Decision making constitutes an important function for any business organization. Well thought out decisions, quickly taken, lead to better results. Such decision making is spread across all the functional areas— personnel, marketing, accounts, production and maintenance. Day in and day out, people in organizations keep taking decisions at various hierarchical levels.
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People at higher levels in the organization command respect depending upon their decision-making abilities. Any such decision making, however, depends on the availability of adequate and timely inputs.
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It calls for facts, figures, analysis, deliberation, clarification, confirmation and evaluation. Communication—both oral and written—facilitates decision making in any business organization.
1. The objectives of communication, it must be emphasized, are dynamic and ever-changing. Depending upon the nature and functions of the organization, the range of people it deals with, and the sensitivities involved, the process of communication assumes new dimensions.
In order to caution, counsel, persuade, clarify, elicit support, reprimand, organize, apprise, evaluate and achieve numerous other objectives, people in organizations resort to communication. Business organizations today function in an extremely dynamic context. Nothing ever remains the same for long.
There are mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, high employee turnover, low customer loyalty, move towards corporate governance, outsourcing, paperless offices and flexible work hours. All these developments have had their impact on the conventional methods of organizational communication.
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2. Inasmuch as organizations themselves are adapting to changes in their operating environment and are facing new challenges, the contours of business communication will have to undergo a change.
Communication systems, concepts and approaches will have to cope with new demands on business and there is a constant need to review the adequacy of existing methods and practices. Communication is essentially a support system for any business.
With every change in the profile of business, the process of communication has to see refinements. Let us take an illustration. Till recently, a supervisor in an organization would consider having a ‘long chat’ with an employee whose productivity had declined or had started showing indifference to work.
The typical scene has undergone a noteworthy change. Today, there may not be much of an opportunity to have a long, focused person-to-person ‘chat.’ With flexible working, outsourcing and limitations of time, new approaches will have to be found.
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Although internet ‘chatting’ facility may be available in some places, the advantages of person-to-person verbal communication are certainly not there. Every new situation translates into a need for new approach to communication.
To cope with new situations and emerging challenges in business, people associated with the process of communication will have to be necessarily creative and innovative.
3. The objectives of communication, both internal and external, thus cover multifarious facets of organizational functioning. Within the organization, it covers varied functions such as planning, directing, controlling, coordinating, reviewing, monitoring and staffing.
It facilitates appropriate feedback so vital for decision making and relationship building. Marketing, selling, goal-setting, employee counseling, team-building, performance highlighting, image-building, morale-building and community orientation are all valid objectives which communication seeks to achieve in an organizational context. Communication supports every business function.