1.

Introduction
1.1 About the organisation Air Mauritius Limited is the national airline of Mauritius, based in Port Louis, the island's capital. It operates regional and international services to over 30 destinations with 80 flights per week. Its main base is Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam International Airport, Mauritius. Air Mauritius was incorporated in June 1967 and it started its operations modestly. The first flights to the Sister-island of La Reunion favored the taking off of a regional identity. Today, 40 years later, the national carrier of Mauritius flies direct to several European, Asian, African and Regional destinations more than 25.
Air Mauritius operates in many countries and faces country risks. These can take many different forms including: The devaluation of a currency that the Company receives as part of its proceeds from normal operations; Exchange controls or other actions taken by the governments, restricting the Company's ability to repatriate its funds as a result of adverse economic conditions Outbreaks of diseases or epidemics forcing operations temporarily. the Company to stop

1.2 Organizational Structure of Air Mauritius INTERNAL AUDIT EVP Internal Audit Chief Executive Officer

Co Secretary/ General Counsel

Flight Safety

Programme office

Flight Operations Quality

Security

Maintenance Quality

Medcor, Medcor, MK MK properties properties & & Spl Spl Project Project

Ground Operations Quality

Finance Finance

Sales Sales & & Distribution Distribution

HR HR & & Organisationa Organisationa ll Development Development

Strategic Strategic Planning Planning

Communicat Communicat -ion -ion & & corporate corporate Affairs Affairs

Flight Flight Operations Operations

Information Information Systems Systems & & Cargo Cargo

Technical Technical Services Services

Ground Ground Operations Operations

Cabin Cabin Operations Operations

The organizational structure of Air Mauritius as shown above is arranged in a functional structure, has many level of hierarchy and narrow span of control. In other words it is a tall organizational structure and thus implies that communication is slow because there is a big gap between the CEO and the employees, tight control exercised by the CEO and difficulties to locate source of error when needed. 3

The arrangement of the organizational structure where the CEO has control over all the different part of the organization is a clear case where centralization is applied. Centralisation is the extent to which power and authority are retained at the top organisational levels. It can be good in the sense that it allows for easier co-ordination for management and allow CEO of Air Mauritius to maintain full control on decisionmaking. However it can be de-motivating for employees, as they do not participate in decision-making and also the fact that CEO needs to take most of the decision implies that he will have little time to concentrate on other more important tasks. 1.3 Statement of problems Air Mauritius faces a lot of communication problems. For instance: 1. Organizational structure is tall and the facts that centralization is adopted tend to make communication slow, encourage distortion and filtering of information. The organizational structure also lead to some employees had more that one immediate supervisor leading to conflict when information was to be received or send. 2. Communication overload that leads to employees overlooking important information. 3. Too many face to face meetings, leads to waste of time and difficulties for employees with weak listening ability to understand the message that is being conveyed. 4. Feedback from employee to superior is rarely considered and employees are rarely provided information. This has being on of the main factors that lead to a spread of informal communication inside the organization. The Main method for passing information to the employee is the newsletter. However it contain too much information that discourage employees to read them

1.4 Purpose of Study 1. Find out what are the communication problems Air Mauritius currently face? 2. Analyze and find a strategy to overcome the present and future Communication problems?

1.5 Research Question What communication strategies should be adopted by Air Mauritius in order to solve its current communication problems and allow for effective flow of information? 1.6 Assumption and limitations As survey will be directed to only some employees of Air Mauritius, the outcome results would not be very reliable in the sense that it would not reflect the point of view of all the whole number of customers. When proposing the communication strategies that Air Mauritius should adopt, we would not take into account the financial situation of the organisation. The Manager maybe biased and therefore give wrong data that can change the outcome of the research.

1.7 Method of communication between Manager and Employee at Air Mauritius Face to Face meeting E mail Letters Memos Newsletter Telephone

2.Review of literature
2.1 Organisational structure 1 It is the way in which an organisations activities are divided, organised, and coordinated.

