Introduction
The effectiveness of a manager to perform his tasks includes team development, coping up with all the matters of his team. In an organization, changes are bound to be made, so a manager’s task also includes managing this change. An effective leader is that which set his goals and dictate them to his subordinates by effective communication, which also includes his own skills and personal managerial effectiveness. A leader’s other tasks include controlling the team in such a manner that they achieve their goals. Also he has to make decisions which are vital for an organization as there decisions set new tasks for his team. All these tasks account for a managers personal skills.
Interactive Business Skills for Success of an Organization
During the past few years the business environment all over the world has gone over a dramatic change. This change had a vast effect on the success of an organization depending on how organizations cope up with these changes and manage to maintain and boost their success. Organizational success depends on many factors which may include many things but nowadays an important factor that cannot be overlooked is the people working in that particular organization and their management. As we are moving more towards advancement it is noticeable that to run effective business organization interactive business skills are an essential factor. Effective business management skills can lead an organization towards the right goals, and accomplishment of those goals will be greatly effective for the organization. As the economy all around the world is evolving at a rapid speed it is has become an essential for the business organizations to be competitive and for those running the business should concentrate more on their business skills. Five main essential business management skills include planning, controlling, leading, coordinating and organizing. Effective planning comprises of foreseeing the possible obstructions that can be faced in future and willingness to fight them. Effective leadership means the efficient organization of resources in achieving a certain goal. It is very much necessary to lead the team in the right direction and get the goal accomplished. Most importantly a very major skill that can contribute a lot towards the success is the decision making power. In short managerial business skills basically consist of making the right decision at the right time and making the right people do it.
Grapevine Communication
Grapevine communication or commonly referred to as informal communication. It is basically a medium through which rumors, gossips and any other type of information passes through an organization between groups. Grapevine communication continues in every organization within every level of employees. It is considered to be normal and a natural activity, and also a human desire to communicate with one another. It can’t be ignored nor can it be completely wiped off from a workplace. According to a survey most employees gain information through grapevine rather than formal communication. Grapevine can start from the time you park your car in the morning to the time you leave for home. It can take place anywhere in the halls, corridors, meetings, around corners and especially in the cafeteria or during lunch hours.
Formal communication is limited to mostly the high level executives and hence the lower level employees don’t have enough information. Grapevine information can circulate very quickly through an organization most often faster than the formal means of communication. Most researchers have found that most grapevine information is either true or has some part of truth in it, so it can’t be exactly said that grapevine information is all a rumor. Grapevine communication starts to prevail in certain conditions like when there is some unexpected or uncertain situation, when likely the organization will be going through a change, when there is lack of formal information and employees are starved of information etc.
Grapevine Communication effective than Formal Communication
Grapevine communication is much more effective than formal communication to some extent. Researches have shown that grapevine is quite beneficial and can be considered as an asset to the company, but many still consider it as an unreliable source of information. An advantage of grapevine communication can be that circulates in multi-directional way, as in formal way of communication information passes through from higher to lower rank so the lower level employees are the last ones to know what has happened. Grapevine communication is also a way to establish an employee’s relationship with other co-workers. Grapevine also provides some time for the workers to steam off from their desks and get some time to gossip and refresh themselves, besides that they can give their personal views and opinions regarding any news which they might not be able to give in a formal communication.
Grapevine communication can also be a way to know how the employees feel about or react about a certain policy or decision by the company. Many a times before the company makes an important announcement the employees know it from before. Many possible reasons why employees would like to rely on the grapevine are supremacy, politics, reluctance to handle sensitive news and sometimes the urge of knowing the latest information. When company executives hold information for a much longer period of time this makes the employees anxious of what is going on and they start to make out conclusions of their own. Grapevine communication thrives and tends to flourish well in organizations where the top levels executives tend to keep information to themselves and do not make attempts at communicating with the employees. However managers and executives can take steps to control the grapevine communication going on in their organization.
Employee Counseling
Today organizations are taking various measures to improve the productivity and success of their organization and one such measure is the employment of qualified, skillful and trained employees to ensure a quality workforce in their organization. Nowadays a new measure is being initiated in organizations for benefit of their employees as well as their organization and that is employee counseling. Employee counseling is a service that an organization provides to their employees. This type of counseling is very much beneficial and helpful in maintaining a good quality of productive staff.
