Communications Essay

Question

There are many potential barriers to communications in the work environment. Identify any three barriers from your experience and explain how these occur and what suggestions you would propose to prevent a 
breakdown of communications in this environment. 
Note:
Please write about the easiest barriers.. 
I need Good intro, Main Body and Conclusions

Answer

Name of Student

Name of Professor

Communications Paper

15 April 2024.

Potential Barriers to Communication

Communication plays a vital role in promoting interpersonal relations in diverse contexts. In the work environment, effective communication should be encouraged to improve job satisfaction, reduce intergroup conflict, and avoid wastage of resources. The aim of this paper is to explain potential barriers to communication in the work environment and how they occur. In addition to this, the paper will provide solutions that can be adopted to prevent the breakdown of communication.

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            Firstly, barriers to communication in the workplace can be physical, for example, the presence of cubicles and walls. Although these barriers play a vital role in enhancing privacy, they may hinder communication between employees. Their existence may pose difficulties for new employees due to a lack of interpersonal relations. Moreover, an employee may fail to ask for assistance from another because he/she may not be sure whether the existing barrier has been erected to discourage direct interaction with the employee. On the other hand, open-plan offices may pose difficulties for individuals who want to perform tasks that require privacy. Communication can be regulated by combining both private and open-plan offices in the work environment depending on variations in accessibility levels (Chendeka). Consequently, employees can perform tasks that require privacy effectively while at the same time gaining access to various rooms. Moreover, by having open-plan offices, employees will be able to consult each other often on matters that concern the organization. The organizations can also incorporate communication training sessions to promote communication among employees.

            Furthermore, organizational culture can be a major barrier to communication. Each organization has a unique corporate culture that is determined by aspects such as code of conduct and leadership. Organizations with poor organizational cultures face serious difficulties in communication because of lack of proper employee relations. Consequently, employees may fail to perform certain tasks as they are unsure of their relevance to overall organizational effectiveness. All companies should promote productive organizational cultures in order to promote a sense of shared goals in which every member understands the relevance of all activities to organizational success. In organizations with ineffective cultures, some tasks are overlooked, leading to wastage of resources.

Additionally, poor operational skills in the work environment can hinder effective communication. This problem is common in organizations whose managers have not outlined proper procedures for communication at all levels. Consequently, employees communicate ineffectively leading to organizational disorder. For example, an employee may decide to deliver an urgent message via email instead of making a phone call if proper procedures for addressing such an issue have not been outlined. For organizations to manage these problems well, they need to change their cultures by promoting effective communication. The first step towards this goal is outlining each employee’s duties and responsibilities in the work environment. Using this approach, managers can monitor the contribution of individual employees to effectiveness in organizational communication. Thus, the possibility of communicational oversight is greatly reduced because each employee knows what is expected of him/her (Feigenbaum).

            Besides, cultural differences constitute a major barrier to effective organizational communication. This problem is common in multinational corporations operating in global markets that are characterized by cultural diversity. To resolve this problem, companies have adopted different communicational strategies as a way of adapting to different national cultures. People tend to interpret messages based on their cultural values. Thus, one message may be subject to different interpretations depending on the cultural background of the recipient. For instance, different countries may have different interpretations of what should be regarded as a stressful job. Employees from developed countries are highly likely to be preoccupied with the use of technology in their work in efforts to make it less stressful. In contrast, their counterparts from less developed may not be keen to rely on technological aspects due to their lack of exposure to technology use as part of day-to-day workplace activities. These varying expectations greatly affect the way employees communicate with each other.

In most intercultural contexts, prejudice is a major barrier to effective communication. Culture-driven employee attitudes constitute a major problem in today’s globalized workplace, whereby intergroup judgments such as stereotypes, anxiety, and prejudices act as a barrier to communication (Miller). To deal with this challenge, many multinational corporations prefer to employ workers who are conversant with the culture of the host country. This strategy greatly contributes to the dismantling of cultural barriers because these workers can explain the meaning of various local values, norms, patterns of behavior, customs, and communication styles to their foreign counterparts.

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Additionally, language barriers are a major barrier to effective communication in the contemporary workplace. As many Western corporations continue to set up operations in the developing world, the need to employ workers from diverse linguistic backgrounds is increasingly becoming a reality. For example, for many American companies, lack of English proficiency for most of their foreign staff poses a major challenge. In many cases, the problem is compounded by the use of workplace jargon. Sometimes this linguistic idiosyncrasy may occur across various subsidiaries of the same multinational corporation. In such a situation, effective communication among subsidiaries and between subsidiaries and headquarters becomes a mirage.

To deal with these barriers, employees should never assume the same words mean the same thing for everyone. Moreover, effective communication can occur if everyone focuses on objectivity in the way messages are delivered. Objectivity plays a critical role in promoting a common frame of reference in regards to the interpretation of various meanings conveyed through organizational communication. Avoidance of jargon can also play a vital role in enhancing the effectiveness of communication particularly between departments and organizations. The objective should be to ensure that the likelihood of miscommunication is minimized. Applying these methods will promote interpersonal relations among employees, leading to increased organizational effectiveness (Nordmeyer).

            In conclusion, communication plays a critical role in facilitating day-to-day operations in the workplace. For organizations to remain competitive in the global marketplace, they must put in place excellent systems for removing barriers to effective communication. Educating employees can go a long way in addressing this challenge. In some cases, it may be necessary for companies operating in intercultural contexts to introduce intercultural communication training programs for all their employees. Moreover, they should promote an organizational culture that promotes effective communication as an integral component of operational efficiency. Eliminating the barriers to effective communication will lead to increased output, greater job satisfaction, and improved coexistence between an organization and various stakeholders. In light of the suggested solutions, it is instructive to note that most of the problems confronting contemporary organizations such as intergroup conflict, cultural prejudice, and discriminatory attitudes can be traced back to barriers to communication.

Works Cited

Chendeka, Marchena. 4 Common Communication Barriers in the Workplace. 2015. Web.

Feigenbaum, Eric. About Barriers to Effective Communication within the Workplace. 2016. Web.

Miller, Mark. Breaking Down Communication Barriers in the Workplace. 2014. Web.

Nordmeyer, Billie. Barriers to Workplace Communication. 2016. Web.