1. Communication Skills
Week 3

2. Outline Barriers to Effective Communication Culture Styles
Encoding Barriers
Transmitting Barriers
Culture Styles
High – Context
Low – Context

3. Barriers to Effective Communication
Recognizing the barriers to effective communication is first step towards improving communication style. 
These barriers can be classified into two categories:
Encoding Barriers
Transmitting Barriers

4. Encoding Barriers
The process of selecting and organizing symbols to represent a message requires skill and knowledge. 
Obstacles can interfere with creation of an effective message.

5. 1. Lack of Sensitivity to Receiver
A breakdown in communication may result when a message is not adapted to its receiver. 
Recognizing the receiver’s needs, status, knowledge of the subject, and language skills assists the sender in preparing a successful message. 
If a customer is angry, for example, an effective response may be just to listen to the person vent for awhile. 

6. 2. Lack of Basic Communication Skills
The receiver is less likely to understand the message
if the sender has trouble in choosing the precise words needed
and arranging those words in a grammatically-correct sentence. 

7. 3. Insufficient Knowledge of the Subject
If the sender lacks specific information about something, the receiver will likely receive an unclear or mixed message. 
Have you shopped for an item such as a computer, and experienced how some salespeople can explain complicated terms and ideas in a simple way? And others cannot.

8. 4. Information Overload
If you receive a message with too much information, it may tend to put up a barrier
because the amount of information is coming so fast that you may have difficulty in comfortably interpreting that information. 
If you are selling an item with twenty-five terrific features, pick two or three important features to emphasize instead of overwhelming your receiver with an information avalanche.

9. 5. Emotional Interference
An emotional individual may not be able to communicate well. 
If someone is angry, hostile, resentful, joyful, or fearful, that person may be too preoccupied with emotions to receive the intended message. 
If you don’t like someone, for example, you may have trouble “hearing” them.

10. Transmitting Barriers
Things that get in the way of message transmission are sometimes called “noise.” 
Communication may be difficult because of noise and some of these problems.

11. 1. Physical Distractions
A bad cellular phone line or a noisy restaurant can destroy communication. 
If an message or letter is not formatted properly,
or if it contains grammatical and spelling errors,
the receiver may not be able to concentrate on the message because the physical appearance of the letter or is unprofessional.

12. 2. Conflicting Messages
Messages that cause a conflict in perception for the receiver may result in incomplete communication. 
For example, if a person constantly uses jargon or slang  to communicate with someone from another country who has never heard such expressions, mixed messages are sure to result. 

13. 3. Channel Barriers
If the sender chooses an inappropriate channel of communication, communication may cease. 
Detailed instructions presented over the telephone, for example, may be frustrating for both communicators. 
If you are on a computer technical support help line discussing a problem, it would be helpful for you to be sitting in front of a computer, as opposed to taking notes from the support staff and then returning to your computer station.

14. 3. Channel Barriers
If the sender chooses an inappropriate channel of communication, communication may cease. 
Detailed instructions presented over the telephone, for example, may be frustrating for both communicators. 
If you are on a computer technical support help line discussing a problem, it would be helpful for you to be sitting in front of a computer, as opposed to taking notes from the support staff and then returning to your computer station.

15. Culture Styles and Communication
Anthropologist Edward T. Hall’s theory of high- and low-context culture helps us better understand the powerful effect culture has on communication. 
A key factor in his theory is context. 
This relates to the framework, background, and surrounding circumstances in which communication or an event takes place.

16. High – Context Cultures
High-context cultures (including much of the Middle East, Asia, Africa, and South America) are relational, collectivist, intuitive, and contemplative. 
This means that people in these cultures emphasize on interpersonal relationships. 
Developing trust is an important first step to any business transaction.

17. High – Context Cultures
According to Hall, these cultures are collectivist, preferring group harmony and consensus to individual achievement. 
And people in these cultures are less governed by reason than by intuition or feelings. 
Words are not so important as context, which might include the speaker’s tone of voice, facial expression, gestures, posture—and even the person’s family history and status. 

18. High – Context Cultures
High-context communication tends to be more indirect and more formal. 
Flowery language,
humility,
and elaborate apologies are typical.

19. Low – Context Cultures
Low-context cultures (including North America and much of Western Europe) are logical, linear, individualistic, and action-oriented.
People from low-context cultures value logic, facts, and directness. 
Solving a problem means lining up the facts and evaluating one after another.

20. Low – Context Cultures
Decisions are based on fact rather than intuition. 
Discussions end with actions. 
And communicators are expected to be straightforward, concise, and efficient in telling what action is expected.
To be absolutely clear, they strive to use precise words and intend them to be taken literally.  

21. Low – Context Cultures
This is very different from communicators in high-context cultures who depend less on language precision and legal documents. 
High-context business people may even distrust contracts and be offended by the lack of trust they suggest.

22. Let’s Summarize Barriers to Effective Communication Culture Styles
Encoding Barriers
Transmitting Barriers
Culture Styles
High – Context
Low – Context