Communication Barriers and Strategies: Sullivan Buses Report

This report examines the communication barriers faced by Sullivan Buses, a small bus operator, focusing on issues like understaffing, language barriers, and employee behavior. The report highlights how insufficient staffing leads to increased workloads and resulting in rude behavior towards customers. It identifies language barriers as a major issue, as drivers struggle to communicate with non-English speakers. The report proposes several strategies to overcome these barriers, including conducting training sessions, facilitating language learning for drivers, and addressing employee concerns to improve productivity. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of proactive measures to address communication challenges and improve customer satisfaction. The report also includes references to academic sources.

Business Communication
Poor Communication Language barriers Productive workforce
Understaffing Emotional barriers Working strategies

One of the compliant from the customers is that the staff of Sullivan Buses are not
interacting properly with such clients who speak English as second language. It is the
main barriers for them because they cannot speak other language other than English.
 Emotional barriers: All the staff members of the organisation are frustrated due
to higher working hours and no additional pay for overtime. It resulting in rude
behaviour of them towards the clients.
Strategies to overcome the barriers
In order to overcome all the communication barriers, it is very important for top
level executives of Sullivan Buses to formulate effective strategies. Some of the which
could be adopted by them are as follows:
 The management can communicate all the employees personally and resolve all
their issues so that they can work productively.
 Conducting training sessions for staff member’s strategy can be adopted by
Sullivan Buses for the purpose of facilitating drivers to understand local
languages other than English.
Conclusion
From the above discussion it has been concluded that all the business entities
should take appropriate actions for the resolution of all the issues which are faced by
them due to weak communication. The strategies which could be used by them are
interacting with employees and conducting training sessions for them.
References
 Andersson, A., 2016. Communication barriers in an interorganizational ERP-project.
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business. 9(1). pp.214-233.
 Philip, S., Manias, E. and Woodward‐Kron, R., 2015. Nursing educator perspectives of
overseas qualified nurses' intercultural clinical communication: barriers, enablers and
engagement strategies. Journal of clinical nursing. 24(17-18). pp.2628-2637.
Introduction
Sullivan Buses is one of the small bus operator of south east England and
headquartered in South Mimms. It was founded in year 1998 and have 3 depots along with
28 routes. Currently the organization is facing the problem of understaffing. Due to this
issue the management have increased the working hours of existing drivers which is
resulting in their rude behaviour toward the customers. This poster is based upon the
detailed analysis of the problems, communication barriers along with the strategies to
overcome them.
Issues to be discussed
The management have decided to conduct a formal meeting for the purpose of
discussing the problems which are affecting the behaviour of staff while visiting the
locations and interacting with customers. The highlighted issues which will be addressed in
the meeting are as follows:
 Weak communication of drivers with customers: The drivers are not able to
communicate with the passengers properly and which is resulting in their
complaints. The drivers cannot interact with the customers who speak English as
second language. Due to this the whole organisation is facing problem as it is
resulting in unsatisfied customers.
 Understaffing: Currently Sullivan Buses is facing the problem of insufficient staff
members which has resulted in increased working hours and responsibilities of
existing employees. Once the enterprise hires more employees the work load will
be decreased for currently working workforce.
Communication barriers
There are various communication barriers which are resulting in the rude behaviour
of employees towards the customers. All of them are as follows:
 Language barriers: All the individuals are not familiars with all the languages
and due to this barrier the drivers are not able to communicate with the passengers.