Communication Challenges of a Manager

“The art of communication is the language of leadership.”

Communication is the solvent of all problems and is the foundation of personal development.
Communication simply refers to the act of sharing and receiving information with each other
which can be in different forms through different gadgets and medium. Reading, writing,
listening, talking are some of the forms of communication. It bridges the gap between clarity
and confusion. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, may involve
conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or nonlinguistic forms, and may
occur through spoken or other modes.

Effective communication is a building block of successful organizations. Communication is

one of the important factors that results in the success and failure of the organization.
Organization success may well depend on the way of how we communicate with our clients,
staff, stakeholders and others and its effects on listener. In any organizations, managers have
spent the majority of their time communicating in one form or another (meetings, face-to-face
discussions, memos, letters, e-mails, reports, etc.). Today, however, more and more
employees find that an important part of their work is communication, especially now that
service workers outnumber production workers and research as well as production processes
emphasize greater collaboration and teamwork among workers in different functional groups.

Many people find in difficult while communicating. They face various challenges in
communication. Communication challenge is anything that comes in the way of receiving
and understanding message that one sends to another to convey his/ her ideas, thoughts or any
kind of information. Communication challenges is trouble with talking, writing, reading, and
even understanding. A person’s choice of words, manner in which words are used and
meaning attributed to them can cause numerous problems. People, the greatest value of an
organization, at the same time can be represents of a great risk to effective communication.
Age, character, race, sex, education, origin and many other differences influence the things
someone says or hears. These challenges can result in misunderstanding of the goals, or in
lack of information about the people necessary to cooperate with in the event of specific
problems. Some of the challenges faced by the manager in organization are explained below:
 • Cultural differences

Multiculturalism is a reality the way world is globalized in the social sphere, political system,
economic landscape, geographical areas, and international relations. The size and number of
the organizations operating across the globe is also growing very fast. The diversity is more
in the consumer base, client groups, and partners. There are people of cultural variants in the
different parts of the world working in the same organization together. Among that,
Language barrier is the most common problem found in organizations as staffs have more
chances of meeting and dealing with the speakers of other languages. For example: if the
company is dealing with an international client who doesn’t speak English Language it
creates a language barrier between these two parties as they don’t understand and
communicate with same language. Some of the employees may not speak English as a
native language. Even with a high level of fluency in English, some phrases or words could
still cause confusion to a non-native speaker which creates barriers. Speaking a different
language isn't the only way some cultures can clash in terms of communication. For
example, in some cultures it's not common to use direct language. In fact, being too direct
or blunt may be considered rude, especially toward a supervisor or manager. Employees
from certain cultural backgrounds may expect to be asked for their opinions and will not
simply offer them up, even when their peers speak freely and directly. Body language,
gestures and symbols can all carry different meanings from culture to culture as well.

• Information overload

Information overload in the workplace is used to describe the extensive amount of

information flowing among employees. It is hard to avoid information overload in today’s
workplace. Most businesses, from startups to large organizations are dealing with information
overload. When there is too much information flowing at some point, important details can be
slip through the cracks and miscommunication will become more frequent. This can lead to
under-performance within the organization also decrease the organizational productivity.
Information overload in communication affects mental, emotional and physical well-being.
Having access to a variety of data and tasks can cause stress and anxiety in individuals. It
creates negative impact on employees’ well-being, productivity, and success at work. Too
much information creates the confusion among the employees and takes more time to
complete the particular task. In addition to phone calls, text messages, group chats, social
networks, and internal meetings, an average person can receive as many as 120 emails every
day. This often results in important information being lost, deleted, forgotten, or ignored.
Employees are easily frustrated by overloaded inboxes. 

• Poor Listening Skill

Some of the most common barriers to effective listening include low concentration, lack of
prioritization, poor judgement, day dreaming etc. When a listener is not paying attention to a
speaker’s dialogue, effective communication is significantly decreased. Low concentration,
or not paying close attention to speakers, can result from various psychological or physical
situations including visual or auditory distractions, physical discomfort, inadequate volume,
lack of interest in the subject matter, stress, or personal bias. Both listeners and speakers
should be aware of these kinds of impediments and work to eliminate them. For example, if
your colleagues are presenting in an important topic but the other people present in that room
are not paying attention to their colleagues, there is chance that they may missed out
important subject matter for their upcoming projects. As well as the speaker himself should
always tries to grab the attention of the audience through body languages, asking questions
and should focused on increasing the interaction with their colleagues. Although some people
think listening skills just develop over time, competent listening is difficult, and enhancing
listening skills takes concerted effort. our individualistic society values speaking more than
listening.

