Businesses are, by their very nature, also organizations. An organization is defined as one or more people pursuing a common purpose. Businesses and organizations are made up of individuals. The term “professional” describes an individual working within an organization.
Why Do Organizations Need to Communicate?
In order for an organization to fulfill its purpose (it’s primary reason for existing), everybody in the organization needs to have a shared understanding of what that purpose is. Without that shared understanding, the purpose won’t be realized or won’t be realized effectively or efficiently. Further to purpose, organizations will have a number of goals or objectives. These objectives could be financial in terms of revenue and profitability. They can also be based on market share and productivity. In order to meet their objectives, organizations must communicate solutions, offers, requirements, commitments, expectations, performance, and feedback extensively with their,
- Employees
- Customers
- Markets
- Supply chain
- Partners
- Government
- Community
- Stakeholders
In collaborating with each of the above parties, communication is critical to,
- Product / service definition
- Capturing customer requirements
- Role clarification
- Expectations management
- Defining objectives and deliverables
- Performance
- Keeping commitments
- Processes and systems
- Productivity / service levels
- Problem Solving and Improvement
- Efficiency and effectiveness
- Health, safety, and wellness
- Quality and Innovation
Miscommunications can lead to misunderstanding, confusion, apathy, stress, and conflict. They significantly reduce productivity, teamwork, innovation, customer service, and employee engagement.
The Cost of Poor Organizational Communication
Ineffective communication has significant and quantifiable impacts on all types and sizes of organizations.
- Studies identified the primary cause of employee dissatisfaction is communication based. This includes unclear leaderdership direction, change management, and generally feeling uncommunicated with. (Survey, About.com, 2014)
- In 2014, a study of 400 large organizations with 100,000 employees reported losing $62.4M USD annually due to poor communication. This figure would be worth $73.2m USD in 2020. (Grossman, 2011)
- The majority of small to medium sized organizations also cite ineffective communication as their primary problem. This ineffectiveness costs them an average of $500k USD annually (Survey, hrdqstore.com, 2018)
The Business Case for Communications
Improved communication delivers considerable competitive advantages for organizations including,
- Organizations highly effective at communicating are almost 50% more profitable than their poorly communicating competitors (Towers Watson, 2014).
- Organizations communicating effectively establish a 350% performance advantage as compared to market competitors (Watson Wyatt, 2014).
- Organizations that prioritize communication have increased employee satisfaction, retention, and lower turnover (Towers Watson, 2014).