Obstacles/Barriers in Communication

Barriers to Communication:

If the sender’s message does not reach the receiver as it is meant to, then there must be some barrier or hindrance. What can it be? And how to avoid such barriers?

Good organizers of communication need to anticipate the barriers and remove them. The barriers range from a poor microphone to an emotional attitude that rejects the message before it is received (e.g. a child unwilling to heed to reason unless its demand is fulfilled first).

For convenience of analysis, we may classify the barriers into five types:

I. Mechanical barriers

II. Physical barriers

III. Psychological barriers

IV. Semantic and language barriers

V. Status barriers

i. Mechanical barriers: Faulty mechanism:

A communication may not reach properly if the mechanism that carries it breaks down. To take an extreme case, if the computer typing has been done in devnagari, and while taking the printout the computer is in the Roman mode, not a single letter would be understood.

Similarly, if the mirror image of a letter is sent by some mechanical fault, it will be hard to decipher.

Some possible mechanical failures are:

(a) A weak microphone or poor sound spread (acoustics) of the meeting place

(b) Defective telephone lines

(c) Electricity/computer breakdown

(d) Poor printing quality or paper spread of ink, overlap of colours

(e) Atmospherics on radio or TV, especially in a cloudy weather

ii. Physical barriers: noise, space, time:

Sometimes background noise, whether in a face-to-face meeting or at either end of the telephone, reduces the audibility of the spoken word. Also, if the listener is too far from the speaker, he may not be able to hear him, in which case distance is the barrier. Similarly, the time taken for the message to reach its destination can become a barrier, e.g. a telegram delivered too late.

iii. Psychological barriers:

These are numerous and require greater effort to overcome:

(a) A person of weak hearing or eyesight cannot always receive the communication in full.

(b) The age of the listener puts its own limitations on his ability to receive messages. One may be too young or too old to understand certain things.

(c) A person’s educational level governs his understanding. Some background knowledge is required to understand certain messages.

(d) Where they understand faster boys are more outdoors oriented while girls tend to take a major interest in housework. A boy who is told to do a “girl’s” job may put up a psychological barrier.

(e) A wandering mind cannot fully gather the inputs given to it. While roving is a natural tendency of the mind and the attention span of a listener is limited, there may be other causes of inattention too. These may be visual or audio distractions – gaudy pictures or songs in the neighborhood.

(f) Ideological loyalties may form a barrier to communication. One may have a political party membership, a philosophical principle (like hedonism, i.e. devotion to sensory enjoyment), and a religious affiliation that has already bound the way one thinks. Such a person may not be receptive to the ideas counter to his ideology.

(g) Loyalty to a brand or an organisation is also a barrier. One who is loyal to a certain brand may not be receptive to a rival product’s add. One may not be receptive to the praises of an organisation other than one’s own, a team other than one’s countries, and so on.

(h) Emotional states of a person can act as barriers. If someone is in a fit of anger, he /she may not listen to reason. They may also find it difficult to communicate soberly with a person who has not contributed to his anger. There is a spillover effect – the emotion generated by one transaction spilling over into an unrelated transaction.

(i) One’s prejudices act as a hindrance to reason. A prejudice is a judgment formed without proper information. One may have a racial prejudice, a caste prejudice and so on. This is the opposite of an open mind. A liberal education is meant to remove irrational notions which stay on as prejudices.

(j) Personality limitations, too, put a barrier. These are similar to ideological barriers, as some personalities are naturally attracted to certain ideologies. However, personality variations are far too numerous.

One’s aspirations, viewpoints, analyses make one open or closed to certain messages. One bent on getting into a job for livelihood may not listen to the advantages of entrepreneurship.

(k) Fixed images about other people stand as barriers to see them in a new role. A comedian coming in as a hero of a film may not be acceptable to an audience which sees him typed in comedy roles.

(l) Poor retention power is a barrier. If one fails to take timely notes when instructions are given, hoping to remember them all, one has perhaps given away a part of the communication.

iv. Semantic and language barriers:

Semantics is the study of how words convey meanings. What happens if the speaker/writer means one thing and the listener/reader takes it in another meaning?

An advertiser offered to sell a “big, bad dog”. While the word “bad” is meant to convey its attacking power to guard a house, some readers may take it otherwise. The context changes the meaning of the word.

One has to ask, is the word conveyed in its proper context? Words are indeed so tricky to use that one can hardly ever convey the same thing to all receivers in given words.

The words generate different meanings in different minds, according to their previous associations and language levels. Literary texts, created by master writers and read by expert critics, are continually open to reinterpretations. Some of this conflict with one another.

Yet in business life, dealing with matter-of-fact situations, semantic barriers arise from the inability to read the receiver’s mind. If the sender knows the receiver’s level of understanding, fine.

If not, there is a barrier. A good communicator takes the trouble of removing all ambiguity and wrong coloring of words. As a receiver, he tries to read the words and between the lines.

Semantic barriers arise when:

(a) The sender’s experience with words differs from the receiver’s.

