Communication skills as transferable skills in organizational redesign

Organizational Redesign -- Transferable Skills

Managing organizational change in general and implementing organizational redesign in particular present serious challenges for organizations. Doing so successfully generally requires effective management and specific technical, communication, client relations, and detail-management skills at many different levels. Technical skills must match the needs of the new direction of the organization. Communication skills are crucial from the boardroom to front-line operations and at every level in between. Client relations and customer service skills can make or break a commercial organization largely independent of other important factors. Finally, detail-management skills are also capable of contributing substantially to success or failure at every level of the organization.

Specific Skills and Organizational Redesign

Technical skills are crucial to organizational success but they are not necessarily the highest in importance with specific respect to organizational redesign. That is primarily because issues in relation to technical skills are generally addressed by executive and managerial decisions rather than by decisions or circumstances at the operational level (George & Jones, 2008). Similarly, client-relations skills and detail-management skills are also extremely important in organizational redesign, but issues in those areas also are addressed by executive and managerial decisions. In the case of all three skill areas, organizational leaders may institute changes in specific requirements, policies, procedures, and protocols, but their successful implementation is more a matter of good hiring, effective training (or retraining) programs, and appropriate business-unit and personnel assignments (George & Jones, 2008).

My Contribution to Organizational Redesign

I have worked hard to improve my knowledge base and other aspects of technical skill in my intended profession, and I also make a specific effort to manage details efficiently in every aspect of my life, both personally and professionally. However, in terms of my contribution to organizational redesign, my communications skills would be most valuable. I have been practicing my active listening skills as well as my ability to communicate in different business settings in the manner most conducive to the accurate transmission of ideas to others. In my experience, my communications skills have also helped be succeed in a customer-relations capacity, more than my technical skills or attention to detail. Ultimately, in almost any business context, communications are among the most crucial skills (Locker, 2006), which is one of the reasons that I have made the effort to work on and continually improve in that area throughout my education and professional opportunities.

References:

George, J.M. And Jones G.R. (2008). Understanding and Managing Organizational

Behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Locker, K.O. (2006). Business and Administrative Communication. Boston: McGraw-

Hill.

Maxwell, J.C. (2007). The 21 Irrefutable Rules of Leadership. Georgia: Maxwell

Motivation Co.