COMMUNICATION BARRIERS:ORGANIZATIONAL BARRIERS

 ORGANIZATIONAL BARRIERS

Barriers which occur due to the functioning in an organization are called organizational barriers. Barriers are omnipresent; they are predominant in every organization irrespective of its size and communication technique. The rigid structure and closed climate check the free flow of communication in an environment.

a)    Too many transfer stations,

b)    Fear of superiors,

c)     Negative tendencies,

d)    Use of inappropriate media,

e)    Information overload

a)    Too many transfer stations: 

If the organization is very large then there may be too may transfer stations to pass a message to its employees at different levels. With several layers of communication channels, the massage gets distorted in huge organization.

Solution: In large organizations INTRANET SYSTEM can help out to reduce too many transfer stations by supplying message directly on the message columns on the Intranet System. Digital notice boards are also helpful to supply direct messages to employees. these boards can be fitted to the very commonly visited places.  

 

b)    Fear of superiors: 

In a rigid structure organization fear and awe of the superiors prevents subordinates from speaking frankly. Juniors never give their valuable advice to their seniors due to fear of rejection.

Solution: Seniors should promote the open communication culture rather than only downward communication. Seniors must give a disciplined but fearless company to his juniors or subordinates.

c)     Negative tendencies: 

in an organization where, different teams work together and only one group was appreciated then negative tendencies are developed and other groups rejects the new proposal of working together as they start thinking that they would not be appreciated again.

Solution: This barrier can be avoided by adopting positive attitude. people must not have negativity about an unfavourable thing happened to him in past rather he must try to come up with new energy to prove himself.

d)    Use of inappropriate media- 

Some timers everything goes well but the selection of the transmission of message in incorrect and this reduces the importance of message. Proper medium should be selected to make the message more effective.

Solution: Sender should select the proper media to communicate thing . It is totally sender's responsibility to send the message at the right time in a right format to receiver.

e)    Information overload: 

If a person is supplied with much information then it is not possible to supply the same and correct information to correct person. This is one of the major problems in an organization. Sometimes the receiver is unable to handle the data properly and effectively. This leads to fatigue, boredom disinterest.

GATE WAY: Required man force should be appointed to remove this barrier. If an organization is appointing required man force then this barrier come automatically.

COMMUNICATION BARRIERS: INTERPERSONAL BARRIERS

  INTERPERSONAL BARRIERS

Barriers due to inappropriate transaction of words between two or more people are called interpersonal barriers.

a)    Limited vocabulary,

b)    Communication selectivity,

c)     Cultural variation,

d)    Incongruity of verbal and non-verbal,

e)    Emotional out bursts

f)      Poor listening skills

a)    Limited vocabulary: 

Inadequate vocabulary is the major hindrance in communication both oral or written. During the speech or at writing if we are tongue fumbles and pen falters due to loss of proper words the connotative or denotative meaning will distort the message completely.

Solution: If you are in a profession then you must know the terms and vocabulary required by your profession. Speaker must not use hi-fi vocabulary only to show his intelligence. speaker must try to communicate his information in a simpler way rather than confusing receiver by using tough vocabulary which is unknown of tough to common people.

b)     Communication selectivity: 

When a receiver of the message pay attention only to a part of the message then the barrier is known as communication selectivity. Here sender is not at fault but the receiver’s fault of choice breaks the flow of communication both in written and oral forms.

Solution: receiver must not confine him to a particular point. he must go through the whole document. Sometimes receiver stuck in mess as he is unknown to the demanded information as noted only a selected portion of the whole information.

c)     Cultural variation: 

Day by day businesses are increasing globally. The outlook of global and domestic work force has changed drastically. Thus, to compete successfully, in today’s globalized business environment we have to overcome the communication adequacy due to different languages and cultures.

Solution: We must know about the culture of the place where we are going to our job. Cultural variation in a big problem now a days in the era of globalization. A home work on the culture of the destination must be done before reaching there.

d)    Incongruity of verbal and non-verbal: 

It is a well-known fact that nonverbal communication enhances the impact of verbal communication but some time it is found that the nonverbal communication is giving a wrong interpretation and making the receiver puzzle. If the nonverbal cues are misinterpreted the message is distorted. For example, if an uninvited guest comes to your home and you have an urgent piece of work outside then your word definitely welcomes him but your nonverbal cues will tell him that he is unwanted and that time.

