Communication Interactions in Contemporary Business vs. Modern Business

Organisations are about people with a common goal working together. A supervisor, manager or worker’s lack of communication skills can result in a number of difficulties for a company. These difficulties include problems such as confusion, lack of direction, low morale, poor performance and low productivity. The successful performance of a company can depend to a large extent on the communication effectiveness in an organisation. A supervisor or manager has to be a proactive professional communicator because he/she has to initiate conversations and discussions about work problems, facilitate group/team meetings, explain production reports or conduct customer satisfaction focus groups.

In recent years, many organisations have dismantled the old hierarchical form. The multiple levels of a traditional structure have been reduced and replaced with self-managed teams and cross-functional work groups. The “chain of command” is neither as long nor as rigid. Some of the traditional formalities have dissolved, allowing interactions to occur in a more casual basis. Older organisations can be compared to a skyscraper in contrast to a contemporary organisation that is like a modern two-story building. You can move between sections with greater ease and speed and you have greater access to those “in the know”. In older organisations communication is often one-way. A manager “above” communicates “down” to employees. In a contemporary organisation, the manager resides at the centre of the team or work group and everyone works within the context of delivering products and services to customers. Ideas are freely exchanged, and managers find it easier to achieve “buy-in” because employees have had a say in decisions.