How could these have been avoided in the first place?
The barriers could have been avoided if all the parties involved understood
the communication process which would enabled them to identify the barriers and thus working towards a more effective communication with each other. It is without doubt that much efforts need to be displayed by all those involved in ensuring that the barriers to communication are avoided totally.
As portrayed in the case study, the list down some few efforts that could be carried out or implemented in the company to prevent such incident from happening again.
a) Organization Communication Philosophy
The organization communication philosophy is an important effort in combating the barriers to communication. The management need to ensure that a good communication system is put in placed in the organization so as to facilitate a more effective communication among the employees, providing a conducive environment for sharing informations, feedbacks and better participation among employees in exchanging ideas. Below are few listed examples that the management can introduced in avoiding communication barriers in the company.
i) Open – communication
The management should established a more open communication where communication flows freely among the employees. They should be committed to overcome any communication barrier both inside and outside the company by planning ahead for communication opportunities, keeping the environment responsive and nonthreatening and encouraging everyone to share their ideas. An example of a successful company that established this communication philosophy is Metaphorphosis Studios.[1]
The coming of the staff appraisal and promotion should be communicated openly and to be notified personally by the various department managers to the concern surbodinates. A planned communication session should be held in advance so as to prepare the staffs on the various informations they need to know regarding the appraisal and promotion criterias. Therefore, with this approach, John’s assumption of his promotion can be avoided because he will be prepared to clarify with his boss on the prospect of his promotion against the criterias given by the management during the planned communication session. The ‘rumours about the coming staff appraisal and promotion started to pick up in the office’ was another main problem reflected through by the close door session by the management in Brilliance Pte Ltd. These rumours can definitely be controlled to a tolerable level if the management took a more open approach to communication.
ii) Face to face communication
Management should established a face t o face communication through an honest and sincere interactions by encouraging active participation among the staffs during their appraisal session. It should not be ‘whenever John ask Mr Ang’ only but also a more positive interaction from Mr Ang. The staffs need to be communicated and informed personally on being promoted or not during the face to face communication so as to clear any wrong assumption that they may have in their perception. Thus, a well conducted face to face communication can be an effective tool in avoiding miscommunication.
iii) Ethical communication
Ethical communication includes all relevant information, is true in every sense and is not deceptive in any way.[2]
The management should not have just placed on the notice board the names of those being promoted as promotion are a sensitive issue to everyone. A more ethical approach in conveying the message should be established by the management in their communication system. With this ethical communication policy in placed, every managers are thus compelled to inform their staffs on their promotion prospect prior to the notice. A personal communication follow up with their bosses or even to the appeal committee board should be allowed for those who are unhappy about their failure in getting a promotion. This will create a check on those unethical bosses who mistreat their employees and also provide thorough explanation for the unsuccessful employees as to why they are not promoted. John embarassment could be avoided if the management established a more ethical communication system in the company.
iv) Informal Communication Channels ( Grapevine)
Every organization has an informal communication network – a grapevine – that supplements official channels [3] which is of a particularly neglected aspect of management communication concerns.[4]
As for Brilliance Pte Ltd, it too did has its fair share of this grapevine. The problem with this company was due to the failure by the management to control and influence them at a tolerable level. A good management communication system in a company will ensure that this grapevine is an asset rather than a liability to the company. This can be done by establishing more cross – communication among managers and lower level staffs by increasing the number and effectiveness of the liaison individuals.The company should count on managers and supervisors to be more active in spreading informations. It should also encourage further research about management grapevine in order to provide managers with a deeper understanding of them and to find new ways of intergrating grapevine activities with the objectives of the company.[5]
Therefore, the company should conscientiously try to influence the grapevine rather than letting a ‘free flow’ of speculative information being a decisive factor for the staffs. As for John’s case, the management should have intercepted the rumours and controlled them by having a proper communication session with the staffs to clarify the matters than rather than shocking John to his immediate resignation.
b) Using Feedbacks
Basically, one of the main contributor to the miscommunication in Brilliance Pte Ltd was the absence of feedback. This absence of feedback was being displayed by all the characters in the case study.
i) John - Boss
John could have avoid making assumption by questioning his boss on the specific intention of his reply regarding his intended meaning of the word ‘okay’, ‘happy’, ‘no problem’. In getting feedback from his boss, he should be more pro – active in the conversation by leading his boss to give feedbacks by questioning him rather than waiting for an explanation from his boss.
John should be a little bit skeptical rather than being over confidence and assumed that he has done an excellent job when his boss ‘leaves him very much on his own’. Instead, he should asked his boss his intended message in doing so by giving feedback to the boss on the achievements that he had done measuring against the company’s goals and objectives.
After twelve years in the company, John should have been abled to develop his upward communication skill. It is through this skill that a staff like John, can win the upward communication battle.[6] John need to prepare himself for his appraisal communication with his boss so that he will get effective feedback from his boss. He needs to know the best way to communicate with his boss and also the specified questions that he wants his boss to answer especially those which are ‘close to his heart’. Therefore, if he is abled to prepare physically and mentally for the communication session, it will definitely helps in facilitating better feedback and eliminating assumptions.
If John has carried out the following actions by establishing a good feedback process with his boss, it would definitely have given him the actual intended message by his boss, thus, eliminating all other complications there and than.
ii) Boss - John
The articulate executive ( manager / boss) is an individual who is able to listen and understand others, analyze and prioritize the wealth of information received, and express, through the written and spoken word, not only an idea or decision, but,even more important, a vision that incorporates the knowledge, wisdom, and values of the entire organization.[7] But sadly in John case, his boss failed to deliver his intended message clearly to John.
