Organizational Communication

In today’s world, it is very important to know to to get to people meaning how to communicate. In my 2 years of university I have done endless presentation and the true meaning behind all of this presentation is actually to stop being shy and learn how to communicate, because is what we would be doing once we graduate and if you can’t communicate you are lost homie. Communication is is the sharing of ideas and information. While many people think of communication primarily in oral or written form,  but there is actually more several factors surrounding  communication, this are: interpersonal communication, the communicator, the receiver, the perceptual screen, languages, data, information, richness etc.

Now lets not think that communication is only when you speak. A simple look or a gentle touch can also communicate a message loud and clear, as can a hard push or an angry slap, this is what we call non verbal communication. Non verbal communication is All elements of communication that do not involve words. There are four basic types. One, Proxemics which is an individual’s perception & use of space. Two, Kinesics, the study of body movements, including posture. Three, Facial & eye behavior, the movements that add cues for the receiver. And four, Paralanguage, which is the variations in speech.

Sorry…..but life is not only about communication, we must also learn how to listen to other, because of course we want others to listen to us too. Reflexive Listening is the skill of listening carefully to another person and repeating back to the speaker the heard message to correct any inaccuracies or misunderstandings.

And why am I talking about communication and listening????? Because we mist keep up with the world, and we most understand that in today’s organizations is changing and is not the usual face to face contact with co-workers, now there is virtual teams. Virtual teams are groups of geographically, organizationally and/or time dispersed workers brought together by information technologies to accomplish one or more organization tasks’’ (Powell et al., 2004). Virtual teams allows people to be in different part of the world, yet come together to run and work for the same company , The team task is so highly structured that coordination by team members is rarely necessary and Team members communicate through asynchronous means.

According to Kuruppuarachchi (2009), what benefits and problems arise as a consequence of the creation of virtual team? Identify five each. Based on this, explain how to make the transition from a more traditional team structure to the more distributed team structure?

According to Kuruppuarachchi, he believes that virtual teams has  the good ability to advances in information and communications technologies, particularly web-based techniques, that facilitates the development of electronically integrated virtual organizations, offering organizations global reach and collaboration capabilities. He also thinks of virtual teams as organizations that are becoming more common in attempt to reduce cost, improve quality, competed globally, improve customer services, accelerate the product development cycle, and flexible working hours for the employees, eliminating of time-consuming travel to a central office. But he doesn’t support virtual teams all the way; he highlights several drawbacks of this type of organization. They can be ineffective communication in the absence of nonverbal components of messages, lack of leisure time for team members because they tend to be overloaded with work, resistance to unstructured nature of teams, loss of vision, security concerns in the online environment, lack of permanent records, too many members on some teams, and added pressure due to overemphasis on speed.

To make a transition from a more traditional team structure to the more distributed team structure it is very important that the employees has it responsabilties very clear since they would be workin very independently, the team leader must set standar norms of conduct and make them explicit, sicn he wont be present to see who is doing what and if they are following what they are told to do, and the reward systems of the organization have to recognize collective performance of the team. Also high levels of trust, clear communication, strong leadership, and appropriate level of technology , are very important to keep in mind when making the transition from a more traditional team structure to a distributed team.

BIBLIO

v Kuruppuarachchi, P. R. (2009). Virtual team concepts in projects. Project management Journal 40. No.2:19-33

v Reddick, E. (2011). Add value to your organization with good communication skills. Enterprise/Salt Lake City, 40(37), 14. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
vResearch and, M. (0004, May). Research and Markets: Virtual Team Success: A Practical Guide for Working and Leading from a Distance. Business Wire (English). Retrieved from EBSCOhost..