Digital Communication Tools: Friend or Foe?

  

 The modern organizational, and business world runs with the help of technology. Digital communication tools & methods play a main role in this case. Reasons such as corona, the International level economy, new innovations, and rapidly growing communication technology encourage the usage of digital communication methods. These methods include email, instant messaging platforms(MS Teams, Whatsapp, Telegram, Messenger etc ), and collaboration software(for daily meetings, keeping track of business, keeping track of IT projects etc). In most organizations, the usage of these tools become high due to economically easy & fast accessibility.

Reasons like information overload, less human interaction between employees, misinterpretations, and technical fatigue habits can cause employees into stressed due to loose positive & healthy communication among them.

This strategy is about well manage between digital device usage & stress levels.

Why friend or foe?

Management needs to take necessary steps to avoid this stress & well balance the usage of digital tools. Organizations never can stop using these tools nowadays, so better to balance employees' digital tools usage effectively & manage the stress of employees.

If digital tools usage can be well balanced with the stress they become a friend, but if digital tools usage balancing is out of track and the stress level becomes high they become a foe.

friend

foe

The below video shows how this becomes a friend or foe.

As necessary steps, management can consider the following.

• Encourage Face-to-Face Interactions When Needed
• Regularly Check Employee Well-Being
• Appreciate employees while achieving goals
• Enhance entertaining events without altering company goals

By balancing digital device usage of employees while maintaining positive & healthy communication, organizations can have a stress-low workforce and more productivity.

Media Richness Theory

Media Richness Theory developed by Richard L. Daft and Robert H. Lengel ( 1980s) , provides a framework for understanding how different communication media can influence the effectiveness of message transmission and reduce ambiguity or miscommunication(Admin and Admin, 2018).

This divide medial as rich media & poor media, while rich media works easily, effectively by giving clear message, poor media works in a way that employees lead to misunderstandings, unclear details, less interaction. So organizations need more rich media to achieve goals & keep stress free workforce.

Media Richness Theory underscores the importance of choosing the right communication medium to ensure messages are conveyed effectively. In the context of digital communication tools, understanding this theory helps organizations reduce workplace stress by promoting clearer, more effective communication and preventing misunderstandings.

References

1. Admin and Admin (2018) Media Richness Theory. https://www.communicationtheory.org/media-richness-theory/.

Fitness to work

What is fitness to work?

 Fitness to work or fit for work refers to an employee being in a physically and mentally safe state which allows them to perform their work tasks competently and in a manner which does not threaten their or any other's mental & physical safety(Training, 2024).

Role of fitness to work in organization

Organizations need a physically & mentally healthy workforce to keep up the company work & achieve long-term, and short-term goals. In that case, management have to consider about fitness of the employees and ensure they are physically and mentally healthy.

Factors that are not easily avoidable such as long working hours, fatigue, dehydration, depression, stress, anxiety, illness, injuries, and the use of prescribed medication affect on fitness to work of employee can reduce the employee’s fitness to work(Training, 2024).

So they have to encourage fitness to work of the employee using positive & healthy communication methods.

 For that management & employees have to address the problem together and find a better solution without causing conflicts. Things such as illness leaves, entertaining events in the work environment, loose strict rules, and bearable workloads can help to reduce mental stress. Also by consuming healthy, on-time meals, bearable workloads help employees to reduce physical stress.

If not having better communication, employees will not be able to express their illnesses, stress or any other problems, so it will negatively impact workload & service in the hands of employees. Through positive & healthy communication, the fitness to employees can be managed in a good manner.

 

Case study (1)- Success story

Prioritizing Mental Health This success story clarifies the importance of mental health, and how the organization prioritized supporting its employees’ well-being(BetterYou, 2024).

The Wellness Initiative

The company implemented a comprehensive mental health program that included regular mental health check-ins, access to therapy resources, and workshops on coping mechanisms for stress and anxiety. They also created a supportive and inclusive work environment where employees felt comfortable discussing their mental health needs.

