Business Communication Issues - Essay Example

PART COMMUNICATION Report: Communication Issues in Biomedical Equipment Department Head of Engineering Unit The Minister of Health March 6, 2014 Subject: Communication Problem Identification and Documentation Introduction This report will analyse issues with the formal communication systems of Biomedical Equipment Department. To this end, this report will analyse and evaluate the communication structures and systems and evaluate the central communication problem. From there, the report will identify solutions to the problem and present them as a recommendation. Communication Channels Biomedical Equipment Department (hereafter referred to as BED) is an engineering department of a hospital in Seychelles. The department has an operational core of technicians and a set of administrators who conduct the linkage of the organisation with the hospital and other external parties. The organisational structure of BED is as follows: Figure 1: Communication Channels and System of BED Communication Problem Theoretically, communication involves the encoding of information by a sender, transmission of the information and decoding of information by the receiver (Golio, 2002: Begeron, 2011). Information in the organisational setting must prompt the required action and in any cases where the required action is not carried out, there is said to be some “noise” in the communication loop (Schiova, 2010: Koontz, 2008). Noises could be anything that obstruct communication and this include issues with decoding the message, poor transmission systems and interruptions in the flow of the message (Allender et al, 2012). Figure 2: The Communication Model Communication is said to be complete if the information sent prompts a feedback as per the initial message sent (Narula, 2010). There are various issues with the communication channel and the communication system of BED and these are discussed below. First of all, there are natural communication issues between the administrative staff and the engineering staff. This is because the Engineering Managers and the Administrative Managers have limited horizontal communication channels and systems through which they can have discussions and communications. Thus, they hardly conduct lateral communication. To this end, the administrative staff members tend to communicate more within themselves whilst the engineering staff members communicate with each other in a much more frequent manner. Due to this, if a manager in the lower tier of the company needs to communicate, there is a challenge. Secondly, there are times where there is friction between the Engineering Managers and Administrative Managers. This causes a hold up of information flow and there are various problems and issues in the operations. This has blocked upward and downward information flow, and there is so much resentment. Thirdly, the Engineering unit is used to using major technical jargons and clearly, this creates problems and confusion with the Administrative staff. This causes major problems with decoding messages. Fourthly, the CEO of the Ministry has an overflow of information because all upward information is channeled to him. This implies that there is a major communication problem and an overflow of work and projects for him to deal with. Hence, upward communication is just not feasible (Jablin, 1980). Finally, there is an issue with dowward communication. The supervisors and operatives often get contradicting information from the two core departments of the firm. Thus, there is a typical situation where the supervisors tend to be confused and uncertain about which actions to undertake and what to do. This leads to major communication complications. Findings Interdepartmental conflicts lead to the lack of coordination, unclear boundaries, overlap of responsibilities and unresolved conflicts (Walker, 2010). The conflict between the Engineering unit and the Administrative unit is causing issues and problems. Although it is not straightforward and it is not presented in the form of major outbursts, it is subtly evidenced by the fact that there are major ostracism of people from the different units and there are gossips and various tensed discussions about the two groups. Basically, the issue is with the poor communication channels that exists between the two core units – engineering and administrative. This is because there seem to be a communication wall that has developed between the Engineers and the Administrative staff members. They do not seem to have the ability to get in touch with each other and communicate with each other. This has succeeded in fueling the cold war that exists between the two different units of BED. The poor design of the communication channels imply that if there are issues and problems between the two departments, communication between the Engineering manager and the Administrative manager is broken and the two departments cannot coordinate and do anything effective to help the firm. Also, the use of jargons and technical words particularly from the engineering unit addressed at the administrative unit causes so many issues. First of all, the Administrative staff members feel it is a show of arrogance and disrespect by the Technocrats. On the other hand, the Engineering staff members feel that the Administrative must adapt to the work environment and learn about some “basic” ideas since the firm is an engineering firm. These use of technical jargons cause noises in communication and there are breakdowns in the communication systems. Information flow must cause people to act and where the feedback is causing major confusions and disagreements, the information loop can be said to be broken (Vriens, 2004). The supervisors and operatives often get conflicting information and instructions. This is primarily due to the conflict and disagreement between the two units of the firm. And being at the lower end of the communication loop, the operatives and supervisors