Example 1

The three managers that I have interviewed are Dr. Sam Lee, Mr PL Wong and Mr BY Sia. These three people are from the same organization, which is JI Sdn Bhd.

Dr. S L is holding a position of General Manager in the organization. He is the decision maker and facilitator of the company. Although the company is having managing director and executive director, but Dr. Sam is the one who run the business as well as managing the whole company activities. Of course, he is directly reporting to managing director.

Basically, all the departments in the company are under his supervision. Nevertheless, there are three departments that not directly reporting to him, but report to the production manager, who is also an operation manager for the organization. The three departments are engineering & cad-cam department, R&D department and quality department.

As mentioned, Dr. SL is a facilitator and decision maker for the company. Hence, most of the strategies were implemented by him. Even, when the company having customer visit, or ISO auditing, he is the one who entertain them. Besides, he is holding a meeting twice a week in order to obtain idea from his subordinates, on how to have improvement as well as solving customer complain, if any.

Mr W is holding a position of Project Manager in the organization. He is the head department of project team, which consisting of 4 members. As titled, he is handling project based order. Project based order is very much different with normal part order. A lot of discussion will need to be carried out whether internally or externally. He will need to meet up with different type of people in order to obtain the best result.

According, he is dealing with aerospace project currently. It is a transfer project from Airbus, which shifting the technology and fabrication line from France to Malaysia. Although, these is not the first shifting project from Airbus, but since the requirement are so stringent in aerospace industry, it is always tough to handle.

He will need to discuss with the customer’s engineer on the solution of transferring works. Besides, he will need to co-ordinate internally, especially the company engineer on the confidence level regarding the transfer. He is also need to work out a schedule in order to meet the dateline. Schedule accuracy is highly important as any delay will cause the airbus engineer do not have sufficient parts to perform the assembly.

Therefore, as a project manager, his job responsibility is very tough and stressful. Any mistake that occur will be resulted a vast lost for the organization.

Mr S is holding a position of Planning Assistant Manager in the organization. The position is quite funny in the sense that it is different with Assistant Planning Manager. According to Mr S, Assistant Planning Manager is the “real” assistant to planning manager. For his title, he is not the assistant for planning manager, but is the assistant manager for planning. Sound strange for the position. In fact, he himself is also not quite understood why company created this position. By the way, in the organization, there is no position of planning manager. Thus, he is directly reporting to Dr. S.

As a position of Planning Assistant Manager, he is absolutely in charge of material planning, customer sales order and customer service. But production planning is not under his role. Hence, it can be reason that why he is mentioned his responsibility is different with Assistant Planning Manager, due planning is supposing include production planning, but he is handling up to the raw material stage only.

He has six members in the department who helping him to handle the daily routine work. Basically, this six person are having multi task responsibility, as they are handling the planning, sales and servicing. The main criteria differentiate the sixth is they are handling different customer. Each of them will plan their own activity, example, the raw material needed for the month for their customer, the sales order following up and the complaint or requirement requested from the customer. By the way, this department is handling part order or routine order only. They will not involve in project-based order.

Since one of the responsibility is to provide servicing to the customer, dealing with customer is needed daily. They will need to contact customer to chase for sales order, deal with customer when there is complain, liaise with customer when there are dispute, as well as communicate with customer in order to build a good relationship.

2.0 Answer for question ii)
It is for sure that everybody will have different communication problem, the same with the three managers that I have interviewed. Problem that they faced might be the same, but the level of importance is differing, due to the position as well as different group of people that they deal with. Let us have a look on the issue that they face individually.

• Communication problem faced by the General Manager – Dr. S
Since the responsibility needed him to manage the organization, basically the communication problem can be categorized into internally, which is within the organization and externally, which are the customers. Dealing internally and externally required different sets of skill. Here are some of the problems that he faced internally.

i. Fear or reluctance of expressing true feelings

This is very true as we all are human. Human being will have the weak point of when facing the higher-ranking person; we will felt fear to express what we thought, although in our mind we felt something is not right. There are also people that totally reluctance to open their mouth. They only become “yes” man in front of him. Hence, communication couldn’t carry out with two ways.

ii. Lack of direct communication, unable to understand what the people mean.

