Organizational Communication Channels

This assignment delves into the various types of communication channels within an organization, such as upward, downward, and horizontal communication. It explains how information flows through these channels and emphasizes the importance of effective communication for organizational success. Furthermore, the assignment identifies common barriers to effective communication, including language differences, religious beliefs, and distractions, while also proposing solutions to overcome these obstacles and achieve organizational goals.

Business Communication

Executive summary
Business communication is a key to every organization where employees of the Instacom
group efficiently transmit information in each organizational structure for efficient decision
making and attaining goals and objective of the company with increased productivity.
Downward communication means transmission of information from top level management to its
subordinates using oral and written form of communication which includes face to face
meetings, presentation, videoconferencing, letters, reports, emails, telephonic calls. Upward
communication is a free flow of communication from lower level workers to top level managers
and channels like messages, emails, telephonic calls are used. Horizontal communication is a
process where information is transmitted through each level of departments in the organizational
hierarchy. Channels used in horizontal communication is intercom calls, electronic
communication. There are several problems to effective communication is language barriers,
religious belief and distraction which are further discussed in the study and the necessary
solution to it.

Table of Contents
Executive summary.....................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
Channels of communication currently used in the organization.................................................2
Problem in communication.........................................................................................................4
Solution to the problem...............................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Introduction to company and background.
History & Background:- Instacom engineering has strong financial backing from its bencher
and finances including the successful raising of a RM20 million Islamic murabahah Bond, rated
AA by Malaysia rating corporation Berhard. This has enabled instacom engineering to undertake
substantial projects which are capital incentives.
Nature of business
Instacom engineering sdn.bhd. Was founded by a group of highly experienced civil and
M&E contractors in an effort to provide a total solution for infrastructure development for
mobile phone operators(Bovée, Thill and Raina, 2016). Instacom have over 10 year experience
in the erection of telecommunication towers, related civil works for tower sites, construction of
cabins, M&E works for the telecommunication cabins, lightning protection works,
telecommunication installation work, fibre optic civil work, cable installation, in building
infrastructure etc.
Organisational structure:-
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Organisational structure is a hierarchy of instacom which determines how the roles, power and
responsibility assigned, controlled and coordinated, and how information flows between the
different levels of managers. It depends upon the objectives and strategy. The top level (Board of
director) has the decision making power and has tight controls over departments and divisions
than it comes to the middle level management where they lead the team and distributes the work
between lower level management and guide them about work.
Key departments and leadership to manage people:-
Instacom has several key departments those work in coordination in order to accomplish
goal of business unit:
Accounts department:- It handles the accounts' department and research on marketing and
analyse the opportunities.
Business department :- In this it handles the clients and provide service to the clients of the
company.
Branding & communication department:- it provides marketing through digital marketing and
telecommunication which helps to company in their branding.
Finance department:- It includes all the employment, accommodation, strategic procurement,
assets manager finance officer, revenue admin office, system network engineer, supply network
chain and IT helps desk officer.
HR. Department:- It includes payroll officer, HR. admin officer, quality assistant, receptionist &
admin assistant(Brink and Costigan, 2015).
Strategic & Projects department :- It develops education, client development coordination's,
intake coordinators, intake officers.
Leadership to manage team:-
 Democratic leadership:- In instacom engineering it can encourage the group members to
share their ideas and opinions, even through the leader retains the final say over decision.
Instacom encouraged the creativity and reward the employees. Instacom gives
opportunity to help them in decision making.
MAIN BODY
Channels of communication currently used in the organization.
Communication is a key to transfer information effectively from one person to another. It
is process of transmitting ideas, information, views and facts in a business organization for better
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understanding. Effective communication helps employees of the small organization like
Instacom group to perform better by conveying information in a timely manner. Free flow of
communication in organization helps build relationship between employer and employee and
help achieve goals effectively. Effective transmission of thoughts, ideas, beliefs, plan in an
orderly manner to all levels of organizational hierarchy help increase productivity and objectives
of the organization.
