BSB51915 Diploma of Leadership and Management

BSBLDR502 Lead and Manage Effective Workplace

Relationships
Distance Learning Activity Week 1
Submitted by: (Eduardo dos Santos Mascarenhas)
This Distance Learning Activity is due at the end of week 1 (Upload on Sunday by 11.55pm via
Distance Learning - Submission Point via Moodle)

Task
The following activity needs to be completed before you commence answering any questions.

Activity
Read Section 1 – Manage Communication and Information Flow in your student workbook.
Pages 3 – 26

Questions
Question 1

Have you read section one of ‘Lead and manage effective workplace relationships
BSBLDR502’?

Yes, I read from page 3 to 26.

Question 2

Communication in the workplace serves four critical but partially overlapping functions.
Explain each function:

1. Knowledge Management

It is a set of technologies and processes whose objective is to support the creation,

transfer and application of knowledge in organizations. Knowledge and knowledge
management are complex and multifaceted concepts. Thus, the development and
implementation of effective knowledge management requires a rich foundation.

Using knowledge management, a company can reduce product spending and invest in
intellectual capital, which is generally more cost-effective.
2. Facilitating collaborative decision making

For the process to work properly, you need to follow some predetermined steps.
Many collaborative decision experts divide this process into 4 parts. Check it out
below.

1. DISCOVERING THE PROBLEM: WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?

Not all business problems are visible. Often, this visibility does not happen because
people who are in daily operation are not invited to seek it.

The so-called bottlenecks, which are problems hidden by layers of false normality,
only surface with collaboration. What's more, the external look can be even more
clinical. Therefore, it is essential to promote the integration of different teams,
promote benchmarking and encourage professionals to make suggestions and report
difficulties.

2. DISCOVERING THE SOLUTION: WHAT ARE THE RESPONSIBLE ANSWERS?

Once a problem is detected, the more heads think about it, the easier and faster it will
be to solve it. It's time to ask employees and business partners to give their
"opinions".

With a large amount of answers, it is simpler to find the most viable and fit. It's that
old saying creativity comes with ideas left over, never missing.

3. CHOICE OF SOLUTIONS: WHAT IS THE BEST SOLUTION TO TAKE?

When deciding which solutions to take to overcome challenges already mapped and
properly categorized, collaboration is also critical.

Most likely, the number of people involved in this step decreases as managers and
business direction have decision-making power. Still, it is possible to deliberate and
listen to opinions and proposals.

4. Chosen Answer Test: Is the Chosen Solution Working? WHAT CAN WE DO TO

IMPROVE IT?

The fourth step in collaborative decision making is testing the chosen solution. You
have to check if what was initially thought actually works and evaluate what
adjustments need to be made.

The more eyes you see, the simpler and more efficient this realization will be. It needs
to be decentralized so that collaboration is complete. It is also important to celebrate
the results and share the lessons learned with everyone involved in the process.
3. Coordinating work activities

The professional can be a genius in his field, extremely competent and prepared, full
of ideas and capable of performing the most complex tasks or projects.

But if you don't know how to communicate, understanding what you are asked for
and communicating everything you know, plan, or have done will not help your
efforts, skills, and competencies.

The professional can be a genius in his field, extremely competent and prepared, full
of ideas and capable of performing the most complex tasks or projects.

But if you don't know how to communicate, understanding what you are asked for
and communicating everything you know, plan, or have done will not help your
efforts, skills, and competencies.

And it is ironic nowadays, with so many communication tools and information sharing
technologies, that people have difficulty communicating in the workplace.

A personal conversation, instead of an email, can greatly improve communication.

This is precisely because of the addiction to using these digital facilities as "crutches"
that are often used to postpone responses and avoid personal contact.

To help you better understand communication in the workplace and how to

effectively employ it in your day-to-day work, you can use to communicate in the
workplace in the best way and some tips practices to expedite this important process.

Main communication channels

Corporate Newspaper: Periodical and print publication that is distributed to all

employees and sometimes even to family members, suppliers and other stakeholders
in order to keep everyone informed about relevant facts and data about the
organization.

Corporate Magazine: Similar to the printed newspaper, but produced in magazine

format, with more noble materials and different cover.

Printed Newsletter: Similar to a small newspaper, with no definite period.

Newspaper, Magazine or Virtual Newsletters: with the same content as printed

materials, only sent by email.

