"Developing excellent communication skills is absolutely essential to effective leadership.

The
leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm
to others. If a leader can't get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then
having a message doesn't even matter."
Gilbert Amelio
President and CEO of National Semiconductor Corp.

1.0 INTRODUCTION
The most contributing factor to any organizations success is the possession of effective
communication ability in management. Information technology has potentially influence
communication in a way, but that has not curtailed the need for effective communication. For
instance, e-mails, text messages, social networking are some of the various communication ways
enable by information technology. In any organization communication represents;

the backbone of the organization

the speed lanes of business transactions
a bond that sticks its different aspects together to create a solid foundation
and lastly the energy forces that leads to growth.

Considering the above circumstances, every organization needs a manager who is capable of
communicating effectively with the employees to build a successful and sustainable
organization.
Communication is the process by which information is transmitted and understood between
two or more people. (McShane and Von Glinow, 2008) . The principles of communication
involves: is, purposeful that is to inform, influence and instruct, a package of signals, a
process of adjustment, transactional, punctuated and involves content and relationship
dimensions. Basically communication is an expression of an opinion, a bias, judgement,
comment and impression.
In this rapid growing technological ad business era, employees should have some degree of
communication competence. Communication competence refers to a persons ability to identify
appropriate communication patterns in a given situation and to achieve goals by applying the
knowledge. (McShane and Von Glinow, 2003)
Communication plays an important role in our societies and organizations because:

is the only way of sending and receiving information and ideas

it bonds the labor force or colleagues

it meets workers needs
aids knowledge control
And boost decision making process. (Robbins and Judge ,2011)

Communication in an organization seeks to achieve four primary functions, they are: Control,
Motivation, Emotional expression, Information.
The Communication process/ model an essential area in this subject entails eight (8) elements:
sender with ideas, encoding of the ideas, message, and channel of transmission, receiver, noise
and feedback. (Robbins and Judge, 2011)

(Hotelmule.com,
2014)

2.0 BARRIERS OF COMMUNICATION.

Barriers in communication can be referred to as any problem that prevents the smooth flow of
effective communication. These barriers often occur during the transmission of messages from
the sender to the receiver. Most barriers may distort the messages and loss of intended meaning,
whilst others may cause conflicts. Barriers occur in many forms, but five (5) of the most
common categorizations will be discuss and analyze in depth subsequently in this paper.
2.1 ORGANISATIONAL BARRIERS.
They are barriers that occur from non-clarity of duties and authoritative power of employees
from an organization. An organizations structure has the tendency to affect the workers capability
and communication procedure. Communication can also affect productivity. Some of the major
factors in this category are:
I.

Organizational policies.
Policies in organizations are mostly made by the highest management and these policies
impact the relationship between employees. In most case, it hinders the smooth flow of
communication. Example, is the policy of an organization to communicate only through
written massages, this policy might cause delay in transmitting because the use of

II.

technology would have been easier and faster.

Organizational rules and regulations.
Rules and regulations become problematic in communication because the senders have
difficulty in generating messages and might leave out some information. Therefore strict
rules and regulations distract the flow of communication in an organization especially if
is between superiors and subordinates. For instance: a particular way of communication
etc.

Others are: facilities, position and status, complex structures etc.

2.2 SEMANTIC BARRIERS.

This can be simply defined as language problems in clear terms. The problems arise from
language background and an individuals communication ability. They occur in both written and
oral communication.
I.

AMBIGIOUS WORDS AND SYMBOLS.

Words and symbols can have different meanings based on the individual, religion,
culture, geographical, country etc. Communication is deemed meaningless and
ineffective if the intended meaning is not understood.
The word value can have different meanings in the different context is been used.
Moving the neck to a question can mean a yes or a no.

(Wafagal.com,2010)

(Pinterest, 2014)

II.