Upward communication: Flowing of information from front line workers to the top
level management like supervisors, managers. There is an upward flow of communication where
employees express their ideas, views and facts to its superiors. Upward communication helps
employees in transmitting facts, ideas and information to top management which will help
supervisors in effective decision making.
Channels used to transfer information in upward communication are telephone calls,
emails, voice message face to face meeting, suggestion box, oral presentation, phone text,
letters(Brisson and et.al., 2016).
This communication is participative in nature where employees express their views and
top level managers take constructive decision to maintain organizational relation and motivate
employees to work in accordance with the plan and opinion of the top level staff to its
subordinates. Upward communication helps in development of Instacom group where employees
work in efficient manner to increase productivity and profitability of the company.
Downward communication: It is a formal process of transmitting information from top
level management to the lower level of workers. Communicating information effectively is
crucial for the success of organization, where supervisor encode the message and the same is
decoded by the employees for efficient working of the organization. Downward communication
improves morale and productivity of employees and also helps in improved customer and
industrial relationship with better coordination and understanding. Flow of information through a
chain of command where information flows from each hierarchy of organizational structure to
achieve goal and objective of the company in efficient manner. This communication channel is
authoritative in nature where subordinates of company are directed to perform a particular work.
In downward communication both oral and written method is used for transmitting
information from top level management to its subordinates by proper chain of command in
organizational hierarchy(Yeomans and FitzPatrick, 2017). Information transmitted through oral
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communication includes presentation, face to face meetings, videoconferencing while written
communication includes letters, emails, manuals, posters, report, message boards, brochures,
circulars, memos, phone messages, website, faxes, etc. Effective downward communication
where information is transmitted clearly with a free flow of communication without any filtration
helps Instacom group achieve higher efficiency and productivity which will help attain
organizational objective and productivity.
Horizontal communication: This is a communication process where information is
transmitted at the same level or department of organization. It is also known as “Lateral
communication” where employees at the same level of the organizational hierarchy are
exchanging information to work in coordination with different levels of department and achieve
goals of the Instacom group effectively. There are several departments in the organization like
production, sales, finance, purchase department and each and every departmental head of the
organization communicate and transfer information to each level of department for effective
decision making in the organization. There is a constant interaction between each department
head for smooth functioning of organization(Coffelt, Baker and Corey, 2016).
Horizontal communication can be done in both formal and informal way. Formal
communication includes intercom calls, electronic communication, emails, meetings while
informally through text messages, telephonic calls, voice messages.
This type of communication is more efficient for coordinated decision making as there is
a direct flow of communication in the same level of department.
Problem in communication.
Effective communication is one of the most important skill in an organization where
information can flow properly in efficient manner. Communication is a base which helps in
strategic decision making and policy structure. Ineffective communication slows down the
working process and do not produce intended results. It leads to miscommunication and
improper understanding and do not attain organizational goals and objectives. When managers
encodes a message and receiver misinterpret the message or there is a lack of understanding then
it leads to ineffective communication. There should be proper understanding on both the end i.e.,
sender who encodes the message and receiver who decodes the message.
Language Barriers: It is the most common communication barrier which leads to
misinterpretation and misunderstanding between employees, managers and employees,
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employers and employees, managers and mangers. Language barrier arises due to change in
language differences where people speak different languages and cannot understand language of
another person leads to misunderstanding. People who do not have loud and clear voice cannot
interact effectively with others. Use of jargon, slang and any technical word is an obstacle to
effective communication. People in the organization belong to different region who has different
tone and accent of speaking which leads to difference in understanding even if the language is
same. The choice and use of word while encoding message should be analysed properly before
communicating with others. The statements should be accurate and should not use words which
have same meaning which will create confusion and misunderstanding. Grammar and vocabulary
is also a major obstacle for effective communication which leads to misinterpretation when
people decodes different meaning to a particular word. Literacy and linguistic ability is also a
language barrier where some people use high vocabulary with the lower linguistic ability people
which leads to ineffective communication(Hynes and Veltsos, 2018). Language barrier affects
the working of the organization to attain goals and objective efficiently and also hampers the
productivity of workers due to lack of understanding and false assumptions.
