There are a few examples of poor communication within my work experience, but none which
clearly and thoroughly demonstrate the hazards of poor communication as the example I found
while researching articles for this discussion post. The article I chose to focus on is a case study of
poor communication by healthcare professionals and the disastrous results that it can have on
patients. In the first case, the doctor providing treatment did not relay the instructions of the
pharmacist to the patient which resulted in the patient taking the drug daily instead of weekly and
caused immense internal damage. In another case, there was a miscommunication in treatment for
a patient which resulted in the patient failing to take life-saving drugs, nearly killing him. In both
cases, it was likely a verbal communication breakdown that caused the near-fatal gaps in
understanding. I would recommend that communications regarding medicine be given both
verbally and in the form of a typed digital plan which is both printed and provided to the primary
care physician, and patient, and stored in the system for later accountability if needed. A clearly
written and easily referenceable plan could be a life-saving communication measure if effectively
employed in this industry.
So at my last job in manufacturing we had a policy that roughly stated that any disciplinary step you
were on (this company had 3 steps, each progressively more severe). The policy at the time was
that if you were on any steps 1-3 your bonus and merit increase were not effected. In 2023 it was
decided by the board of North America to roll out a new policy where if any employee was on a
step 2 or 3, they would be ineligible for their bonus and merit increase at the end of the year. The
board also decided that it was up to the plant manager and local HR BP/manager to roll out this
policy to their respective locations instead of making a corporate announcement to all the plants in
North America (at the time the company had 37 plants in North America).
This decision back fired big time, as some of this communication was lost, not rolled out, our done
so poorly so that the employees had more questions than answers. There was no roll out plan, no
communication plan, no one was making sure that this message was heard loud and clear by the
employees. Because of this multiple (at least 10 if not more) lost their yearly bonus and merit
increases due to not understanding the policy or in some cases not even knowing about this policy
change. The specific issues that communication could have prevented was the loss of money and
pride of getting a bonus from the employees. Another thing that was a direct result of lack of
communication or poor communication was a loss of trust of employees to their management. This
issue is a big one for keeping trust and motivation for your employees, and a great way to retain
top talent.
Cited:
Tiwary, A., Rimal, A., Paudyal, B., Sigdel, K. R., & Basnyat, B. (2019). Poor communication by health
care professionals may lead to life-threatening complications: examples from two case reports.
Wellcome open research, 4, 7. https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15042.1
