Communication in a Workplace | Importance, Causes and Solutions

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COMMUNICATION IN A WORKPLACE
Student’s Name
Course
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University
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Date
13/04/2018 1

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Introduction.
An ideal workplace is characterized by great communication among workmates. In such an
environment, employees communicate freely, openly and professionally. Interpersonal
communication explains how well a person communicates with his/her colleagues (Eisenberg
et al 2009). However poor communication exists in many organizations and is one of the
major reasons for conflicts in these organisations and even in our relationships with others.
Case study.
I have witnessed this a lot of times in my relationships with friends and family. I have also
seen it in one of the biggest Non-governmental organizations in the country. For example,
there is an incident where my sister, an employee in this NGO found herself in a lot of
trouble due to poor communication. She is a program manager in this organization which
works with refugees and focuses on the girl child refugees. She has a boss, who is the
regional manager called Jane. One day, a lady called Linda (a foreigner) went to Jane and
informed her of her interest in helping to educate two orphaned girls between the age of ten
and twelve. These girls should be refugees and if possible siblings. Jane informed my sister
and asked her to make arrangements and identify the two girls. She quickly did so and started
working on the papers to legalize the process. After two months everything was ready and the
two girls, who live with their aunt were to move to the capital and start living with Linda.
Earlier on, she had asked the aunt for her consent and she had quickly agreed. She had used
an interpreter who could speak the aunt’s native language since she did not understand
English. However, when the time to travel came, the aunt was disappointed because she had
agreed thinking that she would move too with the girls which was not the case. She went
ahead and said that she was forced in to it and tricked by my sister. This case was quickly
forwarded to the relevant authorities and my sister was being accused of child trafficking. To
make thinks worse, Jane had not informed her boss of these developments all along hence
there was a lot of confusion, friction, frustration and worry. If the aunt had understood what
my sister meant when she was asking for her consent then maybe there would have been no
such problem. If Jane had informed her boss, the country director, about the arrangement then
such a problem would have been easily resolved. This is a very big organisation that was
undergoing a lot of challenges due to poor communication.
Being an observer, the incident did not affect me directly, however I was sad and really felt
bad that my sister had to go through all that. I think the incident would have been avoided if
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the organisation had paid more attention to communication. I felt angry and disappointed that
such a respectable organisation would face such mere challenges. My sister on the other
hand was left so scared and even thought of resigning. However, the case was resolved but
she was left demoralized and she has been seeking employment elsewhere since then. The
lady was not able to help the two girls which was so unfortunate. Everyone was left
disappointed.
What were the reasons for the poor communication?
Unclear objectives.
One of the major causes of poor communication in most organisations is undefined objectives
(Dixon 1998). The organisation’s objectives must be defined for there to be no conflicts. For
example, the duty Jane asked my sister to carry out, this is, to identify the two girls does not
fall under my sister’s responsibilities as the program manager but due to undefined
objectives, she went ahead and did it which was later used against her.
Language barrier.
My sister and the aunt could not speak the same language. If they had been able to
communicate without the interpreter then maybe the aunt would have known what she was
giving consent to.
Poor leadership.
There is a chain of poor leadership in the organisation. There is no communication among the
managers and it is evident the managers hardly know their responsibilities and roles.
Personal issues.
Personal issues have an effect on communication between employees in organization. For
this reason an organization should have a policy against romantic relationships in the
workplace (Dwyer 2012). In case of fights and arguments, the employees should take it upon
themselves to solve them(Tourish and Hargie 2004). Personal issues between Jane and the
regional director has been witnessed by many. Maybe that was the reason she did not inform
him of the on goings which led to more harm.
How to improve communication
Defining the organisation’s objectives.
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