Barriers to Communication

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 Barriers to communication

➢ Effective communication is the very lifeblood of business.

➢ No communication, no business.

➢ Very often problems, serious and not so serious arise because of

something going wrong in communication.

➢ Barriers with reference to communication imply hurdles or problems on the

way which adversely affect the transmission of information from the sender
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to the receiver.
Problems/ Barriers/ May Arise at Any of the Following Levels:

➢ At the sender’s level in

➢ formulating/ organising thought, ideas, message

or
➢ Encoding the message

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Problems/ Barriers/ May Arise at Any of the Following Levels:

At the receivers level in:

➢ decoding the received message

or
➢ understanding or interpreting the message

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Problems/ Barriers/ May Arise at Any of the Following Levels:

➢ At transmission level where noise occurs

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 Classification of Barriers

➢ How often have you said, “ I meant to say this and not that”?

➢ Even with the best intentions, communication barriers crop up, and
our written, and spoken messages are misunderstood.

➢ There are several categories of barriers causing a breakdown in

communication.

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 Classification of Barriers

➢ Intrapersonal Barriers Stem form person's’ attitude, behaviour,

➢ knowledge, education

➢ Interpersonal Barriers Stem from an inappropriate transaction of

words between two or more people

➢ Organisational Barriers Refer to the barrier in organisational

communication

➢ Semantic Barriers Pertaining to language 7

 Intrapersonal Barriers

➢ Individuals are unique because of their idiosyncrasies.

➢ This is mainly because of differences in education, experience,

values, and personality.

➢ Each of us interprets the same information in different ways as our

thinking varies.

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 Wrong Assumptions

➢ Many barriers stem from wrong assumptions.

➢ For Example

When a doctor tells his patients that he has to take some medicine
only ‘ SOS’ without knowing whether the patient understands the
term ‘SOS’ he is creating a barrier in their communication.

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 Wrong Assumptions

➢ Here the doctor has made a wrong assumption about his patient’s
level of knowledge.

➢ Wrong assumptions are generally made because the sender or the

receiver does not have adequate knowledge about each other’s
background.

➢ A skilled communicator keeps these issues in mind to prevent them

from becoming barriers.

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 Differing Background

➢ People vary in terms of their education, culture, language,

environment, age, sex, financial status etc.

➢ Our background plays a significant role in how we interpret the

message.

➢ At times, something not experienced by you earlier will be difficult to

interpret or appreciate.

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 Differing Background

For Example

➢ A computer company representative may not make much sense to a

group of doctors if in his presentation, he goes into details about the
hardware aspects of the computer that he has planned to install.

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 Differing Background

➢ To enhance your communication skills, it is necessary to know the

background of your audience.

➢ You can accordingly use that information to construct your message.

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 Differing Background

➢ Use language understood by the receiver to avoid ambiguity and

reduce multiple meanings in your communication.

➢ The multiple meanings of a word increases the problem of

communication barriers.

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 When Writing or Speaking

Think of your Audience

➢ How well do they understand the language?

➢ How much do they know about your logic?

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 When Writing or Speaking

➢ Select your words with care, especially technical terms.

➢ Words must be suited to your audiences language skills.

➢ If you have to use slightly difficult or unfamiliar words, try to explain

these as part of your communication.

➢ Don’t fall into the trap; however, of simplifying your language, your
audience could get put off if you use words that sound kiddish.
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 Wrong Inferences

➢ Communication quite often breaks down or becomes an embarrassing

affair if we keep acting on assumption without caring to seek
clarification.

For Example
If a customer, writes to us that he or she would be visiting our office
or factory on a particular day without caring to write or telephone that
s/he would like to be picked up assuming that we will do all that as a
routine, it would be regarded as a case of incomplete communication.

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 Wrong Inferences

➢ It may lead to loss of goodwill.

➢ When presenting any inference in the course of your work, you could
use qualifiers such as ‘ evidence suggests’, or ‘in my opinion’ to
remind yourself and the receiver that this is not yet established as a
fact.

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 Closed Mind

➢ The expression ‘closed minds’ refers to thinking tendency of the

people that they know everything about the issue and inhibits
communication.

➢ They do not open their minds to new ideas that are placed before
them.

➢ People who feel that they know it all are called ‘pansophists’.

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 Closed Mind

➢ This type of thinking exists in people who think that they know
everything about a particular subject and therefore refused to accept
any further information on that topic.

➢ This type of thinking can pose a major barrier, leading to a failure in

communication.

