The communication must be interpreted and understood in the same manner as it was-meant to be sent by the sender, otherwise it will not achieve the desired result and a communication breakdown will occur. There are certain external roadblocks to effective communication. In addition, there are personal factors, which affect communication.
Some of the organizational barriers and some of the interpersonal barriers to effective communication are discussed below:
Noise Barriers
Noise is any external factor, which interferes with the effectiveness of communication. The term is derived from noise or static effects in telephone conversation or radio wave transmission. It may cause interference in the process of communication by distraction or by blocking a part of the message or by diluting the strength of the communication. Some of the sources contributing towards noise factor are:
Poor Timing
A message sent on poor timing acts as a barrier. For instance, a last minute communication with a deadline may put too much pressure on the receiver and may result in resentment. A message must be sent at an appropriate time to avoid these problems. Hence the manager must know when to communicate.
Inappropriate Channel
Poor choice of channel of communication can also be contributory to the misunderstanding of the message. The manager must decide whether the communication would be most effective if it is in writing or by a telephone call or a face-to-face conversation or a combination of these modes.
Improper or Inadequate Information
Information must be meaningful to the employee and should be precise or to the point. Too little or too much information endangers effective communication. Ambiguity in use of words will lead to different interpretations.
Physical Distractions
Any physical distractions such as telephone interruptions or walk-in visitors can interfere with the effective face-to-face communication process.
Organizational Structure
Communication may be blocked, chaotic or distorted if the channels are not clear or if there are bottlenecks. Hence the organization structure should be such that the chain of command and channels of communication are clearly established and ithe responsibility and authority are clearly assigned and are traceable.
Information Overhead
Overload occurs when individuals receive more information than they are capable of processing. The result could be confusion or some important information may be laid aside for the purpose of convenience.
Network Breakdown
Network breakdown may be intentional or due to information overload and time pressures under which a communication has to be acted upon. Some factors contributing to such disruptions are:
- The managers may withhold important negative information.
- The secretary may forget to forward a memo.
- There may be professional jealousy resulting in closed channels.
Interpersonal Barriers
There are many interpersonal barriers that disrupt the effectiveness of the communication process and generally involve such characteristics that either the sender or the receiver can cause communication problems. Some of these are:
Filtering
Filtering refers to intentionally withholding or deliberate manipulation of information by the sender, either because the sender believes that the receiver does not need all the information or that the receiver is better off not knowing all aspects of a given situation. It could also be that the receiver is simply told what he wants to hear.
Semantic Barriers
These barriers occur due to differences in individual interpretations of words and symbols. The words and paragraphs must be interpreted with the same meaning as was intended. The choice of a wrong word or a comma at a wrong place in a sentence can sometimes alter the meaning of the intended message. For example, a nightclub advertisement sign, “clean and decent dancing every night except Sunday”, could lead to two interpretations. First, that there is no dancing on Sundays and second, that there is dancing on Sundays, but it not clean and decent.
Perception
Perception relates to the process through which we receive and interpret information from our environment and create a meaningful word out of it. Different people may perceive the same situation differently. Hearing what we want to hear and ignoring information that conflicts with what we know can totally distort the intent or the content of the message. Some of the perceptual situations that may distort a manager’s assessment of people resulting in reduced effectiveness of the communication are:
- A manager may perceive people to belong to one category or another as stereotypes, rather than unique and distinct individuals. For example, he may perceive women to be less efficient managers.
- A manager may make total assessment of a person based on a single trait. A pleasant smile may make a positive first impression.
- A manager may assume that his subordinate’s perception about things and situations are similar to his own.
This perception limits the manager’s ability to effectively respond to and deal with individual differences and differing views of work situations.
Cultural Barriers
The cultural differences can adversely affect the communication effectiveness, specially for multi-national companies and enterprises.
Sender Credibility
When the sender of the communication has high credibility in the eyes of the receiver, the message is taken much more seriously and accepted at face value. If the receiver has confidence, trust and respect for the sender, then the decoding and the interpretation of the message will lead to a meaning of the sender. Conversely, if the sender is not trusted, then the receiver will scrutinize the message heavily and deliberately look for hidden meanings or tricks and may end up distorting the entire message. Similarly, if the source is believed to be an expert in a particular field then the listener may pay close attention to the message, and believe it specially if the message is related to the field of expertise.
Emotions
The interpretation of a communication also depends upon the state of the receiver at the time when message is received. The same message received when the receiver is angry, frustrated or depressed may be interpreted differently than when he is happy. Extreme emotions are most likely to hinder effective communication because rational judgments are replaced by emotional judgments.
Multi-meaning Words
Many words in English language have different meanings when used in different situations. Accordingly, a manager must not assume that a particular word means the same thing to all people who use it. Hence, the managers must make sure that they use the word in the same manner as the receiver is expected to understand it, otherwise it will create a barrier to proper understanding of the message.
Feedback Barriers
The final source of communication barrier is the feedback or lack of it. Feedback is the only way to ascertain as to how the message was interpreted.
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