The document discusses various barriers to effective communication, highlighting physical, emotional, and cultural challenges that can disrupt information flow within teams. It emphasizes factors such as remote work issues, personal space, workplace design, emotional states like anger and pride, and cultural differences that hinder understanding. The document also addresses perceptual filters and communication channel issues, underlining the complexity of communication in diverse settings.

1. Barriers to
Communication

2. Barriers are problems that distort or disrupt the flow of
information.
They represent all obstacles that may arise in a team
and cause misunderstandings and miscommunication
between communicators.
As a result of such communication-related challenges,
teams are likely to waste both time and money trying to
get back on course.

3. PHYSICAL
BARRIERS

4. Time and distance
The barriers related to time and distance tend to happen to remote
teams whose members work from home.
Remote teammates do not work in the same office, or even at the
same time. Instead, they may operate on a different continent and
in a different time zone. This makes real-time communication
difficult, and in-person communication inconvenient, or near
impossible — unless one teammate is willing to accommodate the
other, and work during the night, or fly across the globe on a
regular basis.

5. Personal space
In verbal, in-person communication, personal space
plays a crucial role.
Namely, this distance that applies only to in-person
communication may act as a facilitator to good
communication, or as a barrier to effective
communication — depending on whether it’s properly
interpreted and arranged.

6. Workplace design
Workplace design has a crucial influence on the effectiveness of
communication in the workplace.
For example, the seating arrangements can facilitate effective
communication — when members of a team who needs to
communicate and collaborate on a daily basis are seated at
connected desks.
But the seating arrangement can also hinder effective
communication.

7. Work environment
The chief element of a work environment that may hinder
effective communication is comfort — or, better yet, the
potential lack of if.
Namely, if the company or home office is too hot/cold, people
may not be able to fully focus on the information being
communicated in business situations. The same applies if the
desks and chairs are too low/high, if the chairs are
uncomfortable, or if the office lighting is too bright/dim.

8. Background noise
Noise is a common barrier to effective communication. It includes several
types of distractions, but may not be limited to:
 colleagues talking nearby (often experienced by people who work in an
office);
 family members/roommates/partners talking nearby (often experienced by
people who work from home);
 copy machines, kitchen noise, and other inside noise;
 thunderstorms, grass mowers, car sirens, and other outside noise.

9. Communication channel issues
Issues with communication channels may arise as a key physical
communication barrier. They may be tied to ignorance of medium
and technical problems with the said communication mediums.
Teams often need to use various channels of communication to
communicate and collaborate. Most of the time, these channels
serve as communication facilitators. But, if a teammate is
unfamiliar with how best to use the said communication channel,
the channel may turn into a communication barrier.

10. Most of the time, however, all communicators using a
channel of communication will be familiar with how
best to use the said channel. But technical problems
may still arise and hinder effective communication.
These technical problems may include:
Hardware issues — such as modem issues that slow
down your internet connection;
Software issues — such as bugs in apps.

11. Perceptual filters
Perceptual filters to effective communication include our
thoughts, assumptions, preferences, values, and attitudes.
They represent lenses through which we view people,
situations, topics, or events.
These “filters” may lead to misunderstandings, stereotyping,
and assumptions in communication. Such “filters” often
make us closed-minded to opinions that are different from
our own, or ideas that go beyond what we consider “usual”,
“expected”, or “normal”.

12. Nonverbal language (as a perceptual barrier)
Nonverbal facial expressions, triggers, and cues represent
the body language people emit while communicating. This
body language may be connected with the intended
meaning of the messages the communicator is trying to
convey. But, it may also be intentionally or unintentionally
misleading. In line with that, other people may perceive the
nonverbal language of their fellow communicators correctly
— or not.

13. Emotional barriers
to effective
communication

14. Emotional barriers to effective communication represent
the emotions that may hold you back from communicating
what you want to your teammates. These emotions may
also hold you back from listening to others attentively and
accepting their point of view on matters discussed.
These key emotional barriers include anger, pride, and
anxiety.

