COMMUNICATION FOR WORK Team Communication issues and problems

PURPOSES at work is a common case being

Lesson 5 encountered are those with coworkers:
Group 4 losing trust with others
ORAL COMMUNICATION IN THE - poor cooperation among team
WORKPLACE members
ORAL COMMUNICATION IN THE - disapproval or disrespect from
WORKPLACE
colleagues or immediate superior
To improve yourself, you also need
Through the idea of Campbell according to
communication skill you help you initiate
Leigh Branham, the author of 7 Hidden
personal plans, lead project undertakings,
Reasons Employees Leave she said that
and solve pressing problems. Executives and
"The root problems of this issue are
managers need good communication skills
managers' inattention to people they
to demonstrate effective leadership,
supervise, they provide irregular or
efficient transaction, quality performance,
nonexistent feedback, people get criticisms
and excellent productivity.
instead of praise and worse is that feedback
Importance of Oral Communication
is not valued or valuable at all,"
Examples of Oral Communication
To avoid these issues and problems,
Successful businesses have gained
Branham suggested 3 ideas:
their good reputation because strong
communication skill is fully recognized and
- improving coaching and feedback
developed among employees. However,
especially among the new recruits
some companies need for employees with
- setting up mentoring programs with
effective communication skill is all too often
experienced employees
unfulfilled. Some business transactions miss
- requiring managers to provide feedback.
the mark as business people fail to convey
proper course of communication. TOP COMMUNICATION ISSUES
Communication Issues are issues that exist
PRESSING CHALLENGES IN between two or more people that lead to
WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION misunderstanding.
Communication has always been
essential in any business' growth and Campbell identified top ten communication
development. As effective issues that business communicators have to
communication is needed to be able to consider to be able to avoid or solve them:
operate and become successful.
pressing challenges do interfere and are Failure to Listen
likely to affect your work and Ineffective listening is a big problem
communication in the future. in communication. Good communication
Communication Challenges fails when one doesn’t pay much attention
refer to the problem when the manager or plan what to say before one ends his
does not provide feedback or coaching. If statement. Many distractions affect
there is no feedback, it means there is no effective listening.
communication. HOW TO AVOID?

Failure to Listen
 To avoid it, speakers have to
emphasize the importance of active listening 5. Authority and Hierarchy Problems
in the discussion. Also point out that The authority that the team leader
inattentiveness results to different or manager demonstrates more often
understanding of the topic being discussed. creates intimidation or gap with team
Speakers also have to maintain eye contact members. They become shy and hesitant to
during the conversation or discussion. approach or talk to their manager for
authority being shown doesn’t create
2. Culture Differences friendly atmosphere.
The diversity of backgrounds and
cultural customs create communication 6. Poorly Written Communication
issues among team members and leaders. The confusion or misunderstanding
People would just love to stay along with of in interoffice business communication is
people of the same background. Hence, due to poor content of written documents,
leaders face challenges of grouping and substandard organization, fractured
team communication hurdles. To avoid it, grammar among other flaws in written
try to promote “unity in diversity” wherein interoffice materials. To avoid it, ensure
team members have to be assigned to that documents are well-edited and
different groups to break the usual proofread by best editor in the department.
grouping. Allow other eyes to check for mistakes in
grammar, spelling punctuations, and
3. Locale or Distance to Office organization.
The office location or its distance to
its employees or contributors entails 7. Gender Bias
problem in the communication. The The choice of which gender makes a
company usually resorts to email, phone or more effective leader in the department is
video conferencing. It causes an issue of gender bias. This gender
misunderstanding and failures. discrimination creates problem in the
organization. To avoid this, team leaders or
3. Locale or Distance to Office managers should ensure that the issue on
To solve it, meetings should be done gender choice is set aside in tackling issues
at the nearest venue and on a regular or taking course of action for the
schedule.
department. Speak about concerns without
engaging in demeaning oneself. Avoid
4. Ego and Attitude
gender bias language or terms that connote
Self-image or ego often affects
gender. For example, use chairperson for
team’s effort to execute plans. One’s
chairman or chairwoman.
arrogance causes trouble, and more often,
teamwork ends due to one’s defiance.
8. Focus or Listening Problems
Arrogant team member could not accept
Inability of employees to focus on
the fact that he contributes to team’s
the issue is equivalent to listening
problem. The presence of conflict is evident
problems. The generation gap is often the
when someone displays inequality or bias
cause of communication barrier that affects
and doesn’t want to take responsibility.
the achievement of department goals. To
help avoid it, leaders or managers have to
initiate mutual understanding regardless of
age. Encourage teamwork and unity
despite differences of age, sex, social
status, and family background Understand
one's weaknesses and capitalize on one's
strength.

