Business communication
Business foundation
Student ID
Contents
Theories of organizational communication 2
Barriers to effective communication 4
Strategies to overcome communication obstacles 6
Abstract
The report addresses a few theories of organizational communication and explains the barriers to communication within the college. Then, a few strategies have been devised to overcome these barriers within Business United and rectify the problems and concerns of the students studying at the private university.
Introduction
Communication is known to be a process of conveyance of thoughts from one person to another or a mass crowd (Mommsen, 1992). Organizational communication is the process of conveying thoughts within the firm to the staff and the employees and building employee relations at the firm. The report will address a few theories of organizational communication which will be followed by explaining the barriers to communication within the college. Followed by this, a few strategies will be devised to overcome these barriers within Business United and rectify the problems and concerns of the student studying at the private university.
Theories of organizational communication
Organizational communication is the process of conveying thoughts within the firm to the staff and the employees and building employee relations at the firm (Lunenburg, 2010). Communication is important for people to connect and convey thoughts and ideas to the public or the organization. Without communication, the operations of the college cannot be performed and attained successfully. Various communication theories are devised by different theorists of which a few will be detailed below. Two theorists that are popularly known for their classical perspectives are Max Weber and Henri Fayol.
Theory of bureaucracy
As per Max Weber, bureaucracy is known to be the most efficient framework to be used in private business institutions. Weber’s theory often prioritizes efficiency but it cannot be generalized that it is the best practice to be followed by leaders. Bureaucratic management helps the leader exercise control over the individual employees and staff in the university (Lutzker, 1982). Organizations following this theory in their businesses often have a hierarchy of authority, a skilled workforce, standard rules and regulations, and trained administrative employees. The theory lists down certain roles and responsibilities that are to be followed by the administration and the communication in such a framework is often hierarchical. The information is passed on from one stage to another and the organizational goals are then achieved. Organizations practicing or applying Weber’s theory often have a rigid structure in which each member within the firm contributes to the roles and responsibilities they have been hired for.
Henry Fayol’s management theory
Management theory proposed by Henry comprises 14 principles in ch it depicts how the management of the organization should interact with the employees to gain favorable outcomes. Five basic principles can be applied in the organization to bring about order and control.
Planning: planning needs to be done by the organization to frame goals and business objectives only then it can be fulfilled by the employees working at the firm.
Organizing: once the objectives are set, the manager needs to organize the workforce in an efficient manner that can work and align with the goals of the company.
Commanding: once the tasks are allotted to the personnel the employees need supervision and guidance from the higher authorities to ensure the staff is working in the right direction that will help the firm in achieving its goals of the firm (Heady, 1959).
Coordinating: managers must ensure to coordinate with the employees and help them if the tasks or the performance of the staff does not align with the goals set by the organization.
Controlling: the tasks and activities of the firm should be controlled by the manager and ensure it is in sync with the policies of the company and objectives.
Fig: Henry Fayol theory. (Source: https://studiousguy.com/)
Barriers to effective communication
Business United is a private college that is based in London, UK. The case study is about the obstacles the students are facing due to covid-19 as the learning process has shifted to online portals. Since the whole process of learning and studying has switched to online methods both the teachers and students are finding it difficult to adapt to this new situation and the whole learning process. There are various obstacles to communication due to the switch of the learning process to online portals. Few obstacles that students are facing at Business United are discussed below (Golen, 1990).
Technical obstacles: since the learning process is shifted online there are communication issues over Wi-Fi as the signal varies in each one’s home and this is raising connectivity issues. Due to this, the students are not able to follow the flow of information taught online and are missing out on information due to which the whole content thought online is not clearly understood. Most of the teachers use old laptops which take a lot of time to load pages due to which the information on each one’s laptop does not sync.
Emotional obstacles: since the students are not seeing each other and do not have a classroom to interact with, the students are missing the interaction with their peers. Therefore, most of the students get bored of listening to the teacher for longer periods and stay in front of the screen for so long.
Physical obstacles: since students are not used to spending so many hours in front of the screen it seems to be stressful to sit for so long on the screen creating eye problems for certain students (Greisman and Ritzer, 1981). Some also tend to have headaches due to sitting for long hours in front of the screen.
Noise obstacles: some students constantly keep interrupting the lecture due to some doubts or connectivity issues which disrupt the flow of information. Due to this, a lot of time is wasted connecting the student again on screen and solving their doubts. This is also distracting the teacher and the student from concentrating on the main coursework.
Cultural obstacles: due to online learning, students miss connecting and students that belong to the same culture. Some of the students traveled to England just before the lockdown and are feeling very homesick because they are not able to connect to and meet their friends.
These are some of the obstacles to communication that are being faced by the university which need to be rectified to bring about a good flow of information.
Strategies to overcome the communication obstacles
Due to the covid-19 norms, the learning process has been shifted online due to which students are facing several obstacles. These communication barriers have been discussed above in detail. A few of the strategies that could be devised to overcome these obstacles to communication are discussed below.
To overcome technical barriers the teacher can record the class and send it in e-mails to each student so that if all the students have missed any information they can go back and watch the video and gain that information whenever they want (Chen, 2005). To overcome the emotional obstacles the teacher can keep interactive sessions once in a week so that the students can interact with one another and have a change of atmosphere and connect to friends online. In this case, the students can get along with each other and motivate one another to achieve the goals set by the organization. To overcome the physical obstacles the screen time can be reduced and students can be given breaks in between the lecture so that they do not have to look at the screen for continuous long hours.
To overcome the noise barriers the connectivity issues need to be pre-checked before the lecture starts and it is the duty of each student and the teacher to ensure they have good connectivity at home. To overcome the cultural obstacles, the teacher can arrange a weekly program for students to interact with one another and organize games or interactions between students that will prevent the students from feeling homesick.
Recommendations
For the university to run and operate successfully the university needs to overcome the barriers it is facing in the recent times due to the effects of covid-19 (Boyne, 1998). The five types of barriers need to be solved because online learning is going in for the long run and the students need to be adjusted to this method of learning until the situation in the world turns to normal. Hence, effective strategies need to be applied to overcome the emotional obstacles the teacher can keep interactive sessions once a week so that the students can interact with one another and have a change of atmosphere and connect to friends online. In this case, the students can get along with each other and motivate one another to achieve the goals set by the organization. A few of the strategies are discussed above as to how the university can apply these strategies and overcome the barriers.
Conclusion
Organizational communication is the process of conveying thoughts within the firm to the staff and the employees and building employee relations at the firm (Barr and Wanat, 2005). The report has addressed a few theories of organizational communication which will be followed by explaining the barriers to communication within the college. Followed by this, a few strategies have been devised to overcome these barriers within Business United and rectify the problems and concerns of the student studying at the private university.
References
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