2.1.1

Departmentalisation

Some major ways of departmentalising are : Functional Structure2 Managing Director

Quality Manager

Personnel Manager

Financial Manager

Production Manager

Marketing Maanger

Quality Officer

Financial Supervisor

Production Supervisor

Production Supervisor

Marketing Officer

Foreman

Foreman

Foreman

Foreman

Divisional Structure

(Organisation and Management Support Material). Refer to appendix 1- Definition of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.1 Organisational structure)
2

2.1.2

Factors that determine the shape of an organisational structure 3

Level of Hierarchy Span of control

Tall organisational Structure

Flat Organisational Structure

(Vincent Gabriel, (2003), Management third edition, Pearson Education Asia Singapore Pte ltd: 23/25, First Lok Yang Road, Singapore) Refer to appendix 1- Definition of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.1 Organisational structure)

2.1.3

Difference between tall and flat organisation

Tall organisational structure: Slow communication because of big gap between manager and employee Administrative expenses Difficult to locate source of error Tight Control Flat organisational structure: Faster and easier communication from manager to bottom employees Easier to locate source of error Delegation of work Less control 2.1.5 Centralisation v/s Decentralisation 4

Decentralisation is the extent to which power and authority are delegated to lower levels. Centralisation is the extent to which power and authority are retained at the top organisational levels.

Factors influencing degree of centralisation and decentralisation Cost. Size and Character of organisation Availability of control techniques Quality of Middle and Junior Management

(Organisation and Management Support Material) Refer to appendix 1- Definition of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.1 Organisational structure)

2.2 Communication in the organisation may take the form of: a) giving instructions; b) giving or receiving information; c) exchanging ideas; d) announcing plans and strategies; e) comparing actual results against a plan; f) laying down rules or procedures; job descriptions, organisation charts or manuals Expectation of employees regarding communication 5: a) Information b) Upward communication c) Face to Face communication d) Good line Management . The classic Telecommunication model 6 Transmit Channel Receive Decode

2.3

2.4 Encode

Source Destination

Feedback

(Organisation and Management Support Material) Refer to appendix 1- Definition of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.3 Expectation of employees regarding communication)
6

(Organisation and Management Support Material) 10

2.4.1

Possible reasons for poor communication 1. Encoding problem: 2. Transmission problems: 3. Decoding problems:

2.4.2

How to improve communication channel 1. Plan message to improve encoding 2. Select the appropriate channel 3. Ensure that the recipient is receptive

2.5

Flow Patterns 7

The structure of an organisation should provide for formal communication in 4 directions: Downward, upwards, horizontal and diagonal. 2.5.1 2.5.2 2.5.3 2.5.4 Downwards communication Upward communication Horizontal communication Diagonal Communication

(Organisation and Management Support Material) Refer to appendix 1- Definition of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.5 Flow patterns)

11

2.6

Different method of communication Written communication: Letter Memo Newsletter E-mail Bulletins and report Oral communication: Face to face meeting Video conferencing Telephone Informal Communication Channels 8

2.7

The danger with informal communication is that it might be malicious, contain inaccurate rumour or half-truths, or simply be wild speculation. This type of gossip can be unsettling to people in an organisation

Refer to appendix 1- Definition of terms for chapter 2 ( 2.7 Informal Communication channels)

12

3.Methodology
3.1 Introduction

To get the required information in order answer the research question I will have to consider both field research 9 (primary data) and desk research 10 (secondary data). 3.2 3.2.1 Procedures used Primary data

Primary data will be collected in the following ways: 1. A questionnaire

11

will be design and directed to the employees of Air

Mauritius in order to collect information about the communication method used and the communication problems that occurs. Only a sample of 15 employees will be given the questionnaire. 2. An interview with 2 employees will be conducted so as to get more details of the communication problems from the employees point of view. We would use the same questions as in the questionnaire for the interview. 3. An interview12 will be held with the Procurement Department Officer Mr Dario Mariole to get more precise information. 3.2.2 Secondary data

Involves the collection of primary data. These are information, which no one has yet collected. Primary data is collected through direct investigation, usually through questionnaire and survey. 10 This involves collection of secondary data. These data, already exist within or outside an organisation. 11 Refer to appendix 2 for sample of Questionnaire. 12 Refer to appendix 2 for interview question for Manager. 13

Secondary data will be collected through the newsletter of Air Mauritius.

