Communication: Workplace Reflective Practice Reflective Practice Entails

¶ … Communication: Workplace Reflective Practice

Reflective practice entails constant monitoring of one's own performance in a given role while making adjustments where necessary. For any profession, reflective practice is essential since not two cases will ever be the same thus, it is critical to always remain reactive and reflective. Several studies have ascertained that reflective practice is beneficial when it comes to the delivery of client-centered services, and assist an individual assess their learning needs. Reflective practice is regarded as one of the most important elements of learning and as such, it is essential that managers as well as employees familiarize themselves with reflective practice methods such as the Gibbs reflection model. In addition, reflective practice allows learners to make connections to what they have learned, set goals, and reflect upon their learning process; reflective practice is also used for assessing learning which monitoring the individual's progress toward mastery of the learning targets in their log entries. Learning logs are major aspects of reflective practice which help a person stay abreast with changes in the social environment as far as the learnt concepts are concerned. In this regard, there are theories and approaches that can be used for critical reflective practice among individuals and if correctly incorporated into each person's repertoire, result in great benefits. However, such approaches are not automatic success routes and for this, it is necessary for a person to be selective and to be able to match new developments to their own skills. In occasions whereby the person is able to do this, new developments in work theory are able to dramatically improve the worker's ability to absorb changes to the profession and constructively improve personal and professional performance in a dynamic way. The need for reflection on personal performance and practice is strongly linked to the need to be able to develop skills for self-criticism and an individual gradually develops self-constructive criticism. Constructive criticism assists individuals address personal and professional problems while finding ways to deal with them. Since it is widely known that no person is entirely perfect, constructive criticism can be used to identify weaknesses and deal with them and besides, this also helps the person identify personal strengths. Despite the notion among most individuals that constructive criticism is dispiriting, this type of criticism should be taken as an opportunity to improve rather than attack on the person's professionalism and skills. As a form of critical theory, reflective practice is one of the most important parts of modern work requirements and is the primary means by which any worker can improve their overall performance. Reflective practice can not only make work more relevant to the particular needs of each client, it can also genuinely improve the worker's understanding of theory and how to apply that theory to practical situations. The benefits of reflective practice include increased learning from an experience for situation, promotion of deep learning and identification of personal and professional strengths and areas for improvement. In addition, the other benefits include identification of educational needs, acquisition of new knowledge and skills as well as further understanding of own beliefs, attitudes and values. The limitations of reflective practice include not all practitioners understand the reflective process and it is time consuming. Besides, becomes confusing regarding the situations and experiences to reflect upon and moreover, it may not be adequate to resolve work-related problems.

Importance of Communication

Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another; it involves a sender transmitting an idea, information, or feeling to a receiver. Effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the sender intended to transmit (Blogg, 1996). Many of the problems that occur in an organization are the either the direct result of people failing to communicate or processes, which leads to confusion and can cause good plans to fail. The benefits of effective communication are many and obvious as they enhance all aspects of our personal and professional lives. Ineffective communications in our personal lives may give rise to problems or embarrassment but in our professional lives the results of misunderstandings may have much more serious results.

Effective communication occurs when a desired effect is the result of intentional or unintentional information sharing, which is interpreted between multiple entities and acted on in a desired way. This effect also ensures the message is not distorted during the communication process. Effective communication should generate the desired effect and maintain the effect, with the potential to increase the effect of the message (Berlo, 1960). Therefore, effective communication serves the purpose for which it was planned or designed. Possible purposes might be to elicit change, generate action, create understanding, inform or communicate a certain idea or point-of-view. When the desired effect is not achieved, factors such as barriers to communication are explored, with the intention being to discover how the communication has been ineffective.

Effective Communication is significant for managers in the organizations so as to perform the basic management functions including planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Communication helps managers to perform their jobs and responsibilities and besides, it serves as a foundation for planning (Ferris & Mehrabian, 1967). All the essential information must be communicated to the managers who in-turn must communicate the plans so as to implement them. Organizing also requires effective communication with others about their job task. Similarly leaders as managers must communicate effectively with their subordinates so as to achieve the team goals. Controlling is not possible without written and oral communication. Managers devote a great part of their time in communication. They generally devote approximately 6 hours per day in communicating. They spend great time on face-to-face or telephonic communication with their superiors, subordinates, colleagues, customers or suppliers. Managers also use written communication in form of letters, reports and memos wherever oral communication is not feasible. Thus, it is acceptable that effective communication is a building block of successful organizations.

