Communication Challenges in the Work Place

Categories: Communication Communication Skills Communication Skills In The Workplace Interpersonal Communication

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As diversity in the workplace increases, there is no doubt that several communication challenges have become a pressing issue in many organizations and companies in recent years. This surely will produce some serious problems that will limit the development of the organization. To solve these problems, this report will mainly analyze some feasible strategies and plans to improve communication within the organization, as well as examine the various features of two communication modes which are social media and one-on-one meetings.

When it comes to bad communication between employees and employers, there are several reasons why (Vdovin, 2017):

Employees are unclear about their job objectives and responsibilities.

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Leaders are less capable.
Employees are frustrated by being scolded and disrespected.

Bad communication between employers and employees will not only cost the company profits, but also ruin the mood of both employers and employees. To avoid these problems, firstly, it is very important for employees to know more about why they work and to be more involved and understand the company.

Employees’ sense of participation in the company is an important factor of employees’ goodwill towards the company (D. Waters, Sevick Bortree, & T.J. Tindall, 2013). Secondly, communicate fully with employees to get to know them and provide a way for them to talk. This can be done face to face or by sending messages to receive advice from employees or learn their work status, and it can make employees feel valued (Kennedy, 2013).

Corporate social media tools also pose challenges and pitfalls for corporate communications.

The hidden danger of social media within the company mainly comes from two aspects: one is the hacking or malicious software attack from outside the company the other is the information leakage caused by employees inadvertently or unknowingly (Hekkala, Väyrynen, & Wiander, 2012 ). Here are some ways to mitigate the risks. Firstly, develop a social media policy within the company that teaches employees how to avoid fraud and confidential messaging rules. In addition, set access to the company’s social media. For example, when a company publishes relevant information, not every employee needs the ability to publish information. This can greatly reduce the company’s security risks. Last but not least, invest and apply relevant security and privacy protection technologies. Hackers and attack software in the society are also constantly developing, it is necessary to have adequate and capable measures to deal with these attacks, which is particularly important for a large multinational company (Newberry, 2018).

Knowledge sharing, knowledge base building and task management play an important role in the development of an enterprise. If these jobs are done well, not only can they improve the customer’s comfort level with the service, but they can also increase productivity and make full use of the knowledge of each employee. To better share ideas, the first step is to improve the induction training. A new employee’s understanding of the company starts from the induction training, and at this time, the employees should be encouraged to share more ideas at work. Another is that the company can encourage knowledge sharing through material incentives such as providing team members cups, t-shirts and other prizes. Finally, it provides feasible and effective channels for employees to share ideas, such as knowledge sharing software or even small coffee shops within the company, which is more feasible in large companies (Youngren, 2019). For the establishment of knowledge base task management, the company should first pay attention to the investment and introduction of its technology, and then publicize the concept of collaboration inside and outside the company (Matthews, 2019).

High-quality customer feedback also allows companies to grow quickly. After all, customers are the ones who have the most say in the experience of a company’s products and services, but it is notoriously difficult to get high-quality customer feedback. There are some measures can improve the feedback from the customer. Firstly, call clients at regular intervals. This way of actively contacting customers can not only make customers feel that they are valued and thus increase their impression of service quality, but also can truly feel more feedback from customers through the tone of their voice calls. Moreover, motivate customers with small gifts for feedback. Many customers skip filling out the feedback because they do not immediately benefit from it and it costs time. Encourage feedback by giving small gifts or coupons for future purchases. Be careful to state that the seller wants true feedback before the customer fills it in, avoiding just giving positive feedback instead of giving true feedback (Pal, 2018).

The misunderstanding caused by cross-culture communication is also a serious challenge in some companies, especially in a multinational company. These problems are fatal. Employees in high-context and low-context environments have various characteristics, and such diversity is easy to be misunderstood in communication, which may lead to conflicts. To avoid these issues, for one thing, understand and recognize cultural diversity, especially in low-context and high-context communication, people can learn each other’s cultural characteristics in advance, so as to avoid misunderstanding caused by different cultures ('Cross-Culture Communication,' n.d.). For another thing, keep communication simple. Minimize cultural contact when people do not know each other’s culture, try to convey only the main things that support the main message, as long as people let each other understand the meaning. For instance, when two people do not know each other’s culture, try to avoid using humor, humor contains cultural elements, which may be rude in another culture ('Cross-Culture Communication,' n.d.).

Although the above strategies and plans can improve communication in many aspects of the organization, communication mode plays an important role in interpersonal communication, and each communication mode has its characteristics and merits.

One-on-one meetings are an important and common mode of communication in the company. The main purpose of one-on-one meetings is to enhance information and trust, and to exchange information and learn from each other to improve themselves ('How to make 1:1,' 2018). Regular one-on-one meetings have many benefits. It not only makes the employee feel more valued by the company, but it also helps both the employer and the employee deal with existing concerns and difficulties, and better understand each other’s work conditions (Zabriskie, 2019). However, one-on-one meetings also have many hidden dangers and problems. Firstly, if the leader has too many subordinates, the leader will consume a lot of time, which is quite precious for employees. Moreover, frequent one-on-one meetings will reduce the number of topics that employees can talk about, which may eventually make employees feel compelled, affecting the authenticity and availability of communication in one-on-one meetings, and thus affecting the effect of one-on-one meetings (Robins, 2016). All in all, one-on-one meetings are great for solving work problems for employers and employees but taking too long is a big problem.

With the development of science and technology, social media has more and more influences on society compared with the traditional communication mode. The use of social media not only makes communication within the company fast and efficient, but also social media has low cost and high return when facing the market. What is more, it is easier for customers to contact within the company and increase the interaction between the company and customers (Nelson, 2018). Social media also has some shortcomings that deserve people’s attention. Firstly, some hacker attacks and malware attacks on companies’ privacy and security issues may be seriously threatened. Secondly, the benefits from social media are uncontrollable, and it takes a lot of energy to manage social media well, which is updated and monitored daily ('Pros and cons of using,' 2018). In conclusion, with low cost and high return, social media also has some instability, and security issues are easy to be threatened.

Based on the advantages and disadvantages of social media and one-on-one meetings described above, one-on-one meeting works well, but it costs too much time, while social media is fast. Thus, the company can try to combine social media with one-on-one meetings. Use social media for one-on-one meetings, one-on-one meetings with social media’s voice messaging feature can also have the desired effect. This model can eliminate the meaningless small talk of traditional one-on-one meetings, improve the efficiency of one-on-one meetings, and also can convey emotions from voice.

In conclusion, to run a large multinational company, good communication between employers and employees, security and privacy guarantee of social media tools, efficient sharing of ideas within the company and the establishment of knowledge base and task management, high-quality feedback from customers, and cross-cultural communication in different contexts, these are essential. What is more, the choice of efficient communication mode is also particularly important for the development of the company, each mode of communication has its advantages and problems, and the efficiency is different, so it is necessary to choose the corresponding mode of communication in different situations. Therefore, pay attention to communication at all levels within the company, it has the power to change a company.