4 .ANALYSIS
4.1 Analysis of data gathered from employees.

Question 1: What method of communication is most commonly used?

Pie Chart showing the most common method of communication used at Air Mauritius
Emails 20%

Letter 10% Memos 15%

Face to face communication 40%

Telephone 15%

As shown in the above chart, the majority that is 40% of the employees interviewed thinks that face to face meeting is the most commonly used method of communication at Air Mauritius. 25 % of them refer to e-mails as the most common communication method.

14

Question 2: According to you is it the most appropriate method to use?

Pie Chart Showing whether the commonly used method of communication is appropriate for Air Mauritius

No 58%

Yes 42%

As shown in the pie chart above, 58% of the employees interviewed consider that the most common method of communication used at Air Mauritius is inappropriate. The remaining considers that it is the right method of communication.

15

Question 3: What is the most frequent problem you have encountered when receiving information?

Chart showing the most frequent problem encountered when receiving an infromation at Air Mauritius
54%

60% 50% 40%

%

30% 20% 10% 0%

Noise

26% 15% 5%

Different interpretation of word

Distraction

Information overload

As shown in the diagram above, the big majority of the employees that is 54% interviewed state information overload as the main problem when receiving information at Air Mauritius. 26% of them state that noise is the main problem when receiving information. It is understand that the employees usually are faced with noisy environment when receiving information.

16

Question 4: What is the most frequent problem you have encountered when passing on information?

Chart showing the most frequent problem encountered when passing on information at Air Mauritius

48%

12%

16%

24%

Noise

Distoration of information

Failure to speak clearly

Innapropriate Channel of communication

As shown in the diagram above, 48% of the employees at Air Mauritius replied Distortion of information as the most frequent problem encountered when communicating. It means that information when passing from employees to manager and vice versa is changed as people understand differently and tend to remove or add words.

17

Question 5: Does managers allow/considers feedback from employees?

Chart showing whether the managers at Air Mauritius considers the feedback from employees

50% 40% 30%

46% 30% 24%

20% 10% 0%

Always

Sometimes

Never

As shown in the diagram above, 46 % of the employees say that Managers at Air Mauritius only consider their feedback sometimes. This can be very disturbing at time because managers ignore employees even when they are right about something.

18

Question 6: Does the Manager provide feedback to employees?

Chart showing whether Managers at Air Mauritius Provide feedback to employees

20%

55% 25%

Always

Sometimes

Never

As shown above, 55% of the employee interviewed recognise that managers at Air Mauritius always provide feedback to employee when required. This is a good thing because it allows manager to advice employees on their performance and ways to improve them.

19

Question 7: Does Manager withhold information from you?

Chart showing whether manager withhold information from employee 54% 54% 52% 50% 48% 46% 44% 42% YES NO 46%

As shown above, the 54% of employees interviewed acknowledge that their managers do restraint information that important for them. This can help to worsen relationship between managers and employees and also keep employees uninformed about whats going on it the company.

20

Question 8: What is the speed of communication between the CEO and employees.

Chart showing the speed of communication at Air Mauritius

15%

85%

Fast

Slow

As shown above, 85 % of the employees interviewed at Air Mauritius, say that communication between CEO and employees are slow. That is if the CEO pass a message, which is intended, for a particular employees, it takes a lot of time before reaching them.

21

4.2

Managers Interview.

What are the types of communication do you use to communicate to your employees? Why? Normally when communicating at Air Mauritius, it is a policy that immediately after sending an email or a fax, the sender phones the receiver to confirm whether the latter receives the information. Also we use face-to-face meeting whether important information has to be communicated.