The other problem facing is due most of the time, he only communicate with top management, when he tried to communicate with the middle and lower management, he found difficulty to communicate with them. He totally not that understand what they want to convey. Reason is every time when there are issues, the lower management people will only feed back to some guy, and this guy will act as middleman and represent them to speak with him.

iii. Some people won’t readily cooperate

In any organization, surely there are people do not want to cooperate. The same as what Dr. Sam facing. The company workers are mostly skillful people. Thus, to them, they found why should they hear what you said as you know nothing. You are the management and not directly involve in the activity. So, they do not want to cooperate whenever there are new things to add or implement.

Externally, Dr. Sam do have another set of problem, which are :-

i. Unresolved negative feelings
Communicate externally, especially with the customer; the most difficult part is when they are having negative feeling. Once the customer start to have negative feeling, it will be very hard to deal with them. Most probably he will not have chance to say anything because they will keep scolding until the end. Definitely it is a bad experience. Thus, do not let the customer to develop negative feeling is very much important.

ii. Stressful
Another problem faced by Dr. S in the organization is stress. When a person is under immense stress, he may find it difficult to understand the message, leading to communication distortion. At the time of stress, our psychological frame of mind depends on our beliefs, experiences, goals and values. Thus, we fail to realize the essence of communication. Stress occurred whenever customers have unreasonable request and demand. Hence, managing stress is another soft skill needed for Dr. S.

iii. Lack of Subject Knowledge
If a person who sends a message lacks subject knowledge then he may not be able to convey his message clearly. The receiver could misunderstand his message, and this could lead to a problem to effective communication. In current business world, most of the buyer does not have the real understanding on the product or lack of product knowledge. Hence, it is difficulty for the organization to understand what is the buyer message.

b. Communication problem faced by the Project Manager – Mr W
As a Project Manager, he is communicating more externally with the customer. He will need to make sure whatever discussed are meeting the company capability and requirement. He will need to guarantee any delivery schedule been set can be met internally. Since so many things to follow up and so many different people to deal with, it is for sure he will have some communication problem. Below is some of it.

i. Previous bad experiences with communication
This is referring to the experience faced when dealing with the customer. Communication will not be effective when we are not able to deal confidently. As mentioned, communication will only be effective when there is feedback. If everything is only request, example, request from the customer, and no feedback from the supplier, probably the customer felt everything is fine, but in actual fact, the supplier is struggling. At the end of the day, both parties are having issue and probably the delivery need to be delayed. As per result, both parties are the looser.

ii. Messages aren't being returned promptly.
The other problem faced is message did not return promptly. Against, this is referring to the customer. According to Mr Wong, most of the time, when project being delayed, it is due to the slow feedback from the customer. This shown the communication does not effectively carry out, although they are having discussion almost once a week.

iii. Stress
The other problem facing is stress. Definitely, dealing with customer is not an easy job, but a stressful work task. Although Mr Wong himself understood that stress will jeopardize the communication when dealing with the customer, but it is the pressure and the practice that he need to go thru. Hence, he is having his own way of releasing stress, but unfortunately, he denied to mention.

iv. Setting boundaries
People have different comfort zones regarding their personal space, inquiries about their personal lives, and their personal property that deserve our respect. Therefore, when he is trying to communicate with the workers or colleagues in order to build a better relationship, they tend to set the boundary. This has affected him to continue to communicate effectively with them in future.

c. Communication problem faced by the Planning Assistant Manager – Mr S
As a Planning Assistant Manager, Mr S is not only dealing externally with the customer, but also internally with the department head and engineers to obtain the best delivery schedule and resolve some technical issue faced by the customer. Nevertheless, dealing internally given him the most headaches, as mentioned by him. Let us take a look what kind of problem that he faced.

i. Lack of respect for each other
Against, he is facing almost the same problem as Dr. SL facing. In manufacturing line, most of the skill workers do not really highly educated. They are going thru a hard period to learn from the eldest in order to pick up the skills. Hence, this becoming their strong believe that why should they follow the instruction of someone who doesn’t have the skills. These created problem while anybody trying to communicated with this group of people.

ii. Poor communication skills
Besides the group of people do not highly educated, they also do not have much chance to attend courses in order to improve their soft skills, which including communication. These resulted they are not efficient and effective when communicating with others.

