Organizational Сommunication Analysis Essay (Essay Sample)

ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
STUDENT’S NAME
COURSE TITLE
DATE
ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION
Introduction
Organization communication refers to the goals, values and attitudes that govern and represent an organization. That is, the culture and climate of an organization and its members and the relationships built within the organization among the members of such organization together with the relationships built with the external world. In this regard, the communication which is either formal or informal occurs when members in the organization send and re messages to each other with an aim of achieving individual or organizational goals. For this reason, organization communication must be conducted efficiently and effectively. As a result, organization communication help organizations in achieving targets in relation to production, adjusting to various changes on an organizational and individual level, finish tasks related to procedures put in place to govern the day to day operations of the organization. Likewise organization communication creates and improves relationships in the organization such as motivating members. Also, it helps the management of the organizations in planning, coordinating and controlling all the operations of the organization (GOLDHABER et al., 1978). However, organization communication is faced with a myriad of issues when these organizations work with stakeholders of more than one culture. For instance, there is an issue of miscommunication and misunderstanding among members of different cultures working in an organization. Also, it affects overall job performance due to different beliefs and practices from these stakeholders, loss of clients and profits for the organization and increases the importance of understanding and gaining knowledge of different cultures.
Miscommunication and misunderstanding among members in the organization
First, when stakeholders from different cultures work in an organization, they pose a challenge of miscommunication and misunderstanding the organization as a result of breakdown in communication as members make assumptions about their messages to other members of the organization and the external world. For instance the accent used especially for learnt languages is perceived differently by different groups of people in organization. For this reason, there may be misunderstanding of intended messages for people who have learnt new languages. Also different words and different phrases from these stakeholders may mean different thing to different people in the organization hence causing miscommunication and misunderstanding (Brown, 2010). For instance, “maybe” is interpreted differently by different people from these diverse cultures. In addition, the tone and style of communication used based on a person’s culture may cause misunderstanding or conflict during communication in the organization. People who use non-verbal communication also pose different messages that also create misunderstandings and miscommunication within the organization. For instance, “waving” may mean “goodbye” to some people or ‘hello” to others. Therefore it is important to learn how to effectively communicate with stakeholders from different cultures to enhance effective communication.
Overall drop in performance
Also the overall performance in an organization may be affected by stakeholders from different cultures due to varied beliefs and practices from these cultures. For instance, stakeholders from the diverse cultures are stereotyped about certain customs and mannerisms practiced by members of these organizations. In addition, organization managers may also be biased about certain cultures by their junior staff and may use their power to coerce these employees to either quit from the organization or drop their cultures for the benefits of the organization. This may negatively affect the perception such employees towards their bosses and may also affect the performance of such employees in the organization. Further, the distance that separates members in these organizations may also result in cultural differences that in the end affect organizational communication. For instance, the Hispanic, Arabic and Islamic cultures have different beliefs and practices that make them do certain things that may. As a result, there may be a difference in the way they carry out their tasks for the organization. Also, their decisions and way of dealing with issues and handling tasks may vary and this may either slow down or speed the delivery of tasks and the general performance. For the Islamic culture for instance, there are certain days and months they do not work as they enter in their holy month. As a result, misjudgments and wrong conclusions from fellow members of the organization including the top management may be misinterpreted. Consequently, people come up with opinions and prejudices about different cultures in the organizations they work for thereby affecting their performance and overall productivity (Sokolova, 2016).This is a huge setback to the organization communication. It is therefore important to consider each other cultural beliefs and practices before embarking on judgment and possible conflicts within the organization.
Huge losses in the organization
Moreover, diverse cultures of stakeholders in organizations greatly contribute to the huge losses incurred in organizations as it results in a breakdown of organization communication. For instance, organizations loose numerous contracts and tenders due to ineffective organization communication. This may be as a result of stereotyped members in the organization that may deem such tenders only fit for certain groups of people or organizations. Likewise, the owners of these tenders and contracts may also be biased about issuing of the contacts and only issue them to certain groups of people of certain cultures. In this regard, organizations end up incurring huge losses that could have been averted or organizations spend billions of shillings sources for the same tenders from other organization. Similarly, the diverse cultures in organizations also contribute to the loss of clientele for organization as a most clients feel unworthy or unfit for the services of such organizations. For this reason, such clients sources for the same services in in other organization that they feel they belong. As a result, proper customer clientele is lost thereby losing the effectiveness of these organizations to the outside world. Therefore, it is important to cultivate good customer relationships by understanding the client and their cultures by practicing effective organization communication to avoid losing multimillion contracts and tenders as well as to avoid losing customers.
Increased relevance to know and understand various cultures
Although diverse cultures negatively affect organizational communication, it is essential to the organization as it influences organizations to increase the relevance to know and understand different cultures to create effective organization communication that enhances smooth operations in the organization as a result of working with people from different geographical locations or countries that have different cultures (Mariah, 2010). For this reason, organizations tend to increase their employees’ understanding of the diverse cultures by creating team bonding activities, cultural events and trainings on their employees that give these employees’ opportunities to showcase their cultures in addition to learning other stakeholders’ cultures. Consequently, there is need to understand different cultures at the work place as lack of it can cause losses to the organization like losing business contacts. Also, successful organizations globally have embraced the need to know and understand foreign cultures as an asset for the organization as employees interact freely and communicate smoothly within the organization amongst themselves and with members of the external world. Moreover, understanding of these cultures ensures that everyone in the organization is treated fairly, equally, justly and in a humane way regardless of what they are, where they come from and what culture defines them as everyone is human and share similar human characteristics. Therefore there is need to learn and understand the diverse cultures in organization to ensure there is harmony within and outside the organization.
Possible solutions
Although there is a myriad of issues caused by diverse cultures that affect organization communication, it is important to be sensitive about the diverse cultures by being respectful of such cultures as it helps to create healthy and meaningful relationships in the organizations and with the outside world and facilitates effective communication. Organizations have evolved and many of these organizations are able to beat the issues that result from diverse cultures. In this regard, organizations are now able to overcome the issues caused by the diverse cultures and can harmoniously work together to achieve the goals and objectives of the organizations aside from individual objectives. For instance, researching about the cultures enables people and organization overcome these issues. Also, practicing the workplace etiquette also facilitates efficient organization communication. In addition, being able to reduce or cut off barriers caused by communication like the language barrier, is a key element in overcoming the issues resulting from multiple cultures of stake holders in organizations. Moreover, the ability to show empathy and being respectful to members of different cultures greatly assists in curbing the issues both within and outside the organiza...