Do you think the communication method you are using appropriately fits the needs of the organisation? Yes I think that it perfectly suit our operation specially where we manager have to communicate everyday about crucial issues to large number of employees. Therefore E-mail and Face to Face meeting are two very well chosen method of communication. How far do you respond to your employees? We most of the time respond to any of our employees queries, or anything else that employee request. However there is a limit to what information is to be provided to the employee. Not all information that the employees request can be granted. What are your view concerning the evolution of communication over the past few years? With the ever-challenging world that we are faced with, communication has become a great part of an organisation. With competition hosting the market of air Mauritius, it has become imperative to communicate faster and more accurately. Why do you feel communication is important in your organisation? It helps to pass on information, maintain a positive relationship and to solve problem related to functioning of organisation. What is the problem that you encounter when retrieving information from employees? There has being a lot of filtering specially to cover the negative aspect of the information being communicated. What are your views on the informal network of communication? At Air Mauritius this is our greatest weakness that we have not being able to counter till now. Some of the employees have so much time that they gossip and creates unnecessary tension within the organisation and among the employees that affect our 22

effective operation. How do you view the organisational structure? I agree that our organisational structure is tall and limits fast communication from top to bottom, but I had to maintain that because on many occasion there was mistake being committed and maintained by the employees. Therefore that structure really helped us to control the employee and limits the probability of error occurring.

23

5. Identification of communication problems at Air Mauritius

5.1 Problem 1:

The arrangement of the organizational structure of Air Mauritius does good for the functioning but also bears the title of causing of problem. It is a tall organizational structure and thus implies that communication is slow because there is a big gap between the CEO and the employees. For instance if the CEO needs to communicate with an employee in the communication and corporate affair department, he will need to pass through a complex path before reaching the latter.

It also can lead to information getting distorted as it moves from on person to another. If an employee needs to provide a piece of information to the CEO, he will need to pass through the supervisor and managers. In that case it will bear some limitations as the supervisor and manager can understand the message differently thus will pass on the information in the way they understood it. As a result, when the information reaches the CEO the outcome of the latter would have change thus can lead to problem dealing with a certain issue. Also the structure encourages filtering as another form of distortion of information. The fact that the structure is tall and information has to pass through many people, encourage employee to change information to maintain a positive image of themselves because they know that it will be difficult for managers to trace the one responsible.

24

Also at some point employees had two immediate supervisors, which they had to report to that is there was no unity of command. This usually created some conflict, as both supervisors understood information differently. Furthermore when communicating to employees each one of them formulated the message differently thus making it hard for the employees to understand the message and who to listen to. Supervisor 1 Supervisor 2

Employee 1

Employee 2

Employee 3

Employee 4

5.2

Problem 2:

As use of email has taken off within the business world, a number of problem like communication overload have come along with the immense benefits. At Air Mauritius E-mail are used extensively and it usually leads to unnecessary messages being sent. This can be really bad because employee or manager can overlook important information, as they cannot decode all the messages. There are 2 ways in which communication overload can arise at Air Mauritius. Firstly with Manager encoding to many information at one time some of which is irrelevant or when employees sent tons of emails to their supervisor and managers. Therefore we see that 2 major factor leads to communication overload, firstly is how much information we encode and secondly is how we transmit the information. Encode Transmit Channel Receive Decode

Source

Destination

Feedback 25

The good thing about Air Mauritius when manager or employee send an e-mail is that they most of the time seek feedback on whether it is well received. They do that by phoning the receiver of the message to confirm whether they have received the e-mail. In doing so they limit the chances of important information from being overlooked and also keep proof that message has being received so that employee or manager do not say that they never received the e-mail.

5.3

Problem 3:

Face to face meeting form part of oral communication and it is widely used at Air Mauritius. The employees complain that they hold too much of face-to-face meeting even for small issues. According to management face-to-face meeting is very advantageous for effectively communicating to employees as firstly it allow for immediate feedback and also help manager to reinforce their message with appropriate gesture and visual aid. However the point of view of employee is totally different because face-to-face meeting can be inappropriate for people with weak listening ability to understand the message that is being conveyed and is also time consuming in the sense that the time lost could have being used in more productive activities. Air Mauritius uses a lot of Visual aid when carrying face-to-face meeting. It is very helpful to presenter in order to capture the attention of the receiver of the message. Without visual aids, the meeting will be very boring and the receiver will not concentrate on the message being convoyed. However the other way round, too much visual aid can also lead to distraction of the receiver because at a point they will tend to concentrate more on the visual part than on the meeting itself. The different visual aids used at Air Mauritius during meeting are folder, binder, handouts, Wall board, videos and computer display projection.