➢ In such instances, the receivers refuse information because of the

know it all attitude.

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 Closed Mind

➢ The clue to detecting this barrier in others and ourselves is the use of
words like all, always, never, none, nothing etc.

➢ To avoid this barrier, use phrases like ‘it appears to me’ or ‘the
evidence indicates’.

➢ If your data is insufficient, it is better to admit that you are unaware of

the rest of the information rather than stonewalling.

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 Impervious Categories

➢ We react positively to information only if it is in consonance with our

views and attitudes.

➢ Conversely, when we receive information that does not conform to

our personal views, habits and attitudes or appears unfavourable to
us, we tend to react negatively.

➢ Rejection, distortion, and avoidance are three common undesirable

and negative reactions to unfavourable information.

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 Impervious Categories

➢ People who are rigid in their opinions may face problems in

communicating effectively.

For Example
➢ One of your fellow students may think that only students of science
are good in reasoning; another might be of the opinion that young
executives are more efficient than older ones.

➢ Such people fall into impervious categories because they may not
able to accept any deviation from the points of view.
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 Interpersonal Barriers

➢ Intrapersonal barriers stem from an individual’s attitudes or habits

whereas interpersonal barriers occur due to inappropriate transaction
of words between two or more people.

➢ Interpersonal barriers crop up as a result of the limitations in

communication skills of the encoder or the decoder or both.

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 Limited Vocabulary

➢ An inadequate vocabulary can be a major hindrance in

communication.

➢ During a speech, if you are at a loss for words, your communication

will be very ineffective and you will leave a very poor impression on
your audience.

➢ On the other hand, if you have a varied and substantial vocabulary,

you can create an indelible impression on your listeners.
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 Incongruity of Verbal and Nonverbal Messages

➢ Non-verbal communication acts as another barrier to effective

information gathering.

➢ Non-verbal communication usually enhances and enlivens verbal

communication.

➢ Ignoring nonverbal cues or misinterpreting them can result in the

message being completely misunderstood.

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 Incongruity of Verbal and Nonverbal Messages

➢ Imagine a situation where your CEO introduces the middle-level manager

to other employees.

➢ In a small speech, he conveys the message that he is very delighted to

have the new manager appointed in his office.

➢ However, the expressions on his face show just the opposite of what he's
saying.

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 Incongruity of Verbal and Nonverbal Messages

➢ The stark difference between the verbal and non-verbal aspects of his
communication leaves his listeners feeling confused and puzzled.

➢ Your non-verbal cues should consistently match your verbal message,

adding to their effectiveness and enhancing your image as a
competent and interesting communicator.

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 Emotional Outburst

➢ Encoding and decoding of messages depend 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.

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 Emotional Outburst

➢ Anger is the worst enemy of communication.

➢ A message received when one is angry is likely to be interpreted in a

very different manner than one is calm and composed.

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 Emotional Outburst

➢ Stress may also lead to building up of negative emotions further

leading to communication breakdown.

➢ Extreme anger can create such an emotionally charged environment

that rational discussion is just not possible.

➢ Positive emotions like happiness and excitement also interfere in

communication but to a lesser extent than negative feelings.
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 Emotional Outburst

➢ Imagine that you are the President of a well-established company.

➢ There are rumours floating amongst your employees that you have
indulgent in fraudulent activities.

➢ You are fully aware that these rumours are baseless.

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 Emotional Outburst

➢ However, when you are asked to address the same employees, you
are unable to put your points across, as you are flushed with anger.

➢ Despite the fact that you are a confident public speaker, your
communication failed as you were overwhelmed by your emotions.
.

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 Communication Selectivity or Filtering

➢ If you are a receiver in the communication process, and you pay

attention only to a part of the message, you are posing a barrier
known as communication selectivity.

➢ You do this because you are interested only in that part of the
message which may be of use to you.

➢ In such a situation the sender is not at fault.

➢ It is the receiver who breaks the flow of communication.

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 Communication Selectivity or Filtering

For Example
➢ A meeting is held by the chairman of a company.

➢ He has called all his executives from various divisions- Production,

Marketing, Finance, etc.

➢ During the meeting he discusses various topics.

➢ But he may not be able to get across the entire message to each one of the
participants unless he gets their individual attention.
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 Communication Selectivity or Filtering

➢ If the Production Manager and the Marketing Manager pay attention

only to the matters related to their respective areas, they may not be
able to get the total perspective of what the chairman is conveying.

➢ Communication selectivity may act as a barrier in written forms of

communication as well.

