Case Application: Communication Lesson Essay Example

be negative emotions between engineers and product managers because of disagreement and miscommunication in the process of working, designing and selling the products.

 What suggestions presented in the chapter might Voyant’s employees have used to overcome communication barriers?

The following suggestions should help make interpersonal communication in Voyant more effective:  The company CEO Bill Ernstrom and his chief engineer made a decision to have its engineers add streaming media to the company’s flagship product. However, a product manager who had learned of the project produced a marketing report that showed most customers had little interest in streaming anything. In this case, if the company had used listening actively methods, the circumstances would have been different. Active listening is listening for full meaning without making premature judgments or interpretations, demands total concentration. With active listening, empathy will be developed between the sender and the receiver, specifically, they are top engineers and product managers in this case. If this issue acts, the communication challenge “top engineers weren’t listening to the product managers – and vice versa” will gradually repelled.

 There is also a cultural and language gap between computer “geeks” and the more market/business-oriented colleagues that happens time and time again. This gap can be filled by feedback and simplifying language methods. In fact, the working environment covers a great number of employees coming from different backgrounds, educations, and countries. Sometimes, the jargon used in this department of a company will be misunderstood by another department. Therefore, engineers in Voyant can use technical words while working in their department but should simplify or at least explain these words in an understandable way for those

outside their specialty. Moreover, it is also important to have feedback when one is commissioned. This may improve understanding and accuracy among employees and contribute achievements to the business.

Why were the structural changes important to the success of the communication changes?

The structural changes in Voyant were necessary due to the obvious lack of communication and team-work.  Firstly, Ernstrom, CEO of the company decided to hire managers to lead each of the company’s four product lines. It was a huge step for communication improvements because the former managers and the top engineers had been faced communication barriers.

 Moreover, the company structure was significant changed to fill in the gaps between geeks and suits:  John Guillaume had been hired to be a chief product officer, […] had a strong telecommunications background in both engineering and marketing. Guillaume was a key catalyst for the product managers and the top engineers as well as the product groups and the engineer groups  The profile of the four product managers was well-improved when Guillaume gave them visible tasks, such as writing product definitions and presenting marketing research.

This improvement, in turn entrusted the engineers, especially the top-engineers. Two of the star engineers which were made to lead product groups (by Guillaume) were familiarized themselves with marketing and production. Although they did the jobs reluctantly, they somehow worked in collaborations.

Why do you think Ernstrom believes that the company’s customers are happier than ever before?

What role do you think communication plays? Ernstrom believes that the new communication changes have led to the increasing satisfaction of the company’s customers.  According to this new method,

every employee in the company has a chance to express their own ideas about the way of products improvement by submitting a proposal to the company intranet. Therefore, they will fill like a part of the corporation which will increase their cohesion with company. Moreover, since the new product is considered by every employee in the company, it will be better designed with optimal functions.

The ideas raised for new products will be less subjective as it is under the consideration of many people, not just some star engineers. Then the newly products will meets or even exceed customers’ needs and expectations.  The customer are happier than ever because they were getting what they really want in a product. When the engineers meet the requirements that the managers set out, there were less chance that the products is not going according to the way the consumers need, therefore not only the Voyant’s employee get bonuses but their customers also get benefits. In this case, communication has important functions of control, motivation and information.

As controlling, the new communication method helps the managers control the new ideas created by employees and their possibility as well as the implementation. As motivation, the new communication method increases the interaction of the employees in this company. Therefore, behind the success of every project, there is a contribution of employees in the company. It will motivate them to share more creative and effective ideas to improve other new products. As information, it is obvious that through the new communication method, both employees and managers will thoroughly know about the ideas of others as well as what they have

to do next. Based on these functions, we can see the roles of communication.

Firstly, communication makes good governance. Effective interaction helps the management system to be open, accountable and responsive to their employees. There are free flows of information so that employees can keep track of their working duration. Secondly, communication makes an economic development roles as it makes the products closest to customers’ needs and expectations, which will increase the turnovers. In conclusion, the new communication method is an important factor that leads to the better satisfaction of customers. It even increases the company’s productivity, mainly because of its three roles: controlling, motivation and information.