Barriers To Effective Communication In Your Organization 5m5z1m

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 istration (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 ..........................................................................................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 ...............................................................................................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 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 . 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 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 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 has no substitutes to make communication perfect and effective. In the absence of , 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 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 its 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 what to do, how to do, etc. It acts as a guide to the 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) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) i)

Stop talking Put the talker at ease Show a talker that you want to listen Remove distractions Empathize with talkers Be patient Hold your temper Go easy on argument and criticism 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 ed 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 According to systems theory communication is complete only when the sender receives from the receiver. 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 is an important element in effective two-way communication, necessary steps should be taken to elicit receiver’s . 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 , 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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