Workplace Verbal Communication Strategies and Barriers

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Effective business communication
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Introduction
The workplace verbal communication is referred to the process of exchanging of the ideas and
information in the verbal form within any organization. It is obvious that an organization may
consists of the employees and workers from different region of the society which is why the
employees have different background and culture which may lead to the conflicts in the
workplace if the organization do not have effective verbal communication strategies in the
workplace of the organization. So, it is important for the leaders of the organization to make
different strategies for the effective verbal communication at the workplace of the organization.
Individuals are also needed to use effective verbal communication skills if working within an
organization to make the other employees understand the words that are spoken effectively and
also to ensure that the enunciation, voice tone and stress with which it is clear that the words are
expressed is in an appropriate way. It can be easily understand that the world has been taken over
by the use of technology. For an effective communication the distances in terms of geography is
now have no role as there are now many diversified ways in which one can communicate with
others and can maintain any type of relationships like inter and intra personal relationship. This
essay will discuss about the verbal communication at the workplace. Importance of the verbal
communication, disadvantages of the verbal communication, and many other related points of
discussion of the verbal communication will be done in this essay. The main discussion of this
essay will be done on the importance of the verbal communication behavior at the workplace.
The business communication is performed in a way that will benefit the organization
commercially, it referrers to the sharing of the information between the people which are
working in the organization and also outside the organization for the betterment and benefits of
the organization. In simple terms, business communication is defined as the information that
relays by the people of the organization within an organization. Business communication can be
done in many different ways which can be verbal and non-verbal both. The verbal
communication is being focused in this essay. It is important for all the jobs in today’s
generation to have strong verbal communication skills and this is why the skills of verbal
communication are ranked highly for the evaluation of the candidates in the job interviews too.
Verbal communication skills include many more different things than just speaking and talking;
it includes and encompasses both how one receive messages and how one deliver messages.
Verbal communication is basically a soft skill and also it is very important for almost all the
employees and employers too.
Communication behaviors are composed of mainly double interacts, interacts, and acts or it can
be set of all these. Behaviors are considered to be initiated by a sequence of interactions or
actions that are required to be worked together for making regress or progress for the
achievement of the targeted conversational goals (Keyton, et. al., 2013). So, the communication
behaviors can be asserted as they are inherently social, helps in linking the performed micro
actions by the individual to the macro communication collective structures and patterns, they can
be used in engaging the other members of the organization into a strong relationship.
Communication at the workplace in accordance with the researchers is a process of the inter-
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subjective sense making as it occurs within the context of the organization boundary by the
informal and formal relationship at the workplace and organizational and societal cultures. It has
been considered and recommended by the researchers that the communication effectiveness is
also known as the communication competence, which is very important for the organization to
implement in the workforce of the organization for better results in the productivity of the
company (Abe, et. al., 2013). The communication competence is comprised of and often
modified as the communicator competence and the relational competence and this has been
playing an important role in attracting attention considerably within the literature of the
interpersonal communication.
It has been found from the researches that the workplace communication behavior comprises and
the approach is mainly guided by the five foundational assumptions (Mirzaei and Ashkan, 2018).
First, it has been recommended that the verbal communication behavior at the workplace should
be goal oriented and directed and should be regarded as the intentional rather than the
unintentional or chance. Second, the verbal communication behavior at the workplace must be
operationalized and also conceptualized as the functions of the organization that are been
performed. In order to view the workplace communication as the functional it is important to
view the processes of the communication as the productive and related to the outcomes of the
efforts putted for the completion of the operations which are positive. Third, the verbal
communication behavior at the workplace must represent the communication as an interactive
process which involves other people as well. This helps in interpreting not only the goals of self
but will also help in interpreting the goals of other people in the organization which beneficiary
for the organization as well as the individual. Fourth, the verbal communication behavior at the
workplace should in a way that it can be directly observed (Erhardt, et. al., 2016). The fourth
criterion is basically in the contrast to the social skills’ trait model in which the skills of
socialites are treated in general, responses that are disposition previously and cannot be observed
directly or as the underlying characteristics of one’s personality.
There are many different ways in which an individual can improve its verbal communication
skills. Some of the verbal communication skills and behaviors that are required by the individual
are as follows:
Friendly nature: the person who acts in a friendly nature, speaks in a friendly tone,
communicate with a warm smile in the face have found to have the edge always. Reason behind
this is simple and basic that people are subconsciously attracted towards the people who have a
friendly nature because they make the people feel good and helps them in bringing enjoyment in
the lives of the people.
