The Adverse Effects Of Communication Gap On Business Organizations: A Research Essay.

Identify various elements of adverse effects that arise within the business process of any organization due to communication gap within the various stakeholders of the firm?

Communication Gap is a common problem in every business organization.  The gap between the employees arise confusion in the decentralized decision making process. This in turn makes the member of the organization confused about the ultimate goal of the organization. Moreover, the communication gap in an organization sometimes hampers the regular workflow. For this reason, every organization wants to adopt some remedial measure in order to mitigate the negative impacts of communication gap in business operation process. The main objective of this research project is to make an analysis of the effect of communication gap in a business organization. Moreover, the research project will also identify various elements of adverse effects that arise within the business process of any organization due to communication gap within the various stakeholders of the firm.

At the present era of globalization, every organization has to be competitive all the time. The communication gap is the situation where the communication is not happening in a required way (Ryynänen 2012). Communication gap is often treated as a major hurdle in business organization, which is sometime, becomes difficult to overcome. This in turn makes the hindrance in the sustainable development process of the organization. For the communication gap, the organization becomes unable to meet its objectives and goal though it has all the potentiality to reach those missions (Schiavo 2014). Three common communication gaps in a business organization are people-people gaps, people-system gaps and system-system gap (Tkalac VercÌŒicÌŒ, VercÌŒicÌŒ and Sriramesh 2014).   The communication gap in a business organization occurs because of different factors such as language barriers, personal issues, lack of proper feedback, carelessness, lack of proper clarity etc. The consequences of the communication gap are losing the existing as well as the potential gaps, adaption of erroneous action, emergence of problem between employees, emergence of problem between employer and employees and loss of time and money. All these are problems that are occurred only due to the existence of the communication gap in the business enterprise. In this research project, the researcher wants to find out how the existence of different types of communication gap in a business organization hampers the workflow and makes a difference between the actual outcomes from the potential outcome.   Moreover, in this research work, it is also analyzed which remedial measures will be helpful for the organization to narrow down the communication gap (Walker 2012). It is expected that this research work will be beneficial for the organization to mitigate the bad effects of the communication gaps (Zoidl and Spray 2014).

1. What are the problems that a business organization faced because of the internal communication gap?
2. What are the chief elements that create communication gaps within the internal and external stakeholders of an organization?
3. What are the remedial measures that the business organization should adopt in order to reduce the effects of communication gap?

• To analyze various drawbacks of communication gap within an organization
• To extract various chief elements that brings in gap within the communication process of an organization
• To recommend various pivotal and effective techniques which can decrease communication gap within an organization

The Background

Communication, the heart of business, is the most pivotal of all entrepreneurial skills (Aliki 2011).  There is no denying the fact that destiny of any business in the modern era massively depends on the quality of the relationship within the stakeholders of the organization. Many scholars and researchers in the past have identified and proved the fact with relevant logics that quality communication is one of those sole elements that can make or break personal or professional relationships within a small span of time. This theory is implemented by almost all organizations that are successfully operating business in the recent era, which again highlights the fact that effective communication is one of those elements that should be provided the highest priority by the management of all organizations (Rosner, Halcrow and Levins 2011).

Communication barriers can pop – up at any stage of the communication process of an organization, which includes message, sender, receiver, channel, context and feedback.  Managements of commerce organizations should understand the fact that any sort of flaw in any of the mentioned processes of communication can affect business operations adversely (Mounter 2013). The sole reason behind this is that flaws in any of the above -mentioned elements of communication process have the potential to generate perplexity and misunderstanding within the stakeholders of the firm.

Market conditions and operating business successfully in the recent era have become more complex than it was previously and hence internal communication have merged itself as one of the most pivotal elements of any business process. Marketplace is becoming diverse with each passing day and employee of a comer organization should realize this fact and act accordingly (Thomson and Hecker 2014). The management of all business organizations that are operating in the current market should develop a strategic internal communication strategy in order to make employees aware of the needs of diversified and complex market place.

Aliki (2011) denoted that personal relationships are what all organizations are all about- or should be. Any firm, whatever it’s, motive, mission, objectives or size, is merely a collection of work force accumulated to pursue a common objective. Meanwhile, Cartwright (2012) also conveyed the fact that an organization functions through its employees, who in turn function through sturdy communication. However, Men (2014) also argued that at times employees of an organization have their own information system and sources, which are distinctly separate from the management channels. These elements carry the news ahead of communication from the management of the firm and fabricate issues at times when the management makes the mistake of entitling employee network as flawless and this system conveys information such as gossip, fragments, rumours in an indiscriminate manner. The previous argument can be countered by highlighting the opinions of Mounter (2013), who opined that at rare times information of the employee network helps the management in strengthening the communication system within employees as it fills their need for information that comes from a certain anonymous but credible source.

