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Communication is the lifeline of all business. Anything going wrong in it may cost the organisation dear. Managers often complain that one of their greatest problems is communication breakdown. Specialists have made serious studies of it and have isolated certain factors that cause this problem. It is worthwhile having a look at these causes of communication breakdown
COMMUNICATION BARRIERS
The barriers between the sender and receiver because of the message oses its original form are called, communication barriers. These barriers in the way of communication harm the message in many ways. Sometimes ne damage is done to such an extent that form of the message is completely altered and the results are very bad.
Circumstances of Communication Barriers:
Sometimes barriers are developed while the message is sent due to various circumstances. Different barriers are created in different circumstances. The circumstances in which barriers developed are-
1. Relation between sender and receiver: If the relation between sender and receiver is not friendly or if some emotional barrier is blocking the expression of ideas or if the sender is not clear about the subject matter then in such a situation a communication barrier will be created and miscommunication will emerge.
2 Lack of vocabulary: If the sender is unable to find the right words while drafting a message then communication will not be effective. In such a state the message will not reach the receiver as desired
3. Lack of Primary Knowledge of grammar: If the sender does not have the knowledge of using full stops, commas etc. or if he does not have the primary knowledge of grammar, communication barrier will exist.
4. Prejudice: If the sender or the receiver is prejudiced, a big communication barrier will be created. The sender will use a language suited to his prejudice and the receiver will try to find a meaning that suits him.
5. Mood: Different moods can create different barriers in communication The same message gets different reactions in different mood.
6. Background: When a message given is not specific then the background facts effect its meaning. If negative messages have been received in the past and if a positive message is received then it will arouse suspicion and surprise.
7. Receipt of more than one message in one time: If the receiver receives more than one message at a time then he will not accept any of them properly. This situation is similar to the one when we to receive more than one station while listening to the radio and none of them is audible.
BARRIERS OR BREAKDOWNS IN COMMUNICATION
(1) Noise: Noise is the first and foremost barrier to communication. It means "interference that occurs in a signal and prevents you from hearing sounds properly.
In a factory, for example, the continuous noise made by machines makes oral communication difficult. In the same way some technical problem in a public address system or a static in a telephone or television cable will distort the sound signal and affect communication. Adverse weather conditions or some fault in the ultramodern tele-communication systems may also spoil the effect. Noise does not mean only this.
It also includes many other factors that may exist at the end of sender as well as that of the receiver. The sender may resort to ambiguous or confusing signals. The receiver may mess up the message owing to inattention or may spoil decoding because of wrong or unexpected interpretation. The receiver's prejudices may also come in the way of his understanding the message in the right spirit.
We must therefore keep in mind that communication is always likely be spoilt by "noise" that stands for so many things.
(2) Lack of Planning: Communication is not a casual affair. Unfortunately many people take it lightly planned. There are innumerable examples of people who would give an ill-planned, long-winding lecture while a short presentation with tables or graphs would be sufficient. Such an event would turn into one of miscommunication or malcommunication. In the same way some people may not care to choose a suitable time and place that are so very necessary for effective communication.
(3) Semantic Problems: Semantics is the systematic study of meaning. That is why the problems arising from expression or transmission of meaning in communication are called semantic problems. Oral or written communication is based on words. And words, limited in number, may be used in unlimited ways. The meaning is in the mind of the sender and also in that of the receiver. But it is not always necessary for the meaning in the mind of the sender to be the same as in the mind of receiver.
Much, therefore, depends on how the sender encodes his message. The sender has to take care that the receiver does not misconstrue his message, and gets the intended meaning. Quite often it does not happen in this way. That leads to semantic problems. It can be ensured only if we aim at clarity, simplicity and brevity so that the receiver gets the intended meaning.
(4) Culture Barriers: Cultural differences often come up as communication barriers. We have to be specially careful in this regard as new we have to operate in international environment. The same category of words, phrases, symbols, actions, colours mean different things to people of different countries or different cultural backgrounds.
For example, in the United States people love to be called by their first names while in Britain and to a large extend also in India, people like to be addressed by their last name. In the North American States a sign of 'O' made with the forefinger and thumb stands for 'OK' while in the Southern States it is construed as obscenity.
(5) Wrong assumptions: Quite often we act on assumptions, without caring to seek clarification for them. We should make all possible efforts to maintain our goodwill and not act impulsively on assumptions.
If, for example, a customer writes to us that he would like to visit our office or factory without telling us that he would like to be picked up and we assume that he will manage to come on his own it may lead to loss of goodwill. So it is necessary to be circumspect in such matters.
(6) Socio-psychological Barriers: The attitudes and opinions, place in society and status-consciousness arising from one's position in the hierarchical structure of the organization, one's relations with peers, seniors, juniors anu family background-all these deeply affect one's ability to communicate both as a sender and receiver. Status consciousness is widely known to be a serious communication barrier in organisations.
It leads to psychological distancing which further leads of communication or miscommunication. Often it is seen that a man high up in an organisation builds up a wall around himself. This restricts participation of the less powerful in decision making. In to breakdown the same way one's family background formulates one's attitude and communication skills.
