BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

By

DR. DEEPIKA AGRAWAL

PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF HUMANITIES
LNCTS, BHOPAL
Miscommunication can originate at three levels:

 At the level of transmitter

 At the level of medium
 at the level of receiver

In technical terms anything that obstruct free flow of communication

is known as barrier to communication. Perfect communication never
Exist because of number of factors called barriers. Hence in order to
communicate perfectly, communicator has to identify and understand
the reasons of poor communication.

Understanding the factors that prevents the transmission of the exact

meaning of message is very important for effective communication.
TYPES OF BARRIERS
Barriers may arise at any of the following levels:

1. At Sender’s level
 Formulating thoughts, ideas or message
 Encoding of the message

2. At Receiver’s level
 Receiving the message
 Decoding of the message
 Understanding/ interpreting the message

3. Transmission level where noise occurs

4. The feedback/ reaction level that is a necessary condition of the completion of the whole process.

 PHYSICAL BARRIERS
 LANGUGE SEMANTIC BARRIERS
 CULTURAL BARRIERS
 EMOTIONAL PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
 ORGANISATIONAL BARRIERS
 PERSONAL BARRIERS
 PHYSICAL BARRIERS
 Time: Improper timing of communication acts as barrier to communication.

 Distance:

 Noise: It interfere with the transmission of the signals. Noise means

‘interference that occurs in a signal and you from hearing sounds properly.”
Types of noise:
 Visual
 Written
 Technical
 Psychological

 Age: The age, maturity, educational background & cultural in which person
grows effects communication.

 Gender: People communicate with each other according to their gender.

LANGUAGE SEMANTIC BARRIERS
Lack of common language:

Every human language has its own vocal symbols and

grammatical structure. If the language of communicator
and receiver is different than the communication barrier
occurs.
SEMANTIC BARRIER
A word may have Varity of meaning. The meaning of the word spoken
By the communicator may not be the same as that of the receiver's
meaning of that word. The social, economic, cultural and educational
background affects the interpretation of the message. Semantic
barriers occurs in the process of encoding and decoding of the message.
Some of the Semantic barriers are as follows:

a. Interpretations of word: Most of the communication is carried

through words which may be written or spoken . Some time sender
and receiver attribute different meaning to the same word or vice
versa. For perfect communication same meaning will be interpreted by
both sender and receiver.

b. By-passed Instructions: It occurs if the sender &receiver attribute different

meaning to the same word or use different words for the same meaning.
c. Denotations & Connotations: Words have two types of meaning :
Denotative & connotative.
 Denotative meaning is the literal , dictionary meaning of the word. It informs and names objects
without indicating positive or negative qualities like book, table.
 Connotative meaning refers to the subjective , emotional meaning that we attach to a word like
honest, cheap.
Communication problem occurs due to the personal reactions engendered by the
connotative meaning of the word. They have positive or negative reactions depending
on person to person.

d. Poor Vocabulary: Poor vocabulary makes message more difficult and less effective. Words
stand not only for their meaning but also they are charged with actions and emotions.

e. Poor knowledge of Grammar & Punctuation: good vocabulary is useless if the communicator
does not know its proper use in sentence. In the absence of proper knowledge of grammar,
person will not able to communicate properly. Knowledge of punctuation is also important as it
change the entire meaning and mislead the reader.

f. Roundabout Verbiage: it consist of overworked, trouble some & exhausted words & phrases
which leads to misunderstanding & confusion.
CULTURAL BARRIER
In international environment cultural difference often
cause communication problems. The same group of
words/phrases/ symbols/actions/colours means different
things to the people of different countries/cultural
background.
EMOTIONAL / PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS:
Personal/ Emotional/ psychological barriers arises from motives , attitudes,
judgments, sentiments, emotions or social values of person. These creates
psychological distance or barriers to communication . Emotional barriers are
as follows:

a. Premature Evaluation : Tendency to evaluate a communication prematurely

rather than keeping mind open during communication.
b. Distrust of communicator: the communicator sometimes distrusted by his own
subordinates due to lack of self confidence or less competent in his position.
c. Emotions: Encoding and decoding of the message depends upon one’s
emotional state at particular time. Extreme of emotions block effective
communication.
d. Selective Perception: receiver selectively see and hear depending upon their
needs, motives, experiences and other personal characteristics.
e. Filtering : sender can manipulate information in such a way that it will be seen
more favorably by the receivers. More vertical levels leads to more filtering of
the message.
SOCIAL –PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
These are the most difficult level as they arise due to human nature,
feelings, emotions, aims and aspirations. They are as follows:

a. Attitudes & Opinions: If an information agrees with our opinion

and attitude than only we tends to receive it favorably otherwise
not.

b. Closed Mindedness: Person with prejudice is difficult to

communicate as he is nit prepared to reconsider his opinions.

c. Status: it reflects degree of power, authority, importance

and responsibility placed on person in an organization. Wrong
assumption in status level prove serious barrier to communication.
d. Inattentiveness: Receivers are inattentive to the message that
have no emotional values for them and the message which they
don’t expect to hear. Also person is inattentive due to tiredness,
anxieties, worries etc.

e. Bad Listening: It is the one of the major problem of

communication. Receiver do not listen due to
various distraction like emotions, excitement, indifferences,
wandering etc.

f. Resistance to change: Receiver rejects the new idea if it conflicts

with his beliefs, morals, attitudes and opinion.
ORGANIZATIONAL BARRIER
a. Hierarchical barriers: communication flows through formal
channels which are established by the organizational hierarchy.
Long chain of hierarchical communication leads to loss of
information.

b. Specialization of work force: increasing specialization of

workforce leads to serious barrier to effective communication.
Tasks are specified in such away that employees cannot
communicate with people in other functional group.

c. Wrong Choice of Medium: communication occurs through

many ways therefore it is essentials to know proper medium to be
chosen.
HOW TO MAKE EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
In order to remove barrier to communication

 Open door policy should be followed at all levels of organization.

Environment of trust and confidence should be created for proper and smooth
working.
 Proper two way communication should be there to improve understanding
between Sender & Receiver. Feedback system should be there.
 Communication network should be strengthen to make communication
effective and procedure of communication should be minimize.
 Participative approach of subordinates should be promoted in decision making
process and cooperation.
 Appropriate language should be used.
 Communicator should be good listener too.
 Atmosphere of mutual trust and cooperation should be created.
 Effective communication channel should be selected so that message should
be reached to the right person at right time.
 Proper use of body language should be there to avoid barriers.