Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.1
- Gerald R. Ford, former United States President
As we constantly need to communicate with others to do anything, the ability to communicate effectively is essential. However, many things stand in the way of effective and proper communication. These are called communication barriers.
If you have ever wondered why you have difficulties communicating with others, this article is for you. Keep reading to learn more about the types of barriers you might encounter and how to overcome them.
Communication Barriers Definition
Let's start this explanation by clearly defining what communication is, the types of communication and what communication barriers are.
Communication is an exchange of information.
It's a simple definition, yet communication is one of the most important things we do daily. We use various channels to communicate with others:
Oral communication: whether we talk to someone, give a speech, or even listen to the radio, we use verbal communication. It is one of the first channels that come to mind when discussing communication.
Written communication: when we write an email, a text, or when reading a book or a post on social media, we use written language to communicate information.
Non-verbal communication: this one is less obvious, but we all communicate through our body language. We sweat when we are hot; we nervously play with our car keys when we are in a hurry; our pupils are dilated when we fall in love. All those body queues give away information and are a type of communication channel.
Visual communication: some pictures or icons can give us important information. We can understand the speed limit, the direction of the nearest toilet, and the poison logo on a detergent bottle. Those are all examples of communication through the visual channel.2
Communication barriers are anything that comes in the way of clearly sending or receiving a message.
In other words, communication barriers could be anything that goes in the way of one of the communication channels we have seen earlier.
Communication Barriers Types
Communication barriers can get in the path of effective communication in various ways. Here are some of the most common communication barrier types you can come across:
Language barriers: one of the most noticeable communication barriers. When people don't have a common language, they can't communicate properly. Even if there is a common language between two people, sometimes the difference in language understanding or even a regional accent could be a barrier to effective communication.
Psychological barriers: people can have psychological blocks or issues that can negatively affect communication.
Emotional barrier: people can have negative emotions or complicated relations with someone else, which can negatively affect communication.
Physiological barriers: when people have physical traits that make communicating more complicated: such as if someone cannot articulate properly, stutters, or has a throat disease.
Physical barriers: the most visible communication barriers are, of course, the physical ones. When people are physically separate from one another: if they are in another room, are miles away, or have something obstructing their view.
Perceptual barriers: this is about how people perceive the world; it's about their own bias that distorts reality and the way they perceive communication.
Cultural barriers: people coming from different cultures have different perceptions, ideologies, and values. They often have less in common with someone from another part of the world. Those differences can affect their communication.
Gender barriers: it has been proved that men and women tend to communicate differently, which affects their communication and understanding.
Technological barriers: although it might be easier to communicate with someone on the other side of the planet, thanks to new technologies, it's not easy for everyone, and people can struggle with them.
Interpersonal barriers: related to the relationship you have with the person you are communicating with. You cannot talk to your manager like your best friend or child.
Communication Barriers Examples
There are various examples of communication barriers:
- Filtering: when someone purposely manipulates information so that the receiver believes something else.
- Selective perception: when someone selects only certain pieces of information and ignores other information.
- Information overload: people have a limited amount of information they can process, and when they receive too much, they might filter a significant part of it and, therefore, forget some essential elements.
- Emotions: people can perceive things differently according to their emotions, such as anger, stress, sadness, etc.
- Silence: although it might be seen as an absence of communication, in some cases, it can also be perceived as a communication barrier when people purposely ignore or avoid a specific topic.
- Lying: another barrier to effective communication is, of course, when people are purposely not telling the truth.
Let's imagine you start a new position in a company as a worker in a chemical factory. You spend an entire day receiving information on all aspects of the company, your tasks, and what other people do. The next day you are working and are already handling dangerous chemical products. Although you received a 2 hours safety training the day before, you only remember some of the processes and essential information you have received as you have learned so many new things at once. Unfortunately, you forgot some crucial steps in your safety procedure and made a terrible mistake that injured someone.
As you can see, communication barriers can cause irreparable damage. In this case, people filtered some of the information they received and didn't remember all the crucial elements. Therefore, the organization should have given their training in several sessions to ensure that people understood and remembered all the essential information.
Effect of Communication Barriers
Miscommunication and communication barriers can negatively affect an organization in many ways:
The first people those barriers can affect are the employees themselves. As they miscommunicate, they might not get along, go against each other, create destructive office politics, etc.
Miscommunication between people can directly affect production and customer service.
For example, if managers communicate production methods poorly with new employees, they might make mistakes. Similarly, if there is a miscommunication in the production process, an error can be made, and the product might fail.
The safety of the employee can be threatened as well. Poor communication over safety measures can have catastrophic consequences that might even result in people's accidental injury or death.
In other words, communication barriers can affect the company at every level and might even threaten the company's mission and vision over the long term.
Process Communication Barriers
There are two ways to overcome communication barriers:
Specific: where you target individual communication barriers and find an appropriate solution for each one.
General: where you encourage a different organization's culture that is more patient and focuses on those issues.
Ideally, you would do both simultaneously to ensure the best result.
Specific
The first step to overcoming communication barriers is to recognize that there are communication barriers in your organization. You must determine the specific communication barrier causing problems in your organization.
As we have seen earlier, there are different types of communication barriers; therefore, there is not one solution that can solve all the problems. Instead, the organization must implement different solutions for each type of barrier.
For example, if there is a language barrier between two people, bringing their offices closer wouldn't be an appropriate solution, as it is a solution to solve a physical barrier problem.
General
When finding solutions to communication barriers, you can implement a new company culture that will work towards solving those issues. For example, promoting a culture where everyone is more patient and listens more to one another will help solve communication barriers.
You can also help the situation by giving classes and training on effective communication and creating systems and tools to help employees solve those issues.
Communication barriers can threaten the proper flow of communication, which can have dramatic consequences. However, as there are different communication channels and barriers, there isn't one specific solution to correctly solve all communication issues. Instead, organizations must implement specific solutions targeting particular issues and general solutions targeting the overall communication process to help an organization communicate properly.
Communication Barriers - Key takeaways
References
- 35 Quotes About Communication for Inspiring Team Collaboration. 05/05/2022. https://vibe.us/blog/35-quotes-about-communication/
- Fraser Sherman. How Can Communication Barriers Affect Organizations? 04/11/2020. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-communication-barriers-affect-organizations-14389.html
- TOPPR. Barriers in communication. https://www.toppr.com/guides/business-correspondence-and-reporting/communication/barriers-in-communication/
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