Effective Management Of Communication And Overcoming Barriers

21129 Managing People and Organisations

Types of communication

The management of communications refers to the systematic way of planning, monitoring, revising and implementing various communication channels within and in between enterprises. It includes the organisational communication modes and also dissemination of various new and innovative communication directives which are connected within the organisation, its networks and communication technology. Various communication aspects include the developed strategies of corporate communication, designing of internal as well as external communication directives and also managing the information flow and online communication (Al-Fedaghi 2012).

The essay throws light on the management of communication, the effective ways to manage the barriers as well as the measures of overcoming those. Communication plays a major role in achieving a common task or goals between two or more than two people. The communication phenomenon has different types, such as interpersonal, intrapersonal, mass communication, group communication and others (Austin and Pinkleton 2015).

The essay mainly discusses about effective management of communication as well as its barriers, with an example of a specific situation, where an individual felt misunderstood as the communication went in a wrong direction and miscommunication occurred. In addition to this, it includes detailed explanation of communication model, which describes the way communication occurs.

While communicating verbally, the sender sends some message in the form of a speech, which gets transmitted through a medium, to the receiver. The sender is the encoder and the receiver acts as the decoder. Communication includes transmission of several information, beliefs, instructions, concepts, facts and ideas. Intrapersonal communication is the process of communicating within oneself, it occurs when an individual has a thought (Beck et al. 2012). Interpersonal communication can be defined as the process of communicating and sharing thoughts between two people. Group communication occurs when three or more than three people communicate on the same topic or discuss common facts, sharing their individual thoughts and opinions one at a time. Mass communication takes place when a person addresses a large mass with the help of a medium, which can either be electronic or print (Broadbent 2013).

Mass communication can be identified in the following situation; a politician delivering a speech, addressing the whole country where there are press officials broadcasting the speech. Here the press is the medium, it is covering the incident, and the country people are able to watch or read it. Therefore, the “mass” here is the people whom the politician, that is the sender, is conveying the message. In case of mass communication, the sender delivers a message to the large number of audiences present (Castells 2013), it is regarded as one-way communication. In this form of communication the receivers’ participation is minimal. Feedback of the mass is not easily acquired in the case of such communication, due to restrictive barriers set by the sender. However, there are many digital media platforms that have started to open the doors allowing the mass to sending feedback in various forms like comments and updates, the response from this is quite minimal. Mass communication is such a restrictive form and therefore allows greater risk for misunderstandings and problems (Coombs 2014).

Shannon and Weaver communication model

In the post bureaucratic era, several leaders have contributed to the management of communication. Several academic works, related to charismatic and transformational leadership styles have contributed to management of communication. Scholars like Aristotle, have described three critical factors, which play a major role in communication. Firstly, the character of the speaker, which he termed as ethos, influences the communication. Secondly, the emotional state of the listener, that is, pathos and lastly, the argument itself or logos. These three factors influence communication (Gailloux, Samson and Shah 2012).

 

(Figure: Shannon and Weaver Communication Model

Source: Al-Fedaghi 2012)

In the year 1948, Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver created a linear communication model, which later came to be regarded as the “mother of all models”. In this model, the message is sent by the information source via transmitter which acts as an encoder. The message then passes through the channel, that is, the medium; after which it reaches to the decoder who further decodes the message and sends it to destination, that is, the receiver. The decoder can be a technological channel like telephone. Noise is an element which causes physical disturbances, like environment, people and more, which doesn’t let a message reach the receiver as it was framed (Dozier, Grunig and Grunig 2013).

Example of a situation in relation with the above model, where an individual felt misunderstood by certain actions or the communication went in a wrong direction due to some barriers. A businessman conveys an important message to his/her employee, over the phone, regarding an important business meeting to be held at eight in the morning. Due to certain disturbances and noise in the channel the receiver misunderstood the whole message and encoded it as eight in the evening. The employee replied and gave his feedback depending on his interpretation of the message. The whole situation was misinterpreted, which created an error in the communication or miscommunication and the employee was unable to reach the meeting on time. The whole situation was created due to the communication barrier, that is, the noise channel. The businessman totally misunderstood his employee and as a result, he asked him to resign (Gailloux, Samson and Shah 2012).

