The Relationship of Communication and Management

The Contextual Relationship of Communication and Management

This essay will discuss the topic of communication as it relates to management. It will assert that the circumstances which surround the concept of communication as it relates to management is absolutely contextual; successful outcomes of either persuasion are entirely interdependent. This essay will substantiate and illustrate this topic and assertion using relevant academic literature supported by appropriate empirical research and examples. Two definitions of communication are used; by Robbins et al (2011, p.326) and Croft (2004, p.1). Management is described by Robbins et al (2011 p.4) who says establishment of an organization is a condition precedent to management and ‘manager’ is necessary to ‘operate’ management. . Walter Kiechel (2012, p.1) provides an interesting insight as to how in 1886, the concept of management justified a classification as one of the modern arts. (Bring Kiechel’s comments into early part of main body of essay)
The prime source of teaching philosophy drawn upon in this essay is that adopted by the globally recognized teaching institution, University of Tasmania; it is found at Robbins et al (2011, pp. 1-392). This and specific research at (Robbins et al 2011, p. 326) identifying at least eight barriers to effective communication has lead to statements that uncertainty surrounding human behavioural patterns can impugn upon effective and efficient communication. This essay will canvass these statements and point the way to positive organizational outcomes where successful communication will relate to successful management outcomes.
(End of introduction)

In the matter of communication, the main references used, (Croft 2004) and Robbins et al 2011) identify many factors that identify influences, both internal and external, that impugn upon effectiveness and efficiency between sender and receiver in the communication process. Of paramount interest in the construction of this essay is a “throw way” remark at Robbins et al (2011, p.4); ‘Everything a manager does is communicating’. This being so, it becomes essential in this essay to develop a communication system free of the detected adverse influences. It is imperative to demonstrate that the “everything” a manager does is performed with a high degree of certainty so that in the contextual environment of communication and management, organizational outcomes or goals will be achieved.

Croft (2004, p.1) says: ‘The process of communication has been the subject of study for thousands of years, during which time the process has come to be appreciated with increasing complexity’, and
‘Although communication (definition) is ubiquitous, or omnipresent, it appears difficult to define:
• Different individuals define communication in different, ways depending upon their interests;
• information related behavior;
• sharing of ideas and feelings in a mood of mutuality;
• the transmission of information, ideas, emotions and skills...by the use of symbols;
• the transmission of information, ideas, attitudes, or emotion from one person or group to another...primarily through symbols.
Matters contained in Croft (2004, pp. 6-9) are relevant to the structure of this essay as they take the reader through transitional changes deemed necessary at various periods in history, to overcome inefficiencies and imprecision of communication processes used up to their then present times. Starting from Socrates (384 BC – 322 BC), (Croft 2004, p.2), at Figure 1; to Harold Laswell in 1948 (Croft 2004, p.3) at Figure 2, Shannon and Weaver in 1949 (Croft 2004, pp. 4-5) at Figure 3, and Wilbur Shramm in 1954 (Croft 2004, p.7) at Figure 5, all of the functionaries identified flaws in existing processes, and endeavoured to overcome them. Whereas Socrates used a simple three way communication process; speaker to message to listener, Shramm hypothesized that his seven step process, similar to Weaver (1949, p.3), assumed too much on commonality of thought and understanding between sender and receiver and endeavoured to restrict his communication group as Croft (2004, p.8) describes:
One contribution Schramm made was to consider the fields of experience of the sender and receiver. The sender encodes the message, based upon the sender’s field of experience. The user’s field of experience guides decoding. If there is no commonality in the sender’s and receiver’s field of experience, then communication does not take place. The extent to which the signal is correctly decoded (that is, decoded so that it is the same as the original message prior to decoding) depends on the extent of the overlap of the two fields of experience.
Robbins et al (2011, p.330) mentions at least eight barriers to effective communication unless potential inhibitors are overcome. From this essay’s perspective, the doubts thus inferred to achievement of effective and efficient communications are compounded at Robbins et al (2011, p.326) and Weaver (1949, p.2), where internal and external factors are shown as further potential inhibitors in the seven steps of the current communication process. Taken together, these observations hint at a general picture of imprecision, and illustrate the influence that an individual’s perspective may have on the way he or she approaches a problem (Croft 2004, p.1).

There is a common denominator in all of the figurative and descriptive contextual organization of communications and management; people, be they managers or non-managerial employees. Having examined the scholastically recorded progress of the process of communication through the ages and noting the repetitive inherent problems contained therein, this essay acknowledges that communication and management, as separate disciplines, remain a theory and not a science. With this thought in mind, with some misgivings because theories involve people and their inherent reactions to all sorts of situations, the essay will tread the path of how effective and efficient receipt of well conceived communicative thoughts and wishes from any organizational principal will be achieved, with resultant benefits flowing to all organizational goals. With humility and integrity as inherent characteristics, this essay will attempt to overcome what the masters are still endeavouring to achieve: the successful outcomes of the contextual environment of communications and management as it relates to the relativity of communications and management.

……..and so on
Management and communication references will be used to show how selective staff recruitment methods will enable risks of miscommunication to be limited, mandatory intensive systematic evaluation methods of checks and balances installed to perfect outcomes, and communication technology installed to minimize imperfections. (Karin a lot of this is work in progess and could well change with further reading.

I have the three examples organized. Am I allowed to use the following personal event as an example of imprecise communication.
In Papua New Guinea in the recent past most expatriate households had local house help. One day as we were leaving for work that day, my wife said to one of her staff “I want you to get a chicken from the chicken pen, pluck it, and put it in the freezer, ready for me to cook tonight.” When we returned home late that afternoon getting ready to prepare for the planned party that night we discovered a poor little chicken shivering to death in the freezer, devoid of all feathers. The instruction was not precise enough and relied on an assumption that house staff would kill the chicken before plucking it.

The conclusion is under control.