15. Anger
Anger is an emotional barrier to communication that actually affects how your
brain processes information.
Because of anger, you are less likely to be logical in discussions.
Moreover, you are less likely to contribute productively to solving problems —
and more likely to oppose other people’s ideas.
The people you are projecting your anger to are likely to become defensive,
scared, or even feel hurt.
As a result, people are less likely to contact you in case of an emergency —
even if you objectively are the best person to solve the problem.

16. Pride
Pride is an emotional barrier to communication that inhibits healthy
communication in several ways.
For one, pride as an emotion implies you take pride in what you say and do.
This, in turn, implies, you talk more than you listen — and active listening is an
important skill of effective communicators.
Moreover, people who are prideful need to be right to justify the said pride.
As a result, teammates become wary of inviting you to brainstorming sessions
— because your idea always needs to be the best one, or else you become
difficult to work with.

17. Anxiety
Anxiety is another emotional barrier to effective communication —
one that can hurt your communication skills and effectiveness.
For one, you won’t be able to concentrate on what others are saying
because you’ll constantly worry about what you want to say.
Moreover, anxiety may even push you to avoid certain social
situations, even in a professional setting.

18. Cultural barriers
to
Effective
communication

19. According to the definition by Joynt & Warner (1996),
culture is:
“the pattern of taken-for-granted assumptions about how a
given collection of people should think, act, and feel as they
go about their daily affairs”.
In line with this definition, cultural barriers to effective
communication represent the different culture-related
behavior patterns that may arise as an obstacle to well-
balanced communication among teammates.

20. These culture-related behavior patterns may revolve
around
 language,
 nonverbal language,
 cultural norms,
 beliefs,
 and values.
They may also manifest as stereotypes or status-based
self-importance.

21. Language
• Language can be a
crucial barrier to
effective communication
— especially for teams
who operate across the
globe and have different
mother tongues.
• After all, if you don’t
understand your
teammates and they
don’t understand you,
you can’t communicate.

22. Nonverbal language (as a cultural barrier)
We already talked about nonverbal language when we addressed
the perceptual barriers to effective communication.
However, nonverbal language can also be connected with the
culture of the speaker. In other words, the same gestures or facial
expressions can have different meanings in different cultures.
In such cases, we can regard nonverbal language as an important
culture-based communication barrier.

23. Cultural norms, beliefs, and values
Each culture holds its own cultural norms, beliefs, and values.
Holidays, religions, customs, signs of respect, or even rules for
proper business conduct may differ from culture to culture.
As a result, people who come from different cultures may find it
difficult to effectively communicate, because they may perceive the
behavior of their fellow communicators as unusual, uncomfortable,
or simply disrespectful.
Of course, this is rarely the intention of the said communicators.

24. Stereotypes
According to the definition in social psychology, a
stereotype represents a “fixed, over-generalized belief
about a particular group or class of people”.
In other words, we have a particular idea about how a
particular group or class of people think or behave — and
we assume that every member of a particular group or class
thinks or behaves in the same way.

25. Such an approach to people who belong to
different cultures builds prejudices and stops
us from viewing the members of the said
cultures for what they really are — unique
individuals.

26. Stereotypes come in different forms: microaggressions,
biases, or discrimination are all common and likely to
disrupt effective communication between the
members of different cultures.
One particular source of stereotypes and prejudices is
Ethnocentrism.

27. According to the classic definition by Melville J. Herskovits, ethnocentrism
represents “a feeling of superiority regarding one’s own culture or way of
life”.
Some views of ethnocentrism specifically mark the phenomenon as a type
of bias.
For ethnicism to arise, there must be an “in-group” and an “out-group”.
Social theorist, Theodore W. Adorno, and his colleagues have created a
broader definition that defines ethnocentrism as a combination of “a
positive attitude toward one’s own ethnic/cultural group (the in-group) with
a negative attitude toward the other ethnic/cultural group (the out-group).”

28. For ethnocentric people, it’s always
“us” vs “them” — which translates
poorly to the effectiveness of many
communication situations.

29. Semantic Barriers

30.  Use of Polysemic words
 Lack of Proper Vocabulary
 Use of Technical Jargon
 Use of Homophones
 Different Accents

31. https://pumble.com/learn/communication/communication-
barriers/#Physical_barriers_to_effective_team_communication