Barriers in effective Communication

Barriers in effective Communication

There are many reasons why interpersonal communications may fail.  In many communications, the message may not be received exactly the way the sender intended and hence it is important that the communicator seeks to check that their message is clearly understood.

There exist many barriers to communication and these may occur at any stage in the communication process.  Barriers may lead to your message becoming distorted and you therefore risk wasting both time and/or money by causing confusion and misunderstanding.  Effective communication involves overcoming these barriers and conveying a clear and concise message.  Some common barriers to effective communication include:

·         The use of jargon, over-complicated or unfamiliar terms.

·         Emotional barriers and taboos.

·         Lack of attention, interest, distractions, or irrelevance to the receiver.

·         Differences in perception and viewpoint.

·         Physical disabilities such as hearing problems or speech difficulties.

·         Physical barriers to non-verbal communication.

·         Language differences and the difficulty in understanding unfamiliar accents.

·         Expectations and prejudices which may lead to false assumptions or stereotyping.  People often hear what they expect to hear rather than what is actually said and jump to incorrect conclusions.

·         Cultural differences.  The norms of social interaction vary greatly in different cultures, as do the way in which emotions are expressed. For example, the concept of personal space varies between cultures and between different social settings.

·         1. Lack of Sensitivity to Receiver.  A breakdown in communication may result when a message is not adapted to its receiver.  Recognizing the receiver’s needs, status, knowledge of the subject, and language skills assists the sender in preparing a successful message.  If a customer is angry, for example, an effective response may be just to listen to the person vent for a while. 

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·         2. Lack of Basic Communication Skills.  The receiver is less likely to understand the message if the sender has trouble choosing the precise words needed and arranging those words in a grammatically-correct sentence. 

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·         3. Insufficient Knowledge of the Subject.  If the sender lacks specific information about something, the receiver will likely receive an unclear or mixed message.  Have you shopped for an item such as a computer, and experienced how some salespeople can explain complicated terms and ideas in a simple way?  Others cannot.

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·         4. Information Overload.  If you receive a message with too much information, you may tend to put up a barrier because the amount of information is coming so fast that you may have difficulty comfortably interpreting that information.  If you are selling an item with twenty-five terrific features, pick two or three important features to emphasize instead of overwhelming your receiver (ho-hum) with an information avalanche.

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·         5. Emotional Interference.  An emotional individual may not be able to communicate well.  If someone is angry, hostile, resentful, joyful, or fearful, that person may be too preoccupied with emotions to receive the intended message.  If you don’t like someone, for example, you may have trouble “hearing” them.

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·         Transmitting Barriers: Things that get in the way of message transmission are sometimes called “noise.”  Communication may be difficult because of noise and some of these problems:

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·         1. Physical Distractions.  A bad cellular phone line or a noisy restaurant can destroy communication.  If an E-mail message or letter is not formatted properly, or if it contains grammatical and spelling errors, the receiver may not be able to concentrate on the message because the physical appearance of the letter or E-mail is sloppy and unprofessional.

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·         2. Conflicting Messages.  Messages that cause a conflict in perception for the receiver may result in incomplete communication.  For example, if a person constantly uses jargon or slang to communicate with someone from another country who has never heard such expressions, mixed messages are sure to result.  Another example of conflicting messages might be if a supervisor requests a report immediately without giving the report writer enough time to gather the proper information.  Does the report writer emphasize speed in writing the report, or accuracy in gathering the data?