BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

INTRODUCTIONMost people would agree that communication between two individuals should be
simple. Its important to remember that there are differences between talking and
communicating. When you communicate, you are successful in getting your point
across to the person youre talking to. When we talk, we tend to erect barriers that
hinder our ability to communicate.
Communication is not a one-way street. To have others open up to you, you must be
open yourself. By overcoming these barriers to communication, you can ensure that
the statement you are making is not just heard, but also understood, by the person
you are speaking with. In this way, you can be confident that your point has been
expressed.
Barriers to effective communication can retard or distort the message and intention
of the message being conveyed which may result in failure of the communication
process or an effect that is undesirable. These include filtering, selective perception,
information overload, emotions, language, silence, communication apprehension,
gender differences and political correctness.
This also includes a lack of expressing "knowledge-appropriate" communication,
which occurs when a person uses ambiguous or complex legal words, medical
jargon, or descriptions of a situation or environment that is not understood by the
recipient.

COMMUNICATIONCommunication (from Latin commnicre, meaning "to share") is the activity of

conveying information through the exchange of thoughts, messages, or information,
as by speech, visuals, signals, written, or behavior. It is the meaningful exchange of
information between two or more living creatures.
One definition of communication is any act by which one person gives to or
receives from another person information about that person's needs, desires,
perceptions, knowledge, or affective states. Communication may be intentional or
unintentional, may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take
linguistic or non-linguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes.
Communication requires a sender, a message, and a recipient, although the
receiver does not have to be present or aware of the sender's intent to
communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across

vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating
parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is
complete once the receiver understands the sender's message.
Communicating with others involves three primary steps
Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a
concept, idea, information, or feeling.

Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols.

Decoding: Lastly, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept
or information that a person can understand.
There are a variety of verbal and non-verbal forms of communication. These include
body language, eye contact, sign language and haptic communication. Other
examples are media content such as pictures, graphics, sound, and writing.
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities also defines the
communication to include the display of text, Braille, tactile communication, large
print, accessible multimedia, as well as written and plain language, human-reader,
augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication,
including accessible information and communication technology. Feedback is a
critical component of effective communication.

VERBAL COMMUNICATION- Human spoken and pictorial languages can be described

as a system of symbols (sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules)
by which the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" also refers to common
properties of languages. Language learning normally occurs most intensively during
human childhood.
Most of the thousands of human languages use patterns of sound or gesture for
symbols which enable communication with others around them. Languages seem to
share certain properties although many of these include exceptions. There is no
defined line between a language and a dialect.
Constructed languages such as Esperanto, programming, and various mathematical
formalisms are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared by human
languages. Communication is the flow or exchange of information within people or a
group of people.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION- Nonverbal communication describes the process of

conveying meaning in the form of non-word messages. Some forms of non-verbal
communication include haptic, gesture, body language or posture, facial expression

and eye contact, object communication such as clothing, hairstyles, architecture,

symbols, infographics, and tone of voice, as well as through an aggregate of the
above.
Speech also contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage. This form of
communication is the most known for interacting with people. These include voice
lesson quality, emotion and speaking style as well as prosodic features such as
rhythm, intonation and stress.

ORAL COMMUNICATION- Oral communication, while primarily referring to spoken

verbal communication, can also employ visual aids and non-verbal elements to
support the conveyance of meaning. Oral communication includes speeches,
presentations, discussions, and aspects of interpersonal communication.
As a type of face-to-face communication, body language and choice tonality play a
significant role, and may have a greater impact upon the listener than informational
content. This type of communication also garners immediate feedback.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION- A business can flourish only when all objectives of the
organization are achieved effectively. For efficiency in an organization, all the people
of the organization must be able to convey their message properly.