often get confused and they make mistakes or come back for more information and clarifications. Due to this, the information sharing and information flow is not properly done in BED. The management and staff of the company have major issues and due to that, some of the units seem to be working in obscurity without having to communicate or interact with other units and other components of the firm. Ultimately, this leads to confusion and there is a general lack of communication and strong will. This creates major issues like turnover of staff and other mistakes that costs the firm major amounts of money each year. Additionally, the firm has to rely heavily on the CEO only for information about what the hospital actually wants. Due to this, BED adjusts slowly to demands and expectations of the wider hospital environment and this causes them to sometimes lack behind in projects and other activities. This is in the shadow of a situation whereby the firm could make important changes and modification to their affairs and systems in order to link up certain units with the broader community through various forms of electronic communication. This could include intranet systems and other communication systems. However, the quest to maintain an independent system of communication is causing major blockages and difficulties for BED. Recommendations In line with the issues identified, there is the need for some solutions to be put in place to ensure that BED is streamlined and communication is improved in the firm. There are many options and possibilities and this include the following: 1. Modifying the communication channels and creating a system whereby communication between various units of the Engineering and the Administrative unit can communicate with each other directly. This will save time and money and enable the engineers to interact more with the administrators and then understand each other better. 2. The communication system of BED must be modified and some units of the company can get direct connections and direct access to certain parts of the hospital. This could include a direct connection of the engineering operation systems and the finance department to the hospitals centralized system. This will enable the exchange and sharing of information to allow operations and business activities to be carried out quickly and in a timely manner. This will generally promote efficiency. 3. There must be a special coordination unit that will enable communication and other disputes to be reported and dealt with. This will ensure the timely exchange of information and analysis of matters. 4. The administrative staff members must be given some basic training about Engineering and its related functions. This will help the Admin staff members to improve their knowledge of technical jargons and enable the firm to get better coordination and exchange of information in order to deal with issues quickly without problems. Conclusion The organisational structure of BED is one that does not encourage strong communication systems and communication methods. Due to this, the firm has major challenges in relation to its communication structures and channels. This has created tensions between the technocrats and the administrative staff. To improve the system, there is the need to realign the communication systems and structures. Also, the Department will need to encourage horizontal communication amongst intermediary staff members and also train the Administrative Staff on some basic engineering jargons. Finally, there is the need for some units to be directly linked to the hospital staff and managers. PART 2: ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LETTER BED Communications Unit March 8, 2014 Harold Linton Ministry of Health Seychelles Dear Sir, ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SCOPE OF RESEARCH INTO COMMUNICATION ISSUES IN BIOMEDICAL EQUIPMENT DEPARTMENT I write this letter to present the final scope of work that will be conducted in the further research into the improvement of communication in Biomedical Equipment Department. The research will be based on the need to improve the communication channels and the methods of improving training and other structures to enhance communication in the Department. In line with this, I will recommend that the scope of the research must focus on how to best analyse the system and define the problems faced by members of staff. Through this empirical study, we can deduce the problems at hand, confirm them and find ways of resolving them through the staff of our Department. Based on this, I will recommend that we improve our communication channels and get the board of directors to authorise the use of these channels. This will be done by critically observing the issues and conflicts that occur on a day-to-day basis in the firm. In conclusion, I am proposing a research scope that will include an empirical study of the work environment. And this will include interviews with staff members and an observation of conflicts in order to come up with recommendations for the Board of Directors. Yours Faithfully, SIGNED John Paddington References Allender, J., Rector, C., Warner, C. (2012) Community & Public Health Nursing Amsterdam: Wolters Kluwer Health Begeron, H. E. (2011) A Pocket Guide to Business for Engineers and Surveyors London: Wiley Golio, M. (2002) Communication and Components New York: CRC Press Jablin, F. M. (1980) “Superiors upward influence, satisfaction and openness in superior-subordinate communication” Human Communication Research 6: 210 - 212 Koontz, H. (2008) Essentials of Management New York: McGraw Hill Narula, M. (2010) Business Communication Practices New York: Atlantic Publishing Schiavo, R. (2010) Health Communication: From Theory to Practice London: Wiley Vriens, D. J. (2004) Information and Communicative Technology for Competitive Intelligence New York: IGI Walker, R. (2010) Strategic Management Communication for Leaders Mason, OH: Cengage Read More