BUS-202:

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

CHAPTER-01
Barriers to Communication

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 Barriers to communication
 If the information ,as it is present in the mind of sender,
transferred in to the mind of the receiver without any
change, then the communication is effective. Otherwise it is
ineffective.
 Miscommunication can happen at three
levels such as :
 At the level of the transmitter,
 At the level of the medium &

 At the level of the receiver.

 Anything that obstructs flow of communication is referred to as noise,

also called barriers to communication .
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Types of Barriers
 Process barriers.

 Personal barriers.

 Wrong choice of medium.

 Semantic barriers.

 Different comprehension of reality.

 Socio-psychological barriers.
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Process barriers

 Sender barrier.

 Encoding barrier.

 Message barrier .

 Medium barrier.

 Decoding barrier.

 Receiver barrier .

 Feedback barrier.
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Personal barriers
 The ability of a person to effectively communicate is a barrier. People
possess varying levels of communication skills. Thus, not every body can
communicate effectively and successfully.

 The way people process and interpret (read) information is a second

barrier. People use different frames of reference and experiences to
interpret the world around him.

 The level of interpersonal trust between people can either be a barrier or

enabler of effective communication.

 Stereotypes and prejudices are a fourth barrier. They can powerfully distort
what we perceive about others.

 Our egos is our fourth barrier. Egos can cause political battles, wars, credit
and resources. Egos influence how people treat each other as well as our
receptiveness to being influence by others.

 Poor listening skills are a sixth barrier.

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 1.Wrong choice of medium
We have various media for communication such as:

 Oral
 Written visual
 Audio visual
 Computer based etc

All those medias have their own usefulness and limitation. For that
every communication must be transferred through an appropriate
medium.

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 1.Wrong choice of medium
Example:
A production manager have to submit their total cost of
production. If he writes a paragraph of the information or
talks over the phone, he will fail to communicate anything.
He should present the figures in a tabular form or bar
diagram.

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2.Physical Barriers
A. Noise:
It is a common barrier of commutation. It is referred all
kinds of physical interference such as:

 illegible handwriting
 dirty copies of duplicated typescript,
 poor telephone commotions etc.

B. Time and Distance

Time & distance also act as barriers to the smooth flow of
communication. If telecommunication and network
facilities are not available, people working in remote area
may face problem in communicating.
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3.Semantic Barriers

Semantic barrier may occur when the transmitter and

receiver assign different meaning to the same words or
different words for the same meaning. Semantic barriers
may emerge from the following three sources:

a. Interpretation of words.
b. Bypassed instruction
c. Dentations and connotation

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3.Semantic Barriers

a. Interpretation of words: Miscommunication occurs

when the receiver of a message does not assign the same
meaning to a word as the transmitter , had intended.

b. Bypassed instruction: If occurs when the transmitter or

sender and receiver of the message attribute different
meaning of the same words or different words for the
same meaning.

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4. Different Comprehension of Reality

The reality of an object, an event, or a person is

different to different people. Reality is not a fixed
concept; it is complex, infinite and continually changing.
Barriers caused by different comprehensions of reality
are:

a. Abstracting
b. Slanting
c. Inferring

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4 (a). Abstracting

Abstracting means picking a few details and

leaving out others. Abstracting may be defined as
the process of focusing attention on some details
and omitting others. In numerous cases,
abstracting is both necessary and desirable, for it
may save us valuable time, space and money.

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 4 (b). Slanting

Slanting means giving a particular bias or slant to

the reality and slanting is similar to allness. In
allness, we know only a part and are ignorant of
the rest. In slanting we are aware of the existence
of other aspects, but we deliberately select a few
and make them representative of the whole.

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4 (C ). Inferring
Inferring means drawing inference from observation. It
indicate that we directly see, hear, feel, taste, smell or can
immediately verify and confirm constitutes a fact. But the
statements that go beyond facts and conclusions based
on facts are called inferences.

In business field also, it is essential to make such

inferences. Marketing specialists, advertisers, architects,
engineers, designers, are all required to draw inferences.
Being experts in their own fields, their inferences are even
accepted as legal evidence. But when non-experts draw
inferences without trying to verify facts, they get into
communication trouble.

