Physiological, psychological, cultural, political, economic, technological, and physical barriers can all negatively impact communication. Physiological barriers may prevent messages from being received due to disabilities like blindness. Psychological barriers like groupthink may cause messages to be ignored. Cultural barriers can lead to messages being misinterpreted between groups. Political barriers could prevent internal messages from being sent if an individual is marginalized. Lack of economic resources may restrict availability of messages. Technological failures can stop messages being delivered. Physical barriers may prevent hearing or seeing messages. Overcoming barriers requires understanding different perspectives, crafting clear messages, and ensuring feedback.

1. Barriers of
effective
communication

2. Effective Communication
• If communication is to be effective, people
must be able to express themselves clearly
and understand each other.
• Communication is ineffective when barriers
stop people from expressing themselves or
understanding others.

4. The Communication Process
Source Encoding Channel Decoding Receiver
Feedback

5. Communication Networks
Chain Wheel All Channels

6. Identifying barriers
Communication is about overcoming barriers.
State all the barriers
that you can think of
that impact on your
day-to-day
communication.

7. Common barriers to communication:
Apparent ‘cause’ Practical Example
Physiological Message in an internal report not received due to blindness.
Psychological Message from external stakeholder ignored due to ‘groupthink’
Cultural Message from organisation misinterpreted by members of a
particular group
Political Message from internal stakeholder not sent because individual
is marginalised
Economic Message not available to a public sector organisation due to
lack of resources
Technological Message not delivered due to technical failure
Physical Message cannot be heard and visual aids cannot be seen by
some members of the audience
’

8. Topics
1. Physiological barriers;
2. Social barriers;
3. Cultural barriers;
4. Ethical barriers;
5. Overcoming the barriers.

9. Physiological Barriers
• Physiological barriers to communication are those that
result from the performance characteristics and limitations
of the human body and the human mind.

10. Social, cultural and ethical barriers
• Social barriers to communication include the social
psychological phenomenon of conformity; a process in which
the norms, values and behaviours of an individual begin to
follow those of the wider group.
• Cultural barriers to communication, which often arise where
individuals in one social group have developed different
norms, values, or behaviours to individuals associated with
another group.
• Ethical barriers to communication; these occur when
individuals working in an organisation find it difficult to voice
dissent, even though their organisation is acting in ways they
consider to be unethical.

11. Barriers to ethical behaviour
Three communication-related barriers to ethical
behaviour in business organisations are:
• ‘moral silence’, failing to speak up about issues
that are known to be wrong;
• ‘moral deafness’, failure to hear or attend to
moral concerns raised by others;
• ‘moral blindness’, failure to recognise the moral
implications of actions.
(Bird 2002)

16. Overcoming the barriers
• Taking the receiver more seriously
• Thinking more clearly about the
message
• Delivering messages skilfully
– Focusing on the receiver
– Using multiple channels and
encoding
– Securing appropriate
feedback

17. How to help overcome communication barriers
caused by hearing difficulties
• Make sure that the person wears their own hearing aid and
that it is clean and in good working order
• Speak clearly and at a speed that the person can cope with
• Don’t shout, keep background noise to a minimum.
• Use alternative forms of communication.
• Listen actively.
• Check that you and the person have understood each other
by asking questions.

18. Language Differences
• People from different countries speak different languages.
How would you overcome this?
• People from different parts of the country have different
dialects. How would you overcome this ?
• Workplace language differs. People may use technical
language. How would you overcome this ?
• People from different groups have their own slang words and
expressions. How would you overcome this?

19. Emotional Issues, being upset, angry or
aggressive
• Use friendly approachable language
• Use friendly non-hostile eye contact
• Don’t invade a person’s space or try to restrain
them
• Give them a firm explanation of why their
behaviour is unacceptable