Lecture notes for barriers to communication

1. BARRIERS
TO
COMMUNICATION
What do barriers to
communication mean?

2. BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION
Meaning:
•Limitations or
•Obstacles or
•Blockage or
•Destructions that hinder
communication

3. Barriers Cont’d…
1. Poor Language
inappropriate language produced
by the speaker or writer.
Causes:
•Poor grammar & lack of enough
vocabulary.

4. Poor Language Cont’d…
•Deformation in speech organs.
•Brain injury.
•Poor organization of thoughts.
•Use of jargons.

5. Barriers – Poor Language Cont’d…
To the Business Communication
The Causes:
• Academic arrogance
• Abuse of power
• Incompetence
• Age and gender
complexities
• Socio-economic
backgrounds
• Culture
• Lack of Experience
• Lack of Exposure

6. Barriers Cont’d…
2. Semantic barrier
It’s all about meaning & logic.
Causes:
•Lack of enough knowledge in language.
•Production of illogical statements.
•Lack of knowledge in the subject matter.

7. Barriers Cont…
2. Poor Comprehension
•Inability to recognize comm. codes.
Causes:
•Lack of exposure to the codes.
•Complexity of some codes.
•Complex messages.

8. Barriers Cont…
3. Poor Coordination:
Inability to correlate / associate.
communication code with the.
represented object or idea.

9. Barriers Cont…
Causes:
•lack of knowledge in concept formation.
•Low intellectual power to discriminate
objects or ideas from many others.
•Sophistication of objects or idea in
relation to the code.

10. Barriers Cont’d…
4. Poor Perception
•Inability to note something or
•Failure to interpret something.
•Failure to see, hear or understand.
so as to gain insight - (five senses).

11. Barriers Cont…
Causes:
a) Low intellectual ability.
b) Inefficiency in sensory doors.
c) Lack of experience with what
is expected to be perceived.

12. Barriers Cont’d…
5. Wrong Choice of Medium or
channel
Each of the following media should
be used according to the purpose.

13. Wrong Choice of Medium or channel Cont’d…
Media:
•Writing (letters, books, news
papers)
•Speech,
•Signs & symbols

14. Barriers Cont’d…
•The language
•Combination of sounds
and signs (audio-visual)
•Touch

15. Wrong Choice of Medium or channel Cont’d…
•Radio
•TV
•Computer & the Internet

16. Barriers Cont’d…
6. Physical Barriers
Destructions caused by:
•Noise
•Appearance

17. Physical Barriers Cont’d…
•Smell
•Presence of individuals
(disturbance)
•Movements

18. Barriers Cont…
7. Socio-psychological Barriers
They include:
a) Attitudes & Opinions
(consider a belief in having many
children as prestige & security and
the family planning education).

19. Barriers Cont’d…
b) Emotions (strong feelings) In form of:
worries, excitement, anger, anxiety,
tension, etc.
•Communicators may be influenced by
such states being reflected in the
message.

20. Barriers Cont…
c) Closed mind
Because of:
•A know-it all attitude (much know
persons)
•Ingrained prejudice (deeply fixed
tendencies)

21. Barriers Cont…
d) Status Consciousness
•Self judgment.
•Superiority or inferiority.
-May feel incompetent (the inferior).
-May feel pride (the superior).

22. Barriers Cont…
e) Mistrust
•Dislike
•Suspicion against the source (likely
to mistrust the information)

23. Barriers Cont’d…
8. Poor Listening/Inattentiveness
•Receiver doesn’t concentrate to the
message instantly, rather
•Guessing what the speaker is likely
to say next.

24. Barriers Cont’d…
9. Faulty Transmission
A message is never accurate from the
hearer to another person.
•If translated from one language to
another.

25. Faulty Transmission Cont’d…
•When a message is successively
transmitted, its accuracy decreases.
•About 30% of the information is lost
on the way in each transmission.