International Journal of Advances in Management, Economics and Entrepreneurship
Available online at:
www.ijamee.info
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Informational Flows and Managerial Communication
Grigorescu Adriana
1*, Lupu Maria-Magdalena
2, Chi
ț
escu Răzvan Ion
11Faculty of Public Administration, National School of Political Studies and Public Administration, Bucharest, Romania.
2Faculty of Economic Studies, Valahia University, Targoviste, Romania.
Abstract
Communication in an organization has as a purpose the accession of the functionality and efficiency through the provision of new elements that come along with an extra knowledge in order to realize the tasks from the current activity and through which the decisional process can be simplified and streamlined. From the management point of view, the continuous improvement of the informational system represents one of the most important preoccupations on the strength of the importance of the valorization of the information in the current and future activity. The communication and information’s technology development represents a support element in communication’s improvement at organizational level and, therewith, it is an extremely efficiently method of saving the transmission time of the information to an impressive number of recipients. The article publishes the results of our study in which we followed the identification of the fact situation regarding the concern of the managerial corporation for the organization and improvement of the communication process.
Keywords:Management strategy, Managerial communication,Information and communication technology.
Introduction
Management is a complex science, in a continuous development, which harmoniously combines the information, the knowledge and the creativity, but in the same time it is an art because it requires from the managers abilities to manage affective issues of a group and forming the emotional solidarity inside the team. The manager’s professional training, and the assignation and running mode of the management relations determine the quality and efficiency of the management process. Communication is one of the specific duties of the manager through which, based on the acquired abilities, he can strengthen or even dissolve the unity of his team, but simultaneously it is the most common “weapon” of the modern economical wars.
It is no longer a secret that a company that communicates well has a signifying high market quota compared to the other companies, the communication’s efficiency being an important indicator of financial performance and an important growing element of the employees involvement level. The efficient communication is
one of the most important aspects of the business and personal success and any effort made for improving the communicational abilities represents a highly profitable investment. The higher manager’s communication capacity is, the better the organization will be led, and the achievement of the organizational objectives will be a real effort of the entire team, not just for a part of it.
Knowledge Backgrounds
The most important aspects of the organizational communication are connected to the managerial communication and to the efficiency of the flow of information, without which the operational processes can’t take place.
meaning form the informational flow which for obtaining the best results must be organized through selection and routing.
In the specialty theory [1], the organizations are treated as information processing systems and are recognized as economical source especially in the decisional context of the process. In an organization the decisional process and communication are inseparable because the decisional process is the mechanism that triggers the communication.
The reality is characterized by accelerated changes of the organizational environmental, which forces to evolution adaptation, organizational flexibility and lifelong learning [2]. The exploration and administration of the old and new knowledge creates new ideas and practice, that must be shared. All these are made with the help of the modern informational flows, through which it is, realized both gathering and exchange of the information without which the organizations could not function.
As in the communication process, the information’s flow meets in his way barriers that must be overcome. Either we refer to the international flows between persons, the ones between persons and organizations, or to the ones between organization, all are important through the fact that they can influence the solving of the organization’s problems and the planning of the future activities.
Another important aspect of the international informational flows regards the use of the informational technologies for spreading with high speed the information, where there are three distinct mechanisms of the information flow: the information flow between persons, the one between persons and information systems (and reverse) and the one between the information systems. Among the organizations the most used are the first two, these ones entering in the interest sphere of the management for organization and improvement, because of the problems met in the operation of various data formats used by different partners from the business communities [3].
The efficiency of the informational flow is possible after the efficiency measurements that can contain both financial and nonfinancial indicators. The internal efficiency measurements (information flow) must be aligned with the expectations of the interested parts, while the external measurements are important to the competitive position of the organization assess [4-8] have developed different
models of measuring the informational flow regarding the followed objective.
The conclusions they reached to reveal that the informational flow efficiency is directly associated with the effective interoperability between different applications and the persons that manipulate the information.
The Research Methodology
The modern society is characterized by the need to process a very big quantity of information in a very short time. Fortunately we can be helped in accomplishing this task by the new informational technology.
The managerial activity requires and
preoccupations regarded to the implementation and use of the technology resources for the optimization of the information streams inside the organization or of the ones destined to the external society. The revaluation of the gathered information after complete and quality information requires the construction of an incorporate system that meets the needs of the organization and must be one of the management’s preoccupation.
The purpose of this research is the analysis of the communication quality inside the organizations from South Muntenia Region. We mainly followed to establish the measure in which the managers involve in the improvement communication process by using the new technologies and how conscience they are regarding the importance of the communication in the current activities of the organization.
Quantitative empirical research was conducted by survey.
Data were collected by interview, using as interrogation technical the one face to face. The used data collecting instrument was the questionnaire, which contained 11 questions and items for the identifications data.
The survey unity has been established as being the person, the manager, no matter the gender. The observation unity was the organization no matter of the activity domain or of the type of propriety. The collecting period was between 2014/03/02 and 2014/06/15
The Study had as Objectives
Analyzes of the managerial communication;
Analyzes of the information flow inside the
organization.
