Assignment on Organizational Behavior

Topics: Barriers to Effective Communication in your Organization &

How to Overcome the Barriers

Prepared for
Ms. Laboni Ferdous

Prepared by
Tawhidul Alam
Program: Master of Business Administration (MBA)
Subject: Organizational Behavior
World University of Bangladesh
Batch: 06.
ID/Roll: 121.
 Table of Content
1.0 Introduction ......................................................................................................................1
2.0 What is Communication?..................................................................................................1
3.0 Business Communication..................................................................................................1
4.0 Effective Communication in Business..............................................................................2
4.1 Barriers of Effective communication ...........................................................................2
4.1.1 Lack of planning....................................................................................................3
4.1.2 Unclarified assumption .........................................................................................3
4.1.3 Poor Expression ....................................................................................................3
4.1.4 Poor Retention .......................................................................................................3
4.1.5 Poor Listening .......................................................................................................3
4.1.6 Distrust...................................................................................................................4
4.1.7 Information overload .............................................................................................4
4.1.8 Selective Perception ..............................................................................................4
4.1.9 Semantic Distortion ...............................................................................................4
4.1.10 Technical Words..................................................................................................4
4.1.11 Unclarified Roles.................................................................................................5
4.1.12 Unsound Objectives ............................................................................................5
4.1.13 Absence of Feedback ..........................................................................................5
4.1.14 Inappropriate Medium .........................................................................................5
4.2 Overcoming the Barriers ..............................................................................................5
4.2.1 Determining Plan .................................................................................................6
4.2.2 Avoiding Assumption ...........................................................................................6
4.2.3 Appropriate Encoding............................................................................................6
4.2.4 Repeating Message ................................................................................................6
4.2.5 Effective Listening ................................................................................................6
4.2.6 Creating Credibility ...............................................................................................7
4.2.7 Regulating Information Flow.................................................................................7
4.2.8 Recognizing the Receiver’s Personal Factors........................................................7
4.2.9 Using Appropriate Language.................................................................................7
4.2.10 Simplifying Language .........................................................................................7
4.2.11 Clear Definition ...................................................................................................8
4.2.12 Making Sound Objectives ...................................................................................8
4.2.13 Utilizing Feedback...............................................................................................8
4.2.14 Selecting Appropriate Channel............................................................................8
5.0 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................8
6.0 References.........................................................................................................................9
1.0 Introduction
Communication is simple to understand but difficult to define. The ‘Communication’ stems
from the Latin word “communis” which means common.

However, communication includes in addition to commonalty, the concepts of

transmission, meaning & information. When all these features are combined together,
communication takes a precise shape in the form of transmission of commonly meaningful
information.

2.0 What is Communication?

Some scholar defined communication as a linking function between two or more persons.
People can reach other members of the society through this link-path with their ideas,
feelings, thoughts, facts & values. While many others termed communication is a ‘bridge’
of meaning among the people so that they can share news and views with each other.
According to these theorists, people by using the ‘bridge’ can safely cross the ‘rivers of
misunderstanding’, which sometimes separate them from one another. The attitude and
outlooks expressed by the scholars in the above statement suggest that communication is a
meaningful transfer of information from one person (or group) to another.

To avoid this theoretical confusion, it is better to define; communication is a process of

sending and receiving a message.

Now we can define, “Communication is a process of sending thoughts, ideas, feelings,

suggestions, advice, information, culture etc. from at least one person to another person in
order to get things done by the other individual”.

3.0 Business Communication

Generally speaking, communication applied to the business world is called ‘Business
Communication’. In this sense, it is a specialized branch of general communication.
Processes, types, methods, etc. are the same with those general communications. Only the
difference is in their application to the situation.

Business in general, refers to the activities that are directed toward producing or acquiring
wealth through making, buying or supplying goods or services. However, activities directed
to the production of things for personal consumption do not fall within the purview of
business.

We can define business communication as a flow of information that occurs within this
business environment. For the survival and development of any organization, a
businessperson has to maintain a link with a host of people such as customers, suppliers,
lenders, government and his own organizational members. Such maintenance of link for

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business purpose is ‘Business Communication’. For successful operations of daily business
transactions also a businessman has to exchange opinion, feeling, information etc. with the
people of his own organization as a well as outside the organization.

