BARRIERS FOR ONLINE AND OFFLINE CORPORATE COMMUNICATION. CASE STUDY: ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION IN TIMISOARA

<p><strong>Purpose:</strong> The research questions of the present study are: "how can we transmit information from a source to the destination with a minimum of distortions and errors in an organization?" and "how can communication fight against changes and problems in an organization?" The topic is relevant in the pandemic context, where significant changes in organizational communication have been implemented. </p><p><strong>Methodology:</strong> For answering the two research questions, a Grounded Theory approach has been chosen. In the initial phase 15 semi-structured interviews have been implemented on an heterogenous group of employees form the private sector in the Western part of Romania, with a minimum work experience of at least three years. The open coding process with constant comparison of information determined interrelated categories. In the end, based on literature argumentation, the final theoretical model regarding the elements of corporate communication barriers has been delineated.</p><p><strong>Findings:</strong> The main findings are: formal communication is considered a communication barrier because it assigns different "tags" to employees in a company. Also, online communication is considered beneficial if offline communication exists. Many respondents believe that communication during the pandemic period made it difficult to understand the message due to a lack of non-verbal communication and active listening.</p><p><strong>Research limitations:</strong> Interviews were only given by employees in large companies (corporations) because in small and medium-sized companies we cannot outline the topic of research.  The limited number of interviews of employees situated in the Western part of Romania limits the generalization of results for other regions. Further studies will focus on larger samples of employees from all the regions of Romania and even abroad. </p><p><strong>Practical implication:</strong> With the help of the qualitative research undertaken, the main communication barriers in large organizations during the COVID pandemic have been emphasized, being a starting point for designing new corporate strategies  to systematicaly eliminate them. </p><p><strong>Originality:</strong> There are no qualitative studies on this topic carried out in the Western part of Romania. The proposed theoretical model represents the basis for efficient corporate communication post COVID decision making and strategic thinking.</p&gt