iii. Some people are being avoided.
Some of the workers are having less confident thru themselves. When they think they cannot make it, they will start to avoid. These resulted they could not improve their communication skill, as they do not have much practice. As per results, the communication couldn’t carry out effectively.

iv. Fulfilling commitments
The currency of most relationships is based on whether our "word is our bond." In other words, be trustworthy. Follow through on our personal and professional commitments to our colleagues. If our reputation at work is ever on the line, our co-workers will be more likely to reserve judgment and grant us the benefit of doubt...just when we need it the most. Hence, this becoming another set of communication problem faced.

v. Not paying attention while communicating
This is common problem faced by all the organization in manufacturing line. Workers are not paying attention while communicating as they think it is wasting of time. To them, communicating is not important, works is more valuable. Many of us talk more than we listen. Practice active listening and learn to process what is said and unsaid is important in order to improve the quality of our communication in the work place.

3.0 Answer for question iii)
Communication is a process by which we convey our message to someone or a group of people. And if the message is conveyed clearly and unambiguously, then it is known as effective communication. In effective communication, the message we had send would reach the receiver with very little distortion. However, a communication becomes successful only if the receiver understands what the sender is trying to convey. When our message is not clearly understood, we should understand that we are facing a barrier to communication. Barriers to effective communication could cause roadblocks in our professional and personal life and it could be one of the major hurdles in achieving our professional goals.

An effective communication barrier is one of the problems faced by many organizations. Many social psychologists opine that there is 50% to 70% loss of meaning while conveying the messages from a sender to a receiver. They estimate there are some places where communication could be interpreted wrongly. A few barriers of effective communication in an organization and the three people that I had interviewed are given as below.

a. Language.
Inability to converse in a language that is known by both the sender and receiver is the greatest barrier to effective communication. When a person uses inappropriate words while conversing or writing, it could lead to misunderstanding between the sender and a receiver. This is common in the organization that the three people work with.

b. Physical Barriers.
One of the major barriers of communication in a workplace is the physical barrier. Physical barriers in an organization includes large working areas that are physically separated from others. Other distractions that cause a physical barrier in an organization are the environment and background noises.

c) Emotions
Our emotions could be a barrier to communication if we are engrossed in our emotions for some reason. In such cases, we tend to have trouble listening to others or understanding the message conveyed to us. A few of the emotional interferences include hostility, anger, resentfulness and fear.

d. Cultural barriers
When we join a group and wish to remain in it, sooner or later we need to adopt the behavior patterns of the group. These are the behaviors that the group accepts as signs of belonging.

The group rewards such behavior through acts of recognition, approval and inclusion. In groups, which are happy to accept us, and where we are happy to conform, there is a mutuality of interest and a high level of win-win contact. However, there are barriers to our membership of a group, a high level of game playing replaces good communication. That’s the reason why office politic occurred.

e. Differences in perception.
The world constantly bombards us with information: sights, sounds, scents, and so on. Our minds organize this stream of sensation into a mental map that represents our perception or reality. In no case is the perception of a certain person the same as the world itself, and no two maps are identical.

As we view the world, our mind absorbs our experiences in a unique and personal way. Because our perceptions are unique, the ideas we want to express differ from other people. Even when two people have experienced the same event, their mental images of that event will not be identical. As senders, we choose the details that seem important and focus our attention on the most relevant and general, a process known as selective perception. As receivers, we try to fit new details into our existing pattern. If a detail doesn't quite fit, we are inclined to distort the information rather than rearrange the pattern.

f. Incorrect filtering.
Filtering is screening out before a message is passed on to someone else. In business, the filters between our receiver and us are many; secretaries, assistants, receptionists, answering machines, etc. Those same gatekeepers may also 'translate' our receiver's ideas and responses before passing them on to us. To overcome filtering barriers, try to establish more than one communication channel, eliminate as many intermediaries as possible, and decrease distortion by condensing message information to the bare essentials.

g. Poor listening.
Perhaps the most common barrier to reception is simply a lack of attention on the receiver's part. We all let our minds wander now and then, regardless of how hard we try to concentrate. People are essentially likely to drift off when they are forced to listen to information that is difficult to understand or that has little direct bearing on their own lives. Too few of us simply do not listen well. To overcome barriers, paraphrase what we have understood, try to view the situation through the eyes of other speakers and resist jumping to conclusions. Clarify meaning by asking non-threatening questions, and listen without interrupting.

h. Differing backgrounds.
Differences in background can be one of the hardest communication barriers to overcome. Age, education, gender, social status, economic position, cultural background, temperament, health, beauty, popularity, religion, political belief, even a passing mood can all separate one person from another and make understanding difficult. To overcome the barriers associated with differing backgrounds, avoid projecting our own background or culture onto others. Clarify our own and understand the background of others, spheres of knowledge, personalities and perceptions and don't assume that certain behaviors mean the same thing to everyone.