26

5.4

Problem 4:

Communication and human resources professionals have long recognized the key role that immediate managers play in keeping their employees informed. The better the managers' communication, the more satisfied the employees were with all aspects of their work life. Normally employees like to give feedback where possible to management thus providing them with a sense of belonging and participation but also like to receive information from managers about what is going on in the organization. However at Air Mauritius, feedback from employees are rarely considered that is there is very little upward communication that takes place. There is an impression that has long being framed in the managers mind that subordinates cannot take part in decision making because they are not skilled for it. In so thinking they do not take into consideration any or very little feedback provided by the employees even if they are right. All employee where those of Air Mauritius or any other organization, wish to be aware of whats going on in the organization specially about issue that has direct impact on their job. But at Air Mauritius it seems that this very vital prerequisite is not totally respected and is one of the major factors that lead to the spread of informal communication inside the organization. As employees of Air Mauritius are not given information, they try to get some by themselves and use this to start the process of gossiping. With a small amount of information at hand, they start customizing it and passing it to the other employees till it is totally spread around. The problem, is that it contain inaccurate rumor and it get to ear of people rather quickly that can be unsettling to people in the organization and for the organization itself. Even though Air Mauritius issue Newsletter to their employee, it is not sufficient. The newsletter do provide information to employees about what is happening but it is not sufficient to cater for their need and on top of that it is very different from that when the information is provided by the manager itself. Also the Newsletters content is quite bulky that can be discouraging and boring for employees to read. In that case even if the manager are providing information to employee through the mean of newsletter, it may be overlooked and they may assume that they did not get the information. 27

6. The Challenges face by organization in todays business world

The business world is changing very rapidly through and adding new challenges for organization to overcome. There is for instance Outsourcing, Talent shortages, New labour laws, Globalizations, Shifting demographics, an ageing workforce. Therefore it has become very important for organization to attract, motivate, and retaining employees. Communication is one of the bright solutions to achieve these. The Company faces increasing competition as the Government continues to review its air access policy to gradually liberalize selected routes on a bilateral basis.

28

7. Recommendation to the communication problems identified.

7.1 Solution to Problem 1:

Air Mauritius should modify its organizational structure and make it flatter. In that case it will be able to make communication between managers and employees faster thus will allow Air Mauritius to become face the ever-challenging international environment where fast communication and decision-making is the major factors of reaping high profits. Nowadays all organization like Air Mauritius employs specialized employees who are responsible for its functioning. Therefore knowing how to communicate to them has become imperative because if you ineffectively communicate with them they wont feel valued thus may decide to leave the organization. This will dramatically affect the sustainability of the organization. With a flatter organization structure, there would be a higher degree of delegation thus will provide employee lower in the hierarchy to participate in decision making thus will motivate them. A flatter organizational structure would also help to solve the problem of distortion of information, as the message sent from manager to a particular employee will pass through less people. In that the degree of distortion would still be here but would be less consequent.

A flatter organisational structure would also help to identify and solve the problem of filtering of information, which is very common at Air Mauritius. With such a structure it would be easier to identify the one filtering the information as it passes through few people. However when deciding to adopt a flatter organisational structure, Air Mauritius

29

should also make sure that every single employee have not more than one immediate supervisor that is there should be unity of command because when there are more than one, there tend to be situation where they understand information differently. Furthermore there are great chances that employee are given different instructions thus can get confusing and lead to inefficiency at work. 7.2 Solution to Problem 2:

