Chapter 2

Communication Barriers
 Learning Objectives

After reading this chapter, students would be able

to understand:

– What are barriers of communication

– What are the different factors causing
communication barriers
– What are the various types of inter-personal
and intra-personal communication barriers
– What approaches can be used to overcome
communication barriers
– What are the 7 Cs of communication and how
 Communication Barriers
• Anything that prevents the smooth dissemination
(sending) or comprehension (receiving) of a
message, either at the sender’s end or receiver’s
end, is a barrier to communication.

• Communication barriers may pop up at any stage of

the communication process and have the potential
to create misunderstanding and ambiguity.

• In organizations, the failure to communicate

effectively may cause disruptions or delays in
achieving targets.
 Factors of Communication Barriers
• Lack of planning
• Lack of trust
• Ambiguity
• Distortions
• Implied meanings
• Drawing inference
• Noise
• Time and distance
• Wrong choice of medium
 Factors Causing Communication Barriers

• For the systematic study of causes of

communication barriers, they may be
broadly classified as:

• Intra-personal

• Inter-personal

• Environmental communication barriers

 Intra-personal Communication Barriers
• Present within an individual’s own self and pose a
hurdle from within the individual’s communication
— both in sending and receiving messages.
• Within the individual’s control—individuals may
deal with them on their own and overcome them.
• These barriers may be caused due to broader
factors such as:
 Specific socio-economic
 Cultural backgrounds
 Intra-personal Communication Barriers (Cont.)

• Can be grouped under five broad categories:

• Physiological barriers
• Psychological barriers
 False assumptions
 Overconfidence and apathy
 Fear and defensiveness
• Perceptual barriers
• Attitudinal barriers
 Egocentrism
 Judgmental attitude
• Emotional barriers
Five Types of Intra-personal Communication Barriers
Inter-personal Communication Barriers

• Present outside an individual’s own self—in

the external environment between the sender
and the receiver of the message.
• They are relatively outside the individual’s
control.
• They may either be related with the other
person or persons one is communicating with
(receiver-centric) or they may be due to the
individual’s own shortcomings (sender-
centric), or both.
• These inter-personal communication barriers
may be caused due to various known or
unknown external elements such as:
 The lack of trust towards the sender of the message
 The lack of credibility of the message itself
 Aggressive or disruptive message delivery by the
sender.
 Incompatible language competency between the sender
and the receiver of the message.
 Excessive use of technical terms (jargon) or incorrect
selection of the medium for the dissemination of the
message.
Inter-personal Communication Barriers (Cont.)

• Can be classified into two broad categories:

• Sender-centric barriers

• Receiver-centric barriers
Two Types of Inter-personal Communication Barriers
 Sender-centric Communication Barriers
• These are the barriers that result from lapses at the
sender’s end. These may occur at any of the ‘pre-
message delivery’ stages:

• Ideation

• Preparation

• Presentation of the message in the communication process

• The reasons behind such barriers may be many such as:

• Lack of interest

• Overconfidence or under-confidence

• Lack of preparation

• Over-qualification or under-qualification

• Time deficit

• Lack of language competency or linguistic deficiency

Sender-centric Communication Barriers
• Lack of language competency or linguistic deficiency
 Grammar
 Etymology
 Syntactical
 Non-verbal
 Delivery mode
• Inappropriate audience analysis
• Lack of emotional intelligence (EI)
• Lack of social intelligence (SI)
• Lack of cross-cultural intelligence (CCI)
• Lack of credibility or reputation
• Lack of respect towards the receiver(s) of the message
• Lack of the right attitude/collaborative effort
• Incorrect selection of the channel of communication
 Receiver-centric Communication Barriers
• These are the barriers that result from the lapses at
the receiver’s end. These may occur at any of the
‘post-message delivery’ stages—decoding,
comprehending, interpreting or analysing the
message in the communication process.

• Non-listening or poor listening

• Paucity of relevant information
• Inattentiveness
• Time deficit
• Lack of language competency
 Interpretation of words
 Bypassed instructions
 Denotations and connotations
 Information overload

• Lack of right attitude/collaborative effort

• Overconfidence and under-confidence

Receiver-centric Communication Barriers
Environmental Communication Barriers

• These factors are the ones present outside in the

surroundings or external environment where
communication takes place.

• They may be related with:

 The noisy or non-conducive communication climate

 A rigid hierarchy in an organization
 A physical or chronomatic (time-related) issue pertaining to
a particular society/culture
 An ethical or social concern
 A technological glitch
• These environmental communication barriers
may be caused due to various elements both
within and beyond control, such as:

 Stuffy rooms with poor seating arrangements.

