Workplace communication is essential to teamwork.

Identifying the specific

breakdowns in communication at your workplace helps you correct the issues to get
employees to communicate effectively. Restoring the lines of communication helps
improve productivity by allowing employees to work well together. Observe the
communications that take place in your workplace to figure out what is going
wrong. Lack of Standards

Without communication standards in the workplace, you lack

consistency on how and when employees communicate. Establish a
communication policy to standardize the methods used for communicating
with both colleagues and customers. Avoid relying too heavily on one type of
communication. For example, using only verbal communication makes
tracking conversations and information difficult.

Communication Barriers

Differences in background or experience causes barriers between some

employees. Without some common ground, employees may find relating to
or understanding what other staff members are talking about difficult.
Cultural differences may also cause difficulties in non-verbal
communications, causing mixed messages.

Mixing Work and Personal Communications

Some employees tend to mix personal lives into the workplace

communications. Personal communications detract from the professionalism
in the office, which sometimes leads to gossip in the workplace, leading to
decreased morale or even accusations of harassment.

Misinterpretations and Assumptions

Communication is open to interpretation and is sometimes interpreted

incorrectly. People often make assumptions based on the information they
hear or read, whether or not they hear or read it correctly. Nonverbal cues
also lead people to make assumptions that can impede communication. For

example, an employee who avoids eye contact may cause others to assume
she is hiding something when she may simply feel inferior or shy.

Poor Listening Skills

Sharing information is only part of the communication process. Strong

listening skills are essential to effectively communicating and understanding
the message being shared. Employees who fail to listen or who don't know
how to actively listen to their colleagues are likely to miss information or not
know what is going on.

Lack of Factual Communication

Factually-based communication is essential to effective communication

in the workplace. If employees communicate false information or share
information they aren't sure about, they are likely to cause delays in task
completion. Managers who share false information or share information
without verifying it first are likely to upset the employees.

Failure to Disperse Communications

Dispersing workplace communications often relies on a chain of

employees sharing the information with others. In some cases, the relay of
information is interrupted, leaving certain employees out of the loop. The
breakdown in communication may lead to wasted time, missed meetings,
duplication of work, or other disruptions of the work flow.

Privacy

Very little communication is actually private, especially in a workplace

environment. Verbal communication is easily overhead by others in the
office. Email messages and instant messaging on the computer are
susceptible to hacking. Other employees may read over your shoulder and
see confidential communications. Leaked confidential information creates a
liability issue and may hurt business.

Attitude

Negative attitudes interfere with the communication process in the

workplace. In some cases, two employees may dislike one another or distrust
each other, creating a wall between the two when they try to communicate.
Other employees simply take an indifferent attitude toward work in general,
causing them to not care about what is said during normal workplace
communication.

Lack of Follow Through

Once information is dispersed in the office environment, specific

actions take place based on the communications. For example, after a
meeting to discuss the direction of a project, the attendees likely need to
complete tasks based on what you discussed in the meeting. If the
communication doesn't leave employees with a clear sense of how to follow
through with actions, you are likely to see a breakdown and unfinished work.

Communication Problems in Organizations

We have a communication problem. How many times have you heard that as an
explanation for project failures, disgruntled employees, or a lack of teamwork in
organizations? Aside from the dramatic cases, such as a nurse not telling a doctor
that he is about to operate on the wrong leg or a co-pilot not telling the pilot that
another plane is on the same landing approach, we rarely know what is meant by
communication problem. Several colleagues and I decided to find out. Leslie
Stambaugh, Jim Stilwell, and I asked 15 organization leaders about the
communication challenges they face in their organizations. An analysis of their
responses identified nine major categories:

1. Not All Employees Being Kept Informed

The assumption is that the usual modes of communication will send important
information to everyone who needs to know and that everyone will receive this
information. However, in many organizations, the information doesnt reach people
who are not using those methods of communication on a regular basis (e.g., email
that isnt read by front-line workers).

2. Employees Not Receiving Consistent Messages from Management

Different supervisors are sending different, sometimes conflicting, messages about

priorities. This causes confusion and distrust among employees.

3. Employees Not Receiving Timely Messages

Information is not getting to employees when and where they need it. Without vital
information at the right time and in the right place, the decision-making process
slows and projects are not completed on time or in the best way.

4. The Right Information is Not Being Sent to the Right People

Critical information (e.g., market data) is not being shared among key stakeholders.
Top management is not engaging employees who have most of the customer
contact in the important decisions of the organization. Employees are not getting
important information to management.

5. Expectations are Not Clear

Top leaders do not discuss expectations with mid-level managers. Therefore, they
do not have the same expectations nor do they agree on how to reach strategic
goals. Because of this, employees do not have clear goals and benchmarks to guide
their progress.

6. Plan for the Future is Not Known

Leaders do not discuss their vision for the future of the organization with
employees. There is no sense of a shared direction toward which everyone is
striving. This does not inspire employees to do their best work.

7. Functional Areas Not Collaborating

Departments/units do not share the information that could help all

departments/units achieve common goals. They are competitive rather than
collaborative. This limits the capability of the organization as a whole.

8. Employees Not Open with Each Other

Employees do not share information with each other. They do not trust each other.
This compromises the productivity of teams, departments/units, and the
organization.

9. Communication Hampered by Distance Between Units

Departments/units that are in different locations do not communicate as much and

as often as those in close proximity. The distance makes face-to-face meetings
harder to arrange and collaboration takes more time.

Even in this age of email, cell phones, text messaging, and Web conferencing,
critical communication among leaders, between management and employees, and
between departments/units, still does not happen as much and as often as needed.

Examples of Communication Problems in the

Workplace
Communication problems in the workplace can cost your company productivity and money. Without
efficient communication, your company is unable to exchange information essential to daily operations
and create a communication network to carry new product data. Understanding examples of workplace
communication issues can help you to create policies that will address problems and create an efficient
communication network in the office.

Language Barriers
A diverse workplace has several benefits to a business, such as a variety of solutions to
company issues and insight into international markets during expansion. But the language
barrier that can sometimes occur in a diverse workplace, or any workplace, may become a
communication problem. There might be language barriers between people of different
ethnic backgrounds, people of different ages and people with different levels of industry
experience. Any language barrier is going to slow communication or create
misunderstandings that make communication ineffective.

Personal Issues
Effective communication in a workplace is based on professional correspondence designed
to assist in the daily operation of the company or the continued growth of the organization.
When employees allow personal issues to affect company communication, a communication
problem develops that could take a long time to track down and resolve. People who refuse
to communicate based on a personal disagreement are damaging the company's ability to
do business and slowing the growth of the organization.

Lack of Feedback
One-way communication can become an ineffective way to exchange information
throughout the company. Employees and managerial staff should provide feedback at all
times to improve the quality of information disseminated and the manner in which the
information is delivered. For example, if a department tends to send out information in a
format confusing to other people in the company, then that department needs to be
informed of its communication problems immediately or else the information coming from
that group will always pose a communication challenge.

New Hires
When new employees are brought into the organization, they need to receive a
comprehensive introduction into the proper ways to communicate throughout the
organization. Companies that do not include communication training in their new-hire
orientation programs will be forced to struggle with new hires who are forced to learn proper
communication procedures by a process of hit and miss.