Ethical Communication and Team Work †Free Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Ethical Communication and Team Work. Answer: Ethical Communication and Team Work In an organization, it is very essential for individuals to work in a team. Two or more people working on a task can any day perform it better than one person doing it entirely on his own. The complex tasks in an organization need expertise of various people to bring out the best result. However, lack of effective communication between all the team members can prove to be harmful for the team, thus affecting the results delivered by them as a team. A well coordinated team can take an organization to greater heights while the one which lacks coordination can bring it down. So it becomes very essential to understand the factors affecting the effectiveness of the team. In order to do so, we need to understand various concepts such as teamwork, factors responsible for its effectiveness, team performance and communication its ethics. After understanding the concepts, we would be able to understand how these are related to one another (Garcia-Calvo et al. 2014). Communication amongst the team members is a major factor affecting its effectiveness. Intra-team communication also forms an important aspect of organizational behaviour. In second section, the same would be elaborated. In the last section, we would link team work, communication and its ethics to understand how the latter two affect the former. For effective communication, it is essential for it to be ethical at all the levels i.e. Individual and Group level. Further for team to work effectively and efficiently, it is very essential for all team members to communicate effectively. So, all three factors are linked and affect each other in an organization. Thus, it is very essential for an organization to establish good working environment and healthy relationship amongst its employees. Also every individual should constantly work towards developing the skill of ethical communication. To understand the relation between Teamwork, Communication and Ethics, we need to first understand the concept of Team Work, Team Effectiveness, Team Communication and Communication Ethics. After understanding these concepts, it would be easier to understand their inter-dependence on each other. Teamwork is a process that allows people to achieve special goals. A team has a common goal for which its members develop effective relationships to achieve those goals. Teamwork is individuals working together to achieve common team goals by sharing knowledge and skills. Successful teamwork depends upon coordination between all team members where they are willing to work together to promote a positive team environment. Factors affecting team work are members commitment to the team success; inter dependence of members, inter personal relationships, ethical communication. Team effectiveness is the capacity/ability of the team as a whole to achieve the task assigned to them. According to Hackman (2012), team effectiveness is defined with the help of three criteria- Outputi.e. the work delivered by the team should be as per or better than the expected outcome, Social Processes the process of achieving the task should enhance teams ability to work together in the future and Learning the members should learn to amalgamate their personal targets with that of the group. In order to evaluate team effectiveness, the factors to be assessed are the final outcome of the team work and the intra group processes. Intra group processes which are examined are Intra Group conflict, Team Cohesion and Team efficacy. Intra Group conflict can be conflict in interpersonal relationship between members and/or the conflict is task where in different members can have different opinion about a method relating to the completion of task. Team Cohesion is the extent to which each member of a team is willing to contribute in the team. Cohesiveness is usually developed over a period of time with development of interpersonal relationships and sense of belonging in the group/team. Team efficacy refers to the perception of the members towards the entire team as a whole. This can help team stand strong even while faced with hardships. Team communication is broadly defined as exchange of meaningful information between two people/members in context to the team. It is the way members identify, collect, discuss, analyse, and evaluate the information they have in order to take decision and to complete the task at hand. All team members need to interact and exchange information with one another to achieve their target. For making decision within the team, effective communication is one of the most important factors to decide the success of the particular decision. Communication is the integral part of teamwork through which critical information can be pooled and errors can be identified (Bove?e and Thill, 2012) (West, 2012) (Hackman, 2012) Now, it is important to understand why effective communication is an important part of team work. It is evident that the teams are formed so that more than two people can work on a common task bringing together their expertise to minimize cost and time taken to do the same task if done by single person. Working as a team in an organization has many benefits such as developing interpersonal relationships, sense of group achievement and sharing of ones responsibilities. However, teamwork may also cause stress and anxiety amongst the members due to poor communication. Effective communication can reduce much of such stress and negativity