V.I.D.E.B.  group

 

Title:   Reasons for refusing to communicate with superiors

 

 

 

Concept:

The concept contains a title, a structure of our project and literature we will use (few scientifical articles that we found in digital library in ODKJ). We decided that we will present  problems of bottom-up communication within employees and their superiors. We will focus on the refusal of inferior employees to communicate and find the causes for such behaviour.

In our  research we will try to find out why  workers hide and do not express their requests and opinions, what  they are afraid of, what prevents them from communicating, and whether group communication of subordinates towards their superiors is the only suitable and successful way to communicate.  In additition we will try to find suitable solutions or methods to improve bottom-up communication in organization we will observe.

In the empirical part, we will use focus groups and interviews .

 

Introduction

Organization communication between co workers is very important elements of successful activity of every organization. Fox (2001: 41) describes it as a “complex system of transferring information, chores, plans etc. It sustains of formal communicational network and informal communicational network”. Therefore well structured and successful communications usually brings business success otherwise it is usually an element for lack of success. Good internal communication causes homogeneous labour force.But there is not always like that. Many organizations have great problems with communication especially on the relation between subordinates and their superiors.

 

Literature:

• Hoogervorst, J.; Van der Flier, Henk; Koopman, P. (2004): Implicit communication in organisations: The impact of culture, structure and management practices on employee behaviour, vol. 19, issue 3, retrieved February 21, 2007 from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=/published/emeraldfulltextarticle/pdf/0500190306.pdf .

• Jablin, Fredric M.;Putnam, L.(2001):  The new handbook of organizational communication : advances in theory, research, and methods. Thousand Oaks, London, New Delhi: Sage

          Publications.

• J.A. Robson, P.; Tourish D. (2005): Managing internal communication: an organizational case study, vol. 10, issue 3, retrieved February 20, 2007 from: http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight/ViewContentServlet?Filename=/published/emeraldfulltextarticle/pdf/1680100303.pdf. 

   

• Nadoh, J. (2005): Participativni stil komuniciranja- na poti v upravljanje z znanjem. Industrijska demokracija, Št. 2, str. 6-8.

  Berlogar Janko, 1999: Organizacijsko komuniciranje, Gospodarski vestnik, Lujbljana

  Bowditch, J.L., Buono, A. 2001. A Primer on Organizational Behavior, Wiley, New York.

  Brunetto Yvonne, 2004: Does the talk affect your walk, Vol. 42, No.3/4, page 579-600, Emerald.

  Schermerhorn, J.R., Hunt, J.G., Osborn, R.N., 2002. Organizational Behavior, Wiley Series in Management, New York.

 

 

Hypotheses and research questions:

 

 

Hypothesis 1: Vigorous communication between subordinates and their superiors leads to more effective performance of their work assignments and more successful activity of entire organization.

Research questions:

1. What holds back subordinates from communicating with their superiors? Why is that so?

2. Is the existent system of communication successful in terms to achieving goals which are set up by the administration in human resource managment  (HRM)?

 

 

 

Hypothesis 2: We persume that reasons for refusing to communicate with superiors are conditioned by intrinsic  rather than extrinsic reasons.

 

Research questions:

1. What exactly are intrinsic and extrinsic reasons?

2. What represents internal communication in the organization?

3. What is more stimulated in the organization, horizontal or vertical communication?

4. Do informal groups represent an impendiment in formal communication?

 

 

 

Task distribution:  At our  third meeting we finalized the distribution of tasks. Bojana will take care of the metodological part of our assignment. That means that she is in charge of interviews with employees, the focus group and the HRM manager. She will prepare the questionnaire and carry out an interview. Igor, Elena and Vesna will all deal with the empirical part of our assignment. Each of them will answer 3 or 4 research questions from our hypotheses. They will start to write our report and thoroughly study our literature. Bojana will also organize the framework for our research.

 

 

 

 

Group members:

 

 

Distribution of roles:

 

 

Discussion of issues

 

 

 

Minutes of the meeting »Reasons for refusing to communicate with superiors«

held on 22 February, 2007 at FDV library

Present: Igor Jurišić, Vesna Cvetko, Elena Žnidarčić, Bojana Mitrović

Absent: Dijana Adamović

 

 

Agenda:

1.  Action-item follow up

2. The agreement concerning the exact title 

3. Concept of the project and literature - distribution of tasks

4. Research methods

5. Any other business

 

 

Item 1: Action-item follow up

All assignments from the previous meeting have been carried out except Dijana’s (she is absent today).

 

Item 2: The agreement concerning the exact title

Discussion: We talked about the exact title for our topic. We all suggested a few proposals,and finally we agreed with Vesna’s one. She suggested a title: “Reasons for refusing to communicate with superiors”. The title was suitable for everyone so we accepted it.

Decision: The chosen topic is “Reasons for refusing to communicate with superiors”.

 

 

Item 3: Concept of the project and literature - distribution of tasks

Discussion: We talked about the concept which we had to send to professor Jana Nadoh Bergoč. During the meeting Igor presented the concept he wrote. We added some improvements so we could submit it.

We also talked about the literature which we had found a few days earlier. Elena showed us the literature she had found and also suggested the sources we should use in the future.  

