Chapter 2: Literature Review:

2.1 Introduction:

This chapter is providing information about communication management in any organisation. There are many researches made regarding the communication management and significance of communication management was represented in different ways from different authors. The combined results can provide key importance of communication management in any organisation. Beside the importance of communication management, there are many factors involved in communication management. There are many factors which are directly related to the entities of organisation and affect the performance of any organisation. This chapter is summarising these key factors that are bringing barriers in communication management system of any organisation. There are many problems regarding the communication management, this chapter is focusing on the technological issues in any organisation. There are many recommendations and importance of different technologies such as corporate website, social media network, web meeting, email memos and virtual rooms. These technological solutions are improving the communication of entities in any organisation. These are the fastest and cost effective methods used for communicating with each other and provide different options to stake holders and employees to promote their business all around the world.

2.2 Communication Management:

Communication is the nervous system of an organisation. It keeps the members of the organisation informed about the internal and external happenings relevant to a task and of interest to the organisation. It co-ordinates the efforts of the members towards achieving organisational objectives. It is the process of influencing the action of a person or a group. It is a process of meaningful interaction among human beings to initiate, execute, accomplish, or prevent certain actions. Communication is, thus, the life blood of an organisation. Without communication, an organisation is lifeless and its very existence is in danger.

According to Kerzner (2001), there can be many definitions of communication in any organisation such as an act or instance of transmitting information, exchange of information, technique for expressing ideas effectively and a process by which meanings are exchanged between individuals through common system of symbols. In addition to the definition of communication management, the Project management institute standards committee (1996) defined it as :

“Project Communications Management includes the process required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage, and ultimate disposition of project information”

White and Chapman (1996) introduced into this communication system both human (the person’s horizon of experience, thoughts/feelings, the acts of encoding/decoding) and inter-personal feedback elements, as illustrated in Figure 1. Since that time, an array of human fil-ters that are influenced by the person’ horizon of experience (such as motive, affect, atten-tion, knowledge, attitudes, values, and beliefs) have been specified. Although the social con-text affects these human filters, the larger social context is not directly addressed in these approaches.

Fig 1: Technical sender receiver model (White and Chapman, 1996).

2.2.1 Communication Principles:

The following guidelines outline the preferred way that communication is developed and delivered. They are assumptions that govern how communication activities take place.

1. Tailor communications to discreet audiences according to needs analysis.2. Design communication using fact-based information and deliver openly, regularly

and in a straight forward manner.3. Ensure communications contain consistent core messages.4. Deliver face-to-face / one-on-one where messages contain job sensitive information

(i.e.: an individual job will change).5. Continually reinforce the business reasons for change.6. Consistently ask for feedback and involvement, and acknowledge same.7. Evaluate at pre-determined points to ensure message is understood.8. Pursue communication opportunities at involvement activities (focus groups, BPT

workshops, training sessions, etc).9. Consult with Corporate Communications through various phases of the project to

ensure communications related decisions meet with corporate approval and fit within company protocol and standards. (Spanos et al. , 2002).

2.2.2 Modes of communication:

Communication during projects can be of many different types such as oral, written and non-verbal. Oral communication is mainly utilized in face-to-face meetings or over the telephone as well as in group meetings and affords a lot more flexibility to the speaker, such as the ability to communicate not only with voice but body language, attitude and nuance. The subtle nuances that can be communicated during verbal communication are not present during written communication. Written communication, on the other hand, is usually more precise. It can be sent through correspondence such as memos, letters or notices. It can also be sent via Email or the project management information system. The key to making written communication more effective is to first grab people’s attention, and then give them a reason to want to read the rest of the communication. (Mehta, 2011).

2.3 Factors involved in Communication management:

There are many factors involved in communication management system. The individuals of any organisation are responsible for communication in their organisation. Ghoshal and Bartlett (1990) reported findings from an empirical study of 66 North American and European multinationals indicating that subsidiaries with higher levels of inter unit communication was more effective in the creation, adoption, and diffusion of innovations. In their study of global new product development teams, McDonough et al. (1999) correlated team performance with the use of multiple communication mechanisms— what they called an “affiliated set,” consisting of phone, fax, e-mail, teleconferencing, and company databases.

While communication patterns in product development depend on the nature of the project and the organizational structure executing it, distance also plays an important role. The barriers to technical communication management imposed by distance between team members have been studied so extensively as to be “accepted as an axiom in social theory”. (Sosa et al., 2002). Moreover the authors categorised the two major factors for communication management system that are communication drivers and communication barriers as shown in the figure below.

Fig 2: Factors influencing communication management system (Sosa et al., 2002).

Kinicki and Williams (2008) believe this to be true because, “…the people actually involved with the product or service are in the best position to detect opportunities for improvements”. This being said, they should also be the most important aspect of any change to the organization. Therefore we can split the factors in two categories which are communication drivers and communication barriers.

