees who may have greater insights on issues that may propel organization way ahead of competitors. The perception of old workers and the respect accorded to them have equally been affected. It would therefore not be far-fetched to make an inference that the way millennial communicate with their old colleagues has been altered in contemporaneous workplaces, and that includes interview and training. Although the older employees may lack computer skills, they may equally bring a host of other beneficial contributions to the workplace. The older individuals may understand real client issues more than their younger counterparts and hence provide more realistic and needed responses to various topics (Shore & Goldberg, 2005).

If managers need gravitas that has been missing in some workplace for a while now, then it would be incumbent upon the human resources management to ensure that they achieve a healthy mix of young and old but competent individuals at work (Shore & Goldberg, 2005). In advertising, an overwhelming majority of human resource managers have demonstrated a bias towards popular ways of advertising forgetting that basic advertisement concepts, as well as tools, have been tested and proven to be effective. While it conceivable that the millennial have views and opinions that somehow differ with those of the older generations, the changes in perception and preferences are sometimes misunderstood in their real and complete context and hence translate into disrupted business models.

References

Jones, E., Watson, B., Gardner, J., & Gallois, C. (2004). Organizational communication: Challenges for the new century. Journal of Communication, 54(4), 722-750.

Lang, M. (2005). Organizational Communication: Challenges for the New Century. Technical Communication, 52(3), 399-400.

Shore, L. M., & Goldberg, C. B. (2005). Age discrimination in the workplace. Discrimination at work: The psychological and organizational bases, 203-225.