Principles of Effective Written Communication

 Basic Principles of Effective Written Communication

Principle 1: Write coherent sentences 

Make sure each sentence is complete and devoted to one topic. Do not include information that is not related to the main topic of the sentence. 

Example: Incorrect: I like reading, horse riding, and I also work as a security guard. 

The sentence above is about one’s hobbies. Yet, the last part, “I also work as a security guard”, seems to be related to one’s occupation (and not hobbies). Therefore, this last part does not belong to this sentence. A new sentence should be created to discuss one’s occupation. 

Correct: I work as a security guard. In my spare time I like reading and horse riding. 

Principle 2: Write coherent paragraphs

One paragraph is one unit of thought. Do not include sentences that are not related to the main thought into the paragraph. 

Example: Incorrect: My hobbies are reading and horse riding. I like reading novels and science fiction. I read at least one book every month. Riding horses is another hobby that I enjoy. Every weekend I jump on my horse and steer it into the desert. The desert in Arizona is quite different from the desert in New Mexico.

The paragraph above discusses one’s hobbies. This is the main topic or theme of the paragraph. The last sentence (“The desert in Arizona is quite different from the desert in New Mexico”) deviates from this main topic. This sentence has to be removed from the paragraph.

Principle 3: Use short sentences 

Using short sentences makes it easier for the reader to understand the intended message. Every long sentence can be broken down into several short, simple sentences. 

Example: Incorrect: I like riding horses since horses are very energetic yet, at the same time, caring animals. 

While the sentence above is quite simple, it can be made even simpler and easier to understand by splitting it into shorter sentences. 

Correct: I like riding horses. They are very energetic animals. Horses are also very caring. 

Principle 4: Be specific 

If one mentions something in writing, the reader needs to know exactly what is being discussed. Otherwise, do not mention this at all. Being specific does not mean increasing the length of the writing by adding many details. It is more about using precise terms and being factual.

Principle 5: Omit redundant words

Delete words that do not convey any valuable information. It is very easy to “bury” the intended message in the clutter of words and expressions that are not necessary for transmitting the message. Declutter writing to reduce its length and make it easier for a reader to understand the message. 

Principle 6: Keep it simple 

If one wants to make his or her message easy to understand, then simple sentence structures and simple vocabulary should be used. 

Principle 7: Use active voice 

Use active voice to make the message simple and direct. 

Example: Incorrect: Active voice should be used in sentences. 

Correct: Use active voice in sentences. 

Note that the second sentence is shorter and has a simpler grammatical construction. 

Principle 8: Avoid jargon, idioms, acronyms, and cultural references 

Avoid jargon, idioms, acronyms, and cultural references to make the intended message easy to understand for a broader audience. In some situations, jargon, idioms, and cultural references can make the message easier to understand. They can also make the message more vivid and memorable. All this happens under the condition that the writer and his or her audience share a common professional, linguistic, and cultural background. 

Principle 9: Structure the writing 

Any written message should have a simple and clear logical structure. A wellstructured message has a “built-in” roadmap for the reader to follow. This roadmap has enough signs and clues that help a reader to travel from start (no understanding of writer’s ideas) to finish (complete understanding of the writer’s ideas). One should always put some thought into the structure of a paragraph or a report.

Principle 10: Put important things first 

The essence of the message should be stated upfront. The first part of the message should contain not only the main idea, but also a brief justification as to why the message is important. Clearly articulating the importance of the message can motivate the readers to understand and remember the message. All the details, clarifications and examples should follow the main message, not precede it. 

Principle 11: Avoid strong claims and hype 

Avoid strong claims and hype in formal writing. Any kind of extreme position is usually wrong by definition. Moreover, hype language may make the reader doubt whether the message can be trusted. Give the reader facts and let him or her decide whether this is “without any doubt the most effective solution.” 

Example: Incorrect: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems are, without any doubt, the most effective solution for improving customer service.

“Without any doubt” and “the most effective solutions” are very strong claims that need to be backed up by strong evidence. In the absence of such evidence, these claims should be removed from the sentence. 

Correct: Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems can improve customer service. 

Principle 12: Be factual

 In order for writing to be effective in transmitting useful information, one needs to concentrate on facts. Try to separate facts from emotions and interpretations of those facts. 

Principle 13: Pay attention to spelling 

Spelling mistakes can lead to two problems. First, it makes a literate reader “stumble”: the reader pauses for a moment to register a misspelled word and figure out the correct spelling of the intended word. Second, spelling errors also make it less likely that the reader will take the written message seriously or remember it. Why should anyone pay attention to a message from someone who does not know correct spelling of the words he is using or simply does not care enough to proofread his or her text?  

