HM help

First Topic: From Abdulaziz

Barriers in Electronic Communication

I was once required by the human resources department of a company I worked for to participate in email etiquette training. In the training we discussed a lot of what is covered in chapter 10. Emails live in the middle ground of communication richness and complexity. Though face-to-face communication is more transparent and more easily understood, emails and written communication for the workplace can be content abundant and quickly received. Delayed feedback is a major problem with email communication, as are miscommunication and tone. Technology does little to reflect our emotions and thus they are subject to the perceptions of our audience. Added to that we have the common practice of sending misspelled messages or add some personalizations to emails (especially in the signature) like emojis, fancy fonts or playful colors. These errors act as the "noise" in electronic communication and may suggest that we are not focused, unprofessional or immature-- none of those are things I would want a potential client to assume when they receive my message. I have been told that I should never put anything in writing that my mother could make my mother upset. I have also been told over and over that you always should leave a "paper trail" in your outbox. What that means is that in electronic communication, for sensitive matters like business deals or making arrangements, we need to objectively document specifics with honesty in our emails and check for understanding, not agreement or acceptance. Anything that is done but not recorded simply slips out of existence. This practice is the immense benefit for hospitals and military or defense personnel. It serves as a method of ensuring that people stay honest and as a tool for after action reviews, liabilities or lawsuits and for training purposes.

Emails and other forms of electronic communication are often seen as informal and therefore a place where we can be perhaps more open or relaxed with our vocabulary or with the types of messages we send. We may also become confused about the validity of communication across different platforms. You do not send an email or a text message to your boss when you are ill (or even if you are faking it), you have to make contact. And do be considerate of how members of your organization connect with you electronically and how what you say or do can easily smudge a good business reputation for lack of "thinking first". Email or text shorthand, jokes, informal names can all add insult to a poorly constructed message or make a good message one that can be seen as representative of your true character. A couple of ways that we can avoid these problems are by re-reading our emails before sending them or by writing them and saving them then returning later to review the email. Sometimes I have a colleague review an email and get their impression. If I have to explain a lot about what I tried to explain, I know that I need to look at how I constructed my message and at my vocabulary and most importantly, at my receiver, to make worthwhile changes. We rely on electronic communication heavily for sending important data, notices, and other sensitive content so we have to respect that it is critical to be your best organized and clear self without frills or decorations.

Some of the other student’s responses (Just to give you an Idea) It might be the best responses:

From Ahmed:

Electronic communication is the process in which information is exchanged or entertainment is provided, whether on a personal or practical level using the means of modern technology, as it developed in our time and it became possible to communicate between one continent and another, between Qatar and another in a few seconds until the world became like a small village Quickly. There are many electronic means of communication and programmers and experts are still busy at this moment in trying to find easy and practical ways to communicate, it began in the first mobile phone or mobile, and then Internet chat programs, and then video chat programs. The main purpose of the modern means of communication is to help communication and bringing people closer to each other. This has undoubtedly succeeded. It has become possible to communicate with the outside world and to give and search for information without fatigue as it was in the past. Which made life easier for us and saved us a lot of time and effort, as well as allowing us to show ourselves and perhaps our hidden talents that we have always dreamed of launching.

From Nasser:

Hi, Abdulaziz.

I like the way that you shared your opinion, and I agree with you. Communication is a good function to use in everywhere but sometimes is not clear to explain the ideas. As you mentioned, the delay of response might affect and could impact in our daily life. For example, when I used to work I sent an urgent email to the tool warehouse asking them for a butterfly valve because one of the pipelines had a leak in, so they did not see my email and we had to close the line for 5 hours. In this case, we lost our time, and that cost the company more than 13 thousand dollars. To sum up, in my point of view I do not like to use emails in ordering materials from the warehouse.

Second Topic: From Ammar

Oral Vs. Written and Electronic

The methods of communicating are interesting. In my opinion, each method has its own time to be used. Things that need to be immediately taken need to be made in person, and things that are made in long-term process need to be written, which is nowadays depends on the electronic, and orally discussed from time to another. Written methods become to be used mostly in electronic method. Disregard the time consuming which is a disadvantage while using written or electronic, using electronic nowadays is much easier for generation X and Y though it is not effective in my opinion. For example, if I need to discuss something with my instructor, it will be difficult to explain everything using electronic method. Having the conversation face to face will make things much easier and faster. However, writing and electronic methods are still needed in some areas. For example, the university is using writing and electronic method to communicate with all students. It is much easier to reach them all with some flier or an email. The demand of each method depends on who to communicate, how many, the urgency, and the situation.

Some of the other student’s responses (Just to give you an Idea) It might be the best responses:

From Ahmed:

Written communications are great importance in the life of organizations, because they provide a great deal of information for action and decision-making, and because they are formal and reliable. The most important written communications are letters (or messages), internal notes, reports, resolutions, circulars, and instructions. There is also a great deal of written communication in the form of work orders, checks, disbursement orders, job completion requests, complaints, declarations, and small reports on work completion and follow-up. This section provides a set of tips and guidance for both written communications received and written communications issued. Both receiving and sending written information. Each employee and manager has a large amount of written information, whether he needs it or not. Each staff member and manager should find the current status of the information received, to find the method and system to be followed in dealing with it now and in the future. Electronic Communication the evolution of information systems and associated technology has led to an explosion in information. Which indicates the large volume of information and the multiplicity of sources. This requires every employee and manager to manage or send e-mail to him. This section provides some tips on how to receive or send you e-mail. Electronic information comes from many sources and has too much information.

From Abdulaziz:

The methods of communication are so important nowadays for everyone to participate and communicate with others. However, I totally agree with you guys about how important each of these methods communicates, and how each of them has its own time to be used and how can we use them at the right time. When it comes to oral communication, sometime supervisors would like to give a quick speech to their employees so they can know what needs to be done in a short amount of time. Also, it's important for supervisors to maintain a strategic from confused sentences or body languages to ensure that the message is clear enough and is carried across properly. On the other hand, writing and electronic communications are one of the ways to communicate in further and future situation purposes which consider under the long-term development. For example, supervisors may see this type of communication easier for them to effectively transported the message to all their employees at the same time, and the message will not change from each employee to other.