Communication error prevention model in industrial organization*

SHI Gui-rong

(College of Interhuman Symbiotic Studies，Kanto Gakuin University，Yokohama，Japan)



Communication error prevention model in industrial organization*

SHI Gui-rong

(CollegeofInterhumanSymbioticStudies，KantoGakuinUniversity，Yokohama，Japan)

In this study，the communication error generation mechanism was analyzed from the view of human’s psychological trait and organizational behavior，based on the basic process of communication，and the individual factors and organizational factors which cause communication errors were examined.Communication error doesn’t just say that there was just a slip in transport of information (misinformation)，the behavior which information wasn’t conveyed or which couldn’t be transported is also included (non-information).To prevent communication error，it’s necessary to consider from the individual personal level and the organizational level based on a process of communication.The model to prevent communication error in the industrial organization was tried to propose by this consideration.In recent years，the trouble and accident by nonverbal communication which doesn’t depend on language often generate at a work site.It should be considered as future’s problem how to prevent such communication error，based on the environment of the work site and the situation.

industrial organization； organizational climate；communication error；prevention model

0　Introduction

In order to advance work safely and efficiently at a workplace，it is necessary that sharing the target and policy，and grasping and recognizing the common situation，sharing the necessary information，handing down the skill，clarifying allotment of roles，making leadership function and mutual understanding of coworkers.The main means to secure these is communication.Communication is frequently performed between superior-subordinate，coworker-coworker，and section-section in organization.Therefore，communication not only has the role of sending information，but also influence on fermenting work climate.

The purpose of communication is to share information on the same meaning between the side of sending information and the side of receiving information.Ideally，sharing of information between the two persons has to be identical perfectly，but realistically，the distortion (error) often occurs in communicating information by various factors.The error which occurs to such communication process is called “communication error”.The information to execute work isn’t often exchanged right in the various organizations.For example，the nursing accident by an information communication error occurs frequently at the medical site.The direct factors are often pointed out as the mistake of doctor’s direction，or taken by mistake about name and quantity of medicine，or the mistake of dripping speed at drip transfusion.The accidents caused by leakage of information，communication of wrong information，interpretation of information and/or abbreviation of communication have often happened in the industry organizations (etc.，nuclear power generation，iron manufacturing，architecture and chemical factory).Because much loss is often caused by those，in the industrial organization at present，the various matches to prevent communication error are accomplished.

It becomes clear that human factors participate in more accidents and troubles which occurred in the various organizations.It is often pointed out that how prevent the communication error called a king of human error effectively is the very important task.Even though various ways are used to prevent communication error at industrial sites，it’s the current state that a sign of improvement isn’t seen so much.In this study，the effect factors which cause communication error are analyzed from view of the psychological traits of human and the organization behavior，based on a basic process of communication.And furthermore，a generation mechanism of communication error is considered and prevention model that can carry out by an individual and organization is proposed.

1　Generation mechanism of communication error

1.1Basic process of communication

There are four basic elements of communication，the sender who sends information，the medium to transport information，the contents of message，and the receiver who receive information.A process of communication is indicated by Fig.1.This process is devised communication model to improve the efficiency of the information and communication，not a model of interpersonal communication.In this model，it can be thought that the source of information is sender，the transmitter and receiving set are regarded as human brain，the channel is media (medium)，the destination is receiver，and transmittal signal is symbol.The sound’s message is sent to a transmitter.That’s changed to transmit signal and sent as a received signal at the partner through a channel，and the message which is sound by a receiver is restored and handed down to a recipient.When passing a channel，there are various noise sources (influential element)，and the distortion of the communication occurs.The process which changes a message for transmit signal is called symbolization (encoding) and the process which takes a message out from a received signal conversely is called decipherment of a symbol (decoding).Generally，this process c is often used when human change the symbol that floats in the mind to language，or when pointing the meaning out from a symbol of language conversely.3 levels of the problem in communication are argued：

Fig.1　A transmission model of communication[1]

1) the technical problem：which degree and correctness can a message be communicated to?