In order to solve the problem of communication overload at Air Mauritius, both managers and employees should make sure that the content of their e-mail is brief and relevant. This will increase the probability of the email being read by the person concerned and important information not being overlooked. In addition, if manager or employee needs to communicate different issues, they should send them separately that is one e-mail should comprise of one issue. In that case it would be easier for employee to understand and will reduce the chances of him overlooking some important notes. The numbers of employees are much more than that of manager. Therefore if every single employees sends an email to the manager, at the end of the day he would have to read hundred of email that can be very boring and also lead to important information being ignored. To overcome that problem, employees should send e-mail collectively with their colleagues where appropriate. For Instance if all employees have to talk to manager about the same issue. It is preferable for them to put all their points on a single e-mail so that manager does not get bored and information does not repeat itself. In doing so, there is less risk that information is overlooked. Also Air Mauritius should get hold of the technological system that is used by many organisation nowadays that inform the sender that the receiver has received and opened the e-mail. This will save time of having to phone the person and will also allow manager to keep records in case the person assume that he /she did not get the mail.

7.3

Solution to Problem 3: 30

When doing Face-to-Face meeting, there is no assurance everyone assimilates that message being conveyed. There may be people who dont have good listening skills. In that case the meeting may have no effect on them. Therefore a solution would be to send a report that engulfs every issue that has being discussed in the meeting to each employee by mail. This will cater for those who did not manage to assimilate the information and could be kept as record for reference in future. Moreover Face to face meetings must be organized only for important issues especially where the needs for feedback of employees are needed. Unnecessary meetings should be avoided to reduce boredom of employees and allow them more time to dedicate to their work.

7.4

Solution to Problem 4:

Employee help in the functioning of an organization, however recently with the various problems like Talent shortages, New labour laws, Shifting demographics, and ageing workforce at horizon, Organization should pay more attention to how they treat their employees and take measures to attract, motivate, and retaining employees. At Air Mauritius it has become imperative to start taking measure to attract, motivate and retain employees, because in case they fail, or ignore it, the consequences will be very sever for Air Mauritius in future as its employees may start leaving. In order to achieve that, Air Mauritius should encourage and consider feedback from employees. This will give them a sense of belonging to the organization, as they would be participating in improving things and in decision-making. It can be further strengthen with the open door policy. An open door policy provides employee access to any manager or supervisor including the CEO. It encourages feedback about any matter of importance to an employee. However it should be modified, because open door policy means that employees are free to talk with any manager at any time but at 31

Air Mauritius the Managers wont be reachable at any time and day. Therefore it should be communicated when and at what time the manager would be free to meet the employees. Also, information about what is happening in the organization should be communicated to employees by mail or the newsletter. However the newsletter should be modified because as it is now, it is viewed as being too bulky for employee to read. By providing information to employees the spread of informal communication is diminished, as employee would have sufficient information thus gossip will have a very minim effect on them.

32

8. Conclusion
One of Air Mauritius main aim is to improve its image with all stakeholders. But what it should take into consideration is that employees too form part of stakeholders. Therefore by ignoring their needs and wrongly communicating with them, is putting their aim at peril.

The organizational structure of Air Mauritius is a tall one thus encourages slow communication, as there is a big gap between the CEO and the employees. With the government of Mauritius liberalizing the economy, Air Mauritius would be face with even more competition than before. In that case it need to act faster than his competitors in order to make profit. However in order to act fast, it will need to fasten its decision making process thus will have to bring changes in its organizational structure. In the assignment, while researching the solutions to improve the various communication problems, we totally forgot to acknowledge the importance of upgrading the communication skills of both managers and employees. Because it is imperative to firstly teach them to communicate before actually making changes to organizational structure or adopting the best way in which to communicate.

