Explain mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication barriers

by ellouise1997hotmailcom (student)

Unit 1 ICT - M1

I am working in careers advice for IT personnel. I have been asked to produce a small booklet on valued employee attributes and communication barriers. I will write a report explaining mechanisms that can reduce the impact of communication barriers.

Cultural Differences

On my internship I was working with many different people around the world including people from, Alaska, Trinidad, Africa, Norway and Houston. Although speaking to people from Houston wasn’t a problem because there are major similarities in communication, there were many barriers involving the other places. It became difficult to talk to these people because their first language isn’t English and therefore sometimes words wouldn’t be understood or they couldn’t understand due to different accents. In addition, people from different cultures use different body language and get offended by something we may seem as normal. Therefore, due to these issues it became more difficult to communicate effectively. When communicating with people from different cultures, you should do research about the words and actions they use and how they interpret things. Also speaking slowly and clearly will help them understand words that they are less familiar with. This is so that confusion is avoided during communication, but also so that people aren’t offending others by accident.

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Background Noise

Background noise in the workplace became a large barrier of effective communication at BP. We had meetings in the break area which meant that people were talking all around us. Although the meetings were informal it was still difficult to communicate to each other. Loud background noise can cause people not being heard and would then have to shout to be able for them to hear which is an unprofessional way to communicate in the workplace. This can then cause people not to hear what is being said and won’t be able to understand and work cannot then ...

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Background Noise

Distraction

Distractions can cause barriers in effective communication. The distractions can happen when someone comes late to the presentation and them arriving becomes a distraction. Also if phones start ringing or there are people talking in the background it is hard to talk effectively because they are distracting you from your place. Not only does it distract the speaker but it also distracts the audience which then makes it harder to engage them back into the presentation. This happened whilst I was on my internship. As I was presenting there were many distractions like late arrivals which makes it hard to keep track of where you’re talking. To reduce the impact of this barrier removing computers, turning of phones can prevent some distraction. Perhaps saying don’t enter the room if you are late to people will reduce a distraction when people come in late.

Technical Issues

A lot of communication at BP was done via the internet through emails or Lync meetings. Technology isn’t always reliable and therefore issues with the computers led to barriers in communication which is frustrating. A lot of the time in Lync calls it would break up and so only certain words were hearable and then they would have to repeat what they said and it becomes to be frustrating because it will take more time that could be spent doing other things. In addition, sometimes it wouldn’t allow people to join the meeting which meant they couldn’t be part of it. To eliminate these issues it’s important to leave extra time to make sure you are joined into the meeting and to make sure that all issues are fixed beforehand such as getting a headset that has a clear microphone so that it’s easy for people to hear. Speaking slowly and clearly in the microphone will also help and if possible get a meeting in a room rather than via the internet.

Lack of interest

The lack of interest can impact effective communication. Lack of interest can happen when talking to a college and they are not listening or paying attention to you and therefore doesn’t know what is being said and cannot use the important information being told in their work. This happened to me, when I was in meetings and they were talking about things I didn’t find interesting I found myself unengaged and focussing on something else. To prevent this make sure the things you are talking about have some sort of interest to the people, add visuals to presentations or videos make the presentation fun and engaging to keep interest of the audience.

Lack of concentration

The lack of concentration has also major impact on the barriers to effective concentration. There may be distractions in the room or the topic that is being spoken about are boring and you are uninterested. Therefore, it is then hard to concentrate on the speaker and take in what they are saying. Similar to lack of interest there are things you can to do reduce the barrier. For instance adding visuals such as images or videos as they are more exciting then text and will regain the audiences concentration.

Terminology

In BP acronyms were used constantly. I didn’t understand most of them and therefore the whole conversation didn’t make any sense and I couldn’t contribute or use that information in my work to because I just didn’t understand. To overcome this BP had a dictionary online which told you every acronym or asking a team member what is means will overcome this barrier.

Spelling and Grammar

When spelling and grammar is incorrect it can have a negative effect on communication. When it comes to written communication, spelling is very important. If there is text that has incorrect spelling then it can be hard to understand what it means, resulting in failed communication. For large text it’s important for grammar to be correct. Bad grammar can make it hard to understand also. In written communication, using spell-check will ensure that all the spelling is correct. This means that the readers can understand full what is trying to be said. Also, reading over the work or getting close work friends to read it will reduce this barrier.

Assignment 1 M1