The Importance of Communication and Collaboration

Just as you communicate with your friends when planning a vacation or organizing a party, or collaborating with your teammates on a class project, organizations rely on effective communication and collaboration (that is, two or more people working together to achieve a common goal), both within and outside the boundaries of the organization. Most of an organization’s business processes require communication and collaboration between employees from different departments as well as with outside business partners (such as suppliers), customers, and other external stakeholders. Many organizations operate on a national or global scale and rely on effective and efficient communication between various locations or subsidiaries, and even small local companies need to communicate with suppliers or promote their products or services to customers. Furthermore, globalization has enabled companies to source raw materials, parts, or components on a global scale or manufacture products wherever they can find the lowest cost, best quality, or most qualified workforce. In all these scenarios, effective and efficient communication is essential to convey specifications, coordinate production or delivery schedules, and so on. Likewise, salespeople rely on efficient communication with customers and with other departments in the organization. With the increasing global reach of organizations, the need for internal communication has also changed greatly.

1. Virtual Teams

To be competitive, organizations constantly need to bring together the right combinations of people who have the appropriate set of knowledge, skills, information, and authority to solve problems quickly and easily. Traditionally, organizations have used task forces, which are temporary work groups with a finite task and life cycle, to solve problems that cannot be solved well by existing work groups. Unfortunately, traditional task forces, like traditional organizational structures, cannot always solve problems quickly, as structure and logistical problems often get in the way of people trying to get things done. Thus, organizations are increasingly trying to harness the expertise of highly specialized team members, regardless of their location.

2. Groupware

Enabled by computer networking (and later the Internet), groupware a class of software that enables people to work together more effectively became a widely used way for collaboration within teams or organizations. Since the appearance of the first mainstream groupware product Lotus Notes in 1989, groupware has become ubiquitous in all types of organizations, with many (often free) tools allowing anyone with a connected device to utilize the benefits of groupware.

3. Videoconferencing

Desktop videoconferencing has been enabled by the growing power of processors powering personal computers and faster Internet connections. For desktop videoconferencing, all that is needed is a webcam (i.e., a small video camera that is connected directly to a PC or integrated in a laptop PC’s monitor), a speaker telephone or a separate microphone and speakers/ headphones, videoconferencing software (e.g., Skype, Google+, or Apple FaceTime), and a high-speed Internet connection. Similarly, people can now use various apps on their mobile devices, enabling them to make video calls on the go.

References:

https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-promoting-collaborative-communications-health-care-environment-79568.html

https://pumble.com/blog/collaborative-communication/