1

1.

INSUFFICIENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECT

It is always a great idea, should you wish to discuss a particular topic with someone thatresearch on that topic should be done in advance.

One of the most common barriers to successful communication is an insufficient knowledge of the subject at hand.

If you as the sender do not fully understand what youre trying to convey, then the message you send will be distorted and incomplete. Thus the receiver will not understand your message and will draw a conclusion that is incongruent with what you originally wanted to transmit.

Employees who represent their organizations at conferences and general meetings, etc. should understand that it is of paramount importance to carry a clear message that is not obtuse or distorted.Your organizations reputation depends upon it.

Effective communication cannot take place if one party does not have the necessary tools to communicate, in this case, knowledge.

This barrier can be turned into an effective communication tool if you admit to not having sufficient knowledge of a particular topic. Thus you can speak (communicate) with someone who does.

2.

SELECTIVE HEARING

A truly, remarkable phenomenon, selective hearing, is a fundamental barrier to successful communication. Selective Hearing, in its rudimentary form is merely a way of listening to what we want to hear and bypassing that which we dont.

Regardless of what message the sender is transmitting, the selective listener will only hear that which is within his own personal frame of listening. Selective listeners do not listen for understanding but rather to gain what he/she wants to attain.

Selective listeners are never good communicators because even though they are part of two way conversation, they only ever pay attention to what they want as the outcome.

Selective hearing can be overcome by understanding that everyone has a different opinion and approach. Listen to understand rather than ignoring what you do not agree with.

3.

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS

Our individual emotions and feelings are not given enough weight as a barrier to successful communication.

The philosophy of putting it away for another day speaks of putting aside your emotional upheavals and concentrating on the job at hand. If that job is linked to some form of communication then the sender/receiver has to disregard his/her personal feelings and get on with the job.

Disregarding your personal feelings is a difficult task and may lead to the sender/receiver becoming distracted and sometimes unresponsive while communicating.

This psychological barrier can be dangerous in that the person bearing the emotional burden can often be misunderstood as someone who is difficult to work with and also as someone who is not a good communicator. This may not necessarily be true as even brilliant communicators are sometimes affected by emotional burdens.

Psychological Barriers can be overcome by communicating your burdens with someone you trust. Retaining all these negative feelings will eventually have an adverse effect on your work.

4.

CULTURAL BARRIERS

Definition of the word Culture: Derived from the Latin word Cultura: An integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior that depends upon the capacity for symbolic thought and social learning1.

South Africa is classified as a multicultural and diverse nation due to the many cultures, race groups, religions and gender groups that make up our country. For instance, y As a result of the apartheid era the citizens of this land had little or no exposure to the many different cultures we were surrounded by and similarly not being able to understand them.

The introduction of controversial same sex unions/partnerships within the Gay and Lesbian communities have introduced an entire new culture unheard of in days gone by.

The challenges of interacting and communicating with these new cultures now become evident. We need to familiarize ourselves with these diversities in order to effectively communicate with people from various cultural backgrounds.

Some ways of trying to bridge the cultural gap are as follows: Be sensitive towards other cultures Seem interested and make the person know that you want to no more about his/her culture. Have a calm and ethical outlook towards the subject. Be appreciative and identify how culture influences the way we communicate. Do not allow prejudice toward his or her cultures cloud your communication channel.

Wikipedia free online dictionary

5.

STRESS BARRIERS

Stress can be seen as a psychological, physical or mental event experienced by employees and is a major communication barrier in any organization.

The difficulty in trying to communicate with people under extreme stress has the power to distort the communication process rendering the sender unable to communicate his/her point effectively and vice versa rendering the receiver unable to understand/decode the message.

Recognition of such anomalies is often evident in non verbal messages, IE body language.

y -

Factors contributing to stress:

Work overload (mental strain): Various functions added onto job description and multi tasking

Financial restriction and Job security: The fear of being retrenched and current world economic situation having a negative impact on day to day functions, rising costs and inflation rates are also major contributing factors to stress.

Culture clash within an organization: People from different/opposing backgrounds in the same environment

Interpersonal conflicts: Personal conflicts amongst colleagues. Domestic issues: Issues pertaining to ones social and family life.

6.

