Organizational Communication: Theories, Barriers, Strategies, And Recommendations

Barriers of Communication

Human relation theories were developed in 1930 at the time of depressions by Kurt Lewin and Elton Mayo (Barbour et al. 2018). The human resource theories show the theoretical perspective of organizational communication.  Organizational communication in the field of communication has different roles and nature. Communication flows in the organization in formal and informal ways, and their main focus was to build a strong relationship with members who work internally and externally (Driskill 2018). Effective communication plays a vital role in establishing the foundation of any organization. Customer satisfaction, public perceptions, engagement of employees plays an important role in organizational communication like team meetings, social events, formal and informal communication, feedback, etc. It also helps complete different tasks related to specific roles and responsibilities of any department like production, sales, services, etc. Effective communication contains seven principles in the organization: principal of objective, principal of clarity, Principal Of Receiver Understanding, consistency principle, completeness principle, and feedback principal and principal of time (Driskill 2018).  The main purpose of organizational communication is to inform employees about new policies, ensure safety in the organization, and manage change, digital transformation, and crisis communication. Researchers have developed an organizational communication theory to describe and account for how theories occur in practice (Barbour et al. 2018). The report will highlight various other theories in regards to the organizational perspective like the classical perspective theories which suggest that organizational communication are similar to machines. It shows that if organizations have well-managed machines, they will be effective. This assumption show employee as a machine and if one part fails, then the entire organization fail. This report will also evaluate the barriers of communication along with the brit-tech stratergies.

Communication plays a critical role in the organization’s success, and there are still many organizations struggling because they don’t have a proper communication structure. This will affect negatively and breakdown downs their process (Yusof et al. 2020). Some of the common barrier’s organizations are facing are: – 

• Environmental barriers: These are the physical obstacles that affect the organization’s proper communication with its workers, suppliers, and customers. This barrier is a noisy environment, technological troubles, poor lighting, long-distance barriers and climate conditions that prevent communication. Covid-19 also stops people from communicating at work.
• Interpersonal communication problems: This is the most common barrier in the organization. Poor communication negatively affects every team member. It breaks the working relationships and leads to hindering a project. Lack of trust between team members, lack of listening skills, unnecessary technical jargon, and absence of external environment control (Kapur 2018).
• Cultural barriers in communication: – This barrier occurs when two people meet from two different backgrounds, values and beliefs. For example; body language and gestures, it is very hard to communicate without body language and gestures. When organizations started expanding their business globally, this barrier was common (Kapur 2018). Therefore, an organization needs to give proper training to their employees. Employees need to understand each other culture. This can also help in adopting uniform values.
• Decision-making barriers: – Managers usually face these barriers because of poor communication skills. It is a very big barrier in the organization because teams are not achieving their goals. Due to a lack of motivation, teams are missing their deadline. Therefore, every organization must have good knowledge and experience to make efficient decisions (Jenifer and Raman 2019).
• Insecurity created within teams:- leadership problem arises with lack of communication skills. When team members don’t trust their boss, an employee hesitates in speaking, and they don’t feel comfortable. For performing at best, the employee will feel secure. The top authority of the organization needs to encourage employees to work in a team (Jenifer and Raman 2019).
• Remote working barriers in communication: – Covid-19 pandemic forced the world to work from home. Companies are allowing their employees in working remotely. The drawbacks of communication in remote working are that listening is very difficult in Zoom calls, and employees have to attend meetings through various cloud platforms. Lack of connection, lack of collaboration, miscommunication are common problems in remote working (Morrison-Smith and Ruiz 2020).
• Consistency, clarity, and frequency – these three things are interrelated with each other. Every organization needs to balance the consistency. When the flow of information is not consistent, employee trust issues occur. When messages are not delivered on time, employees miss important information and updates. According to Gallup’s study, the efficiency of employee engagement increases when managers give clear and consistent communication (Barbour et al. 2018).
• Emotional barriers – communicating effectively requires a proper balance of facts and emotions. Emotions like frustration, anger, and humour can affect a person’s decision-making ability. 

• Communication as a necessity: – Organization must think on a broad scale. Communication must be the essential component in every organization and its systems (Xie 2013). Effective communication helps the organization create goodwill among their customers, and it also helps balance the workstyle of the employees. When employees start interacting, it will increase the efficiency of the business, and it helps employees achieve their targets and solve conflicts among them (Xie 2013).
• Conflict resolution encouragement: – Tackling the problems directly is one of the best organizational methods. For example, if a personal problem or employee causes any communication barriers is facing a problem with their communication, this can be solved or addressed on a personal level (Xie 2013). This also shows that when issues are related to more than two employees, they can find the best way to solve them on a priority basis. Conflict resolution and open-door policy help employees and managers achieve the organization’s goals.
• Flatter hierarchy- Giving employees more authority and responsibilities will make them feel comfortable, directly empowering them. This will make them feel like every individual is important and their ideas, opinions, suggestions are considered. This will boost the employee’s confidence, and they have seamless communication.
• Putting the system in place: Putting systems in place is the most effective method of improving communication. Providing important tool which helps employees in improving communication. Project management solutions are very important in building communication. Brands reach stakeholders through different social media announcements and communication (Weijermars 2011).
• Establishing effective communication channels:- Regular feedback cycles, initiatives like team-building, and the development of communication skills helps overcome interpersonal barriers to communication.
• With proper training and development efforts, communication barriers will be countered. Employees will improve their communication and collaboration skills by getting proper training (Weijermars 2011).

