The document discusses barriers to communication, dividing them into those caused by the sender/recipient and those from outside influences. Barriers caused by the sender/recipient include distortion, inadequate communication skills, lack of listening ability, attitudes/feelings, differences in background, opinions, beliefs, and personal characteristics. Non-verbal behavior can also create barriers if it sends a different message than the words. The document provides tips for overcoming barriers, such as developing communication skills, listening actively, choosing when/who to communicate with carefully, and matching the expression to the recipient.

1. Assignment
Choose any one of the following questions:
1) Explain the term conflict and examine how conflict
relates to organizational communication. (25)
2) With reference to any two communication models,
discuss the view that individual models do not fully
capture the complexity of human nature. (25)
3) Critically discuss any two categories of non-verbal
communication and demonstrate how non-verbal
communication can function in relation to verbal
communication. (25)

2. BARRIERS TO
COMMUNICATION

3.  Problems with any one of the
components of the communication
process can become a barrier to
communication.
 These barriers suggest
opportunities for improving
communication.

4.  Barriers to communication may be
divided into two parts:
• Those which are found within the
sender and the recipient
• Those which result from outside
influences in the communication
process

5. Barriers caused by
sender and recipient
 When thinking of these remember
that they are only very rarely
created deliberately by either party.
 Mostly, they are a result of
incomplete understanding of the
information, the situation, or the
vocabulary and attitude of the other
party.

6. Distortion
 Occurs either at the encoding or
decoding stage in the communication
process.
 It occurs when language is put in a way
that leads to incorrect or partial
understanding of a message by the
recipient.
 The message to be sent out needs to
be clear.

7. Contrast these two messages:
 "Please be here about 7:00
tomorrow morning."
 "Please be here at 7:00 tomorrow
morning."
 The one word difference makes the
first message muddled and the
second message clear.

8.  The problem may be semantics,
e.g., note this muddled
newspaper ad:
 "Dog for sale. Will eat anything.
Especially likes children. Call
888-3599 for more information."

9. Inadequate
communication skills
Communication skills are the ability to send or
receive messages clearly and effectively with
no possibility of misunderstanding. They
include the ability to:
 Express ideas clearly in writing
 Read not only words on the page, but also
interpret signs and symbols of all kinds, e.g.
road signs or body language
If one or the other parties involved fails to
possess the necessary communication skills,
messages are incorrectly encoded or decoded

10. Lack of listening ability
 The ability to listen is an essential part of the
communication process. Lack of effective
listening skills may have potentially
disastrous results.
 Unless the sender can listen, he/she will be
unable to discover the real response of the
recipient.
 Unless the recipient can listen, he/she will
be unable to grasp the true significance of
the message.

11. Attitudes and feelings
 Our communication is governed by our attitudes and
feelings.
 These show themselves in the structuring of messages and
in our reaction to messages received.
 We all have certain attitudes to daily life produced by our
education, environment and general experience.

12. Attitudes and feelings
 If they are extreme, they are called
prejudices.
 They can distort our awareness of
messages in communications and
thus hamper our communication
process

13. Differences in
background
 All communication depends on
background, or the stored codes.
ideas, information and attitudes that
both the sender and the receiver
have.
 The closer the backgrounds of the
sender and receiver, the easier
they will find it to communicate.

14. Opinions
 Opinions may be based on
facts and inferences, or
misinformation and prejudices.

15. Beliefs
 Beliefs are views which usually are
not susceptible to test by
experiment, or logical argument,
e.g. political and religious dogma.
 In communication, beliefs are
important because large groups of
sincere people will act consistently
in conformity with their beliefs.

16. Personal characteristics
 We are, to a great extent, shaped by our
previous history.
 However, within any culture, considerable
personal differences exist. These
differences may pertain to language, age,
sex, education, status or class.
 Thus in both coding and decoding, it is
important to evaluate the effect of these
cultural and personal differences on the
communication.

17. Non-verbal behaviour
 Non-verbal behaviour can change a
message substantially.
 E.g. “good morning” with a smile “good
morning with a frown send different
messages.
 Body language may unintentionally relay a
different message than spoken language.
 Sensitivity to such hidden or unconscious
messages are an advantage in
communication.

18. Communication chain
 When the message is sent via a
number of parties verbally, e.g. a to b to
c to d
Activity
 Pass a message orally to 6 different
people through whispering. First and
last person in each chain to write down
the message, first person as he
encoded it and last person as he
decoded it.

19. Overcoming the barriers
 Many of the most important
barriers to communicating may
be overcome by following a few
simple rules:

20. Develop personal
communication skills
This is one of the simplest ways in which
communication may be improved.
Communication skills cover the ability to:
 write clear language so that meaning is
expressed directly and without ambiguity
 talk to a wide range of people in formal and
informal settings
 read for the correct understanding of
information
 listen and understand

21. LISTEN ACTIVELY

22. Active listeners:
 Listen politely
 Ask questions politely
 Acknowledges speaker’s point of
view
 Does not change or add anything to
what has been said

24. Know when to
communicate
 Judging the right moment to make a
communication is important.
 Choosing the right moment can help. E.g.
Tackling your employer in the corridor when
you want to ask him a favour is probably not a
good idea.
 Choosing the right moment, both in terms of
psychological rightness and good timing, is
thus a very important way of avoiding barriers
of attitude in the recipient.

25. Know with whom to
communicate
 Communication with the wrong
person can create all sorts of
misunderstandings.
 In business, communicating with
the wrong person will give the
impression of inefficiency, which
would not be good for future
communications.

26. Choose the medium
carefully
 Always think carefully about the
best kind of communication
medium for a particular situation
and recipient.
 e.g. in business, written
communication is essential but in
some cases it would be too formal
and restricting.

27. Match the expression to
the recipient
 The most important rule for
communicating.
 Distortion may occur at encoding when
sufficient care is not taken over the
vocabulary and background of the
recipient by the sender.
 Consideration must also be given of
your relationship with the recipient.

28. Conclusion
 Following these rules will not guarantee
perfect communication on every occasion.
 There will be times when internal ‘distortion’
and external ‘noise’ will still erect barriers.
 However, striving to follow these rules on all
occasions makes communication far more
effective as you learn to consider the other
person’s point of view and assess the real
purpose of what you are trying to achieve.