2) the semantic problem：which degree and correctness can the meaning be conveyed?

3) the problem of effectiveness：which degree influences behavior effectively for the meaning that it has been received? It should be analyzed in such basic process about the fundamental factor which causes communication error.

1.2Occurrence of communication distortion

When some information was communicated between the sender and the receiver as it was above-mentioned，communication wasn’t formed with that.The purpose of communication is that a sender makes a receiver understand his intention and share it.When a receiver didn’t understand the contents a sender intended right，it won’t be said that communication was formed.Fig.2.showed the generation process of the distortion of information communication.

Fig.2　Generation process of communication distortion

Usually，when a speaker hands a message down to a listener，he talk about which he would like to speak in the mind one after another while remembering the matter.When the matter is converted to language，only about 75% of the remembered contents are converted to language in fixed time.But it’s misunderstood that the speaker could speak about everything of a remembered matter because this behavior had happened at the same time.

On the other hand，the listener handle information processing based on his knowledge about the contents which being spoken.It would better if the listener’s knowledge structure will resemble the speaker.When being different in this，it’s pointed that about at most 25% of distortion occurs.Therefore，only a little more than 50% of the speaker’s intention (75% x 75% = 56%) will be transported to the listener as a result，and it’s that communication error generates well just as it is.Then，what kind of errors is there specifically for communication error，and do what kind of factors influence it?

2　Consideration of a communication error prevention model

2.1Understanding about communication error

It’s indispensable to understand a communication error correctly to the meaning to prevent a communication error effectively.The feature of the behavior which causes the communication error is as follows by an analysis of the cause of the various accidents and troubles.a) Only information on a part is being told.b) Wrong information was told.c) Information was interpreted by mistake.d) Some important information isn’t being conveyed.e) The information isn’t confirmed.f) It’s difficult to transport information and check it.In other words，communication error doesn’t just say that there was just a slip in transport of information (misinformation)，the behavior which information wasn’t conveyed or which couldn’t be transported is also included(Fig.3.).This understanding is needed.The former misinformation is generally recognized well at the workplace site，but the transmission what not to be acted or what can’t be acted is kept in the process of work，so they aren’t often conscious.It can be thought an insufficient prevention countermeasure may be taken.Therefore，in order to prevent communication error，the prevention of misinformation need scarcely be said，even though it’s difficult to take measures from the transmission what not to be acted or what can’t be acted，it isn’t supposed to be ignored.

Fig.3　Understanding about communication error

2.2Influential factors of communication error

2.2.1Individual factors

In order to convey and share the information correctly，communication skill，knowledge and experience of both of a mailer and a recipient are recognized as the important factors.The reasons of the misinformation which is one of communication errors are considered as follows.Too much or lack of information：When a great deal of volume of information including unrelated information is told too much，the receiver can’t dispose of that easily，and it’s also able to happen that important information can’t be picked out.On the other hand，that a sender sends the volume of information which isn’t enough，the receiver can’t judge or pass a wrong judgment only by that information.Hearing only the information who would like to hear：Sometimes the recipient receives information from the partner selectively.When hearing person’s talk，he will pay attention to the content where he have an interest and hear，and ignore the other information.The number of the information link：When an information process becomes complicated，the meaning’s change in communication often occurs by the various factors.Timing：The whisper at the meeting，operational busyness，external noise，indifference and the keeping quiet person also disturbs the communication attitude of the transmitter and the recipient.

In the view of human’s trait，it is considered that the information processing of human is the process which makes the efficiency give priority，not logical.People uses only certain information，not to deal with all information to which it was given and judges based on the empirical sense.Processing of information is also handling information efficiently by deciding a conclusion first by a schema and advancing processing which matches the conclusion (top-down processing).The misinformation is easy to be caused by this trait.

