Understanding communication at the work place
Communication is a very essential tool in any organization. It is very crucial for a quality life as well as an essential facet of life. According the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1994, communication is considered as being a human right. Effective communication plays a significant role in: relationship building, decision making, expression of opinions, personality and thoughts, as well as it helps individuals to articulate and achieve their basic needs. However, communication is one of the most complex abilities that individuals study. It becomes even more challenging for people with communication needs to address their own needs as well as to relate with people, (Alan, 2006). Within the context of catering profession, more especially in hospitals, the two most common communication needs that are encountered is lack of speech on part of some employees and difficulties of understanding for the case of some those who have speech. As such, it sometimes becomes difficult for the section of the workforce with this problem to get as well understand what is expected of them in their respective assignments.
As a manager, it is expected that I come up with ways on how these needs will be met. Undeniably, there are various types of communication. However, the best means of communication that can be applied in this scenario is oral, specifically meetings/seminars and written communication, specifically using memos. One of the advantages of oral or spoken communication is that it is a two-way based communication. This is very important in this case as it enhances an understanding of information as well as statement of pertinent information. However, one of the disadvantages of this communication method is that there might be misconception, more especially if the information is not complete, (Hargie, 2006). On the other hand, one of the advantages of written communication is that it can be applied in complicated as well as important instructions; more especially in within the context of catering profession, as they can be put across in a consistent and accurate manner. Nevertheless, it is disadvantageous when it comes to answering questions and need of instantaneous feedback.
It is important to note that, various barriers may bar effective communication. Within the workplace context, these barriers can be categorized into various categories. To begin with, are physical barrier which include separation of the workforce according to their status as well as working in different units that are physically separated. Second, are perceptual barriers; as individuals perceive things in different ways. Third are the emotional barriers. Actually, these are categorized as the principal barriers to free and open communication. Lastly, are the language barriers, (Alan, 2006). There are chances that two individuals may not understand one another on the grounds that they do not understand the same language. All these barriers can be avoided or rather overcome in different ways. For instance, to avoid physical communication barriers, mechanisms of connecting the workforce of different status should be established. Secondly, cordial relationship between the sender and receiver should be established in order to avoid emotional barriers. Thirdly, the sender and receiver should ensure that they try as much as possible to get one another’s perception to ensure they understand one another. Lastly, a universal language should be used within the workplace to avoid language barriers, (Hargie, 2006).
As mentioned above, the two possible communication methods that could be used the above stated communication needs is meetings/seminars and memos. However, there are barriers that specifically may hinder effective application of these communication methods. For the case oral communication, the first possible barrier is selective listening. This occurs when individuals decides or rather chooses what to listen to, (Hargie, 2006). For instance, one may pretend to hear and act to what is being said while the fact is he/she will do contrary to what is being said. The other oral communication barrier is being a “fixer”. A “fixer” can be defined as an individual who attempts to fix another individual’s mistakes by giving what worked for others under similar circumstances. On the other hand, examples of the barriers to written communication are: poor vocabulary, poor formatting as well as poor stationery.
Undeniably, non verbal communication has a significant impact on the receiver via the above proposed communication methods. Non verbal communication can be used to stress or rather emphasize the information that is being passed. For instance, while giving a speech, the speaker can use different signs to stress certain points. Moreover, diagrams could be used in the case of written communication, to clear give instructions to the workforce on what is expected of them. Additionally, the sender can clear observe the behavior of the receiver to determine whether the message was understood, (Hargie, 2006).
In conclusion, there are various ways of increasing awareness of information in the workplace. One of these ways is educating or rather reminding the employees to be checking the notice board for any information that they are intended to get. Secondly is to holding short meetings at regular intervals, most probably every morning before the workforce embarks on their various activities. Lastly, the notice board should be situated at a very strategic point to ensure that most of the intended receivers, if not all, get the information. Finally, communication feedbacks are very important, (Alan, 2006). If the mode of communication that is being used is effective, positive results and if poor results are observed, it means that the message is not clear to the receivers and something should be done to ensure they clearly get the message. Hence, the feedback is used to check effectiveness of communication based on the outcomes of the message.
Bibliography
Alan, B., 2006. Improve Your Communication Skills. Boston: Kogan Page Publishers.
Hargie, O., 2006. The Handbook of Communication Skills. New York: Taylor & Francis.