(b) Words from one environment are taken out and put into an environment where they don’t fit.

(c) Opinions are given as facts. “XYZ bike is the most reliable.”

(d) An abstract word is used (in order to be more general and safer) when a concrete word is required. One may want to say that students of a particular college are rowdy, but in order to avoid naming names, one may abstract and generalize, and put the blame on college students as a whole. Similarly, some young men may be impatient, but one might say “Youth is impatient.”

(e) Complex phrases and long constructions are used. Also, when idioms are meant to be understood in the idiomatic sense but are taken in the literal sense. E.g., dot you i s and cross your t s. This may even generate unintended humour.

As for language barriers (other than semantic barriers), we all experience how different regional groups, sometimes due to their previous language habits, distort English vowels.

Thus, “He is good at batting” may be changed to “He is good at betting”. Lack of proper language skills may lead to wrong choice of words, or of words with wrong associative values.

One hears people saying, “My boss’s behaviour is good,” whereas the proper thing to say way would be, “My boss’s treatment of his juniors is good.” But the rudeness may be unintended. Homonyms (words with the same sound) cause difficulty in understanding: there and there, ones and once.

Speakers with different accents find it hard to understand each other. The American accent is insufficiently understood in India while Americans may have a hard time making sense of Indianised English.

Inadequate vocabulary in a new language is a handicap to communication. Hence the praises of word power. Short of words, one may straightaway use a native language word in a foreign language: “Today I met an aamdaar “. What the speaker means is an MLA, but the listener may try to associate the word with a mango and get nowhere.

Symbols (non-verbal) create the same problems as languages. The swastik is revered by Hindus but the reverse swastik was a Nazi symbol.

Poor organisation of one’s speech and a harsh voice may also act as barriers. In writing, long paragraphs are out of fashion. They are hard to read. Clusters of big words put a barricade to speed reading.

v. Status barriers:

This again is a kind of psychological barrier, where the higher or lower social status of the other party disables one from expressing one’s meaning fully. A modest farmer, asked to express his problems to a high-ranking official or politician, may feel nervous or ill at ease.

Status symbols (e.g. luxury of the surroundings) may halt communication. A candidate from a modest background may be awestruck to see the glitz and glamour of a multinational company where he has to appear for an interview.

Cultural barriers are a special case of collective psychological barriers. A culture brings its own habits, modes of dressing, greeting, eating, food preferences etc. Most people have an element of xenophobia (fear or aversion of foreigners).

Time magazine once commented sharply on American businessmen’s need to allow for differences between American culture and Oriental culture. Only then would they be able to do business with eastern countries.

This advice can, in fact, be universalized. Media power which the English speaking countries enjoy tends to give them a false sense of universal acceptability of their culture. In Indian business, it is a grassroots reality that Indian words and Indianisms are freely used. Exposed to native speakers of English, Indian businessmen are often at a loss.

Resistance to the written word exists as a barrier. The written word demands a commitment. People prefer to listen (if possible in their regional language) and act. Letters remain unreplied while personal visits or telephone calls server the purpose.

How to remove communication barriers:

Resistance to the written word exists as a barrier. The written word demands a commitment. People prefer to listen (if possible in their regional language) and act. Letters remain unreplied while personal visits or telephone calls serve the purpose.

A proper understanding of the nature of barriers helps us to arrive at a solution. All the same, good communicators have to form a new set of general habits and recognize the potential barriers in order to put their meaning across.

(i) Good listening:

“Listening as a Tool of Communication.” In brief, deep and comprehensive listening helps to overcome barriers. One has to listen to the words as well as the tone. An overworked employee may say, “I’ll do it” with just a little touch of despair. The boss needs to show understanding.

One may develop a better listening capacity by systematically testing oneself on listening comprehension. TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) is meant to find out, among other things, how well one listens.

(ii) Practice in simplifying and clarifying one’s message:

Writers are known to rewrite their text several times to achieve clarity, precision and beauty. Hence regular writing is advisable. The art of writing, says an expert, is the art of rewriting.

(iii) Obtain feedback, analyze it and respond:

Advertisements are often tested for their pulling power. A slight rearrangement of words or font or layout can make an ad more appealing.

(iv) Repetition:

Repetition of a message through multiple channels helps to remove barriers which may exist at the first appearance of an idea. Thus one removes the resistance to the new.

(v) Ambience:

Find the receiver in a receptive mood and ambience. If the audience is, for instance, given more comfortable chairs, it may digest a speech better.

(vi) Actions speak louder than words:

If the communicator’s sincerity is shown through his actions, people go out to listen to him.

(vii) Cross-cultural get-togethers:

A systematic effort to bring together people of different cultures goes to increase receptivity. Also, respect for their cultural icons makes the message welcome.

(viii) Informality is useful:

If the rank and file in an organisation are in awe of the superior (due to his position, education, dress, quality of visitors, excellence in speech, etc.) such a manager may step out of his cabin and go out to the juniors.