Poor communication in the workplace can lead to assumptions, information hoarding, lack of feedback and psychological safety issues. This impacts employee motivation and productivity, negatively affecting customer service delivery. To address this, managers should clearly communicate expectations and responsibilities, provide frequent feedback, recognize knowledge sharing, and use tools to improve asynchronous collaboration and overcome communication barriers between remote employees. Fostering strong communication through transparency and openness builds employee satisfaction and innovation.

1. WORKPLACE
COMMUNICATION
PROBLEMS
Group 2

2. 1. Cite one contemporary Public
Administration issue that you know,
observed or experienced in your
intern place.

3.  One of our contemporary Public Administration issue that we
have observe and experience is the communication problems
in our workplace. In any relationship, poor communication
can spell disaster. Employees who lack the proper avenues for
healthy workplace communication end up feeling
undervalued, unengaged, and unlikely to go above and beyond
to be an innovator within the company.

4. 2. Provide a brief statement of facts
about the issue and its interest
challenges

5. -ASSUMPTIONS AND MISINTERPRETATIONS–
Misunderstanding in the workplace often occur when
employees assume that their peers are approaching a
problem or project the same way that they would, based on
their personal frame of reference. When employees make
assumptions about the parameters of a project, who will
complete each step of the project, how it will be completed,
the review process, and more. Work tends to fall short and
confusion takes over. More often than not, when employees
make assumptions, it is an indication of poor project
management communication from the top down.

6. -INFORMATION HOARDING-
It may feel like there are certain people who are
gatekeepers of information, within our workplace.
Employees may find themselves going to the same person
over and over again with questions, or they may not even
know who to ask when they need information to move
forward to a project. When an employee withholds
information intentionally and does not share with others.
A person often does it to get the credit for the work or
personal gain. Many complex reasons drive individuals to
hoard information.

7. -LACK OF FEEDBACK-
Employees should never feel like they are in the
dark about how they are doing at their job. They
also should not have to wait for their annual
performance review to get feedback. If employees
get infrequent feedback or no feedback at all, then
they are more likely to miss the mark and grow
increasingly frustrated. This can lead to increased
turnover in your workplace.

8. -LACK OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY-
The belief that an employee won’t be punished or
humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions,
concerns, or mistakes. A lack of psychological safety as a
result of a hierarchy can inhibit the communication of
problems and creative solutions from those who are in
junior positions who witness them to those higher up
within the organization.

9. -COMMUNICATION BARRIERS-
Communication barriers have become more pronounced since their
workplace shifted to remote work as a result of the Covid pandemic, and with
more than half of knowledge workers saying they want to continue working
remotely post-pandemic these barriers are not going away. However, leading
businesses are addressing these challenges head on to ensure employees can
communicate effectively no matter where they are working. For example,
team members being unsure where to look for documented information.
working on different schedules and across different time zones.

10. -POOR LISTENING SKILLS-
Sharing information is only part of the communication
process. Strong listening skills are essential to effectively
communicating and understanding the message being
shared. Employees who fail to listen or who don't know how
to actively listen to their colleagues are likely to miss
information or not know what is going on.

11. 3. Explain how the issue impacted
on the delivery of public service.

12. Poor communication often creates a tend
environment where people are not motivated to be
productive and not inspired to collaborate. This
lack of motivation then affects how employees
relate to clients and potential customers negatively
affecting the bottom line.

13. 4. What are your main take away and
significant lesson learned from it?

14. We should apply the policies of Public Administration as
public servants. Hesitating to be direct. When leaders
don’t know what to say what they mean in a direct way,
the message can get lost. Hinting at something or
suggesting leaves rooms for people to guess and then
often guess in correctly. Unsurprisingly, this often
happens around performance issues.

15. The lesson we have learned is, make any messages you share
clear and concise. Whether you are speaking or writing an email,
avoid unnecessary adjectives and state what you need to say in
plain language. When you can, take time to jot down your key
thoughts and intensions so that when you speak or write, you
are focus. If you have information to share, prepare handouts or
attach pertinent documents for reference.

