Barriers in communication Part I

While communicating ... Have you ever had this feeling...... I said something...... but your friend is replying something else..... Or you asked a friend to come at 4 o clock, but he comes at 5 o clock and says.. that's what he had heard... or.....you ordered for a veg pizza... but receive cheese pizza instead.............Fine... everybody would have had this problem at some point of time or the other in their life...... Why what had happened.... why did this happen... why did the receiver not get the message the same way you wanted it to be transmitted.

This could have happened anywhere in the communication. It is just like your electric wire. If the wire becomes faulty even at one place... you will not get the power... similarly if the communication process broke down at any place... the whole communication would fail.

Thus arises, a difference in perception between the sender and the receiver. The sender meant something.... while the receiver perceived it as something else. This difference is called communication gap. Communication gap is the difference in the common understanding arising between the sender and the receiver.

The factors that lead to communication gap are called Barriers in communication.

There are various barriers in communication. We will go through them through a series of posts.
The barrier can arise anywhere in the communication in the communication process. It can start from the Sender.... encoding...... Medium......Decoding...... Receiver...... Feedback.....Sender.

We will see them one by one.

The barriers have been differentiated in five categories:

1. Semantic Barriers or Language Barriers
2. Organisational Barriers
3. Personal Barriers
4. Psychological Barriers / Emotional /Perceptional Barriers
5. Physical Barriers

1.. Semantic Barriers or Language Barriers
Semantic is the study of words and their meanings. Within Semantic barriers we have many classifications.

1a. Wrongly expressed message: Words by nature if not correctly used can convey different meanings. For example the word "Set" has more than 4o meanings. If, a person uses the wrong word at the wrong place it will definitely convey a wrong meaning, leading to a wrong understanding.

For example: One of the advertisements in a used car showroom:
"Used Cars: Why go elsewhere to be cheated? Come here first!"......... Now what do we interpret from this........ Come here to be cheated or come here to get the best deal.... It all depends on how you read it.

One more.....Dog for sale: eats anything and is fond of children..... Is the dog affectionate towards children or likes children for food. Similarly, in corporate also, unless the language is used in the right context.. the message may be misleading.

1.b Faulty Translation: When a message has to be translated across levels, if the person in the second level doesn't understand the message from his superiors, it will become difficult for him to transfer the same to next level below him.... This may not be the only scenario. If people don't understand the receiver and send message based on their own knowledge and understanding.. there are chances that the message may have a wrong translation. I will illustrate an example from the advertisement industry..

Illustration:

1. 'The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "kokou kole", translating into "happiness in the mouth."

2. Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese.

1.c Technical Language and Jargons: An expert only understands an expert's language. This always has to be in the back of your mind before sending any message where technical terms have to be used.

For the sender it may be an easy message... but the receiver it may be difficult. For eg: you go to a doctor for a head ache.. and he says... go get a tablet of "Crocus Sativus Linnaeus,''..........what's your reaction..... You look at him as if he is a specimen from a museum...... When you visit the pharmacy...... he says that "Crocus Sativus Linnaeus" is nothing but the scientific name of "Crocin." Tell me where will you BP be at this point. But the doctor doesn't do that... but says," Go get a crocin." Why because this is what patients tend to understand.

2. Organisational Barriers: Organisational structure and policies do have an influence on the communication process. Some of the major hindrances in communication pertaining to organisation are

2.a Organisational Rules and Policies: If the policy or rules of the company state that they have to follow a procedure for acquiring some data or initiating an action.. It has to be strictly adhered to. This rule will apply for any action or communication without preference to the urgency and importance of the situation. Imagine a situation of urgency and importance where you require an equipment at the earliest from the IT Department. Now you have to get an approval from your manager...so you send a mail... Your manager will forward this approval mail to the IT Head and he in turn will send the mail to his team to take care of the requirement. Now check the length of the cycle... This will definitely take some time before the actual problem is solved.

2.b Status Relationship & Complexity in Organisational Structure: Assuming a junior level executive in Operations has a problem with his system.. It can be rectified only by another junior level executive from IT department.. Now can the OPS executive directly ask the IT executive to come and correct the problem.. Orally, yes it can be done... Unfortunately when it comes to corporates, it is a lengthy process. You have to send a mail to the IT head asking him to permit his executive to have a look into this problem.. Post this the IT exec will come and rectify the fault.. Sorry I forgot.... in between you should also keep your boss in loop... This again delays the whole communication process.

2.c Organisation Facilities: Availability of proper infrastructure for communication is also important for successful communication process. When an email is required to be sent... but the department doesn't have an Internet facility we cannot expect timely communication and resolution. Technical capabilities of the organisation also can lead to a barrier. If the organisation is not equipped with the required technology.. there are least chances that appropriate communication will take place. Reason... When technology is not on par between the sender and the receiver there will be a definite problem in message transmission reception.

We will discuss the other barriers of communication in our next and forthcoming posts.