➢ When you read a story, if you read only certain parts and omit others,
you are posing this barrier.

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 Cultural Variation

➢ In an international environment, cultural differences often cause

communication problems.

➢ The same category of words, phrases, symbols, actions, colours,

mean different things to people of different countries/ cultural
backgrounds.

➢ For example,in western countries black colour is associated with

death and mourning while in the far east white is the colour of
mourning.
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 Cultural Variation

➢ In the United States, people want to be called by their first name while
in Britain people are more formal and likely to be addressed by their
last name.

➢ To compete successfully in today's globalised business environment,

we must overcome the communication inadequacy arising from
different languages and cultures.

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○
 Poor Listening Skills

➢ Poor listening causes serious problems in communication.

➢ We should remember that listening and hearing are not the same.

➢ Hearing is a passive exercise while listening requires careful attention

and accurate decoding of the signals received from the speaker.

➢ Misunderstanding and conflicts can be mitigated if people listen to the

message with attention.
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 Poor Listening Skills

➢ In order to become good listeners, we have to learn to rise above our

egos, keep our eyes and ears open and empathize with others.

➢ The communicator should not be only a good speaker but also a

better listener.

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 Poor Listening Skills

➢ This can be done by paying proper attention to the speaker through

non-verbal responses and asking questions at the appropriate
moment.

➢ Do not jump to conclusions hastily, maintain your composure and

allow the speaker to finish before interpreting his message.

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 Noise

➢ Noise is anything that hampers the smooth flow of communication.

➢ Communication is very often affected/ distorted by the noise that

occurs primarily at the transmission level.

➢ Noise is the interference that occurs in a signal and prevents you from
hearing sounds properly.

➢ Noise distorts the interpretation or the decoding part of the

communication process.
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 Noise

➢ In a factory for example, where there are machines and engines

making constant noise, oral communication becomes difficult.

➢ Blaring of loudspeakers around is bound to interfere with our

conversation, whether face to face or on the telephone.

➢ Noise in telephone lines, faulty T.V cable, distorts the sound signals
and affects communication.

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 Noise

➢ Noise can be classified as Channel and Semantic.

➢ In written communication, illegible handwriting can be termed as

channel noise.

➢ Channel noise is any interference in the mechanics of the

medium used to send a message.

➢ For Example distortion due to faulty background, noise in telephone

lines or too high a volume or pitch from loudspeakers.
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 Noise

➢ Channel noise develops externally.

➢ Semantic noise is generated internally, resulting from errors in

the message itself.

➢ For example on the sender’s part encoding may be faulty because of

the use of confusing or ambiguous sentence structure.

➢ Other examples of semantic noise are faulty grammar, misspellings,

and incorrect punctuation.
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 Noise

➢ One must aim at simplicity, clarity, and brevity so as to minimise the

chances of different interpretations.

➢ One should also avoid using jargons as they convey meaning to a

limited group and acts as a communication barrier.

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 Semantic Noise

➢ There is always a possibility of misunderstanding the feelings of the

sender or getting a wrong meaning of it.

➢ This happens because the information is not sent in a simple

language.

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 Symbols or Words with Different Meanings

➢ A symbol or a word can have different meanings.

➢ If the receiver misunderstands the communication, it becomes

meaningless.

➢ Dhanyawad means in Hindi ‘ Thank you’, but the same word in

Gujarati means ‘ Congratulations’.

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 Symbols or Words with Different Meanings

For Example

➢ The word crane can have different meanings in the following

sentences.

★ The Bird Sanctuary is full of cranes.

★ The Builder used the crane to lift heavy steel rods.
★ The girl has to crane her neck to watch the movie.

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 Body language and Gesture Decoding

➢ When the communication is passed on with the help of body language

and gestures, its misunderstanding hinders the proper understanding
of the message.

➢ In Germany and Hungary the upright thumb is used to represent the

number 1 however it represents the number 5 in Japan.

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 Technical Jargons

➢ Generally, it has been seen that the people working in an enterprise

are connected with some technical groups who have their separate
technical language.

➢ The communication is not as simple as to be understood by

everybody.

➢ Hence technical language can be a barrier to communication.

➢ Acute Myocardial Infarction ( Heart Attack)

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 Organizational Barriers

➢ Communication barriers are not only limited to an individual or two

people but exist in the entire organisation.

➢ Most large companies are realising that a rigid, hierarchical structure,

usually restricts the flow of communication.