Principal of Precision in ideas: According to Terry, the effective communication process is first to fully inform oneself. The seven principles of effective communication are: – consideration, clarity, courtesy, concreteness, completeness, conciseness and correctness (Zamfir 2021).

Evaluating is an essential part of the communication function at every level in the organization. It also helps an organization in improving its performance in the future. It improves the effectiveness of the organization; it also enhances decision-making, and reduces uncertainties (Krizanova et al. 2019).

Strategies for Overcoming Communication Barriers

Cultural norms are like how individuals use their hands in meetings and body language while communicating verbally on a non-verbal level. Executing cultural Awareness in the environment brings efficient working conditions. Cultural Awareness in the workplace is increased by; giving training in global citizenship to the employees. It bridges the gap between good communication skills with culture gaps. Celebrating traditional holiday’s festivals also increase employee interaction from various backgrounds (Zamfir 2021).

Organizational communication is a broad field that contains all forms of communication, and it effectively benefits society as a whole. There are many barriers to communication that organizations have to face in their daily activities. Cultural and decision-making barriers are a major problem in this report. There are many options in overcoming these barriers by establishing effective communication channels organizations can overcome easily, and by proving more hierarchy to the employees, it boosts the confidence and self-motivation skills in handling tough situations. The final recommendation was by using proper language and giving proper training to employees. It is easy to overcome all the barriers. Giving more authority and responsibility to each employee increases the organization’s productivity and will boost the employees’ confidence.

Conclusion 

Each employee must have good communication skills in the organization, and it starts from boss level to sub-ordinates. Empowering employees and establishing goals is a great step in organizational growth. This will be implemented from strategic planning and effective communication. Effective communication builds the morale of the employee, satisfaction level increases and engagement. It increases the productivity in the organization with employee engagements and higher creativity levels. Every organization’s function must revolve around coordination, sharing emotions and feelings with others, and transmitting information in productive ways. Sharing emotions and feelings unite people in crises as well as in celebration. Every organization must have effective communication. Leading others requires good communication skills. Managers who communicate well are good problems solvers. This is essential for an international workplace where increasing norms are due to diversity. Effective communication between managers and employees is essential for a well-functional environment.

References 

Barbour, J.B., Gill, R. and Barge, J.K., 2018. Organizational communication design logics: A theory of communicative intervention and collective communication design. Communication Theory, vol.28 no.3, pp. 332-353. https://academic.oup.com/ct/article-abstract/28/3/332/4972625

Driskill, G.W., 2018. Organizational culture in action: A cultural analysis workbook. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/mono/10.4324/9780429427473/organizational-culture-action-gerald-driskill

Jenifer, R.D. and Raman, G.P., 2015. Cross-cultural communication barriers in the workplace. Internafional Journal of Management, vol.6 no.1, pp. 348-351. https://www.academia.edu/download/40875757/CROSS_CULTURAL_COMMUNICATION_BARRIERS_IN_WORKPLACE-2.pdf

Kapur, R., 2018. Barriers to effective communication. Delhi University. https://leverageedu.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Barriers-of-Communication-Notes.pdf

Krizanova, A., L?z?roiu, G., Gajanova, L., Kliestikova, J., Nadanyiova, M. and Moravcikova, D., 2019. The effectiveness of marketing communication and importance of its evaluation in an online environment. Sustainability, vol. 11 no. 24, pp. 7016. https://www.mdpi.com/591378

Morrison-Smith, S. and Ruiz, J., 2020. Challenges and barriers in virtual teams: a literature review. SN Applied Sciences, vol.2 no.6, pp. 1-33. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42452-020-2801-5

Weijermars, R., 2011. Overcoming Communication Barriers. In Building Corporate IQ–Moving the Energy Business from Smart to Genius pp. 205-218. Springer, London. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-0-85729-679-5_12

Xie, Y., 2013. Cross-cultural communication barriers between staff in overseas-funded enterprises and management strategies for overcoming them. Journal of Languages and Culture, vol.4 no.4, pp. 44-48. https://academicjournals.org/journal/JLC/article-abstract/0A4566341249

Yusof, A.N.A.M. and Rahmat, N.H., 2020. Communication barriers at the workplace: A case study. European Journal of Education Studies, vol.7 no.10, https://www.oapub.org/edu/index.php/ejes/article/view/3299

Zamfir, C.M., 2021. Workplace Orientation: Norms, Rules, Roles and Values as Principles of Ethical Behaviour and Effective Communication. Ovidius University Annals, Economic Sciences Series, vol.21 no.1, pp. 439-447. https://stec.univ-ovidius.ro/html/anale/RO/2021/Section%203/40.pdf