Introduction
Communication is a process which entails exchanging of information between the sender and the receiver. Effective communication is essential both at the individual and organizational level. For an organization to attain its goals, an effective communication process has to be established. In essence, communication helps in ensuring effective coordination of work processes within an organization which is essential in meeting the goals of the organization. Communication is inevitable. Having worked as an intern without previous work experience in the Bank of China for two summers I was involved in various communication process. I worked under the department of human resource management and I got to learn that effective communication plays a critical role in ensuring effective work processes. However, I experienced some challenges. In this paper, I will describe the situation I was involved in and analyze it using two theories
Situation description
Situation
I worked in the Bank of China for two summers as an intern in the department of human resource management. I was involved in a group project that involved six members to assess the employees’ needs and their level of satisfaction. This assessment was bulky and it really required team work and high cooperation in order to complete it within the specified time which was one week. Being the youngest in that group, the human resource manager assigned me to be the group leader since he wanted me to learn and benefit from that project which would build my work experience. We had to assess all needs and identify the level that the bank has been able to meet these needs and then come up with a comprehensive report on the finding that we had to submit to the human resource manager. Our main objective was to critically assess employee needs and come up with a comprehensive report. When we began this group project, a conflict emerged as some of the group members were reluctant and not participating in it. Some were turning up late most of the time. It was very difficult to make progress with such inconveniences which made our progress slow. Moreover, the conflict that emerged is because the group members consisted of people of different age groups, some members were old while some were young and also from different races. These differences significantly affected the cooperation among the group members.
Task
To address the conflict, I considered collaborating would be appropriate. Being the group leader, I wanted the rest of us to pull together and work as a group so that we would manage to complete the assessment in time and do it effectively. The work was quite a lot and if we worked as a group, we would manage to come up with a comprehensive report that would help the human resource department to identify the needs of employees and be able to satisfy them fully.
Action
To ensure that we achieved our objective, I had to call for a meeting so that we would communicate about how we can work together effectively. I suggested how we could redistribute the work and also reminded everyone that we needed to come up with a well-detailed report supported with enough evidence. We subdivided the work among ourselves, which had to be done by two people per task. This would help to make everyone responsible and participate fully throughout the assessment process. To help further, I assigned myself the hardest task of recording the findings and information that every group member noted. We also set specified time of 6 hours per task that had to be met by everyone.
Result
As a result, the group was able to complete the project in five days before the given deadline of seven days. We managed to meet our objective by producing a comprehensive report which our manager was impressed about it. Moreover, the group members were able to learn new skills. Personally, I learnt about problem solving and negotiation skills in particular. I also learnt that effective communication is essential for effective and productive work processes. I got to learn that communication is inevitable and effective communication ease work processes. I learnt various communication skills such as being a good active listener, clarity, confidence, friendliness, giving feedback, and also picking the right medium of communication.
Analysis of the situation
According to the agenda-setting theory,
Agenda-setting theory describes the “ability to influence the importance placed on the topics of the public agenda”. With agenda setting being a social science theory, it also attempts to make predictions.
Open communication
Open communication was one of the strongest and most apparent skills that I learned during my internship. When I first started interning, I was intimidated and nervous to ask too many questions because I didn’t want to admit that I didn’t understand or that I needed extra help with something. Luckily I got over that fear quickly because asking questions is the only way to learn what you are really supposed to be doing. I found that my boss and fellow staff members appreciated it more if I asked too many questions to make sure I really understood what it was doing and that I did it correctly. If I had not worked with such cooperative and helpful people, I probably would have been too intimidated to ask questions in my next job. Now that I know it is not bad to ask questions, I won’t have to struggle with it in my future job. Without open communication between everyone in an office, I don’t see how any work can be done