So business communication is a process of expressing any type of notice, instruction,

request, recommendation, perception and the like to a person or a number of persons,
within or outside the organization, with a view to informing them of any business data,
decisions, objectives etc. and expecting the receivers to do something on receiving the
message. As the main purpose of business communication is to secure action by the
receiver, so the style emphasizes drawing attention, arousing interest, developing
conviction and inducing action.

In short, we can say,

a) Business communication is a specialized branch of communication.
b) It deals with various commercial & industrial subjects.
c) It is objective and impartial, as very care is taken to send information accurately &
concisely.
d) Every business communication aims at securing some action by receivers of
message.
e) Language used here is very simple, direct, concise and to the point.
f) Every businessperson transmits messages with due emphasis on drawing attention,
creating interest and inducing action.

4.0 Effective Communication in Business

When, both the sender and the receiver of the message perceive the message in the same
sense, we called effective communication. Messages to be perceived in the same sense
must be audience centered. This means that audience consideration is the key factor for all
effective communication.

To quote Griffin, “Effective communication is the process of sending a message in such a

way that the message received is as close in meaning as possible to the message intended”.
Meaning is defined here as the idea that the person who initiates the communication
process wishes to convey. In effective communication, the meaning is transmitted in such a
way that the person receiving the message understands it clearly.

For effective communication the message must be clear, concise, complete, correct,
courteous and consistence.

4.1 Barriers of Effective communication

Communication is a process of transmitting information from the source to the destination.

It becomes effective when the receiver receives the message in the same sense as intended
by the sender. But sometimes it can’t happen because of the barriers. Barriers complicated
the process of communication. Barriers & interferences are anything that obstructs free and

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smooth movement of a message. They may be related to the sender, the receiver or the
environment.

Here is given below some of the common barriers,

4.1.1 Lack of planning

Good communication seldom takes place by chance. It needs prior thinking and
proper planning. Guidelines of business operations i.e. how to do, when to do, etc.
are incorporated in the policies of the organization. Officers and employees of an
organization feel easy to give and receive information in the light of the policy.
Opposite happen i.e. the employees fails to communicate in due time in the absence
of predetermined policy.

4.1.2 Unclarified assumption

Messages may be interpreted otherwise if the sender does not clearly spell out his
intention. For an example, Mr. X (customer) sends a message to Mr. Y (General
Manager of a company) that he will visit Mr. Y’s plant on Monday at 7 o’clock.
Now Mr. Y assumes it may be 7pm. But the original time that Mr. X means is 7am.
These unclarified assumptions in both the instances may result in confusion, which
intervene a sound flow of a message.

4.1.3 Poor Expression

The purpose of communication is to clearly inform the receiver of the intention of

the sender. This sometimes may not be possible because of the inability of the
sender to express his idea as appropriate to the receiver. It matters little how clear
the idea is in the mind of the sender, he fails to effectively communicate with the
desired receiver if the messages are still marked by poorly chosen words, poor
organization of ideas, awkward sentence structure, lack of coherence, omission,
unnecessary jargon and the like. This means the intended message of the sender
fails to translate itself into proper language easily understandable to the receiver.

4.1.4 Poor Retention

In a series of transmission from one person to the next, a fraction of the message
gets lost at every stage. The longer the communication route, the more the loss of
the message by transmission. Thus, very little information finally reaches the
destination and of that very little information only a fraction is likely to be retained.
This is a serious problem because it may lead to imperfect responses.

4.1.5 Poor Listening

In many place of discussion that talkers are many but listeners are few. These
talkative people are in the little habit to hear others. These people stand in the way
of effective communication. Reasons of such behavior are many. May be that these
persons are more interested in pressuring their own egos or making a good
impression on other group members instead of listening to the conversation. In such

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 a situation persons deprived of expressing their opinions may not entirely work on
the message imposed on them.

4.1.6 Distrust

Distrust undermines communication. In a climate of distrust, any message will be

viewed with skepticism. Distrust can be the result of inconsistence behavior. A
message sent by a person having inconsistence behavior is likely to fail to draw any
attention, trust or confidence of the receiver. So, any sort of distrust acts as a barrier
to effective communication.

4.1.7 Information overload

Unrestricted flow of information results in information overloads causing a major

barrier to communication. If people are overloaded with information, they simply
fail to screen out which information is worth reaching to. As a result, they cannot
absorb or adequately respond to all of the messages sent to them. If all
communications were attended to, the actual work of the organization could never
take place.