FAULTY TRANSLATION.
This happens when a receiver mistranslates messages received to a third party or the
receiver misunderstood the intentions of the sender. For instance when a manager
informs employees of a message sent by a superior, he/she might translate based on
personal understanding or assumptions.

2.3 PHYSICAL BARRIERS.

They are the obstacles that are clearly visible to an individual in communication like noise , time
and distance, space , defects in the medium, faulty organizational structure, information overload
etc..
1. NOISE
Noise can be simply defined as disturbances and can be group into five parts. They are:
I.
Physical noise: any noise from the environment like loud noise of machines,
vehicles etc.
II.
Psychological noise which refers to an individuals inattentiveness.
III.
Written noise results from typo errors, bad hand writings etc.
IV.
Visual noise relates to tardiness of employees, unclear visuals etc.
V.
Electronic noise like interruptions during telephone calls, sending of emails, etc.
2. TIME AND DISTANCE.
Technology has its benefits in communication but it does not eradicate all negative issues
relating to communication. Communication is easier with shorter distance as many
effective mediums are available. Improper timing, faulty communication mediums,
network and mechanical breakdown make distant communication difficult because
communication would have been possible in short distances face to face.

2.4 PERSONAL BARRIERS.

These are the barriers that are related to the sender and the receiver. This is one of the most
difficult barriers to overcome as is can be considered as part of the individuals involved.
They can be grouped into two types:

1. Barriers to superiors

This occurs mostly in the downward type of communication because the messages are
sent from the highest in positions and status to the subordinates. This is also most formal
communication process and the relationship between employees creates a restriction to
knowledge circulation. Some ways are:
I. Regard and attitude

3.0 THREE WAYS MANAGERS CAN IMPROVE THEIR

COMMUNICATION SKILLS.
Effective communication plays a major role in leadership and motivation, which in turns lead to
a successful organization. Through communication mangers can create a friendly working
environment where employees can voice out their opinions and this can lead to high productivity
and less interpersonal conflicts.
The following are ways mangers can enhance their communication skills;
3.1 Practicing good communication skills.
Good communication skills are considered as one of the contributing factors to a successful
management. A manager is most likely to improve his/her communication skills if he/she puts
relevance on communication skills.
According to (Joelle Jay), good communication skills involve:
1. Listening
Managers who create an effective listening atmosphere are able to minimize the gap
between their relationships with employees. By doing so, they figure out an easy way of
achieving goals. They are also able to acknowledge and address issues such as emotions etc.
2. Facilitating
Positive facilitating encourages and motivates employees in order to create a collaborative effort.
3. Questioning
It involves the act of gathering information and ideas from relevant people. This skill enables
mangers to ask appropriate questions in order to receive the appropriate answers.
4. Using discretion
Managers should be able to handle confidential situations carefully so as to gain employees trust.
5. Directing
This is when mangers provide guidance to their employees to achieve their organizational goals.
The above skills can also good deals in business.

3.2. Giving and receiving feedback.

The act of giving and receiving feedback goes a long way to enchanted communication between
superiors and subordinates /people. Communication is a two way process therefore mangers
should learn to give feedback and to solicit feedback. This will create cohesion between them
and enable the managers to tackle and curtail all disturbances to effective communication.
Feedbacks can be solicited through evaluating anonymously, asking for suggestions etc.
Managers must learn to receive feedbacks and to give feedback without any emotions attached.
The feedbacks gained should not be left un-tackle but to be discussed and to find solutions and
improvements should be made. Re - evaluating of the improvement making can checked to see if
is effective.
3. 3. Knowledge in social technology
Managers need to be abreast with the latest and most functional communication tools to enhance
communication. They should be willing to learn the technological communication trends to make
them fit both old and new generation of people, employees etc. It will also create a long lasting
and ceaseless communication process, time saving, rapid flow of information, applicable
everywhere, anytime and improves long distance communication.
Example: instead of the traditional ways of sending penned down letters , emails, instant
messages , face time, Skype, teleconferencing, video calls etc.