Barriers to Communication

For

1st Year PGDM

D. Vijayalakshmi, Chair Professor (Life)

National Insurance Academy (NIA),
Pune
Retired Executive Director, LIC
 Barriers to Communication

Badly
Expressed
Message

Loss in
Prejudices
Transmission

Sender Oriented
Barriers to
Communication

Semantic
‘I’ Attitude
Problem

Over/Under
Communication
BADLY EXPRESSED MESSAGES
 The ideas are not very clear.
 Confusion on what needs to be included and what
needs deletion.
 Plug in of multiple thoughts at the same time in the
same message
 Not understanding the purpose of the message
 Combining too many messages
 LOSS IN TRANSMISSION
 This happens when the proper medium is not chosen
keeping the nature of message in view.

 It may appear minor at times can become a major risk.

 E.g. sending an e-mail where action is required without

checking the access the receiver may have.

 Orally informing a large group on a important matter and

not following it up with a written communication.
 LOSS IN TRANSMISSION
 Poor writing;

 Bad photo-copies;

 Time and distance - if telecom and network facilities are not

available;

 People working in different shifts;

 Faulty seating arrangement in the hall; etc.

 These barriers need just a little care to overcome

SEMANTIC BARRIERS
 Interpretation of words
 Most of the communication is carried on through
words, whether spoken or written.
 But words are capable of communicating a
variety of meanings.
 It is quite possible that the receiver does not
assign the same meaning to a word as the
transmitter had intended. This may lead to
miscommunication.
 E.g. 'run' has 71 meanings as a verb, 35 as a
noun, 4 more as an adjective.
 If this word occurs in a message, the receiver is
at liberty to interpret it in any of the 110 senses,
but if communication is to be perfect, he must
assign to it he same meaning as existed in the
sender's mind when he used it.
 SEMANTIC BARRIERS - EXAMPLE OF SAME WORD
HAVING DIFFERENT MEANINGS
 Trains are still running, despite the snow.
 A climbing rose bush runs (= grows) around the front door.

 The film runs (= lasts) for two hours.

 The show/course/film runs (= continues) for another week.

 A magazine subscription usually only runs (= can be

used) for one year.
 The truck's brakes failed and it ran (= went) off the road.

 Trains run on rails (= move along on top of them).

 A shiver of fear ran through his (body).

 She ran her finger along/down the page/list, looking for

her name.
 Could you run the tape/film/video back/forwards, please?

 Could you possibly run me (= take me

in your car) home/to the station?
SIGNIFICANCE OF SEMANTICS
 The following examples demonstrate the Significance of
Semantics :
 She hasn’t taken a shower.
 He was so tired he could sleep for days.
 In both of these examples, the context and pragmatic
meaning really define the sentence.
 In the first, did the speaker really mean to say that the
woman has not ever taken a shower, not even once?
Although the sentence says just that, the listener in the
conversation may understand, based on other factors, that
the speaker means that the woman they are referring to
has not taken a shower ... today.
 In the second example, we have a guy who is so tired he
can sleep for days. Is he really going to sleep for days?
Semantically, we would need to take that sentence to
mean exactly that. But, in casual conversation, the
listeners and speaker might tell you that the guy was just
saying he was really, really tired, and using those words to
convey that meaning, instead of saying, 'he was really
tired'.
OVER/UNDER COMMUNICATION
 Over Communication confuses the receiver, under
communication makes the receiver lose interest in the
message.

 The significance of the message will be lost in both the

cases.

 E.g. when all news channels display the same news,

the viewer will switch off his attention.

 In corporate, under communication of major policy

decisions or major happenings, create a feeling of
uneasiness among the employees.
‘I’ ATTITUDE
 In this the individual persons show their attitude or
behavior of each persons.

 In self centered attitude we pay attention to message

which is useful or related to us,-if it is not for us then we
do not pay enough attention to that message

 The person who is highly self centered is fails to build

good relation with others(here we cannot learn more)

 I Attitude as a barrier to communication may result from

personality conflicts, poor management, resistance to
change or a lack of motivation.
 PREJUDICES
 The act of excluding of disliking someone or something
because they belong to a particular group.

 Prejudice is a preconceived opinion of feeling, which is

usually irrational.

 Prejudice is very dangerous and has the potential to bring

animosity into the team and to break team spirit.

 The reason for a prejudice may be the speaker's race,

religion, age or appearance. A prejudiced person will not
make any effort to listen and understand.
 PREJUDICES

 Overcoming prejudice while listening:

 Respect the other person for his or her knowledge and skills,
irrespective of the person's background.

 Make conscious efforts to take charge of your thoughts.

 Consciously avoid taking an "I know what he or she is going to

say" attitude while the other person is speaking.
 Barriers to Communication

Poor Retention

Refutations and Inattentive

Arguments Listening

Receiver Oriented
Resistance to Tendency to
Barriers to
Change Evaluate
Communication

Differing
Interests and
Status and
Attitudes
Position

Conflicting
Information
POOR RETENTION
 Human memory has limited storage capacity and
any message that is extraordinarily long or
disjointed is likely to be lost.

 This is particularly the case with oral messages

which are lost due to poor human retention.

 There from arises the necessity to repeat the

message and use more than one medium to
communicate the same message
INATTENTIVE LISTENING
 While listening to somebody, we often
unconsciously remain inattentive when
the idea being transmitted is new and our
mind is not ready to accept it.
 Too many people are interested in talking, and
mostly talking about themselves. They are so
much involved, with themselves that they do not
have patience to listen.
 Inattentive listening accounts for incomplete
information and also poor retention.
 One may simply not get the desired result if this
keeps on happening
 TENDENCY TO EVALUATE
 We all have a natural urge to judge, evaluate, and approve
(or disapprove) another person’s statement
 Although making evaluations is common in almost all
conversation, this reaction is heightened in situations
where feelings and emotions are deeply involved.
 this impulse to evaluate any emotionally meaningful
statement from our own viewpoint may block interpersonal
communication.
 We can achieve real communication and avoid this
evaluative tendency when we listen with understanding.
This means seeing the expressed idea and attitude from the
other person’s point of view, sensing how it feels to the
person, achieving his or her frame of reference about the
subject being discussed.
INTERESTS AND ATTITUDES
 Our attitudes and interests impact the way we
respond to a person or a message transmitted by
that person.

 If the person/message is favourable to us we

respond positively

 But when it is not favourable to us, we react

negatively and disrupt communication.
CONFLICTING INFORMATION
 We can define conflict, as a process that begins
when one party perceives that another party has
negatively affected, or is about to negatively
affect, something that the first party cares about.
DIFFERING STATUS AND POSITION

 Being over-conscious of our higher or lower

status, we do not express ourselves openly and
thus block the proper transmission of a message.
RESISTANCE TO CHANGE
 Change occurs for many reasons such as new staff
roles; increases or decreases in funding; acquisition of
new technology; new missions, vision or goals; and to
reach new members or clients.

 Changes can create new opportunities, but are often

met with criticism from resistant individuals within
the group.
 For example, the culture of an organisation can be
a barrier to change.

 To minimize resistance an effective manager

will communicate clear objectives
REFUTATIONS AND ARGUMENTS

 Refutation is simply disproving an opposing

argument