The Research Questions

In a business organization, an effective internal communication is very useful for the manager to convey the goal of the organization to the employees and get engaged them with those goal and objectives.  For this reason, poor internal communication leads to workplace inefficiency. In this context, it is important to note that, most of the internal communication gap occurs because of inefficient poor internal communication management (Ryynänen, 2012).When there does not occur communication properly, then discourse is lost and strategic lines of the organization becomes blurred. The reason is, if their does not happen the communication in a required way, then employees of that organization understand the mission of the organization in their own way (Schiavo 2014).This creates confusion among them and hampers their motivation and direction towards the actual objectives.  Another important problem of the internal communication gap problem is I some time creates an environment of distrust only because of lack of connection and credibility.  The communication gap de- motivates the workers and reduces the productivity of the workers (Zoidl and Spray 2014). The employees do not able to get the proper information about the future as well as the current goal of the organization and become uninterested about the organizational goal. Hence, it can be said that, an internal communication gap worsen the work environment. This will affect the organizational performance adversely (Walker 2012).

In this research work, the main objective is to find out the reasons behind the occurrence of internal communication gap in an organization. For this reason, the investigator follows interpretivism research philosophy for conducting the research work.  This research philosophy helps the researcher to gain knowledge on the real facts and make conclusion based on that analysis.  Moreover, in this research work, both quantitative and qualitative method is followed.   In addition to these, in this research work, both primary data and secondary data are used. The primary data are collected using questionnaire method. In this case, it is important to note that at the time of primary data collection, both the employer and employee are asked various questions regarding the research topic. The sample size chosen for the research is 40 random employees of business organizations and 3 managers from 3 different business organizations. The reason behind selecting the target population is that the researcher will get hands on massive credible and real –life information, which will be pivotal in determining the actual issues aroused from communication gap within the stakeholders of an organization. Moreover, another pivotal motive of implementing both quantitative and qualitative research method is that, this will enable the researcher to collect information from both ends, which are the employees and the management of an organization.

The Research Objectives

The analysis of the collected data through primary research will be done after minutely analyzing each of the quantitative responses. This will enable the researcher to link the outcomes with the literature reviewed of the research.  The analysis of the primary data will be done by using the methods of regression analysis, which will enable the researcher to identify the gaps that may arise from the analysis concerning the literature of the research. However, time was a bit worried factor for the research as this had to be completed within a small span of time.  On the other hand, the analysis of the analysis of the qualitative responses will be analyzed with even more detailed observation. After completion of the process, the extracted elements will be compared with the qualitative responses and literature reviewed within the research.

 From the discussion made in the literature review portion, it is quite clear that, in order to sustain the business process, every organization tries to improve the internal communication so that there does not exist any gap.   However, in this context, it is very important to note that, in order to remove the gap, both employee and employee should take some initiative steps. According to the employee, if the higher authority organize frequent meeting with them, then it will be helpful to narrow down the communication gap. Moreover, the employees have also mentioned that if the organization arranged to publish internal bulletin periodically, then it will be possible for the employee to update about the company’s view towards future.  Moreover, the company should pay more attention to the work place diversity.  In addition to these, The employees also take some effective steps to deliver their view to other employees coming from different language and culture smoothly.

It is already mentioned above that, since this topic is business and all the participants of this research topic are working under those organizations, therefore the researcher should more take and store all the information more carefully. Otherwise, any leakage of the negative respondent of some employee may hamper their future. Moreover, the researcher should not disclose the name of the participant.  In addition to these, the researcher should take consent of the participants before making the interview question. In addition to these ethical issues is one of the most common elements that arises from researchers and hence the researcher should take extensive care to prevent any sort of ethical issues.  The legal paper works should be satisfied and permissions are to be taken from concerned authority before interviewing managers or employees of any firm.  The gaps identified within the research should be highlighted with all due to respect to past researchers in order to avoid any sort of ethical issues. 

The Literature Review

The Gantt chart has been presented below which will enable the researcher to completed task within the desired time - frame and complete the research successfully within the provided deadline.

