Introduction
The fable is about an older man who was running a firm with poor communication and leadership styles. The Walruses were not free with the older man hence denying them a chance to discuss things affecting their organization with their boss. This led to the collapse of his empire and losing his Walruses to his new competitor. This paper is going to focus on the factors or carriers of communication evident in the older man’s leadership, lessons learned from the fable, similar challenges evident in my organization, and various measures put in place by my manager in order to deal with these challenges (Harris, 2002).
Barriers of communication evident in the case study
From the story, it is clear that there was a great communication barrier between the older man and his junior Basil, who could not openly tell him the problem that was growing up in the firm. The walruses also had no link with an older man. This made it hard for them to discuss their issues openly with the older man and sort things out (Sharma, 2008). Whatever the older man wanted to hear was not actually what was happening on the ground or instead what he was supposed to know.
One of the barriers present was a lack of trust. There wasn’t any trust between all the concerned parties, and great fear is evident in the fable. The second barrier was poor connection or link between the older man and the people on the ground, and the only person who could report to the boss was Basil. The older man’s reaction and way of dealing with issues created the communication barrier because the Walruses could not approach him with problems affecting either them or the organization (Harris, 2002).
Lessons learned from the fable
The fables teach us that every organization is built on good communication skills that will make every party in the organization feel free to relate with each other. The organization’s leader or manager should be ready to listen in order to know the real situation on the ground. He should appreciate his/her juniors as well as being approachable. One should learn that poor communication will lead to a loss of all your employees to your competitors (Harris, 2002).
Communication challenges in my organization
In my organization, there is good communication though slow. There is a high formality in dealing with issues because one has to follow the line of command hence delaying the message that is intended to meet the boss. The message is delayed, and by the time it gets to the recipient, it is late. The manager is not approachable, keeping the fact that even the people on the ground have not interacted with him well to know his reactions, likes, and dislikes. The chain of command needs to be broken up, and a shorter route to the manager created (Harris, 2002).
Efforts put in place to minimize communication challenges
The organization has come up with sports day, open days, and dinners in order to bring all the stakeholders in the organization together in a social and friendly way; there is a suggestion box in every block of the organization where anonymous notes are dropped by the staff and customers. The bins are well locked and can only be accessed by the manager. This has brought a lot of change in the organization by helping the boss in getting the information on the ground without any gear from the staff (Sharma, 2008). This effort has been of great significance to the organization because the manager is nowadays learning how to interact and listen to all workers without any bias.
References
Harris, T. E. (2002). Applied Organizational Communication: Principles and Pragmatics for Future Practice. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Sharma, P. (2008). Communication Skills and Personality Development. Pune: Niral Prakashan.