Principle 14: Pay attention to grammar 

It is important to master some of the most important rules of grammar. These rules are useful conventions that aid in delivering a message. Violating these conventions may not constitute a fatal flaw, yet may seriously distort the intended message or simply distract the reader from understanding the intended message.

Principle 15: Use proper punctuation Proper punctuation divides the written message into meaningful parts or shows the relationships among those parts. This makes it easier for a reader to understand the message.

Like-  Correct usage of a comma, Correct usage of a semicolon. Emphasis in-text, Spacing

Principle 17: Use tables and figures to aid understanding 

Tables and Figures are very valuable for organizing and communicating data in a way that makes it easy for a reader to understand, analyze and interpret. Both tables and figures should be accompanied by text that introduces a table or a figure and provides analysis. Analysis should not duplicate the information provided by a table or a figure. For example, if a table lists annual sales data of a company for the last five years, it will be redundant to list those sales figures in a paragraph as well. Instead, the related paragraph should be used to provide some highlights, point to trends or patterns, and provide interpretations for those patterns. 

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALTY

 

FOUR FACTORS OF PERSONALITY

  i.            Physical Appearance

  ii.            Personality Traits- Personality of Person, Introvert \ Extrovert, Lazy, Active.

  iii.            Self Concept-How Person View/Think Himself.

  iv.            Person’s Situation Interaction.

 

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALTY (ROBBINS)

  i. Heredity- Biological Characteristic Which Comes From Parents, Gender, Temperament, Energy Level Etc.

  ii. Environment- First From Family Environment –Then Keep On Going.

  iii. Situation- Different Situation & Different Personality.

 

DETERMINANTS OF PERSONALITY (SOOTT & NITCHELL)

  i. Biological Factors-   it includes heredity, brain & physical factors.

   ii. Family & Social Factors- it includes home environment, family members, social groups.

 iii.Cultural Factors- each cultural expects & trains its members to behave in the ways that are acceptable to the group.

  iv.Situational Factors- on the basis of research study, it is stated that a situation exert on important pressure on the individual.

 

PERSONALITY - Introduction to Personality, Meaning of Personality, Definition of Personality

 

PERSONALITY

Personality means the constitution of mental as well as the physical health of an individual. Personality may be defined as the characteristic pattern of behavior that determines an individual’s adjustment to the environment or situation.

It is a fact that psychological factors of an individual are rarely known to others. An individual’s personality is not a superficial fact or occurrence that can be easily understood, merely on his personal appearance. Personality is the whole aspect of an individual from general point of view. It includes a person’s physical, psychological and emotional aspects.

Personality has come from a Latin word ‘Persona’ meaning to speak through (mask). As in the ancient days masks were worn in Greece and Rome by actors, while enacting plays. Thus, personality is used for influencing others through external appearance. However, personality is not the external appearance alone.

Personality, which makes an individual to stand apart, is the impression of characteristic attributes. It is an aggregate of an individual’s physical, psychological and behavioral aspects contributing to his ‘good personality’ or no personality, according to the presence or absence of the characteristic attributes. Some of these, which are of significant nature, are worth mentioning.

Meaning of Personality

In order to understand the behavior of people in the organisational setting, we need to know the basic nature of personality. It is a psycho-social phenomenon, which analyses the cognitive features and presentation of individual in the society.

Personality is made up of the characteristic patterns of thoughts, feelings and behavior of an individual. These attributes make a person unique. Personality originates within the individual and remains fairly consistent throughout life. Personality exhibits distinctive qualities of a person, especially those distinguishing personal characteristics that make one socially appealing. If a person wins an election on his own, society may say that he/she has won “more on personality than on capability”.

Personality reveals distinctive traits of mind and behavior of a person. It is a pattern of collective character which includes behavioral, mental, temperamental, and emotional traits of a person that makes one socially appealing. It exhibits the quality of a person, which is visible and impresses or disturbs others.

Personality – Definitions 

STEPHEN P. ROBBINS- “The sum total of ways in which an individual reacts & interacts with others.”

GORDON ALL PORT- “The dynamic organization with in the individual of those psycho physical system that determine his unique adjustment to his environment.”

The term personality has been derived from Latin word ‘persona’ which means ‘to speak through.’

“Personality refers to the relatively stable pattern of behaviors and consistent internal states that explain a person’s behavior tendencies.” — RT Hogan.

Personality is used in terms of influencing others through external appearance.