Introduction

The study will denote the importance of internal and external communication within the stakeholders of all business organizations. The various components of communication are elaborately discussed within the study and various arguments provided by well - renowned authors on this topic have been analyzed with minute details as well. The components of communication within an organization are  reviewed in a logical flow, which will enable the reader to understand the massive importance and need of communication at the first instance.  Moreover, various models are highlighted and theories are underpinned within the provided arguments, which extract different gaps within the view - point of various authors. The impacts of ineffective internal communication are also highlighted within the study that will enable the reader to understand the massive disguised role played by effective communication behind success of an organization in the present era (Men 2014).  

• What are the problems that a business organization faced because of the internal communication gap?
• What are the chief elements that create communication gaps within the internal and external stakeholders of an organization?
• What are the remedial measures that the business organization should adopt in order to reduce the effects of communication gap?

• To analyze various drawbacks of communication gap within an organization
• To extract various chief elements that brings in gap within the communication process of an organization
• To recommend various pivotal and effective techniques which can decrease communication gap within an organization

Communication is a certain term that can be defined as the strategy of sharing thoughts, information, and messages with others in a particular time. Communication consolidates making and talking, as well as nonverbal communication at times can lead to huge success for any business organization (Aliki 2011). Meanwhile electronic and visual communication like the use of painting, pictures, film or video, photography, electronic mail, telephone calls, or satellite advanced TV, appears to be the most commonly used elements in the present era.  Communication is one of the important parts of everyday life.  People interact with each other and share their views with the different types of communication means.  For this reason, communication is treated as one of the basic elements of our daily life. Moreover, communication can be defined as process by which the information is transmitted between the sender and the receiver (Bovée, Thill and Scribner 2013).  In this context, it is important to note that, there may occur different kinds of communication gap in an organization. Among these, the most important one communication gap problem is internal communication gap (Ostendorf 2012). At the business level, communication is important in two different sections, which can be  categorized as internal and external communication. Apart from this, communication within the employees of a firm also plays a huge role of significance in constructing a friendly working internal - environment within the firm.  Therefore, the fact can be quiet reasonably argued that effective communication is not only important for the business process of the organization but at the same time is also important to motivate employees.

The Importance of Internal Communication in Business Organizations

 The main importance of the effective communication in a business organization is to enable and motivate the employees and engaged to fulfill the goal of the organization. The existence of the effective organization helps the organization to identify the problem and resolve that problem quickly. Otherwise, the operation process of the organization may face some problems.   In addition to the above-mentioned role of the internal communication in an workplace environment, it plays another two important roles. These are conveying of some important message from the higher authority to the lower section of the company and vice versa and transforming the future strategy related information from the managers’ level to the employee section (Canavor, Meirowitz and Covey 2014).

Moreover, some importance of communication within a business organization is stated below: 

Employee Trust – Employees of an organization are the most pivotal elements that play the most significant role in driving the firm towards success. Moreover, employees of an organization should trust the management, which will make them work for the management and not only for fiscal benefits from the management. Mounter (2013) opined that open communication reduces various feelings of cluelessness and uncertainty regarding the state of the firm within the employees.

Relationships – Free flow of communication is highly essential in building strong relationships between employees and the management of the firm, which will create a blossom of an environment within the organization. Feeling of being isolated often reduces the production quality of an employee, which can be eliminated by building relationships within employees of a firm by means of effective and fluent communication (Thomson and Hecker 2014). Strong relationships between the employees and the management will help them trust each other and do the needful more efficiently in their respective roles.

Clarity – Ambiguity and various types of confusion within a firm can create misunderstandings within the employees and management that will adversely affect the business operations. Therefore, it can be stated that clarity within the communication process will enable the employees understand their job roles in a better manner, which will automatically make them work in a more efficient manner. At the same time this will also the productivity of the employees, which will be a massive added advantage for the organization (Tan 2011). Moreover, once there is fluent communication within the organization the employees will also be able to convey messages in a more effective manner to the customers, which will augment the count of satisfied consumers of the firm.

Collaboration – Communication will help the employees collaborate in an effective manner and build a strong team, which will definitely make a massive difference. Team -work is highly pivotal within any organization in order to build a cross - culture diversity environment, which has bought in success form many well renowned companies in the recent time (Rosner, Halcrow and Levins 2011). Therefore, it can be said that collaboration within employees can ensure that everyone is on the desired page and avert tribulations down the road.