associated with working in a team. Employees should be motivated to communicate with each other in clear manner. Especially in small companies where employees need to work closely with one another. For effective communication within the team every team member should keep an open mind, be an effective listener and have a thorough understanding of team goa ls and requirements. The most important factor of effective communication is active listening. Active listening involves making notes of the details being delivered, and putting forward questions in case of confusions. Effective communication can lead to the success or failure of tasks requiring teamwork, and sometimes of the entire business itself. Team member who keep an open mind and dont assume things further ask questions build faith and sense of belongingness in the work environment. Teammates must develop trust, since it is not automatic. Accordingly, members must communicate more openly than they normally would in everyday life. The team members should be honest with each other at all the times, since teams integrity can be damaged by withholding the truth. All the essential information should be shared between the team members who would lead to total trust amongst all of them. With Effective communication, teams can achieve their target faster and sometimes achieve more than the expectation. Ac curacy of the work being done is also increased. Effective communication gives role clarity to each and every team member which results in lesser cost being incurred due to non duplicity of work. There are varieties of ways in which team members communicate with one another. Types of communications include e-mail, letter writing, phone conversation and face-to-face communication. Each method has its own rules, advantages and disadvantages. But with appropriate training every employee can learn how to use each method of communication effectively. Teams which fail to communicate effectively ends up wasting time, money and energy doing irrelevant work which might not be required, or there can be duplicity in the job due to lack of understanding of the role and job being assigned to the members. The employees can also develop misunderstandings which would affect the overall health of the organization. Team members not open to effective communication in the team, not only fail to achieve group goals but also their personal goals as they are not open to the suggestions and feedback of other team members which reduces their self growth as well. It is imperative on the part of managers to identify the signs of poor communication in a team. Slow problem solving and inability to report on deadline are few signs of poor communication in the team. Communication skills are also needed to find the balance between time taken to decide on the strategy and to implement the same. If the team is spending majority of time contemplating the strategies and has no or little time left to implement it, the communication in the team is thus ineffective. No clear focus and direction, tension amongst team members and regular arguments are other signs of poor communication in the team. In such a case it is essential for management to take steps to help employees make better teams through training and other activities, for better organizational productivity and revenue generation. (Guffey and Loewy, 2012) (West and Turner, 2013) Communication, in a large way can be affected by various factors such as morals and values of the member communicating. Here comes the importance of ethical communication in the team. For team to work effectively it is essential that no member should practise unethical communications. Ethical communication involves conveying the point to the audience/team members without offending them, maintaining same wavelength with all the members so that everybody feels equally responsible and important in the team, not withholding crucial information so that appropriate decisions are made, well organized value system so that each employee respects fellow members and accuracy of the information is very important (Raman and Sing, 2013) There are various factors influencing Ethical Communication such as Ethical Decision of Speaking up or Staying Quiet. Sometimes for ones own advantage, the member of the team may decide to either speak up something that was supposed to be insiders information or stay quite in the dilemma that speaking up would impact him in a negative way. Another such factor is where the communication is taking place. If the communication is meant to be a secret within the team or organization, and some irrelevant person or competitor overhears it, the loss of information can cause losses to the organization. So it is very crucial to take care of Who, When, What and Where of the communication. Also there are various dilemmas governing ethical communication such as secrecy of the information, excess of which can lead to lack of innovation in decision making and excess it can be misleading and treated as casual communication. Information Leak is another such challenge wherein it becomes, which can lea d to failure of plans, increased cost of altering plans and/or implementing new ones altogether. Another challenge faced in communication is that of Rumours and Gossips, due to which some people in the team may feel less motivated or cheated and thus reduce their productivity (Guffey, Rogin and Rhodes 2012) Lying and Euphemism are also communication challenges faced in a group. By lying, one member takes away the right of truth of all the other members and this can lead