Communication in Business Article Review
First Article
The name of the article is Powerful Leadership Communication and is authored by John Baldoni. The article talks mainly of communication and its importance in a company. It points out the need for communication among the all stakeholders in a company as well as the processes, which constitutes efficient communication and types of communications that are there. It also explains the benefits a company stands to gain from efficient communication.
The author did in fact prove his point in his article. An article titled Leadership Is a Conversation in the Harvard business review magazine in June 2012, concurred with the author. In this article written by Boris Groysberg and Michael Slind , the importance of communication especially by leaders in a company is clearly outlined. The authors arrived to their conclusion while conducting a recent research project that focused on the state of organizational communication in the 21st century. Over more than two years, they interviewed professional communicators as well as top leaders at a variety of organizations—large and small, blue chip and start-up, for-profit and nonprofit, U.S. and international. At the end of the research, they had spoken with nearly 150 people at more than 100 companies. The participants mentioned their efforts to “have a conversation” with their people or their ambition to “advance the conversation” within their companies.
They concluded in their research that Smart leaders today, engage with employees in a way that resembles an ordinary person-to-person conversation more than it does a series of commands from on high. Furthermore, they initiate practices and foster cultural norms that instill a conversational sensibility throughout their organizations.
This article is beneficial to the knowledge in communication in business because it shifts the approach formally taken by businesses. Communication need not be too formal an affair in running the business. The right approach in communication can yield more success in the running of the business.
Second Article
The name of the second article is ‘When Gossip is good; The Social Value of Tigers Transgressions’. Nicholas Difonzo writes it. The article talks of gossip and the effect it has on people. It also points out the advantages of gossip, which include the fact that it can act as an instrument of moral instruction. According to the author, gossip may hurt people but it ends up teaching them lessons.
Prof. Frank T. McAndrew, a social psychologist, wrote in his book titled ‘Information Coalitions: mastering the hidden dynamics of organizational change’ that “… gossip is a more complicated and socially important phenomenon than we think…” he goes on and explains that much as gossip is viewed as a bad habit, there are some good traits that can be achieved from gossip.
He states that some of the advantages of the gossip include the trust implicit in sharing gossip with another person and the bonding effect of sharing secrets with others. Gossip can also be used as a means of learning the unwritten rules of social groups by helping to resolve ambiguities about cultural norms. He also believes that gossip can be used as an efficient way of reminding group members about the importance of the group’s norms and values and, a way of deterring deviant behavior and of punishing anyone who breaks established norms and values
Though this article mostly focuses on psychologically, a business student can learn a lot from it. Gossip is part of the human nature therefore; it is bound to occur at the business place through employees. There is always the need to communicate at the place of work. For example, gossip at the work place can help a new employee who their leaders and what they like.
Sources
(2013, 03) Leadership Is a Conversation. Retrieved 03, 2013, from http://hbr.org/2012/06/leadership-is-a-conversation/
Rodgers, C. (2007). Informal coalitions: Mastering the hidden dynamics of organizational change. Basingstoke [England: Palgrave Macmillan.