NON-HUMAN COMMUNICATION- Every information exchange between living

organisms i.e. transmission of signals that involve a living sender and receiver
can be considered a form of communication; and even primitive creatures such as
corals are competent to communicate. Nonhuman communication also include cell
signaling, cellular communication, and chemical transmissions between primitive
organisms like bacteria and within the plant and fungal kingdoms.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION- Effective communication occurs when a desired effect

is the result of intentional or unintentional information sharing, which is interpreted
between multiple entities and acted on in a desired way. This effect also ensures
that messages are not distorted during the communication process. Effective
communication should generate the desired effect and maintain the effect, with the
potential to increase the effect of the message. Therefore, effective communication
serves the purpose for which it was planned or designed. Possible purposes might
be to elicit change, generate action, create understanding, inform or communicate
a certain idea or point of view. When the desired effect is not achieved, factors such

as barriers to communication are explored, with the intention being to discover how
the communication has been ineffective.

BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATIONThere are many ways to explain what a communication barrier is. Some
explanations are given below
The barriers to communication are things or people that hinder effective
interactions or relationships. Some of the barriers include physical barriers like the
environment, cultural barriers like the ethnicity and linguistic barriers like language.

A communication barrier refers to something that hinders transmission of

information from one place or person to another. An example is language barrier
where the two people cannot understand each other since they do not share a
common language.

A barrier to communication is an obstacle in a workplace that prevents

effective exchange of ideas or thoughts. Such barriers include status differences,
gender differences, cultural differences, as well as the organizational environment.

Communication barriers can be described as factors that hinder the passage

of a message from the sender to the receiver. They include physical barriers such as
distance, language barriers, cultural barriers and emotional barriers among others.
However, these barriers can be overcome by use of various strategies.

Communication barriers are things that affect the flow of communication.

These barriers interrupt the flow of communication from the sender to the receiver.
They include physical barriers, cultural barriers, and language barriers among
others.

TYPES OF BARRIERS

Process

Semantic

Organizational

Inter-personal

Individual/ psychological

Cross- cultural (Geographic)

Physical / channel / and media

Technological

Gender

PROCESS BARRIERSEvery step in the communication process is necessary for effective and good
communication.. Blocked steps become barriers. Consider the following situations:

Sender barrier- A new administrator with an innovative idea fails to speak up

at a meeting, chaired by the superintendent, for fear of criticism.

Encoding barrier- A Spanish-speaking staff member cannot get an Englishspeaking administrator to understand a grievance about working conditions.

Medium barrier- A very upset staff member sends an emotionally charged

letter to the leader instead of transmitting her feelings face-to-face.

Decoding barrier- An older principal is not sure what a young department

head means when he refers to a teacher as "spaced out."

Receiver barrier- A school administrator who is preoccupied with the

preparation of the annual budget asks a staff member to repeat a statement,
because she was not listening attentively to the conversation.

Feedback barrier- During a meeting, the failure of school administrators to

ask any questions causes the superintendent to wonder if any real understanding
has taken place.
SEMANTIC BARRIERSClearly, language and linguistic ability may act as a barrier to communication.
However, even when communicating in the same language, the terminology used in
a message may act as a barrier if it is not fully understood by the receiver(s).
Semantics means coding /decoding. It relates to the Phonetics science of sound.
The words we choose, how we use them, and the meaning we attach to them cause
many communication barriers. The same word may mean different things to
different people.
Similar Pronunciation but multiple meaning.
Badly expressed message incoherence, poor sentence structuring and jargons

 Wrong interpretation - Pandit, raja / Rajah

Unqualified assumption by sender / receiver
Technical language / jargon

ORGANISATIONAL BARRIERSInterference from relative status and power of participants, incompatible needs and
expectations

Organizational culture impacts freedom and trust

Organizational rules and regulations

Status relationship

Complexity in organizational structure

Inadequate facilities and opportunities

Lack of cooperation between senior and subordinate.

INTER-PERSONAL BARRIERSInterpersonal barriers are what ultimately keep us from reaching out to each other
and opening ourselves up, not just to be heard, but to hear others. Oddly enough,
this can be the most difficult area to change. Some people spend their entire lives
attempting to overcome a poor self-image or a series of deeply rooted prejudices
about their place in the world.
They are unable to form genuine connections with people because they have too
many false perceptions blocking the way. Luckily, the cure for this is more
communication. By engaging with others, we learn what our actual strengths and
weaknesses are. This allows us to put forth our ideas in a clear, straightforward
manner. Sender and receiver different economic, educational and status level.
Barrier from Superior

