Barriers of communication Overcoming barriers to communication
The sender should:
Barriers to communication may occur at
any stage in the process. A barrier is any
condition that interferes with the effective
transfer of ideas or information.
Barriers to communication include:
 Biases, such as cultural, personal or
perceptual bias
 Language and semantics, such as
speaking a different language,
differences in understanding the
meaning of the words, spelling,
punctuation and grammatical errors.
 Literacy skills
 Time constraints, such as insufficient
time to properly prepare, receive or
interpret the message.
Type of barrier Examples
Physical/environme Noisy equipment, crowded
nt workspaces, loudly speaking
colleagues, closed doors,
isolated offices distance.
Physiological Deafness. Poor eyesight,
impairments speech impairment, tiredness,
feeling unwell.
Technical Malfunctioning equipment,
electrical outages, unfamiliarity
with the equipment used.
Emotional/psycholo Mistrust, suspicion,
gical resentment ,lack of self-
confidence, anger, stress
Cultural Lack of understanding of the
beliefs and practices of other
religious or ethnic groups,
stereotyping, prejudices.
Sociological Differences in gender,
age,education,attitudes,values,
status.
o Have sufficient knowledge of the
subject about which they are
communicating.
o Be well prepared and organize
thoughts before communication is
attempted.
o Have effective communication skills,
such as knowledge of the language,
adequate vocabulary, appropriate
tone, good body language.
The message should:
o Be well organized and free of errors.
o Be long enough to adequately
communicate the idea, without being
so long that it bores or confuses the
receiver.
o Contain only relevant information.
The channel should:
o Be appropriate for the message
o Be appropriate to audience
o Be free of failures, distortions or
interruptions.
o Be appropriate, so the sender and
receiver can both use the equipment
as needed.
o Use more then one communication
medium, where possible, especially
for important messages.
The receiver should:
o Listen actively and attentively
without criticizing the sender
o Give feedback, asking for clarification
if necessary.
o Avoid interrupting the speaker
o Be open-minded, not allowing
understanding to be hindered by
preconceptions.
o Ignore distractions and focus on the
message being delivered.