Assumptions of the Research
I-The managers have real preoccupations for the organization an perfection of the communication process;
II-The organizations benefit of well thought and efficient informational programs/systems.
The Results of the Research
The study was made in organizations in South Muntenia Region, using an easy, random sampling scheme. The distribution of the respondents on counties that form the South Muntenia Region is various because of the interviewing possibilities influenced, mainly, by distances and necessary time of this activity. This distribution is represented in the adjoining figure.
For all the 334 respondents that responded to our
solicitation, we created three different
segmentations, as follows: medium age, gender and level of studies. Our respondents have a medium age of 49. The distribution regarding the gender shows a predominance among the male gender, where 203 are men. The female gender is
In the adjoining graphic it is presented the sample structure after the NACE domain declared by every respondent. This sample contains active companies in 16 of the 21 qualified activities. It can be remarked that most of the respondents are working in commerce and manufacturing industry. So, the normal proportion is kept with the highest share,
as in the national structure, regarding to the INSEE reports.
Question 1
With this question we followed to find out which is the respondents’ opinion regarding the easiness they can access the necessary information in the organization.
The received answers show that the majority considers that they receive easily the information (39.82%) or very easy (27.54%). There is, however, a significant percentage of respondents (31.44%) that have difficulties in accessing the information they need and an insignificant percentage (1.2%) of respondents that find very difficult to access the information.
Question 2
This question asks the respondents to indicate how many times they received complaints regarded to late information about work problems. The analysis results show that the respondents’ opinions share almost equally in a third, but they are different as follows: 36.53% of the answers show that few of the subordinates complained about not being informed in time about work problems. 32.34% of the answers show that this thing happened many times, and 30.24% say that they faced this situation a lot of times.
By gathering the percentages, it results that almost 63% of managers faced this problem in their organization.
Question 3
The information dissemination is a very important aspect for obtaining fast reactions from the subordinates. So, we considered that it is
appropriate to find out how managers deal with this issue. We founded out that the working meeting represent the most used method of
information dissemination for 72.16% of
respondents. The next way of information dissemination is made, according the answers received, by personal meetings (23.35%)
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
Very easy 4 92 0,275 27,54
Easy 3 133 0,398 39,82
Difficult 2 105 0,314 31,44
Very difficult 1 4 0,012 1,20
TOTAL 334 1 100
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
A lot 4 101 0,302 30,24
Many 3 108 0,323 32,34
Few 2 122 0,365 36,53
None 1 3 0,009 0,90
TOTAL 334 1 100
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
Working sitting 4 241 0,722 72,16
Display 3 11 0,033 3,29
Internet / Intranet 2 4 0,012 1,20
Personal meetings 1 78 0,234 23,35
The less used way in the information dissemination is the Internet/ Intranet (1.2%) and the inside display is practiced barely (3.29%).
Question 4
This question seeks to reveal which, is the managers opinion regarding the quality of the information sent to the subordinates, or in another matter of speaking, which is the managers’ opinion about the communication with the subordinates.
More than half of the respondents consider that their subordinates receive enough information to help them in their current activity.On the other hand, almost half of the managers consider that their subordinates receive a lot of information
(25.15%) or even a lot of information
(18.26%).There is even a percentage of 4.79% of managers that consider that there is no need to
communicate more than necessarily with their subordinates.
Question 5
With this question we seek to find out the managers opinion about the influence that a quantity of received information can have on the capacity of taking decisions.
The most part of the respondents (42.18%) appreciate that they are less affected by the informational volume in taking decisions. Almost a third of them (28.74%) consider that the volume does not affect of all their capacity of taking decisions, and another part of the respondents appreciate the received volume of the information
as affecting them a lot (22.16%) and even more (6.29%) in taking decisions.
Question 6
The respondents were asked to say if they can easily check the quality of the received information. We addressed this question with the purpose of finding out how important is, for managers, the quality of the information.
As a result, we founded out that for more than half of them (56.89%) this activity is easy to be made sometimes (25.45%) or even rarely (31.44%). On the other hand, there is a percentage of 37.72% of managers for whom checking the received information is made easily often and a percentage of 5.39% that do this thing always.
Question 7
Through this question we followed to find out how managers appreciate the utility of the information they receive. Here, the opinions are shared almost equally. More than half of them (53.3%) consider that the information they receive are useful sometimes (46.11%) or rarely (7.19%).
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
A lot 4 61 0,183 18,26
Many 3 84 0,251 25,15
Sufficient 2 173 0,518 51,80
Strictly necessary 1 16 0,048 4,79
TOTAL 334 1 100
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
Very much 4 21 0,063 6,29
A lot of 3 74 0,222 22,16
Little 2 143 0,428 42,81
At all 1 96 0,287 28,74
TOTAL 334 1 100
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
Always 4 18 0,054 5,39
Often 3 126 0,377 37,72
Sometimes 2 85 0,254 25,45
Rarely 1 105 0,314 31,44
The other part of the respondents (46.7%) appreciate that they receive information that are useful often (35.93%) or even always (10.78%).