A careful analysis of the above definitions will observe the followings:

i. Personality may be defined as the characteristic pattern of behavior that determines an individual’s adjustment to the environment or situation.

ii. It describes how an individual affects others, how he understands himself and his pattern of internal as well as external measurable traits.

iii. It is the dynamic organisation within an individual of those psychological systems which determines his unique adjustment to the environment.

VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY (VIE THEORY)

 

 

VROOM’S EXPECTANCY THEORY (VIE THEORY)

Vroom’s theory is based on motivation process. According to Vroom people will be motivated to do things to achieve some goals to the extent that they expect that certain action on their part will help them to achieve the goal. Vroom’s model is built around the concept of value, expectancy and force.

Expectancy theory characterizes people as rational being who think about what they have to do to be recorded and how much the reward means to them before they perform their job.

The theory doesn’t only focus on what people think. It also recognize that these thoughts combine with other aspects of the organizational environment to influence job performance.

Expectancy = The belief that one’s effort will positively influence one’s performance. The probability that a particular action will lead to the outcome. This is first level outcome. It may be high performance. 

Instrumentality = An individual’s belief regarding the likelihood of being rewarded in accord with his/her own level of performance. It is second level outcome. The second level output may e promotion as reward. Therefore, the superior performance (1^st level outcome) is being instrumental in obtaining promotion (2^nd level outcome).

Valence = The value a person places on the Reward he/she expects to receive from the organization. It means the strength of an individual’s preference to a particular outcome.

Expectancy Theory-

Another factor in determining the motivation is expectancy i.e. the probability that a particular action will lead to the outcome.

The theory assists that motivation is based on peoples belief about the probability that Effort will lead to Performance(Expectancy), Multiplied by probability that Performance will lead to Reward(Instrumentality), multiplied by the perceived value of the Reward(Valence).

Implication/Importance of the Theory:

1.      It recognizes individual difference in work motivation & suggests that motivation is a complex process.

2.      It clarifies the relationship between individual & organizational goals.

3.      It is consistent with management by objective.

4.      It is consistent with the idea that a manager’s job is to design an environment for performance.

This theory seems to be a step in the right direction but does not provide manager practical help solving his motivational problem.

ATTITUDE - Three stages of Attitude (Components), Attitudes relevant for OB, Factors in Attitude Formation

 

ATTITUDE

Attitudes are evaluative statements- either favorable or unfavorable- concerning objects, people or events.

They reflect how one feel about something.

Eg:- “ I like my job”. – I am expressing attitude towards my work or job.

Definition- ‘Attitude is relatively stable set of beliefs, feelings, and behavior intended towards the perceptual objects, situation and work.

Ø  Evaluative statement or judgment concerning objects, people or events.

Three stages of Attitude (Components)-

1.      Cognitive- the Opinion or belief segment of an attitude. Ex. The belief that “Discrimination is wrong” is a value statement.

2.      Affective- The emotional or feeling segment of an attitude and is reflected in the statement- “I don’t like John because he discriminates against minorities”.

3.      Conative or Behavioral – An intention to behave in a certain way towards someone or something. Ex. – I might choose to avoid John because of my feeling about him.

Attitudes relevant for OB

1.      Job Satisfaction-

It reflects the extent to which employees find gratification or fulfillment in their work. It describes a positive feeling about a job, resulting from an evaluation of its characteristics.

A person with high level of job satisfaction holds positive feelings about his or her job, while a dissatisfied person holds negative feelings.

Factors affecting Job satisfaction of employees-

a)      Personal Factors-             Employees needs, aspirations, group etc…

b)      Organizational Factors-   Relationships with coworkers and superiors, working condition,   

                                          work policies, compensation etc…

2.      Job Involvement-

It is important for organizational effectiveness. It is the degree to which  people identify psychologically with their jobs and consider their perceived performance level important to self-worth. High level of  job involvement is positively related to organizational citizenship and job performance.

Therefore, it is the degree to which employees immerse themselves in their jobs, invest time & energy in them, & view work as a central part of their overall lives. Job –Involved employees are likely to believe in the work ethics, to exhibit high growth needs, and to enjoy participation in decision making. As a result, they are willing to work long hrs, & they will attempt to be high performer.

3.      Organizational Commitment-

Ø  Organizational commitment of employees is a strong force for organizational effectiveness.

Ø  Also known as employee loyalty to organization. It is the degree to which an employee identifies with the organization and want to continue actively and meaningfully participating in it.

Ø  It is employees willingness to remain with the organization in the future.

Ø  Organizationally committed employees usually have good attendance, records, demonstrate a willing adherence to organizational policies & have lower turnover rate.

Ø  It is the degree to which the employees identifies with a particular organization & its goals and wishes to maintain membership in the organization.

