Organizational Communication
Moreover, the dynamics of todays business world are evolving rapidly. As businesses become more decentralized and globalization continues to prevail, distances between cultures are becoming smaller and diversity among people at the workplace is growing. The result of all this is the increased complexity of the communication process and likelihood of communication barriers arising.
TRG Customer Solutions (TRG), headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, is the leading Business Process Outsourcing organization in its industry, hiring over 5000 employees across the globe. It offers on and off-shore equity capital, strategic advice, customized outsourcing solutions, and proprietary technology to its clients (The Resource Group, 2009).
Having such large and diverse group of human resource and a presence around the world, it is crucial for TRG to structure its environment in such a manner that the interaction of the various cultures present at the organization and the culture of the organization itself do not hinder the communication taking place. Failing to recognize the barriers to communication and addressing them can and does produce negative results, observable from the cases below.
Since communication is a dynamic process, obstructions can result due to many factors. Many of the barriers to communication arise due to organizational factors. Daft (2002) lists four major factors stemming from an organizations structure as the causes of communication barriers, namely Status and Power Differences, Differences across Departments in Terms of Needs and Goals, Absence of Formal Channels, and Poor Coordination.
Status and power differences
Employees at various levels of power tend to be selective when communication to other employees of unequal status. People at lower levels of the hierarchy have to be careful about what they are communicating to their managers. They may be hesitant to send any information indicating bad news and may only want to send messages which they think the managers will be interested in. In the same way, managers may feel that lower-level workers play an insignificant role and not pay attention to their needs. They may also screen what is being communicated down the hierarchy to avoid undermining the organizations stability and their own authority.
TRG provided its services to a variety of clients at any given time. The clients who outsourced some function of their business typically did so to reduce costs and meet certain short term goals. After these objectives were achieved, the partnership between TRG and the client would draw to a close, temporarily until new objectives were designed, or permanently. The direct effect of these outcomes was on the Tele-sales Executives (TSE), who were hired for these clients. Managers would often be reluctant to disclose the termination of the clients partnership and would not share any related information with the TSEs until it was absolutely necessary to. Many TSEs felt their importance was ignored by restricting information being communicated to them. This created an atmosphere of distrust and created distances between the management and the TSEs.
In order to overcome this communication barrier, the organization has to develop a culture of trust and candidness among workers across the hierarchy. Lower-level employees should be encouraged to share their point of view and managers should be respectful and open to their opinions. Managers also need to make sure that their subordinates do not develop fear of reprisal while conveying any information as this will allow them to express both good and bad news without hesitation.
At TRG, managers would do well by sharing as much information as they can with the subordinates. This will allow the TSEs to develop a sense of contribution to the organization and motivate them to cooperate with the management while facing complex issues such as transferring employees to other departments.
Thus, creating an atmosphere of open communication and trust among the various power levels will ensure that all workers feel comfortable and are willing to contribute valuable input into the organization.
Differences across Departments in Terms of Needs and Goals
In every organization, there are various departments responsible for specific components of the business process i.e. production, HR, finance etc. As such, every department has its own needs and goals which it works to achieve. When a problem occurs, departments may take different approaches to resolve them and if the need of interaction between departments arises, the different interpretations can become barriers to effective communication.
The differences which arise between departments due to communication barriers are evident from the following example. At TRG, the Outbound Sales department worked in close relation with the Quality Assurance department. The two departments had different objectives, to maximize sales and to ensure quality and customer protection respectively. At several occasions, the TSEs misrepresented or used unreasonably pressure o the customer in order to make a sale. The Quality Assurance Representative (QAR) would be compelled to cancel the sale and perhaps take corrective action against the TSE. This information would be communicated informally to the TSE directly by a QAR, which would often result in conflict because each party would be keeping its own departments goals in mind.
To avoid such conflicts, the organization needs to develop formal channels of communication. By doing so, the various departments can communicate more clearly and consistently with each other and also avoid any differences of interest.
To make the communication between the Quality Assurance and the Outbound Sales department seamless, the management introduced a weekly newsletter which communicated valuable information like areas of opportunity for the TSEs. The newsletter was distributed to all employees and served as a common channel for all departments to send information across the organization. Also, the practice of informal interaction between the Quality Assurance and Outbound Sales department was replaced with communication permitted only via email.
By taking these measures, the organization was able to promote increased cooperation between the two departments and increased the level of information being shared throughout the organization, thus making the employees more informed.