Effective communication is the pillar of success in any business organization both within and outside the organization. Nonetheless, due to the large organizational sizes and tall organizational structures it is difficult to get any message across; a factor that hinders effective communication. As a result, this leads to the creation of boundaries in the organization, internally in terms of various departments and externally in terms of customers. Therefore, to overcome this dilemma, it is necessary that employees send messages that stick and emphasize on making the point stick rather than just getting the message across.

It has been constantly argued that there are six elements that are vital in achieving success in organizational messages. If these elements are used effectively, organizations can get their points across and make them stick, thereby attaining overall business success. The elements essential to incorporate in messages are thus; simplicity, lack of surprise, concreteness, credibility, emotions and stories that stick. Firstly, the message should be simple as it is easier to remember and because of our limited brain capacity, ideas have to be simple in order to make them stick. The second principle of making a message effective is making it unexpected. There should always be a surprise in the message as people tend to remember events that are unexpected.

The next crucial point is concreteness. In case of most organizations, when stories are passed from generation to generation only the concrete part remains; this idea should be used while making a message so that the important material sticks. Credentials are also an extremely vital component of an effective message. People usually believe in a message when there is some sort of validity in it and the credentials should be testable. The final part of a message that sticks is the emotional element (Schramm, 1954). Organizations should think deeply, broaden vision, and accept challenges. The emotional aspect of any message is the most essential aspect. This is due to the fact that people are more prone to something that touches their emotions, positively or negatively. These messages are imprinted in peoples' hearts and the mind just cannot erase them, hence the message sticks. The final point is of the curse of knowledge. This is considered an obstacle in creating a message that sticks. Once people have some knowledge or information it becomes difficult for them to pass on that knowledge, as they cannot imagine any longer how it feels like prior to knowing that information.

When I first started taking projects required of me in my current workplace, I passed through a typical period of poking around and looking at all the details for various projects. I was even reading the comments from workers to employers and vice versa, in their online resumes. From the resumes, I learnt that many people were evaluating others by their communication skills. Being a worker for many years I always believed that I must be judged by the final outcome of the project; I ultimately discovered that this is true. A great implementation of a project will make the employer accept the project fully but if the communication is poor during the development of the project, neither the employer nor the worker would like to cooperate again. In addition, I strongly believe that if the employer and the worker can communicate well, the project is only a matter of time to finish. Communication does not only mean that both parties have to speak the same language; it means more than that. It has to do with the wealth of information that is exchanged between them; communication must be fluent, clear and enriched with meaningful information. Many projects have failed to be completed and went to arbitration because the employer and worker failed to communicate efficiently.

Moreover, I currently know that employers must clearly specify their needs before they post any project; this does not require analytical skills in order to do this efficiently. This entails writing as many details as you can and giving examples to workers discussing the requirements of the assignment; they are incapable of guessing what you want. During the development, constantly comment on the work. Always check the various steps and make sure that you are moving into the correct direction. Praise the worker if he finishes a nice tricky part of the project. Most workers are take pride in their work. Reward them if they take the extra mile for you.

In my workplace, I have understood that workers must have patience. As a manager, I am not an expert in technical terms; I do not use technical lingoes to show off. It is better to explain things in simple words, one step at a time; based on this, I have agreed that in the long run this is going to save me time. If the employees have strong technical background about the project then I can use the appropriate terminology. During the development, I keep constant communication flow by being sensitive about the employers' needs. I do not have to keep him in the dark about what I am doing; it is a good idea to send daily short reports even for the smaller projects. This has ensured that I remain on the right track.

Communication has been argued as very important in relationships, all types of relationships and includes both verbal and non-verbal varieties. Since relationship is a connection and exchange between people, communication plays a large role in the exchange between people. It exchanges information in the form of ideas, wants, desires, feelings, and much more and incomplete communication can create a block in the relationship. The degree of the block can vary with the severity or repeating of the communication stop. A block in the relationship exists when communication is avoided (Mortensen, 2008). A childhood covenant that I made was to avoid upsetting other people. Now this did not always give me good behaviour but instead, it got me to avoid communicating any topics that I perceived would upset someone else. However, in adult relationships, this behaviour only avoided the hard issues that people have to work through for the relationship to be healthy and to grow.

Communication can be stopped in a variety of ways; if both partners avoid the same subject, then it will never arise in conversation. If only one is avoiding the subject, they might just stop the conversation when that topic comes up. They might also divert the conversation and depending on their skill, this can be obvious or it can be done without notice. In either case, that aspect of the relationship that reflects that subject will cease to move. However, if the other partner notices the diversion or avoidance, then the interpretations that the person puts on the avoidance can magnify the effect. Nonetheless, some people are good at creating some very negative interpretations for minor events which often leads to misinterpretation of communication by the receiver.

