1

Exercise 122: Employee Communication at Porcupine Aviation Plc

Adel Alyahri Engineering Management II Dr. Alec D. Coutroubis, Tutor xx February 2008

2 The chief executive Joshua Valk of Porcupine Aviation plc highlighted the significance of promoting human communication in the workplace, rather than electronic solutions. The outcome of discussions with a small group in the Engineering Management II class is a set of arguments to support Valks emphasis of face-to-face communication among employees and management of Porcupine. As Valk notes, you only get one chance to make a good first impression. I believe this chance is higher in face-to-face than in electronic communication. Communication is the interpersonal process of transmitting and understanding information. It is an essential inherent feature of any organisation, as it mediates knowledge management, contributes to decision-making, and establishes coordinated teamwork at tasks (McShane & Von Glinow 2004). Importantly, as human beings, communication with a company serves relatedness needs. The psychological experience of connection with others, belongingness and identity with an organisation mediate employee motivation and personal well-being. In turn, organisational values, roles and norms are established that directly impact on the companys level and quality of productivity, services and customer focus (McShane & Von Glinow 2004). At Porcupine Aviations there are a number of ways in which information must be communicated to various parts of the organisation. Porcupine has two types of employees and these are internal and external employees. Internal employees are the production workers, management and home office teams that are the basic core group of employees. The external employees are comprised of the franchised network and company owned and operated locations. Each group is communicated to in a different way depending upon their status and relationship to the information to be communicated. The difference will be decided upon by the sender and to whom the message will be communicated to. In the communication model the exchange of

3 information must first be transmitted via a communication channel (Dessler 2001). A communication channel can be any way or method in which to transmit a message. Effective communication between management, employees, and union is necessary to resolve internal differences. A business manner of this magnitude warrants a more personal approach such as face-to-face communication, rather than email. Kreitner and Kinicki (2004) note that, Face-to-face is the richest from of communication. It provides immediate feedback and allows for observation of multiple language cues such as body language and tone of voice. The opportunity exists to address immediate concerns and issues that may threaten the organisations financial stability and structure. Face-to-face communication remains the best form of communication to convey emotions and for persuading listeners (McShane & Von Glinow 2004). Non-verbal gestures aid in communication and can provide immediate feedback to the sender. If a person wants to make a first impression, then face-to-face communication is the most efficient way of realising it because it is able to convey more information about ones personality, attitude, or current emotional state than the actual message relayed to other people. For instance, when a manager meets face-to face with an employee to discuss an issue he or she is also using non-verbal body language. Both the manager and the employee can interpret the body language. Non-verbal communication can convey the expression of each individual. The individual can convey if he or she is happy, sad, mad or not interested. When an employee conveys to his or her manager that he or she is not interested by non-verbal gestures the manager can change his or her way the message is being conveyed. Put differently, face-to-face communication is a total packagean integrated form of communication compared to e-mail, which takes away the non-verbal cues.

4 Nevertheless, in todays business world, one cannot neglect the extreme usefulness of electronic solutions such as e-mail and the Internet. It is also important for managers of Porcupine Aviation to understand how to combine the technology-mediated interaction with occasional face-to-face interaction within the organisation. Often, top managers and the developers of technology, such as the information technology experts, assume too much about the anticipated use of the technology by the employees. The point is to realize that employees may need hand-holding in the beginning for realizing the anticipated benefits of the technology. Regardless of the use of technology, the underlying issues of relatedness, connectedness, and belongingness are what need to be emphasised. Human contact should be balanced by encouraging continuous communication as well as by holding occasional face-to-face meetings for information sharing and support (Bovee, Thill, & Schatzman 2003). Every managerial function and activity involves some form of direct or indirect communication. Management must be open communication with the employees and the union to establish respect, integrity and accountability towards the company; they must realize that, effective communication is paramount to the growth and development of an organisation

5 Bibliography Bovee, C., Thill, J., & Schatzmann, B. 2003, Business communication today, 7th edn, PrenticeHall, New Jersey. Dessler, G. 2001, Management: leading people and organizations in the 21st century, 2nd edn, Prentice Hall, New Jersey. Kreitner, R., & Kinicki, A. 2004, Organizational behavior in the Internet age, McGraw-Hill, New York. McShane, S., & Von Glinow, M. 2004, Organizational behavior, 3rd edn, McGraw-Hill, Columbus, OH.