Absence of Formal Channels
In any organization, there are more than one channels of communication, typically formal and informal ones. Also, communication flows upward, downward, and horizontally in an organization. For a long time in the history of management, informal communication was seen as having negative results on the organizations performance (Baker 2002). The major concern of informal communication is the potential contradictions it may have with its formal counterpart. This may result in disparity among the organization as a whole as complete information may never reach all employees.
Informal communication, especially at the lower levels of the hierarchy at TRG was abound. This was largely due to the fact there was little information being sent down from the management in the form of letters, memos, etc. During vacancies in the management, for which TSEs were the potential candidate for the promotion, no formal message was communicated regarding this matter. This created much gossip at the workplace and distracted the TSEs from focusing on their primary tasks.
The most appropriate approach for this barrier would be to set up more formal channels of organization in all directions i.e. upward, downward, and horizontally. Larkin and Larkin (1994) recommend that downward communication works best when immediate supervisors communicate directly with their subordinates. This communication can be further improved by using formal channels such as bulletin boards, emails, and open door policies which allow not only managers to communicate directly to their subordinates but vice-versa as well.
At TRG, once the management realized that not communicating directly to the employees caused hindrances in performance, it introduced a number of initiatives to overcome this problem. All new vacancies in any department of the organization were formally announced via email and one-page memos were placed throughout the organization, with details of the requirements potential candidates should meet and instructions on how to apply for that position. Secondly, top management established an open door policy, allowing employees at the lower levels to be able to approach them directly. At the same time, immediate supervisors were given more authority to share key information with subordinates.
This was in line with the theory that supervisors with more power are believed to be more credible and are able to inculcate a greater desire and satisfaction of communication between their subordinates and themselves (Roberts and OReilly 1974).
Poor coordination
A major problem related to communication that many organizations face is due to poor coordination. This mean that different departments are not aware of what other functions of the business are involved in and the role they play in making the system work as a whole. Also, top management is usually occupied with strategic decision and planning and is out of touch with the lower levels. This is usually found in organizations with a centralized structure where the flow of communication may not be adequate to solve non-routine problems.
All new employees hired at TRG were initially put through a training period where they were instructed on matters of general customer service etiquettes and selling techniques. Subsequently, the TSE was provided any information about the client and its business that heshe would need to be equipped with in order to carry out the services. Once the new recruit passed the training programs, heshe would go on to work for an actual client. The training sessions were conducted by the Training Development department while the actual client services were the responsibility of the Outbound Operations department. This is where the dilemma lied. The two departments carried out their functions with very little interaction amongst each other. This created a problem because the information provided by the Training Development department was not in sync with the requirements of the Outbound Operations. The training provided consisted of very general information which did not adequately prepare the TSEs for the clients requirements.
In order to remove these discrepancies, the organization needs to go through a major restructuring phase in which teams are designed to assist the flow or information for better coordination and problem solving. The structure should be based on the combined needs of all the departments. Another measure an organization must implement is the use of feedback. Feedback is an essential part of the communication process (Daft 2002). This will allow managers to improve the overall flow of information and close any gaps.
In the case of TRG, a team was constructed with members from the two departments, which put in combined efforts to develop a training program. The training manuals were rewritten, and the training sessions were conducted by a member from both departments as well. Also, all recruits attending the training session were regularly asked to fill forms evaluating the training programs and their effectiveness. Managers were easily able to spot any shortcomings in the information being communicated to the new employees and were able to improve the overall efficiency of the training programs.
Conclusion
Organizational communication is an integral part of any business. With the increased diversity found at the workforce in the present age, people coming from various cultures interacting and the complexity of the communication process, it is becoming increasingly difficult for managers to handle and overcome communication barriers.
The major barriers to communication which arise from organizational factors are Status and Power Differences, Differences across Departments in Terms of Needs and Goals, Absence of Formal Channels, and Poor Coordination.
All of these barriers can be overcome by taking strategic measure to change the organizational environment. The key to overcoming these communication challenges is to bring about a major change in the organizations culture. The environment should be such that it fosters trust among managers and subordinates, consist of formal channels of communication, and facilitate communication in all directions. Steps should be taken which allow the flow of communication to fit the needs of the various departments. Doing so is the responsibility of not only the top management but all managers and even subordinates, to an extent. This was evident from the examples of TRGs communication barriers and the actions through which the communication process that takes place at an organization was improved, discussed above.
Therefore, it is essential for any organization to consider the key role communication plays, recognize the barriers which may obstruct it from flowing effectively, and address them with the appropriate courses of action.
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