2.2.2Organizational factors

The direct factors (individual factors) which have an influence on communication are generally noticed，but many background factors (organizational factors) which cause communication error finally are slighted and the correspondence is often also neglected.The reasons of the non-information which is the other one of communication errors are considered as follows.

The difference of status： The expansion of the hierarchy standard in the organization structure or the difference of status is the biggest influence factor in the obstacle of communication in organization.It often cause that the necessary information isn’t conveyed in the communication of superior-subordinate.For example，when handing some information down to the next person，the sender correct the inconvenient data for himself and hiding information，it is called as filtering information.It often happens in the bottom-up communication that good information is chosen and it’s poured into the superior and manager.Because bad information isn’t told，sometimes problem is solved too late.It is pointed out when the contents is bad information，it is not always conveyed appropriately[2-5].By division during the hierarchy in organization，the subordinate who is near the site has a possibility that aggressive proposal has a desirable influence on an organization outcome，because the superior touches the information which can’t be grasped by himself[6-7].

System of education and training： At present，the big change is brought in the industrial organization at the side of the man，the equipment and the environment with advance of high technology.Technological handing，improvement of a skill，sharing of knowledge and improvement of the human relations are an important problem for the organization.To settle this problem，it’s necessary to establish various education and training system in the organization and carry out effectively，and it should be aimed that to bring the quality which can be utilized at an actual site up makes all the members have the basic condition to communicate at a place by the education and the training.But it has to avoid that the stultified education and training which often damage the willing of the members of organization.Organizational climate：Communication between the members or teams of the organization are necessary to execute work and achieve the goal.Therefore，it’s needed to make the society everyone can send any information aggressively.It was pointed out that there was the organization culture called as “silence safety” (the situation which can’t suggest and point out) in NASA as a background factor by an explosive accident of the American “Colombia” space airplane.As there are a lot of keeping quiet persons，communication in the organization is disturbed and the risk trouble and an accident generate becomes high from a lesson of much history more.When information is offered for organization beyond the rule，that can be said an aggressive behavior，because it’s a general principle in the organization about the communication that a subordinate offers information to a superior hierarchically.Such aggressive dissemination of information behavior is the example called organizational citizenship behavior (OCB)[8].It is indicated that the individual people of low organizational commitment has the tendency which doesn’t do organization citizenship behavior in the meta-analysis of Organ and Ryan (1995)[9].

2.3A communication error prevention model

The mechanism and the influential factor of communication error occurrence became clear by the above mentioned analysis.To prevent communication error，it’s necessary to consider from the personal level and the organizational level based on a process of communication.The model to prevent communication error in the industrial organization (Fig.4.) is tried to propose by this consideration.

This model indicate that in order to prevent misinformation，the specialized knowledge (including knowledge of another occupation as well as knowledge related to own work)，the transmission skill and the communication attitude of a sender and a receiver have to become the same level as much as possible.That’s achieved through education and training in organization.On the other hand，in order to prevent non-information，it’s needed to build the organizational climate that it’s easy to be done.In particular，managers have to show leadership so that the necessary information and improvement proposition can be shared.

Fig.4　A communication error prevention model

In recent years，the trouble and accident by nonverbal communication which doesn’t depend on language often generate at a work site.The occurrence rate of the mistake also becomes high，because communication of information by partner’s sign，expression and eyes is increasing by the operational situation.It should be considered as future’s problem how to prevent such communication error，based on the environment of the work site and the situation.

References

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[7]Podsakoff P，Aheaner M，MacKenzie S.Organizational citizenship behavior and the quantity and quality of work group performance[J].Journal of Applied Psychology，1997,82(2)：262-270.

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10.13800/j.cnki.xakjdxxb.2016.0519

1672-9315(2016)05-0732-05

2016-07-10责任编辑：刘洁

SHI Gui-rong(1965-)，男，江苏泰州人，准教授，E-mail:shiipara@kanto-gakuin.ac.jp