Analysis of Communication Issues within Engineering
Analysis of Communication Issues within Engineering
Introduction
Engineers engage in the design of structures, machines, and software depending on the area of engineering in which they specialize. The processes of designing these products are highly technical and communication of the same to the key stakeholders at times proves to be an uphill task. Engineers at times may be overcrowded with the professional specifications of their designs. There are obviously some audiences that would require hearing about the specifications of particular designs, but then there are those that only need to hear of how the output from those designs would help improve their livelihoods. According to Su (2015), mastering the audience is one of the steps in communicating effectively. To effectively communicate to such teams, the engineer must have a good understanding of communication practices and be able to adjust those practices to the particular audiences that they address at any given point in time. For instance, when communicating with fellow engineers, the communicator may want to concentrate a little bit on the engineering specifications of the design as that is the language that the engineering fraternity understands. When communicating to the investors and analysts, the engineers should focus on communicating information that pertains to business aspects of the design and how it would benefit both the analysts and the potential investors. Lastly, when communicating to the target consumers or users of the design, the information provided in the communication must concentrate specifically on the benefits of using the product, how to use the design, and how to take care of the product and its users in case it poses any dangers. The mere fact that the engineer needs to communicate to different groups of people with different levels of interest in a product and different levels of understanding means that there needs to be vast research on how the engineer can communicate effectively with different types of audiences.
The issue of effective communication from the perspective of engineering poses a problematic concern to the engineering fraternity. It is based on the understanding of the fact that as an engineer, one has to learn how to handle different types of audiences, communicate to them about a particular design or product, and still be able to get effectively the desired response from the communication. Notably, effective communication where different types of audiences mean that the engineer needs not only to have a good understanding of the product but also to have a good understanding of the different audiences and a good command of the language of communication. Many people often focus on eloquence, however, eloquence alone would not lead to effective communication without audience identification (Su, 2015). Developing such communication proves to be difficult for many engineers. One of the reasons is because unlike in humanities and social sciences where students learn more about people and organization, engineering is under pure sciences where the students learn about handling machines, structures, and software with little or no training in dealing with people. In fact, the only information taught about the handling of people involves brief communication skills courses. Such courses seek to impart these students with the abilities to communicate in public as well as be able to present themselves and their ideas professionally. However, questions arise as to how effective these communication skills courses concerning the issue at hand and concerning the unique communication barriers that the engineering community faces, especially when pitching ideas to audiences made of differentiated interest groups. Pitching an idea by engineers is different as compared to all other professions ("Speaking to Win: The Blog Why Engineers Need Great Communication Skills," 2015). For instance, how should the engineer address a group of people comprising of professionals and non-professionals and still command the audiences without losing anyone in the audience? The next few paragraphs will address the communication barriers that many engineers face in their attempts to deliver effectively in communication.
Analysis
The analysis of communication issues within the engineering fraternity reveals just how complex and confusing it can for an engineer trying to communicate effectively to an audience with people from different fields of life. One of the key barriers to communication entails the concern of lexical complexity. For instance, communication of design to an audience at times requires the engineer to stick to the specificity of the terms that apply to the particular profession. Such terms may be easily understood by the engineering fraternity, but when people from other fields are involved, the lexical complexity of the engineering terms may make the communication nothing more than noise. Consequently, the engineer must first understand the audience to be able to address it effectively. The second problem relates to the problem of social and organizational barriers and as Al-Rawas & Easterbrook (1996) finds, social barriers are the single major factor affecting communication. It is one thing to know that you are communicating with a group of professionals, and it is another to know that you are communicating to an audience that includes novice users of the design, analysts, marketers, and investors. In such an environment, the engineer literary needs to breakdown his communication to meet the needs of all the members of the social organization that makes the audience. It applies even when the engineer understands very well that there could be concepts about the particular design that may be very complex to address in simple and understandable language. The third major problem and barrier to communication is the issue of lack of specificity when addressing an audience that includes people from different professional backgrounds. Specificity in this context relates to the ability of the engineer to address key concepts and issues as they matter to a given audience. To an engineering fraternity, the specifics of the design are important including the physics and science of application and communicating these aspects poses special concerns for the engineering fraternity (3DxBlog, 2015). The information may not be important to the users, and this community requires specifics about how to use the product and the safety measures that would not be important to an analyst or a marketer keen on the cost information and other business related concepts. When communicating to the different communities as outlined in the paragraph above specificity may not be a concern, but when all these communities are integrated into one audience, then the details become a barrier to effective communication. When such communication barriers come into play, the immediate negative implications are that the engineer does not get the required response, and this is not because their designs are wrong but because there are communication barriers. The communication barriers and how to mitigate them therefore presents one of the concerns for the community (Fasano, 2015).
