Organization Behavior Essay

Robbins and Coutler (2009) defined that communication refers to the course that the information, idea and emotion is delivered among individuals or groups in order to achieve a preset target and achieve a consensus agreement . Communication is the lifeline of the organization; it can connect various kinds of attributes together to enhance the organizational efficiency. It ensures the meticulous running of the organization (Rogers and Rogers, 1976). Management communication is the necessary countermeasure to associate different systems of the organization, alleviate the conflict and contradictions in the organization (Robbins and Coutler, 2009). However, in daily organizational communication, there are many communicative barriers, which affect staffs’ information delivery, and affect the enhancement of the company’s performance, affecting staffs’ personal career development (Klein, 1996). For example, in the management field, there is a famous dual 50% theorem that managers use more than 50%'s time in communication; however, more than 50% of the barriers in management is generated in communication. This essay will identify some barriers to communication in organization. Additionally, this essay will put up some useful methods for improving communication based on the case of Hewlett-Packard Co. Ltd.

The company's information delivery chain in different position levels, the company's scale, staff position and title as well as cultural difference may bring in communication barriers for the company.To eliminate the communication barrier in the company management, the organization should utilize effective methods (Rothstein et al, 1958). In below, HP’s case will be applied to analyze how to avoid communication barrier in the organization to achieve effective communication. HP focuses on creating best communication atmosphere for staffs, and it stipulates many relevant regulations and methods. It not only enhances staffs’ satisfaction and sense of success, but also ensures the company can effectively deliver the information (Hickson, 2007).

The first kind of communication barrier comes from staffs’ position difference. In a company’s organization structure, the difference of position brings in a hierarchy feeling among staffs. In the course of communication, this feeling will be more obvious when their positions and titles are different. Due to the different positions, managers and staffs’ viewpoint are inconsistent. It will lead to severe barrier between them (Hattesrley and McJannet, 1997). For example, according to the research of Dozier et al (1995), they selected Motorola as the case, they found that job positions of staffs at Motorola have a impact on the communication. This kind of barrier may also distort the information that is delivered to upper levels. Due to the relationship of position and title, staffs may erase some bad details and only report the information that is favorable to be listened to by their manager. It’s the same case that when the dept manager is reporting to his boss, he may also erase some unfavorable details. Therefore, since they are afraid of the harms if they report as per the fact, when junior officers or staffs are reporting performance to their direct manager, they often omit some important commercial information. After such filtering in several levels, the information may be totally distorted when it comes to the most senior manager. Generally speaking, the more the levels, the longer the time the information comes to the destination, and the bigger the distortion rate of the information.
Directing against the communication barrier from position difference, open door communication way could be used. For example, HP clearly regulated the effects and responsibilities for staffs, function managers, HR managers etc to ensure the implementation of open door working condition (Packard, 2006). In staffs’ responsibility clause, HP defined that staffs can openly raise questions and discuss with

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