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Barriers to Effective Business Communication and Ways to Overcome Them

Business in America has become increasingly global. At the same time, more jobs have shifted away from routine production positions to knowledge work where employees must have access to large amounts of information - often at a moment's notice. In order to access this information, employees must spend a greater part of their work day communicating with other employees, suppliers and customers.

The percentage of time that an employee spends communicating with others while at work is said to increase with level of responsibility that the employee has within the organization. Most employees spend an estimated 75% of their work day communicating through meetings, telephone calls, e-mail or et cetera.

With such a large amount of business involving communication, the need for good communication skills become apparent. However, studies have shown that many people do not possess the needed communication skills to be successful in today's global business arena. This is a serious problem when one considers that ineffective business communication can cause an organization to lose money, as well as damage the organization's reputation and lead to potential lawsuits.

The purpose of this report is to (1) pinpoint the weaknesses that inherent in today's communication styles and how they impede effective business communication, (2) identify a number of solutions to developing good communication skills, and (3) recommend key strategies for effective communication in today's business.

THE PROBLEM

Poor communication within an organization can be damaging to the profitability and productivity of the organization. This lack of effective communication skills can lead to "negative outcomes, including errors, productivity declines, distrust, lower morale, confusion, absenteeism, and general dissatisfaction." (AlMulla, 2008). If these problems are left alone and communication does not improve, the organization may experience a loss of customers as well as a higher than usual employee turnover.

In order to remedy this situation, the barriers to effective communication must be identified in order to eliminate them. Basic observation of the situation will help to pinpoint what barriers to effective communication are present in one's organization.

These may include:

Improper or misunderstood use of language -

If two people do not possess the same level of language skills or unknowingly assign different

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