Managerial communication at the Smelly Cheese Company has long been a problem.Employees have been complaining for years that managers do not provide them with information they need to perform their jobs and that there is a general lack of openness on the part of management.In the words of one employee, "Communication in this company stinks!" This has raised an important question among senior management: Can managers be trained to improve their communication? You have been hired to answer this question and to explain to them how the company might proceed with the training of its managers to improve communication.What will you tell them?

Proper training can improve the communication skills of managers.However, the focus must be on skills.Simply lecturing managers on the importance of good communication does not help managers to actually communicate better.Instead, specific communication skills need to be identified and managers must be given the opportunity to practice these skills.Such programs often present videotaped models correctly handling a typical communication problem.Managers then role-play the problem and are reinforced by the trainers when they exhibit effective skills.At General Electric, for example, typical communication problems that this kind of training addresses have included discussing undesirable work habits, reviewing work performance, and discussing salary changes.