 

The Results and Impact

The impact of prioritizing mental health was significant. Employees reported feeling more supported and understood, resulting in reduced stress levels and increased focus at work. This success story demonstrates that when organizations prioritize mental health, they create a foundation for overall well-being.

Case study (2)

This video clarifies fitness to work in the organization using many experiences of the speaker. 

References

1. Training, T. (2024) Fitness for work. https://tistraining.com/fitness-for-work/.

2. BetterYou (2024) 10 Inspiring success stories in workplace wellness. https://www.betteryou.ai/10-inspiring-success-stories-in-workplace-wellness/.

Emotional Intelligence in Communication

  

What is Emotional Intelligence(EQ)?

Emotional intelligence refers to how intelligently a person can control his own emotions & others' emotions. Emotions are conveyed through facial expressions, body language, and voice tone. Emotions expose information such as needs, wishes, preferences, danger and so on.

Role of emotional intelligence in organizational communication

In an organization, there are employees with different levels of emotional intelligence. As humans, all employees face emotions in their day-to-day lives. But employees have control over them & don’t let them overrun their emotions.  But that doesn’t mean to throw away emotions. well-balanced & controlled set of emotions is good at communicating.

When it comes to the organization’s management level, leaders aren’t happy with employees with high emotions. leaders want their teams to discard their feelings at the door, focusing on the work at hand during office hours. Leaders also get stressed emotionally due to the workload on their shoulders.  

So the solution for stress stress-free working environment is to handle emotions with intelligence by both employees & leaders. By being emotionally intelligent, employees can adapt to different audiences, manage stress, make better decisions, resolve conflicts, read situations, improve communicational skills while handling emotions, and not being embarrassed by over-exposing emotions.

Employees should be trained in tips such as being self-aware, socially aware, authentic, be optimistic (Communicating with Emotional Intelligence (EQ), 2023) for more emotional intelligence.

A prominent theory of emotional intelligence (EI)- Daniel

 Goleman's emotional intelligence theory

A psychologist, Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence (EI) Theory is a significant framework for understanding how emotional awareness and management contribute to personal and professional success (Tritsch, 2021)

. Goleman expanded on the concept of emotional intelligence introduced by psychologists Peter Salovey and John Mayer.

According to Goleman, emotional intelligence comprises five key components:

1.   Self-awareness: Recognizing and understanding one's emotions, strengths, weaknesses, and values. This awareness allows individuals to know how their emotions affect others and themselves.

2.   Self-Regulation: The ability to manage and control one’s emotions, especially in stressful or challenging situations, and respond thoughtfully rather than react impulsively.

3.   Motivation: Being driven to achieve for the sake of accomplishment, rather than for external rewards. This internal motivation often leads to higher levels of productivity and a more positive outlook.

4.   Empathy: Understanding and being sensitive to the emotions of others. Empathy enables people to connect, build rapport, and communicate effectively.

5.   Social Skills: The ability to interact well with others, manage relationships, and build networks. This includes skills like active listening, conflict resolution, and teamwork.

These factors help to improve emotional intelligence so that a person can be emotionally stable.  

References

1  Communicating with Emotional Intelligence (EQ) (2023). https://hsi.com/blog/communicating-with-emotional-intelligence-eq.

2.     Tritsch, E. (2021) What is Goleman’s Theory of Emotional Intelligence? https://fairborndigital.us/2021/10/14/what-is-golemans-theory-of-emotional-intelligence/.

Impact of Non-Verbal Communication on Stress Levels

What is non-verbal communication?

The act of showing information without words refers to non-verbal communication. The body language facts such as facial expressions, eye contact, posture, touch, space, vocal sound, and movements enhance communication among employees in a good manner.