4.1.8 Selective Perception

This is one of the most common barriers to communication. People having selective
perception block new information especially when it does not confirm to or reaffirm
their beliefs. Thus, information that conflicts with preconceived ideas either is not
processed or is distorted to confirm their preconceptions.

4.1.9 Semantic Distortion

Most communication is verbal i.e. a message is carried on through words, whether

spoken or written. But words have a variety of meanings. Naturally, the same word
may mean entirely different thing to different people. An entire discipline,
semantics, has been built around this widely accepted aspect of communication. For
an example, different departments of a company receive a memo stating that a new
product is to be added to the product line in a short time. The word ‘short time’
might mean 2/3 years to the people in the research and development department, 5/6
months to the people in the finance department and a few weeks to the people in the
sales department.

4.1.10 Technical Words

It is not expected of every man to understand everything equally. Sometimes

technical words are used in encoding a message. The receiver, in the sense intended
by the sender, may not understand these words. If these technical words are not
clearly and properly understood by the receiver, the purpose of communication
cannot be achieved.

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4.1.11 Unclarified Roles

Duties and responsibilities of each of the staff members should be clearly defined in
the interest of proper job performance. In its absence, they cannot be aware of their
respective duties & responsibilities. This stands in the way of proper
communication.

4.1.12 Unsound Objectives

Communication is needed to supply relent information to the concerned staff

member so as to facilitate him to properly discharge his duties through which
objectives of the organization are achieved. But if the objectives of the organization
are unsound, the recipient may slowly or may not at all respond to the information
received. Thus, unsound objectives create an unfavorable situation for effective
communication.

4.1.13 Absence of Feedback

Feedback has no substitutes to make communication perfect and effective. In the

absence of feedback, it becomes one-way communication creating an autocratic
environment, which is neither desirable nor feasible in these days. The receivers to
whom these orders have been directed not duly and sincerely honor in one-way or
autocratic directions. For obvious reason, absence of feedback then acts as a barrier
to effective communication.

4.1.14 Inappropriate Medium

There are a number of media of communication available to us. All of these media
are not equally suitable for all the purposes and in all situations. So a medium
selected should be proper and appropriate which can add to the effectiveness of
communication. In contrast, an unsuitable medium may act as a barrier.

For an example, an employee misbehaves with his line manager and subsequently
becomes repentant. To express his regret, if the employee through face-to-face
communication admits his offence and begs his pardon with a remorseful look, the
boss will be pleased with his approach of the subordinate and the whole matter will
be amicably settled. Instead, if the employee simply sends a regret letter to the boss
and does nothing else, the boss may not be satisfied with such a routine approach of
the subordinate. So the letter as a medium of communication, selected in this
instance does not prove to be appropriate and thus, becomes one of the barriers.

4.2 Overcoming the Barriers

It is true that a smooth flow of information always does not go unhindered. There exist
many roadblocks or barriers in different shapes in the communication process. Despite
these barriers the situation is not that much hopeless. Communication barriers can be
overcome if it is sincerely wanted. The most general strategy for improving organizational

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or any other communication is that the persons involved in the communication process
must be sensitive to the barriers and must act accordingly.

Here is given below some of the ways of improving communication,

4.2.1 Determining Plan

A policy or planning tells the members what to do, how to do, etc. It acts as a guide
to the members particularly operating employees of the organization. Well thought
policies or planning aid the smooth flow of effective communication. So a proper
planning or policy must be determined beforehand.

4.2.2 Avoiding Assumption

Unclarified assumptions may sometimes lead to draw different conclusion by the

different people. To stop it, messages should be clearly spelled out. Whatever
intention is in the mind of the sender, it should clearly be encoded. In no way, there
should be any scope open to the receiver to interpret the message differently.

4.2.3 Appropriate Encoding

Communication is intended to inform others as well as to know the others. When it

is done for others, management (i.e. source of the message) should be serious in the
organization of ideas, sentence structure, coherence etc. It is noted that good
encoding is an art that can be mastered through practice. So, every effort should be
taken to make the message attractive, impressive, coherent and clearly & easily
understandable to the receivers.

4.2.4 Repeating Message

To overcome the problem of loss by transmission and poor retention, the same
message may be sent repeatedly. Several channels may also be used simultaneously
so as to avoid loss by transmission.

