Question

essay writing (1000 words)

Topic

The Effectiveness of communication in the workplace

Identify and analyze the barriers to effective communication

Examine the Strategies that organizations can employ to improve the communication process in an organization.

Answer 1

Communication is very important in order to send information in any level or department in any organization or institution. In order to achieve the planned goals and targets of any organization, communication plays a very essential role. An organization comprises of various employers, employees, workers comprising of the human resources who communicate with each other to share necessary information to carry out their objectives. These human resources may also communicate with technology by giving instructions in forms of codes or machine language to carry out respective objectives. These sets of information are very important to keep every working element in the organization updated for decision making at various levels and processes. These educated instructions and guidelines helps in the effective and efficient accomplishment of goals which are very important for the survival, consistent working and smooth functioning of the organization Communication motivates people in an organization by clarifying the people what is to be done, how well they are doing and what can be done to improve performance.

The formation of specific goals, feedback on progress towards the goals and reinforcement of desired behavior, all stimulate motivation and require effective communication. Effective communication also acts to control the workers behavior in an organization both through formal and informal channels. Effective communication also provides an opportunity for cultural values to be maintained and promoted,it stimulates individuals to pursue and fulfil their creative urges which leads to the accomplishments of the entire organization as a whole. Effective communication is a great integrating tool. Extent of effectiveness of communication in an organization is directly integrated with the level of success rate depending upon the flow of information. Hence, effective communication needs to be all pervasive in a workplace.

Where there is an organization there has to be flow of information to achieve goals which is fulfilled by communication, more effective the communication higher would be the success rate of the organization. But the effectiveness of communication is affected by certain phenomenons prevailing in the organization also known as "barriers to communication". Such barriers develop when an organization evolves. These barriers can be attributed to certain conditions like: size of organization, physical distance between employees, specialization of jobs and activities, organizational culture which impacts freedom and trust, organizationall rules and regulations, power structure in an organization, complexity in organizational structure, inadequate facilities and opportunities, lack of cooperation between senior and subordinate and many other conditions depending upon the nature of organization and workplace. The vvarious types of communication barriers are identified as following :

1.) PHYSICAL BARRIERS - These are the environmental and natural conditions that act as a barrier in communication in sending message from sender to receiver. Example:Technological problems, workdesign problems etc.

Physical barriers can be analyzed as caused by environmental stress, subjective stress, competing stimulus, receivers unfamiliarity with the medium and other cases depending upon the nature of workplace communication.

2.) PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS - These refer to the psychological state i.e. opinions, attitudes, status, consciousness, emotions etc. of a person that deeply affects the ability to communicate. Analyzed as per the field of experience, cognitive dissonance (thinking conflict), defensiveness fear, selective perception, filtering or manipulation of information etc..

3.)LINGUISTIC AND CULTURAL BARRIERS - like the semantic barriers resulting from various disagreements during the work,high context and low context culturez, cross-cultural communication etc.

4.) MECHANICAL BARRIERS - They can exist in both interpersonal or mass communication. There can be difficulty in reception or some elements of the message may not reach the destination.

Analysis of some most common workplace communication barriers:

1) In the language barrier the same message can be interpreted differently by different people. Several factors affect how an individual attributes meaning to particular words.

2)Perpetual bias prevents us to look at reality in a truthful manner. The most common perpetual biases are stereotyping, projection and self fulfilling prophecies.

3) Impersonal relationships as our perception is also based on the past experiences with the communicator. In a workplace the same communication from the highest authority maybe perceived differently than that of subordinate or colleague.

For effective communication in a workplace certain strategies and ideas should be implemented like giving undivided attention to the combination of work, workers, resources to carry out the short term and long term objectives of the organization. Influencing and inspiring workers to be able to perform better at work. Honesty, politeness and respectful communication with all the workers working in the organization. Various motivational incentives for effective communication in an organization could prove to be an innovative way to foster healthy and smart communication. Integration of all channels of organization for smooth flow of information can also boodmst effective communication.