Question 8
The respondents were asked to say how they consider the direct communication with the subordinates, no matter what position they occupy
in the organization. Regarding the received answers, we founded out that the majority of the
managers (53.3%) consider the direct
communication to be less useful (35.93%) or even not useful at all (11.08%). A 40.12% percentage of the managers consider the direct communication with the subordinates as being useful, and 12.87% of them consider it very useful
Question 9 This question demands the respondents to appreciate the utility of the information achieved from informal sources.
In a high proportion (86.53%) managers appreciate that the information received from informal sources proved to be necessary for the organization (66.47%) and very useful (20.06%).There are also some managers that appreciate this type of
information as being a little necessary (9.28%) or useless (4.19%).
Question 10
With this question we followed to find out respondent’s opinion regarding the most fitting source of obtaining the information.
According to the received answers (35.03%) the managers appreciate mass-media as being the most suitable source of information. It is closely followed by the Internet (30.84%) and by the meetings they have with other people. The less popular sources are the books (6.29%).
Question 11
The respondents were asked to evaluate every characteristic of the information and of the information transfer (flow) in the importance order, according to each respondent’s experience. Every characteristic was, then converted into
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
Always 4 36 0,108 10,78
Often 3 120 0,359 35,93
Sometimes 2 154 0,461 46,11
Rarely 1 24 0,072 7,19
TOTAL 334 1 100
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
Very useful 4 43 0,129 12,87
Useful 3 134 0,401 40,12
Little useful 2 120 0,359 35,93
Useless 1 37 0,111 11,08
TOTAL 334 1 100
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
Very necessary 4 67 0,201 20,06
Necessary 3 222 0,665 66,47
Little necessary 2 31 0,093 9,28
Not necessary 1 14 0,042 4,19
TOTAL 334 1 100
Answer Notte
attributed
Absolut frequence
Relative
frequence %
The media 4 117 0,350 35,03
The Internet 3 103 0,308 30,84
The books 2 21 0,063 6,29
The meetings 1 93 0,278 27,84
measurement indicator for the information flow, evaluated on a scale from 1 to 4, where 4 is “very important” and 1 is “very little important”
The results of the analysis are represented in adjoining chart.
According to the respondent’s appreciations the most important characteristics of the information flow are accessibility - 15.88%, neutral character – 14.27%, relevance – 13.42% and complexity – 11.43%. Very close as importance according to the appreciations are coherence – 9.77% and clarity – 8.19%, situating in the middle of the chart. Surprising is the evaluation made for the next characteristics, situated on the last places of choices made by our respondents: credibility – 5.74%, safety – 5.53%, actualization – 5.41%, precision/ fairness – 5.32% and on the last place utility – 5.06%.
The Interest for Every Question’s Issue
To each item it was calculated a medium score. Qualifying the answers depending on the biggest score obtained (which will represent high interest to the issue revealed by that question) we can present the following aspects:
The respondents are very interested by the information’s dissemination (3.01), by the information received from informal sources (2.98), by the access to the information (2.93) and by the late information regarding work issues (2.91);
It can be noticed an almost equal interest for the information received by the subordinates (2.52), by the most right source to obtain information (2.45), by the direct communication with the employees (2.44) and by the utility of the received information (2.43);
Conclusions
The study undertaken by us has reached its objectives, managing to analyze both managerial communication and the information flow inside the organization.
The main conclusion is that in the studied organizations the communication process is hampered by those who should be preoccupied with its optimization.
Calculating the medium score of each question, we wanted to find out what managers interests are regarding the information flow, meaning the real interest of each of the respondents next to the total valuing of the information. The answers are almost disappointing, revealing that there is no knowledge and interest for the importance and safety of the information.
The first hypothesis from which we developed this study rules out!
The managers don’t know how to communicate efficiently, don’t know or maybe aren’t interested by the connection between the information, circulation of information and the welfare of the organization they are not preoccupied by the
organization and improvement of the
communicating process.
Two-thirds of the questioned managers received complaints about the late information about work issues.
The managers don’t appreciate the opinion of the subordinates and consider that their subordinates receive enough information about current activity and they also consider the direct communication with the subordinates as being less useful or useless.
Although we live in an informatics era, the dissemination of the information, a very important aspect for obtaining some fast reactions from the subordinates, is made as 50 years ago.
The majority of the respondents consider that they receive easily or very easily the information they need, but they admit that the information volume affects them in taking decisions and they sometimes or rarely verify the quality of the received information.
On the other hand the managers appreciate mass-media as one of the best source of information, the books being the least popular source of obtaining the information but, over half of them consider that the information they receive are useful sometimes or rarely, appreciating as very useful for the organization the information received form informal sources.
The second hypothesis rules out!
The studied organizations do not benefit of well
thought and efficient informational
programs/systems.
The reality of the actual economical life requires the intelligent usage of all the resources regarding the optimization of the management, for a better analysis of the competitive administration and an alignment to the foreign organizations level.
In a healthy organization, the management ensures not only the understanding of the present conditions but also of the intensions, estimating all the evolution possibilities and probabilities, imposing a broadening of its optics to integrate all environmental components.
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