Position Paper Assignment

Communication in Public Organizations

Shalom and welcome to our presentation for week 3. In PAD 6, ten. This week's presentation will be on communication and public organizations. And bow from a formal and informal communication channel, as well as how we manage conflict within organizations. So what's communication? It is the process by which information is exchanged and how it's understood by two or more people. So you have the sender of the communication and the receiver. And the intent of communication is to motivate or influence how people behave during and after that information that is exchanged. Herbert Simon says without communication, there can be no organization. The administration of organizations continuous and its function. Communication is to sustain this continuity. So one other important questions that we must ask when we analyze communication structures. One, How's that information passed to each of the structures? How does the communication process affect affect the outcome of that communication? Who has direct access to that information that's being communicated? Do our members involved in that communication channel have an equal role in transmitting that information. And what are the advantages and disadvantages? Advantages of each structure in the process. So let's look at communication, the classical organization. What I mean by that is communication. Within a bureaucratic, traditional bureaucratic organization. From theoretical standpoint, the content usually of communication in this classic bureaucratic public organization, a task-based, it's done for maintaining the organization and keeping it running. The direction of communications normally downloaded from top-level manager, public managers to employees below. The communication. That is written is the pervasive channel that's used through memos, through e-mails, through policy documents and so forth. The style of communication is very formal and it's very distant since it is downward and it is not person, that person, but it is Bye. Written form. In this traditional model of communication, it's rational, task-oriented, and usually written, the social side of the communication is less important. What's more important is the content in the communication itself. Structured roles defined the expectation that everyone has a certain role in that communication. And those expectations are determined by the person's position, whether they're a manager or an employee. At a lower level. Much of the feedback from employees and the use of the grapevine forms a big part of a great part of the communication pattern in the human relations model. So what does the Bible tell us about communication? There are many verses that, that tell us Ephesians 429 states, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. But that which is good to the use of edifying that may minister grace onto the heart's. Hebrews 412 states, Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword. Piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow of the Cerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. James 119, very important. Wherefore my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak. So the RAF, I guess that's why the Lord gave us two ears and one mouth. He was trying to tell us something. Colossians, let your speed, speech always be with grace, season with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer every man. So we need to look toward the Bible because that can give us a way that we should be treating others during communication. The human resources model, as we discussed, is more behavioral and it's more team-oriented. And information. And the feedback that's delivered is both done up and down the communication channel and it's done freely. Communication is not just formal, it can be informal as well. And that in order to perform in this model of communication, it requires great communication skills by all those involved and assist more of a systems model. The communications really influenced by the situation. And there must be greater flexibility in the systems model of human creation. The transformational model is more horizontal communication. It's more like a matrix organization, where it's also upward and downward. And much communication as electronic through email. As we said, that communication can be both upward and downward as well. Depending on the type of model that you use in the class at bureaucratic organization, unfortunately, as we said, the communication model that's used is one where it's more downward from the leader. And very little is unstructured. It's very formalized. So let's look at McGregor's Theory X and Y. Under a theory X. Douglas McGregor states that message has traveled downward. That's, as I said, traditional bureaucratic formalized model. There's much fear and distress of the management, which there should be because it's only one way. Communication is always downward. There's no evidence or opportunity to communicate back the other way. Decisions are always made by top management. There is no involvement or participatory management involved. And in that model, theory X, McGregor's Theory Y is much more important. Under Theory Y, messages travel up and down and at decisions are shared. And based on input at all levels. And that feedback, feedback is very much encouraged. This much confidence and trust among public leaders in the organization and the employees. The downward messages that are sent a very much since the employees are involved, very much satisfied their needs. And that as I said, this decision-making is at all levels. Formal communication is based, as we said, is based on rent rolls. And it's really the, the central core feature of public administration. Much of it is involved in the administrative hierarchy. As Max Weber talked about, what a bureaucracy is. And that's one of the characteristics of communication and the bureaucracy. Nonverbal communication is when messages are sent through human