4.2.5 Effective Listening

Mere listening is not sufficient if it is not done with understanding. There are many
guidelines to be followed for effective listening. For avoiding listening barrier we
can follow these steps,

a) Stop talking
b) Put the talker at ease
c) Show a talker that you want to listen
d) Remove distractions
e) Empathize with talkers
f) Be patient
g) Hold your temper
h) Go easy on argument and criticism
i) Ask question
And
j) Stop talking

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4.2.6 Creating Credibility

Distrust is to a great extent, overcome through creating trust or credibility. A

person’s credibility in general is high if others perceive him or her as
knowledgeable, trustworthy and sincerely concerned about the welfare of others.
Source credibility means trust, confidence and faith that a communicatee assigns to
the words and actions of the source. It is the result of a long-term process. There are
no shortcuts to creating a trusty climate. But this atmosphere is must, because it
facilitates open and honest communication.

4.2.7 Regulating Information Flow

Regulating the flow of communication ensures an optimum flow of information,

which facilitates the elimination of information overload. One way to regulate
information flow is the adoption of ‘exception principle’ of management, which
states that only significant deviations from policies and procedures should be
brought to the attention of managers.

4.2.8 Recognizing the Receiver’s Personal Factors

To overcome the preconceived perception of the receiver, the communicator must

try to anticipate the factors that will influence the symbolic interpretation or
decoding of the message. For this purpose, the communicator must be empathetic
i.e. he or she must place himself or herself in the receiver’s position to anticipate
how the message is likely to be decoded. For an example, if the receiver is skeptic
about the sender, this skepticism must be taken into consideration while
transmitting any message. The communicator must try to remove the skepticism
from the receiver’s mind. This may take more than one trustworthy message to
modify such behavior of the receiver.

4.2.9 Using Appropriate Language

Effective communication is sometimes impeded by semantic problems. To

overcome this problem, a grate care is to be taken while encoding a message to
ensure that words having varieties of meaning are not there. Words chosen for the
purpose should have as far as possible, positive and specific connotations.

4.2.10 Simplifying Language

Technical jargons used in communication transforms simple concepts into complex

puzzles. It is to be remembered that the job of communication is done not only for
transmission of information, but for promotion of understanding and acting
accordingly also. Obviously, management or any other communicator must
emphasize using simple but correct language for effective communication to take
place. If technical jargons are to be used at all, their clear meaning should be given
so that the receivers need not decipher the meaning.

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4.2.11 Clear Definition

To remove any sort of confusion developed from unclarified roles, duties &
responsibilities of each staff member of the organization should be clearly defined.
Employees and officers having clear idea about their respective duties can exchange
freely the needed information among themselves.

4.2.12 Making Sound Objectives

Employees do not usually discharge their duties directed to the achievement of

unsound objectives. Thus, before any direction given to the employees, the
organization must ensure that the objectives are sound and not contrary to the
interest of the employees or to the society.

4.2.13 Utilizing Feedback

According to systems theory communication is complete only when the sender

receives feedback from the receiver. Feedback enables the communicator to
determine whether the message has been received as intended by the communicator.
It provides the sender with clues about the acceptance of his message. As feedback
is an important element in effective two-way communication, necessary steps
should be taken to elicit receiver’s feedback.

4.2.14 Selecting Appropriate Channel

One best way to deal with the channel problem is to use appropriate channel of
communication. For effective communication to take place, a message must be
transmitted through the channel, which is most appropriate for the particular
situation. For this purpose, a cautious communicator is expected of judiciously
evaluating the alternative channels, giving due consideration to the receiver’s state
of knowledge, gravity of the situation, need of immediacy, importance of feedback,
relevant expenditure etc. This technique will indicate which particular channel
proves to be appropriate for a given message to be transmitted effectively.

5.0 Conclusion
From the above discussion, we understand that, communication is essential in our daily life
as well as in business. Barriers will exist in communication. But we have to overcome the
barriers for smooth & effective communication. And then a business organization can run
& organize smoothly.

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6.0 References
a) Davis, Keith and Newstrom, John W. (2006). Organizational Behavior: Human
Behavior at Work – 11th edition.

b) Ali, M. Omar (2003). Business Communication: Theory and Application – 2nd

edition.

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