Blog Post Analysis and Feedback on Effective Communication

Blog Post

“It has come to my attention that many of you are lying on your time cards. If you come in late, you should not put 8:00AM on your card. If you take a long lunch, you are not supposed to hide that and sign like the lunch took only one hour. I will not stand for this type of cheating. I simply have no other choice but to institute an employee monitoring. Beginning next week, a video system will be installed in the building with cameras monitoring all entrances, and entry and exit times will be logged every time you use electronic key cards to enter or leave the premises.

Anyone arriving late for work or returning late from lunch more than three times will have to answer directly to me. I don’t care if you had to take a nap or if your family had to go shopping. This is a place of business, and we do not need to be taken advantage of by slackers who are cheaters to boot.

It is too bad that a few bad apples always have to spoil things for everyone.”

 

Feedback

Effective communication is an integral aspect of successful management due to the numerous benefits that accrue from it in a contemporary workplace. Typically, an individual in such a position interacts with the organization’s employees, in addition to providing internal and external stakeholders regular updates in selected areas of concern. Information communicated by a manager can succeed in instituting the desired paradigm shift or it may have the opposite effect and failing altogether due to its inappropriateness (Walisiewicz, 2015, p. 34).  The blog post above espouses a manager’s attempt at realizing specific changes at an organization, top on the list being employee promptness and punctuality. Nevertheless, it is quite likely that the message will not achieve its intended purpose owing to its blatant ineffectiveness during delivery. The manager is clearly agitated by the fact that some of his employees may be knowingly entering inexact information on their time cards whenever they arrive late to work. From the blog post, it’s apparent that the manager uses coarse, demeaning and condescending language while speaking of all employees in general. It’s always vital to avoid public spats at the workplace, even when specific employees find themselves on the wrong side of the company’s rules, regulations and policies. The manager should have organized a private meeting with the specific individuals arriving late at work while seeking to establish why this is the case.

The blog post also fails to communicate the seriousness of the message since the author uses informal language throughout his address. Organizations require leaders who adhere to the formality and decorum as a show of respect to their office. In this particular case, the manager uses informal language to address an issue of grave concern, and it’s highly likely that the employees would not approach the message with the seriousness it requires.  Moreover, his overall tone and choice of words paint a vivid picture of an autocratic leader who views the organization’s employees as nothing but a means to an end. The use of strong language such as “lying” and “cheating” to refer to the employee’s behaviour has the ability to foment dissent. In fact, such language can affect employee output since some interpret it as a show of utter disrespect from the firm’s top leadership. Nonetheless, it is vital always to concede that an organization’s employees are its greatest resource, which is why managers must strive to reassure them of their value.  In this particular case, the manager seems to be talking down to the said individuals, who are, in reality, cogs that keep the organization moving. Ostensibly, the dressing-down clearly evident in the blog post’s rhetoric may be an indication of deeper communication problems that exist in the organization.

Rewriting the Blog Post using the “Language of Leaders.”

“Over the years, our organization has been widely acclaimed for its employee’s demure and honest nature which has kept us soaring above our contemporaries. However, recent reports indicating that some employees are intentionally entering inaccurate information on their time cards is quite worrying. It’s essential to remember that such actions violate company policy and may prove pernicious in the long run. Time is of the essence and should be immensely valued by all our esteemed employees. With regard to this recent development, the organization has resorted to installing a video system that will use mounted cameras at all major entrances to monitor employee activity. It is therefore imperative for all employees to arrive at work promptly to avoid any future inconveniences.”

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