Barriers to Communication Communication is effective if it flows freely in a communication loop between the sender(s) and receiver(s). Free flow means uninterrupted transmission of the information / the message through an appropriate medium, correct comprehension of the message by the receiver and a relevant and appropriate feedback from him. Misunderstanding, Irrelevant response and undesirable reactions are the consequences of a failed communication exercise. Failure of effective communication results in loss of valuable time, resource, material and even life. Barriers to communications range from the simple distracting noises to the most complex psychological factors. These barriers may cause a simple communication gap or a total failure of communication. A communication gap can be bridged but retrieval of a situation, damaged by miscommunication would be rather difficult. Barriers to communication result in undesirable reaction and unfavourable response. The communication exercise fails because the feed back is absent or falls short of expectation Barriers to communication are caused by environmental, physical, semantic, attitudinal and varying perceptions of reality Physical/Environmental Barriers The major environmental / physical barriers are Time, Place, Space, Climate and Noise. Some of them are easy to alter whereas, some may prove to be tough obstacles in the process of effective communication. These factors may just cause distraction leading to inattentiveness or totally alter the message, causing miscommunication. Time: Time has an important role in a communication process. Do we not often hear expressions such as “timely caution”, “timely advice?”. These expressions indicate the role of time as a factor in communication. An organization that expects quick results cannot afford to be slack in its channels of communication. The time lag between countries in Europe / America and Asia has to be overcome by the adoption of modern and fast communication channels. Quickness of communication is the watchword in the modern world of communication. Every concern has to choose a fast channel of communication with good alternatives. You have to choose a face-to-face oral communication channel to give instructions to a worker, a public address system to reach a large member of people scattered over a large area, a visual signal in crowd management and a courier system to reach clientele spread over and at distance and so on. Railway Authorities and Airline authorities have computer programmed voice announcements on arrivals and departures which get constantly updated. Modern banking through voice recording systems is available today. All these developments emphasize the importance of ‘time’ in a communication exercise. Immediacy of the objective usually determines the choice of the medium. In modern times, time consuming slow channels of communication are getting replaced by effective fast channels of communication. Space: Space plays an important role in an oral communication situation. It can act as a barrier to communication or act as an aid promoting good communication. Experts classify an oral communication situation on the basis of the distance maintained between sender and receiver as Intimate, Personal, Official and Public. Intimate: If the distance between the two, the encoder (sender) and decoder (receiver) is less than a foot and a half (18 inches), the situation is labelled intimate. The mother coddling the baby, the father and the son, or husband and wife in a familial / private situation communicate at an intimate level of space. Personal: Friends and peer groups who are in a process of communication maintain a distance of about two to three feet which is personal. Official: In official situation, the space should be at least four to five feet depending on the message or information. Public: The distance between the speaker (the encoder) and the listeners (decoder, in this context an audience) should be over ten feet, in a public situation. Any reduction of this minimum space parameters will lead to awkward and embarrassing situations. Generally, Americans and Europeans do not want violation of their personal space. They refer to their personal body space as the ‘body-bubble’ which they do not want to be violated by unwanted intrusions. Asians and people from the Middle East do not attribute importance to space. Space can act as barrier in a cross cultural or trans-national oral communication situation. Over crowding in elevators, jostling in office corridors and elbowing in public transport systems are all external factors that do affect communication as barriers. Proper maintenance of distance will help overcome this carrier. It will remove miscommunication and prevent distortion of a message or information. Place: The place or the location where a communication process takes place can degenerate into a barrier to effective communication. A simple comparison of the surroundings in a Government / Municipal office and the ambience provided in a multinational company will show how place and surroundings play an important role in effective communication. Inconvenient place, rickety furniture, poor lighting, inadequacy of space are all factors that make people irritable / impatient and annoyed. Friction and conflict erupt easily in such places which mar the transaction of any business, leave alone business communication. Even though it is part of office management, its impact on the communication process as a barrier is inevitable. Good ambience and suitably lighted and ventilated places promote effective communication. Climate: “The talks were held in a cordial atmosphere and in a proper climate” say the newspapers. Though the word climate refers to the human relations prevailing there, it is no exaggeration to say that the actual room temperature helps people to keep their heads cool! Unfavorable climate can act as a barrier to communication leading to wrong perceptions or decision. Noise: Noise is a physical barrier to effective communication. Noise may have its origin from an external source or may exist even in the communication loop. You do not achieve effective communication by merely shouting. Effective communication is almost impossible on the factory floor, the bus stand or railway station. No one should try to out shout a machine to achieve successful communication. Instead he should choose a better place with less noise to communicate his message / information. Noise distorts messages and acts as a barrier to effective communication. Medium of Communication – Wrong choice as a barrier A wrong medium or an inappropriate medium chosen for communicating a message will act as a barrier to communication. On a shop floor you cannot use a long written memo of instructions whereas your information on a new product in the market could be only through an effective and attractive advertisement. Complementing one medium of communication with another appropriately can help overcome communication barrier caused by the medium chosen. An oral reminder in person or over the telephone followed up with a written letter can easily produce the desired response or expected reaction. Semantic Barriers Semantics is related to meanings of words. To be more exact, it is related to connotative and denotative meanings of words and its study. Every word has a direct meaning called the denotative meaning. In addition to its exact or lexical meaning, words also acquire implied meanings called connotative meanings. Connotations are understood based only on an individual’s experience. If the encoder and decoder do not share the some connotative meaning for a word, miscommunication occurs. We have