Newsletter: The most traditional email newsletter, performing similar functions to the
above materials.

Mural Newspaper: a placeholder, usually in places with a large circulation in the

company, where posters, other printed materials and even editions of corporate
newspapers are posted for general knowledge.

Banners and posters: Widely used in motivational, sales incentive and internal event
campaigns.
 Company Website: Because it is open to the public, it also often ends up being used in
some way for the company to communicate in the corporate environment.

Intranet: Uses the internet more privately, with restricted access by login and
password, ensuring the security and privacy of communication in the corporate
environment.

Social Media: A very important channel for communicating with company customers,
they can be used cautiously to communicate with employees without over-mixing
messages to different recipients.

One way to manage this is to use closed groups, especially for sales forces, taking
advantage of the agility and spontaneity of these communication channels in the
workplace.

Information and management systems and software: These are the most effective
tools for information dissemination, as they allow real-time updates, hierarchical
access definition, filters, surveys, charts, warnings, alerts and many other features
that make the information. very agile and can be dealt with strategically and that
brings more results.

4. Fulfilling emotional and social needs

The Maslow Pyramid, also called Maslow's hierarchy of needs, is a concept created in
the 1950s by US psychologist Abraham H. Maslow. Its purpose is to determine the set
of conditions necessary for an individual to achieve satisfaction, whether personal or
professional.

hierarchical organization, therefore, is as follows:

Physiological needs
Security Needs
Relationship Needs
Needs of Estimation
 Cognitive or learning needs
Aesthetic Needs
Self-Realization Needs
Transcendence Needs

Although it was created in the 1950s, the Maslow Pyramid is still one of the most
relevant and applied concepts in the area of human needs and motivations. From
further criticism, the structure is now viewed more flexibly but still retains its
theoretical and practical value.

Question 3

Paul Barton in ‘Maximizing Internal communication’, identifies four important guiding

questions you should ask when creating a media matrix for your organization. What are
they?

These are questions that serve as an introduction process to create a matrix, it aims to identify
and create a really effective matrix for use within the organization.

Question 4

When planning communication strategies from a top down perspective you will need to
incorporate processes for gaining feedback and consulting from the bottom up. It is
important to distinguish between communication and consultation.

a) What is consultation?

The process of actively providing stakeholders with an opportunity to contribute to the

decision-making process.

Consultation is important to build support and ownership for decisions. It often helps
implementation to go more smoothly as a result. Effective consultation - which seeks
information and balances stakeholder interests also results in better decisions.

b) What is communication?

The process of sending and receiving information. Communication can be one-way,

two-way or multi-lateral.

The purpose of communication is to inform and learn, while the purpose of

consultation is to actually involve stakeholders in decision-making. After consultation,
the final decision might be

made by a manager, but the consultation has provided the manager with an
understanding of the interests of those people who have been consulted.
Question 5

Consultation strategies should meet the needs of the organisation without wasting time and
resources. A useful tool to determine who needs to be consulted or communicated with is
RACI. RACI describes the types of roles you will need to consult/communicate with when a
decision is being made. RACI stands for responsible, accountable, consulted and informed.

Explain each role:

Responsible Those who do the work to achieve the task.

Accountable The role that is answerable for the correct and thorough completion
of the deliverable or task.

Consulted The role that is answerable for the correct and thorough completion
of the deliverable or task.

Informed Those who are kept up to date on progress, often only on completion
of the task or deliverable, and with whom there is just one-way
communication.

Question 6

Workplace policies and procedures are the main underpinning documents of organizational
management systems. Including communications and knowledge management.

a) What is a policy?

In general, policies set out the aims of the organization in an area organizational
activity or responsibility. They also describe the organization’s commitment to the
policy.

b) What is generally included in a policy?

Policies generally include:

- purpose or intent of policy

- scope (what areas or staff the policy covers)

- responsibilities for implementation

- applicable legislation, standards and codes of practice.

Ata minimum, a workplace policy should contain a statement of purpose and one or
more broad guidelines on action to be taken to achieve that purpose
c) List 8 examples of workplace policies an organization might have.

- drug and alcohol policy

- code of conduct
- health and safety policy
- recruitment policy
- anti-discrimination and harassment policy

- Internet and e-mail policy

- Non-smoking policy
- Mobile phone policy