IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION IN A BUSINESS ORGANIZATION
The history of communication in business organization in Nigeria had a very humble beginning intricately interwoven with the social history of the country. In the olden days, people lived in fear because of the tribal wars, the lave trade and the menace of dangerous animals. It was therefore, necessary to summon the people in terms of danger when there was a threat to life and property. People also had to be summoned when communal work such as the clearing of market squares streams and paths were to be done. Apart from these occasions, there was the need for the people of friendly neighboring towns and villages to meet regularly and interact, such as in business and meeting. Such interaction enabled them to find solution to their common problems.
Thus there was a need for communication in the olden days. Communication at that time was based on the existing level of development.
Then, all these activities involving in providing people with goods and services for a profitable (Business) also used the available method of communication to carry out their activities. The British introduced the post telegraph communications, which eventually improved communication in Nigeria, both in community level and business activities. The introduction of post and telegraph communication system in business organization in Nigeria. Today, there are different methods of communications.
- SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT WITHIN THE SUBJECT AREA
In this area, the researches covered a wide range of problems affecting effective communication in a business organization.
The problems are as follows:
ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
It is a problem to effective communication in a business organization, when several layers exist in the organizational structure of the organization. Nwandu, Ani and Agbo ( 2003:42) defined organization at structure as the arrangement of organization staff. It is through this arrangement of workers, communication can flow from the workers to the management. Obodo (2001:8) defined organizational structure as the act of following information from the workers to the management. He also says that a good organizational structure involves dividing activities into divisions, departments, units and sub-units. Defining relationship between the heads and members that make up the units.
From the above two definitions, which simply show that it is through organizational structure orders flows from top to bottom workers. In a very large organization, where many layers exists there will be a problem for effective communication because transmission of message along the layers undergo the process of filtering there by altering the meaning.
- POOR LISTENING AND PREMATURE EVALUATION
Ndubisi (2000:74) says that poor listening and premature education is a problem facing communication in business organization.
According to him “listening demand full attention and self discipline:. So as to understand what is being said. HE says that poor communication is evident when the sender and listener are both talking at the same time.
Obodo(2001:313) lay his own emphasis on paying attention. He says “ sometime we may be bodily present while our minds will be some where else during conversation”. Hence, it becomes difficult to understand message when our attention is distracted.
Ndubisi (200:75) says that this lack of patience on the art of the listener may cause him to draw conclusion or make evaluation of what the other person has to say prematurely, Obodo (200”312) on his own emphasis, points to level of understanding, that if during conversation, we are bodily present while our minds will be somewhere else, the decoder may likely not understand it well. The decoders, during conversation have to pay attention to the encoder.
- LANGUAGE
Language problem arises when words that suggest different meaning to different people are used on communication.
Obodo (2001:312) says that every profession has its own jargons and the jargon represent the common language of the profession. According to him, communication problem arises when these professions try to communicate with people who do not belong to their profession.
The use of professional language can cause misunderstanding, when communicating with one from another profession.
- SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT RELEVANT TO THE PROBLEMS OF STUDY
This part of the research work is the researcher are concerned with the importance of communication in a business organization.
We have early in this project; say that the main important of communication in a business organization is to achieve a high productivity.
external environment through communication. Some kind of control system arranged to ensure that these decisions are acted on, the decisions themselves should be based on a flow of information reaching management from all parts of the organization.
Communication in a large complex organization with many departments and locations are obviously more difficult than in a small single organization.
According to Ani(2001), one can see that communication linked people in an organization together, while Nwandu, Ani and Agbo (2003) lay their own emphasis on communication relating the organization with their external environment.
They say that the external environment includes customers, suppliers, shareholders etc. They went further and say that this public relationship could be achieved through the use of a complete communication process.
A complete comm. Unication process involves the transferring passing/giving and receiving, the sharing and imparting of ideas, opinion, attitudes etc.
Communication in a business organization is certainly not a one-way affair, but two-way process.
- DIFFERENT METHOD OF STUDYING THE SUBJECT
The method of studying the subject deals on procedures for collecting and analyzing of the problems.
The researcher employed few methods and procedures to achieve the research. The method used in the collection and analysis of data are outline and how the uses of these method leads to the appropriate solution of the research work are also indicated.
Personal observation and interview method were used in order to ascertain the true instrument of the analysis.
SOURCES OF DATA
Data is an unprocessed information systematically gathered or collected in the of accomplishing given goal or objective. They are as follows.
Primary data: For a clear study and analysis of importance of communication in our organization, only one form of primary sources or data was used.
Interview method, An interview is necessary in a research of this nature to extract information from the organization, officials, other interested parties and colleagues.
It is worthy to note that they questionnaire method is the best method for studying this subject.
Secondary source of data: The researchers were able tp lay hands in some important books, magazines and articles that are relevant to the topic.
These bodies of literature were of immense benefit to the researchers by providing them with a starting point and a value loaded information for the research work.
SUMMARY
The summary of the communication in business organization deals with important parts of the communication in our life style today.
Thus there was a need for communication in the olden days, because communication help us to know how far and how well is the country doing because without this communication that the British introduced the post and telegraph communication which eventually improved communication in Nigeria, both in community developed the present day communication system in business organization in Nigeria. Today there are different methods of communication, which helps the country to be more developed which are:
i Through letter which we can post
ii Through telephone which can help us most in Nigeria today.
Iii Through transportation which we can go by ourselves that is while communication in business organization helps Nigeria most to improved in business organization.
That is from the above definitions, which simply show that it is through organizational structure orders flows from top to bottom workers. In a very large organization, where many layers, exist there will be a problem for effective communication because transmission of message along the layers undergo the process of filtering there by altering the meaning.
That is why the researcher discovered a range of problems affecting effective communication in a business organization. The problems are as follows:
I ORGANISATION STRUCTURE: It is a problem to effective communication in a business organization, when several layers exist in the organizational structure of the organization. That is why Nwandu, Ani and Agbo(2003:42) defined organizational structure as the arrangement of organization staff.
It is through this arrangement of workers, communication can flow from the workers to the management.
Obodo (2001:8) defines organizational structure as the act of flowing information from the workers to the management.
Ii POOR LISTENING AND PREMATURE EVALUATION
Ndubusi(2000:74) says that poor listening and premature evaluation is problem facing communication in business organization. He says “listening demands full attention and self discipline”. So as to understand what is being said.
Obodo(2001:313) lay his own emphasis on paying attention. He says “sometimes we may be bodily present while our minds will be some where else during conversation”. Hence, it becomes difficult to understand message when our attention is distracted.
Iii LANGUAGE: Language problem arises when words that suggest different meaning to different people are used on communication.
Obodo(2001:312) say that every profession has its own jargons and the jargon represent the common language of the profession. According to him communication problem arises when these professions try to communicate with people who do not belong to their profession.
The use of professional language can cause misunderstanding among workers in an organization because not every staff are educated to professional level and those who do not belong to the same profession will find it difficult to understand, when communicating with one from another profession.
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