9. Inadequate Knowledge
Little knowledge is dangerous. Hence,
team performance is affected due to
ineffective education or lack of
understanding or other inadequate
knowledge foundation. To resolve it,
leaders or managers encourage team
members to upgrade knowledge by
pursuing higher degree programs. Include
in the annual target plan the participation
of members to seminar, training or
conferences, Promote reading culture in
the department and productive focus group
discussion.

10. Cliques, Groups, and Friendships

Group membership or group
affiliation or exclusive grouping of team
members can sometimes create
segregation. To avoid it, promote
teamwork spirit in the department.
Conduct team building activities to
promote objectivity, teamwork,
cooperation, and unity in diversity.
LESSON 4. THE RISE OF NEW MEDIA The exponential rise in the use of social
AND TECHNOLOGY AIDS IN media can be partly attributed to the
COMMUNICATION emergence of technologies that enable
modern communication (that is, FAST,
SOCIAL MEDIA USE
CONVENIENT, INTERACTIVE
Social media has undoubtedly altered communication).
the world operates.
Some Interesting Statistics on Social
The rapid and vast adoption of new Media Use
media platforms have changed the way
All data are extracted from
people relate and communicate with
statista.comas of July 2020.
each other in the social, economic, and
political Global digital population
arenas. - Active internet users – 4.57
billion
Though there are minor social media
- Unique mobile internet users –
platforms available since the 90s, the
4.17 billion
social media that we know today – the
one with millions of active and - Active social media users –
interactive users - started with MySpace 3.96 billion
in 2004, when it reached a million active - Active mobile social media
users. users – 3.91 billion

Since then, other sites started Most popular social networks worldwide,
mushrooming, and people began getting ranked by number of active users
hooked to these new media. 1. Facebook (2.6 billion)
Some media platforms have been so 2. YouTube (2.0 billion)
popular that the number of users rise at
such an exponential rate. 3. WhatsApp (2.0 billion)

