COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS IN THE
INF'ORMATION AGE
Information is a means of acquainting people with
data such as rules and regulations, employee handbooks,
statistics, etc. It often exists in numerous formats including
vast databases or repositories available for use by everyone
whereas communication (oral or written) is the process by
which this data or information is shared. Information can
exist in many physical forms, but until it has been
transferred via the communication process it exists merely
as information or data. The value of information is
determined by how effectively it is converted (tramfed)
during human communication. According to Thayer
(1968), communication takes place only in people, and is
not to be confused wit. electronic or mechanical processing
of data. This distinction is important when considering how
human communication is defined and used in
organizations.
COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN
ORGANJZATIONS
Importance of Communications in Hiring and
Promotion
At the most basic level, three core skills desired by
employers based on a joint study by the U.S. Department of
Labor and the American Society of Training and
Development, Workplace Basics-The Skills Employers
Want, include:
1. Basic academic skills in reading and writing.
2. Good communication skills, including listening
and speaking.
3. InterpersonaVnegotiation skills and teamwork.
In a survey by the National Association of
Colleges and Employers OJACE), employers rated their
hiring intentions as they relate to new college graduates.
Good grades and technical skills were cited as only a part
of the criteria used to judge the potential success and
effectiveness of a job candidate. Communication skills
ranked first among the three personal qualities an employer
looks for when hiring. Interpersonal, teamwork, and verbal
communication skills were ranked as the most important.
In the book Management of Corporate
Communication (1994)' Robert Heath states "emphasis on
communication is not intended to ignore the technical skills
and knowledge individuals must have to perform tbeir
work" (p.2 1). He goes on to say that communication "holds
this knowledge and talent together and focuses it through
relationships" @. 2 1). William Fallon in Leadership on the
Job (1981) states that "the importance of communication to
management performance is recognized in the high weight
given to communication skills when candidates are being
screened and selected for management positions" (p.67). He
states further that with the increased use of assessment
centers in the screening process such centers place a high
premium on communication skills in arriving at an
assessment rating of a candidate for promotion. Frequently7
the higher one goes in the management ranks, the more
time is spent in communicating. Fallon refers to Bass and
Ryterband's book Organizational Psychologywhich reports
executives spend 80 percent of the work time talking with
others.
Southwest Airlines has achieved phenomenal
success as an airline with a unique hiring philosophy that
involves "hiring for attitude and training for skill."
(Freiberg & Freiberg, 1998). Employee attitude, which is
demonstrated through a combination of core beliefs and
interpersonal communications skills, can make or break a
company and Southwest recognizes that.
Importance of Communications to Interpersonal
Relations
In her book Fundamentals of Organizational
Communication, Pamela Shackley-Zalabak (1988) defines
human communication as "the process through which we
construct shared realities7' e.33). Through the transferring
of information, these shared realities generate shared
meaning among people. Using symbols (words) to trander
information results in creating shared meaning or mutual
u~~dc:rsku~cli~lg. Eachiurlividual ~ngagcd in communication
is both a message sender and a message receiver and is
involved in the process of formulating (encoding) messages
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Human Communication Skills
and receiving (decoding) messages. In turn, encoding and
decoding messages are a function of communication
competency and past experiences.
In an organization, interpersonal relationships
exist at all levels. According to Cohen, Fink, Gadon, and
Willits (1992) in Effective Behavior in Organizations,
personal relations occur at all levels in an organization and
result in a network of interconnected relationships. They
further state that ?he more a job requires two people to
work together, the more important is the kind of working
relationship that develops" (p.253).
The way in which persons interact with one
another is a function of their inchidual interpersonal styles.
Although no one communicates or behaves the same way
in every situation, almost everyone has a preferred or
dominant interaction style that is the most comfortable.