Counseling is a way of helping out people to gain knowledge of how to work out certain interpersonal, emotional and judgment problems. The decisive factor for success in any counseling is the genuine changes in that are observed in the behavior of the counselee. When working in an organization has to face the challenges of a tough work life daily. These stresses are not limited to the office but are carried everywhere an employee goes but this does not means by any way that the employee does not has a life outside his workplace. In any case an individual cannot escape the duties and responsibilities of home and family. Every person is not emotionally and mentally that much competent or efficient to manage the hectic work life and home simultaneously. So, whether it is work or personal life every person undergoes some or the other stress problems at may be one place or both places. Under such situations the company should provide counseling to employees so that they can solve their problems in a much better way and be able to look at upcoming problems with a positive perspective.
When the employee’s personal or private problems start to disturb his work then the managers must look into the root cause of the decline in performance. If the problem is related to work place then managers can try to solve the problem by changing the workplace or the nature of job or reducing the working hours. But if the problem is somewhat that relates the personal problem than what should the manager do about it? The manager can only do anything about it if the personal problem of the employee is having a serious effect on the work or if the person agrees to get help. The manager has to diagnose the problem first and then maintain a record of the problem of the employee’s problem, a work for which the manager is neither paid for nor qualified or competent to do such kind of job. It can be clearly noticed that much of the manager’s valuable time is being wasted. As the manager has a duty of care to prevent harm to the employee resulting from their counseling process the legal consequences of the manager’s action can also be called into question by the higher authorities.
Many managers refuse to implement the counseling process because if the employee taking the counseling sessions undergoes some severe problems or harms as a result then this can result in a legal action against the company or manager. Another important factor is that it becomes difficult for the manager to concentrate on his own work when he gets involved in the employee’s personal problem. It does not means that the manager must not care of look after his employees but this care and concern should be till a limited extent.
Assertiveness
Assertiveness is the quality in which one can stand up for himself without being aggressive. Assertiveness is the quality of expressing one’s feelings and asserting one’s rights at the same time as respecting the feelings and rights of others. Assertive communication is properly direct, open and honest, and clearly defines one’s needs to the other individual. Assertiveness is a natural trait to some, but besides that is a skill that can be learned. People who have great control over the talent of assertiveness are able to greatly condense the level of interpersonal clashes in their lives, hence reducing a very important source of stress. Assertive people can get their work done easily and can also help others to get their work done too. Have a strong and more supportive bonding relationship between fellow people and so have a number of people to count on in critical time.
Assertiveness vs. Aggressiveness
When compared with aggressiveness tends to separate from others and create unnecessary stress for the person himself and for others as well. Aggressiveness is a form of communication and behavior where one conveys their feelings, requirements and rights without considering or respecting the needs, rights and thoughts of other people. Mostly emotional or bodily force is used so that the rights and thinking of the other individual are not even allowed to come out. Those who are the receivers of the aggressive behavior feel attacked or being harassed and most of the time try to avoid and keep a distance from the aggressive person. With the passage of time, it has been clearly noted that an aggressive person can have a number of failed relationships and very much little social support for themselves and the most important thing which they are unable to understand is that this behavior is due to their own attitude. Likewise they also feel like a victim who is being left out everywhere.
Assertiveness vs. Passiveness
Passive people tend to have less communication or do not feel the need to communicate with other people and this makes the relation suffer in the long run. They may feel like being victimized, but persist to avoid argument, with anger increasing in them day by day, when they at last do say or something, it comes out with and aggressive force. Assertiveness is believed to be rarely used in the real world because at times you suppress your feelings and emotions in respecting or regarding for other people’s emotions or feelings. This can result in harming your creativity as an individual and with that it would result in people taking advantage of you by putting up their demands before you put your demands in front of them.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, to manage a successful business organization, different elements are required and few of which are discussed in this paper. One should possess interactive business skills with that have a positive attitude towards the employees as well as for their own selves to make their organization at the top of the world. It is necessary for the organizations to meet the challenging changes of the world and the interactive business skills allow handling the organizations to face these changes and remain successful. This paper also discusses that the informal means of communication have proved to be more effective as compared to the formal means of communication within the organization. Information spreads quickly through grapevine communication and reaches to every person of the organization. Another factor that can definitely lead the organization towards success is the act of employee counseling. Obviously, the selection of qualified, experienced and skilled persons with in the organizations can also help to improve the performance and effectiveness of the organization. The quality of assertiveness is again a necessary element that should exist in every person associated with the organization so that while dealing with the people there should not be the elements of aggressiveness and passiveness. A person should be assertive and must have positive attitude towards the organization and all the people related with the organization. Hence the paper discusses the different ways of organizational success.
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