33

APPENDIX 1
2.1 Organisational structure 13 It is the way in which an organisations activities are divided, organised, and coordinated. Organisational structure takes into account the following: Who has overall responsibility for decision making Formal relationship between different people and department Formal channel of communication Way in which accountability and authority maybe delegated Departmentalisation Departmentalisation is the grouping of employees and tasks into areas of work activities that are similar and logically connected. Some major ways of departmentalising are : Functional Structure14 It is the grouping of people having similar working skills and expertise and who are engaged in the same activities. Example of a Functional Structure is shown below. Managing Director

Quality Manager

Personnel Manager

Financial Manager

Production Manager

Marketing Maanger

Quality Officer

Financial Supervisor

Production Supervisor

Production Supervisor

Marketing Officer

Foreman
13 14

Foreman

Foreman

Foreman

(Organisation and Management Support Material

34

 Divisional Structure Divisional structure groups similar products, services or market thus creating departments, which look like small separate businesses within the organisation itself. Those departments are commonly known as Divisions, which are again categorised as Product Divisions, Geographic divisions, and Customer Divisions. Factors that determine the shape of an organisational structure 15

Level of Hierarchy- The number of layers from top of business to bottom. The number of layers determines whether the organisational structure is tall or flat. Span of control The number of subordinates reporting directly to a specific manager. The number of levels of hierarchy affects the size of the span of control. For instance a tall structure has a narrow span of control and many hierarchical levels whereas a flat structure has a wide span of control and few hierarchical levels. Tall organisational Structure

15

(Vincent Gabriel, (2003), Management third edition, Pearson Education Asia Singapore Pte ltd: 23/25, First Lok Yang Road, Singapore)

35

Flat Organisational Structure

Difference between tall and flat organisation Tall organisational structure: Slow communication because of big gap between manager and employee Administrative expenses Difficult to locate source of error Tight Control Flat organisational structure: Faster and easier communication from manager to bottom employees Easier to locate source of error Delegation of work Less control 2.1.5 Centralisation v/s Decentralisation 16

Decentralisation is the extent to which power and authority are delegated to lower levels. In a decentralised organisation, employees at lower levels are able to participate in decision-making. Centralisation is the extent to which power and authority are retained at the top
16

(Organisation and Management Support Material) 36

organisational levels. Advantages of Centralisation: Co-ordination of activities is easier when top management takes decision. Full control on activities thus preventing bad decision to be taken. Disadvantage of Centralisation De-motivation- as lower level workers do not participate Less time for senior manager to concentrate on more important matters. Advantages of decentralisation More time for manager to concentrate on more important matters. Motivating for the employees as they have the chance to participate Disadvantages of decentralisation Loss of control from managers Higher quality managers have to be employed so that they can be delegated work thus leads to higher cost. Factors influencing degree of centralisation and decentralisation Cost: the more costly the action to be decided the more probable is that the decision would be taken at the top levels of management. Size and Character of organisation: In very large organisations, especially those producing wide range of product, it is desirable to decentralise decision making. Availability of control techniques: Development of computers and availability of statistical and accounting data has facilitated process of decentralisation. Quality of Middle and Junior Management: A shortage of talented middle managers will limit the decentralisation process.

37

2.2 Communication in the organisation may take the form of: g) giving instructions; h) giving or receiving information; i) exchanging ideas; j) announcing plans and strategies; k) comparing actual results against a plan; l) laying down rules or procedures; job descriptions, organisation charts or manuals Expectation of employees regarding communication 17: e) Information : Employees wish to be aware of what is going on and dont want incomplete or distorted information, both about central concerns of the organisation and about questions of direct bearing on their jobs.` f) Upward communication Employees want to be able to make suggestions for improvement of work processes, they want their initiatives recognised and they want to feel valued by the attention given to their views. g) Face to Face communication Inspite of established reports that employees prefer face-to-face interactions with their bosses, most organisations appear to rely more and more on formal, technologydriven written communication. h) Good line Management It has been established that line managers (managers of functional areas directly involved in the production of goods and services) who are good at communicating directly with staff are a great contribution to the success of the organisation. A poor relationship between supervisor and employee has been shown to have a high impact on the intention to quit the job.

