Oral communication in the workplace covers a large area ranging from formal presentations to participation in teams and meetings. In recent years, there has been an impetus to focus on the quality of spoken interactions for employees within and outside the organization. This paper deals with the workplace oral communication needs of large and medium enterprises of the manufacturing sector dealing with heavy boilers, equipments, fabrication, etc. A survey was conducted and a questionnaire was administered to the employees of large and medium engineering industries. The first section of the paper provides insights into workplace oral communications, followed by a discussion of the research findings.

Every organization in today’s global scenario is inhibited by the complexity of coordinating multifaceted matrix projects. It has to operate effectively in various situations due to economic constraints, tight market forces and global competitiveness. This leads to a sense of urgency to get skilled and efficient employees to execute ventures effectively amidst increased competition and diminishing resources. It is one of the accepted views that the bulk of project failures continue to be a result of poor communication. The other factors include poorly defined goals, inadequate planning, lack of resources, inexperienced project managers, cost overruns, unclear directions, missed deadlines and lack of follow-up. The outcome of any project in an organization will probably fail to meet customer’s expectations without effective communication. Despite billions of dollars being spent annually by organizations on policies and procedures, projects are failing because of poor communication. Hence, effectiveness of communication, which means the successful delivering and receiving of messages, matters a lot depending upon the context.

Effective communication acts as an essential component for organizational success. A recent newspaper report emphasizes that out of every hundred interviewees, only five seem to possess the qualification eligible for employability. It is because they lack communication skills in spite of their technically sound knowledge. McKinsey Report (2005) highlights the report of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), a trade association of IT and BPO industries in India. It says that in India, only 20% of engineering students are employable and the remaining 80% are lagging due to lack of communication skills. According to India Infra Structure report 2012, the National Skill Development Corporation in India states that there will be a large manpower requirement in the engineering field in India due to skill-gap that is estimated to be 83.14% by 2017. In the existing globalized scenario, an eligible fresher not with a first class degree but with required skillset is what is expected by the IT-enabled services, management institutes, multinational companies, and Union and State Public Service Commissions. A first class degree is not the only recruiting criterion they are looking for, but the skillset that includes the communication skills serves the purpose. So, the present study aims to highlight the significance and requirement of effective oral communication for the engineers that influences directly their behavior and performance, ultimately resulting in increase of productivity in the workplace as OLA Repacka (2016) substantiates it.

Soft Skills Journal,Oral communication ,Formal presentations, The workplace oral communication,Large and medium Engineering Industries,Heavy Boilers, Equipments, Fabrication