Barriers To Communication In Organizational Settings

Functions of Communication in an Organization

Discuss and evaluate how barriers to communication can impact upon an individual and a team when meeting an organisation's goals and objectives, taking the strategies available to assist in overcoming them into consideration .

Since man is a social being, it is by communication only, that he expresses his needs, desires and objectives of life. Similarly, the organizational need of effective communication can also not be overstated, as the managers of the organizations explain their business objectives, only through communication, and it is communication only that helps them to improve the employee morale and to increase the total productivity. However, communication is itself a very complex process, and often the managerial heads encounter various obstacles, while communicating their business goals to the employees; these barriers can be language or cultural barriers, physical barriers or even perceptual barriers. However, whatever the barrier be, the organizational heads must ensure that they are capable of surmounting the barriers, as a simple, lucid and objective-oriented method of communication, helps the employees understand the ulterior objectives of the organization, and to work in accordance with the same (Argenti 2015).

Usually the research and critical study in the past has revolved around the concept of business strategy of an organization that leads to the  organizational success, but much recently, the benefit of effective communication, within an organization has received much critical attention. Research showed that lack of good communication within an organization, has not only led to the reduction of productivity and lack of enthusiasm among the employees, but it has also led to sabotage and office politics within the organization (Cornelissen 2014).

Figure1: Functions of communication in an Organization

(Source: Castells 2013)

As the above diagram shows, the functions of communication are many, and apart from increasing the efficiency of the employees, it also promotes a healthy corporate culture in the company. However, there are various kinds of barriers which impede the flow of successful communication. One major common barrier, at present is the language and cultural barrier, which is especially relevant in a global business environment. As nowadays, every large organization is expanding itself to various corners of the world, lingual and cultural diversity in workplace is a common issue. However, in a business meeting, the managerial heads of an organization often encounters difficulty in explaining the business objectives clearly to someone to whom the words, phrases, expressions or symbols and gestures, all together mean a different thing. Further, lack of cultural awareness can land a managerial head in trouble, for instance, an US employee will prefer to be addressed by his first name, while a British employee will prefer his last name to be used for the same purpose (Jandt 2015). Thus, the cultural differences can create much barrier in communicating the objectives and goals of the organizations, not merely because of the linguistic differences, but also owing to the difference in cultural backgrounds and ethnicity of the employees concerned. This kind of cultural and linguistic barriers can be created, not only when an organization has diversity in workplace, but also when an expatriate goes to work abroad. Even if an individual has adequate knowledge about the foreign language, he may face difficulty in getting himself understood, as his fluency and enunciation of each word, will differ from the natives. Again, while the people from the Western culture usually have  a much direct and straightforward method of negotiating business deals, the people from the Eastern culture, will usually prefer to use more discrete ways of business negotiation (Tenzer et al., 2014).

Types of Barriers to Communication

Communication is a process that enables an individual to transmit as well as to exchange his ideas, decisions or thoughts with others. An effective communication takes place, only when the sender of the message is capable of successfully delivering the message to the receiver, who in turn decodes the message and provides a feedback, accepting or negating the message received.

Figure 2: Diagram Showing the Process of Communication

(Stacks and Salwen 2014)

Although communication plays a vital role for the organizational success, as it helps in the decision-making process as well as for motivational purposes, it may encounter barriers, on three levels which are as follows:

• At the physical level
• At the level of intelligence
• At the emotional level (Hewitt and Pound 2013)

It may happen that although there is no form of cultural or linguistic diversity in the workplace, and even if it exists, it is resolved, the business objectives or the innovative ideas may not be communicated effectively, because of the physical barriers. Physical barriers occur because of the environmental and natural condition, whereby the thoughts cannot be communicated, because of workplace design problems, technological problems or noise (Baker and Warren 2015). First, an organization must have a suitable structure that facilitates easy communication. If the working area is very large, or if it has separate working areas for employees belonging to different status, or it has too many closed doors, then it may forbid the employees from interacting with the colleagues or the managerial heads before starting their tasks. Poor communication can lead to multiple errors in the assignments or tasks performed and can affect the overall productivity of the organization. Besides, noise is another form of physical barrier, that impedes the flow of communication, and if an organization is located beside a factory, it may face an all-time noisy, clamorous environment (Bauer 2015). With the advancement of technology, nowadays, communication also takes place via online modes. However, due to technical problems, for example, computer virus or a sudden computer crash or even network error, can create much disruption in the communication process (Bishop et al. 2013).

