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BARRIERS TO COMMUINICATION
A barrier is defines as something that prevents or controls progress or movement. It comes in the way of the desired outcome. It might have occurred while you were in conversation with your boss, parents, friends or colleagues. This barrier impedes the communication and the message is not received properly from the sender. This kind of break in communication leads to misunderstanding between/among communicators. Communication would be effective only when it creates the desired impact on the receiver. Such issue arises when one lacks in effective communication skills. When barrier occurs, they need to be addressed in order to ensure that no gap could happen. In a great extent, if the sender of the message analyses his/her message thoroughly and anticipate the likely response before sending it, the barrier could be resolved.
Step by step suggestions to be take in order to solve the barriers in communication
- Identify the problem
- Find the cause/barrier
- Work on alternative solutions
- Opt for the best solution
- Follow up rigorously
NOISE:
Noise is defined as any unplanned interference in the communication environment, which affects the transmission of the message. It is a break or disturbance in the communication process. It can be classified as channel or semantic.
- Channel noise in any inference in the mechanics of the medium used to send a message. It is external.
Ex: faulty background, noise in telephone lines, or too high a volume or pitch from loudspeakers.
- Semantic noise occurs due to the connotative (implied) meaning of a word that is described differently by the sender or the receiver. It is internal. In a great extent, person who uses the word “bimonthly” might mean twice per month while the person hearing it thinks it is once in two months
Ex: ambiguous (unclear) sentence structure, faulty grammar, misspellings, and incorrect pronunciation.
CLASSIFICATION OF BARRIERS
To communicate smoothly and effectively in an organization, irrespective of one’s position, one need to know how barriers operate, why they cause misunderstandings, and how to minimize their negative impact. Even with the best intentions, communication barriers occur and our written and spoken messages are misunderstood. So, based on the formation and delivery in our communication, barriers are classified into three types.
- Intrapersonal barriers
- Interpersonal barriers
- Organizational barriers 1. Intrapersonal Barriers
Every individual has his own concept. Everyone is unique due to the differences in experiences, education, value and personality. Each of us interprets the same information in different ways, as our thinking varies. Certain common causes are responsible for an individual’s inbuilt barriers. The common causes that lead to these barriers are:
a. Wrong assumptions: These generally occur because the sender or the receiver doesn’t have adequate knowledge about the other’s background or develops false concepts, which are fixed in his/her mind.
Ex: A doctor asks his patient to take medicine only ‘SOS’ (i.e., during an emergency), without knowing if the patient understands the term ‘SOS’
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is to put yourself in the shoes of the listener and becoming yourself as a good communicator.
b. Varied Perceptions: These happen when individuals in certain scenario perceives the situation in different ways. The way we understand the world around is called as perception. Each one perceives the world in his unique way and interprets what has been perceived in yet another unique way.
Ex: In the story ‘The elephant and six blind men’, the elephant was perceived by each man as a fan, a rope, a wall, a sword, a snake, and a tree. Here every individual holds different viewpoints about the same situation.
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is to take step back and take a wider, unbiased perspective of the issue.
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is to identify the words in one’s or other’s communication like all, always, every day, every time, everything, everybody and their opposite like none, never, nobody, and nothing; and substitute these words with phrases like ‘in most situations’ or ‘most likely’. It is also suggested to label one’s opinions with phrases like, ‘it appears to me’ or ‘the evidence indicates’.
By above all, to be a good communicator, one should sum up the following steps too
∑ Be non-judgmental ∑ Be empathetic ∑ Not assume anything ∑ Stick to the subject ∑ Listen, and above all, paraphrase( express the same with different ideas) ∑ Don’t be generalized always
2. Interpersonal Barriers
Interpersonal barriers occur due to the inappropriate transaction of words between two or more people. These lead to the result of the limitations in the communication skills of the sender or the receiver, or of both. The two broad categories into which these barriers can be classified are:
∑ Inefficient communication skills ∑ Negative aspect nurturing in the climate
With proper understanding and right behavioral attitude, we can try and understand the role of differences among individuals that lead to these communication breakdowns. The most common reasons for interpersonal barriers are:
a. Limited Vocabulary: This occur when we find ourselves searching for the exact word or phrase that would be appropriate for what we are trying to express. On the other hand, merely having a wide vocabulary if of no use unless the communicator knows how to use it. So, the denotative and connotative meanings of the words should be absolutely clear to the receiver.
Ex: When a person is at a loss of words during a speech, his communication will be very ineffective, and he will leave a poor impression on the audience.
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is by putting constant efforts in increasing vocabulary by regularly reading a variety of books and listening to native speakers of the language.
b. Incompatibility of verbal and non-verbal messages: This happen when there is no connection between what a person speaks and what he expresses. When a person interprets the non-verbal communication which doesn’t suit his verbal communication, he leaves his listeners confused and puzzled. Assumptions based on the physical appearance also lead to this communication barrier.
Ex: While introducing the newly recruited manager to other employees, the CEO of the company conveys the message that he is very delighted to have the new manager appointed. However, the expression on his face shows just the opposite of what he is saying.
