Communication Illustrated: Dan’s Half Hour
The role of communication in organised activities is perhaps best explained by a real-life illustration. By design, our illustration is both detailed and scant. It is detailed because it consists of examples of the minute and specific communication events that occur in business. It is scant because at best it covers only a sample of an almost infinite number of events.
For this review we could select any organization, as communication is vital to every conceivable type. Our choice is the Typical Company, manufacturer of a line of quality whatsits. The Typical Company is moderately large, with scores of departments and hundreds of workers doing a thousand and one tasks. It employs crews of salespeople who sell the manufactured whatsits to wholesalers all over the country. Like most companies in its field, Typical works to move its products from wholesaler to retailer and from retailer to the final consumer. And it works to keep the consumer happy with the purchase. The Typical Company is indeed typical.
Our review begins with the workday of Dan D. Worker, a clerk in Typical's order department. (We could, of course, have selected any of Typical's employees.) Dan's daily communication activities begin the moment he awakens. But for our purposes, we shall pick up Dan's activities
as he rides to work in a car-pool with three co-workers. Of course Dan and his car-pool companions communicate as they travel. Obviously, communication has a social use, and riding to work is a form of social occasion for Dan and his friends.
Most of their talk is about trivial matters. They talk primarily to entertain themselves and to while away the time. There is a joke or two, some comments about politics, a few words about an upcoming football game, and some talk about plans for a getaway weekend fishing trip. Such talk, of course, is of little direct concern to Typical, except perhaps as it affects the general happiness and welfare of the company's workers.
In time, the conversation drifts to subjects more pertinent to Typical and its operations. Someone mentions a rumour about a proposed change in promotion policy. Then Dan and the others bring up their own collection of rumours, facts, and opinions on the subject. And in the process, they form opinions and work-up emotions concerning the company and its policies. This communication activity has little to do with manufacturing whatsits, nor is it related to Dan's duties at Typical. But it has affected Dan's outlook, and he just might not put out very much work for Typical today or any other day. He might not trust Typical quite so much the next time the union contract problem comes up.
When the four reach the plant, the gate guard receives the message communicated by the green sticker on the windshield and waves the car through. They drive past the most convenient parking spaces, for they receive clearly the message that the signs at these sites imply: Reserved for the President, Reserved for the Sales Manager, Reserved for the Production Superintendent, and so on. As Dan enters his work area, he files past the time clock, punches his card, and thereby communicates to the payroll department a record of his attendance.
Once at his work area, Dan engages in more social communication. He exchanges good mornings with each of his colleagues and makes small talk with two of them as they wait for the company whistle to communicate the message that it is time for work to commence. Although this small talk with associates has little to do with manufacturing whatsits, it helps create a congenial atmosphere among Dan and his co-workers—and such an attitude can be conducive to productivity.
When the 9 o'clock whistle blows, Dan begins his work as order clerk. The morning mail on his desk produces an order from one of Typical's field salespeople. When Dan checks his telephone message recorder, he hears a rush order from another salesperson in a different time zone. Using the computer terminal at his workstation, Dan enters the pertinent information for each order: quantities, types, salesperson credited, sales district, purchaser identification, and such. As part of the company's database, this information will join the number of reports programmed to serve the information needs of Typical's employees. Shipping department workers will get the information they need to fill the orders. Sales managers will receive summary reports of their salespeople's activities. Production planners will receive the inventory and product demand information they need to work out production schedules. And top executives will get the overall activity reports giving them the performance information they need to guide Typical's course.
Among the shipping department employees who will receive the order information is Gerald Peevy, the department secretary. One of Peevy's duties is to send shipping details to customers in specially adapted acknowledgment letters. The Typical Company uses a customized letter from its model letter database rather than a routine form acknowledgment because it recognises the goodwill-building effect of making every communication contact as favourable as possible. Since individually composed letters are expensive, Peevy selects from a half dozen basic form letters stored in a word processor's memory. Of course, the word processor will reproduce the letter and adapt it to the individual customer. One that Peevy will have to look at carefully is an acknowledgment to a new account in South America. Because of cultural differences, the company will need to monitor the letter's wording:
The contents of the next envelope Dan opens are less positive than those of the first. This one is a note from a Typical field salesperson reporting on a difficulty a customer is having with a whatsit. Using his personal computer, which is tied to Typical's mainframe, Dan enters the pertinent facts (model number, defect, age, etc.) into the company's database. There it will become a part of summary reports that may be useful to production control and product design. Then Dan forwards this message through interplant mail to the customer service department. Here service personnel will give individualised attention to the problem, for Typical management knows that it is good business to keep customers satisfied.
