Models of communication as a process fascinated me in terms of how communication is so important in affecting ideas and the presentation of ideas, as well as the significance of when a message or the importance of a message can determine the success of business. I took a particular interest in the Communication process diagram and the sender encoding, message decoding to receiver flow. I imagined ways where in the development of software where the communication model mirrors the same in models for systems such as email or chat applications, and the importance of transforming dropped messages or handling possible errors as well as the system challenges of encoding, filtering noise and processing in an application much the same was as the model displayed a real-life system of communication.
In a system, the data within a system in traditional sense cannot atone for biases such as from ethnocentrism since human factors are a hard problem to simulate. “At its basic level ethnocentrism is an inability to take on other people’s perspectives. If one isn’t able to take on another perspective, it is difficult to see what they want or need, but also to shape a message that they understand. Now, egocentrism sounds like someone else’s problem now doesn’t it? There’s no way I could be like that, right? Well, it’s actually almost everyone’s problem. Humans are programmed to be somewhat self-serving” (PSU, 2019). Possibly Machine learning and AI can one day create applications that can identify egocentrism in workplace actions or outcomes.
Another area is in the miscommunication of systems versus the actual intent of our message can be lost due to missing nonverbal cues. Hence, egocentrism plays another role as our perceptions plus the missing cues create misinformation. Such is case in our modern virtual workplace. The understanding of errors in communication due to egocentrism is a start in providing a solution to these problems. “Finally, encourage everyone to expect problems. At the start of any virtual project, experts recommend a “meta communication” of basic guidelines, such as how quickly people should respond to e-mails and what media should be used for which purposes (for instance, all team meetings will take place through videoconferencing). A major component of that document, according to Pam Brewer, a professor at Appalachian State University, should be a mechanism for resolving such communication problems as the volume of e-mail becoming unmanageable. Setting the expectation that there will inevitably be problems makes everyone much less hesitant to raise an issue. In fact, the team leader could emphasize that point by adopting the attitude of, “If no one has any communication issues, it’s a sure sign that we really do have problems. (Ferrazzi 2013)”
HR systems in the workplace are a means to help with communication as well as a place for application designers to focus on HR process models to help with the human factors of communication. But HR systems are limited, and many areas of employee concerns slip through cracks. “When something has gone wrong at work, people may feel that they did not have the information they needed to make a decision. It might be information about the health of the company, the status of projects in other business units, or the quality of their work. Because people sense that they were missing needed information, they blame lack of communication for the problem.” (Markmann 2017) In this way, new systems and models are needed to fill in the gaps. Going back to the diagram relating to encoding and decoding, the need to encode and decode the company communication to employees is of importance but also implies many more areas to add flows in a new model which needs to try and avoid complexity.
References
Ferrazzi, Keith How to avoid Virtual Miscommunication. (2013, April). Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2013/04/how-to-avoid-virtual-miscommun
Markman Art Poor Communication is often a symptom of a different problem (2017, February. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/02/poor-communication-is-often-a-symptom-of-a-different-problem
Pennsylvania State University. (2019). Errors in Communication. OLEAD 410. Retrieved February 2, 2019 from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1964331/modules/items/25821686
Moran, R.T., Moran, S. V., & Abramson, N. (2014). Managing Cultural Differences: Ninth Edition. New York, NY: Routledge.