Shortage of time for employee

Lack of trust

Lack of trust for employees needs and expectations

Desire to capture authority by retaining information

Fear of losing power of control

Bypassing

Information overload to employees missing grain from chaff

Barrier from Subordinate

Lack of proper channel

No interest to communicate

Lack of cooperation and mutual understanding

Lack of trust and co-ordination

Poor social relationship

Fear of penalty

INDIVIDUAL/ PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERSThe psychological state of the receiver will influence how the message is received.
For example, if someone has personal worries and is stressed, they may be
preoccupied by personal concerns and not as receptive to the message as if they
were not stressed.
Filtering means that more often than not we see and hear what we are emotionally
tuned in to see and hear. Filtering is caused by our own needs and interests, which
guide our listening. Psychosocial barriers often involve a psychological distance
between people that is similar to actual physical distance.

Linguistic accent

The form of expression

Level of drama / gestures

Humour

Brevity

Choice of discriminatory or non- discriminatory communication

Quality of credibility and charisma

Selective Perception I know it syndrome, waste of time

Status relationship - monologues by seniors

Inattention

Poor retention

Undue importance of written words

Defensiveness to a unpleasant message

Closed minds lack of background knowledge

State of health lack of alertness

Filtering

CROSS CULTURAL/GEOGRAPHIC BARRIERSCultural barriers are a result of living in an ever shrinking world. Different cultures,
whether they be a societal culture of a race or simply the work culture of a
company, can hinder developed communication if two different cultures clash. In
these cases, it is important to find a common ground to work from. In work
situations, identifying a problem and coming up with a highly efficient way to solve
it can quickly topple any cultural or institutional barriers. Quite simply, people like
results.

Language

Values and norms of behaviour

Social relationship

Concept of time

Concept of space

Non-verbal communication

Perceptions

National character / basic personality

PHYSICAL BARRIERSPhysical barriers are easy to spot doors that are closed, walls that are erected, and
distance between people all work against the goal of effective communication.
While most agree that people need their own personal areas in the workplace,

setting up an office to remove physical barriers is the first step towards opening
communication.
Many professionals who work in industries that thrive on collaborative
communication, such as architecture, purposefully design their workspaces around
an open office plan. This layout eschews cubicles in favor of desks grouped
around a central meeting space. While each individual has their own dedicated work
space, there are no visible barriers to prevent collaboration with their co-workers.
This encourages greater openness and frequently creates closer working bonds.

TECHNOLOGICAL BARRIERS

Lack of knowledge of technology

Advancement in technology

Noise

Fear of lack of security

GENDER BARRIERSGender barriers have become less of an issue in recent years, but there is still the
possibility for a man to misconstrue the words of a woman, or vice versa. Men and
women tend to form their thoughts differently, and this must be taken into account
when communicating. This difference has to do with how the brain of each sex is
formed during gestation.
In general, men are better at spatial visualization and abstract concepts such as
math, while women excel at language-based thinking and emotional identification.
However, successful professionals in highly competitive fields tend to have similar
thought processes regardless of their gender.

OVERCOMING BARRIERS

Fostering good relationships

Purposeful and well directed /focused

Co-ordination between superior and subordinate

Avoid technical language

Feed back to avoid selective perception

Accuracy

Clarity in message

Communication of organizational

philosophy

Flat organizational structure

Division of labour

Organizational policies

Reduction of semantic problems

Proper communication channels

Right feed back

CONCLUSIONCommunication is the process of transmitting information and common

understanding from one person to another. The elements of the communication
process are the sender, encoding the message, transmitting the message through a

medium, receiving the message, decoding the message, feedback, and noise. A
number of barriers retard effective communication.
There are many barriers that hinder communication. In order to ensure effective
communication, these barriers have to be overcome.
If the meaning of the message is not understood, the purpose of communication is
lost. These barriers hinder the transfer of the message. So they need to be
removed. The means to overcome the barriers to communication has been
mentioned in the project.
Communication is very essential in daily life. Anything that comes in the way of it,
that is, the barriers to communication, has to be got rid of. Ensuring that there are
no barriers to communication is the key to effective communication.