Organisational Communication 1

Assignment 2

Business Communication

An report on
Organisational Communication
Student ID: S208611

BA in Business Studies (Foundation Year)

University of Suffolk

Date of Submission: 30.03.2020

I declare that this assignment is all my own work and that I have acknowledged all materials
used from the published or unpublished works of other people. All references have been duly
cited
 Organisational Communication 2

Contents
Abstract.......................................................................................................................................................3
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review........................................................................................................................................3
Analysis........................................................................................................................................................4
Communication Practices and Communication Barriers Relevant to Go Travel..........................................5
Principles of Effective Communication to Improve Practice and Strategies to Overcome Barriers.............6
Recommendation........................................................................................................................................8
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................8
References...................................................................................................................................................9
 Organisational Communication 3

Organisational Communication

Abstract
Some of the communication barriers that are relevant to Go Travel include language

differences and difficulty in understanding unfamiliar accents, cultural differences, and physical

barriers to non-verbal communication. The strategies to overcome the barrier in this organisation

include encouraging employees to learn about different cultures, through diversity training,

encouraging every employee to work towards accommodating their differences, encouraging

them always to share knowledge, and ensuring clear and polite communication so that no

employee feels intimidated.

Introduction

Organisational communication plays a crucial role in the management of a firm. By

definition, it refers to the purposeful sending and receiving of information within a company.

Effective organisational communication would be essential to Go Travel because it will enable it

to build and maintain a relationship with all its employees and customers. The purpose of this

report is to improve the communication practices of the staff and myself as the manager. This

paper will review the literature, analyse organisational communication theories, evaluate

communication practices, and discuss communication barriers to Go Travel, and strategies to

overcome the obstacles relevant to Go Travel.

Literature Review

Organisational communication plays a crucial role in ensuring employee satisfaction,

improved customer experience, and the overall success of a company. As such, a lack of

effective strategies would result in conflict among employees as well as between employees and

the clients they serve. In a study on how vital organisation communication is to the effectiveness
 Organisational Communication 4

of a firm, Hargie (2016) found out that effective organisational communication is crucial for the

effectiveness of a company. According to Hargie (2016), most firms with effective corporate

communication often have a positive work environment. Besides, especially travel companies

can only achieve their goals and objectives if they establish an effective communication process

within the workplace (Dionisopoulos and Cheney, 2017, p.135).

Analysis

The field of organisational communication has significantly grown in-depth and in scope

over the years. This growth has prompted several management theorists to come up with theories

that would help define organisations and explain how effective communications can be

maintained. One of the theories of organisational communication that managers of travel

companies should apply is Tompkins and Cheney’s organisational control theory. 

Tompkins and Cheney’s organisational control theory emphasises the need to consider a

company as a network because it is only by viewing it as a network that employees would be

able to realise the importance of personal interactions in building a company. According to this

theory, identification plays a crucial role in the decision-making process of a company (Zink,

2017). As posited by organisational control theory, an employee or an individual within a

company can only make proper decisions concerning the operations of a company when he or

she identifies with the values of that company. For appropriate organisational arrangements to be

made, the organisational duties of employees must perceive the values of that organisation as

relevant in assessing the alternatives of choices (Zink, 2017). 

In this respect, for proper organisational communication, every employee must be able to

identify with the values and interests of that particular organisation. Concerning this travel

company, effective communication can only be realised if every employee is provided with an
 Organisational Communication 5

opportunity to identify with the targets of Go Travel. According to this theory, employees can

only know and understand what is expected of them if they understand the purpose of that

company’s mission and vision. For instance, Go Travels staff can only ensure effective

communication among them as well as between them and the people they serve is they

understand the purpose of Go Travels mission and vision.

Another organisational communication theory that managers can apply to ensure

effective communication processes within the workplace is Fredric Taylor’s management theory.

This theory emphasises on the need for scientific management. Effective communication

processes can only develop within an organisation if it is scientifically managed. This theory

argues that rules, laws, and principles govern a scientifically managed company. In this case, Go

Travel can only ensure effective organisational communication if it has clearly defined rules,

principles, and laws as its foundation (Zink, 2017). 

Communication Practices and Communication Barriers Relevant to Go Travel

Some of the best communication practices include utilising the right tools of

communication, creation a dynamic and enjoyable working environment, offering channels

wherein feedback and thoughts can be easily shared, and encouraging collaboration. As a

communication practice, utilising the right communication tools involves using communication

systems that every employee will be ready and willing to use. Such devices may include group

chats, cloud technology, and emails. As a travel company, Go Travel can, therefore, decide on

the best communication tool that it thinks will its employees will enjoy. Creating a dynamic and

fun environment is yet another communication practice. 

According to Schafer, Antons, Luttgens, Piller, and Salge (2017, p.33), this practice

entails ensuring that every employee is provided with a work environment that is dynamic and
 Organisational Communication 6

enjoyable. The third communication practice is offering channels through which employees can

easily share their feedback and ideas. In this case, effective communication can only be realised

if employees are encouraged to be open and transparent about their experiences. Another

communication practice is encouraging collaboration among the employees regardless of the

departments in which they work. On logical grounds, it could be argued that encouraging

collaboration would result in effective communication within the organisation as the employees

will frequently be interacting amongst themselves.

On the other hand, some of the communication barriers that are relevant to Go Travel

include language differences and difficulty in understanding unfamiliar accents, cultural

differences, and physical barriers to non-verbal communication. Concerning Go Travel, the main

communication barrier is language differences and difficulty in understanding foreign accents.