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is to be aware of one’s own body language besides trying to accurately gauge the others’. Dressing according to the occasion, wearing neat and clean clothes, choosing an appropriate hairstyle and wearing clean and polished shoes also help in overcoming this barrier.
c. Emotional Outburst: It occurs when we are overwhelmed by our emotions. Though moderate level of emotional involvement heightens our communication, excessive emotional involvement can be an obstacle in communication. Negative emotions such as prejudice, stereotyping, boredom and positive emotions like happiness and excitement, both hinder effective communication. This barrier happens especially in situations where people react negatively. Depending on their nature and the situation, this negative reaction may be classified as hostile or defensive. Messages are misinterpreted, ignored, or overwhelmed to by people displaying such behavior. Extreme anger also creates such barrier.
Ex: There is a rumor floating amongst the employees that the president of certain company involved in fraud. The president is aware of that he thinks they are baseless. When the president of a company is asked to address the same employees, he isn’t able to put his point across, as he is flushed with anger.
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is to sharpen self- awareness, intuition, composure and empathy, in order to develop an environment that would be highly conducive to good communication skills. People with the so said attitude should be calmed down and taken to a quiet place to try out and sort the problem that caused their emotions to spin out of control.
d. Communication Selectivity: This happens when the receiver in a communication process pays attention only to a part of the message. This happens because he is interested only in that part of the message which may be use to him. In such cases, the sender isn’t a fault. It is the receiver who breaks the flow of the communication.
Ex: A meeting is held by the CEO of a company. She calls all her executives from various divisions-production, finance, marketing, etc. when she addresses the message related to finance, the other ignores thinking that is not important for them. And it is vice versa with the rest too.
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is to be attentive and resourceful irrespective of one’s position and profession.
e. Cultural Variations: As businesses are crossing national boundaries to compete on a global scale, the outlook of the global and domestic workforce has changed drastically. And if we lack in observing the laws, customs, traditions, cultures and business practices while dealing with multinational people as a part of our personal and professional life, it leads to the cultural variation barrier.
3. Organizational Barriers
Every organization, irrespective of its size, has its own communication techniques, communication policies, and each nurtures its own communication climate. If the flow of communication is downward, feedback is not guaranteed. On the other hand, organizations with a flat structure have an intricately-knit communication network. And all these organizations have their own protocol to be followed. It is the structure and complexity of this protocol that usually causes communication (organizational) barriers. Many companies realize that a rigid, hierarchical structure usually restricts the flow of communication. Since there are numerous transfer points between the sender and receiver in an organization, this reduces the effectiveness of the message and creates a barrier. The main organizational barriers are as follows:
a. Too many transfer stations: This occurs when there are more communication links between the main sender and receiver. The message between them gets distorted as there are several layers of communication channels. It is not only due to poor listening, but also of several other reasons like filtering the message or considering it as unimportant. Transfer stations serve a purpose, but having too many is a barrier.
Ex: A professor asks his assistant to inform a student to meet him on Friday instead that day, as he is going out of station the next day. Then assistant asks his friend to inform the student that he should meet the professor tomorrow, as the professor is going out of station that day. And this friend of an assistant informs the student to meet the professor that day, as he will not be available the next day.
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is to avoid too many transfer stations which is always the obstacle for an effective communication.
b. Fear of superiors: This barrier happens when inferiors have fear or awe of superiors in organizations. An employee is not free enough to speak directly with his superior, as he was restricted with power. Some employees may even avoid a mild talk with their superiors, or else give all the information to them in an extreme level of fear. This is because they feel that they will be viewed in an unfavorable light by leaving out some information. In written communication, this results in bulky reports, where essential information is clubbed with unimportant details.
Ex: An employee may not be pleased with the way his boss extract the work from him, but is unable to put his point across because of fear of losing the boss’s goodwill.
Overcome: The best way to avoid this barrier is by creating an open environment to the employees to increase their confidence. Moreover, by encouraging active participants from their subordinates, senior officers pave the way for more ideas, resources, or solutions to come forth from their subordinates.
c. Negative tendencies: Every organization has groups like social, music, refreshments etc. This happens when there is a conflict between the members and non-members of a particular group. This type of opposition gives rise to insider-outsider equations, which in turn pave the way for negative tendencies in the organization. Once these develop, they create noise in interpersonal communication too.
Ex: The student members of the sports club of an educational institution may be annoyed with non-members who oppose the club for allocating more funds to purchase sports equipment.
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is to create an environment where all the members can respect and like each other’s group and also realizing that every group is important in order to facilitate the things forward.
d. Use of inappropriate media: Media like graphs and charts, telephones, facsimile machines, boards, email, telephones, films and slides, computer presentations, teleconferencing and video conferencing are used in organizations in order to pass the information. If the media chosen isn’t appropriate that leads to barrier and creates miscommunication.
Examples:
- Telephone would not be an ideal medium for conveying confidential information.
- Facsimile machine isn’t an apt medium for conveying students’ information to their parents or vice versa
Overcome: The best way to overcome this barrier is by mixing the media, for instance, after booking an order online, a follow-up call can be made to verify whether the order has been placed. And considering the factors like time, cost, type of message and intended audience also avoids this barrier.
e. Information Overload: This happens when there is inefficiency in manual handling of huge amount of data. The usual results of this barrier are fatigue (tiredness), disinterest, and boredom. In this barrier, usually, important information gets mixed up with too many irrelevant details, and is therefore causes confusion, errors and finally ignored by the receiver.
Ex: A teacher gives too much information at once for the students to handle as he has very short time to finish the syllabus.
Overcome: The ways to overcome this barrier is to reduce the information given, screen the information, highlight only the major information and direct the information to the people who are benefited from it.