Therefore, Shannon Weaver’s communication model comprises three barriers stages or problems which created a miscommunication between a businessman and his/her employee. Firstly, the technological barrier, that is, the disturbances or issues caused over the telephonic channel. Secondly, the semantic barrier, that is, the message sent by the sender is misinterpreted by the receiver. Lastly, the effectiveness barrier, that is, how much effective was the message and the magnitude of effectiveness caused to the receiver (Jensen 2013).

There are several steps to overcome this communication barrier, in order to avoid miscommunication. Considering the case of the businessman and the worker, firstly, the businessman could have paid attention to the noise and called back later. He /she could have dropped a message as a reminder (McQuail and Windahl 2015). Secondly, the employee could have confirmed the time of the meeting, as it was an important one. It was necessary on his part, to pay adequate attention to such things. Thirdly, the businessman could have discussed face to face about the meeting and listened to his/her employee’s feedback or comments regarding this. Fourthly, before asking his/her worker to resign, the businessman could have listened to his/her problem, as this created a misunderstanding between the both (Penn and Watermeyer 2012).

Example of miscommunication

Effectiveness of team work completely depends on the way the team members are communicating and working in order to achieve a common organizational goal. Efficient team members maintain peace and harmony, while working. Generally, it doesn’t happen by accident. Excessive amount of hard work, cooperation, struggle and commitment results into a better team, which is the key to success. A team is only productive when it is committed to a specific goal and the members are able to complete the goal by using their own resources (Rossetto 2013). When a team is introduced to a goal, it is the duty of all the team members to come forward and communicate to work as an individual unit in order to finish the task. Each and every member should equally participate in the given task and share their efforts in order to get good results as it is essential for the team’s success.Moreover, diverse workforce can be regarded as a reflection of changing marketplace and the world. Cultural diversity helps in introducing high values to the work. Respecting the differences of each and every individual proves to be beneficial, which in turn helps in creating competitiveness and increasing the work productivity as well (Shockley-Zalabak 2014).

In any organization, it is very important to communicate with each and every member as well as the stakeholders. Success of a business depends on the effectiveness of the overall communications, engaging the individuals in the open communication initiatives and getting all the stakeholders involved in the communications’ processes by enabling more efficient two-way conversations. One of the major challenges of communication is the ill management of diversity in a workplace (Shrivastava 2012). It affects the team effectiveness and work productivity which leads to the company’s downfall. Negative behaviors and attitudes that include stereotyping, discrimination, biasness and prejudice can be a barrier to the organizational diversity as they harm working relationships and morale. Such attitudes should never be applied by the managers of any organization for hiring and terminating its employees. Employees can even take legal actions for this and complain against the manager and the organization as well (Gailloux, Samson and Shah 2012).

Poor Team Communications	Poor Stakeholder Communications
· Misunderstandings and miscommunications around project objectives and goals. · Missed deadlines. · Conflicts between the team members. · Individual members tend to move in different directions. · Decreased productivity level on the project, which leads to going over budget and increased timeliness · Lack of commitment on the project team members’ part in accomplishing the project’s work.	· Lack of and limited buy-in as well as commitment to a project. · Misunderstandings around the stakeholder’s expectations. · Conflicts between project team members and stakeholders, or even between the stakeholder groups. · Stakeholders may actively work against the project. · Failed projects. · Failed relationships with the stakeholders.

To conclude, communication plays a very crucial role, in an individual’s day to day life. A communication is only complete when the sender successfully delivers his/her message to the receiver and receives a desirable feedback. Communication’s importance can never be undermined. It is one of the major reasons for civilization’s existence. One cannot perform effectively in a team, if he/she can’t communicate with others. Team effectiveness fully depends on good communication skills. It helps in gaining knowledge from others and also plays a role in knowing their motives. It is mandatory to choose some appropriate channel in order to communicate, as it is very crucial in conducting a successful communication. It should be kept in mind that each and every channel has some strengths and weaknesses, so channel selection should be done accordingly.

Ineffective or poor communications can mar the progress of any organization. Even it may lead to misunderstandings and workplace conflicts. It is important for the managerial department to solve issues and communicate with each and every employee, in order to encourage them for voicing their opinions and views. Poor team communications can lead to misunderstandings which may hamper the work progress. It may result into missing deadlines and conflicts between the team members. Therefore, communication plays a very vital role in one’s daily life and organizations should have a planned strategy of managing communication among the employees.

