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Link Rewards to Performance
Check the System for Equity
The conclusion then is that íf you have the skill as a manager to tailor the perfect motivation method for each of your employees, you will be more effective.
Communication skills
With Rees (1991, p. 159), we can say that this characteristic is probably the most important of all the characteristics an effective manager needs to possess. Everything a manager does involves communication, his verbal and nonverbal behaviour. Communication between managers and employees is important in the sense that it provides the information necessary to get work done effectively and efficient in organizations. Effective communication is the critical factor that moves a team toward a resolution or consensus (“How to be an effective manager”, 2000, p. 14).
Robbins & Coulter provide us with the following communication model (see attachment 1). As we can notice by looking at this model, there are seven factors involved in communication: (1) the communication source, (2) encoding, (3) the message, (4) the channel, (5) decoding, (6) the receiver and (7) feedback. The definition of communication is then “the transfer and understanding of meaning” (Robbins & Coulter, 2002, p. 282). This means that (1) the message has to reach the receiver ( for example a speaker who isn’t heard does not communicate) and (2), more important, the message has also to be understood in the way it was meant by the sender. Interesting to note is that communication can be affected by noise, by which we mean any disturbance that interferes with the transmission, receipt or feedback of a message, for example a phone ringing in the background.
Robbins and Coulter (2002, pp. 288-291) distinguish 7 different barriers to effective communication. These are (Robbins & Coulter, 2002, pp. 288-291):
Filtering: this is the deliberate manipulation of information to make it appear more favorable to the receiver. For example when a manager tells his boss what his boss wants to hear.
Selective perception: when people selectively interpret what they see or hear on the basis of their interests, background, experience and attitudes. For example an employment interviewer who expects a female job applicant to put her family ahead of her career is likely to see that in female applicants, regardless of the fact that it is true or not.
Emotions: how a receiver feels when a message is received influences how he or she interprets it.
Information overload: when the information we have to work with exceeds our processing capacity. For example tons of e-mails. You are bound to select and this way information gets lost.
Defensiveness: when individuals interpret another’s message as threatening, they often respond in ways that hinder effective communication.
Language: words mean different things to different people. Age, education and cultural background are three of the more obvious variables that influence the language a person uses and the definitions he or she gives to words. The use of jargon, a specialized terminology or technical language that members of a group use to communicate among themselves, can be a barrier to effective communication.
National culture: cultural differences and consequently different values (cfr. the problems of intercultural communication).[39]
To these we can also add gender differences[40], status differences (for example boss vs. subordinate) and interference of nonverbal communication factors (for example smell as a personal physical characteristic).
Now what can a manager do to overcome these and as such be effective in his communication? If we know that an average manager spends 80% of his or her time communicating in one form or another (10% writing, 15% reading, 25% listening and 30% speaking), communication is affecting a company in every possible way (“How to be an effective manager”, 2000, p. 14). Therefore effective communication is of extreme importance.
Robbins (2001, pp. 302-304) mentions 8 rules by which the barriers can be bridged:
Реферат опубликован: 16/05/2006