Barriers to Communication
Barriers to communication
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Barriers to Communication
• In communication, as a psycho-semantic
process, the word barrier implies, mainly
something non-physical that keeps people
apart or prevents activity, movement etc.
• E.g. social / ethnic / language barriers or lack
of confidence
• Negative forces may affect the
effectiveness of communication by acting
upon any or all of the basic elements of
communication process
Barriers
 Noise
 Lack of planning
 Wrong / unclarified
assumptions
 Semantic problems (relating
to words’ meaning)
 Cultural barriers
 Socio-psychological barriers
 Emotions
 Selective perception
 Filtering
 Information overloaded
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Loss by transmission
Poor retention
Poor listening
Insufficient period for
adjustment
Goal conflicts
Offensive style
Time & distance
Abstracting
Inferring (conclude)
Barriers - sender
• Lack of planning
• Vagueness about the “purpose” of
communication
• Objectives to be achieved
• Choice of wrong language, resulting in
badly encoded message
• Unshared & unclarified assumptions
• Different perception of reality
• Wrong choice of the channel
Barriers - Receiver
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Poor listener
Inattention
Mistrust
Lack of interest
Premature evaluation
Semantic
Difficulties
• Bias / Lack of trust
• Different perception
of reality
• Attitudinal clash
with sender
• Not in a fit physical
state
Common barrier –
both sender & receiver
Absence of a common frame of
reference affecting smooth
interpretation of thoughts, feelings and
attitudes from the sender to the
receiver in a specific social situation
Noise
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Blaring of loud speakers
Poor telephone line
Faulty TV cable
Adverse weather conditions interfering
transmission
• Faulty encoding
• Inattention on the part of listener
• Faulty decoding
Lack of Planning
• Not properly organized/composed
• Transmitted through a wrongly chosen
medium
• Wrong choice of time
• Wrong choice of place
Wrong & unclarified assumptions
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All communications are made under some
assumptions, which are never communicated
They may turn out wrong & cause communication
failure
E.g. we often assume that others –
See the situation as we do
Should feel about the situation as we do
Think about the matter as we do
Understand the message as we understand it
All such assumptions may be incorrect. Hence one should
try to verify whenever possible, It helps
communication be effective
Semantic Problems
• The systematic study of transmission of meaning is
semantics
• Any problem arising from the
expression/transmission of meaning are semantic
problems/barriers
• Not always necessary for the meaning in the mind of
sender to be same as that in the mind of receiver
• It is of vital importance for the sender to encode his
message in such a way that receiver decodes it to get
the intended meaning
• One must aim at simplicity, clarity and brevity so as
to minimize the chances of different interpretations.
Use of jargons should also be avoided
Cultural Barriers
Same category of words, phrases,
symbols, actions, colors mean different
things to people of different
countries/cultural backgrounds
Emotions
• Encoding and decoding of messages depends to quite
some extent on one’s emotional state at a particular
time
• Extreme emotions, like jubilation or depression, are
likely to hinder effective communication
• Anger is the worst enemy of communication
• Message received when one is angry is likely to be
interpreted in a very different manner than when one
is calm and composed
• Stress may also lead to building of negative emotions,
further leading to communication breakdown
Selective Perception
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Receivers selectively see and hear
depending upon their needs, motivations,
background, experience and other personal
characteristics
While decoding the messages they project
their own interests and expectations
Fact is we don’t see reality, we interpret
what we see and call it reality
Filtering
• Sender manipulates information in such
a way that it will be seen more favorably
by the receiver
• The more vertical levels in the
hierarchical system, the more chances
for filtering
Information Overload
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(Availability of
huge amounts of data which the receiver is
unable to handle effectively)
Results-fatigue, disinterest and boredom
Very often relevant information gets mixed
up with irrelevant details and therefore goes
ignored by receiver.