Research
Research indicates that these communication barriers are common and presents problems that the engineering fraternity has to deal with. However, research also indicates that there are several methods that engineers can employ to ensure that they communicate effectively with various audiences. These methods may be effectively applied in other professions ("Speaking to Win: The Blog Why Engineers Need Great Communication Skills," 2015). The very first step towards ensuring that there is effective communication is to ensure that the engineer understands the audience. It means that when planning to communicate or present a design or idea to any given audience, the engineer must ask questions on who are comprised of the audience and majority of the audience expects from the presentation or communication. The second solution to the problem is through the use of illustration. The use of design pictures and illustrations acts as a way of communicating complex details in a simple way. The illustrations can help the engineer to reduce the lexical complexity or jargon in their communication simply because the audience is more likely to understand visual information than words. In other words, speaking to win involves the combination of various methods of communication and visuals is one of them ("Speaking to Win: The Blog Why Engineers Need Great Communication Skills," 2015). The last and most important solution to the problem of communication is to ensure that there are manuals on a design that are presented as the case may require. Through brochures and leaflets, the engineer can be able to package information for use by different audiences and consequently, this delimits the engineer from focusing on one type of audience over another. Notably, these strategies help not only those in engineering but also people in other professions.
References
3DxBlog. (2015). How Engineers Can Better Communicate with Managers and Colleagues. Retrieved from http://blog.3dconnexion.com/blog/bid/339392/How-Engineers-Can-Better-Communicate-with-Managers-and-Colleagues
Al-Rawas, A., & Easterbrook, S. (1996). Communication Problems In Requirements Engineering: A Field Study. Retrieved from http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.30.4408
Fasano, A. (2015). Communication Skills for Engineers – The Seven Deadly Sins and How to Overcome Them - Engineering.com Jobs. Retrieved from http://www.engineering.com/career-advice/communication-skills-for-engineers-the-seven-deadly-sins-and-how-to-overcome-them/
Speaking to Win: The Blog Why Engineers Need Great Communication Skills. (2015). Retrieved from www.myrealvoice.com/blog/why-engineers-need-great-communication-skills/
Su, P. (2015). Effective Communication for Engineers. Retrieved from http://worldofsu.com/philipsu/2008/07/effective-communication-for-engineers/
Conclusion and Future Action
In conclusion, this paper addressed the communication problems that engineers face in the course of communicating with various audiences. The problems emanate from the fact that different audience groups have different interests in a particular engineering product. Secondly, the audiences may have varied levels of understanding on the engineering concept being presented and as a result, the issue of specificity come up. The engineers have limited understanding of social and organization contexts in which the students from humanities and social sciences are well versed, and this creates a communication concern for the engineers. However, they can focus on ensuring that they understand their audiences before making any presentations. Secondly, the engineers can use illustrations and pictures to communicate details about a particular idea or design since the use of illustrations helps in simplifying complex ideas. Lastly, the engineering community should consider issuing leaflets and brochures to reinforce the communication of complex ideas and concepts since this makes it easy for the audiences to refer and also in answering some of the questions that the audience may raise. It also brings up the issue of providing questions taking the opportunity at the end of a presentation. Above all these, there needs to be expansive research on the communication skills learning needs for students in engineering to influence the way the engineers communicate. This paper, therefore, recommends further research into the issues herein explained concerning the engineering fraternity.