I also recognize that whenever I am having difficulty in starting a communication topic, there are a variety of ways to get it going. If I am unable to say what I need to, I may be able to write it instead. In addition, if I cannot approach a person directly, I can enlist the help of another friend to bring up the topic in front of the right person. Besides, I can also arrange items or events to cause a discussion of the appropriate topic. Sometimes I cannot talk about something because it got labelled as something to not talk about, so I do not talk about it at all with anyone; in this case, if I can find someone to tell, it will help to remove the power that item holds over me. It will usually be easier to tell someone who is removed from the subject and I can tell a room of strangers in a therapy workshop. Whatever gets the flow moving is good and will reduce the power of that item. However, once a stuck item is nudged, then other actions may be required to keep the energy of the release of the subject continuing.

The other vital aspect of communication I have learnt is paying attention since communication is part giving and part receiving. Both parts are necessary by both partners for good communications. Some people are good listeners and some are good talkers, but both partners have to do both for complete and effective communication. Communications can be stopped on both sides, by avoidance of the giving or telling, and by avoidance of the receiving. Attention has to be given to both sides of communication to insure that the communication remains completed by both partners and that stops or blocks are addressed and released to allow the relationship to grow in a healthy fashion.

The importance of communication in an organization is essential since it promotes motivation by informing and clarifying the employees about the task to be done, the manner they are performing the task, and how to improve their performance if it is not up to the mark. By encouraging positive communication in the organization between the managers and the employees, workplace barriers are eventually removed thus, encouraging employees to air their views concerning workplace tasks. This encourages innovativeness and creativity in the workplace as well as vertical communication.

Communication is a source of information to the organizational members for decision-making process as it helps identifying and assessing alternative course of actions. With communication, the upper management is able to pass information to the lower units. This entails issuance of orders pertaining to tasks which are required of the employees. In addition, the employees are able to be circulated with memos regarding processes and managerial issues affecting the organization (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). The importance of communication arises from the fact that decision making functions largely depend upon effective and efficient of communication to and from decision centre. The quality of decisions made in an org depends largely on the amount and quality of information available to the decision maker.

Communication also plays a crucial role in altering individual's attitudes; well-informed individual will have better attitude than a less-informed individual. Organizational magazines, journals, meetings and various other forms of oral and written communication help in molding employee's attitudes. Since the organization deals with heavy commercial vehicles, employees who have negative perceptions regarding heavy commercial vehicles are likely to change their attitudes whenever they become well-informed about the vehicles.

Communication also helps in socializing and controlling process. In today's life the only presence of another individual fosters communication. It is also said that one cannot survive without communication. As discussed earlier, communication also assists in controlling process. It helps controlling organizational member's behavior in various ways. There are various levels of hierarchy and certain principles and guidelines that employees must follow in an organization. They must comply with organizational policies, perform their job role efficiently and communicate any work problem and grievance to their superiors. Thus, communication helps in controlling function of management.

Clear, open communication can create a sense of transparency in your organization, which builds trust between levels of employees. Where keeping employees in the dark can result in resentments, tension, and a feeling of low job security, strong communication can help them feel valued and trusted. Open communication can reduce feelings of uncertainty and cluelessness about the state of the company, which makes for a more-positive work environment and staff who feel secure and safe.

Communication is essential to building relationships between staff members and between levels of employees, both on a professional and social level. An atmosphere of open communication makes it safe for employees to express their ideas; as a result, you will have the benefit of your staff's combined experience in coming up with innovative solutions. Communication prevents employees from feeling isolated, builds teamwork, and creates a more collegial atmosphere in the office. When relationships are strong, employees are better able to trust one another and work together more effectively.

In an organization, confusion and ambiguity can create negative feelings and a tense atmosphere. By making roles and responsibilities clear to everyone on staff, you can give your employees the information they need to get their jobs done; this is particularly important when your employees are dispersed or come from different backgrounds. Communication reduces misunderstandings and cuts the costs associated with mistakes. In addition, communication is the basis of decentralization and delegation. Besides, communication is the means by which the act of delegation is accomplished and when a company is decentralized its communication needs increase considerably.

Communication can help your employees collaborate effectively, which will make for a more-productive team overall. When you have multiple departments who are working on different facets of the same project, communication can streamline the process and improve the end result. When your staff talks openly to each other, they can communicate potential issues, requirements and feedback that can make the result stronger. Communication can ensure that everyone is on the same page and prevent problems down the road. Efficiently and smooth functioning of a firm largely depends on communication as same as the heart of organizing. It is difficult to conceive of an org without communication. It is only through communication that a manger can develop authority and status structures.