4.0 Answer for question iv)
Improving our communication skills will enable us to establish better working relationships. Poor workplace communication skills will have negative effects on our business relationships and may result in decreased productivity. Hence, tactics needed to overcome the issue. Below are some of the suggestion as well as tactics been used and applied by the manager.

a. Personal contact is important.
People relate to one another better when they can meet in person and read each other’s body language, so they can feel the energy the connection creates. If personal contact is not possible, the next best way to connect is by talking on the telephone.

b. Develop a network.
No one achieves success alone. Make an effort to become friends with people in different departments within the company, meet new people in the community, and look for experiences or interests that we have in common.

c. Always be courteous in our communications with others.
Courtesy lets people know that we care. The words “Thank You” show that we appreciate a person’s efforts. Try saying, “would you please...” instead of just, “Please...” We will sound less dogmatic.

d. Be consistent and clear in our workplace communications.
Consistency builds trust. Asking, “Did I explain this clearly?” will assure that people understood what we said.

e. Compromise decreases the tension associated with conflict. Ask, “What is best for the company?” so that co-workers will not take the conflict personally.

f. Learn how the source culture best receives communications.
Deborah Valentine, of the Management Communication Department at Emory University's Goizueta Business School in Atlanta, advises managers to analyze their audience to find the best way to communicate a message. "Different cultures like to receive information, and trust information they receive from different sources, in different ways," she says.

It is true that people from some cultures don't trust information that comes directly from a manager, for example, preferring that the word comes instead from a leader of the employee group, a headman, or shop foreman.

Some workers don't feel comfortable being singled out for praise in front of the entire employee group, a typical way to dish out praise in Asian. For these workers, quiet praise in a private office is much preferred.

g. Assign mentors and take care of them.
Managers need to understand the important role they play in helping a new employee become an important contributor, no matter what their country of origin. But the issue is especially important for foreign workers with different cultural expectations. Assigning a mentor in the business operation, preferably a well-respected person from the department who can assist in helping ease integration will help.

Effective mentoring can be critical, with one experienced employee mentoring a new employee from a different cultural background, will enable a person from a background unused to going to a manager to turn to the peer counselor to help mediate a situation.

h. Practice open-door communication.
Keep in mind that employees unused to local business practices may be reluctant to go to the head of their department for advice or guidance. The idea of the open door is so foreign to about three-fourths of the cultures of the world that it doesn't even translate. And the downside is that sometimes the manager, by encouraging an employee from a different culture to talk directly to them, is seen as weak.

Hence, the suggestion is many times if we are dealing with a group and we are trying to get feedback, one idea is to use an elected representative who is empowered to report problems and suggestions to the department head. It is always the best way to bridge the communication gap is to set a good example. Do not wait for the worker to come through the open door, but go to them. Ask them about their concerns and questions. Nothing is more credible than setting the example.

i. Train the employees early and often.
Many of the pitfalls of misunderstanding and cultural confusion can be prevented with early and ongoing training. It's very important that incoming employees be taught in orientation sessions and in ongoing training what the company's expectations are, that they be acculturated to the way that company does things.

Research been done and found that many misconceptions about conduct in the workplace can be avoided by ensuring that rules are defined and observed even during the interview process.

j. Avoid using jargon and slang.
Employees from outside the country may have difficulty understanding company communication that uses our jargon and slang, as well as any number of culture-specific idioms.

Sherron B. Kenton, coauthored the book CrossTalk: Communicating in a Multicultural Workplace clearly stated that "Using metaphors may be problematic with people from other cultures, even English-speaking employees, since they don't necessarily use the same metaphors." Slang and colloquialism are definite challenges in all areas of communication.

k. Play by the rules and stick to business.
Finally, the best way to create an environment that people of all cultures and ethnicities can participate in is to ensure that the company's mission and goals are communicated clearly and that the workplace is driven by business requirements rather than personal preferences.

