When you’re working with a team or with other people, communication issues can happen. And while finding ways to easily resolve these issues can help prevent anxiety and mistrust among fellow co-workers, knowing what causes them to occur in the first place can also be greatly beneficial to the organisation as well.
It’s important to identify the source of communication errors before they can cause negative effects on the internal relationships in the organisation. Here are seven causes of poor communication in the workplace.
- Having unclear objectives in the organisation
Most organisations operate on a top-down structure. When decisions are made by the executive team, the management team determines the decisions’ objectives and the employees work to meet those objectives.
But what happens if there was a miscommunication down the line? If the management team is unable to properly communicate the organisation’s day-to-day or long-term objectives, the employees would have no idea what to do to meet those expectations. Likewise, making vague decisions can also lead to the management struggling to make clear objectives.
These things can lead to frustration within the organisation, which then leads to the objectives not being fulfilled on time.
- The lack of employee empowerment
Empowered employees aren’t afraid to speak up and address the issues that they face at work. By having open communication with management, problems can be easily and quickly resolved before they become a big issue.
But when employees are in workplaces where they don’t feel empowered, they are less likely to speak up about the potential problems they face. This is even more pronounced if their concerns have been ignored by management in the past. This lack of empowerment would lead to projects failing as employees are too timid to speak up and risk getting terminated.
- No team collaboration
In an organisation, teams work better when they collaborate on projects and share ideas. When this happens, employees feel that they have ownership and feel proud of the project they created. This, in turn, creates good internal communication.
But having a workplace that prefers executives and managers to call the shots can stifle good internal communication. With no say in the projects, employees may not be inclined to collaborate and communicate with one another.
- Employees that lack professionalism
Sometimes, workplace misunderstandings can happen when teams become so comfortable with each other that they would end up mixing their personal and professional lives. Instead of using the company’s official communication channels to message one another, unprofessional employees would resort to texting or calling them instead.
Because of the blurred lines between being employees and friends, this lack of professionalism can erode an organisation’s professional etiquette and communication.
- Poor written communication skills
Many communication errors that occur in the workplace can stem from poor writing, imprecise language, or an unclear tone. When employees don’t have strong writing skills, they struggle to relay the information that they want in an email or office memo. Because there is a lack of non-verbal cues in written communication, this can lead to misunderstandings in the workplace.
- Being unable to adapt to technological changes
With technology continuously changing the way we go about our work, it becomes easy for some tech-challenged employees to fall behind on new digital communication systems. The constant changes to the way organisations communicate in the digital setting can lead to some employees missing important messages and operating with an improper amount of information because they’re struggling to communicate digitally.
- Ineffective workplace management
Sometimes, the cause of workplace miscommunication can be something as simple as the individual itself. When employees, especially managers, do not have the proper communication skills to relay their ideas clearly to other people, they may end up creating issues from the lack of proper communication.
Communication issues in the workplace
Knowing the things that can cause communication issues in the workplace can greatly help prevent its effects from damaging the internal structure of an organisation. By knowing these causes, one can think and create solutions that can allow the organisation to benefit from them.
Eliza is a content producer and editor at Public Spectrum. She is an experienced writer on topics related to the government and to the public, as well as stories that uplift and improve the community.
