Identifying and addressing communication gaps in organizations

Communication Gap

Overcoming Identified Communication Gaps: Strategies for Organizational and Personal Success

Efficient and effective communication is a key to success in any group endeavor, and almost everything worth doing requires interpersonal interaction. Ideas have to be interchanged in order for them to be shaped into meaningful actions, and its communication that facilitates both of these processes. It is therefore essential that communication between the different members of a group occurs frequently, to keep everything moving along the same trajectory. At the same, if the various parties involved in a meeting, project, or transaction have an incomplete or incorrect understanding of each other, the results of such miscommunication can be worse than if no communication were taking place at all.

Issues of non-communication and miscommunication can both be referred to as communication gaps. There is a wide array of identified communication gaps that commonly occur in organizations and in the business world at large, and they often go unnoticed -- and thus cause greater inefficiencies and damage. Several of these communication gaps can be seen to apply both to my organization and to me personally, currently and in the foreseeable future. Identifying and addressing these communication gaps early can hopefully forestall any serious repercussions from these communication gaps; assessing the way information was being incorrectly received or simply going un-transmitted allows for a more conscious approach to communication within the organization, and also provides suggestions as to areas of personal communication that can improve.

Information Processing

Efficiently generating and transmitting communications are both certainly essential steps in creating effective interconnections between disparate parties of a venture or members of a project/organization. But without the correct utilization of the information communicated, all of the infrastructure and efficiency in the world can't make the communication useful. Often, in fact, there can be an overabundance of communication without any effective organization or leveraging of the information thus obtained, which can lead to serious detriments to any organization or endeavor (Lager 2006). It is bad enough when one arm of an organization doesn't seem to know what the other is doing, but the problem seems somehow conceptually worse when the various arms have information regarding the rest of the organization, but don't utilize it. This is, unfortunately, partly occurring in my organization, and is also an issue I need to deal with personally as I incorporate the organization's goals and actions into my own thinking and methods.

This concept of the correct processing and utilization of information goes further than simply making the organization run more efficiently on an internal level. Especially as new regions of the world are becoming increasingly important for business, the use of communication to establish and leverage relationships is a vital aspect of conducting business (Lager 2006; Fitzgerald 2006). Collection and transmission of information can only take an organization so far, but being able to effectively communicate and utilize information outside the organization is what allows true growth to take place. Aligning organizational perspectives with those of potential clients, customers and investors can often present another significant communication gap, and this is one that is vital to address.

External communications and relationship leveraging are especially important concepts to consciously scrutinize and develop in the multicultural business world. China, in particular, is quickly becoming an essential country for many industries, both on the supply and demand side of the equation (Fitzgerald 2006). This country's rich cultural traditions and relative isolationism from the Western world throughout much of the twentieth century can make cross-cultural communications with Chinese government officials and businessmen very difficult, and establishing proper inroads and communication personnel in China and other newly arriving markets and producers will be ever more necessary in the years to come (Fitzgerald 2006). Keeping this in focus as both an organization and an individual is essential as plans are laid for the future and carried out in the present.

Conclusion

Communication gaps can be completely destructive for a business organization or any other venture. Adequate knowledge and planning must occur between all involved parties if there is to be a hope for true success, and without the proper communication infrastructure, processing, and utilization no company can ever hope to last, let alone grow. As an individual, as well, I must learn to identify possible communication problems -- especially those brought on by cultural barriers -- and attempt to forestall them before they cause larger issues. Becoming conscious of the possible gaps is the first step to effective communication.