Examine Methods of Improving Upward Communication
a) Examine the various methods of improving upward communication in a business. Give practical examples. [10]
Upward communication is the process of flowing from the lower levels of a hierarchy to the upper levels. It helps employees to express their requirements, ideas and feelings. It also aids decision making to the top management as it is the source of information from the area of production. This kind of communication needs improvement as it may result in catastrophic results if not properly monitored thereby the methods examined to see how much risk we take and how they can be implemented.
One of the most effective methods to improve upward communication is an open door policy. This is whereby employees are allowed to approach managers at any time and discuss problems with them. This can be implemented as it boosts morale superior-subordinate relationship which might make the lower hierarchy to suggest more and bring out more suggestions. Also in this type of method decisions are made easily and bureaucratic red-tape is eliminated. However, this methods might cause communication within a business as the lower hierarchy amass to their superiors’ with each one with his\her story. This will disturb the operation of the business and also might be embarrassing thereby leading to non-effectiveness of the method.
Moreover, another effective way of improving upward communication is the instillation of intermediaries. This are people who are selected to represent their respective groups in order to get information to the top. One person can be a representative of a mass who will get information from lower hierarchy to the top, for example at an institute a department representative might be selected who will move on behalf of the lower management to the superiors. However this might be limited if these intermediaries remove some of the information that wage against them in order to gain favor from the superiors, for example if the representative might be the cause
Upward communication is the process of flowing from the lower levels of a hierarchy to the upper levels. It helps employees to express their requirements, ideas and feelings. It also aids decision making to the top management as it is the source of information from the area of production. This kind of communication needs improvement as it may result in catastrophic results if not properly monitored thereby the methods examined to see how much risk we take and how they can be implemented.
One of the most effective methods to improve upward communication is an open door policy. This is whereby employees are allowed to approach managers at any time and discuss problems with them. This can be implemented as it boosts morale superior-subordinate relationship which might make the lower hierarchy to suggest more and bring out more suggestions. Also in this type of method decisions are made easily and bureaucratic red-tape is eliminated. However, this methods might cause communication within a business as the lower hierarchy amass to their superiors’ with each one with his\her story. This will disturb the operation of the business and also might be embarrassing thereby leading to non-effectiveness of the method.
Moreover, another effective way of improving upward communication is the instillation of intermediaries. This are people who are selected to represent their respective groups in order to get information to the top. One person can be a representative of a mass who will get information from lower hierarchy to the top, for example at an institute a department representative might be selected who will move on behalf of the lower management to the superiors. However this might be limited if these intermediaries remove some of the information that wage against them in order to gain favor from the superiors, for example if the representative might be the cause