Communication is the flow of information from one place to another. A sender gives the message to the receiver, who decodes it and finally gets the information. Communication is the key and the main way that individuals have to socialize to each other. In order to communication be successful there must be shared or common meanings between the person who are communicating. There are two dimensions that influence communication process: the interpersonal communication and the technological communication.
The interpersonal communication is the base of building and maintaining relationships between individuals, it can’t be replaced with technology and in the interpersonal communication always participate four elements that are: The communicator or sender, who sends the message with coded information; the receiver, who receives the information and is in charge of decoding it and understanding the message; the perceptual screens that depend on each individuals perceptions and the message, or the information that is flowing between the sender and receiver.
When we talk about communication there is also a very interesting topic called and related to “reflective listening”. The reflective listening could be part of any communication process but it has some aspects, characteristics and well-defined objectives that make the communication process much more complicated.
In few words, reflective listening is to listen carefully to another person, repeating back the heard message and finally correct any inaccuracies or misunderstandings within the message. All this in order to reduce the perceptual distortion that any individual could have, to ensure the meaning of the message, clarify the message to be sure that the information received is right and consider emotions as key part of the message.
Communication not only depends on the process itself. It also depends on the communicators and their effectiveness to communicate. There are five types of communicators or speakers, and they are:
The expressive speakers, who openly express thoughts, opinions, ideas and feelings and most of the time is an extraverted person.
The empathetic listeners, who are always willing to listen, they are patient and responsive, and they are concern about others without taking responsibility for their actions or problems.
The persuasive leaders, who always encourages others to achieve the results instead of giving orders to them.
The Informative managers, who keeps employees well informed but avoids overloading them with a lot of information.
And finally the Sensitive to feelings, who is capable of adopting a critical perspective and provide negative feedback, confidentially and in a constructive manner and always is working to enhance employee self-esteem.
Virtual Teams
Team work has always been very important to all the organizations, but nowadays virtual teams reached great importance because of the benefits they give to the companies, such as time and money saving, reducing space, geographical dispersion, shorter time to develop new products, etc.
In the competitive market, virtual teams represent a growing response to the need for fasting time-to-market, low-cost and rapid solutions to complex organizational problems. Virtual teams enable organizations to take advantage of the talents and expertise of employees and non-employees by eliminating time and space barriers. Nowadays companies are heavily investing in virtual team to enhance their performance and competitiveness. (Ebrahim, Nader; Ahmed, Shamsuddin & Taha, Zahar, 2009)
Links:
“The four key to success with virtual teams”:
Virtual Teams:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1NyIBiYuFQ
REFERENCES:
- Robledo, Cristina; Organisations and Cultures; Class Slides; Universidad EAFIT, 2010
- Ebrahim, Nader; Ahmed, Shamsuddin & Taha, Zahar; Australian Journal of Basic & Applied Sciences; 2009, Vol. 3 Issue 3, p2653-2669, 17p, 1 Diagram, 8 Charts
- http://www.forbes.com/2010/08/19/virtual-teams-meetings-leadership-managing-cooperation.html?feed=rss_story
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