Therefore, an individual's sense of interpersonal
competence can be strongly aftected by his or her range of
interaction styles. It could be useful to assess interpersonal
competence by looking at the ability to deal with a variety
of p&ple and situations that require interaction in different
ways, sometimes not in the preferred style.
In the aviation and aerospace industries a wide
variety of potentially life-threatening situations exist. A
wide repertoire of interaction styles are important to the
aviation professional in adapting effectively to the demands
of a complex work environment where effective interaction
could mean the difference between life and death.
Importance of Communication Skills in Groups
Organizations have many types of formal and
informal groups. Formally stru- groups could include:
work teams, management teams, unions, process
improvement teams, problem-solving groups, and many
others; whereas informal groups come together primarily
for social events, gripe sessions, etc. As with interpersonal
relationships, members of groups are also involved in
communications for the purpose of creating "shared
realities" (Shockley-Zalabak, 1988). In his book The
Dynamics of Organizational Communication, John Baird
(1977) defined a group as "a collection of more than two
persons who perceive themselves as a group, possess
common fate, have organizational structure, and
communicate over time to achieve personal and group
goals." This places communication at the very core of
group interaction or activity; as such, groups can be
understood in terms of how they are structured, how they
understand individual roles within the group, and how they
communicate.
In general, the greater me degree of rask
interdependence required, the more important it is for the
group members to maintain continuing exchanges or
communications with each other. In a highly complex
environment such as aviation there exists a high level of
task interdependence. Thus, it becomes exceedingly
important for group members to constantly look at ways to
improve task and interpemnal interdependence through
effective communication.
Airline crewmembers in a constant state of
rotation benefit from a greater understanding of group
interaction particularly as it applies to individual roles and
the communication process within the group or crew. That
is why we are seeing an increase in the study of Crew
Resource Management and other courses designed to
improve the communications process.
LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT
COMMUNICATION
Granville Toogood, in The Articulate Executive
(1995), identifies successful leaders as sharing three
common characteristics (the three Cs) which combine to
create what he calls "supemmpetence": competence,
clarity, and communication. Beyond being good or
[clompetent at what you do, you must possess [cllarity or
be able to see beyond the job. Most important is the third
c-[c]ommunication which is related to the ability to share
knowledge and information with others. His prime example
of a supercompetent leader is Lee Iacocca who led Chrysler
to outperform General Motors and Ford because of his
talent to persuade and inspire. Using these powerful tools,
Iacocca convinced Congress to extend substantial loans to
Chrysler. But, competence and clarity are of little use
without the ability to communicate. Toogood (1995)
concludes that "those who talk well thrive-those who talk
best lead."
Kouzes & Posner (1995) discussed the importance
of a positive comunication style of leadership. They
described the leaders we most admire and willingly follow
as those who communicate enthusiasm and energy with a
positive attitude and a bounce in their step. We do not
follow people who convey a feeling that something cannot
be done. Communications of leaders involve not only
development of style and accuracy but also the ability to
stretch and encourage employees through effective use of
the language and nonverbal behavior. They describe the
term "charisma" as human expressiveness that utilizes
communications skills to convey verbally and non-verbally
to others. Successll leaders make full use of the power of
verbal and non-verbal language to communicate a shared
identity and vision.
In Leadership Jazz, Max DePree described the
advise or a nurse iu 11clpu1g his prtnmture granddaughter
to survive: "She has to connect your voice to your touch."
(P.2)
JAAER, Winter 2003 Page 2 1
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Brown and Kutz: 21st Century Aerospace and the Power of Human Communication Skill
Published by ERAU Scholarly Commons, 2003
Human Communication Skills
According to DePree the process of connecting one's voice
and one's touch is imperative to becoming a leader. A
leader who speaks one way and acts another is devastating
to an organization. Learning powerful communication
skills (both verbal and nonverbal) creates power in
leadership and must be part of the development of future
leaders. In fields such as aviation leadership that power
often comes from tying technical skills to developing
communications skills.
AVIATION COMMUNI