2.3.1 Communication Drivers:

Following are the factors that are helping to adopt different changes for improving the performance of any organisation. These factors are the part of any organisation but with the help of these factors, one can achieve the most successful communication management system.

2.3.1.1 Committed Leadership:

The leadership plays a vital role in communication management system and manage all the issues that are beneficial for the performance of organisation. According to Burke (2008); “[Leadership] is usually associated with the behaviour of senior executives”. Whereas individual needs are focused on “the extent to which one’s needs are met on the job”. Not many change interventions focus on the actual employee adding input into the organization and/or the change taking place. As he also (2008) states, “…leaders do make a difference, especially in terms of organizational change” but they are only part of the process. Change affects everyone, so everyone has to affect change. It is the individual employee that will have the most impact on if change will be effective.

2.3.1.2 Informed Stakeholders:

Encouraging stakeholder participation and commitment to the change, by employing open and consultative communication approaches to create awareness and understanding of the change throughout the organisation.

Stakeholders must be clear about their contribution to the desired improvement. If the change vision is not clear or shared, commitment is unlikely, and change efforts will be short-lived at best and will likely fizzle out.

2.3.1.3 Aligned Workforce:

Identifying the human impacts of the change, and developing plans to align the workforce to support the changing organisation.

In the final analysis, change is successful when it becomes institutionalised and part of "the way we do things around here," and like other processes, benefits from ongoing monitoring to ensure continuous improvement and relevance.

2.3.1.4 Planning:

Developing and documenting the objectives to be achieved by the change and the means to achieve it.

Setting a clear vision for the change which is aligned with the organisation’s vision and mission

Documenting the case for change, and Developing the change plan.

2.3.1.5 Defined governance:

Establishing appropriate organisational structures, roles, and responsibilities for the change that engage stakeholders and support the change effort.

2.3.1.6 Communication Context:

Fundamentally it is people who make change happen - nothing moves forward without en-gaged, motivated stakeholders. Stakeholders are the people that are directly involved in and affected by the change project. Typically they are the organisation’s workforce or those whose interests may be positively or negatively affected by the change including other agen-cies with whom the changing organisation partners, service providers, vendors, or the pub-lic.

An organisation needs to engage its stakeholders, in order to implement changes effectively. To do that, stakeholders need to understand the reasons why the change is happening and its benefits. They also need to have an opportunity to express their views and contribute their own ideas about how it might be implemented. Even if the change is non-negotiable, cooperation and collaboration to achieve the change is more likely if stakeholders are in-volved and kept informed. Experience shows that approaching change in an open and con-sultative manner assists in more effective implementation.

Accordingly, it is important that everyone in the organisation and those interacting withthe organisation, both internal and external stakeholders, are kept informed and provided with messages and information that allow them to feel engaged, thus paving the way for in-volvement and adoption.

2.3.2 Communication barriers:

There are many barriers in communication management system that may be due to many reasons such as cultural differences, language differences, level of awareness, listening abil-ities, conflicts and technological issues. These barriers can be categorised into four major communications and issues during these types of communication are as follow.

2.3.2.1 Listening barrier:

Employees should learn the techniques of better listening in order to maintain good relation with those who deal with the organization. Poor listening is perhaps one of the most serious barriers to effective communication. Poor listening can generate costly accidents and cause misunderstanding and rumours in an organization. (Weihrich et al, 2005).

2.3.2.2 Downward Communication:

Communication downward (i.e. from superiors to subordinates) may breakdown because of poor organization, confusion about the message being transmitted or for personal reasons. If the channels of communication are inefficient or insufficient, the organization is at fault. Confusion will also occur if the superior manager is incompetent and issues instructions,

which cannot be understood because they do not make sense. Poor personal relations between superior and subordinate will cause a breakdown in communications because of mutual suspicion or because of their different backgrounds.

2.3.2.3 Upward Communication:

Communications upward (from subordinate to superior) may breakdown for the same reas-ons. An additional consideration is that the subordinate, because he wants to hide his own errors on the errors of a fellow worker, or because he does not want to bother his boss with a problem he thinks he can handle himself, may give incorrect information for his superior to act on (BPP, 2000).

2.3.2.4 Horizontal communication:

Horizontal communication (i.e. between people on the same hierarchical levels, perhaps in different department) may cause breakdown of communication because departments are geographically separated with inadequate communication links. There is no formal organiza-tion for the cross-fertilization of ideas and opinions between departments, the organization is too centralized and insists on all such negotiations being made at top management level, or/ and because there is a poor informal communication structure.

2.4 Improving Project Communications:

You’ve seen how a good communication is vital to the management and success of information technology projects. It is also explained above the importance of project communication management, which can ensure that the essential information reaches the right people at the right time. Some of the areas to be considered for improving project communications are:

• Communication skills to resolve conflicts• Developing better communication skills• Using templates for project communications• Developing communication infrastructure (Goudar, 2008).

