Barriers to Effective Communication
Barriers to communication are factors that block or significantly distort successful communication. Effective managerial communication skills helps overcome some, but not all, barriers to communication in organizations. The more prominent barriers to effective communication which every manager should be aware of is given below,
a) Filtering:
Filtering
refers to a sender manipulating information so it will be seen more favourably
by the receiver. The major determinant of filtering is the number of levels in
an organization's structure. Sometimes the information is filtered by the
sender himself. If the sender is hiding some meaning and disclosing in such a
fashion as appealing to the receiver, then he is "filtering" the
message deliberately. A manager in the process of altering communication in his
favour is attempting to filter the information.
b) Selective Perception:
Selective
perception means seeing what one wants to see. The receiver, in the
communication process, generally resorts to selective perception i.e., he
selectively perceives the message based on the organizational requirements, the
needs and characteristics, background of the employees etc. Perceptual
distortion is one of the distressing barriers to the effective communication.
People interpret what they see and call it a reality. In our regular
activities, we tend to see those things that please us and to reject or ignore
unpleasant things. Selective perception allows us to keep out dissonance (the
existence of conflicting elements in our perceptual set) at a tolerable level.
c) Emotions:
How the
receiver feels at the time of receipt of information influences effectively how
he interprets the information. For example, if the receiver feels that the
communicator is in a jovial mood, he interprets that the information being sent
by the communicator to be good and interesting. Extreme emotions and jubilation
or depression are quite likely to hinder the effectiveness of communication. A
person's ability to encode a message can become impaired when the person is
feeling strong emotions. For example, when you are angry, it is harder to
consider the other person's viewpoint and to choose words carefully. The
angrier you are, the harder this task becomes. Extreme emotions – such as jubilation or depression -
are most likely to hinder effective communication. In such instances, we are
most prone to disregard our rational and objective thinking processes and
substitute emotional judgments.
d) Language:
Communicated
message must be understandable to the receiver. Words mean different things to
different people. Language reflects not only the personality of the individual
but also the culture of society in which the individual is living. In
organizations, people from different regions, different backgrounds, and speak
different languages. People will have different academic backgrounds, different
intellectual facilities, and hence the jargon they use varies.
e) Stereotyping:
Stereotyping
is the application of selective perception. When we have preconceived ideas
about other people and refuse to discriminate between individual behaviours, we
are applying selective perception to our relationship with other people.
Stereotyping is a barrier to communications because those who stereotype others
use selective perception in their communication and tend to hear only those
things that confirm their stereotyped images.
f) Status Difference:
The organizational
hierarchy pose another barrier to communication within organization, especially
when the communication is between employee and manager. This is so because the
employee is dependent on the manager as the primary link to the organization
and hence more likely to distort upward communication than either horizontal or
downward communication. Effective supervisory skills make the supervisor more
approachable and help reduce the risk of problems related to status
differences. In addition, when employees feel secure, they are more likely to
be straightforward in upward communication.
g) Use of Conflicting Signals:
A sender
is using conflicting signals when he or she sends inconsistent messages. A
vertical message might conflict with a nonverbal one. For example, if a manager
says to his employees, "If you have a problem, just come to me. My door is
always open", but he looks annoyed whenever an employee knocks on his
door". Then we say the manager is sending conflicting messages. When signals
conflict, the receivers of the message have to decide which, if any, to
believe.
h) Reluctance to Communicate:
For a
variety of reasons, managers are sometimes reluctant to transmit messages. The
reasons could be:-
• They may doubt their ability to do so.
• They may dislike or be weary of writing or talking
to others.
• They may hesitate to deliver bad news because they do not want to face a negative reaction.
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