Communication in a Hostile Context

Introduction

     In this paper an effort will be made   to analyze the need for a new method of communication among Colombian peasants of Carara River, and to evaluate the communication type selected and pertained by Colombian Association of Peasant Workers in Carara. Furthermore the paper will explore the effectiveness of the new communication method used by APWC.

APWC and the Need for New Method of Communication.

     The process of communication is needed to transfer information by using meaningful symbols so that a massage is understood by others and in some occasions only an open communication (where individuals can communicate freely) can be effective and facilitate on solving the problem.  In case of Association of peasant Workers in Carara river regular citizens consequently have been living in an ongoing violence for 30 years, mainly because of political power quests and drug trade profits, which created confusion with communication patterns ( Dyck, 2010, p.527).

     The communication type utilized by peasants at that time was  “the code of silence “and it was not a communication method of their choice, instead this kind of communication was enforced to them by the armed groups competing for power in region. Being fed up with this cycle of violence after realizing that the type of communication they were forced to use was not being effective ,Josue ( a peasant of Carara River) and other peasants of Carara river sow the need for a different type of communication and broke the code of silence, replacing it with an open communication ( Dyck, 2010, p.527). Josue other members of APWC bravely utilized the most powerful method of media richness (face to face) to communicate with the violent captain. Josue was very successful on his communication with the captain and with other peasants, because he included all listeners and connected with them from the very beginning (O’Conor, 2009).

What type of communication was utilized by APWC?

Identifying the massage

     During the first step of communication, Association of Peasant Workers in Carara developed multisteram approach by attempting to reflect the perspective of multiple stakeholders and emphasizing on involving many of peasants in developing the content of the massage (Dyck, 2010, p. 521). In contrast with mainstream (where leaders create and control the massage) members of APWC worked together to identify and control the massage and they were

committed to treating the others with dignity and respect (Dyck , 2010, p. 527). Furthermore APWC sought to communicate with and build an overreaching sense of community with everyone, intending to foster a healthy and peaceful community ( Dyck 2010, p.521), they were able  not only to identify the massage and  focus in it , but also APWC  attempted to motivate , and inspire their members through open and clear communication ( Froschheiser, 2008).

Encoding the Massage

     During the process of encoding APWC once again applied multisteram approach by encoding their massage in very transparent and open way ( Dyck, 2010, p. 527), (in contrast with mainstream approach whose leaders will attempt to filter the massage before  transmitting it to the receive ) ( Dyck ,2010, p. 508). Instead of following laws of silence and secrecy (the likely method mainstream would have utilized), APWC worked together to do everything publicly, peasants even posted handmade signs outside their villages publicly stating their massage (Dyck, 2010, p. 527).

     Even though peasants used media richness (the same media that mainstream leaders would have), on the contrary with mainstreamer, peasants’ intention was to inform and get involve everyone. APWC attempted to create a community sense, and deliberately focused their attention on multiple forms of well being for peasants involved (Dyck, 2010, p. 523).

Decoding the Massage

     Members of APWC and other peasants worked very hard at decoding the massage of others and especially those who had contradictory views and those who believed that violence could solve their problem. It is well known that mainstream decoding tends to be at the individual level, but that is not what happened in APWC case, instead of choosing mainstream approach while decoding the massage, members of APWC and peasants sincerely and deliberately sought to establish true dialogue (Dyck, 2010, p. 527).  Tending to embrace diverse voices (multistream leaders), (Dyck, 2010, 524) peasants and APWC created various delegations and sent them to meet with different armed groups with the enormous and strong objective to connect with the real individual ,human being, with whom they spoke ( Dyck , 2010, p. 528).

Receiving Feedbacks

     This final step of communication, powerfully confirms the commitment of peasant and APWC members to utilize multisteram approach (even though they didn’t know). Unlike mainstream leaders who fail to receive feedbacks and are resistant to constructive criticism (Dyck, 2010, p. 519) members of APWC were committed to talk and negotiate with everyone. Even when faced with violent   feedbacks, they welcoming everyone, but continuously held to their promise of never giving in to weapons and never giving up on dialogue. They carried out the communication transparency to its fullest extent (as they promised) by welcoming everyone in their meeting   - friend or foe (Dyck, 2010, p, 528) ,also they saw the need of reaching out, communicating with all stakeholders as necessity not as a courtesy (Richardson, 2009).

APWC communicating in an unfriendly context

     According to Dyck (2010) during the communication process, context plays a huge role especially throughout massage receiving and decoding (p.524). Context is equally important for the receiver and the sender of the massage. In contrast with mainstream leaders, who focus the context of communication on achieving results and competing with others, APWC  focused their attention not only  on achieving their desired  results  from communicating with stakeholders, but their concentrated their attention  on multiple forms of  those stakeholders’ well –being (Dyck, 2010, p.524).

     Peasants choose to communicate and deliver their massage in a transparent and peaceful way even though they knew that the massage receivers were armed and could respond in violent way. Was APWC communication effective? APWC was somehow effective for a limited of time, since   for a good period of time violence was greatly reduced (Dyck, 2010, p.528), the issue though relays on involving more Colombian people and more Colombian organization to this type of communication, and  also relays on not giving up on this communication form, which was proved to work  for APWC . 

How to ensure open and free communication within an organization

     It is mainly organizational leaders’ obligation and responsibility to secure and open and free communication. Even though it is not an easy task leaders could receive assistance by:

a) Walking around and latterly communicating with organizational members b) Having an open door policy and continuously dialoging with subordinates c) Building a reciprocal trust.

Leaders need to value communication factors and focus on building elements of good communication such as generative conversation skills and deep listening skills (Ross, 2006).

     There is a significant association between the generalized measure of communication competency and employees’ satisfaction, their sense of role clarity, their perception of their supervisor’s effectiveness, and their perceptions of their work unit’s effectiveness. Therefore an organization’s communication competence is about what its members do in four key areas:                 1) clarity of purpose 2) effective interfaces 3) effective information sharing 4) communication behavior of organizational leaders. This suggests that , it is essential  to have open and free lines of communication in today’s competitive business environment, in order to be positioned for success ( Litter, 2006). What managers need to do? Following the three steps below could be a start (Kaplan, 2005):

Step one: Prioritize communication as a core leadership competency

Step two: Assess capability and needs (focus on maintaining, changing, improving the right things)

Step three: Commit to regular follow- up.

Conclusion

     For the communication approach utilized by APWC to be effective it needed to be coherent and consistent, Colombian peasants somehow, to a degree, failed to plan communication strategies (Richardson, 2009). In addition more active steps needed to be taken to ensure all members that their voices have been heard. In the positive side APWC demonstrated that other choices were (and could be) available to Colombian peasants rather than being silent and waiting to be killed.

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