2.4.1 Communication skills to resolve conflicts:

It is crucial for project managers to identify and resolve any kind of conflicts in projects. Conflicts could be due to project priorities, technical issues, project issues, personalities, staffing, procedures and process. There are five basic modes for handling conflicts as mentioned below:

Confrontation Mode: When using confrontation mode, the project manager will directly face a conflict using a problem-solving approach that allows them to work through the disagreements. This approach is also called as problem-solving mode. It is a win-win situation mode and is the most favoured mode used for conflict resolution.

Compromise Mode: With the compromise mode, the project manager uses a give and take approach to resolve the conflicts. In this both the parties will bargain and search for solutions that brings satisfaction to some extent.

Smoothing Mode: With the smoothing mode, project managers will place emphasize on areas of agreement and avoid areas of disagreement.

Forcing Mode: With the forcing mode, project managers will force their viewpoint. It is a win-lose situation and managers who are autocratic in nature favour this mode.

Withdrawal Mode: With the withdrawal mode, project managers will withdraw from a disagreement. This approach is least desired.

Research has indicated that confrontation mode is most widely used for conflict resolution followed by compromise mode. Successful project managers are less likely to use the other 3 modes for conflict resolution.

2.4.2 Developing better communication skills:

Most companies spend a lot of money in conducting technical trainings and give less importance on soft skills training like communication training. It is quite rare to find information technical professionals with the ability to apply both good technical and communication skills. Communication skills are the key to advancing their careers especially if one wants to be a good and successful project manager.

Communications skills training include role-playing activities in which participants learn concepts such as building rapport. It takes leadership to help improve communication in employees. Senior management shouldn’t let their employees write bad documents, sloppy reports, give horrible presentations or conduct meetings with no proper agenda/objective. Often people complain about the time they waste in unnecessary or poorly planned and poorly executed meetings. Meetings conducted with the team or client can be made effective by following some simple guidelines as listed below:

• Define the purpose and outcome of the meeting• Determine who should attend the meeting• Provide an agenda to the participants before the meeting• Prepare handouts, visual aids related to the discussion if required before in hand and distribute to the participants• Execute the meeting professionally• Build relationships (Goudar, 2008).

Senior management should expect high expectations and be a role model. Organizations should allocate time and budget for conducting trainings, provide staff to assist in relationship management and include time in projects to have informal meetings with clients to help develop relationships. Like any other goal, communication can be developed better and improved with proper planning, support, and leadership from senior management.

2.4.3 Using templates for project communications:

It is important to prepare and store project related templates and guidelines for common project communication items such as project charter, project description, status reports and so on. Good documentation from previous projects could be a good source. It will be helpful to people who are not experienced and new to projects and also for people who are not good at documenting.

To make it even more convenient to use templates, the organization should provide the facility of templates being available online. The team should understand the senior management’s, or stake holder’s or customer’s documentation expectation for each particular project. Hence if required, session should be given to the team to provide awareness about the templates, the documentation standard’s to be used and the availability of documentation guidelines.

2.4.4 Developing Communication Infrastructure:

A communication infrastructure is a set of tools, techniques and principles that provide a foundation for the effective transfer of information among people. Tools include e-mail, project management software, fax, telephones, online chat, videoconferencing systems, teleconferencing systems, document management software and so on. If the project team is not co-located (which is increasingly common) video conferencing is good, followed by phone calls. After that, Instant Messaging (IM) has its place, and then comes email. Email is asynchronous, meaning that it works in one direction at a time, and whilst it has its place, especially when working across time zones, it should not be the primary communication method.

Techniques include reporting guidelines, templates, meeting ground rules and procedures, emailing guidelines decision-making processes, problem solving approaches, conflict resolution techniques, and root cause analysis. Communication is a two way street, and the PM needs to ensure that traffic flows freely in both directions. Listening and observing non-verbal cues is at least as important as talking, and this highlights the need to actually see team members. Particularly at launch, it's a good idea to get everyone together. Personal contact helps build relationships that lubricate the flow of information.

As the project progresses, the PM should monitor the status of each activity, specially those on the critical path. It's essential that he get early notice of any possible problems so that he has the opportunity to take corrective action before the situation deteriorates any further. The best way to learn about problems is through informal face-to-face conversation, which is easily achieved while "Managing By Walking About" (MBWA). Seriously, the PM should make a point of walking through the team office on a daily basis and chatting with everyone to ask how things are going. Principles include providing an environment for open dialogue using straight talk and following an agreed upon work ethic.

Lastly, to mention it is challenging at times to install a well coordinated and effective project communication system. The vital job has to be planned meticulously to be efficient enough

for the short time. Better communication capabilities are necessary for successful results of the project. Make sure to give due attention to communication tool, medium, responsibility, goals, recipients and regularity. It's not essential that all the information pass through the PM, in fact to avoid delays it's probably best that it doesn't, but to stay in control he or she must be able to tap in to these flows.

Remaining Topics to be covered:

1. Role of Corporate website2. Role of Social media3. Role of other technologies4. Implementation issues5. Critical evaluation of data6. conclusion

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