Barriers to Communication Barriers to Communication -

Personal & Organizational

Barriers to Communication -
Cultural Barriers
• Lack of Commonness is barrier
• A barrier to interpersonal communications is :
anything that prevents, restricts or impedes the conveyance of meaning by
words or gestures between two or more persons in a social setting.
• The term ‘Barriers’, ‘Obstacles’, ‘ Hindrances’ and ‘noise’ are all used to
describe the distracting stimuli associated with the communication
process
Barriers to Effective Communication
Social
Psychological
Cultural
Physiological,
System design
Physical
Receivers
1. Social barriers :The social barrier is a term that is used to point at the inequalities that exist
between different individuals in a society. 
• Social barriers are created by the culture of the community and are greatly influenced by the
behavior of the people.
• Unrealistic demands, arrogance, rudeness, and disrespect, etc. are common reasons for social
barriers.
• Social barriers occur because one group of people believe that they are superior and better
than other groups based on: wealth, importance in the world, education, or family
background.
• The superior group does not wish to associate with the group that they consider inferior, and
this causes friction between them and takes the form of social barriers.
• Social barriers are the external influences that put roadblocks in the way so that achieving
the desired goal becomes difficult.
Some of the social barriers are:
• Gender
• Age
• Race
• Cultural Origin
• Socio-economic Class
• Education Level
• Urban or Rural Residence
 Gender: A social barrier that is very common is discrimination and bias.
Men and women are not considered equal, and this is why in almost all the industries and
business organizations, females are paid less than their male counterparts even if they are
hardworking than the males in the organization.
A pregnant woman is often mistreated so that she would resign from her job.
The bias can also take many forms; for instance, if an individual has been unemployed for a
long time, then it becomes impossible for him to find work again.
When men and women work together in a group, men tend to be more assertive and self-
confident.
Women are more likely than men to express their emotions, to reveal how they feel about a
situation.

