communication problems in organizations

Communication in Organizations

Communication is a critical factor in determining the success or loss of a company in any environment. Bad communication, on the other hand, is a serious problem that can be costly to a company. The consequences of such bad coordination may be disastrous for all parties involved in the operation and management of a company (Russell et al. 2017). Bad contact has a variety of effects, including but not limited to: consumer loss, inventory loss, company termination, poor staff turnover, poor facilities, loss of competitiveness, sabotage, high absenteeism, injuries and incidents, and so on. Therefore, the paper entails a detailed examination of poor communication as a serious dynamic in an organization. It as well identifies on how people’s behavior affects communication in an organization. In addition, the paper entails on how one can address issues of communication behavior to benefit an organization. Finally, the paper illustrates theories that are incorporated in the communication to offer support in solving communication predicament strategies. Hence, the entire discussion is based on British Petroleum (BP) a multinational corporation.

Importance of Communication in Organizations

Communication is a prudent ingredient in an organizational scope of operation. It is as well a key factor that determines the success of a business. Communication issues influence other factors of the business and affect all stakeholders across the organization. It affects employees, management, suppliers, and marketers, shareholders among other vital people that runs and operates the business.

Forms of Communication Dynamics in an Organization

There are various types of communication dynamics in organizations. The first type is the lack of personal contact. This has been greatly contributed to the current use of computers, cell phones as well as telephones. Thus due to such device application, personal contact in the workplace is very poor and low. For instance, most of the managers who have poor skills of communication, they take advantages of using email and phone messages instead of personal contact.

Another form is lack of clarity. The poor form of communication at many a time has made information on the important matters being interpreted in different and wrong ways. For such, wrong decisions have been made leading to failure of organizations. On the other hand, Lack of Feedback is another type of communication problem. Annual performance in any given evaluation is important and in many times, employers fail to offer feedback to employees. However, feedback is crucial element that enables employees to identify opportunities and improve their skills as well as the provision of constructive criticism.

Barriers to Effective Communication

On the other hand, for an organization to attain an effective communication it must eliminate all existing barriers to pave way for an effective communication. Among common barriers are discussed below:

The first one is the perceptual barrier: This is a common setback that is faced by businesses globally. Perceptual barrier is the difference in opinion among people that operate in a similar organization and they are people who make significant decisions in the organization. The diverse perceptions of each person give rise to a call for an effective communication. Additionally, there is an emotional barrier. This is a barrier in form of mistrust and fear which form the roots of people’s emotional barrier that stop them to have communication that is effective among co-workers.

There is as well a language barrier. The language which illustrates what employees would require expressing as well as speaking to others, might at some point, becomes a barrier among them. In the contemporary universal scenario, the greatest tribute people might pay to others is by an effective speaking as well as effectively communicating in the local proficient business language. On the other hand, communication is faced with cultural barriers. The humanity is comprised of varied cultures. A barrier of culture arises at a time when two employees in a company belong to different states, religions or nations. This brings issues when such people are given the mandate to make important decision for the sole benefit of a given company. Cultural predicament always derails organizational strategies and will see a single decision takes a number of years or months to takes its course.

There is as well a physical barrier. There are a number of research studies that illustrate the key factors when building strong as well as integrated organizational teams. This is proximity. A number of offices in various organizations have closed their doors and then cabins for offices at a higher level of an organizational ladder whereas huge working zones are physically situated far apart. Thus such type of barrier forbids and limits team members from an efficient and effective interaction among them.

Impact of Individual Behavior on Communication

How Individual Behavior Affects Communication Problem

The issue of communication is within people and the same people make it effective or ineffective depending on the individual communication approaches in a given set up. Thus individual behaviors are as well setbacks on effective communication. For instance, this is seen when their lacks cooperation among people working in the same workplace. This is behavior that has contributed immensely to a poor form of communication. In most cases, smooth functioning depends on cooperation among coworkers. Thus to cooperate soundly, coworkers have to communicate effectively. Another individual behavior that affects communication is a behavior that people refuse to provide a feedback on a certain pressing issue. For instance, when managers cannot offer a feedback timely to employees, then the intended objective to execute will not be done as expected.