 A huge and unmanageable audience.
 A screeching microphone or excessively interruptive
telephone/mobile phones.
 Incompatible computer software or snail-paced Internet
connection.
 Types of Communication Barriers
• Physical barriers
• Technological barriers
• Chronomatic barriers
• Organizational (hierarchical) barriers
 Status consciousness
 Message filtering
• Social barriers
• Gender barriers
• Cultural barriers
• Ethical barriers
Environmental Communication Barriers
Approaches for Overcoming Communication Barriers

• The four broad areas to be worked on, in

order to overcome communication barriers
are

1. Sender-based approach
2. Receiver-based approach
3. Message-based approach
4. Seven Cs of effective communication
Different Approaches for Overcoming Communication Barriers
 Sender-based Approaches
• Adopting receiver-centric approach
 The visual mode
 The auditory mode
 The kinaesthetic/tactile mode
• Doing audience analysis
 Closed and actively unfriendly
 Unfriendly
 Neutral
 Undecided
 Uninformed
 Supportive
 Open and actively supportive
• Choosing the right communication channel

• Creating credibility

• Owning one’s messages

• Facilitating feedback

• Maintaining verbal and non-verbal congruence

• Repeating if necessary

• Not being judgmental

 Receiver-based Approaches

• Managing information overload

• Sending feedback effectively

• While sending feedback, the receiver should take care of the
following:

• Use verbal feedback even if non-verbal feedback is positive and

frequent.

• Focus your feedback on behaviour rather than on personality.

• Focus feedback on description rather than judgment.

• Make feedback specific rather than generic.

• Choose the right means and mode of communication to give feedback.

 Message-based Approaches

• It is important to ensure that proper

message-based approaches—compatibility
between the nature of the message and the
channel of communication—are adopted so
that no further communication barrier
occurs.
Oral Communication—Speaking to Communicate

 The receiver is not particularly interested in receiving the message.

 It is important to get feedback.
 Emotions are high.
 The receiver is too busy or preoccupied to read.
 The sender wants to persuade or convince.
 The sender wants to persuade or convince.
 When discussion is needed.
 The communication budget is tight.
 When criticism of the receiver is involved.
 When the receiver prefers one-to-one contact.
Written Communication—Writing to Communicate

 The sender wants a record for future reference.

 The receiver would like to refer to it later.
 The message is complex and requires patient study by the
receiver.
 „The message includes a step-by-step procedure as in
appliance manuals.
 „Oral communication is not possible because people are
distantly located.
 „Oral communication is not possible in real time as people
work in different time zones.
 Visual Communication—Showing to
Communicate

The message is complex and requires to be

supplemented with clear and quick visual aids.
Highly technical topics need to be presented using
graphs and diagrams.
The message has a mix of written and numerical
data.
Receivers are from varied backgrounds.
There is not much time.
Adherence to the Seven Cs of Effective Communication

• Whether one communicates in written or oral or audio

or visual or audio-visual mode, it is important to meet
the following SEVEN minimum requirements of effective
communication:
1. Clear information
2. Complete information
3. Concise message
4. Concrete and coherent presentation
5. Correctness of facts
6. Consideration of the message and the receiver
7. Courtesy Towards Receiver
 Clear Information

• Clear information
 Choosing short familiar words (conversational)
 Constructing effective sentences and paragraphs keeping
unity, coherence and the emphasis of the message in mind
 Achieving appropriate acceptability/readability by
adopting receiver-centric approach
 Including appropriate examples and illustrations in support
of the message
 Complete Information
• Brings the desired results without additional
messages
• Builds goodwill
• Averts lawsuits
• Answers all questions—the 5 Ws: who, what,
when, where, why (and how
• Makes a communication effective by ruling out
the need of
• another cycle of communication to clarify issues
 Concise Message

• Concise message
 Cutting out wordy phrases and sentences
 Including only relevant information
 Doing away with faulty/unclear pronoun usage: ‘it is’, ‘this
is’, ‘there is’ etc.
 Sparing usage of abstract subjects and passive verbs
 Using ‘be- verbs’—am, is, are, were, being, been, be—
carefully
 Avoiding unnecessary repetition
 Avoiding roundabout language and cultivating a simple,
direct style of communication
 Concrete and Coherent Presentation
• Facilitates easy understanding and produce the
desired result.
• Can be ensured by:
 being detailed instead of vague, using specific
facts and figures
Using the active and passive voice judiciously
 using action verbs instead of smothered
expressions
 using concrete nouns instead of abstract
nouns
 Correctness of Facts
• Can be ensured by using the right level of language—

formal/informal
acceptable/substandard

• Presenting accurate facts, words, and figures after

• extensive proofreading
• Following acceptable writing mechanics—no spelling
errors or careless omissions
• Choosing of non-discriminatory expressions—treating
men and women at par.
Levels of language
Consideration of the message and the receiver

• Preparing the message with your receiver(s) in mind

• Emphasizing the receiver’s takeaway (benefits)
• from the communication
• Showing interest in the receiver
• Using positive sentences rather than negative
sentences
• Using ‘you-focused’ sentences rather than ‘I-focused’
sentence
• Ensuring honesty and integrity in your message
 Courtesy Towards Receiver

• Being sincerely tactful, thoughtful, and

appreciative
• Omitting rude expressions (not talking down)
• Minimizing (if possible eliminating)slang and
jargon
• Granting and apologizing good naturedly
• Giving feedback promptly
• Giving the receiver due regard so that he believes
in what you say