Role of non-verbal communication

Body language makes up the majority of how a person communicates to others. Those facts can be a powerful tool for communicating your intent. This may improve healthy & positive communication between coworkers & affect the organization in a good manner. But if the employer is struggling with stress, he may not be able to show body language (positively) or instead he may automatically show negative body language to others. These negative body language (nonverbal signs) will be split out from the person without realizing it. The employee shows up with facts such as lower voice, close-minded language, worried face, loose straight backbone, less talk, etc. These facts may lead to miscommunication & discomfort.

This stressed employee is not a good fit for organizations. So management & coworkers have to understand the people around them and take the necessary steps to drain their stress out. By understanding others well, employees can build healthy & positive communication which will lead to a stress-free work environment. So the person dealing with this will be eager to express the message clearly, discuss any problems or conflicts & build successful professional relationships including non-verbal communication.

 

Albert Mehrabian’s Communication Theory

Albert Mehrabian is a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. Albert Mehrabian’s research in the 1970s established a well-known model for understanding how communication is perceived. (W, 2024) According to this, the way a human remembers a communication is like below.

1.    Words (the actual content of the message) make up only 7% of communication.

2.    Tone of Voice accounts for 38% of the communication.

3.    Body Language (such as facial expressions, posture, gestures, and eye contact) comprises 55% of communication.

According to this model, it confirms that non-verbal communication is really important to express communication exactly.

 References

1.   W, S.L. (2024) Teamwork makes the budget work: a success story in conflict resolution. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/teamwork-makes-budget-work-success-story-conflict-resolution-wong-xbmuc/.

Addressing Workplace Conflict Positively

  

What is a conflict?

Conflict is a disagreement or argument that happens between or among people. This may be due to different points of view, different interests, different knowledge levels, different experience levels, different needs, different economic levels, etc.

How to address conflict

In every organization, there are employees who have differences that are mentioned above. Then that is so true, conflicts arise among organization employees. If these situations are addressed in a negative manner, may cause damage to employees & organization. Behaving aggressively, sticking to own decisions, not being flexible, talk with anger are the negative ways. This may cause things like stressed employees, destroy teamwork, decrease organizational productivity, and lose open communication.

So employers have to address the conflict in a positive manner. While conflict arises employees should discuss about conflict, choose the best time to talk, behave well, mind the language, & try to find a solution for the conflict in an effective, flexible way by listening to others rather than sticking to their own decisions.  These steps will address the conflict positively. By positive addressing, conflict can convert into an opportunity for improving teamwork & inventing new ideas by solving conflict.  Because employees work as a team to find a solution which may effectively work for everyone, the working environment of the organization will be stress-free & healthy.

 

Case study- Addressing conflicts

(W, 2024) ) I’m a budget manager in my company. In my role as a budget manager, I was responsible for negotiating agreements with external organizations. During one negotiation, the other party's demands for exclusive rights to our products threatened to derail the partnership. To resolve the conflict, I organized a meeting with their representatives and facilitated a constructive dialogue. I emphasized the benefits of a collaborative partnership and proposed a revised agreement that granted the partner preferential but non-exclusive access to our products. This allowed us to maintain our other partnerships while still providing value to the new partner.

The revised agreement satisfied both parties, leading to a successful partnership that generated significant revenue for our company. My ability to navigate the conflict through effective negotiation helped create a win-win outcome, strengthening our relationships and supporting our long-term success. 

 References

1.     W, S.L. (2024) Teamwork makes the budget work: a success story in conflict resolution. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/teamwork-makes-budget-work-success-story-conflict-resolution-wong-xbmuc/.

Building Trust Through Open Communication

  

What is open communication?

Open communication is when all parties are able to express ideas to one another without any fear or doubt.  On the other hand, closed communication is when only one person is actively communicating with the other party.

Role of open communication in organization

Psychological safety in the workplace comes from being open and honest. So, open & honest communication is known as a strategy that helps to build trust in the working environment. It causes stress free working environment inside an organization. Working environment should be a place where individuals feel comfortable expressing themselves without fear of judgment or betrayal. 