Think first then speak: it has been recommended by the researchers of the communication
skills that it is better for an individual to remain silent and be thought by the others as a fool
rather than speaking without knowing about the topic that is being discussed. So it is important
for the people take the knowledge about the topic and then speak or if the topic is unknown then
it will be good to remain silent (Fox and Bree, 2017).
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Stay clear: It is important for an individual to stay clear as people of today’s generation do not
have much time to spend their emotional energy in understanding what has been said by other.
So clarity in the verbal communication at the workplace is important to guide the employees of
the organization clearly and effectively.
Communication barriers
In an organization information is required to be assimilated and communicated on inter
departmental or intra-departmental. Usually information is generated in one area of the
organization and is required by other areas or departments useful in decision making process.
Information is an all pervasive component both in daily operations and strategic management
decisions and thus it becomes necessary that timely and accurate information is available with
the concerned authority at all times (Knight, 2013). Communication may be of different forms
but the most commonly adopted form of communication is verbal communication such that day
to day operations or even urgent messages are communicated verbally.
Verbal communication may be the most employed and easiest form of communication, but is
still prone to many barriers and constraints. Such barriers not only cause hindrances in the
communication processes but also lead to distortion of the information and thus the receiver
receives incorrect information and thus causing uninformed and inaccurate decision making
process. Some of the barriers are physical barriers, perceptual barriers, cultural barriers,
linguistic barriers, emotional barriers, gender barriers.
Physical barriers are constraints imposed on the parties involved in the communication process
such that it makes difficult for them to connect physically in the workplace and thus may render
the communication process ineffective. Physical barriers may not be just a constraint based on
workplace, area or structure but may also include proximity and workspace area available to the
employees (Friedman, 2011). Terms such as proximity and workspace are subjective in nature
and may vary on organizational, departmental or situational basis. Not only a healthy workplace
improves the efficiency of communication process but also helps in building of healthy
interpersonal relationship.
Perceptual barriers are constraints based on the perceptions held by different people in an
organization and thus create inconsistency in the information and how the information is
perceived by the receiver. It is necessary to reconcile different perceptions of individuals so as to
make sure that the information was received and perceived in the intended manner (Boarcăs,
2015).
Emotional barriers are one of the major constraints to the process of communication such as two
individuals may be on different emotional levels may make interpretation of the communicated
information difficult and ineffective. Emotional barriers may be result of human traits such as
fear, mistrust or suspicion. To overcome such barriers, a healthy organizational structure is
required to be established within the organization.
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Different behavioral norms are followed by individuals of different cultures such that each
culture follows its own set of pre-determined rules and the above mentioned behavioral norms.
This amounts to cultural constraints or barriers within the organization (Ha and Riffe, 2015).
There may be cases where an individual may unknowingly hurt the sentiments of the other
person, for the reason that such person may not be well-versed with the cultural norms of the
other individual.
Linguistic barriers may be the major barrier an organization faces on day to day basis, making
the communication process difficult in the organization. Organization is basically a pool of
individuals coming from different regions and cultures of the world and thus is not well-versed
with languages of the different parts of the world. This difference in the understanding of the
languages creates verbal barriers among different individuals in the organization.
In many societies interaction between the opposite genders is uncommon in comparison to other
more developed societies and thus creates gender barriers in the organization operating in such
societies. Also, gender barriers may not only be the result of regressive outlook but may also
result from different perspectives arising out of gender differences.
Conclusion:
In this study, verbal communication has been discussed and importance which will be helpful for
the company to achieve their goals and objectives of the company in effective and efficient
manner. The benefits of communication behavior are also represented in the study and how it can
be useful for the company in managing their employee’s behavior. It is very important part of the
company to communicate with their employees which make employees to work as per their
requirement. This study helped company in improving the understanding of the employees on the
decision taken by the company for their betterment. It helps in the increment of the knowledge of
employees of the company so that they can be able to understand what their higher level of
management expects from their employees. It shows importance of verbal communication can
help company to achieve their goals and manage their working activities in the company. The
barrier of verbal communication has also been explained in this essay because it is very
important for describing the barriers. The method of improving the verbal communication is also
described in this study which is very important for the better working environment of the
company. The explanation on business communication has been given and how communication
in the business can help them in improving their relationship with other companies which is also
necessary for the growth of the company. Disadvantages of verbal communication are also
explaining in this study and explanation of the methods to overcome those barriers which are
facing by the company during their business activities.
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