Challenges and Strategies in Business Communication

Go travel, a travel and tourism company based in
London, organises European holidays. The
company opens up couple of offices overseas as an
expansion. But there they face the problem of
miscommunication and misunderstanding of
cultures which did affects the business. Now the
company is taking corrective actions to bridge the
gap between communication by organising Skype
meeting regularly and made policies to encourage
better relations between these nationalities.
LO2 Common challenges and barriers to
effective communication
Language barriers- Different country or region
speak different languages to express themselves.
Communicating people who speaks no common
language is difficult. Similarly the case with Go
Travel, the two new offices opened overseas are not
familiar with English which creates problem for the
headquarter office to co-ordinate with them. This
did result in unsatisfied customers. Here language
and linguistics created a barrier to communication.
LO3 Strategies for overcoming communication
barrier
Common ground for communication- The
organisation can settle on a common language for
communicating with each other. This can prove to be
some help. Or if not, an organisation can gave a
mediator who can mediate with these people. This can
be followed in Go travel where the company can hire a
person which can understand both the languages i.e.
English and the language which speaks in London.
Understanding work culture- To minimize
the communication barrier the company needs to
understanding the work culture of other countries
where they are operating. This is because every country
has their own culture regarding work. For example-
Holidays, work from home, office hours, PFs, and the
like. As in case with Go Travel, the company needs to
communicate with other overseas office at a common
working time. Both the offices should decide a
particular time at which they can have meeting
regularly via Skype.
LO6 Cultural influences on communication and
negotiation
Development of misunderstanding and ill feelings-
Although now-a-days the organisations are adopting
modern culture diversity at their work place and
practices. But these diversity also comes with issues.
As if a person with different culture tries to
communication with another person belongs to some
other culture and their communication may not get
understand by each other, so this can create a big
misunderstanding between them. Also any failure to
make it properly understandable can increase the gap
which may result into the development of ill feeling
between them.
Psychological Barriers- Psychological state
of mind of both the parties i.e. the sender and
receiver also act as an barrier to communication. The
way message is being sent, understand, receive and
perceived by person does influence a lot. Similarly,
the communication sent by headquarter office to
other two offices might influence them in different
way than it's true purpose or message. Therefore
creating issues among communications and
misconception for their culture.
Physical Barriers- Physiological barriers to
communication is created due to the physical or
geographical distances between the people.
Communication is generally easily when the distance
is comparatively shorter. More the distance, the
greater will be the communication barrier. Face-to-
face is considered as an ideal communication
because here the messages can be properly and
clearly get exchange which eliminates
misunderstandings and doubts. As in Go Travel, the
company other two offices were in London which is
very far from US. This physical distance dis created
barrier as US works at different time-zone and
London works on different time zone, this created
late replies from both offices.
Business Communication
Company’s Overview