2.3

The expectations of employees from their supervisors are that she or he:
17

(Organisation and Management Support Material)

38

 Takes a personal interest in their lives Seems to care for them as individuals Listens to their concerns and responds to them quickly and appropriately Gives regular and fair feedback on performance Holds efficient and regular meetings in which information is freely shared Explains what is going on in the organisation

. The classic Telecommunication model 18 Transmit Channel Receive Decode

2.4 Encode

Source Destination

Feedback

2.4.1

Possible reasons for poor communication 4. Encoding problem: Lack of planning Deficiencies in use of language Use of obsolete words 5. Transmission problems:

18

(Organisation and Management Support Material) 39

 Inappropriate channel used Failure to speak clearly Noise Distortion 6. Decoding problems: Failure to take message Distraction Different interpretation of words Information overload

2.4.2

How to improve communication channel 4. Plan message to improve encoding:

Give training to improve skills 5. Select the appropriate channel Make sure information does not pass through too many people 6. Ensure that the recipient is receptive It is important to make sure that the message is received in an environment that lends itself to concentration.

40

2.5

Flow Patterns 19

The structure of an organisation should provide for formal communication in 4 directions: Downward, upward, horizontal and diagonal. 2.5.1 down. 2.5.2 Upward communication Flow of information from individuals in lower hierarchical levels to higher up. 2.5.3 2.5.4 Horizontal communication Diagonal Communication Downwards communication Flow of information from individuals in higher hierarchical levels to those lower

It is necessary for co-ordination and integration of various parts of the organisation It is important in situations where members cannot communicate effectively and swiftly through other channel.

2.6

Different method of communication Written communication: Letter Memo Newsletter E-mail Bulletins and report Oral communication: Face to face meeting Video conferencing Telephone

19

(Organisation and Management Support Material)

41

2.7

Informal Communication Channels 20

The formal pattern of communication in an organisation is always supplemented by an informal one, which is sometimes referred to as the grapevine or bush telegraph. People like to gossip, and talk about rumours and events, on the telephone, over a cup of tea in the office, on the way to home from work, in the corridor, at lunch, and so on. The danger with informal communication is that it might be malicious, contain inaccurate rumour or half-truths, or simply be wild speculation. This type of gossip can be unsettling to people in an organisation, and make colleagues mistrust one another or act cautiously. For example, suppose that you work for a company in London, and your friend from another department telephones to say that he has heard from someone else in the personnel department that your office is going to be moved to Cardiff, and anyone refusing to go will be given the sack. This sort of news would be certain to upset you for a while, even if it turns out eventually to be wrong.
The grapevine

The grapevine is one aspect of informal communication. A well-known study into how the grapevine works was carried out by K Davis using his echo-analysis technique: the recipient of some information, A, was asked to name the source of his information, B was then asked to name his source, C etc until the information was traced back to its originator. His research findings were that: a) b) c) d) the grapevine acts fast; the working of the grapevine is selective: information is not divulged randomly; the grapevine usually operates at the place of work and not outside it; perhaps surprisingly, the grapevine is only active when the information communication network is active: the grapevine does not fill a gap created by an ineffective formal communication system; e) it was also surprising to discover that higher level executives were better communicators and better informed than their subordinates; f) more staff executives were in the know about events than line managers (because staff executives are more mobile and get involved with more different functions in their work).

20

42

APPENDIX 2
Questionnaire for Employees
1. What method of communication is most commonly used? Face to face meeting Emails Letters Memos Telephone 2. According to you is it the most appropriate method to use? Yes No 3. What is the most frequent problem you have encountered when receiving Information? Noise Different interpretation of words Distraction Information overload 4. What is the most frequent problem you have encountered when passing on information? Noise Distortion of information Failure to speak clearly Inappropriate Channel of communication

43

5. Does manager allow/considers feedback from employees? Always Sometimes Never 6. Does the Manager provide feedback to employees? Always Sometimes Never 7. Does Manager withhold information from you? Yes No 8. What is the speed of communication between the CEO and employees.

Fast Slow

44

Interview Question for Manager

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. What are the types of communication do you use to communicate to your employees? Why? Do you think the communication method you are using appropriately fits the needs of the organisation? How far do you respond to your employees? What are your view concerning the evolution of communication over the past few years? What is the problem that you encounter when retrieving information from employees? What are your views on the informal network of communication? How do you view the organisational structure?

45