Communication Barriers

Communication is something used every day in all facets of life. It can be seen as a complex process of conveying information between two or more individuals. In life and business, effective communication is an essential component of success. Poor communication can be disruptive to ongoing business operations by decreasing efficiency, increasing errors, impacting morale and undermining confidence of clients. Breakdowns in communication may occur when the Information sent and received is disrupted by barriers to communication. There are four key barriers to communication: process barriers, personal barriers, physical barriers and semantic barriers. In order to effectively address and overcome these barriers it is necessary to first understand them.

Process barriers occur when there is a breakdown in the multi-step process of communicating a message. In communication, a sender must first encode the information he wants to convey into a language, symbol, etc. to the receiver (recipient). The receiver must then be able to decode the message into something he can understand.

Physical barriers can range from the environment itself such as noise, poor seating arrangements/ poor visibility, temperature, and ineffective lighting or to issues impacting the individual participants in the communication such as ill health, confusion, hearing or sight deficits or discomfort. Additional physical barriers are created due to staff locations (located in different buildings) or by problems with equipment or technology.

Semantic barriers are created when the sender and the receiver of the message assign different meanings to the words. Words can have direct meanings (denotative) or implied meanings (connotations). Different languages, specialized terminology or different jargons are examples.

Personal barriers stem from the personal beliefs or viewpoints of an individual. Social class, education, gender and religious beliefs are all examples of personal barriers....