Communication challenges within groups and teams

            The following essay discusses the most important considered barrier that creates challenges for communication between working groups, as detailed in section 11 "Barriers to Effective Communication" from the book "Organizational Behavior". It will explain why the team selected this particular barrier and how it creates a challenge in communications. Furthermore, actual examples will be provided in the field of work that has been experienced with this barrier situations in particular. The selected barrier is "Information Overload". The examples in the workplace we will discuss are: Information overload in communications, retail and sales.

Selected Barrier:       Information Overload

            Due to advances in technology, now more than ever we have access to more information. This can be beneficial but also can cause Information Overload. We live in an era where information technology and instant communication have become a prevalent component.  Information overload can retard or distort effective communication because individuals have a finite capacity for procession data.  This occurs when the information we have to deal with exceeds our processing capacity.  Some of the things that could happens when an individuals have more information than they can use is that they tend to ignore, forget, select, or pass over. 

            When an information overload occurs, consequently, it could produce a reduction in the decision quality. As part and consequence of globalization, people can carry out their own research using the Internet and may have the ability to produce and use information from various web sites. The information is accessible almost instantly, causing an information overload of data that often cannot be validated. One of the common examples and sources of information overload are the e-mails, as people have a struggle to keep up with incoming messages. In addition to the time required to filter unwanted email (spam), individuals have to deal with the steady growth of email attachments such as presentations, reports, and media files.

Information Overload in Communications

            In communications, the amount of information that is received and send is a lot.  For example, customer order management requires having information systems and in turn individuals who manage these systems. Because systems have technical flaws is essential that the person who is behind these remain outstanding and if does not have a solution he should start working the cases manually. From here comes the problem of handling the massive amount information .

            Email is the primary means of communication in this type of business , you begin to share information with other areas for the resolution of the problem and these emails become chains of information that can eventually end up in confusing the receivers and many times they can get to ignore them because it is too confusing and often do not end up offering the right solution . When this happens it is better than the individual go to areas instead of sending an email with countless number of words that in the end almost no one reads . It is good to include all the information required for a solution is accurate , but if people start making a chat, the information loses its essence and becomes a problem that will be not resolved.

Information Overload in Retail

            When Information Overload is in retail everything change. The customers want to know information about their products so you have to engage with them to create a brand loyalty so the people can trust you and be sure what their are buying. In this case the information overload is great and benefits the company. With the managers and the    members of the corporate group of the company the information overload can be a little un-creatable. When they receive a lot of information via email they can forget, pass over and ignore all of them making this more difficult to make decisions for the company. We have to know how to make advantage with the information overload, this way in the future we can see more positives things around the company.

Information Overload in Sales

Communication through electronic communication systems like email became the standard method within organizations to exchange all kinds of information. Thus, not only communication technologies have changed and improved significantly, but also the attitudes and behaviors of its users. This raises new challenges for individuals but also for organizations, as we have not reached a state in which the information overload is handled properly.

We consider the individual or the individual's position is a cause of information overload. The point at which there is an information overload is not fixed. Capacity is influenced both by education, training, experience and motivation as well as psychological aspect of the person. Part of it may be: the limited processing capacity of each person, motivations, attitudes and satisfaction, personal situation (the day, noise, temperature), inefficient use of time and poor writing skills sending the information.

It becomes a barrier since the position and responsibilities of the individual require a high degree of information management. And if you add that there misspelling in communication, or more situations described above, we would see that communication between departments would be severely affected and therefore the final product customer service.

Conclusion

            According to Robbins and Judge, to meet common communication barriers is the first step to overcoming them. The investigation conducted by the authors shows that clear messages are the main communication barrier. However, each organization can experience a variety of barriers that reduce productivity and happiness in the workplace. The author’s states that break down barriers to communication and management must commit to confront the problems and guide employees on how to deal with them to ensure that effective communication is moving forward.

 References

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2013). Organizational Behavior. New York, NY: Pearson             Education.

Stats, I. W. (2012, October 2013). Internet World Stats 2012. Retrieved October 2013, from             http://internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.