to inappropriate decision making, which might benefit the one lying but can harm the entire group. Similarly Euphemism can influence the decision made by one member to complete his task which would eventually lead to loss of entire team. Every team member needs to understand the importance of ethical communication and should try to not deviate from the same (Hybels and Weaver 2015) Reviewing the literature of Ethical Communication, Communication in Team Work and its importance in Team Effectiveness, one can relate that the three factors co-exist with one another. In a team it is very essential for each and every member to communicate one another effectively. Communication however does not mean gossiping and irrelevant talking. Communication here means exchange of ideas, suggestions, important information relating to the project, decisions being made, and implementing and discussing various possible plans of actions (Braun 2013). For a team to achieve its target effectively, it is essential that every person should develop sense of ethical communication and refrain from indulging in spreading rumours and gossiping, lying to other members, holding a secret for self benefit, talking about teams plans at inappropriate place and in front of irrelevant people. For the communication to be effective enough to improve team work and effectiveness, every employee should be motivated to interact and discuss with each other, avoiding conflicts of thoughts and interests. Through ethical communication, the negative feelings like jealousy, hatred, incompetency etc can be avoided amongst the group member. It is the responsibility of the leader of the group to ensure trust and harmony amongst the members. If all these factors are sorted and the communication in the team is effective, then the team can succeed in achieving its target effectively and efficiently. Whereas in the team where people do not communicate with each oth er, follow unethical ways of communication, aim to achieve only personal goals and lack group harmony, it is almost impossible for such team to achieve its set targets in time. Thus, ethical communication is very essential for team to work and achieve its target efficiently and effectively. In every organization, there are various teams and every team is created to achieve a set target. In a team there are typically more than two members, who can be of same department or of different departments who have come together to achieve common organizational goal. So it becomes essential for these diverse people to communicate in order to pool their expertise. Lack of which can cause ineffectiveness of the group as a whole. The success of an organization broadly depends on how its employees can perform as a team. To understand the aspects of communication in team work, we review various definitions and factors that affect communication. We have understood various dynamics relating to Team Work such as Team Effectiveness, Team Performance, Team Cohesion and Team Communication. All these factors affect the overall working of a team. Narrowing our focus to Team Communication, which affects the various decisions made in the group and the flow of information. It is highly affected b y factors such as morals and values of the member communicating. Every person has a different background and it is important for them to understand that at a professional platform one has to keep in mind the ethics of team communication and try sticking to them for the good of entire team. Ethical communication involves conveying the point to the audience/team members without offending them, maintaining same wavelength with all the members, not withholding crucial information from the team, refraining from lying and euphemism, not leaking information and cheating other team members, not indulging in gossips etc. For a team to perform effectively it becomes essential that its members trust each other, are open minded and are focused to the team goal. They communicate with each in most ethic manner and there shall be transparency and harmony in the group. (Thill and Bove?e, 2012) References Bove?e, C. and Thill, J., 2012.Business communication today. 1st ed. India: Pearson Education India. Braun, S., Peus, C., Weisweiler, S. and Frey, D., 2013. Transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and team performance: A multilevel mediation model of trust.The Leadership Quarterly,24(1), pp.270-283. Garca-Calvo, T., Leo, F.M., Gonzalez-Ponce, I., Snchez-Miguel, P.A., Mouratidis, A. and Ntoumanis, N., 2014. Perceived coach-created and peer-created motivational climates and their associations with team cohesion and athlete satisfaction: evidence from a longitudinal study.Journal of sports sciences,32(18), pp.1738-1750. Guffey, M. and Loewy, D., 2012.Essentials of Business Communication, Eighth Edition. 1st ed. Guffey, M., Rogin, P. and Rhodes, K., 2012.Business communication. 1st ed. Toronto: Nelson Education. Hackman, J., 2012. From causes to conditions in group research.Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(3), pp.428-444. Hybels, S. and Weaver, R., 2015.Communicating effectively. 1st ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages. Raman, M. and Sing, P., 2013.Business Communication. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Thill, J. and Bove?e, C., 2012.Excellence in business communication. 1st ed. Pearson Higher Ed. West, M., 2012.Effective teamwork. 1st ed. Chichester, West Sussex: BPS Blackwell. West, R. and Turner, L., 2013.Introducing communication theory. 1st ed. Books by Marquette University Faculty.