ACCA F1 Accountant in Business - 2010 - Study text

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Chapter 11: Individual effectiveness and effective communication

 Time must be planned for doing work that is important but not urgent. Unless

time is planned and allocated to this work, it will eventually become urgent as

well as important.

 Tasks that are urgent but not important include dealing with unexpected

telephone calls where an immediate response is unavoidable, or responding to

some e-mails. Time spent on this work should be controlled and this work

should not be allowed to take up too much time.

Controlling time at meetings

The chairman of a meeting should learn how to control the length of time that

meetings take. Some chairmen of meetings make a point of announcing, when the

meeting begins, when he expects it to end.

Progress at a meeting can be made more quickly:

 if the meeting is planned, with an agenda

 if relevant information is given before the meeting to all the people who will be

attending it

 if the meeting makes use of ‘action points’ and discusses what needs to be done

and the outcome of action points from previous meetings.

3.4 Delegating and time management

Some managers are inefficient and waste time because they fail to delegate enough

work to individuals who report to them. Delegating tasks frees up the manager’s

time.

A manager who has staff to whom work can be delegated should expect to delegate

a substantial proportion of the tasks for which he has responsibility.

3.5 Controlling the work environment

Some individuals make inefficient use of their time because they fail to control the

work environment within which they operate.

 Reading and responding to e-mails. Many individuals set their computer so

that they are notified immediately any e-mail message is received, and they take

time to read it (and possibly respond to it) – no matter how unimportant the

message might be. It has been suggested that large amounts of time could be

saved by not reading e-mail messages immediately, but allocating some time

during the day to read and respond to messages that have accumulated in the

in-box.

 Filing. Data and documents should be filed in a logical filing system, so that

they can be found immediately when required. Some individuals spend time

looking for data or documents that they have mislaid.

 Keeping a tidy desk. Some writers on time management argue that keeping a

tidy desk, with few items on the desk top, promotes efficiency and better use of

time.

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Example

Various writers and trainers on time management have suggested guidelines or

principles for effective time management. Here is one such list of seven rules.

1 Identify your personal and work-related priorities.

Convert these priorities into concrete goals for achievement, divided if necessary

into component activities.

Set deadlines or intermediary time limits (‘milestones’) for achieving these tasks

or components of tasks.

Think of a monthly calendar, diary or planning notebook as a time-saving

device. Mark important dates in the calendar.

Learn to say ‘No’ to opportunities and requests that will use up your time but

will not move your work forward towards its objectives.

Identify your own personal barriers to the effective use of your time. What

causes your resistance to time management?

Try to achieve a balance in your work between ‘doing’ and ‘being’ – you need

time to be yourself and have some enjoyment from your work. ‘Doing’ all the

time does not provide enjoyment.

Chapter 11: Individual effectiveness and effective communication

Coaching, mentoring and counselling

 Coaching

 Mentoring

 Counselling

 The need for counselling at work

 The benefits of offering a counselling service

 The role of the manager as counsellor

4 Coaching, mentoring and counselling

Individuals are able to improve their personal effectiveness at work through

coaching, mentoring and/or counselling.

4.1 Coaching

Coaching is on-the-job training given to an individual by a person with knowledge

and experience, who might well have been trained in coaching skills. For example,

an individual might be taught how to do the job by an experienced colleague or by a

supervisor. The teacher or coach:

 shows the individual how the work should be done

 watches the trainee doing the work, and

 gives advice and instructions when necessary.

A widely-understood form of coaching outside the work place is being taught how

to drive. Another well-known type of coaching is sports coaching and the use of

‘personal trainers’ for leading sports stars.

There are some advantages of coaching as a method of improving personal

effectiveness.

 The coaching is directly related to work and the coach teaches the individual

how the work should be done. When effective, coaching should improve an

individual’s effectiveness in a job very quickly.

 The coach can direct his advice at aspects of the work that the individual is not

doing well. This will help the individual to learn more quickly.

4.2 Mentoring

The skills and effectiveness of individuals in their work can be improved by

mentoring. Mentoring means giving guidance and advice.

 A mentor is a wise and trusted adviser who gives help to an inexperienced

person.

 Mentoring is advice and guidance from a respected person to someone who

needs help.

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Mentoring arrangements can be either informal or formal. A formal mentoring

system is designed to enhance the development of individual employees.

 A newcomer to an organisation may be paired with a more experienced person,

who gives guidance and advice, and acts as an example or ‘role model’.

 Mentoring may also be used to prepare ‘high-flying’ junior managers for

leadership roles in the future. A junior manager may be attached to a senior

manager, who gives guidance that will help him to develop his management

skills. For top-quality junior managers, mentoring may be provided by the

organisation’s chairman or chief executive officer.

A formal mentoring system may therefore be defined as:

 a structured one-to-one relationship that focuses on the needs of the person who

is being mentored, or

 a supportive relationship sustained over a period of time between a ‘novice’ and

an ‘expert’, with the intention of supporting the ‘novice’ through a learning

process and helping him or her with career development.