Decision:Some of the sources were useless, so we kept only five of them which we included in the concept. But we also agreed that that is not the final list of our literature.

Assignments: So we assigned Elena, Vesna and Igor to proceed with the literature research.

 

 

Item 4: Research methods

Discussion: While we were making our concept we came to the conclusion that we should use some kind of research method (either questionnaire or focus group method; we will discuss that with prof. Nadoh Bergoč ).  Bojana proposed that we should use an organization X as an example in our research. She said that she knows a human resource director in that organization who can help us. We all agreed with her.

Decision: We will use one of the mentioned methods for our research. The details concerning our method research will be fully determinated at the next meeting.

Assignments: Bojana will meet with HRM director and arrange an interview. Other members will help her create a suitable questionnaire.

 

 

Item 5: Any other business

Discussion: We agreed that our work is proceeding as we planned. We have some problems with literature but we are working on it and things will be settled soon. We set a new date for our third meeting. Igor suggested that our third meeting should be on Friday, 2^nd of March at ODKJG.

Decision: Third meeting:  Friday, 2^nd of March at ODKJG.

Assignments: Until then all members must bring reports from their assignments and reports of any kind of problem so we could solve it together.

We made an agreement that at our next meeting we will come up with some new suggestions in order to choose the best material or decisions for our project.

Minutes taker: Elena Žnidarčić

Chair: Igor Jurišić  

 

 

 

 

 

 

Minutes of the meeting »Reasons for refusing to communicate with superiors«

held on 13 March, 2007 at FDV library

 

 

 

Present: Igor Jurišič, Vesna Cvetko, Elena Žnidarčić, Bojana Mitrovič

Absent: Dijana Adamovič

 

Agenda:

1. Action-item follow up

2. Distribution of tasks

3. Literature

4. Any other business

 

Item 1: Action-item follow up

All assignments from previous meeting have been carried out except Dijana's (she is absent today). She will be absent for another month, so we decided that she is no longer the member of our group. Dijana agrees with that.

 

Item 2: Distribution of tasks

Discussion:

We met at the FDV library for distribution of tasks. Igor suggested that Bojana could define the theoretical part and the rest of us  will study the remaining  literature and look for the answers to our research questions. Since Bojana is in charge of methodological part with organization X, we talked about Igor, Vesna and Elena sharing other project-related tasks.

 

Decision:

We all agreed with the distribution of tasks and we decided that we must complete them until the next meeting.

 

Assignments:

Bojana is in charge of the interviews. They will be carried out with the employees, focus group and HRM manager. She also formed the final questions for interviewing employees in organization and she will probably do the whole research next week. Somebody else from the group will accompany her in order to help gathering information/answers. She will also start organizing the framework for our report.

Vesna, Igor and Elena should have studied the literature by the time of our next meeting and have answered the research questions in our hypotheses. Since there are several of them, each of us got four questions. Also, everybody should begin writing our report.

 

Item 3: Literature

Discussion:

We also discussed the literature because it is too extensive so it will have to be changed. In addition, we must find some other literature dealing with our subject-matter; with our hypotheses and research questions.

 

Assigments:

Igor, Vesna and Elena will answer the research questions by the next week and thus find additional literature.

 

Item 4: Any other business

The next meeting will be held on Tuesday, 20 March, 2007 at 10 AM at FDV library.

 

Minutes taker: Elena

 

 

Chair: Igor

 

 

Minutes of the meeting »Reasons for refusing to communicate with superiors«

held on 3 April, 2007 at FDV library

 

 

 

Present: Igor Jurišič, Vesna Cvetko, Elena Žnidarčić, Bojana Mitrovič

Absent: Dijana Adamovič

 

Agenda:

1. Action-item follow up

2. Distribution of tasks

3. Literature

4. Any other business

 

Item 1: Action-item follow up

All assignments from remaining members of the group V.I.D.E.B. from previous meeting have been carried out.

 

Item 2: Distribution of tasks

Discussion:

At our last meeting we met at the FDV library to finalize the distribution of tasks. Bojana's duty is to interview HRM (Human Resource Manager), superintendent and focus group in organization X . In order to get more quality information from the interviews she will record them.  All other members of the group will help her gather and select the most relevent information for our project from voice recorder. Igor, Elena and Vesna are all assigned to write our seminar and collect as much project-related literature as they can.

 

Decision:

We all agreed with the distribution of the tasks and we decided that we must complete them as soon as posible because the given time to finalize our project is limited.

 

Assignments:

Bojana is in charge of the interviews she will carry out with the employees, focus group and HRM manager. Vesna, Igor and Elena should study the literature and continue to write our report.

 

 

Item 3: Literature

Discussion:

In the previous week we found some literature dealing with our subject-matter, but Igor, Elena and Vesna are still assigned to try to find even more quality literatute andstudy it well.

 

 

Assigments:

Igor, Vesna and Elena must continue to search and read literatute. We all have to write our pert of report, and then we will put it together in a logical whole.

 

 

Item 4: Any other business

In case of problems with carrying out our research, we will have another meeting. In case that happens, we will note it in WIKI. 

 

Minutes taker: Vesna

 

 

Chair: Igor