"Organizational Communication" (Slideserve.com)
We spend most of our lives in one organization or another, whether it be school, work or any other group that shares a similar purpose or goal. These organizations rely on communication to exist. The better the communication is the more an organization can succeed. Miscommunications can cause major delays on different projects and cost a lot of money in the workplace. “One study found that 14% of each workweek is wasted on poor communication” (Saylor Textbook Ch. 8 “Communication”). Bad communication in the workplace can also lead to worker dissatisfaction. Good communication on the other hand can be a big asset to organizations. “When you foster ongoing communications internally, you will have more satisfied employees who will be better equipped to effectively communicate with your customers.” (Saylor Textbook Ch. 8 “Communication”) Communication in an organization boils down to coordination, the transmission of information, and sharing emotions and feelings.
One of the things that can make organizational communication more efficient is practicing different types of rhetoric. Rhetoric uses one or more of the three types of persuasion tactics in order to convince an audience of something. The three persuasion tactics are ethos, logos, and pathos. Ethos relies on ethical appeal and the speaker showing that they are credible. Most people can not separate the message from the speaker. Speakers with high credibility, therefore, have more influence over an audience. Logos relies on facts and logic in order to persuade. Arguments with a clear cause and effect and based on evidence are much stronger than those that aren’t. Pathos relies on appealing to the audience's emotions. Politicians for example often play on issues that cause an emotional response in order to win their audience over.
"Jeff Bezos" (Forbes.com)
Jeff Bezos is the richest man in the world, the founder and CEO of Amazon, the owner of the Washington Post, and the founder of Blue Origin. In order to have built his massive empire, Jeff Bezos needed to possess not only the skills of being a leader, and an innovator but of being an effective communicator. He needed to ensure that his visions were understood and valued by investors, consumers, and workers and that they were worth pursuing. According to the article "Communication Style of Jeff Bezos" by techleaderscommunication.blogspot.com, there ere are several things that make Bezos’s communication methods unique and effective. One of which is the “two pizza rule” that he has with business meetings. This rule is of keeping business meetings to a relatively small number of people where two pizzas can feed the entire room. The purpose of this is to keep contradictory opinions to a minimum in order to reach conclusions faster and more efficiently. Another rule that he has is that his workers must create well narrated and detailed memos instead of creating PowerPoint presentations. The purpose of this is to encourage deep thinking and to explain the thoughts behind ideas. A third thing he does is encourage workers to voice their disagreements openly and to criticize ideas respectfully. This encourages faster decision making and promotes healthy disagreement. By doing these things he establishes himself as a decent guy in the media and with his workers, investors, and consumers which is ethos.
"Steve Jobs" (Macrumors.com)
Steve Jobs was also a huge success and this was also in large part due to his organizational communication skills and the rhetoric he used. He is creator of Apple and led it to be the most valuable brand in 2019 worth $206 billion. The article "Communication Through Presentation. How Did The Tech Leader SteveJobs Communicate and Excel With These 3 Simple Tricks" by techleaderscommunication.blogspot.com, discusses several of his communication strategies. One of the communication strategies that he implemented was focusing on the essential information that he wanted the audience to remember: the product and its usefulness. This is practicing logos and made his message clear, and concise. Another thing he did was repeat key information. This led the audience to have a better understanding of the product and why it was so useful. This also led this information to stick in the audience's head making them more likely to remember and buy the product. A third communication practice that he used was that he prepared what he was going to say to the point that he would be able to recite it perfectly even if he were to be woken up in the middle of the night. This helped with his confidence and built credibility of being reliable. All these things can be seen in his many speeches such as the one below. These communication practices helped shape his perception in the media of being intelligent, and of being a great businessman. By preaching these things to his workers, they were also more effectively equipped to communicate and make the company a success.
"Steve Jobs Introducing The iPhone At MacWorld 2007" (Youtube.com)