Communication and Decision making

While decision making may require good leadership skills not good communication skills, communication in an organization is very important it affects how decisions are made and the quality of those decisions at every level of the organization. Decisions are based on information and information is gathered by management through all types of communication. Without effective communication how will the organizations vision be translated to the employees? And for the organization to be successful, management and leadership must communicate effectively to their employees and teams. Communication is an aspect of everything that humans do, and how well we communicate often majorly impacts how successful we are in life. According to Baack (2012) “Communication may be defined as transmitting, receiving, and processing information”. The information we process may be in words, symbols, and numbers or non-verbally with our hands or facial gestures. In business or in organizations there are four levels of communication most often discussed, for the purpose of this paper only the first three are explained. First there is individual or interpersonal communication which typically takes place between individuals. Second, communication within organizations involving the use of communication systems such as technology or other methods used to transmit information internally. This type of communication can be between teams or groups, between multiple groups in meetings, through formal management channels such as company meetings and informal channels which may include rumors or office gossip. Next is communication across organizations externally. This would be communications to suppliers, customers or developers. Overall the format of the communication can be in e-mail, meetings, letters, and reports, press releases, marketing messaging, and customer or industry events. Baack (2012) states “Decision-making in business organizations involves communication in all

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