Effects of employees Attitudes-

1.      Employee performance- it is higher if the employees have higher level of job satisfaction, job involvement and organizational commitment.

2.      Employee Turnover- it is the rate of change in the working personnel of an organization during a specified period. It signifies the extent to which old employee leave and new employees enter into the service in a given period of time. Employees having positive attitudes have much lower turnover rate than those having negative attitude.

3.      Absenteeism & Tardiness- Absenteeism is unauthorized absence from the workplace while Tardiness is a type of short period absence ranging from a few minutes to several hrs  and it is another way in which employees physically withdraw from active involvement in the organization. Negative attitude towards Job satisfaction, Job Involvement and organizational commitment brings higher level of absence and tardiness.

4.      Violence- it may be verbal or physical aggression at workplace. Employees who have high job satisfaction, Job involvement and organizational commitment do not feel frustrated,, the do not tend to involve in violence.

Factors in Attitude Formation

1.      Group Factors-

·         Family

·         Reference Groups

·         Social Class

·         Cultural factors

2.      Individual Factors-

·         Personality Traits- like locus of control, self-monitoring, self-esteem, high mach & low mach etc…

·         Perception- like stereotyping, projection, halo effect etc..

·         Attitude

·         motivation

TECHNIQUES THAT PEOPLE USE IN JUDGING OTHER

 

TECHNIQUES THAT PEOPLE USE IN JUDGING OTHER-

 

1.      HALO EFFECT-

When we draw a general impression about an individual on the basis of a single characteristics such as intelligence, sociability or appearance, a halo effect is operating. Therefore, it refers to the tendency of perceiving people in terms of good/ bad & assigning all good qualities to one who is good & bad qualities to one who is.

 

2.      HORN EFFECT-

If a person posses one negative quality then the perceiver starts persuading other negative quality in that person.

 

3.      CONTRAST EFFECT-

Evaluation of a person’s characteristics that are affected by comparisons with other people recently encountered who rank higher/lower on the same characteristics.

Ex- In an examination evaluation, if a person has done bad paper then the person coming next which is an average student can get good marks and vice-versa.

 

4.      STERO TYPING-

Judging someone on the basis of one’s perception of the group to which that person belong.

Ex- women won’t relocate for a promotion, Men aren’t interested in child care, Older workers can’t learn new skills.

 

5.      PROJECTION-

Attributing one’s own characteristics to other people. It is easy to judge others if we assume that they are similar to us.

Ex- if you want challenge and responsibility in your job, you assume that other want the same. Or you are honest & trustworthy, so you take it for granted that other people are eually honest & trustworthy.

 

6.      FIRST IMPRESSION-

It consist of the first few second of an encounter in which an individual forms an opinion  positive/negative, about another. It is very common that people evaluate other on the basis of first impression. Sometimes the initial opinion lasts forever. It may be correct if it is based on adequate information.

Perception applications are used in:

1.      Employment interview

2.      Performance expectations

3.      Performance evaluation

4.      Employee effort

5.      Employee loyalty

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

 

ATTRIBUTION THEORY

Attribution means assigning cause to an event.

Attribution theory is an attempt to determine whether an individual’s behavior is internally or externally caused. Internal causes are under the control of the person while external cause are beyond his control.

According to attribution theory there are 3 factors that influence internal or external determination.

1.      DISTINCTIVENESS

2.      CONSENSUS

3.      CONSISTENCY

1.      DISTINCTIVENESS- The degree to which a person shows consistent behavior in different situations. If it is high the behavior in termed as internally cause and vice-versa.

Example- If an employee has poor performance with bad machine as well as with a good machine, his behavior is termed as Internally caused. If his performance improves with the good machine his behavior is termed as Externally caused.

2.      CONSENSUS- The degree to which various persons behave similarly in a given situation. If the degree is high the behavior is treated as externally caused.

Example- If most of the employees show poor performance with bad machine, the poor performance is treated as Externally Caused.

3.      CONSISTENCY- The degree to which a person shows the some behavior over time. If it is high, the behavior is treated as Internally caused.

Example- If an employee is coming late to office consistently, his behavior is treated as internally caused but if he is late occasionally his behavior is treated as eternally caused.

 

In this theory 2 types of errors occurs-

v  Fundamental attribution error- is the tendency to underestimate in influence of situational factors and to overestimate the influence of the personal factor in evaluating the behavior of a person. Thus the cause of poor work performance is perceiver as his own fault.

v  Self serving bias- works in reverse direction in which the perceiver assigns the cause of his poor performance as external while cause of good performance as internal.