Whereas coaching helps an individual with technical skills, mentoring helps an

individual with management skills. Mentoring encourages individuals to develop to

their full potential. In business organisations, mentoring is particularly valuable in

grooming individuals for senior management positions.

4.3 Counselling

Counselling means providing guidance, advice and support to another person or

group of people. It has been defined by the British Association of Counselling as

follows: ‘People become engaged in counselling when a person occupying, regularly

or temporarily, the role of counsellor offers … time, attention and respect to another

person or persons temporarily in the role of client.’

Counselling may be given to individuals who feel stressed in their work, and the

aim of the counselling would be to reduce the anxiety and depression that the

individual is feeling.

The aim of counselling is to address and resolve specific problems, usually of a

personal nature, where other methods of dealing with the problem have failed or

are non-existent. Discussions during a counselling session should usually be kept

confidential.

The term ‘counselling’ may also be used to describe giving career development

advice or work-related mentoring to a colleague or subordinate. (You should be

prepared to recognise this type of advice within the definition of counselling in

answering any examination question on the topic.)

In a counselling arrangement, one person acts as counsellor to the colleague or

subordinate, and gives up time to discuss that person’s problems or difficulties. The

counsellor needs to be sympathetic, and capable of discussing another person’s

problems and looking for solutions and a way forward. The counsellor must

therefore have a high level of interpersonal skills.

Chapter 11: Individual effectiveness and effective communication

4.4 The need for counselling at work

A need for counselling at work may arise for various reasons:

 Problems relating to the individual and his behaviour in work

 Problems in the work that are having a demoralising effect on the individual, or

that are causing stress to the individual

 Problems that the individual is facing outside work, but that affect his or her

behaviour at work.

Problems relating to the individual and his behaviour in work

An individual’s behaviour in work may become a matter for concern.

 An individual may feel depressed in the work he is doing, possibly due to a

sense of frustration or a lack of job satisfaction. He may be wondering whether

he is in the right job. He may be frustrated by a lack of career development and a

sense that there is no point to what he is doing. The individual may welcome

counselling if he is depressed or frustrated.

 An individual’s behaviour may be causing annoyance or resentment amongst

work colleagues. For example, an individual may act in a rude manner to

colleagues, or may act in an arrogant manner. His manager may decide to give

him counselling advice if he is annoying his colleagues.

Problems in the work that cause stress

Individuals may benefit from counselling when there are problems in the work that

are causing them stress. Examples of work-related stress are:

 having to work continually to deadlines for completing tasks

 having to work excessive hours of overtime

 not having enough work to do

 worrying about the risk of redundancy and what will happen to the job

 worrying about having to retire in the fairly near future.

Problems outside work that affect the individual at work

Individuals may have problems outside their work that are still on their mind

throughout the working day. Although the cause of the stress is not work-related,

their work is affected. Examples of these problems are:

 problems in a marriage

 problems with children

 problems with alcohol consumption

 problems with taking drugs

 problems with excessive debts.

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4.5 The benefits of offering a counselling service

There are several reasons why an organisation should arrange for counselling to

employees suffering from stress, anxiety or depression:

 Counselling is an ethical issue. An organisation should offer support to its

employees if it believes that it has a responsibility for their well-being.

Counselling demonstrates a commitment by an organisation to its employees.

 A willingness to help employees may result in stronger loyalty from employees

to the organisation.

 Counselling is a method of resolving problems. Counselling is often a last resort,

when all other methods of dealing with a problem have failed.

 It may be particularly effective in dealing with some types of problem, such as

the worries of employees about their career development, or about retirement or

redundancy.

 If counselling succeeds in reducing an employee’s problems, the employee is

likely to perform more effectively at work.

4.6 The role of the manager as counsellor

A large organisation may recognise that many of its employees will inevitably have

problems that they find difficult to resolve, where counselling may help them. It

may therefore employ a small group of full-time counsellors who are available to

discuss certain types of problem that employees are facing, such as problems with

children, marriage and money (personal debts).

However, when an individual’s problems are work-related, or are affecting the

employee’s colleagues, it is often appropriate for the manager to act as counsellor,

because the manager is in a good position to discuss problems that the subordinate

is having with the work, or with his career development.

A problem with managers acting as counsellor, however, is that the relationship

between a counsellor and a client is very different from the relationship between a

manager and a subordinate.

Chapter 11: Individual effectiveness and effective communication

Effective communication

 Formal and informal communication in the workplace

 The need for effective communication

 Communication models

 Attributes of effective communication

 Barriers to communication

 Methods of communication

 Patterns of communication: vertical and lateral communication

 Other patterns of communication

5 Effective communication

5.1 Formal and informal communication in the workplace

In work, as in all aspects of living, people must communicate. They have to give

instructions, provide information, obtain information, communicate ideas, listen to

the ideas of other people, announce decisions (tell other people what they intend to

do), and so on.

The effectiveness of an organisation depends to a large extent on the effectiveness of

communication by its managers and employees.

Information is exchanged in two ways, formally and informally.

