Essay Sample on Overcoming Barriers to Effective Communication in Organizations

Introduction

In an organization, communication is crucial since it facilities the passing of information from one person to another. At times, communication is not effective due to some barriers that exist. Barriers to communication can be physical, semantic, psychological, cultural, and perceptions of reality. Measures to overcome the barriers are necessary due to the essential roles that are played by communication in the organization. Physical barriers include time, space, place, and medium, while semantic barriers include the use of language, vocabulary, and words. Psychological barriers happen when people communicating fail to understand each other's mental capacity and mindset. The cultural barriers exist where the different cultural backgrounds act as hindrances to communication between people. The perception of reality may be a barrier to communication when there is a misunderstanding of the context that the message is being delivered (Kapur, 2018).

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A company experiencing communication issues should investigate to find out what barrier of communication may be affecting communication. To overcome its barriers, generally, communication should be propagated using proper channels, encourage clarification of the message, employ proper listening skills, make use of body language, and emphasize on proper feedback of the message given (Kalpana, 2018).

Future Initiatives

Walmart aims at being the best retail company in the world. Unfortunately, the company faces strong competition from other companies like Target and Amazon. As a way of making the company more popular and convenient for people to buy from, the company initiated its online aspect. By 2016, Walmart had been able to compete favorably with Amazon by coming second in online mass merchandising (QuantumRun, 2017). An initiative that the company wishes to implement in the future includes the launching of Walmart Pay. Walmart Pay will be a digital wallet that will make work more comfortable for the customers to get their shopping and pay for it (QuantumRun, 2017). For the initiative to begin working, Walmart will have to do thorough research on the effectiveness of the digital wallet through other companies like Apple Pay that have used the initiative previously. The second step would be to develop the digital wallet in the preferences of the company. The company would then be required to carry out an intense promotion to its customers.

Communication Plan

A communication plan facilitates effective communication between the management, the employees, and clients. The communication plan is essential because it shows the expectations that the people in the company should have regarding updates and messages directed to them. A communication plan should consist of the following significant stages; communication needs and the purpose of the communication, the method to be used for communication, a cadence for communication, and the identification of the owners and stakeholders of the company (LaPrad, 2018). The communication plan should be well elaborated across all the employees of the company. The channel used for communication should be determined by the urgency of the message and the type of message being disseminated. Communication may not always be accepted by the people receiving it. The objection can be detected through negative feedback from the recipient of the message. For instance, there may be changes in the duty roster in the company. The employees can object to the decision. To handle the objection, the management should provide reasons for the changes made. The employees can also be involved in the decision making process to represent their interests.

References

Kalpana, R. (2018) Measures to Overcome the Barriers to Effective Communication. Business Management Ideas. http://www.businessmanagementideas.com/motivation/measures-to-overcome-the-barriers-to-effective-communication/2392

Kapur, Radhika. (2018). Barriers to Effective Communication. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323794732_Barriers_to_Effective_Communication

LaPrad, L. (2018). Creating a Project Management Communication Plan [Template]. TeamGantt. https://www.teamgantt.com/blog/project-management-communication-plan

QuantumRun (2017). Future of Walmart. https://www.quantumrun.com/company_profile/future-of-walmart/16659