Maintaining the same standards for every person in your vicinity

helps to remove this social barriers.
Race:
A significant social barrier that is very common nowadays is related to racism. White
men and women will, in most cases, find favor over their black counterparts.
People are quick to pass judgments in society and even in their workplace based on
their race, gender, and even color of the skin.
Social stereotypes have a profound impact on the feelings and thoughts of an
individual and nudge him towards a specific type of behavior.
Age:
Young people and old people communicate in different ways. We do tend to judge a statement
by different standards if we know the speaker’s age.
Some communication barriers apply particularly to elderly people caused by stereotypes of old
age/elderly people and the barriers arising from limitations in using mass communication by
seniors.
limitations in using new technologies and new communication channels as well as a limited
presence in the mass media of content created by seniors and for seniors have an impact on their
life, their well-being, and their interpersonal relationships. These problems are especially
important when we faced with the ever growing population of elderly people.
A person’s age or gender is not important in judging the truth or wisdom of what that person
says .
Cultural barriers:  Cultural barrier in communication occurs mainly when communication
happens between two different cultural backgrounds.
In the age of globalization and digital media, the whole world is performing and
participating on one platform.
Here mutual understandings between communicators are very much
important for the effective, fruitful process of communication
Because of globalization, it is now normal to have employees from
different parts of the world working in the same office. They will differ from each other in
terms of dressing, food, religion, and so on. Thus, it is essential to take into consideration these
cultural factors to facilitate effective communication. In several MNCs, at the orientation
phases, they offer special cultural courses so that people can gel up well with one another and
understand each other’s cultural preferences.
. During his visit to the USA, India’s first Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru
stated that
“If we seek to understand people, we have to try to put ourselves, as far as we
can, in that particular historical and cultural background. One has to
recognize that whatever the future may hold, countries and people differ … in
their approach to life and their ways of living and thinking. In order to
understand them, we have to understand their way of life and approach. If we
wish to convince them, we have to use their language as far as we can, not
language in the narrow sense of the word, but the language of the mind. That is
one necessity.”
“Socio-Economic class barriers : Social pressures that prevent people born into a lower class
from moving over the course of their lives, or even generations, into a more affluent class. These
from racial prejudice to socially acceptable/unacceptable gender roles,the dissimilar statuses
they occupy in the society. For instance, in the criminal justice system, individuals occupying in
the society may have a difficult time communicating with people occupying lower social
positions or ranks.
In a similar manner, people who have descent economic situations may not have open
communications with individuals with perceived low financial positions. For example, in
a case involving a wealthy person and an underprivileged person .A deprived economic
situation can make a person have a feeling of inferiority and a well off economic
condition can cause a feeling of superiority, thus causing a communication disparity
between the two people.
An individual’s religious status also has an impact on communication. An
individual may not feel comfortable communicating with a person from a
different religious status. Employees, victims, or offenders of a different
racial position may contain a number of barriers to adequate
communications, for example, through their assorted language and cultures.
Education is not a barrier. Education offers people keys to open more doors.
A more educated person would probably have the capacity to say what they
want, in the appropriate way, to different people, from different communities.
However, making your message heard does not mean that it will be accepted by
the people that understand what you say. They may have different values,
different opinions, different lifestyles etc.
So education is a means to bypass barriers between people. What the people
from a specific community chose to do after they heard your message is a
different thing. Education helps managers to perform their jobs and
responsibilities. Communication serves as a foundation for planning. Managers
devote a great part of their time in communication. “effective communication is
a building block of successful organizations”. In other words, communication
acts as organizational blood.
Urban or Rural Residence
For example, employees living in the city with good access to training
centers might rather make use of financial support for training courses,
whereas employees living in rural areas, with no good access to training
centers, might rather benefit from training possibilities at company sites.
Accordingly, inefficient utilization is related to socio-cultural reasons: e.g.
characteristics of rural residents like self-resilience, stoicism  may hinder
individuals in utilization of services in rural regions .
2. Psychological barriers to effective communication
Definition of Psychological Barriers
The psychological barrier of communication is the influence of psychological state of the
communicators (sender and receiver) which creates an obstacle for effective
communication.
Communication is highly influenced by the mental condition that the communicators are in
and is disturbed by mental disturbance.
The people who are involved in the communication matter as much as the message
e.g. If your boss doesn’t trust you, he/she will only send selective information, which
makes the communication ineffective.
Causes of Psychological Barriers
Lack of Attention : When a person’s mind is distracted or preoccupied with other
things , the person is not able to form proper message , listen to what others tell
him/her, interpret the message as required and give proper feedback.
The communication will face problems and becomes ineffective. A person in
tragedy, for instance, does not want to listen to other people giving advice. A
person might be preoccupied by the problems of his/her professional life or
personal life, which affects both.
Poor Retention: Brain does not store all the information it comes across, but only the
ones it deems useful for future. So, half the information is lost in the retention process .
Similarly, brain also loses information that is old and not taken as useful with time.
For example, you were told about a friend coming to meet you before a month and had
been given the person’s name, address, phone number, etc. Now, you have to
communicate the information to somebody else. At the time, you only remember the
name and address and forget the phone number. The truth can change or distort due to
poor retention which acts as barrier to communication.
Distrust and Defensiveness
Communication is successful when the communicators trust each other.
Lack of trust makes them derive negative meaning of the message and they ignore the message.
When a person tries to force his/her own ideas and opinions, then receiver does not listen. If
the receiver does not agree to the message provided or thinks of it as a threat, he/she will not
listen to it.
Similarly, when the message is not transferred across to the receiver, the communication fails.
For example, I don’t trust a friend, I will only give the details, of what is happening in my
personal life which I think are harmless.
Perception, Viewpoint, Attitudes and Opinions
Perception is the mindset using which people judge, understand and interpret everything.
Each person has his/he own perception of reality which is shaped from mental and sensory
experiences.
Likewise, viewpoint is also a mindset to look at the world. Sender might have a particular
viewpoint that is not shared by the receiver.
Attitude is the established way in which we think and feel about things and ideas which
also creates a psychological communication barrier.
For example, a person takes females to be weak which is the person’s
perception. He/she tells that to someone who does not think so. This causes a
misunderstanding between the two. Everything they communicate after that
becomes unsuccessful that the view of the person is already set.
Emotion:
Anyone who isn’t in a good mood is likely to talk less or talk negatively. A
preoccupied mind is not good at communicating. For example, when a person is
angry, he/she might say things they regret later. Even when listening to someone
else speak, an angry person might easily misinterpret the message.
Various other emotions like fear, nervousness, confusion, mistrust and jealousy
affect communication process. For example, a person having extreme moods of
happiness will laugh at anything at all said to him/her. The same person when
sad will cry or get angry at insignificant situations.
Closed Mind and Filtering
Man is selfish by nature and put his own needs and problems above all else.
This sometimes leads people to filter information that someone is trying to
convey to them. This might be due to mistrust, competition, jealousy, or the
view that the message is insignificant.
For example, a senior in a company does not want the junior to do better at
work, the person filters the information and does not provide crucial
information that could help the junior. The junior therefore will not be able
to complete the work properly and progress in ranks.
Similarly, when a person is close minded, the person will have fixed
opinions on many things which the person believes resolutely. The person
will interpret any information in a negative way.
For example, a sexist person does not accept the suggestions of a female
colleague in a meeting that affects the communication flow in the meeting.
It is difficult to argue with such close minded people and give proper
information
Premature Evaluation
Some people are always in a hurry by habit. These kinds of people most
likely make quick judgments and jump into conclusions. They do not
consider all aspects of the information such as social, cultural, economic,
etc. and often end up taking quick and wrong decisions.
It is important to hear the whole message to make proper judgments
because they are not changed easily after they are once made.
For example, a person is in a hurry and talks on the phone, the person does
not listen to half the message and makes the decision which is wrong in the
situation.
Psychological barriers affect communication more as information is formed
in the brain and is sent by people with various psychological condition
which differs from one moment to another.
Communication is ineffective if psychological aspects of communication
acts as a barrier to communication.