Solution: The only gate way of this barrier is to control on body language. Though sometime it is very much difficult but in a professional life it is mandatory that your body language must co-operate with your words.

e)    Emotional out bursts: 

Being a human, you are emotional no matter whether you are in office or at home. Sometimes you are so much overwhelmed with emotions that you can’t say your feelings well in words and your tears stop you to say something.

Solution: To avoid this barrier in professional communication speaker must control his feelings. Professional life is impersonal there should be no place for such feelings.

f)     Poor listening skills: 

Hearing is a passive exercise while listening is an active process which requires careful attention and accurate decoding of the signals received from the speaker. But sometimes we cannot pay attention to what sender is saying. the reason may be different at different situations, like- emotional disturbance, indifferences, aggressiveness etc.

Solution: Receiver must have patience to listen others. This skill can be developed by practice. If there is problem related to ears then proper and best quality aids should be used by listener.

COMMUNICATION BARRIERS: INTRA-PERAONAL BARRIERS

 INTRA PERSONAL BARRIERS

 Barriers due to different experience, education, values and personality are called intrapersonal communication. These communication barriers arise from individuals' attitude and habits.

a)    Wrong assumption,

b)    Different background,

c)     Categorical thinking,

d)    Varied perception,

e)    Wrong inferences.

f)      Impervious categories

 

a)    Wrong assumption: 

We know that two people in the world cannot be same not even siblings. This barrier occurs when the sender of the message has a false assumption of the level of understanding, knowledge, and thinking. The speaker sometimes doesn’t realize the background, education, and experience of the receiver. For example, if a doctor said to his patient – take the medicine only SOS. The intrapersonal barrier breaks the communication as patient was confused about the term 'SOS'; Because doctor had wrong idea about his patient's knowledge and didn't try to make him understand.

Solution: Sender should realize about the receiver. He must guess about the background of the person from nonverbal or verbal clues and he also must ask about the receiving of the correct message from his receiver.

b)     Different background:

 No two people have same background in the world. Even children of a family differ from each other in their genetic heritage. These variations are due to education, culture, language environmental, age and other factors which give rise to the difference in background of the individuals. For example, if a computer representative gives much details about hardware to a customer who want to get that computer installed in his house. And this is due to different background.

Solution: Speaker must analyze about the audience at receiver end before speaking to them. He must know the education, culture, language environmental, age and other factors about his audience to avoid this barrier.

c)      Categorical thinking: 

There are many people who think that they ‘know it all’. Such people are called ‘pansophists’. They think that they are all perfect and they need not of any kind of additional information on the related topic. They would not accept any further information related to the subject or topic.  For example- generally people are not very much serious or sincere in attending the regular meetings in their offices which are conducted on regular basis for smooth functioning in an organization.

Solution: A person must overcome from this barrier otherwise sometime he might be in a mess.  to avoid this barrier over confidence of knowing the things should be controlled at receiver's end. Attentiveness is required at every moment even if the matter is known to listener.

d)     Varied perception: 

Every individual has its own opinion about a particular thing and his perception may differ from others due to his taste, preferences, and knowledge. There is a well-known story of six blind men who perception about an elephant was totally different from others. 

Solution: Sender should have a broad perspective to remove this barrier. If a person have its own perception about a thing even he must have a space for the others' perception. He must see the thing for others' point of view.

e)     Wrong inferences: 

Sometimes people make wrong conclusions after analyzing the things or matter. Inferences are more dramatic than a fact so these give rise to gossip and rumors. If the inferences are base-less and pre-conceived these hamper the flow of communication. For example- if a boss and his female secretary sit long hours for work people without thinking make inference that there may be a relation between them and if a male works long hours for his male boss then they think the person as 'yes boss character'.

Solution: people must analyse things in the light of both sided aspects. They must not blindly faith in the data provides to them and the conclusion derived from them. people should have a place for natural thinking. People should have broad minds to flexibility in their decision based on  past data.

f)      Impervious categories:

Generally, we react positively to information only if it is in consonance with our own views and attitude. But the news which doesn’t suits to our taste and preferences we disbelieve it or react negatively. impervious category includes those who may not be able to accept any deviation from their point of view.

Solution: Receiver must have a broad mind so that he can welcome every thought and can analyse them without preconception. We should be very much impersonal in decision and doing things.  People must think from others' point of view rather than condemn them every time even without giving a thought on the matter.

COMMUNICATION BARRIERS: PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS

 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. 

