Communication and Information Management
Title: Establishing and Maintaining Stability and Continuity
Required Reading: Quinn, pgs. 108-116; 128-148. Competencies 1 through 4 only. Focus on “Assessment” and “Learning” sections for each competency.
Suggested Additional Readings:
Kotter, “What leaders really do” (HBR)
Nohria, “What really works” (HBR)
Mintzberg, “Manager’s Job: Folklore and Fact” (HBR)
Work interruption is a common barrier in managing time and usually robs many workers most of their time required to achieve a particular goal at the workplace (Castells, 2011). Besides, workplace interruptions always break one’s focus, which leads to disorganization of thoughts. The person will then have to spend more time in re-engaging his process of reflection needed to complete complex work. However, the key to managing interruption is simply by distinguishing the urgency of the interruption in comparison with what the worker is doing (Castells, 2011). This will also help identify which disruption is more important than the other and how best can they be managed them to fit into their daily schedule. To achieve this, one needs to possess an interrupters logbook to keep track of the number of interruption received every day. Once the interrupters have been identified, determine whether they are valid and for those that are not valid, should be blocked to avoid time wastage.
How a recipient interprets the contents of an email or information inflows will depend on the nature of the organization of the information. Information that is well organized in a precise, clear, and complete manner is likely to get better feedback than information with a lot of content to consider (Habermas, 2015). To avoid misinterpretation of information, the use of OABC method seems to be the appropriate way in laying out information in a clear, concise, and complete manner. The method seems too simple, straightforward, and short enough. OABC is the best communication method to use in a formal setting, which requires simplicity, pleasant tone, coherence, and completeness.
How a person chooses to share information with other workmates will depend on the validity of the information to the recipient. This is because not all information is relevant to everyone, especially in an office setting (Habermas, 2015). Furthermore, invalid information may lead to misinterpretation of Communication and Information Management. This is because non-verbal communication depends on technology, which is difficult to use in communicating expressions or feeling to the recipient. Therefore, choosing what information to share with the colleagues will depend on validity and simplicity of the information to the addressee in order to allow room for accurate interpretation. However, the best communication process is face-to-face communication because one can understand what intention the other person tends to portray while they communicate.