Steps to overcome communication barriers

References

Al-Fedaghi, S., 2012. A Conceptual Foundation for the Shannon-Weaver Model of Communication. International Journal of Soft Computing, 7(1), pp.12-19.

Austin, E.W. and Pinkleton, B.E., 2015. Strategic public relations management: Planning and managing effective communication campaigns (Vol. 10). Routledge.

Beck, C.C.M., Sidell, M.F., Gold, T.K., Powers, J.K. and Knuff, C.D., Forte Internet Software, Inc., 2012. Methods and system for creating and managing identity oriented networked communication. U.S. Patent 8,316,128.

Broadbent, D.E., 2013. Perception and communication. Elsevier.

Businesstopia.net (2017). Shannon and Weaver Model Of Communication | Businesstopia. [online] Businesstopia.net. Available at: https://www.businesstopia.net/communication/shannon-and-weaver-model-communication [Accessed 4 Oct. 2017].

Castells, M., 2013. Communication power. OUP Oxford.

Coombs, W.T., 2014. Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. Sage Publications.

Dozier, D.M., Grunig, L.A. and Grunig, J.E., 2013. Manager’s guide to excellence in public relations and communication management. Routledge.

Gailloux, M.A., Samson, K. and Shah, G.M., Sprint Communications Company LP, 2012. Managing communication network capacity. U.S. Patent 8,135,388.

Jensen, K.B. ed., 2013. A handbook of media and communication research: Qualitative and quantitative methodologies. Routledge.

McQuail, D. and Windahl, S., 2015. Communication models for the study of mass communications. Routledge.

Penn, C. and Watermeyer, I., 2012. Cultural brokerage and overcoming communication barriers. Coordinating participation in dialogue interpreting, 102, p.269.

Rossetto, K.R., 2013. Relational coping during deployment: Managing communication and connection in relationships. Personal Relationships, 20(3), pp.568-586.

Shockley-Zalabak, P., 2014. Fundamentals of organizational communication. Pearson.

Shrivastava, S., 2012. Comprehensive modeling of communication barriers: a conceptual framework. IUP Journal of Soft Skills, 6(3), p.7.

When I look back to the day of presentation, I feel pretty amazed to see that I have learned a lot from that small exercise. As it was a group exercise, it was necessary to practice and do a lot of work while preparing it. It required proper coordination and team work as effectiveness of a team always leads to success. It helped me gain knowledge about working in a team while maintaining peace and harmony. Group members play a very crucial role in the completion of a project; therefore, it is necessary to give equal importance to everyone’s opinions and views. However, there was huge work while preparing for the exercise, but it was fun and helped me learn a lot.

Before we started the exercise, we didn’t know how much work we will need to complete this presentation. When we were doing the project, our opinions and views varied a lot. This happened because we didn’t work together before. Moreover, we were not sure about the slides we were going to prepare. I then looked into the whole situation and listened to my team members’ opinions. After analyzing each and everything, we came to the conclusion regarding the preparation of the slides. We did a lot of research and I came to learn a lot regarding the topic that was allotted to us. I understood that while working in a team it is important to maintain peace and harmony, which I did. At times, when confusion emerged, I handled the situation nicely.

There were both positive and negative outcomes in those situations. Working in a team is more productive and more reliable along with the availability of more resources. It helped me gain huge experience as well as information and I came to know about team commitment. I tried to implement new and innovative methods which my group members happily accepted. There was not much negativity in this, still at times; our opinions varied which led to conflict.However, we tried to avoid those situations as much as possible. Otherwise, we all have worked equally and effectively for the success of our presentation.

Practice makes a man perfect. This whole thing helped me gain much knowledge regarding team work and commitment. From the next time, I will be more cautious and active, which will help me improve further. The information and feedback which I gained from my tutor will contribute a lot to my personality development. Initially, I was a bit nervous, which was a major problem during public speaking. However, I believe that practicing more will help me deal with it. Overall, I am satisfied with my team members and their effort, which helped in the completion of the task nicely. I really enjoyed the whole procedure, researching and assembling all the information. I want to thank my fellow members and the lecturer which helped me improve my skills of presentation.