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 Organizational Barriers

➢ This is because there are numerous transfer points for communication

to flow in these hierarchical systems, and each of these points has
the potential to distort, delay or lose the message.

➢ To obviate this, there should be direct contact between sender and

receiver with minimum transfer stations.

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Too Many Transfer Stations/ Loss by Transmission and Poor Retention

➢ When messages pass on from one person to another in a series of

transmission, they are likely to become less and less accurate.

➢ They get diluted on the way.

➢ Imagine for instance, that your Professor asks you to convey a

message to X.

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Too Many Transfer Stations/ Loss by Transmission and Poor Retention

➢ You because of some inconvenience or sheer laziness ask your friend

Y to do this job.

➢ Now, since there are four people involved in this communication

channel, the message gets distorted as a result of the increased
number of transfer stations.

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Too Many Transfer Stations/ Loss by Transmission and Poor Retention

➢ The message gets distorted at each level not only because of poor
listening or lack of concentration, but also because of several other
reasons.

➢ Some employees may filter out a part of the message which they
consider unimportant.

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Too Many Transfer Stations/ Loss by Transmission and Poor Retention

➢ Some studies reveal that in oral communication, about 30% of

information is lost in each transmission.

➢ Similarly, poor retention of information is also a barrier.

➢ Some studies reveal that employees retain about 50% of the message
and supervisors about 60% of information only.

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 Fear of Superiors

➢ In a rigidly structured organisation, fear or awe of the superior

prevents subordinates from speaking frankly.

➢ An employee may not be pleased with the way his boss works but is
unable to put his point across because of losing his boss’ goodwill.

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 Fear of Superiors

➢ To avoid speaking directly to the boss, some employees may either

shun all communication with their superiors or they may present all
the information that they have.

➢ Sometimes out of fear, employees do not communicate available

information.

➢ It may result in sending partial information.

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 Fear of Superiors

➢ They may even think that the matter is not important to communicate.

➢ Fear of full disclosure or non-disclosure misleads a superior.

➢ In written communication this results in bulky reports, where essential

information is clubbed with important details.

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 Use of Inappropriate Medium

➢ Some of the common mediums used in organisations are graphs,

charts, telephones, facsimile machine, boards, emails, slides,
computer presentation, teleconferencing, video conferencing etc.

➢ While choosing the medium, you should keep in mind the advantages,
disadvantages and potential barriers to communication.

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 Use of Inappropriate Medium

➢ Before sending a message, you should consider the following factors

while choosing the medium:

➢ Time
➢ Cost
➢ Type of message
➢ Intended audience

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 Use of Inappropriate Medium

➢ Typed letters, which provide permanence, are preferable for

information which required to be stored for future reference.

➢ Usually, a mix of media is best for effective communication.

➢ For example a telephone call to book an order, followed by a

confirmatory letter ensure that there is no possible misunderstanding
of the message.

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 Information Overload

➢ One of the major problems faced by an organisation today is the

availability of huge amounts of data which the receiver is unable to
handle effectively.

➢ This is known as information overload.

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 Information Overload

➢ A person should receive only that amount of facts and figures at one
time that he or she can absorb.

➢ When excessive information is provided to him or her, a significant

breakdown occurs in communication.

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 Information Overload

➢ The usual results of information overload are fatigue, disinterest and

boredom.

➢ People respond to this kind of information in different ways.

➢ Firstly, they may disregard certain information.

➢ People are also likely to make errors when they become overwhelmed
or swamped with too much information.
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 Information Overload

➢ Thirdly, they may delay processing/ responding to information at

least for the the time being.

➢ Delay may become a habit causing serious communication

problems.

➢ Fourthly, they may become highly selective in their response.

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 Information Overload

➢ Very often, vital information gets mixed up with too many irrelevant
details and therefore goes ignored by the receiver.

➢ To reduce information overload in an organisation, screening of

information is mandatory.

➢ Messages should be directed only to those people who are likely to be

benefited from the information.

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 Information Overload

➢ Major points should be highlighted, leaving out all irrelevant things.

➢ This kind of screening can reduce the problem of information

overload to a great extent.

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 Tips for effective Communication

➢ Create an open communication environment.

➢ Always keep the receiver in mind.

➢ Avoid having too many transfer stations.

➢ Do not communicate when you are emotionally disturbed.

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 Tips for effective Communication

➢ Be aware of diversity in culture, language etc.

➢ Use appropriate non-verbal cues.

➢ Select the most suitable medium.

➢ Analyse the feedback.

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THANK YOU

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