It is important that managers and the people within the mixture make decisions that are not based on personal preferences, traditions, or conveniences, but rather on what is the mission and vision, and what are the requirements necessary for achieving that mission and vision.

Consistency of message from the top of the organization is important to avoid conflicting agendas. At the local leadership level, a manager must determine the best way to communicate, which means knowing the team, seeing through the integration, and understanding their concerns personally and professionally. Building a productive workplace with employees from many backgrounds can enrich a company on many different levels, but it's not a process one can take for granted.

5.0 Answer for question v)
Basically, the three departments are facing almost the same communication problems and barriers. Nothing special and nothing much different.

According to Wikipedia, “communication is a process of transferring information from one entity to another. Communication processes are sign-mediated interactions between at least two agents, which share a repertoire of signs, and semiotic rules”. In short, communication can only be effective with both ways and directions. It is needed feedback in order to confirm whatever messages convey to the receiver, the receiver are able to decode correctly as what we mentioned. Often, communication breakdown occurred with the reasons given above.

Example, barrier in language. Three of the managers are facing the same issue, as language is the main media for us to communicate. When Dr. Sam communicating with the customer in China, he has to speak in Chinese, otherwise the people over there will not be understood what he want to convey. Of course, Dr Sam himself must know how to speak in Chinese the first place.

For Mr. W, he will need to use English when communicate with the European. The issue is, English can be in America or in British slang. This will be resulted sometime they misunderstood each others.

The same for Mr S. When he communicated within the organization, most probably he will need to use dialect when communicate with the chinese’s machine operator. When communicate with Malays, he will need to use Bahasa Malaysia as media. It is the fact that in machining line, the experience workers are normally does not attend high education. Probably the highest is only Form 3 or even lower. Of course, there are also people studied until form 5 but those are in rare percentage.

As per result, communication couldn’t effectively transfer from one entity to another entity. In actual fact, it is not only happened within the three departments, but in any others organization and all over the world.

Conclusion
Experts agree that good communication is one of the keys to being successful in today’s competitive job market. People must be able to communicate with each other on a daily basis to keep the work flowing in an orderly fashion, and to deal with work issues as they arise. Misunderstandings can lead to delays, which ultimately affect the productivity of the company. In the past decade, employers have been forced to cut back on the number of personnel in order to save money, and problems in productivity can be even more detrimental in a slim-downed work force.

Communication in the 21st century is quickly evolving into one that involves less conversation, and more electronic sharing of information. While in the past, an employee might have a discussion with a co-worker face-to-face, today people tend to communicate via e-mail or instant message. Either way, the old rules still apply regarding how to effectively communicate in the workplace.

One of the most important components for successful interpersonal communication is clarity. People need to be able to understand what we are saying. This may seem obvious, but it is surprising how many people seem to think that excessive language makes them appear more intelligent and important. In conversation either in person or by phone, speak clearly, making our point quickly. Before we pick up the phone to make a call, have our points organized and be ready to answer questions if posed. If the person to whom we are speaking does not understand what we are saying, the conversation is wasted, and we will appear to be disorganized and unprepared. Ask if the person has questions or needs clarification on any of the points that we have raised.

Communication is at the heart of many interpersonal problems faced by the employers.
Understanding the communication process and then working at improvement provide managers a recipe 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. When taking stock of how well we are doing as a manager, first ask others and ourselves how well we are doing as a communicator. By improving our relationships with co-workers, it is definitely will raise our quality-of-life-at-work.

Successful business start from effective communication…

Quoted by David Wang

6.0 REFERENCES:
http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/cguanipa/communic.htm
http://www.businessperform.com/articles/communication_barriers.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/barriers-to-effective-communication.html
http://www.hodu.com/barriers.shtml
http://www.ims.uni-stuttgart.de/projekte/mate/mdag/cp/cp_1.html
http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/ie/Who%20Am%20I%203/Who%20Am%20I%203-590.htm
http://www.squidoo.com/communication-barriers
http://www.vitalsmarts.com/communication_barrier.aspx
http://www.work911.com/communication/indexbarriers.htm