In a business organization, the internal communication can flow in three different directions such as downward, upward and horizontally. The downward communication is used by the managers’ level to pass on future strategy related information to the subordinate section. On the other hand, the upward direction is used by the lower level employees to transform the information to the higher authority.  In addition to those upward direction and downward direction, the horizontal direction is used when some information is moved between the employees of the same level. However, in this context, it is important to note that there should be effective balance between upward, downward and horizontal flow direction of communication in a business organization. Lack of sufficient balance in the organization leads to the emergence of communication gap and hampers the workflow of the organization (Cowan 2014).

There exist different theories of business communication. The most important theory is Laswell’s theory. According to this theory, in order to set up an effective communication process in a business enterprise, the employer should not only concentrate on the transformation process but also on the fact that whether the receiver is able to understand the actual meaning of the message. According to this theory, this is the only way to increase the effectiveness of the business communication.  Another important theory is Shannon’s and Weaver’s “Mathematical theory of Communication”. It is the most important theory of business communication. According to this theory, it is possible to send large amount of information through a given channel and measure every channel capacity to forward information. According to this theory, there are three stages in the transformation of the message through different communication channel. These are technical problem, semantic problem and effectiveness problem (Goldberg and Rosenfeld 2014). Among these stages, the first stage is the easiest stage to understand . The following figure shows the three different stages of this theory.

Figure 1: Theory of communication

(Source: Communication Theory 2016)

Internal Communication is complex and imperative process. The employees of an organization through this process coordinate the work process, which is very essential to the functioning of an organization.  In the modern age, the employees of an organization prefer to get more information on the organizational goal. In this case, internal communication is the catalyst to organizational excellence and effectiveness (Guffey and Loewy 2013).An effective internal communication helps the organization to have a clear understanding about the entire operation process of the company, the changes that have been made in the organization and the future plans of the organization.  These understanding encourage the employees of the organization to give more work effort and show more efficiency to their current work place (Han and Stenhouse 2014).

 At present, the organization not only should concentrate on the improvement of the customer care service, but also on the improvement of employer-employee relationship.  The reason is the amount of demand faced by the company and the growth of the company depends how effectively the employee of an organization complete their goals and satisfies their customer satisfaction.  In this case, internal communication plays a significant role (Layng 2012).This effective internal communication helps the all the employees of all the level in an organization to understand the consumers preferences and performs the work accordingly. At the present era of globalization, internal communication is not only the methods, publication and broadcast but also a means to build a corporate culture in the work environment (Locker and Kaczmarek 2013).

 The basic methods of transmitting information are verbal communication, written communication and formal communication.  Casual conversation between any two employees and the formal speech by the managing director of the company are two examples of verbal communication.  The transmission of some important   information related to the company either by the provision of the casual note to the co-worker or by the publication of annual report is considered as written communication (Medina Aguerrebere 2012). In this context, it is important to note that the introduction of Electronic mail system have made a change both in the written and verbal communication mode in a business organization.  The third and the most important mode of internal communication is formal communication. This communication has been done in an organization through the chain of command or hierarchy (Newman, Ober and Ober 2013).

 From the above discussion, it is very clear that, an effective internal communication is very important to run an organization successfully.  The consequences of the internal communication are as follows:

Lack of cohesive culture – There will be lack of cohesive culture where everyone is focused on the same goal. This will make the work process a bit saturated, which can bring down productivity of the employees to a certain extent (Mounter 2013).

Stakeholders of the firm unable to put in their best – The stakeholders of the organization will not be able to work effectively together, which may cause different types of problems that might affect the internal as well as the external business process of the company.

Lack in knowledge of employees to make right decision – Employees of the organization lacked the tools and knowledge to make right decision in line with the organization’s goal. This might decrease the number of satisfied consumers of the firm, which is a massive threat for any organization in the modern era (Otto 2011).

Additionally there can be the duplication of work due to department’s inability to share information and there can be day to day conflict can occur because of the lack of information

All the above-mentioned consequences may cause the reduction in the work productivity, employee dissatisfaction, employee turnover, absenteeism and lack of ability to understand the business strategy (Ostendorf 2012).

Conclusion

The study concludes that communication within the business process of a company should be provided with the utmost priority by its management.  Moreover, it is also concluded that communication within an organization act a remedial medicine for any issues that has already aroused within the firm. The modern era have experienced various changes in the business process and majority of the successful organization have used effective communication as one of their most  pivotal shield to prevent all sorts of conflicts and misapprehension.

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