Employees working in these overseas locations do not understand English since it is not their

first language. The fact that these employees belong to different places has made it hard for them

to communicate and understand one another. The inability to communicate using a common

language or even understand unfamiliar accents is, therefore, the most significant barrier in this

situation. 

Principles of Effective Communication to Improve Practice and Strategies to Overcome Barriers

Proper organisational communication can be realised within this company through the

application of the principles of communication. Some of these principles include the principle of

clarity, the principle of attention, the principle of informality, the principle of consistency, the

principle of timeliness, and the principle of adequacy. The principle of clarity is about the clarity

of the message being communicated. On the other hand, the principle of attention involves

ensuring effective communication by drawing the attention of the recipient. The principle of
 Organisational Communication 7

feedback argues that effective organisational communication can only be realised if there is a

response from the receiver of a message. 

As argued by Rossi, Grenier, and Vaillancourt (2019, p.1), the principle of informality

posits that managers should informally assess the reaction of their employees when they want to

develop effective communication processes. What is more, managers should be consistent,

timely. And ensure adequate communication (Jureddi and Brahmaiah, 2016, p.114). In this case,

as the company manager, I should be consistent with the policies, objectives, goals, programs,

and plans for Go Travel. It is only through consistency that all the company employees will be

cognizant of what the company expects of them. Besides, as posited by the principle of

timeliness, these policies, programs, plans, and objectives should be communicated to the

employees in time so that they can always do the right things (Zenkevich, 2018, p.245).

On the contrary, some of the strategies to overcome barrier in this organisation include

encouraging employees to learn about different cultures, through diversity training, encouraging

every employee to work towards accommodating their differences, encouraging them always to

share knowledge and ensuring clear and polite communication so that no employee feels

intimidated (Osborne and Hammoud, 2017, p.4). One strategy that can be employed to overcome

the communication barrier within this company is encouraging the employees to always learn

about different cultures. In this case, the employees should not avoid contact with staff from

other countries but rather be free to learn about their culture (Kuknor, 2019, p.47). Another

strategy is through diversity training. In this case, the employees will be encouraged to embrace

teamwork and accommodate their differences for effective communication to be achieved. While

working as a team, the employees should share knowledge amongst themselves and
 Organisational Communication 8

communicate with each other clearly and politely so that no employees feel intimidated or

discriminated against (Kim and Jang, 2019, p.223).

Recommendation

Based on this case, I would recommend that principles of effective communication, such

as clarity, courtesy, completeness, and correctness be employed to ensure proper and effective

communication within Go Travel. Another recommendation is that employees should work

towards accommodating their differences instead of avoiding one another. What is more, I would

recommend that employees should always share knowledge.

Conclusion

In brief, this report is about the lack of effective organisational communication within our

company. It plays an essential role in ensuring employee and customer satisfaction. This topic is,

therefore, important to Go Travel because it will enable it to identify the theories to

organisational communication that can be applied to ensure effective communication, the

possible barriers and strategies to effective communication. One of the theories of organisational

communication that managers of travel companies should apply is Tompkins and Cheney’s

organisational control theory. Another organisational communication theory that managers can

apply to ensure effective communication processes within the workplace is Fredric Taylor’s

management theory.
 Organisational Communication 9

References

Dionisopoulos, G.N. and Cheney, G., 2017. Public relations? No, relations with publics: A

rhetorical–organisational approach to contemporary corporate communications. In Public

relations theory (pp. 135-157). London: Routledge.

Hargie, O., 2016. The importance of communication for organisational effectiveness.

Jureddi, D.N. and Brahmaiah, N., 2016. Barriers to effective communication. Journal of English

Language and Literature, 3(2), pp.114-115.

Kim, Y. and Jang, S.J., 2019. Nurses' organisational communication satisfaction, emotional

labor, and prosocial service behavior: A cross‐sectional study. Nursing & Health

Sciences, 21(2), pp.223-230.

Kuknor, S., 2019. A Study on the Effectiveness of Communication in Employee

Motivation. SAMVAD, 18, pp.47-53.

Mirkovic, D. and Simic, M., 2019. Language Barriers Complexity and Their Implications with

Fatal Consequences In Aviation. Knowledge International Journal, 30(5), pp.1131-1135.

Osborne, S. and Hammoud, M.S., 2017. Effective employee engagement in the

workplace. International Journal of Applied Management and Technology, 16(1), p.4.

Rossi, C., Grenier, S. and Vaillancourt, R., 2019. Literature Review: Strategies for Addressing

Language Barriers During Humanitarian Relief Operations. Disaster Medicine and

Public Health Preparedness, pp.1-9.

Schafer, S., Antons, D., Luttgens, D., Piller, F. and Salge, T.O., 2017. Talk to Your Crowd:

Principles for Effective Communication in Crowdsourcing: A Few Key Principles for

Communicating with Solvers Can Help Contest Sponsors Maintain and Grow Their Base

of Participants. Research Technology Management, 60(4), p.33.

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Woodward, I.C. and Shaffakat, S., 2017. Innovation, leadership, and communication

intelligence. In Strategy and Communication for Innovation (pp. 245-264). Berlin:

Springer.

Zenkevich, L., 2018. Barriers to effective business communication for managers.

Zink, J., 2017. Management Theory and Organisational Communication. Organisational

Communication.