304 Principles of Communication in the Workplace

Unit Overview

304 Principles of Communication in the Workplace is an important unit within the CMI Level 3 module that focuses on building the capabilities to effectively communicate within the workplace. Communication is one of the critical practices within the organisation that need to be established. It ensures that all stakeholders within the workplace can work collaboratively with a focus on the organisational goals and objectives. It also facilitates the sharing of information that is either strategic, operational, or technical to facilitate the accomplishment of the different tasks that teams have to perform within the workplace.

As such, leaders must be able to develop platforms of effective communication. These platforms are based on principles that are aligned to the organisational goals and objectives. It helps to facilitate a culture that is based on sharing information transparently and openly hence creating success within the workplace. Principles of communication are also critical in building an avenue where the employees and team members develop desirable work relations that are designed to boost their ability to cooperate in achieving the organisational goals and objectives.

304 Principles of Communication in the Workplace is a unit that is designed to develop an understanding of the principles that must be considered when putting up communication strategies within the workplace. The unit provides the learners with training on the significance of communication in the workplace and the significant feathers that a communication system must develop to ensure that it adequately meets the organisational needs and expectations. The unit also builds an understanding of the roles and responsibilities that different stakeholders must play in ensuring that the communication system functions effectively and contributes to the accomplishment of organisational goals and objectives. The unit is taught in 18 hours of guided learning and contributes 5 credit values towards the completion of the module.

Suitability of the Unit

Communication is a critical practice that all stakeholders ranging from the shareholders to the employees, must develop. It involves being able to effectively share information and receive feedback which is critical in ensuring that a shared sense of purpose and understanding of the goals and objective is developed, as well as improving the ability to work collaboratively to achieve these goals. As such, 304 Principles of Communication in the Workplace is one of the most versatile units that covers stakeholders within the workplace. it helps different individuals understand the role that they should play in improving the levels of communication as well as setting limits that guide the interactions and nature of communication developed in the workplace.

The unit is designed to improve the abilities and skills of first-line managers and supervisors within the workplace. These are individual takes with overseeing the operational level of the organisation. They have to coordinate different teams and ensure that the teams are able to function effectively in achieving the assigned work tasks. The unit provides the leaders with the understanding of skills and techniques they can use to institute functional and effective communication systems. The unit is also applicable to senior managers within the workplace who set the overall culture of the organisation. Employees and external stakeholders such as consultants can also pursue the unit to ensure they improve their ability to contribute to organisational activities effectively.

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the unit, the learners should be able to:

• Understand the importance of communication within the area of responsibility

• Identify the various channels of communication sued within their organisations or area of responsibility, including the strengths and weaknesses of each channel that has been identified

• Identify the legal and organisational policies that guide the process of communication in the use of the different methods of communication

• Explain the communication cycle and its applicability within the workplace, including the different components of communication

• Understand the barriers to effective communication and the mechanisms put in place to overcome these barriers

• Explain the process of communication with different stakeholders and target audiences and collect feedback on such processes of communication

• Assess the effectiveness of communication with the targeted audience identifying strengths and weaknesses

• Develop interventions to improve personal communication capabilities

Key Learning Areas

304 Principles of Communication in the Workplace is a unit that aims at addressing issues of communication among individuals in the workplace. It improves the ability of the leaders to impact the communication process within their areas of responsibility. Some of the main areas of learning include:

Principles of Communication

This area of learning focuses on improving the understanding and approaches to addressing the process of communication. The leaders are guided to understand principles that they can use to build legal and ethical communication approaches. This area of learning helps to understand the legal and ethical frameworks that should be followed in setting up a communication system in the workplace. Lastly, the learners are introduced to different channels of communication that include online, print, audiovisual, and other forms of communication.

Communication Cycle

This area of learning focuses on improving the understanding of the theoretical models that are applied within the communication process. The learners are introduced to the approaches of communication, which include the elements of communication such as the recipient, sender, medium, feedback and channels used in the communication process.

The learners are guided to understand the mechanisms implemented in meeting the goals and objectives within their areas of practice and activities. Learners are also guided to understand the models used for interaction between stakeholders. This area helps them to build the ability to address different elements that could compromise the performance in line with communication.

Personal Communication Capabilities

This area of learning helps the learners to build the ability to communicate with different stakeholders within the workplace. The workers are introduced to different approaches that include being able to interact with stakeholders based on seniority. They are also guided to retrieve feedback from the audience for the communication process and use the feedback to improve their capabilities to communicate. 

Evaluation

On completing the unit, the learners are required to complete the assessment. A written assessment is used to cover the practical and theoretical approaches learned. It involves the ability to improve the determination of accomplishment of learning goals and objectives set for the unit.