However, not all social media platforms 4. Facebook Messenger (1.3 billion)
last. For example, in 2008, Hi5, 5. Weixin/ WeChat (1.2 billion)
MySpace, and Friendster were close
competitors to the social media giant, 6. Instagram (1.1 billion)
Facebook. 7. TikTok (800 million)
For example, Twitter used to disallow Most popular social networks
the uploading of videos or images, but worldwide, ranked by reach/ active
because of the high demand and the usage penetration
stiff competition, this feature was
allowed in 2011. Today, more than half 1. Facebook
of the content that can be seen in Twitter 2. Youtube
includes photos and videos. 3. WhatsApp
4. Facebook Messenger
 5. Instagram you want to be treated is a good
6. Twitter practice.
7. Snapchat 2. Do not turn to social media as a
way to harass, demean, or bully
Countries with most number of
someone else. Sitting in front of a
Facebook users
computer screen does not give
1. India (290 million) you license to embarrass,
intimidate, or spread hurtful
2. United States (190 million) rumors about others.
3. Indonesia (140 million) 3. Regardless of your privacy
settings, keep in mind that
4. Brazil (130 million) anything can possibly be seen by
5. Mexico (89 million) anyone at any time, even by that
person that you did not want to
6. Philippines (76 million) see it. Pause before you post,
7. Vietnam (64 million) think before you click.
4. Whether you're concerned with
8. Thailand (50 million) maintaining good friendships or
9. Egypt (42 million) future job prospects, be
responsible in what you post and
10. Bangladesh (38 million) how it could affect your
reputation. Many employers now
In a 2017 report by the Global Web
check up on job candidates'
Index, around 42% of people uses
social media accounts for
social media platforms to stay in touch
evidence of bad behavior.
with what their friends are doing, while
39% said they want to stay up-to-date You are 100% responsible for everything
with news and current events. The other that appears on your social media
top reasons for using social media are accounts, from your status update and
filling up spare time, general networking comments to picture, videos and link
with other people, looking for you share.
entertaining content, sharing photos or
videos, sharing one’s opinion, meeting Social media have become a very
new people, and researching or finding powerful communication tool and
out products to buy. platform in the new era of technology
and globalization.
Responsible Use of Social-Media
Before, the usual reaction before using
1. You may not agree with social media would be "I have ideas or
everything or everyone you feelings and I can share it to the world
encounter on social media through social media platform"
networks, but treat each person
with dignity and respect. The Today, however most millennials would
golden rule of treating others how be " I have access to social media so I
have an idea, I have to have a feeling or 1. Netspeak
emotion that I can share to the world.” 2. Computer-mediated discourse
3. Digital discourse
4. Electronic discourse
5. E- Communication
6. Digitally Mediated
Communication
7. Keyboard -to - screen
Communication
The Internet is the largest area of
language development we have seen in
our lifetimes. Crystal (2011) said that
NEW MEDIA only two things are certain: it is not
going to go away, and it is going to get
The New Media Institute, defines new larger. Hence, we must be prepared for
media as “a catchall term used to define its inevitable expansion. Digital
all that is related to the internet and the discourse illuminates social and cultural
interplay between technology, images processes, which is under the domain of
and sound. “That's in contrast to “old sociocultural linguistics. The primary
media,” which PCMag defines as all concern is not with abstract,
forms of communication that came grammatical linguistics, but rather the
before digital technology, including everyday functions and uses of
“radio and TV and printed materials language.
such as books and magazines.”
Computer-mediated communication can
Computer games Language in new be described as:
media is sometimes referred to as
Computer-Mediated Communication - Vernacular
(CMC). - Interpersonal
- Spontaneous
According to Oxford Bibliographies, - Dialogical
Computer-mediated communication
(CMC) is an umbrella term that CMC IS VERNACULAR
encompasses various forms of human
which means it uses language
communication through networked
that is common to people regardless of
computers, which can be synchronous
age, social class, gender, or race.
or asynchronous and involve one-to-
one, one-to-many, or many-to-many Examples:
exchanges of text, audio, and/or video
 Acronyms (Lol, yolo, fomo, bae)
messages.
 Initialisms (atm, rotfl, brb, btw,
It may also be called any of the hbd, idk, jk, af, nvm, tmi, tldr, ftw,
following: g!)
 Emoticons/ Emojis
  Expressive Punctuations o Hello? 2. Multimodal
VS Hello?!? o No. VS No? 3. Ideological
 ·<3 ; </3
BREVITY
 ·o :-) ;)
 Mispellings and Respellings (cu, Do you notice how much people
2nyt, tom/2mrw, abt, y?) put premium on length and on the time,
it would take for them to read an article
CMC IS INTERPERSONAL in the net?
It is relationship-focused rather
than subject- oriented. This can be
explained by the number of Group
Chats (GCs) a person has, and the
number of individuals and GCs a person
engages simultaneously.
Examples:
 Turn-taking
 Topic development
 Back-channels
MULTIMODALITY
 Repairs
Refers to the layering of different
CMC IS SPONTANEOUS
digital media. We all know that words
Words is usually unplanned, are only ever part of the picture. All
unstructured, and sometimes impulsive. texts, all communicative events, are
This spontaneity also gave rise to Net always achieved by means of multiple
Neologisms through Lexical Creativity, semiotic resources, even text-based
such as the use of “b4n” and “f2f”, or new media like instant and text-
such terms as trolls, meme, hashtag, messaging.
and meh. These can be described as
IDEOLOGICALLY-MOTIVATED
mediatized stylization and popular
representation. New media is inherently
ideological, especially in terms of their
CMC IS DIALOGICAL
political-economies of access and
It carries expectation of control. Language use is not simply a
continuous exchange. This is why most way of communicating, but a powerful
media platforms have a “Reply” or resource for representing (for
“Comment” option, while some have a manipulating) its users, especially the
“Leave a comment” button, to ensure young people - so called "digital
continuous interaction. natives".

English Language in New Media COMMUNICATION PLANNING

1. Brief
The communication planning process Multimedia presentations - visually-
involves defining the types of oriented and allow multimodality (as
information you will deliver, who are the discussed in Lesson 3) and the use of
intended recipients of that information, such features as text, graphics, photos,
the format for communicating it, and the audio, animations, and video.
timing of its release and distribution. The
Few factors that you need to bear in
key goal is to make sure everybody gets
mind in using technology as an aid to
the right message at the right time.
communication:
Communication planning serves
1.Keep it simple.
various purposes:
2. Emphasize only on key ideas.
 To inform
 To persuade 3. Show what you can’t say.
 To prevent misunderstanding
4. Keep the number of images you
 To present a point of view or present manageable.
reduce barriers
5. Combine variety with coherence.
Steps in Communication Planning
6. Use large lettering.
1. Research and analyze current
situation.
2. Establish goals and objectives
(short and long term).
3. Identify the target audience (what
they know, what influences them,
communication impediments,
etc.).
4. Conceptualize on key messages.
5. Strategize on communication
styles and platform(s).
6. Evaluate and anticipate
Communication Strategies in Tech-
based Communication
Modern technology did not only usher
in new forms of language used in new
media but also paved the way on how
communication takes place and how
messages are presented.
Part of communication planning is
deciding on the platform in which the
message will be presented.