 Formal communication is communication that is passed through official

‘channels’ established by the organisation. Examples of formal communication

are reports and instructions by a manager to a subordinate. Formal

communication passes through the formal management structure and ‘chain of

command’. Individuals receive and give information because of their position in

the organisation.

 Informal communication is communication between individuals in an

organisation that does not pass through an official channel. Instead, the

information is passed by individuals in general conversation, sometimes as

gossip or as rumour. Often informal communication passes as unofficial e-mails

between colleagues.

Example

Mega Company dismisses its finance director on Monday. It makes a formal

announcement to staff about the dismissal on Friday of the same week. However,

most people had already heard about the dismissal, because the news had been

‘leaked’ and passed from person to person within the organisation.

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In this example, the informal communication system has operated more quickly

than the formal communication. If it is accurate, it is therefore more efficient.

Unfortunately, informal communication may be inaccurate.

Comparison of formal and informal communication

All organisations rely on a mixture of formal and informal communication to operate

effectively.

Formal information is often slow in coming. Organisations therefore often rely on

informal communication for the transmission of information, when the formal system is

slow and bureaucratic, or where senior managers are autocratic and do not believe in

sharing information with subordinates.

Informal information usually passes between individuals very quickly. A problem

with informal information is that management have no control over it. They control

formal communication channels, but not informal communication. With informal

information, it is sometimes a matter of chance who gets the information and who

does not: some individuals might be totally ignorant of what most of their

colleagues already know.

In an effective organisation, there should usually be an efficient formal

communication system, so that accurate information is passed in good time to

everyone who needs it. When formal communication is reliable, relevant and

timely, employees will trust it.

However, even with the most efficient formal communication system, informal

communication systems always exist. People talk to each other unofficially and

socially: they exchange stories, rumours, gossip and so on, and they don’t always

communicate with each other in their ‘official capacity’. Even in their work,

individuals often prefer to communicate informally, in face-to-face conversations, or

by telephone or e-mail, rather than by more formal methods such as memos and

reports.

5.2 The need for effective communication

Effective communication at work is the exchange of information that individuals

need to do their work properly. It needs to be clear (understandable), relevant,

reliable and timely. Effective communication is essential so that:

 Instructions and guidelines are properly understood.

 Individuals know what they are expected to do.

 There is better co-ordination between people and groups in the organisation.

 Managers are able to plan and control operations more effectively.

 Individuals are more willing to work together in teams or groups, because they

are being told what is happening and where their contribution fits in.

 Secrecy, misunderstanding and mistrust are eliminated. Open communication

increases trust.

 Arguments and conflicts in the work place are reduced.

Chapter 11: Individual effectiveness and effective communication

5.3 Communication models

Communication models are sometimes used to study the effectiveness of

communication. A problem in organisations is often that communication is

ineffective or inefficient. People do not receive the information they need, or they

get the information too late. In many cases, the person receiving information or an

instruction misunderstands what the sender of the message is trying to say.

Effective communication occurs when the receiver of information gets the

information from the sender, and understands completely what the sender of the

message intended.

Communication models can be used to look at the reasons for ineffective

communication, or what is needed to make communication more effective.

Early communication models

Early communication models were developed in the 1930s to understand the

effectiveness of political propaganda. These models are simple, but still relevant.

A simple communication model considers the following elements in communicating

an item of information or a decision:

 Who sends the information? This is the ‘source’ of the communication.

 What is the content of the information? This is the ‘message’. What does the

message say?

 By what method has the information been given or sent? What is the channel of

communication? Has the information been given verbally, in a face-to-face

discussion or by telephone? Has it been sent by e-mail or by letter? Is it in a

report? Is it in a published book or journal? Television? Radio? Web site?

 Who is the information sent to? This is the ‘destination’ of the information.

 What effect has the communication had on the recipient? Is this the intended

effect?

 Does the sender of the message expect any response to the message? If so, how

clear or effective has the response been?

The basic elements in a communication system are shown in the diagram below.

The effectiveness of a communication system depends on the effectiveness of each

element in the system.

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Feedback

In the context of a communication model, feedback involves the recipient of a

message confirming with the sender of the information that he has got the message,

and checking that he has understood the message correctly. The sender of the

message is able to confirm that the recipient has understood it properly, or can try

to correct any misunderstanding.

The value of this model is that it is possible to look at the causes for ineffective

communication by looking at each element in the communication.

Example

Manager X, sent an e-mail message to a subordinate Y, giving him some information

and asking him to carry out a particular task. Subordinate Y did not do what

manager X wanted.

To find out why the instruction was not followed, we can look at each element in

the communication link:

 Was the instruction not followed because manager X did not actually send it?

 Was the instruction not followed because subordinate Y did not read his e-mail

messages, or because the e-mail system was not working?

 Was the instruction not followed because the content of the message from

manager X was unclear or misleading?

 Was the instruction not followed because subordinate Y did not understand

what manager X was telling him to do, even though the message was clear?

Feedback

Source

Message

Channel

Destination

Effect: intended and actual

ACCA F1 Accountant in Business - 2010 - Study text - Emile Woolf Publishing

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