informal

Examples of informal in the following topics:

• Informal Communication

  • Informal communication occurs outside an organization's established channels for conveying messages and transmitting information.
  • Formal communication usually involves documentation, while informal communication usually leaves no recorded trace for others to find or share.
  • While informal communication is important to an organization, it also may have disadvantages.
  • Casual conversations are often spontaneous, and participants may make incorrect statements or promulgate inaccurate information.
  • Less accountability is expected from informal communications, which can cause people to be careless in their choice of words, indiscreet, or disclosing sensitive information.

• Mintzberg's Management Roles

  • Mintzberg defined ten management roles within three categories: interpersonal, informational, and decisional.
  • Liaison: maintains a self-developed network of outside contacts and informers who provide favors and information.
  • Mentor: seeks and receives a wide variety of special information (much of it current) to develop a thorough understanding of the organization and environment; emerges as the nerve center of internal and external information for the organization.
  • Disseminator: transmits information received from outsiders or from other subordinates to members of the organization.
  • Disseminating what is of value, and how, is a critical informational role.

• Interactive Leadership

  • The interactive style of leadership makes it a priority to inform followers about important matters related to their goals and tasks and to clarify understanding.
  • Interactive leaders are proactive in seeking information and opinions from followers.
  • While interactive leaders may make use of technology to share information, they also seek the richer exchanges that face-to-face communication allows.
  • When making group decisions they may solicit information, perceptions, and even recommendations from team members.
  • An interactive leader shares information and answers questions to clarify goals and tasks.

• Setting Transparency Norms

  • Information disclosure includes choices about what types of information is shared and with whom, the content of what is communicated, and the timing of the release of information.
  • Some information is private, such as personnel matters, or commercially sensitive, like strategic business plans.
  • Clarity refers to how easily comprehended the information or communication is.
  • Accuracy means that available information has integrity, is truthful, and faithfully represents organizational decisions, policies, and practices.
  • Following these guidelines would increase transparency: the public would have access to compensation information now kept from public view.

• Decision-Making Styles

  • Autocratic: The group leader solves the problem using the information he possesses.
  • He does not consult with anyone else or seek information in any form.
  • The leader then evaluates the information and makes the decision.
  • Negotiation: The leader explains the situation to the group or individual and provides the relevant information.
  • The leader provides all the relevant information that he possesses.

• The Nature of Efficient Communication

  • A key element of effective communication is having a clear process for developing and disseminating information.
  • A communication strategy speaks to each of these elements and guides how messages and information are developed and shared.
  • Does the audience have the background information it needs to understand the message?
  • Are they supposed to inform, persuade, or ask the audience to do something?
  • The purpose informs choices of style and tone such as whether or not to use technical language or industry jargon.

• The Nature of Effective Communication

  • Effective communication takes place when information is shared accurately between two or more people or groups of people and provokes the desired response.
  • The goal of communication is usually to generate action, inform, create understanding, or communicate a certain idea or point of view.
  • Physical barriers like distance, inferior technology, or staff shortages that reduce information processing capacity.
  • One person may want information compressed to bullet points, another may demand granular detail.
  • The format and delivery of information is important.

• Upward Communication

  • Upward communication is the transmission of information from lower levels of an organization to higher ones; the most common form is employees communicating with managers.
  • The content of such communication can include judgments, estimations, propositions, complaints, grievances, appeals, reports, and any other information directed from subordinates to superiors.
  • The communication channel, or mode of sharing information, strongly influences the upward communication process.
  • For instance, sending a written report to someone who prefers to receive information in the form of a concise email is less likely to bring about the desired effect.
  • For management, upward communication is an important source of information that can inform business decisions.

• Internal and External Control

  • Control uses information from the past and present and projections for the future to create effective control processes.
  • Feedback is a process in which information about the past or the present is used to influence the present or future.
  • Picture an analyst statistically measuring the quality and quantity of a given output based on information gathering.
  • This image shows how data, information, and feedback flow throughout a management strategy.

• Team Communication

  • Team members send and exchange information to convey ideas, generate discussion, prompt action, create understanding, and coordinate activities.
  • Communication patterns describe the flow of information within the group and can be described as centralized or decentralized.
  • Centralized communication results in consistent, standardized information being conveyed, but often restricts its flow to one direction.
  • In contrast, decentralized communication means team members share and exchange information directly with each other and with the group.
  • This allows information to flow more freely, but often with less consistency in format or distribution.