actions and behavior rather than through words. And this usually happens face-to-face as well. And his model or theory of communication, stay safe. Administration of government is very complex. And as a result, that this administration increases with time and requires a great deal of involvement from those at all levels of the bureaucracy. People that are involved in this communication have to be prepared to communicate. Otherwise, communication will not be effect. As you know, in public organizations, groups are very important, whether it's teams, committees, and so forth, or other types of group structures. The group formation can either be voluntary or involuntary. Managers often create these committees or, or teams to work on projects or the solve problems. Groups are also involuntary, whether the employees themselves will form groups. To improve their, their effectiveness and to work on projects or problems. French and Raven in 1968 came up with a topology about groups. There is a coercive power, reward power, legitimate power, referent power, and expert power. We know that as groups form, that there are standards that develop within those groups which in turn influence group behavior. So it's just part of the theory of groups that no matter whether informal groups are formal groups, we know that there'll be some format that'll be established to guide those groups. The groups can actually outperform the individuals within groups. And sometimes the dynamics of those groups can motivate individuals. Groups are effective because they can foster knowledge and creativity. However, effective leaders can have an impact on group behavior and foster that knowledge and that creativity. Groups can also stifle individual opinions on that, something called groupthink. There's often conflict in public organizations. That conflict can be good conflict, that conflict, conflict can cause or how about from poor communication. The way out of that conflict is to effectively communicate between public leaders and employees. So as a public administration administrator, rather, your job is to help and work through those very complex communication channels and to help solve those conflicts using those communication channels. There's a conflict is inevitable, unexpected, and that conflict should be healthy conflict. There's much political competition and policy dilemmas in organization that cause conflict. As you know, agencies vie for resources they buy for funding, a five for legislation. And there are turf battles which creates conflict. Also just the Constitution itself separates the powers of government. And as a result, these checks and balances, this causes conflict as well. Not only is there a conflict between individuals that can be conflict within an individual as well? The conflict can be horizontal and it can be vertical. It can be between employees. Between public managers or between managers and employees. There are different reasons for conflict. Different goals, different values, different cultures, different priorities. We know that public organizations are very diverse and people have different backgrounds and characteristics and the result, it causes conflict. And not only that, but the public that they serve also as different many ways. And this can cause conflict. To develop policy and programs to to help serve the public. All these changes in not only public organization, but also in the public itself is healthy and needs to be solved. The best form of communication as face-to-face and public managers must practice management by walking around and you can sit in your office and communicate with people electronically. Too much use of e-mail is becomes the norm and the public organization and can cause many problems in terms of conflict and communication. Conflicts within those organizations. So what are the barriers to communication? One barrier is an interpersonal barrier, which includes problems with emotions and perceptions that employees whole. Another barrier is using wrong channel to send the message. Maybe an informal channel is better than the formal channel. Semantics, how one expresses that message and maybe sending inconsistent keys that can occur when you're sending nonverbal messages. There are also organizational barriers, status and power differences between different levels in the organization, between different needs and goals that maybe the employees, the public leader, or a public administrator and the public itself does can be in conflict and form a barrier to communicating effectively. There may not be formal channels to communicate. So communication has to be done informally. So how do we overcome communication barriers? One is through individual skills, how we communicate to one another. Another one is through active listening. Rather than speaking, we should listen to what the other person has to say and act on it. Another way is through selecting the appropriate channel for the message. Using an appropriate channels can heighten the conflict beyond repair. The other way is to understand each other's perspective not only between employees but between managers and employees. Employee sometimes to understand the public managers perspective and what he or she has to deal with in terms of making their decisions. So by communicating those between those two groups that can prevent barriers from occurring. Now otherwise, your organizational actions, changes in the organization making it less formal, making it less bureaucratic, more involvement from employees, more groups. In terms of involvement from groups and decision-making. Creating trust and openness in the organization is another way as well. To overcome these barriers and encouraging use a multiple channels, both formal and informal. Making sure that the organizational structure fits the communication needs. And that ends our presentation on communication. There are some articles that are available for you to read. Here are some of the sources where this information was derived.