Distractions as a barrier of communication: There are several internal distractions
which come from within Instacom group and external distractions which comes from outside the
business environment. Internal distractions like social media platforms like facebook, twitter;
cellphones, chitchats, gossip, snack or tea breaks, personal distraction. Social media platforms
affect productivity of workers as they spend more time surfing for non-work related websites
which hinders their performance and delay in achieving goals. Gossiping with colleagues and co-
workers distract employees from focusing on more important task and get deviates from their
work which lowers their productivity and may cause more stress when workload increases.
Interruption from phone calls distracts workers which deviates their mind and do not achieve
desired goals. Annoying habits of workers like shaking legs, interruption in communication may
also distract individual to focus on their work and may lead to ineffective communication.
External distractions like noisy workplace, loud speakers noise can distracts employees to focus
on their work and it also leads to miscommunication when employees are not able to understand
the message accurately which hampers productivity of Instacom group. Various other
distractions like emotional barrier, lack of attention, expectations, different perception and
beliefs, false assumptions and interpretation leads to ineffective communication in the
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organization.These distraction leads to miscommunication, misinterpretation, inattentiveness
which reduces capacity and productivity of the organization(Ladegaard and Jenks, 2015). Only
that much information should be transmitted which can be effectively decoded and understood
by the individual. There should not be overflow of information because of which individual may
miss out on some important information which is necessary for better productivity and results.
This hampers efficiency of the organization and also delay working of employees to achieve
goals and objective of Instacom group.
Religious beliefs as a barrier to communication: Religious beliefs is distinct from
religious practice or religious behaviour with some believers not practising religion ad some
practitioners not believing in religion. It causes the differentiation between employees of
religious beliefs in instacom engineering From which they make an unrealistic imagination bout
others and others religions. There are so many problems such as the way of thinking and attitude
of the person about others religion. So many people have blind faith in their culture that also
cause problem in organisation. There so many scenarios about others culture, religion and beliefs
which also create problems in the instacom engineering. The attitude of the person about others
and way of talking generate discriminations. People make a mind set of individuals expression
on the scared of organisation. Sometimes overthinking creates mental distress and illness
between employees in organisation. When the employees can't openly communicate with their
colleagues and hesitate to talk with others at that time it creates so many issues in the instacom
engineering. Individual in the organization may not communicate due to different cultural and
religious beliefs(Lee, Son and Kim, 2016). People are uncomfortable talking to the person who
belong to different religion because of different opinions and beliefs. Different culture and
religion have different opinions, gesture, norms, beliefs, tradition, ideas, language which act as a
barrier when two different people who belong to different religion communicate. Due to this
there will be miscommunication and misinterpretation which leads to lower productivity and
efficiency. Lack of religious belief in organization leads to inconveniences and difficulty in
Instacom group (What Are Communication Channels Within an Organization, 2019).
Solution to the problem.
Language:- Communication becomes difficult in situation where people don't understand each
others' language it creates misunderstanding. Language disorders or language impairments are
disorders that involve the procession of linguistic information. Problems that may experienced
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can involve speaking and way of communication on other aspects of Language. These problems
may be receptive, expressive or a combination of both. Discrimination between words and not to
pay attention on speaker. Sometimes the way of speaking and way communicating also cause the
problem. It creates problem in the Instacom engineering so the solution of this problem is that
use of plain language, find a reliable translation service, provide classes for the employees and
use of visual method of communication. Understand the needs of audience the person should be
emotional and sensitive towards the needs of receiver. Be respectful is another solution to the
problems of the language communication in Instacom engineering. Always pay attention on
speaker and listen properly(Pearson, 2017). It is important to speak in proper and clear way that
others can easily understand effectively.
