GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS 1

Good Communication Skills

Student’s Name:

Institution:

Course:

Instructor:

Date:
GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS 2

Good Communication Skills

Introduction

Good communication is very key in organizations success. Having good communication

skills in a work place enables to convey information to others in a simple and clear way.

Types of Communication

Verbal communication is the use of words and sounds to share information with others. It can

either be written or spoken. It requires that the speaker or writer to pass the message and the

listener or reader to receive and interpret the message (Cronen, & Pearce, 1982).

Non-verbal communication refers to the use of facial expressions, symbols, gestures and

paralinguistic. Both communicators should be in a physical distance (Mehrabian, 1981). 

Barriers to Communication

Physical barriers or environmental barriers arise in the surroundings. These include noise,

time and distance, defects in communication systems, wrong selection of medium, high

temperature and humidity.

Language barriers arise due to different languages, word meanings or pronunciations, jargon

words and by-passed instructions

Psychological barriers arise from complexity of human mind such as ego, emotions and

feelings, halo effect, self-image, prejudice, status, perceptions, closed minds, interest and

attitudes, poor retention, day dreaming and filtering in messages.

Socio cultural barriers arise from the people’s way of life, values or principles. These may

include concept of time, etiquettes and mannerism, assumptions about social strata, value

systems not the same across the cultures.

GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS 3

Communication and Organizational Trust

Communication plays a role in customer relations, employee engagement and product

development. Effective communication builds strong relationship within an organization.

Building trust in an organization requires personal effort. Employees are the key audience

and if they are engaged and informed, communication with other stakeholders are likely to be

strong as well. Effective communication provides employees with the structure, knowledge

and positive work environment to deal with conflict and effectively resolve issues (Gillespie,

and Mann, 2004). Trust and loyalty are key factors in building any relationship. Therefore,

through effective communication in an organization, trust is built.

Use of electronic communication in an organization

This refers to communication which uses electronic media to transmit information such as

email, instant messaging, websites, video messaging and blogs (Mehrabian, 1981).

Electronic communication is important in an organization in that allows employees share real

time information without being present in office. It drives productivity such that employees

no longer need long hours in meetings, travel miles to share ideas.

It also ensures business continuity. Employees can work remotely and at their convenience.

This improves work life balance, employee morale and productivity.

Electronic communication also helps to cut business costs and expand company services.

Employees can work with culturally diverse teams and develop a global mindset. In addition,

more work is done in less time

GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS 4

References

1. Mehrabian, Albert (1981). Silent Messages: Implicit Communication of Emotions and

Attitudes (2nd ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

2. Gillespie, N., and Mann, L., (2004), Transformational Leadership and Shared Values:

The Building Blocks of Trust, Journal of Managerial Psychology. Vol. 19, pp588-607.

3. Luthans, F., & Larsen, J. K. (1986). How managers really communicate. Human

Relations, 39, 161–178.

4. Cronen, V., & Pearce, W. B. (1982). The coordinated management of meaning: A

theory of communication.