Organizational success is dependant on many things but the most important element is effective communication. It sounds easy enough and you already have several meetings a week, doesn't that qualify as effective communication? Unfortunately, no. For effective communication to occur, "there must be a two-way interchange of feelings, ideas, values, clarification of signals, and a fine-tuning of skills."" The majority of managers do not possess the proper communication skills and without those an organization cannot be successful. Corporate strategy expert Lawrence G. Hrebiniak has identified poor communication as the cause of most organizational problems. He states that "communication is often ineffective, divisive, and injurious to cooperation- among employees. This paper will discuss ways of improving communication in the workplace.
In any workplace there are likely to be a significant number of obstacles that prevent effective communication. One obstacle that many organizations have to overcome is individual motives. Individual motives make cooperation among employees impossible through hoarding of information and harmful competition. One method of curbing individualism within the workplace is to promote teamwork and the sharing of information. Lack of cooperation and open communication within the workplace can be devastating to an organization. I encountered a situation where a manager, while recruiting an individual for employment, indicated that a significant position would soon be opening thus leading the individual to believe they would quickly advance. The reality was that there were several employees more qualified for the position and who would be considered before this individual. Ineffective communication in this case led to general mistrust of management among employees. .
Managers must have a high level of business ethics and strong communication skills in order to effectively accomplish the goals of an organization.