He should behave professionally as John’s boss by preparing the messages and information he intended to convey to John during the appraisal interview so that a more cohesive atmosphere is developed during the communication thus enhancing a better communication process through encouraging feedbacks and sharing of informations between them. A well planned communication process would not end up just by replying in one general statement such as, ‘Okay…. I don’t see any problems with your work; I’m happy with it’, leaving the receiver with full of ‘hopes and happiness’ and misleading the actual intended message.
As a boss, he should understand that it is not easy to get feedback from his surbodinates eventhough after much encouragement due to the present of fear and anxiety in the surbodinates especially in an appraisal communication. Therefore, he should be more pro – active by drawing out feedback by asking questions. In this case, he should be more specified in relaying his message rather than using vague words such as ‘okay’, ‘happy’ and ‘no problem’. He should take this opportunity by drawing out questions from John regarding his expectations, feelings and career development in the company since he had been working there for twelve years. Thus, in this way, he should be abled to get a better feedback from John and clarify his intended message to John more clearly, without further complications later on.
Mr Ang should be more ethical in his conduct as John’s boss especially during the appraisal communication rather than displaying a ‘can’t be bothered attitude’. The way he treated John by ‘leaving him on his own’ and passively responded to John’s question did reflected him as an unethical person. Unethical people are essentially selfish and unscrupulous, saying or doing whatever it takes to achieve an end while an ethical person is generally trustworthy, fair and impartial, respecting the rights of others and concerned about the impact of their actions on his surbodinates and society as well.[8] Therefore, if Mr Ang realize his mistake and change by being more ethical, he would have really shown interest in the communication. This ethical attitude would enabled him to adopt an audience – centered approach [9] which would allow him to be more involved in the communication process. This approach would also enabled him to identify John’s aspiration for a promotion and allowing him to facilitate feedback from John thus avoiding miscommunication.
If Mr Ang is abled to carry out the following actions, he would has established a good feedback process with John. Thus, in this way, the communication process between him and John will be an effective communication, with each other having the same intended messages.
iii) Colleagues - John
All of John’s colleagues portrayed in the case study did not display any form of feedback to John upon hearing the news but instead they merely passed the message from one to another, creating distortions along the way.
When John was casually mentioning the conversation he had with his boss to Elaine, she did not give any feedback to John regarding her thoughts in the matter discussed, maybe by advising John to control his emotions or to be discreet about the discussion he had with Mr Ang.She also failed to clarify the intended message but actually perceived the message in her own thoughts. Being Mr Ang’s secretary, she could have feedback to Mr Ang on John’s reaction so that Mr Ang may correct his intended message to John. Instead, she made her own assumption that Mr Ang was about to give John a promotion soon, worst still, passing the rumours along the way.
As for James and Mary, both of them failed to confirm with John on the truth of the rumours eventhough John was having coffee break with them.
When John overheard the rumours being said by James to Mary, he should have questioned the credibility of the news and corrected his intended message by giving his feedback rather than accepting it squarely. He could have clarified the matter with Elaine or Mr Ang before treating his colleagues for lunch and announcing his promotion.
All of the above incidents could have been avoided if everyone of them understands the importance of feedback which would be helpful in getting the actual intended message.
c) Understanding Nonverbal Communication
Learning to read the body language of the sender and what he is communicating through it, is an important source in evaluating the actual intended message of the sender.
i) John
Among the most important information a staff can have about his boss is the knowledge about their behavourial tendencies. By being abled to identify his boss behaviour, anticipate reactions and responses, and know in advance that manager is likely to say and do, would help the staff to facilitate communication, interactions and good working relationships, and in general, helps staff to get along better with management.[10]
In this text, there were few instances shown where John could have easily noticed his boss nonverbal actions and evaluated or helps him in giving feedback to his boss. Firstly, knowing his boss style by ‘leaves John very much on his own’ and ‘whenever John ask Mr Ang ‘, he should have an idea of his boss ‘can’t be bothered attitude’. Therefore he needs to question further his boss on his actual intended message rather than just assumed of getting a promotion. Secondly, the tone and the pause that his boss had in his reply such as, ‘ Okay…… ‘, seems to denote a satisfactory job done by John but definitely not an excellent job that command a promotion. Thirdly, his general words used with a monotonous response such as, ‘ I don’t see any problems with your work ; I’m happy wit it ‘ do commands John to clarify the specific meaning of them.
After working for twelve years in the company and knowing his boss ‘can’t be bothered attitude’, John should take this nonverbal signals from his boss that he needs to built a positive relationship with his boss.[11] This is another way of establishing a good communication relationship in a long term. In this way, this would helps in preventing miscommunication and thus, enabling the message to be communicated effectively.
ii) Boss
As for Mr Ang, he should also be participative in understanding the nonverbal signals from his staff, especially John.
[1] Business communication today /????
[2] B today /??? / Pg 23
[3] Ibid / Pg 8
[4] The Articulate Executive / Fernando Bartolome / A Harvard Business Review Book / United States / 1993 / Pg 173
[5] The Articulate Executive / Fernando Bartolome / A Harvard Business Review Book / United States / 1993 /
Pg 185
[6] Breaking The Barrier To Upward Communication / Thad B. Green & Jay T.Knippen / Quorum Books /
Unite States 1999 / Pg 6
[7] The Articulate Executive / Fernando Bartolome / A Harvard Business Review Book / United States / 1993 /
Pg xi
[8] Business Today / Pg 23
[9] Effective Communication / Chris Roebuck / Marshall Editions Development Ltd / London 1998 / Pg 58
[10] Breaking The Barrier To Upward Communication / Thad B. Green & Jay T.Knippen / Quorum Books /
Unite States 1999 / Pg 41
[11] Ibid / Pg 221
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