Communication barriers dds

1. By
Dr. Deepika Sharma

2. What are
barriers ?
“A barrier to
communication"
is anything that
interferes with
the transfer of
intended
information
from a sender to
a receiver.

4. Barriers of Communication
PHYSICAL / ENVIORNMENTAL BARRIERS
PERCEPTUAL BARRIERS
EMOTIONAL BARRIERS
PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
LANGUAGE BARRIERS
SEMANTIC BARRIERS
INTERPERSONAL BARRIERS
CULTURAL BARRIERS
GENDER BARRIERS
PHYSIOLOGICAL BARRIERS

6. Physical/ Environmental Barriers
 Any number of physical distractions can interfere with the effectiveness
of communication, including a telephone call, drop-in visitors,
distances between people walls, and static on the radio.
 Noises
 Power failures
 Traffic
 Ill health
 Technical problems
 Poor lightening
 Poor ventilation
 Crowded place
 Physical disability
 Ego
 Poor listening skills

7. Perceptual Barriers
 Every person perceives things differently. Although, we
all live in the same objective world, we all live in
different subjective worlds.
 One perceptual problem is that people perceive things
differently, given precisely the same data, people see,
interpret or respond to them differently.
 A second perceptual problem is caused by people
‘filling in’ information without checking its accuracy.
 Another perceptual problem is that people’s
perception are based on their own experiences. We
perceive what we expect to perceive.

8. A Story
 People don’t necessarily resent or dislike the unknown or
unexpected. They simply don’t perceive it at all. For example
imagine this scene: a father and his son are driving to work one
morning when suddenly they’re involved in a terrible car crash.
The father is killed instantly and the son is badly hurt. An
ambulance rushes the son to a hospital. In the admitting room
the nurse says "we have got to take him straight into surgery or
he may die". They rush him down the hall to surgery. The
surgeon walks in takes one look at the boy and says "I can’t
operate on him. He’s my son". How can this be? Students come
up with all kinds of ingenious answers. The father is a priest,
the son was adopted. The correct answer is that the surgeon
was the boy’s mother. Many people don’t think of this answer
because their experiences have convinced them that surgeons
are male.

10. Emotional Barriers
The emotional status of communicator as
well as the audience affects
communication. Emotional barriers are
imaginary walls preventing you from
achieving a goal, because of something
else happening to you which is having or
has had an emotional effect on you.
An emotional individual may not be able to
communicate well. If someone is angry,
hostile, resentful, joyful, or fearful, that
person may be too preoccupied with
emotions to receive the intended
message.
Sometimes people may feel indifferent or
hostile towards the receiver or be biased
against him (perhaps because of his
youth , sex, race , relatives , friends , or
even clothes) .

11. Psychological Barriers
 Mental turbulence of any type which distracts the
communicators or prevents them from paying attention to the
message, coordinating with others, finding solutions, obtaining
goals, establishing positive relationships or taking a step
forward is defined as psychological barriers
 Psychological barriers arise from motives, emotions, social
values, different perceptions, etc. these create psychological
distance , cause misunderstanding and hinder the
communication processes.

12. The major psychological
barrier is fear.
Fear to start a new job
Fear of being misinterpreted
Fear of distortion of message
Fear of misunderstanding
Fear of losing someone or
something
Fear of success
Fear of failure
Fear of public speaking
Fear of language

13. Psychological Barrier cont.
 Prejudice
 Know-it-a
 Pre-occupation
 Ego hang up
 Fatigue
 Anxiety
 Preconceived ideas
 Notions
 Background & Hierarchical differences of sender and receiver
 The rigidity of thought process

14. •Disinterest
•Inattention
•Imperceptions and unfulfilled
curiosity
•Previous learning
•Knowledge
•Cultural disparities
•Fixed ideas

15. Language Barrier
 Language barriers arises due to –
language differences
literacy
different accents
speech impairment
faulty intonation pattern

16.  When living or working in a multilingual
environment, the lack of a common language can
cause all sorts of problems. This language barrier can
lead to misunderstandings, unintended conflict
among those involved in communication.
 Besides these-
 improper use of words and their meanings,
 inability to express ideas,
 inappropriate grammatical patterns,
 reduced vocabulary, and
 inability to follow directions.

