Communication barriers in Workplace

Communication is one of the major factors that directly affects an organization success (Butchibabu, SparanoHuiban, Sonenberg & Shah, 2016). But there is always a communication barrier in every workplace regardless of what sector it is. This barrier may be due to the lack of language knowledge of the employees, personal conflicts, reputation issues and so on. Workplace diversity can be double-sided and also it can create challenges for the organization (D'Netto et al., 2014). The most One of the often facts that is observed in diverse workforce is the miscommunication or no communication (D'Netto et al., 2014; Lauring & Selmer, 2012; Podsiadlowski, Gröschke, Kogler, Springer & van Der Zee, 2013). If two individual employees have misunderstanding due to cultural difference, personal difference miscommunication will occur, that will lead them even to get disappoint for the other person. Current organizations has become more culturally diverse, that has created communication tougher than other factors that affects the workplace diversity.

Communication that is occurred between individuals will align with the language that they use for communication. Accordingly, it can be related to culture learned when growing up, or it will be the way of working together creating mutual understandings (Chang et al., 2017; Entin & Serfaty, 1999; Santos et al., 2012). The significance of communication in a diverse organization has been highlighted by multiple authors (D'Netto et al., 2014; Kreitz, 2008; Tang, 2019; Tange & Lauring, 2009. Team success always depends in the effective communication strategies that is been used in an organization (Butchibabu et al., 2016; Chang et al, 2017). Due to the lack of communication employee tend to have conflicts with the team members that will result high employee turnover.

Figure 1- (Effective Intercultural Communication In the Remote Workplace, 2022)

The Figure 1 consists the major factors that affects the organizational communication. Communication barriers can occur due to the lack of proper language knowledge to convey the messages to the other. So, managing the Diversity has become a crucial that will aid the people to find ways to integrate with the people (Patrick & Kumar, 2012). A risk factor identified in the research was that if diversity communication is not functioning, conflicts can arise or an increase in communication difficulties can develop (Homan et al., 2007). The Nature of the Human behavior is the key feature that affects success of communication and the also as per the researchers the use of implicit and explicit communication has also been a factor that affects this barrier.

Figure 2 - (Bhasin, 2022)

The above Figure 2 displays the factor that affects the cross-cultural communication. Cross-cultural communication barrier occurs mainly when people with different nationalities, different work environment, age, race, gender and ethnicity tries to communication. The communication within the organization is one factor that have been experiencing a change (Keenan and Hazelton, 2006; Therkelsen and Fiebich, 2003).

The communication specialists are focused on inspiring employees, managing change and gaining employee engagement and commitment (Smith, 2005; Tench and Yeomans, 2006). Communication barrier in organization will not only impact the workplace but it will impact each individual that make both of the level growth slower.

References
Bhasin, H., 2022. Cross-Cultural Communication - Meaning, Importance and Factors. [online] Marketing91. Available at: [Accessed 23 April 2022].

Business 2 Community. 2022. Effective Intercultural Communication In the Remote Workplace. [online] Available at: [Accessed 23 April 2022].

Chang, H., Lin, C., Chen, C., & Ho, Y. (2017). Explicit and implicit team coordination: Development of a multidimensional scale. Social Behavior and Personality, 45(6), 915-929.

D'Netto, B., Shen, J., Chelliah, J., & Monga, M. (2014). Human resource diversity management practices in the Australian manufacturing sector. International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(9), 1243-1266.

Entin, E. E., & Serfaty, D. (1999). Adaptive Team Coordination. Human Factors, 41(2), 312–325.

Keenan, W.R. and Hazelton, V. (2006). Internal Public Relations, Social Capital, and the Role of Effective Organizational Communication. In: C.H. Botan and V. Hazelton (eds.), Public Relations Theory II. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc, Mahwah, NJ.

Lauring, J., & Selmer, J. (2012). Positive dissimilarity attitudes in multicultural organizations: The role of language diversity and communication frequency. Corporate Communications, 17(2), 156-172

Podsiadlowski, A., Gröschke, D., Kogler, M., Springer, C., & van Der Zee, K. (2013). Managing a culturally diverse workforce: Diversity perspectives in organizations. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 37(2), 159–175.

Santos, J. P., Seixas, D., Brandão, S., & Moutinho, L. (2012). Neuroscience in branding: A functional magnetic resonance imaging study on brands' implicit and explicit impressions. Journal of Brand Management, 19(9), 735-757.

Smith, L. and Mounter, P. (2005). Effective Internal Communication. London: Kogan Page.

Tange, H., & Lauring, J. (2009). Language management and social interaction within the multilingual workplace. Journal of Communication Management, 13(3), 218-232.