Distractions:- One of the biggest barriers to communication is distraction. External and internal
distraction can prevent a listener from comprehending and properly understanding what is being
said to them. Distraction is something that takes attention away from what the person is supposed
to be doing. The solution of this problem in Instacom is to stop focus on other persons, their
thoughts and feelings, pay attention to non verbal messages, without letting yourself be
distracted, be empathetic. Instacom should the essence of the speakers thought, details, major
ideas and their meaning(Sanden, 2016). Become aware about things which distract the person,
find one thing to focus on, clear everything and also take a break to relax you body which helps
to remove distraction. Eliminating and minimize negative people from life, pay attention about
things, generate interest in the object attention and keeps the vision and goals in mind help attain
organizational goals effectively and increase productivity of employee. Focus on only the
smallest part of your work at a time.
Religious beliefs:- From the communication prospective of communication system theory,
religion is a label by which it is possible to study the relation between the individual expression
of the scared in Instacom engineering. When a person is challenged by religious belies find that
they lead characteristics action, or experience mental distress as a result of internal doubt or
external persecution. The solution of this problem in Instacom engineering is to openly
communicate with others on their religion and culture and share their values and beliefs in
religion. It depends upon the faith in religion and understands the religious issues which can
effects the person lives and experiences life(Perrin, 2015, August). Instacom engeenering
employees have to connected to something greater than ourselves. It is important to understand
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or eliminate religious extremism, that the responsibility to consider whether the approach to
religion, religious culture, somehow supports, encourages or fails to discourage extremism.
Extremism cannot be separated from the larger culture which it emerges.
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CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been summarized that business communication is a tool to
effectively transmit information at all levels of organizational hierarchy. It is a process of
transmitting ideas, beliefs, views and opinions from one person to another with a free flow of
information for attaining desired goal and objective within the organization. There are various
channels like web based video calls, meetings, report, email, fax, presentations, message boards,
telephonic calls, letters, fax for effective communication in the organization. Channels through
which information can be transmitted comprises of upward communication where lower level
workers transfer information to top level management, downward communication is a process
where information flows from top level management to its subordinates through a chain of
command and horizontal communication channel is process where information is transmitted at
the same level of organizational department.
Furthermore,it has been concluded that there are various barriers to effective
communication like language barriers, difference in religious belief, distraction which lowers the
level of productivity and efficiency. It also includes necessary solutions to the problem for
attaining organizational goals and objective.
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REFERENCES
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Brisson and et.al., 2016. Workplace interventions aiming to improve psychosocial work factors
and related health. In Work Stress and Health in a Globalized Economy (pp. 333-363).
Springer, Cham.
Coffelt, T.A., Baker, M.J. and Corey, R.C., 2016. Business communication practices from
employers’ perspectives. Business and Professional Communication Quarterly.79(3).
pp.300-316.
Hynes, G.E. and Veltsos, J.R., 2018. Managerial communication: Strategies and applications.
SAGE Publications.
Ladegaard, H.J. and Jenks, C.J., 2015. Language and intercultural communication in the
workplace: Critical approaches to theory and practice. Language and Intercultural
Communication.15(1). pp.1-12.
Lee, A.R., Son, S.M. and Kim, K.K., 2016. Information and communication technology overload
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Behavior.55. pp.51-61.
Pearson, R., 2017. Business ethics as communication ethics: Public relations practice and the
idea of dialogue. In Public relations theory (pp. 111-131). Routledge.
Perrin, D., 2015, August. Investigating intercultural communication in the workplace: applied
linguistics as research on, for, and with practitioners. In JACET International Convention
Selected Papers Volume 3 (p. 26).
Sanden, G.R., 2016. Language: the sharpest tool in the business strategy toolbox. Corporate
Communications: An International Journal. 21(3). pp.274-288.
Yeomans, L. and FitzPatrick, L., 2017. Internal communication.
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