already seen how ‘bimonthly’ can mean two different concepts to two different people even at denotative level. Similarly, examine the word ‘cheap’ as an adjective. You will enjoy a ‘cheap holiday’ because you spend less than the real cost. Industries desire ‘cheap labour’ to reduce the over all cost of production. These connotations of cheap as an adjective are different from the connotations in expressions like “cheap popularity’ and “cheap joke”. If the receiver does not understand the connotation attributed by the sender, miscommunication takes place. But when words are used for denotations alone, not much damage will be done. To overcome the semantic barrier to communication, the communicator should choose the precise and exact word that will carry the same meaning for the receiver in the given context. The meaning of the word is related to context at the connotational level. A complimentary expression may derive a connotative derogative meaning which will ruin the communication process. If you examine the word ‘fellow’, you will find so many connotations to it. The word used with adjectives such as ‘nice’ and ‘lousy’ change the complexion of the word ‘fellow’. A ‘nice fellow’ and a lousy fellow’ are poles apart. If you call some one a ‘fellow scholar’, he is your contemporary. A ‘fellow traveller’ is simply your co-passenger on a train, but in another context he is a sympathizer or a secret member of the communist party. Fellowship simply means companionship / friendliness. However, in special contexts it can have different connotations. You can be a scholar with UGC (University Grants Commission) getting a fellowship. Cultural Barriers In the context of globalization and free trade, business communication has to cut across different cultural identities. These invariably cause cultural barriers that have to be overcome. The relaxed and leisurely pace of the Easteners, the formal and official style of the Britishers, the casual and matter-of fact nature of the Americans, the thorough nature of the Germans and the extreme courtesy and politeness of expression of the French are all cultural features. It is easy for an American to give his opinion even to his boss whereas decisions and opinions are seldom expressed in the presence of elders and seniors in the East. To overcome any cultural barrier to effective communication one has to possess an understanding of the culture of the receiver(s) / decoder. Even in body language there are variations. If a Filipino smiles, they say he is angry. The loop formed by tip of the thumb and index finger is a signal of agreement in North America but an obscenity in the Southern states. Psychological/attitudinal barriers Communication is an activity dependent on the flexible nature of the participants. Unfortunately the world is made naughty with rigid, inflexible and prejudiced attitudes. We will send or receive a message and react / respond to it only if we feel that the person who communicates has credibility. Our reaction and response depend on our attitude to the source of information. The sender should consider the receiver’s view point as the receiver should overcome his bias against the sender to overcome attitudinal barriers. The information / message should be favorable to the receiver to respond / react to it. Even bad news / unfavorable information could be communicated to the receiver without causing shock or heartburn. Communication exercise is affected by the values opinions and attitudes of the sender and the receiver in a given context. The reaction / response to an unfavourable information / truncated message from a source lacking credibility will always fall short of the expectation and fail to provide the necessary feedback to the sender. Barriers caused by varying perceptions of reality Perception is understanding of the world around us. Each one perceives the world in his own unique way and interprets what has been perceived in yet another unique way and interprets what has been perceived in yet another unique way. When we strongly disagree, we simply say “I am sorry, our perceptions appear to be different”. Abstraction: An abstract is a condensation of something. When we communicate, we unconsciously resort to ‘abstracting’, i.e., keeping to the essentials. We eliminate what we decide to be superfluous. But the receiver may not be competent enough to understand what we have eliminated. Abstracting is necessary for good and effective communication but it should not be done in certain demanding situations. If done it becomes a barrier. When you are instructing a lay and illiterate person about cleaning the house, you have to tell literally to remove cobwebs, sweep, dust and mop. Abstracting at this situation may not prove to be useful. The worker may not understand that you want every step and process to be gone through. But when you give the job to an agency, you can simply say, I want the house “thoroughly cleaned”. They share your perception about the job. Good abstracting can remove barriers in communication caused by unnecessary words and details. In a communication process, if the participants have different levels of perception, abstraction will be a barrier to communication. Slanting: Slanting is a barrier to communication. A slanted report is judgemental. News reporters are asked to report news and not give them a slant. A small ‘crowd’ or a large crowd’ are generally slanted expressions giving only relative meanings. Instead, if you say a gathering of about five thousand people you avoid slanting. Communication should also be unaffected by inferences and assumptions. Most inferences and all assumptions are highly subjective. They tend to become barriers if they form the basis of a message or information. Methods to overcome the barriers to communication I. Environmental and Physical barriers: (a) Time – adopt appropriate fast channels of communication and right time of communication (b) Space – maintain the distance in the communication exercise as determined by the situation (c) Place – Avoid overcrowded incommodious and ill-lit, ill- ventilated places to achieve effective communication (d) Medium – Choose the appropriate medium oral / written (sign (audio/visual) medium. II. Semantic Barriers: Connotational meanings of words – Choose the correct and precise word depending on context and the receiver’s felicity in the use of language. III. Cultural Barriers: Understand and accept the cultural variations in individuals and groups. Appreciate them and adopt your communication style to them. IV. Psychological Barriers: Try to understand the receiver’s mental make up and attitudes. V. Perception of Reality: Try to understand the different levels of perceptions of a situation and an issue. Be open, flexible and transparent. Barriers to written communication Poor stationery, clumsy lay out of the letter, the way it has been written or typed can also be barriers to communicate. The message may be solicited or unsolicited. Yet/ it should arouse the interest of the reader. An attractive envelope and a neatly executed letter will prove to be better than a sloppily written or typed communication sent in unattractive package. Body language as a barrier to effective oral communication In oral communication, our gesture, posture facial expression etc., enhance communication if applied well. They can also distort communication if not matched with the message. A simple message of ‘Congratulations” or a compliment, “What a fine job you have done”, can be communicated honestly and sincerely or sarcastically and ridiculously by appropriate facial expression. Therefore body language should be used appropriately to communicate the write message.
