7.+Communication+Strategy

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Virtual Communication: A Definition
Communication can be defined as 'the collective and interactive process of generating and interpreting messages' (Guirdham, 2005). Communication in any organisation is of fundamental importance, but within a virtual setting it becomes a a key component of the organisations strategy. Communication is essential for coordinating goals, objectives, work-activities, implementing strategies, monitoring and improving processes and for understanding relationships. In this dynamic environment, organisations are often dispersed and geographically distributed over many countries, cultures and time-zones, thus, communication through electronic means removes many of these perceived barriers (Lipnack and Stamps, 2008). The increasing array of interactive technologies enables an organisation to develop effective interactive communication in place of the typified model of teamwork and face-to-face communication. Computer mediated communication had previously been described as information between two or more forms of computer based devices but the definition now extends to mobile devices in the form of text messaging.



Implications of Electronic Communication in Virtual Organisations
The advantages and disadvantages of Virtual Organisation has previously been discussed in 5. Pros, Cons and Value, but the implications of effective communication within such an organisation can be fundamental to how it is structured and how it functions (DeSanctis and Monge, 1998).


 * Communication volume and efficiency. Studies have shown that within virtual organisations electronic communication increases the amount of required communication in direct comparison to face-to face encounters. It has also been suggested that problem solving and task completion are not faster when electronically mediated and rather that even the most non-complex of tasks can create vast amounts of mediated communication.[[image:oale2group/images (1).jpg align="right"]]
 * Message understanding. In the absence of face-to-face interactions, computer mediated conveying of information may get lost in the translation or fail to establish the meaning or knowledge of what is being communicated. The lack of relational links may not be an impossible task, in that personal relationships may take longer to establish and attributes of social media may need to be considered.
 * Virtual tasks. The implication here is that some tasks may lend themselves more easily to a virtual mode as opposed to a face-to-face interaction. In the task process of consensus gaining or conflict resolution this may be difficult across the boundaries of time and space but knowledge or information sharing may do well in a virtual setting.
 * Lateral communication. The nature of virtual organisation presumes that coordination occurs less through hierarchy and more by diverse participation, resulting in more lateral network relationships, which may lead to a more customer-responsive flow.

It may be noted that as technologies and organisations develop into new dynamic structures and forms, the complexities such as communication volume and efficiency, message understanding, design of tasks and hierarchical structures also evolve and adapt to a ever changing environment. With this in mind management may direct attention to specifying and continually evaluating strategies for organisational members that include team building interventions which may help organisations to manage communication and build mutual understanding among virtual members (DeSanctis and Monge, 1998)

=References =

Guirdham, Maureen. 2005., Communicating Across Cultures at Work. [online]. Palgrave Macmillan. Available from: 11 December 2013

Lipnack, Jessica;Stamps, Jeffrey. 2008., Virtual Teams. [online]. Wiley. Available from: 10 December 2013

DeSanctis, G. and Monge, P. (1998), Communication Processes for Virtual Organizations. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 3: 0. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.1998.tb00083.x

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">Pauleen, Yoong, (2001), 'Facilitating Virtual Team Relationships via Internet and Conventional Communication Channels', Victoria Univeristy of Wellington, New Zealand <span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 14px; text-align: justify;">[|Facilitating Virtual Team Relationships via Internet and Conventional Communication Channels]

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