VJTI TY – Professional Communication Skills

Communication Barriers
Name: Viraj Surana Batch no: 1
Roll no: 211040002 Date: 26/12/23
Instructions:
1. Read the provided case study about the challenges faced by production engineers in a
multinational project at Innovatech.
2. Identify and analyze at least six communication barriers encountered by the team during
the project.
3. For each communication barrier identified, propose a specific strategy or approach to
overcome it, taking into account the multicultural and multinational aspects of the team.
4. Justify your proposed strategies by explaining how they address the specific
communication barriers identified in the case study.
5. Write a comprehensive report outlining your analysis and proposed strategies.

Case Study:

In the sprawling offices of Innovatech, a multinational engineering firm, a team of production

engineers embarked on a groundbreaking project to develop an automated assembly line for a
global automotive company, Autotech Inc. The team consisted of engineers from various
backgrounds, working together to implement innovative solutions.

The project commenced smoothly, but complexities soon arose due to a series of communication
barriers that hindered progress.

During a meeting, Priya, a production engineer from India, presented a comprehensive plan for
the assembly line's optimization. Her presentation was met with nods of agreement, but her
colleague, Carlos from Brazil, expressed concerns after the meeting.

Carlos: "Priya, your plan seems intricate, but I'm unsure about its feasibility given our
manufacturing limitations."

Priya: "I understand your concerns, Carlos. Let's discuss this further and find a middle ground
that accommodates both efficiency and practicality."

Meanwhile, technical specifications for the assembly line were sent by Autotech's German team.
The documentation was detailed, but the language used was highly technical, making it
challenging for some team members, like Rina from Japan, to comprehend fully.
Rina: "The specifications are thorough, but I'm struggling with some technical terms. Can
someone help me clarify these?"

James, a production engineer from the United States, needed input from his colleagues in China
and Germany. However, coordinating meetings across different countries proved difficult,
resulting in delayed responses and fragmented communication.

James: "I've been waiting for input on the critical components from our Chinese and German
counterparts, but our timing doesn't seem to align."

Moreover, the Brazilian team members preferred informal communication styles, while the
Japanese and German colleagues upheld formalities in their interactions.

Furthermore, technical glitches in the messaging platform caused messages to be delivered out of
sequence, leading to confusion and misunderstandings among the team members.

Questions:

1. Identify and explain six communication barriers encountered by the production engineers
at Innovatech in the story.
2. How did language barriers impact the team's collaboration and understanding of technical
specifications? Provide specific examples from the case study.
3. Discuss the impact of cultural differences on communication styles within the
multinational team. How did these differences contribute to communication challenges?
4. Evaluate the consequences of time zone differences on communication effectiveness in
the project. Propose strategies to overcome these challenges in a multinational setting.
5. How did technical glitches in digital communication tools hinder effective collaboration
among the team members? Suggest alternative tools or methods to mitigate these issues.
6. Analyze the role of differing perspectives on feasibility in causing communication
barriers within the team. How can diverse viewpoints be leveraged positively in a
multinational project environment?

Note: Ensure your responses are well-supported with examples from the case study and provide
comprehensive explanations for your proposed strategies.

Answers:
 1) Various communication barriers:

Communication Barriers Analysis and Strategies for Enhancing Innovatech's Production Engineering
Collaboration

1. Identification and Explanation of Communication Barriers:

i) Lack of Feedback (at the right time):- Carlos should have given the feedback in the meeting
itself as it could have cleared his ambiguities about the ideas proposed by Priya in the meeting
itself and may result in a greater understanding of the proposed idea.

ii) Language barriers:- InnovaTech is a multinational company which has people working from
all over the world and all of them speaking an unique language. This made it difficult for
everyone to be on the same page at the same time.

iii) Muddled messages:- The channel on which messaging was taking place messes up the
chronological order of messages; this results in confusion regarding the communication taking
place between colleagues .

iv) Usage of highly technical language:- This might be containing terms which most engineers
would understand because they are familiar with the technical terms related to the particular
topic whereas Rina on the other hand doesn’t understand because of not being familiar with the
technical terms and might be having a different career background.

v) Information Overload:- This is taking place due to communication occurring via a text
messaging channel.

vi) Cultural barrier:- The Germans and the Japanese like to communicate keeping a formal tone
while doing so whereas the Brazilians tend to be informal.

Question 2. Impact of Language Barriers:

Language barriers are a major problem while communicating. The company being a
multinational company has lot many employees speaking different languages; because of this
what happens is that the communication between them has to take place through English and
while doing so, there are possibilities of different interpretation of the same sentence. For
example, the Germans may interpret a sentence differently than the Brazilians.

Question 3. Cultural Differences in Communication Patterns:

] Cultural differences are commonly present at such a big company as they have many employees
belonging from various different religions, faiths, etc. This results in people having a different style of
communication like the Germans and Japanese like to keep it formal but the Brazilians prefer to be
informal. Cultural differences in communication patterns result in clashes, such as the Brazilian team with
Japanese and German systems. Addressing these differences through open discussions and establishing
communication patterns can lead to a more cohesive team.

Question 4. Consequence of Time Difference:

The time zone differences results in stagnation of information. As it could so happen that Japan
and another country like Brazil have a huge time zone difference and would result in slower
communication as the sender might have just woken up from his/her sleep in the early morning
and the person in Japan just went to bed. This would result in massive delays. Information could
also potentially become irrelevant

Question 5. Impact of Conflict:

Glitches in the communication tools are something which could and should be avoided as much
and as soon as possible .These lead to the problems which cause confusion as stated earlier due
to improper chronology or muddled messages.

Question 6. The Role of Different Perspectives:

Differences in opinion about the feasibility could potentially lead to social problems between the
individuals who are either for or against the project. As the people who think it is not feasible
might think that the other side of people aren’t thinking enough about it while the people who are
for the project might feel that the other side of people don’t want the project to be a success.