Similarly, antisocial is as well another form of behavior that will see people communicate is a poor way. A good working environment should have people with all social aspects that break monotonous among workers. For instance, when managers are antisocial, a number of issues will not be settled effectively since is likely to have less information from his/her follow managers and from employees to use when making imperative decisions. Thus people at all level in an organization should be social to eliminate issues of communication barrier at all times; by so doing, enhances effective decision making.

Also, personal emotions are the greatest setback for effective communication. Emotions are mutually joined with mood, personality, temperament, disposition, as well as motivation. Emotions are always associated with hormones that affect a person’s mood and critical-thinking skills. Therefore, when one is in bad mood in a given workplace, a number of decisions would be made in a wrong way, making all business stakeholders to suffer financial loss.

Addressing Communication Barriers

How to address communication barrier to benefit the organization

It is prudent to have a smooth way to communicate in any given organization. There are a number of ways to improve effective communication in an organization. The first way is by changing one’s feelings and thoughts with the colleagues. By so doing, is not only breaking down barriers of communication but as well build successful long-term work relationships.Another important way to overcome communication barriers is by having suitable training interventions. These incorporate programs to improve both written and listening skills, training on non-verbal and verbal communications skills, build skills of conversation, negotiation skill, giving as well as receiving feedback skills.

In addition, another way is by eliminating perception differences among people in the organization. The business should make sure to recruit right persons on the job. All members of the company should be trained to adhere to the company’s culture and traditions as well as to associate with people from a number of cultural diversity. Also, the management should introduce one of the simple languages, which will enable users to alter simple and clear words; thus using of both jargons and ambiguous words must be avoided (Lewis, Gaffney & Wilson, 2017).

The organization should reduce and eliminate the noise of all levels (Russell et al. 2017). Noise is a major barrier to communication that must be trounced with main concern. It is fundamental to identify all possible noise sources and eliminate them to pave ways for a conducive working environment that is ideal for proper communication. On the other hand, a business should have a very simple and clear organizational Structure. Thus the hierarchical levels supposed to be optimum; since a simpler organizational structure guarantees more effective communication.

Theories Supporting Effective Communication

Theories to incorporate to support strategies of effective communication

There are a number of theories that support an effective communication. The first one is the theory of Peplau Interpersonal Relations. The theory majorly focuses on the relationship of nurse-client as well as the process of therapeutic that occurs. Thus the communication which happens within such context involves multifarious factors like, attitudes, practices, environment, and beliefs within a dominant culture (Salvato & Vassolo, 2017).

Another theory is the Monroe’s Motivation Sequence theory. Monroe’s Motivated Sequence was written to offer support to people in making persuasive speeches. It is a theory that reminds key communication actions in any given organizational setup. On the other hand, the theory emphasizes on the smooth functioning of an organization which depends on cooperation among coworkers. The model as well illustrated issues on individual behavior that affects communication (Jarzabkowski, Lewis & Smith, 2017).

Conclusion

In conclusion, there are various functional and structural theories that emphasize the need to have an effective communication in an organization. Thus, an effective communication in place of work is a paramount element that determines the failure and the success of the business (Finance et al. 2017). However, poor communication is a solemn predicament and might be costly to a business. The impact of such poor communication could be devastating to all parties involved in the business in one way or other.

References

Finance, A., Paradise, A., Shah, M., & Morris, M. R. (2017, February). Acrobat: Using Mobile Devices to Lower Communication Barriers and Provide Autonomy to Gaze-Based AAC. In CSCW (pp. 683-695).

Jarzabkowski, P., Lewis, M., & Smith, W. (2017). 8 Practices for leveraging the paradoxes of engaged scholarship. Academic–Practitioner Relationships: Developments, Complexities, and Opportunities, 18, 126.

Lewis, P., Gaffney, R. J., & Wilson, N. J. (2017). A narrative review of acute care nurses’ experiences nursing patients with intellectual disability: underprepared, communication barriers and ambiguity about the role of caregivers. Journal of clinical nursing, 26(11-12), 1473-1484.

Russell, B., Reynolds, K., Spavor, M., & Giese-Davis, J. (2017). Barriers to care in two differing models of follow-up for long-term childhood cancer survivors.

Salvato, C., & Vassolo, R. (2017). The sources of dynamism in dynamic capabilities. Strategic Management Journal.