The main types of psychological barriers are-

a)    Lack of Attention

b)    Poor Retention

c)     Distrust and Defensiveness

d)    Perception, Viewpoint, Attitudes and Opinions

e)    Emotions

f)      Closed Mind and Filtering

COMMUNCATION: MODELS

    

MODELS OF COMMUNICATION

Today, the main models of communication are grouped into three categories:

1.    Linear models – only looks at one-way communication.

2.    Interactive models – looks at two-way communication.

3.    Transactional models – looks at two-way communication where the message gets more complex as the communication progresses (e.g. conversation).

1.    Linear Model

a.     Aristotle’s Model

b.    Lasswell’s Model

c.     Shannon-Weaver Model

d.    Berlo’s S-M-C-R Model

2.    Interactive Model

a.     Osgood-Schramm Model

b.    Westley and Maclean Model

3.    Transactional Model

a.     Barnlund’s Transactional Model

b.    Dance’s Helical Model

1.    LINEAR MODEL

 

Linear model only looks at one-way communication. This is the simplest model of communication.

a.    Aristotle’s Model

According to Aristotle’s model of communication, the speaker plays a major role in communication. He is responsible to prepare a message with clarity, meaningfulness and in a good format. He transmits that message to the receiver. He uses his wits and choose correct verbal as well as non-verbal methods of transmission.

 

Example-

                                     i.          A teacher addressing the whole class on a particular topic. Hence, everything (The selection of verbal and nonverbal), in this situation, depends on the teacher only.

                                   ii.          A Politician addressing a whole mass from the stage. He uses both verbal and nonverbal methods to impress the mass. The impression on the mass depends on the efficiency of the speaker only.

b.    Lasswell’s Model

The Lasswell Model is completely based on five (5) questions. These  are as follows:

                                                i.        Who said?                                     Sender/source
                                               ii.       What did they say?                        Message/content
                                              iii.       What was the channel?                  (electronic/print etc.)
                                              iv.       Whom did they say it to?               Receiver
                                               v.       What were the effects?                   Impact

 

These five questions are very crucial to make the communication effective and purposeful. According to this model a result-oriented communication must look into these five points.

c.     Shannon-Weaver Model

Claude Shannon explored the reasons of the failure of communication and find that every communication has something that disturbs it and he said it ‘noise’. Noise plays an important part between sender and receiver. Hence, he added noise to the linear model of communication. Noise may be physical, written or technical.

 

d.    Berlo’s S-M-C-R Model

According to Berlo’s S-M-C-R Model, the importance of communication is laid on both, the  sender and the receiver. Berlo said that to properly decode and encode the message, the communication skills of both, sender and receiver, must be good. If both are skilled, the communication will be very effective.

 

2.    INTERACTIVE MODEL

Interactive Model of communication looks at two-way communication.

 

Some important models are as follows-

a.    Osgood-Schramm Model

Accoding to Osgood-Schramm model showed how we have to encode, decode, and interpret information in real-time during a conversation. The model does not differentiate between the sender and receiver, but sees each as being in an equal position as message encoders and decoders. Here feed back is immediate hence it reduces noise. For example- conversation between two people every speaker is listener and every listener is a speaker.

 

b.    Westley and Maclean Model

The Westley and Maclean model shows that our communication is influenced by environmental, cultural and personal factors.

 

The model also speaks about the importance of feedback in communication. It shows that the messages in communication are influenced by who the source is, what his background is, and culture is. Study of a broader social context is required to know and understand the message.

3.    TRANSACTIONAL MODEL

The transactional model of communication refers to the continuous exchange of information where both the sender and receiver are involved in the process and take turns to communicate messages. The messages get more complex as the communication event (e.g. conversation) progresses.

 

Transactional model is explored by the two scientists- 

a.    Barnlund’s Transactional Model

According to Barnlund interpersonal, communication receives immediate feedback. The approach is that the feedback for the sender is the reply for the receiver. The message construction is highly impacted by certain ‘cues’ like-

Public Cues: These are environmental cues.

Private Cues: These are a person’s thoughts and background.

 

b.    Dance’s Helical Model

Dance’s Helical Model sees communication as a circular process that gets more and more complex as communication proceeds. This model can be represented by a helical spiral.

 According to this model we improve our messages over time by using feedback. In communicate the feedback by one person influences the  next statement of the receiver of that feedback.

 

It is represented by the increasingly wider and wider circles that shows that we become more knowledgeable with each cycle of communication. The continuous and upward movement of the spiral indicates that each communication practice is new and different from the previous. There is no repetition of any circle.