Barriers to effective communication in a business environmnet

 

Barriers to effective communication

Communication is a process of transmitting, and understanding of information. A communication can be effective only when the receiver understands the exact information that the sender is willing to convey. 

An effective communication should increase commitment in managers, and employees, should reduce misunderstanding in the organizational structure, should help them achieve the organizational goals efficiently. 

There could be various barriers that obstruct an effective communication. A barrier can arise in any element of the communicational process, they provide the organization an opportunity to become more effective with the communicational process. 

Information being filtered, the receiver being emotionally unstable while receiving the information, excessive information, defensiveness, language, and cultural barricades in the working environment, lack of feedbacks from the receiver, physical disabilities, lack of technological knowledge are some of the barriers for an effective communicational cycle.

Information being filtered: The information being edited according to what a receiver would like to hear is known as filtering and this can reduce the accuracy of the information.

Examples- A customer representative informing the manager about the positive feedbacks of the customers without conveying the negative feedbacks received. This can lead a manger in making irrelevant future decisions. Using written media such as emails to collect customer feedbacks, recording the calls of the customers are ways of overcoming the issue.

The receiver being emotionally unstable while receiving the information: The psychological state of the receiver can impact in the ability of grasping the information effectively. 

Example- A manager who is upset over a personal issue can misinterpret the information, can make unsuitable decisions. A manager practicing to control emotions can help the manager overcome this obstacle

Excessive information: Over loading the information that a manager will face difficulty in controlling the situation is known as excess of information. This situation would become a disadvantage to the organization as the manager would not be able to handle the information wisely. 

Language, and cultural barriers: Employees speaking a variety of language, following different cultural practices can be a serious issue in a business environment as it is hard for managers, co-workers to interact with each other. 

example-A foreign employee who works in a Chinese company in China faces the difficulty of understanding, interacting with managers, colleagues as most of the people speak their native language. In such instance, the usage of English which is a common language can be beneficial to the employee to communicate with everyone.

Lack of feedbacks from the receiver: Feedback are sources for improving the communicational process. Lacking feedbacks do not support the senders to increase the efficiency of their communicational skills.

Lack of technological knowledge: The sender, receiver should be knowledgeable about the fast-developing technology as it is easy to communicate through modern technology.

Example-An employee not being able to use the online platform to communicate will have faced difficulties during the pandemic crisis where all the business activities were conducted through the usage of technology.