17. SEMANTIC BARRIERS
 Semantic barriers are due to the differences in the
meanings which different people attach to different things.
“ the meanings of words are not in words; they are within
us.”
 Semantic barriers may occur if-
 The transmitter and receiver assign different meanings to
the same word or use different words for the same
meaning ( bypassed instruction)
 Words carry different shades or flavors to the transmitter
and the receiver

18. •Wrong interpretation of the words
•Badly expressed message
•Faulty translation
•Specialist’s language
•Use of administrative and technical
words
•Difficulty in understanding connotative
meanings

20. Interpersonal Barriers
 Interpersonal barriers occur due to the inappropriate
transmission of words between two or more people.
 The most common reasons for interpersonal barriers
are-
 Limited vocabulary
 Emotional outburst
 Incongruity.
 Poor listening skills
 Noise in the channel
 Unshared perceptions, ideas, views, values and
opinions

21. •Attitude of the sender and receiver
• ( positive / negative)
•Wrong timing of the message
• Distraction and disturbance
•Lack of attention
•Different perceptions
•Value system of the people
•Lack of understanding , respect
and confidence between
communicators
•Defensive and hostile behavior
•Aggressiveness
•Misinterpret or overreact to
message
•Mollified intentions

22. Interpersonal barriers at workplace
• Non- cooperative, non- participative, non-
confirmative, behavior at workplace dealing with
colleagues
• Non-facilitating , providing incomplete instructions,
insulting, demotivating, too much authoritative tone ,
in dealing with subordinates
• Impolite, unaccountable, delaying tasks, avoiding
instructions of superiors
• Feeling of love, hatred, anger, joy, sorrow, jealousy,
etc.

23. CULTURAL BARRIERS
 Culture is the core concept in diversity. Culture is defined
as learned patterns of perceptions, values and behaviours
shared by a group of people that is also dynamic and
heterogeneous. Culture also involves our emotions and
feelings. Cultural groups share perceptions—ways of
looking at the world. Culture is the lens through which we
view the world. All the information we receive passes
through this perceptual lens. We select, evaluate and
organize information from the external environment
through perception. Culture influences communication.
All cultural groups influence the ways in which their
members experience and perceive the world. Members of
a culture create a world view, which in turn influences
communication.

26. Barriers
 In the intercultural communication context, there are
barriers, including the following:
 Ethnocentrism- the belief that one’s own cultural
group is superior to all other cultural
groups. Ethnocentrism becomes a barrier when one
believes that another culture’s values are not equally
good or worthy, which prevents trying to see another’s
point of view.
 Stereotyping- widely held beliefs about a group of
people and are a form of generalization, a way of
categorizing and processing information we receive.
Stereotypes become a barrier when negative thoughts
about a group of people are held rigidly and acted
upon.

27.  Prejudice – a negative attitude toward a cultural group
based on little or no experience. Stereotypes tell us
what a group is like, prejudice tells us how to feel
about that group.
 Avoid racial, colour, culture, and ethnic disparities
Colour-blind approach – not to notice race/colour.
This approach should be adopted and to discourage
any conversations about race relations and allows
people to ignore, deny, disregard the existence of racial
inequalities.

28.  Discrimination – the behavior that results from
stereotyping or prejudice – overt action to exclude,
avoid, or distance oneself from other groups.
Discrimination may be based on racism or any of the
other “isms”, sexism, ageism, and elitism, related to
belonging to a cultural group. Discrimination belongs
to a more powerful group that holds prejudices toward
another less powerful group resulting in actions
toward members of that group that are discriminatory

29. Gender Barriers
 Gender barriers can be inherent or may be related to
gender stereotypes and the ways in which men and
women are taught to behave as children.
 Several traits that tend to be more common in one
gender or the other.
 Emotional Vs. Factual- women focus more on feelings
and tend to talk about people while men focus more
on facts and logic and tend to talk about tangible
things such as business or sport
 Women is relationship oriented
 Men achievement oriented
 When men and women work together in a group, men tend to
be more assertive and self-confident.

30. Physiological Barriers
 Hearing disorders
partial hearing loss
complete hearing loss
 Speech disorders-
articulation disorder
fluency
voice
Stammering
 Dyslexia
 Apraxia – motor disorder ( related to non-verbal )
 Visual disorders
 Problem in retention
 Weak physical health
 Depression
 Stress

31. Organizational Barriers
 Processing of information from several people
 Delay in getting information because of many transfers of
stations.
 Distortion of message because of different sources.
 Faulty communication network
 Technical impairment
 Mechanical impairment
 Low morale of employees
 Financial problems
 Fear of superiors
 Use of inappropriate media
 Information overload
 Negative tendencies
 Too many transfer stations

32. Others
 Poor listening skills
 Inappropriate non- verbal messages with or without verbal
messages
 Improper feedback
 Literary levels
 Fatigue
 Improper light
 Unsuitable climate
 Wrong choice of medium for transmission of information
 Biases
 Geographical distance
 Perceptual variations

33.  Confusion of intended or perceived message
 Confusion of facts and observation
 Hasty generalization
 Inappropriate comparison and contrast
 Age
 Socio-economic status
 Power
 Educational level
 Urban or rural residence
 Tunnel vision- closed way of thinking