Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Business Communication Lecture 3 By David LIN

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Communication Barriers Week 2 Section 1

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Communication barriers  Barriers to communication A barrier is anything that gets in the way of clear communication between sender and receiver.  Barriers to communication can be physical emotional linguistic (or language-based) psychological gender culture

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Physical barriers  Tiredness  Hearing, sight or speech problems  Environment  Technical problems  Grammar, spelling, punctuation and sentence structure

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Emotional barriers  Expressing emotions  Not expressing emotions  Being defensive  Being negative  Being assertive  Conflict

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Linguistic (or language-based) barriers  Not knowing the language  The influence of one language on another  Accent  Idiom  Differing abilities with language  Tone  Jargon  Varying responses to the meaning of words

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Psychological barriers  Religion, politics and values  Personality  Experiences  Our confidence or lack of it  Feedback (or lack of it)  Power  Our psychological attitude to communication or preferred communication style

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Gender and culture  Gender relates to the sex we are (i.e. male or female) but has more to do with the roles, expectations and traditions that are associated with either sex  Culture has an enormous influence and impact on communication ‘Intercultural competence requires an ability to move beyond stereotypes and to respond to the individual’ (Lustig and Koester, 2003, p. 154).

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Technology as a barrier to communication  A lack of feedback and non-verbal cues  Polarisation  Generation gaps  Socio-economic grouping  Overcoming technological barriers to communication Flexibility and providing a range of options Following through on customer complaints or trying to find the source of their difficulties

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Impact of barriers  Barriers block understanding of messages in many different ways.  Barriers affect both sender and receiver.  Being aware of barriers can help avoid communication breakdown and limit the effect of problems in communication.  Removing barriers improves communication for all.  Barriers can cause organisations to lose business, customers and reputation.

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Strategies for overcoming barriers to communication  Strategies for overcoming barriers in encoding and decoding: Pay particular attention to choosing appropriate, simple and clear vocabulary.  Strategies for overcoming barriers in channels: Avoid technology and communicate face to face.  Strategies for overcoming barriers in perception: Ask questions and gain as much knowledge as possible about the other person.

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005 Strategies for overcoming barriers between organisations and clients  Communicate with clients regularly  Employ good customer service people in front-line positions  Hold regular meetings with clients  Know and use customers’ names  Ask their opinion about proposed changes  Remember their personal preferences

Communication: Organisation and Innovation Lecturer’s Guide © Pearson Education New Zealand 2005  Being aware of barriers to communication allows individuals and organisations to work to avoid communication breakdown.  Barriers can be physical, emotional, linguistic or psychological and can be based on gender and culture.  Technology can either facilitate communication or act as a barrier: sometimes it can do both at the same time.  Treating others as you would wish to be treated yourself, and acting ethically, openly and honestly can help foster positive communication.  Realising that change and compromise is essential helps avoid conflict and facilitate effective communication. Summary