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 5. Socio-Psychological Barriers
a) Attitude and Opinions
b) Emotions
c) Closed mind
d) Status-consciousness
e) Inattentiveness
f) Faulty transmission
g) Poor retention
h) Unsolicited Communication

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 5. Socio-Psychological Barriers

a Attitude and Opinions

Personal attitudes and opinions often act as barriers to effective
communication. If information agrees with our opinions and attitudes,
we tend to receive it favorably. But if information disagrees with our
views, we do not react favorably.

b. Emotions
If the sender is worried, excited, afraid, nervous, his thinking will be
blurred and he will not be able to organize his message properly and
this situation will be reflected in his message. Similarly, if the receiver
is angry, he will not take the message appropriately and it will affect
the communication process.

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 5. Socio-Psychological Barriers
c. Closed mind
Closed mind create difficulties to communicate with
others. Closed mind means the behavior or act of deeply
ingrained prejudices. It indicates that people hold their
opinions so rigidly that they just refuse to listen.

d. Status-consciousness
It means that people are over-conscious of their lower or
higher rank and they do not express candidly. It is exists
in every organization and is one of the major barriers to
effective communication.

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 5. Socio-Psychological Barriers

d. Inattentiveness

refers to the situation when unconsciously people become

inattentive and when the communication contains a new idea and
their mind refuses to respond it. New idea sometime resists to
change and the changing make the things uncertain and it causes
threatens security and stability.

e. Faulty transmission

It means in transmission process part of the message is lost. It

indicate that translation can never be perfect. In the process of
interpretation, simplification and translation, a part of the message
gets lost or distorted.
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 5. Socio-Psychological Barriers

f. Poor retention
Some times oral message is lost in particular area due to poor human
retention. It act as a barrier of communication.
For example- in an organization manager is a busy person. If an
employee communicate with him orally manager will be forget the
information. Studies shows that employees retain only about 50 percent
of the information communicated to them. For this reason the information
should be written.

g. Unsolicited communication
Unsolicited communication has to face stronger barriers than solicited
communication. We are unresponsive if the communication is unsolicited.
Suppose, Manager send a letter to advice his employees for maintaining
the new work routine for his organization. Then the employee will
response to it. If it is ordered for him may be he will refused to response.

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Suggestions For Effective Communication(7Cs)

1.Clarity: The first and most important things of effective business

writings are clarity. The message should be absolutely clear so that
it accomplishes the purpose for which it is being written. For the
clarity of writing, the following suggestions can be followed:

 Using simple and easy words

 Using single words for long phrase. For example-
 Long phrase (Avoid them) Single words (Use them)
 For example

At all times Always

At a later time Later

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2.Completeness: In a business writings,
completeness is necessary. Incomplete thought
irritates the reader. For completeness-
 See if you have answered all the questions.
 Check for 5 'W' questions - who, what, where,
when and why.
3.Conciseness: The reader's time is
valuable so it should be as brief as possible.
Brevity in expression effectively wins the
attention the reader.

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Suggestions Cont…

4. Concrete:
For the effectiveness of the business writings, only the concrete message
should be written.
Not Do
Significant amount 1,00,000
Good grade 4.88/A+

5. Consideration:
Consideration implies respect for the reader's point of view. The writer must show
consideration for the reader. This can be done in the following way-
 Adopting the own attitude in his message
 Avoiding gender bias
 Emphasis positive, pleasant facts.

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Suggestions Cont…

6.Courtesy:
Courtesy implies that we seek favors politely and
express our gratitude for the favors done to us. In
business we must create friendliness with all those to
whom we write. The following principles help to promote
courtesy:

 Answer the writing promptly

 Avoiding use of irritating expression
 Apologies sincerely for an omission

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Suggestions Cont…

7.Correctness:
Correctness implies the following things-
 Giving correct facts
 An at appropriate time
 In a suitable style.

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More Suggestions For Effective
Communication
 Specific purpose

 Study the listener

 Communication training

 Enhancing language knowledge

 Developing Interpersonal trust

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More Suggestions For Effective
Communication
 Listening.

 Motivation.

 Effective feedback.

 Democratic leadership.

 Artful presentation.

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 Thank You All
For
Attending The Session

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