16. 5. Propose mechanism, doable approaches or policy
recommendation that you think will further
improve Public Administration or Public Service
delivery out of the experience.

17. Strategies to Overcome Assumptions
As a department or team leader, you can demonstrate clear
communication to ensure assumptions don’t derail
collaborative efforts. In meetings with action items, repeat
those action items before attendees leave, and make sure
everyone understands their responsibilities and next steps.
When someone else shares an idea with you, paraphrase it
back to them and ask if you are understanding it correctly.
Ask questions to prompt clarification when necessary.
Schedule regular status updates, and air on the side of over
communicating.

18. Strategies to Overcome Information Hoarding
One of the best ways to get people to share what they know is
to make it as easy as possible for them to do so. For instance, you could
create templates for subject matter experts to fill out or give SMEs the
option to share knowledge in the format that makes the most sense to
them. It’s also important to make sure employees understand what’s in
it for them when they share their knowledge.
If a subject matter expert documents the answer to a question
they regularly get asked, then they won’t have to keep answering that
question over and over again. You might also offer some external
incentives such as shout-outs or quarterly prizes for the top content
contributors to help get employees in the habit of sharing their
knowledge.

19. Strategies to Improve Feedback
As a manager, make sure you’re regularly meeting with your
direct reports and sharing feedback in a timely manner. Be sure to share
both positive and negative feedback. Managers with poor
communication skills often fail to acknowledge and congratulate
employees when they exceed expectations but are the first to criticize
them when they don’t. Focusing on the negative will lead top-
performing employees to feel unvalued by their company, and to seek
employment with a company who will.
When you do need to share negative feedback, make sure it’s
constructive: get specific about what needs to improve, and don’t
criticize things that are outside the employee’s control. Start a two-way
conversation with your team member, and give them the opportunity to
respond and ask questions.

20. Strategies to Improve Psychological Safety
Start improving psychological safety by demonstrating to employees that
there’s no fallout to sharing their ideas—and that the rewards for sharing good ideas
are great. This requires support from the top down. In an article for fast company,
digital strategist Lawrence Scotland described how his organization launched a
company-wide challenge called the “Innovation Lab,” where employees were invited
to develop an idea with their team and present it to a panel of senior executives. The
executives provided feedback, and the best ones received the buy-in the teams
needed to execute on their ideas.
There are plenty of small, ongoing things you can do to promote
psychological safety as well. For example, allow a few minutes at the beginning of
meetings for team members to make small talk and get to know one another better.
This will help build trust so that people feel more comfortable communicating with
one another. You could also demonstrate the positives of sharing knowledge by
posting your own learnings from a recent project in your knowledge management
platform and encouraging team members to share feedback and additional learnings
in the comments.

21. Strategies to Overcome Communication Barriers
Video conferencing solutions like Zoom have already emerged as valuable tools
to help team members communicate face-to-face even when they can’t be in the same
room. But when employees start experiencing Zoom fatigue or have to communicate
while working on different schedules, it’s also important for organizations to provide
tools for asynchronous collaboration. For instance, you could allow team members to
record and share videos of their project updates when real-time input isn’t necessary, or
subject matter experts could document answers to questions they are frequently asked
and share them in the company’s knowledge management platform.
When it comes to communication problems caused by team members relying on
different communication channels—or not knowing where to look for documented
information—you can help by clearly documenting how different channels should be
used. You can also help minimize confusion related to terminology and jargon by
creating a glossary of common terms used in the workplace and industry.

22. Conclusion
Strong communication isn’t easy. Fostering authentic
relationships takes time, effort, and transparency. But in the end, it’s
worth it. Open communication helps employees feel more satisfied in
their work, feel comfortable collaborating with others on innovative
ideas, and cultivate new skills that support company goals.
Follow the tips above to help your employees build healthy
relationships with each other and with you, and watch them excel as
they work for a company that values, listens to, and respects them.
Note: This blog post was originally published on April 14, 2019. It was
expanded and updated with new information in November 2021.