Barriers to Communication

Barriers to Communication

As we have mentioned earlier in this chapter, the communication process is hardly a simple one. It surely suffers from a lot of potential problems within the organisation which are called the barriers to communication. In fact, these can take place at each step of the communication process viz. encoding, decoding, etc. The barriers to communication can be listed as follows.

1. Results when the content of communication is not encoded properly. The communicator may be either too fast or too confused in presenting the matter.

2. Distortion in communication can take place particularly, when it has to pass through a number of layers as happens in multi-layered organisations.

3. Distrust of communicator may inhibit the process of communication, as the individual might not open up because of his lack of trust towards the other.

4. The flow of communication may also be restricted at some point of time in the process of communication.

5. Poor retention may be another source of barriers to communication as people tend to forget up to 50% atleast of what they have communicated.

6. Unattention may also be a potential barrier to communication.

7. Different backgrounds of two individuals may result in differences in the interpretation and understanding of a message.

8. In-group language, often used by different occupational or social groups, may be a potential barrier to communication.