LACK OF BASIC COMMUNICATION SKILLS

If the sender of the message has difficulty sending a message due to not knowing the correct phrases to use or how to put words into a sentence so that it is clear, the receiver might interpret the message incorrectly.

For example: You are a patient in a hospital and you have to sign a consent form to allow medical staff to operate.There are not many people who actually understand what they are signing and what they are allowing the medics to do.Some doctors do not always explain to their patients, in laymans terms what it is, the procedure is about. Patients almost never ask medical staff to explain in a simplermanner because they are either in too much discomfort or they dont want to seem ignorant. The assurance that patients fully understand the informationgiven to them before they sign the consent form for medical procedures is almost never been validated by medical staff. If we had to do a survey of the number of people who do not fully understand medical terms and procedure, the list would be enormous.

7.

LANGUAGE BARRIERS

Communications breakdown. Misunderstanding. It happens all the time, but why? Sometimes the cause is obvious. We all understand that if I am speaking English and you are speaking Zulu, we will not be able to communicate except at the most basic level.

We understand that even if we both speak English, but I am Afrikaans and you are Zulu, we will have moments of misunderstanding because of cultural differences that assign different words to different things or assign different meaning to similar phrases.

If I am woman and you are a man, we may experience miscommunications because of sexrelated differences in our communications styles.

But, there is another source of communications breakdown which can occur between people who speak the same language, are from the same culture, and may even be of the same sex. This has to do with our behavioral preference for either judging or perceiving.

To utilize information we have to do two things with it. First we must perceive it; that is take it in through one or more of our five senses and through intuitive processes. Then we must judge that information and decide what we think of it or what to do with it. These are two distinctly separate processes and each can be applied separately.

Although everybody both perceives and judges, our language reflects which of these processes we prefer. And the differences between perceiving language and judging language, though subtle, can lead to miscommunications, endless rounds of argument, and frustration each person thinking he/she is being perfectly clear.

8.

EMOTIONAL INTERFERENCES

In the emotional barrier there is a possibility that when you receive a message you are emotionally blocked and cannot interpret the meaning of a specific message. This breakdown in communication can occur with the sender or the receiver or both.

When a person is mentally blocked it may due to some factors like personal worries or family problems by which the major attention is not on the message but on these factors. Many thoughts are now floating through his/her mind and therefore cannot interpret the things accordingly.

Emotions are a lot more difficult to deal with than lack of knowledge. You cant control apersons feelings, and trying to do so might make things worse.

Learn to sense peoples moods so you will know exactly when the best time is to talk to them. If the person you intend to communicate with looks stressed with work, try not to burden him/her with the same discussion.

To overcome emotional barriers, one must be aware of the feelings that arise in themselves are also experienced by others and that successful communication can only occur once these emotions are in place.

9.

CONFLICTING MESSAGES

Verbal and nonverbal messages within the communication process can sometimes send opposing or conflicting messages.

A person verbally expressing a statement of truth while simultaneously fidgeting or avoiding eye contact may convey a mixed message to the receiver. The receiver will be skeptical of the source and will be confused as to the reliability and importance of the message being conveyed.

When mixed messages occur, a good way to attain additional information to clarify the situation is to use nonverbal communication. Great attention is placed on bodily movements and posture when people receive mixed messages during the communication process.

People are individuals and have different ideas, thoughts and understanding of messages. This gives rise to unclear and conflicting messages and this results in the breakdown of the communication process.

10

10. PHYSICAL BARRIERS

Physical distractions are often due to the nature of the environment. Thus for example, the natural barrier which exists if staff are located in different buildings or on different sites.

Likewise poor or outdated Equipment, particularly the failure of management to introduce new technology, may cause problems.

Distractions like background noise, poor lighting or an environment which is too hot or too cold can all affect peoples morale and concentration, which in turn interferes with effective communication.

Physical barriers includes:

Environmental disturbances like traffic noise, loud air conditioners, etc. can severely interfere with your thought pattern whilst communicating.

Different time zones can hinder communication in that important messages cannot be received immediately.

Personal problems of health and sicknesses like flus and colds can render a person unable to communicate effectively.

Poor presentation due to physical disabilities like stammering, lisping and hearing defects affect the transmission of information.

Your environment should be an important ingredient to effective communication in that physical distractions and barriers should be limited whenever possible.