Roles Communication Play In Business – Nowadays, it is hardly possible to see a good business organisation with no serious investment in communication. This is because everyone communicates at work.
Employees maintain intimacy with one another and also ensure effective official communication with the clients and management. They do this by writing, speaking and other non-verbal cues.
Today, new media revolution is setting a new pace in information communication across offices and business worldwide as organisations now use ICT tools to send and receive messages.
Effective business communication is essential for success and growth of every organization. Unlike everyday communications, business communication is always goal oriented.
There are various roles communication play in business environment starting from how it improves employee engagement, eliminates email overload, increases employee productivity, improves interdepartmental communications, increase brand awareness, improve employer brand and attract high-quality candidates, boost marketing efforts by helping to increase sales.
Secrete Roles of Communication In Business
Business communication involves constant flow of information within and outside a company. These are some of the roles of communication in business:
1. Setting Goals and Objectives:
Organisations set goals or mission as they seek to serve the interests of the shareholders, customers, employees and other external bodies.
In most cases, the goals will centre on satisfying customers and offering them better services and products above the offerings of their competitors, ensuring that the welfare of the employees are adequately catered for, delivering on their promises to the shareholders, contributing to general economic and societal development, and maintaining good business ethics in the society.
These goals must be understood and shared by everybody who has something to do with the success of the organisation. Management must decide how to achieve these goals and who must achieve them.
In all of these, management must communicate from the scratch to finish by assigning responsibilities, monitoring and ensuring that the goals are achieved.
The procedures and expected results must be duly communicated while assigning duties for proper understanding and execution of the goals. It is also important that new employees
2. Making Decisions:
Goals and objectives are just mere paper works when they are not implemented. People in the organisation would have to make decisions and map out strategies for implementing the goals and objectives.
Decisions about what to buy, how much to invest, who is to head a committee or section, what is expected of the employees and the employers, products to be designed for customers, distribution networks, services to be rendered, modalities for remunerating and promoting workers e.t.c. require communication.
Both the subordinates and the managers need information for them to make the right decisions for the organisation.
Furthermore, managers communicate their decisions to various sections and ensure that the decisions are implemented, and the subordinates also report back to the managers using appropriate communication networks.
3. Leading Role:
To be an effective leader, one must be able to communicate convincingly, effectively, and efficiently. Good communication skills allow a leader in an organisation to motivate his or her subordinates to believe in the cause of the organisation and perform their duties as expected.
Leading an organisation or a section of it requires effective communication skills (speaking, reading, writing and listening).
A good leader in a business organisation needs to a good speaker to inform and educate others about the activities or programmes of the organisation; most of his or her communication will come in forms of memo, letter, e-mails, facsimiles etc.
Appropriate listening skills also contribute to the success of the organisation since workers love leaders who are attentive, caring, leaders who create the right environment for everybody to contribute their ideas or opinions during discussions and meetings.
Good leaders are readers. They read about current trends in organisational management, economic management, management psychology, career development, motivation and many others.
4. Establishing Relationships:
Almost everybody working in a business environment is meant to be a relationship builder. This is because everyone is the image maker of the organisation.
Therefore, what you say, what you do not say, the way you say it and how you refuse to say it affect your organisation.
The workers in most cases establish relationships first with loyal and potential customers before they (customers) meet the managers, and their communication with customers is very important in building customer loyalty, providing information and gaining potential customers.
For the organisation to recruit workers, it must advertise vacancy, conduct tests and interviews and write to recruit successful applicants. These new workers would be introduced to the establishment and be properly instructed to perform their responsibilities.
Workers usually form associations and develop intimacy with one another even beyond official interaction at office.
Communication is therefore very important in establishing relationships between the managers and the employees, and between one employee and the other.
5. Measuring Performance:
Managers need information on company product, sales force, market situation, consumer behaviour, interests and spending trends, distribution networks and product movement.
Financial managers would like to know about company investment, share movement, assets and liabilities of the company and shareholding.
At the end of a financial year, all sections are expected to submit business reports stating the performance of the workers and the major achievements and challenges of the various sections.
These reports are compiled to produce an Annual General Reports for the company. With this, the company itself, shareholders, new investors, customers, regulatory organisations and the general public can obtain necessary information on the performance of the organisation for a year.
6. Motivation Booster:
Motivation is an important tool for boosting workers’ morale and encouraging them to perform optimally. A good manager must be able to persuade the subordinates, listen to them, show empathy when they have challenges and reward excellence to encourage the workers.
To motivate workers, one must be able to speak, read, listen and write to communicate at different levels using different methods.
If care is not taken, lack of motivation leads to strike and boycotts, drop in output, disloyalty and eventual collapse of business. A manager must motivate his or her subordinates to believe in the organisation, participate in decision making and represent the organisation anywhere they are.
They must know that their welfare is important to the organisation, that they will be promoted as and when due, that their salaries and other benefits will be paid regularly and that they have a future in the establishment.
7. Controlling:
When leaders in business organisations fail to communicate, workers make-do with grapevine leading to conflicts. All departments must live and grow the goals of the organisation.
When there is lack of understanding and harmony, departments promote different goals which can be detrimental to the development of the company.
Leaders must clearly communicate for subordinates to understand reasons for actions and policies, and for them to know the line of action to follow.
Control communication requires an organisation to use established formal communication channels to assign roles, disseminate decisions, steps and procedures to be followed, expected outcomes and the time span for executing tasks.
When clear control communication is established and there is free-flow of information, there will be no room for misunderstanding.
Reference: E.O. Soola And O.J. Oyedele (Business and Organisational Communication) Department of Communication and Language Arts Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan Ibadan Nigeria.