Further, there can be psychological barriers in the method of communication, that can impede the flow of thoughts and ideas. The psychological barriers may include attitude problem, ego problem, inattentiveness or difference in viewpoints, resulting in rejection of any opposing opinion. Communication is a process that not only involves the presence of an effective medium, but also requires the desirable mental condition to help in easy communication. An employee may be distracted for any personal reason, as a result of which he will be inattentive to whatever the manager or his boss will be discussing in an office meeting. As a result, he will not only fail to deliver his tasks in accordance with the instructions given, but he will also fail to send any proper feedback. Further, if an individual has a specific mindset while attending a meeting, he will never be able to appreciate a second opinion, and communication skills is not only about speaking, but also about listening. Difference in perspectives, viewpoint or attitude can arise because of cultural differences, or because of closed mindedness (Simpson et al. 2015).

Strategies for Overcoming Communication Barriers

Although there can be various barriers in the method of communication, an organization must ensure successful communication, as it helps in organizational success, starting with the formulation of the plans to the implementation of the same. Hence, it is important to know the means of preventing the barriers of communication. An organization should arrange an ideal workplace, that will make effective interpersonal communication suitable to take place. Keeping this in consideration, the office room of the departmental head, should be very closely and conveniently located, near the employees of the particular department. This will allow the employees, to get doubts or queries clarified before initiating a task (Cenere et al. 2015).

 The communicator, before initiating a conversation, must have the clarity of ideas and the purpose in his mind, so that while delivering the message, his speech does not reflect ambiguity, or doubt and hesitation. If the managerial head or departmental head is delivering the message orally in a business meeting, for the first time, he may chalk out a well-designed communication plan, with the help of some experienced officials, so that he get the objectives and purpose of his communication, clearly defined. In case, the communicator suffers from lack of sufficient confidence for a public speech, he may rehearse for several times, before he actually delivers the speech (Cenere et al. 2015).

However, it is not only enough to deliver the message with a tone of confidence and assertion, but it equally is important for the communicator to respect the values and the ideological perspectives of the listeners. Many organizations are currently investing much time and money for polishing the communication skills of the employees, whereby they are being taught to communicate in a reserved, polished and sensible way so as not to hurt the beliefs or the values of the listeners. Thus, empathy is an important quality, which should be employed, by the communicator to assist in the communication process, as it will make him more tolerant towards opposing perspectives and thought systems. Further, the communicator must be able to speak in a simple, straight-forwards, lucid and elaborate language. He should avoid the use of any form of flowery, artificial vocabulary or overuse of technical words. Exaggeration or subjective tone, should be avoided at every cost (Locker et al. 2013).

In an organization, the purpose of communication, is usually to convince and persuade the listeners. Hence, the communicator, must use an eloquent and persuasive style of delivering message for which the speaker may convince the audience, by drawing examples of similar situations of other organizations, as well. In fact, story-telling method of communication will help the communicator gain the confidence of the employees, and create a friendly atmosphere which will increase his acceptability as a communicator. Again, if the communicator is too much occupied with establishing his own arguments, he may lose out much of the perspectives of his fellow colleagues. The whole method of communication implies not only speaking but also listening and adopting counter arguments. The organizations can take help of different seminars and conferences, that will teach the employees to become good listeners. Effective listening skills largely benefit an organization, as it disrupts the organizational hierarchy, creating space for greater dimension of knowledge, through the interchange of innovative thoughts and ideas (Robinson et al. 2013).             

Again, noise is a very common barrier in the communication process, and while nothing much can be done about natural noises, such as thunder or rain sound, much can be done about the man-made noises. The organization should select its location very discreetly, and if possible, it should be located far from the busy streets or any sort of factory or industry. Further, the management authority must make it clear to the employees, that they should not talk with each other overmuch in the workplace, or should not use cell phones for personal reasons within the workplace. While engaging in international business activities, the officials must be very adept in speaking the official language as well as the regional language of the country he is visiting. The acquisition of foreign language skill, is also important for the expatriates, who for the successful completion of the assignments, will need to communicate well to the foreigners. Plus, distance acts as a huge barrier in the communication process, and although there have been much technological innovations to reduce the distance barrier in the communication, the problem persists. An employee must have sufficient knowledge about the time zone difference of another country, before trying to communicate with the officials or employees, residing in that country, with the help of Skype. The management authority should ensure that the channels of the communication, such as the telephones or the computers, are well-maintained.

Conclusion:

Communication plays a vital role in an organization, as it enables the interchange of ideas and thoughts, appraisal of the employees, and discharge of duties, and hence much steps should be taken to prevent the communication barriers. Much of the responsibility lies on the management authority, who must ensure clear audibility of the speech, by creating desirable sitting arrangement and environmental comfort. I case of semantic barriers, if the acquisition of language could not be possible, maximizing the use of charts and graphs, or sign language and gestures in a meeting can be very helpful. In case of cross cultural business assignments, the expatriates should be given professional training on the traditional beliefs and cultural values of the foreign countries. Above all, frequent participatory activities within the organization, can always help in easy flow of communication among the officials and the employees (Westmyr and Warren 2015). 

Reference List:

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