(a) Bina Nusantara University, Faculty of Economics and Communication, Communication Department
Abstract
Internship provides students with the opportunity to apply the skills that they learn in the classroom to the real workplace. Meanwhile, student might find difficulties to adapt with the transition experience from university life to the working environment. Communication is one of the most dominant activities occurring in any work setting. Effective communication makes good connection for creating understanding, knowing information and expressing feeling. A survey found that 14% of each 40-hour work week is wasted because of poor communication between staff and management, which equals a staggering number of seven work weeks of squandered productivity a year. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to explore the communication barriers that experienced by students in a workplace during internship program. This research is using qualitative approach with interview method. The data collected from interns of Communication students that have finished their internship program for one semester. The result from data gathering showed that the highest factors that contributes to communication barriers during internship are barriers in perception and cultural. There are various distinction understandings between employer and intern student that took time and efforts to be integrated. On the other side, every organization has a custom that unfamiliar for intern which highly required students to be adaptable with the condition.
Keywords: Communication Barrier- Effective Communication- Internship- Intern Student- Workplace
