Introduction: Effective written and oral communication is critical to the
             efficient management of any organization as it is the process through which
             information moves and is exchanged throughout an organization. More
             important, poor communication can actually affect a company's bottom line
             for the simple reason that ineffective listening can prove to be expensive.
             For example, a simple $10 mistake, made by each of the over 100 million
             workers in the United States, would cost over a billion dollars. Besides
             the dollar cost, little mistakes result in irate customers, alienated
             employees, and ultimately lost productivity and profits. In fact, many a
             labor problem can be attributed to managers who are poor listeners (Harris,
             cited Steil; Wakin; DiGaetani, 1993, p. 233). The truth of the preceding
             observations is illustrated in the case of the Chicago branch of Standard
             Parking Corporation (SPC), which this paper will use as a case study on
             communication in the work environment. In the interests of clarity, the
             paper will first briefly narrate the case situation, before defining the
             communication problems and presenting possible strategies for dealing with
             Case Study Situation: Standard Parking Corporation (SPC) is a national
             leader in parking management services, operating approximately 2,000
             parking facilities in over 270 cities throughout the United States and
             Canada, with gross parking revenues in excess of $1.5 billion. SPC also
             operates in over 70 airport locations across the country, including O'Hare
             International Airport in Chicago, which is the world's busiest airport. The
             company has recently experienced phenomenal growth in the Chicago location
             with the addition of the Ground Transportation Department. The rapid
             growth, along with the addition of new services, has unfortunately resulted
             in communication issues that have caused conflicts within the Chicago
             operations. Of princ...