Probably someone in customer service will communicate with Typical's technical personnel in order to find the cause of the difficulty. Then technical personnel will pass on their findings to the field salesperson, who will personally visit the customer to report the information.
Not all problems can be solved so easily. Wen a whatsit is defective, for example, customer service will make a fair and speedy adjustment.
If the defect occurs frequently enough, a full-scale investigation may result. Possibly one or more of the company's technical specialists will be assigned to the problem, and they will spend days, weeks, or even longer periods searching for the answer. They will have formal meetings to study and analyse the problem. When they find the answer, they will communicate it through some form of written report.
As Dan opens the third envelope, he recognises the familiar off-brown color of employee relations stationery. Inside he finds a printed memorandum with an instruction sheet attached. This memorandum, signed by the president, explains the new promotion plan that Dan and his friends discussed on the way to work. The instructions tell Dan to post the memorandum on the department bulletin board. As Dan posts the memorandum, he reads the company's explanation. It contains much that he had not considered before and strongly refutes some of the "facts his friends had used in their arguments. Dan is now somewhat confused, but he begins to feel that the company may have a point or two.
Returning to his desk, Dan passes the office of Mary Kapel. Last week, Kapel was promoted to chief order clerk—a job Dan had wanted. Dan observes Kapel sitting at her large, double-pedestal desk (Dan's desk has one pedestal). He sees her name printed on the door and notes the carpeting on the floor. These objects clearly communicate to Dan a message of Kapel's success. Kapel is busy and does not see Dan go by. "That stupid, puzzled look on her face shows she doesn't know what she's doing," Dan thinks. "She sits at her desk so high and mighty." Kapel certainly has communicated a lot to Dan-and without saying a word.
Dan passes the water cooler, where James Hooker and another worker are standing. Dan does not care much for Hooker. In fact, he has had a few run-ins with him since Hooker joined Typical three weeks ago. Dan cannot explain exactly what went wrong. In the beginning, Hooker appeared pleasant enough. He and Dan had lunch together the first day. But soon after. Hooker started finding fault with some of the department's work procedures. He even pointed out some things that Dan could do "to improve operations." As Dan saw it, there was little a neophyte like Hooker could tell someone who had been on the job for almost 20 years.
As Dan passes the cooler. he waves his hand slightly in a feeble gesture of recognition. Hooker responds halfheartedly with a nod of the head. These simple gestures clearly communicate how these men feel about each other. Dan's thoughts are now even more hostile. He wonders how long it will take John Riley, his department head, to notice how much tire Hooker spends at the water cooler, in the rest room, and on coffee breaks. Yesterday Dan saw Hooker getting ready to go home a full 10 minutes before quitting time. As Dan sees it, Riley must like Hooker. The two talk together a lot, and Riley has accepted a number of Hooker's suggestions. But Riley always has had his favourites, Dan thinks.
Dan returns to his desk. But before he can resume his work, Riley walks up. "Have you given any more thought to that reporting procedure change we talked about yesterday?" Riley asks. Riley is referring to a change he has had in mind for quite a few years. Last week he asked Hooker to do some research on the procedure's possibilities. it was then that Hooker talked with Dan about the plan, and it was then that the two had another one of their run-ins.
Riley's words bring Dan's temper to a slow boil. Riley certainly is sold on that asinine idea of Hooker's," he thinks. "Sure, it will save time now, but it won't give us much information. But you can't fight City Hall." Dan forces a smile that belies his feelings as he responds, "Yes, I have, Mr. Riley. It's a great idea. We should put it into effect right away."
As Riley walks away, Dan glances at his watch. It is 9:30-half an hour of a typical day.
Reviewing Dan's activities, we find that most involve some form of communication. Some are easily recognisable, such as speaking, listening. reading, and writing. But others, primarily the nonverbal forms, are more subtle. One form is body motions (kinesics). Another is the message indicated by how far apart or close together people stand when communicating (proxemics). Then there are the communications we make through use of time language. As we noted above, even objects such as desks and carpeting communicate; and so do people just by being seen. In fact, it is impossible for people who know they are in one another's presence not to communicate.
Clearly, Dan communicated more than first meets the eye. From the moment he left home to the moment he looked at his watch, Dan was giving, receiving, or handling information. Nothing that he did directly involved making whatsits, which, of course, is the Typical Company's main reason for being. Yet the importance of his activities to Typical's operations is unquestionable. Obviously, Dan's work assignment more directly involves communication than do many others at Typical. But there are many other communication-oriented assignments in the company, and every Typical employee's workday is peppered with communication in one form or another. If we were to trace the workday of each Typical employee and combine our findings, we would come up with an infinitely complex picture of the communication that goes on at Typical. We would see that communication indeed plays a major role in Typical's operations.
Comments
Post a Comment