(7) Emotions: Emotions play a very important role in our life. Both encoding and decoding of messages are influenced by our emotions. A message received when we are emotionally worked up will have a different meaning for us than when we are calm and composed. Anger is the worst emotion and enemy of communication.
(8) Selective Perception: Most of the factors cited above lead to selective perception. It means that the receivers selectively see and hear depending upon their needs, background, motivations, experience and other personal characteristics. While decoding the messages, most of the receivers protect their own interests and expectations into process of communication leading to a particular kind of feedback that may become a communication problem.
(9) Filtering: Filtering means that the sender of a message manipulates information in such a way that it will be seen more favourably by the receiver. A manager, for example, likes to tell his boss what he feels his boss wants to hear. In this process he is filtering information. The net result is that the man at the top never gets objective information. In the same way, the people at the lower levels condense and synthesise information so as to get maximum benefits for themselves. They hold back or ignore some important part of information. The more vertical levels in the organisation, the more chances there are for filtering. This is a very frequently occurring communication problem.
(10) Information Overload: Unchecked inflow of information very often becomes another barrier to communication. It may stifle the senior executive or bore and frustrate him. When people are bogged down with too much information they are likely to make errors. They may also delay processing or responding to information/message at least for some time. And delay may become a habit, causing serious communication problems. People may also become selective in their response and selectivity is not communication-friendly. On the other hand it is a communication problem.
(11) Poor Retention: As a corollary to the problem mentioned above it is worth noting that people are also likely to forget messages reaching them. Therefore arises the necessity to repeat the message and use more than one medium to communicate the same message.
(12) Poor Listening: Poor listening may lead to serious communication problems. Too many people are interested in talking and mostly talking about themselves. They are so much involved with themselves that they do not have patience to listen. The result is that they are not interested in the speaker whose words go waste. Everybody knows about the importance of listening, but very few actually practise patient, active and empathic listening. That is why so many communication problems crop up. Poor listening accounts for incomplete information and also poor retention. One may simply not get the desired result if this keeps on happening.
(13) Goal Conflicts: Very often clashes of the goals of various units and sub-units of an organisation lead to communication breakdowns. Communication should serve as a conflict-reduction exercise. But the goal conflicts act as communication reduction mechanisms. Different units internalise their own goals and that leads to the splitting or bifurcation of interests in the organisation. When people competing for the fulfilment of their narrow interests communication suffers.
(14) Offensive style of Communication: It is quite obvious that offensive style of communication leads to communication breakdown. It is a rather sensitive point. If a manager sends a message in such a way that the workers/juniors become defensive their relations get strained and communication suffers. Hence it is abso-lutely necessary for the management to adopt a persuasive style of communication.
(15) Insufficient Period for Adjustment: It is a fact well known to all that people respond to change in different ways. They take their own time to adjust to any news or proposal for change. While the purpose of communication is to effect change it should be kept in mind that the employees whose duties, shifts etc., are going to be changed should be given sufficient time. Only then the communication will be effective.
(16) Loss by Transmission: Communication often suffers or gets diluted when messages pass on from person to person in a series of transmissions. They get diluted on the way.
SUGGESTIONS TO REMOVE BARRIERS
The Barriers to communication are nothing more than human faults. Hence, these may be made effective and the overall communication process of the organisation made active and without any obstacles. The following needs to be kept in mind for an effective communication:
(1) Clarity of Purpose: It should be kept in mind that all communication is a result of thinking in advance and planning out what has to be conveyed to whom, in what way and when.
(2) Shared Activities: The shared activities are used in downward as well as upward communication to the maximum. Shared activities could be more effective than impersonal, one sided or management motivated communication.
(3) Easy Language: The language used in communication must be easy, understandable as well as according to the status of the receiver.
(4) Focus the need of receiver : The communication of orders and information should be done after considering the needs of the receiver.
(5) Use of Feedback: It is the most important factor of an effective communication system the arrangement for which is made in a two ways channel
6) Active listening: A participative listening makes communication effective. Through this the communicator is able to explain his view point to the receiver.
(7) Controlling Emotions: Emotions play an important role in the communication process and sometimes act as barriers to the fulfilment of objectives of communication. Therefore, a full control has to be achieved over such emotions.
(8) Eliminate Noise: Every possible efforts must be put in to eliminate or reduce noise and make communication effective.
(9) Clarity of Assumptions: To make efficient the sender should clearly specify all the assumptions.
(10) Completeness: The information conveyed under the communication process must be complete as an incomplete information reduces them interest of the receiver.
[11) Organisational Environment: There must be a proper organisational environment of trust among various factors of organisation, common sense and clarity.
12) Communication Chains: Communication chains must be straight and short so that the delay in information could be minimised.
13) Flexible System: The communication channels should be flexible so that they could explain the additional burden of information, include the new techniques of sending information and absorb the dynamic changes in an organisation.
14) Proper use of Body Language: It is of immense importance while communication as a positive body language gives rise to nice thoughts among the receivers.
15) Conciseness: The body of a conversation should be concise along with being complete to make it effective.
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