When considering open communication, Hiding information can create more anxiety and animosity. If there is anything that you think others have to know that is important, you should let them know rather than hide. Otherwise, later it can cause more anxiety & exhaustion. Also if there is anything that is not important, Unnecessary, not affected in a good way, creates conflicts, or causes damage, so if you’re not sure if you should say it, then it’s probably best you avoid saying it. If your staff doesn’t trust you and vice versa, then it can be really tough to build that trust within your team, so starting from the ground up is the most effective way to build commitment and trust.

The working environments with employees who openly communicate with each other tend to have very less stress because no hard hidings inside them and well express themselves & their ideas in a good manner. They can collaborate better, solve things as a team, ask for help without overthinking, Improve employee loyalty and productivity, and create a sense of ownership inside organization. So this profits organization in a more productive way.

Cognitive Dissonance Theory and Workplace Communication (Explains the psychological tension that occurs when people have conflicting beliefs, attitudes, or behaviours)

When employees feel compelled to act in ways that contradict their beliefs or values due to unclear or restrictive communication practices, cognitive dissonance occurs. This tension can lead to stress, decreased job satisfaction, and reduced productivity. Open communication helps to minimize these conflicts by promoting transparency, honesty, and shared understanding (W, 2024).

The below video can help you to learn more about cognitive dissonance

References

1 .  W, S.L. (2024) Teamwork makes the budget work: a success story in conflict resolution. https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/teamwork-makes-budget-work-success-story-conflict-resolution-wong-xbmuc/.

feedback mechanisms

                      

What is feedback?

Feedback is an idea or comments of individuals that are collected separately about some specific thing. It’s an essential part of communication due to it helps ensure the message is understood by listeners & overall measure the work’s success. As an example, daily chat apps like WhatsApp and Messenger are asking a survey feedback sometimes. In today's world feedback mechanisms are used everywhere because they can gather massive data that is helpful in identifying user needs, and favours. Feedback is of two types. Those are negative & positive feedback.

 

Role of feedback mechanism in organizations

There are several mechanisms for feedback, rather than surveys, which are group discussions, meetings, and interviews.

So a feedback mechanism is a process which allows to collection of feedback about the outcome, performance or actions of the work from relevant parties. Those parties may be coworkers, customers, management or other parties.

To enhance healthy & positive communication, feedback is a better strategy. The main thing is the employer receiving specific information about his work needs to improve themselves. According to the gathered data, employers can decide about future working growth, and make adjustments. Here if the employer grows using feedback, that means the organization is growing.

In the survey mechanism feedback is shared between only 2 recipients, Because it is received by the employer individually & confidentially It doesn’t cause stress in the employer that receiving feedback or the employer who giving the feedback because information is not known by other parties. This works with trust. So others will be eager to share honest feedback. The person who asks for the feedback will motivated to use the mechanism constantly.

Also, the data collected through feedback are clear because the question is provided & only have to give feedback. No confusion due to asking first. But as an employee better to keep a section to give extra feedback rather than the question provided. Questions may not cover everything.

As a feedback giver coworkers should not give rude, demotivating feedback. Better explain even negative feedback in a good manner to employers to grow themselves

 In this way, a strong feedback mechanism can help make healthy & positive communication in the organization.

 

Goal-setting theory (see Locke & Latham, 1990)

This theory was developed by Edwin Locke and Gary Latham in 1990 and describes the importance of setting clear and challenging goals to boost motivation and performance(Roe, no date). In the case of achieving the goals, feedback plays a major role.

This theory shows that feedback is a key factor for positive task performance. First organizations have to set goals including tasks & keep up the work further with feedback mechanisms until achieve the goal, of better productivity. 

References

1. Roe, J.E. and M. (no date) Goal-Setting Theory – theoretical models for teaching and research. https://opentext.wsu.edu/theoreticalmodelsforteachingandresearch/chapter/goal-setting-theory/.