Barriers to effective communication that a manager faces

Communication and its barriers

Managers often run into trouble because communication breaks down. A barrier may stop a message altogether, let only part of it through, or change its meaning, and misunderstanding follows; a manager therefore has to recognise these barriers and take steps to overcome them. The study text groups them under four heads: semantic, psychological, organisational and personal. They are taken here in the order in which a manager usually meets them, starting with the organisation itself.

Organisational barriers

These arise from the structure, authority relations, rules and regulations of the organisation.

• A complex structure. Where there are many managerial levels, messages are delayed and distorted because they pass through many filtering points; layers of supervision, staff specialists and a long chain of command are a major barrier.
• Status. A superior's status can create psychological distance from subordinates, and a status-conscious manager may not let them speak freely.
• Rigid rules. Rigid rules and cumbersome procedures obstruct communication, and insisting on the prescribed channel can cause delay.
• Poor facilities. Without facilities such as regular meetings, suggestion and complaint boxes and openness in operations, free flow of communication suffers.
• Unsupportive policy. If the organisation's policy does not favour free communication, as in a highly centralised firm, people may not be encouraged to speak openly.

Personal barriers

These are the personal factors of the sender and the receiver.

• No incentive to communicate. If a good suggestion earns no reward or appreciation, subordinates may not bother to offer one.
• Unwillingness. Subordinates may hold back from talking to superiors if they think it may harm their interests; they may also hide facts or mislead for fear of the consequences.
• Fear for authority. A superior who thinks a message may weaken his authority may hold it back or suppress it.
• Lack of confidence in subordinates. Superiors who doubt their subordinates' competence may not ask for their views.

Semantic barriers

These concern the meaning of words and arise in encoding and decoding a message.

• Technical jargon. Specialists use terms that non-specialists do not understand. An IT project lead who briefs a client's accounts staff in programming terms leaves them unsure of what was agreed.
• Faulty translation. A message drafted in one language and translated by someone who does not know both languages well can carry a different meaning. A supervisor in a Surat textile mill who reads a careless Gujarati version of an English circular may then act on the wrong instruction.
• Badly expressed messages. Poor vocabulary, wrong words or missing words can stop the intended meaning getting across.
• Body language. If gestures and body movement do not match what is said, the message may be misread.
• Words with several meanings, and unclarified assumptions. The receiver may pick a different meaning of a word, or read an instruction on an assumption the sender never stated.

Psychological barriers

The state of mind of sender and receiver shapes how a message is understood; a worried or angry person cannot communicate or understand properly.

• Distrust. Where the two parties do not believe each other, they cannot grasp each other's message in its intended sense.
• Inattention. A preoccupied receiver does not really listen, as when a boss busy with a file misses what an employee is saying.
• Premature evaluation. People judge a message before the sender has finished it.
• Loss in transmission. Messages lose accuracy as they pass through successive levels, especially orally, and people forget what they have not attended to.

Conclusion

Such barriers exist in every organisation to some degree. A manager reduces them by inviting feedback, adapting the message to the receiver's level of understanding and clarifying his own ideas before speaking, so that what is received is what was meant.