Barriers of Communication

How often have you faced the brunt of a miscommunication and wondered where this actually stems from? Have you ever felt that communication was clear from your end but external factors made the message unclear to the recipient? If you have ever cursed yourself saying that had you been aware of the external forces in action, you would have been careful to ensure that the message reaches the recipient in the intended manner, then this is the perfect place where you can learn about all the barriers and prevent a miscommunication in future. Broadly, there are five types of barriers, namely Language barriers, Physical barriers, Psychological barriers, Organisational barriers and Cross-cultural barriers.

Language / Linguistic Barriers: For effective communication to take place, one of the foremost requirements for both the parties involved is to share a common language. It is very easy to mis-communicate or send wrong signals through a communication which relies primarily on actions or gestures, unless, both the parties are adept are understanding and deciphering actions of people from different cultural backgrounds.

Physical Barriers: Physical barriers are also known as environmental barriers. As the name suggests, any physical obstruction in between the sender and the receiver of message can cause a barrier in their communication. Barrier of space or time may also be included under the broad category of physical barriers. Barrier of space refers to a huge distance between the two parties involved and barrier of time refers to time limitations on the part of the sender or receiver or both.

Psychological Barriers: This barrier refers to the various mental barriers that prevent a communication from being wholesome and effective. Superiority or inferiority complex, hot-headedness, snap reaction, bias or prejudice are all examples of various psychological barriers. These barriers prevent a person from giving all to the communication process and thereby causes gaps or ambiguity in the message which further leads to barriers.

Organisational Barriers: This refers to a specific kind of barrier arising in a business environment where certain rules and regulations or complexity in the organisational structure or individual differences of opinions cause a barrier in communication. An employee with a ground-breaking idea on boosting the company sales failing to deliver his strategy to the top level management due to a complex hierarchical structure and thus never being recognized for his efforts is an example of an organisational barrier in communication.

Cross-cultural Barrier: This refers to a certain barrier in communication which arises due to a limited knowledge of different cultures. Two people with two widely different cultures will often find it difficult to understand each others' actions or phrases. This is an example of cross-cultural barrier.

The following is a beautiful video on how to overcome barriers in communication very briefly

Stay tuned for a detailed discussion on different modes and methods of communication.