Status Difference:
Almost every organization has a hierarchy structure. Invariably an individual reports to someone above him and that individual supervisor id the one primary connection to the organization. This hierarchical arrangement creates a barrier to communication – the employee is more likely to distort up-ward communication compared to communication with their colleagues or their subordinates.
As a supervisor, one would need to make use of the skills discussed in the earlier bytes on effective supervisory skills and become more approachable – this would act as the soothing factor in such status related issues. This would help ease the employee and make him/her more secure and would potentially lead to a straightforward upward communication.
One would, through the above line of thought be likely to suggest a hierarchy free work environment – this practically would be extremely hard to achieve (refer to the discussion on transaction cost earlier); however the extensive use of information technology could drastically reduced the hierarchy.