Discuss the importance of technology in communication today.

How can managers

overcome the barriers to effective communication? How can organizational leaders prevent

information overload from happening?

The importance of technology in communication today

Communication plays a critical role in today’s organization and encompasses all forms of

interconnection that functions organizations, connect with stakeholders, and contribute to

society, etc. As the communication is an essential element of the organizational management, the

technology also plays an important role in effective communication. The followings will shed

lights on the importance of technology in communication:

Information sharing is easier - Through technology, we can easily make not only calling

someone on the phone but also video chatting using live chat apps and conferencing software. In

addition, we can share documents and other technical media items during these conversations

(Donohoe, 2020).

Communication to a Wider Audience - Remotely, we can easily communicate with as wide an

audience as we need. Rather than giving a presentation in an office, we can set up a virtual

conference in real time. We can also communicate our message to a wider audience by posting to

social media, blogging websites, and or setting up a website for our own.

Faster and Reliable - Thanks to technology, you have tools for audio and video calls for

immediate communication without relying on sending physical letters and then waiting several

days and perhaps having your message lost in the mail (Donohoe, 2020).
More Environmental Friendly - Communication through technology is a great help to the

world’s environmental conservation. We can communicate with each other using less printed

paper. It is obviously extremely valuable to the climate because staying in touch with

individuals who live far away instead of using letters is better (Technology in Business

Communication, 2021).

Reduced Language Barriers - Technology and communication can help the improvement of

reducing language barriers through translation. Technology lets you almost instantly translate

sentences offline when you have face-to-face communication anywhere you go (Donohoe,

2020).

How can managers overcome the barriers to effective communication?

Effective communication is about more than just exchanging information within us. As

well as being able to clearly convey a message, we need to also listen the full meaning of what’s

being said and makes the other person feel heard and understood (Robinson et al., 2020).

In the workplace, there are common barriers to effective communication such as

psychological, language differences, and attitudinal etc., that managers have to overcome them.

Here are some ways to help managers know and overcome common barriers to effective

communication suggested by Training Express (2021):

1. Making ideas clear before communicating

2. Ensuring the time of communication is good,

3. Using a language the listener can understand,

4. Making the message to the point and short,

5. Listening before speaking again,

 6. Not interruption when someone is speaking, and

7. Making the message judgment free.

How can organizational leaders prevent information overload from happening?

Management, sometimes, have to handle information overload in the workplace that can

be described as the extensive amount of irrelevant information flowing among employees.

Firstly, leaders should use the right communication channels because one of the main sources of

information overload is due to the impressive amount of communication channels to

communicate with employees. Therefore better coordination by providing employees with a

single news feed is simple and the best (Smarp, 2020). Secondly, leaders should think the

organizational culture of internal communication first because employees’ wellbeing is important

for the unwanted feedbacks.

Another thing that the leaders should do is to get the top management on board because

improvement of employee communications and internal processes cannot be expected if top

management doesn’t support the initiative or if the leaders lack good leadership skills (Smarp,

2020). In addition, leaders should not forget the internal communication within organization. To

overcome information overload, measuring the effectiveness of IC strategy on a regular basis and

comparison of the results over time is really needed.

Finally, one of the best ways to reduce information overload is to segment content based

on the topics, employees’ roles within the organization, their locations as well as the languages

they speak so that leaders can share with them content that resonates with them. That is needed

because employees won’t read the message if they think it’s irrelevant to them.
 As a conclusion, we have to know how the technology today is important to our

organizations’ communication, we should know common barriers of the effective

communication and the ways of overcoming them, and also we have to know the approach of

effective management for the overload information in our communication strategy.

References

How Does Information Overload Affect Your Business & How to Stop It? (2020, September 23).

Retrieved December 4, 2021, from Smarp: https://blog.smarp.com/how-does-

information-overload-affect-your-business-how-to-stop-it

Just 9 Ways to Overcome the Barriers to Effective Communication. (2021, August 10). Retrieved

December 4, 2021, from Training Express:

https://www.trainingexpress.org.uk/overcome-the-barriers-to-effective-communication/

Technology in Business Communication – Advantages, Importance, and Applications. (2021,

August 4). Retrieved December 3, 2021, from KALAMTIME:

https://www.kalamtime.com/blog/technology-in-business-communication/

Donohoe, A. (2020, May 18). How Is Technology Used to Help Communication? Retrieved

December 3, 2021, from Techwalla: https://www.techwalla.com/articles/how-is-

technology-used-to-help-communication

Lawrence Robinson, Jeanne Segal, Ph. D., and Melinda Smith, M.A.(2020, October n.d.).

Effective Communication. Retrieved December 3, 2021, from Help Guide:

https://www.helpguide.org/articles/relationships-communication/effective-

communication.htm