In any organization communication is one of the most crucial determinants of success and effective performance. How information flows, how information is handled and the choice of words and ethical integration determines how an organization runs both in the short term and long term (Bisel, Messersmith & Kelley, 2012). Words and the choice of words have lasting consequences and therefore there is a dire need to have regulations on how communication is conducted in an organization. There is immense pressure from the global society on organizations and individuals to achieve effective and ethical communication at all levels in any entity. This happens when individuals realize the communication goes beyond the language, the choice of words and the vocabulary that one chooses to use which is totally the responsibility of the communicator. It therefore goes without saying that communication contract is one of the most useful tools in any organization (Stevens, 2013). This involves formulating mechanisms and approaches which include individual skills that catalyzes ethical communication. A communication contract also aids an organization in having a well-structured format and an effective method of conveying messages, correct holding of meetings, binding all the available departments, and avoidance of rumors and thus solving issues that may bring about miscommunication in all organizational affairs. Below are the communication clauses showing their importance in an organization and their nature, which make up pillars of communication.
Communicational clauses
Relevance Clause
This clause ensures and emphasizes actuality and conventionality of the topic or matter being addressed especially a business meeting. Its main purpose is to make sure that the meeting adheres to only the relevant issues at hand and that only mainstream conversations are held to avoid the participants from wandering off. This clause also ensures that all the discussions being held are informative and direct to the related points. The sole purpose of this clause is to ensure that participants stick to the goals, objectives and subject matters of the sole meeting held. This clause will be very advantageous to our organization since it will ensure that all meetings being held are relevant to the core objective which ensures that time is being saved as a result of all individuals having the exact and accurate information omitting guesses and misunderstanding and confusion.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Clarity Clause
The main objective of this clause is to ensure that all communications are done clearly and precisely. This helps to curb miscommunication and, therefore, emphasizes for very clear ways of passing messages. Clarity ensures that disagreements are addressed professionally and with courtesy in order for all participants to get the intended information. This clause stipulates that the participants use simple and clear language and jargon so that all the parties involved can be catered for. There might be discourses or professional differences in any organization and therefore unification of messages can ensure harmonization (Dresp-Langley, 2008). Any organization should create room for inquiries and asking questions because this goes a long way to solve communication barriers and any other barriers that may be deterrent to communication. Clarity clause is a crucial component of communication in any organization because it ensures minimization of doubts, confusion or distortion of information and will therefore save organization costs by ensuring that only the most accurate and intended information is passed to all parties in the most appropriate manner.
Prudency Clause
This clause ensures that information is handled carefully and judiciously because information is very vital in any large or small organization and also to individuals. This clause ensures that information is not distorted in the course of passing it down to parties. Distortion of information may lead to destructive rumors which may interfere with an organization's performance leading to the organization incurring a lot of costs, both explicit and implicit. Rumors may be detrimental to an organization and its image as well as publicity (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra, 2014). Therefore business information must be handled responsibly and in a clear and responsive manner to ensure that the planed goals and strategies are met. This clause is important to our organization because it will ensure that we operate in a prescribed manner, hence creating unity, harmony and good employee relations thus achieving maximum output.
Tolerance Clause
The clause stipulates that information should be handled without dismissing any sincere and potentially constructive participation from a participant and commitment even if it may seem naïve or even non-convectional. Felicity situations should therefore be handled in a very conventional manner and approach (Stevens, 2013). Handling of naïve or non-conventional information should be done with tolerance and openness to others. In an era where organizations are multicultural, it is very vital to possess a great sense of containing and toleration of other parties to ensure that communication contract is well achieved, and that all views are respected and held with utmost good faith. This clause is important to our organization because it will ensure conventionality and flexibility which may open doors of new ideas that may be very crucial to the growth and development of our organization. It will ensure that all levels of management and departments will relate well with each other using the right and most appropriate communication and therefore working as a team to ensure success.
Optimal Timing Clause
Time is a very important resource in any organization and for this reason time management is always emphasized in any organization. The time factor must be keenly put in to consideration in the course of business meetings and communicational structures. Enough notice must be given prior to a meeting and agendas given in advance to ensure that participants are well prepared to tackle issues in the meeting. Professional conduct must be upheld during a meeting and no one should be allowed to dominate the meeting at the expense of other's views. No individual should dominate a meeting conversation at the expense of others as this hinders free and fair participation from other members which may lead to victimization and skewed decision making. Domination in a meeting may mean that enough time is not allocated to all participants and this may affect overall output of an organization since causing destabilization and poor performance (Dresp-Langley, 2008). Meetings that involve both the junior and senior staff should be held in a flexible manner with careful consideration of time to allow fruitful discussions. Optimal timing clause will be helpful to our organization's communication process since it will ensure that the process of organizing a meeting is done in most judicious manner.
Openness Clause and Balanced Speech Time Clause
This clause complements the tolerance clause, which ensures that information is disseminated in a convenient way that does not violate individual positions. The clause emphasizes on good relations and understanding in instances where the parties have differing opinions. The openness clause ensures that professional aspects are not violated ensuring that decisions are made smoothly. Ensuring proper time is allocated to every individual to give their views ensures that points are passed across in a fair manner thus reduced monopolization in meetings (Dresp-Langley, 2008). Proper and equal allocation of time fosters equity and uniformity. If decisions are made from limited information given as a result of insufficient time allocation, all participants may not be satisfied and this may cause a lack of support to implementation that may cost an organization a lot. Inequality in time allocation may lead to cases of ill-feelings and bad blood among participants triggering poor relations which may lead to organizational dysfunction. Any organization such as ours need to implement the openness and balanced speech time clause if it wants to achieve success in its methodologies of communication.
In conclusion, communication is an integral process in the current global business activities and organizations. This has given rise to creation of the communication contract which ensures that an organization's process of communication is conducted in the most professional, ethical and responsible way (Nazari & Jamalipour, 2013). A communication contract is inevitable if any organization wants to ensure that its objectives are met in the most optimal way.
References
Bisel, R., Messersmith, A., & Kelley, K. (2012). Supervisor-Subordinate Communication: Hierarchical Mum Effect Meets Organizational Learning. Journal Of Business Communication , 49 (2), 128-147.
Dresp-Langley, B. (2008). The Communication Contract and Its Ten Ground Clauses. J Bus Ethics , 87 (3), 415-436.
Mishra, K., Boynton, L., & Mishra, A. (2014). Driving Employee Engagement: The Expanded Role of Internal Communications. International Journal Of Business Communication , 51 (2), 183-202.
Nazari, B., & Jamalipour, A. (2013). Cooperative communication with asymmetric channel state information: A contract theoretic modeling approach. China Communications , 10 (1), 31-43.
Stevens, M. (2013). Driving employee engagement for business success. In Practice , 35 (2), 91-93.