Screening of information is necessary
Messages should be directed only to those
people who are likely to benefit from the
information
Major points should be highlighted leaving out
all irrelevant details
Loss by Transmission
When messages pass on from person to
person in a series of transmissions they
are likely to become less and less
accurate. They get diluted on the way
Poor Retention
Necessity of repeating the message
using several channels/media
Poor Listening
• Poor listening and hasty evaluation is a
major problem
• Reason is mostly people are too much
involved in their own problems and
pampering their own egos
• We should keep our eyes, ears open,
rise above our egos, empathize with
others
Insufficient Period for
Adjustment
• Change in shifts in time, transfer to
another department, change in profile,…
• People respond to change in different
ways and require their own time to think
about full meaning, implications and
consequences of the message
Goal Conflicts
• Various units and sub units in an
organization internalize their own goals,
leading to splitting or bifurcation of
interests
• Conflicts act as communicationreduction mechanism.
Offensive Style of
Communication
When a manager sends a message in
such a way that the juniors become
defensive he/she contributes to
negative factor of poor interpersonal
relationship.
Time & Distance
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Time
The frequency of communication encounters
affects the human relationship
Different shifts/meeting at wrong time,
phone call at wrong time affect the
communication
Distance
Faulty sitting arrangement at office may
create communication gaps
Boss can minimize status difference between
himself and his employees
Abstracting (conceptual, not
concrete
• We use language to communicate our
experiences and feelings but we can’t
communicate every detail of it.
• We abstract the reality and report only the
valuable characteristics
• We observe partially and communicate
partially because our experience of the event
is also partial
• When we try to convert our observations and
experiences into words, we further abstract
it by using selective words which involve
leaving out the details
Wrong Inferences
• More dramatic than facts and give
scope for gossip
• Inferences supported by facts are
essential for professionals when they
analyze material, solve problems and
plan procedures
Socio - Psychological
1. Status
 Consciousness of one’s status affects 2-way
flow of communication
 Creates personal barriers caused by
superior-subordinate relationship
 Though 2-way vertical channel exists in
every organization
 Few subordinates choose to communicate
with their superiors and vice versa
 Though organizations are changing by
adopting flat structures, psychological
distance between superior – subordinate
exists
Barriers – Socio - Psychological
2. Perception* & reality
 Human communication takes place in the
world of reality which surrounds us – our
sensory environment
 Sense organs stimulated by signs (external)
 Sense Perceptions received by our brain
through our senses recreate within each one
of us the world which exists within our mind
as its content
 2 aspects of same reality –
o External which surrounds the communicator
&
o Internal – mental representation as seen /
believed by the individual
Barriers – Socio – Psychological
• 5 sense organs –
 Eyes
–
sight
 Ears
–
sound
 Nose
–
smell
 Tongue –
taste
 Flesh
–
touch
• Objects which excite the sense organs are
called “signs”
• Senses respond to signs - sensations transported to the brain through the sensory
nerve network
Barriers – Socio - Psychological
• Perceptions are mental images of
external work stored in our brain –
viewpoint, experience, knowledge,
feelings & emotions
• Perceptions constitute what we are
How we think
How we feel OR
How we respond to something
Barriers – Socio - Psychological
• These stored perceptions colour and
modify whatever our brain receives
from any signs or set of signs, fresh
data, thoughts or messages.
• These conditioning perceptions are
called “filters”
• The mind ‘filters’ the message received
from the signs and gives it meaning
according to individual perception
Barriers – Socio - Psychological
• An individuals filter is “unique”
• B’coz filters differ, different individuals
respond to a sign (word, gesture etc) with
different understanding and will assign a
meaning according to his/her filter
• The presence of a unique filter in each
individual communicator and receiver
causes the communication gap (distortion)
in the message sent and message received
Barriers – Socio - Psychological
• Easy to remove gaps in face–to–face
communication
• Understand through listeners facial
expression, body language gestures etc. or
listener will express
• In a written communication - audience is
invisible –– semantic gap between intended
meaning and interpreted meaning remains
unknown.
• Feedback does help but it may be too late
Semantic – relating to words’ meanings
Activity Communication Barriers
1. Describe 5 most common communication
barriers in workplace.
2. How can you overcome those 5
communication barriers you described in
question 1
Email you response to
keshavaustralia@gmail.com with subject
line Communication Barriers