Types of Barriers
A few barriers of effective communication in an organization are given below.
- Semantic and Language Barriers
- Physical and External Barriers.
- Socio-Psychological Barriers
Semantic and language Barriers:
Semantic barriers are the barriers that are related with the words. Words, of course, are symbols, and therefore limited because they cannot have precisely the same meaning for everyone. Since words can mean different things, their different meanings may block communication. The study of word choice is called Semantics, and the kind of block that arise from word choice are called Semantic blocks. e.g. the difference between inexpensive and cheap. Cheap has a more negative impression or aura associated with it.
Language barriers refer to the situation when a person is not able to convey one’s ideas because of language differences. It might be at the listener or speaker’s end. It might b attributed to other factors like noise, incoherence, disturbance in the medium also.
Physical and External Barriers:
Another major barrier of communication in a workplace is the physical barrier. Physical barriers in an organization include large working areas that are physically separated from others. Other distractions that could cause a physical barrier in an organization are the environment and the background noise. Communication does not consist of words alone. Your ideas, however good and however skillfully imparted, are at the mercy of various potential physical barriers. Unclear photocopies, unreadable print outs or messy corrections are typical examples of physical barriers.
Socio-Psychological Barriers:
The psychological barriers are those which are involved with some human psychology due to which it can become hurdle in the way of communication and the communication can be distorted. 90 % of the total barriers to communication are psychological barriers. Psychological barriers can be further classified into
- Emotional Barriers
- Perceptual Barriers
- Selectivity
- Emotional Barriers:
Emotions are basically state or feelings in mind. Your emotions could be a barrier to communication if you are engrossed in your emotions for some reason. In such cases, you tend to have trouble listening to others or understanding the message conveyed to you. For example, giving the first major presentation on your job may affect communication. Similarly extreme happiness makes a person speechless.
- Perceptual Barriers:
Communication involves perception and perception is never precise. People perceives things differently. Given precisely the same data, different people see, interpret, or respond to them differently. Another perceptual problem is when people fill-in information without checking its accuracy. Similarly, sometimes people’s perception is based on their own experiences e.g. if a company receives an annual report, its accountant may concentrate only on one footnote in the financial statement and a public relations officer may respond only to the quality of brochure itself.
Age, education, gender, social status, economic position, cultural background, temperament, health, beauty, popularity, religion and political belief, all of this can separate one person from another and make understanding difficult. To overcome the barriers associated with differing backgrounds, oe should avoid projecting one’s background or culture onto others.
- Selectivity:
A final set of psychological barrier exists because of competition for people’s time and attention i.e. selectivity barrier. We are constantly bombarded with information sources such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television etc. We cannot absorb all this information flowing our way so we must screen it selectively. One factor in the way people select is timing. Some messages that maybe effective at one time might be blocked or even detrimental at another time. e.g. a letter of condolence sent out immediately after the event is more effective than one sent later.
Sometimes people might employ selective listening, i.e. listening only what one desires or wants to listen. Continued selective listening is one of the best ways to destroy a relationship.
