The art of communication is a subtle one; with numerous nuances that change from: culture to culture, company to company, generation to generation and a multitude of other aspects of human interaction. Good communication skills are relative to ones audience and setting. In the work place a natural hierarchy occurs adding another level to communication expectations. Supervisors have to guard their words and actions in accordance with company norm and audience.
General communication is broken down into two parts: verbal and non-verbal. In the work place you have to elaborate and the introduction of formal and informal communication occurs. A large amount of work place communication is characterized as informal; identified by being brief, unplanned, frequent and directly related to proximity. Informal communication in the work place occurs between individuals whom posses background information about each other allowing for brief interactions to hold a lot of meaning but also can be difficult for a new group member while they are in the forming portion of their induction into the group. The other portion of work place communication is considered formal communication; whose main identifier is that it is planned and also is mostly written. Non-verbal and verbal cues play a role in both formal and informal communication.
While using written communication you lose all non-verbal cues and have to work around that. In English the written and spoken language follow completely different guidelines and formats. Further more the importance of the information will dictate the form it is presented to the staff in. A quick office change can be sent in an e-mail or a birthday announcements can be sent out to the office via a newsletter but something more formal like a policy change would have to go out in a memo. Another factor about written communication is that it is all is documentation; making it even more important to chose words wisely.
During the process of...