• Physical Distraction and Noise

Physical distractions are the physical things that get in the way of communication. Examples
of such things include the telephone, a pick-up truck door, a desk, an uncomfortable meeting
place, and noise. Our brains can be easily distracted. A movement out of the window, noise in
the background, our smartphones, music, crowd can easily be the distraction in
communication in organization. We can’t pay attention if there is too much background noise
or in a crowded room, and may also include having the television on in the background.
When we are attending meetings, our smartphone showing us notification can be a major
distraction. Many employees also find the communicator attractive or unattractive and pay
more attention to how they feel about them and their physical appearance than to what they
are saying. If the employees are not interested in the topic/issue being discussed they can
become bored. This rapidly leads to becoming distracted and ceasing to pay attention.
  Lack of Feedback

Feedback is the mirror of communication. If communication moves in one direction only,

discourse will quickly become ineffective. Feedback is important on many levels. Not only
does it help determine how well your employees have met their goals, but it also shows how
well they collaborate with their teams, their co-workers, and their managers. Feedback also
shows how well employees handle stress and adversity. A lack of feedback can lead to
demotivation and slack work attitudes. Conversely, positive feedback can make work more
fun, engaging people and pushing positive development. But no matter whether feedback is
good or bad, it is a necessity. For management, it's important to not only to receive feedback
but to act on it. Surveys are useless if their results are ignored. The aim of collecting feedback
should be to use it as a difference-maker. It also helps to get the things correct if the
employees go in the wrong way. Feedback is the basic chain of command, without proper
feedback the communication is incomplete and cannot move forward because both sender
and receiver can be thinking in different ways.

 Lack of Employees Engagement

Human resources are one of the factors for the organization success. Higher the engagement
of the employees towards organizational goals higher will be the sales and productivity. If the
employee is demotivated towards their work, they can’t give their 100% effort to their task
they are performing. As a manager he/she should ensure that the employees are motivated
and dedicated towards their job. Two-way communication should be done with employee to
avoid confusion and misunderstanding. Manager should frequently communicate
organizational goals and objectives to their employee so that they will have positive attitude
towards their work.

 Stereotyping

Stereotyping is the notion that we carry about a certain set of people and their culture, value
judgments, overestimation or over-exaggerations. Stereotypes are images we have of
individuals or members of a specific social group. Individuals or groups are reduced to
single characteristics. These stereotypes are the main reasons for difference of opinions
about the conflicting culture and leads to miscommunication. The popular examples of
stereotypes are: Spanish people are bad-tempered and racist; the English are business men;
Chinese people make work their religion, Swiss people like exactness, Brazilians are always
late, and Japanese are forward-looking. All these ideas are stereotypes against a country and
its people, which can negatively affect the working employees or future employees. Because
of already-made suppositions, an employer can demonstrate bias and make a mistake in
hiring, operation, and firing.

 Communication Channels
Communication can be done through various channels such as using of emails, outlook,
social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, What’s app, Viber etc). These channels are used
to delivered the formal and informal messages to the employee. In the modern workplace, we
rely heavily on tech to deliver our internal communications, so not having the right tools to
deliver your message is a huge barrier. To be consistent in communication approach manager
need to decide which channels are suited to which parts of the company strategy. Lack of
open, honest communication has the most negative impact on employee morale.

Conclusion

Communication in the workplace is critical to establishing and maintaining quality working

relationships in organizations. As a process of transmitting information and common
understanding from one person to another, effective communication in the workplace is
important because every organizational function and activity involves some form of direct or
indirect communication. Consequently, to improve the effectiveness of communications,
managers must develop an awareness of the importance of sender's and receiver's
responsibilities and adhere to active listening skills. Managers should develop a strategy to
overcome the challenges that they faced in the organization. He/ She should ensure that there
is two-way communication in the organization which flow from the top level to bottom level
and bottom to top level so that the misunderstandings and mistakes can be solved within the
short time span. Proper communication channels should be followed within the office area so
that employee having any confusion regarding their work can immediately reached out to
their leaders. Manager should also ensure that people from every cultural difference are
equally treated and fair opportunity are provided to individuals.
As we know, strong communication isn’t easy. Fostering authentic relationships takes time,
effort, and transparency. Open communication helps employees feel more satisfied in their
work, feel comfortable collaborating with others on innovative ideas, and cultivate new skills
that support company goals. So, the manager should therefore create an environment wherein
problems, plans, issues, opinions thoughts and ideas pertaining to work, are discussed and
handled in a professional, proficient manner through positive and effective communication.
Understanding the communication process and then working at improvement provide
managers a way for becoming more effective communicators. Knowing the common barriers
to communication is the first step to minimizing their impact. Managers can reflect on how
they are doing and make use of the ideas presented. To achieve managerial goals and to
evade potential risks, the managers should be insightful who should uphold creativity and
enthusiasm through flexible leadership. Effective communication skills in the workplace
will improve an administrator’s ability to be a strong leader.