Barriers in Communication - Part IV

In our previous post we saw how the sender can become a barrier in communication. In this blog we will see various personal barriers from a corporate's perspective. In this we will see two barriers

I. Barriers related to Superiors
II. Barriers related to Subordinates

I.Barriers related to Superiors

1. Attitude of superiors: When I say attitude... it can mean a lot of things . The understanding of the same will also be different from person to person. We will take the most evident ones from the corporates and discuss on that. We will discuss both positive and negative aspects here


A superior may be from any of the below:


a. Aggressive - Dictator
b. Submissive - Passive
c. Assertive - Enthusiasitic


a. Aggressive - Dictator: If the superior carries this attitude, where he feels that there is only his school of thought in this whole world and doesn't care about others. He feels what he says and does is right They portray poor listening skills and are not open to ideas from others. In such a situation the subordinate will not go to his supervisor when he is highly unapproachable. Even if the subordinate has the best idea in the world, he wouldn't reveal that. The mentality that he develops will be .... Who cares... when my boss is not bothered... why should I.....


b. Submissive - Passive: This guy is the opposite of the above... He is easily approachable.. Takes ideas, but doesn't implement them. He is like a mail box full of mails without anyone to action them. But again, he may not be receptive all the times. He may be a passive listener at times because of his nature. Here also people approach him only for a while...till they realize that nothing is going to happen. When they realize this.. they will stop walking to him... End result.. Same as above.... My boss doesn't care... Why should I.....


This boss is highly demotivated and disinterested. He hardly communicates with his team..


c. Assertive : He is the "Mr. Nice Guy." This guy is easily approachable.... listens to his people and tries his level best to implement new ideas.... His communication is always two way ( We will look in detail about one way and two way communication later). He is an open book. He also approaches his people to get their views and ideas. He is in between the above two. He also portrays high energy levels and enthusiasm. People like to speak to him and be with him.


This is the best attitude that a superior should portray to get the best out of all communication from his people.

2. Fear of challenge to Authority: A superior who feels threatened by his subordinate will not communicate every thing that is required. Neither will he accept ideas from the other person. This only leads to friction and a huge communication gap.

3. Insistence of Proper Channel: A channel for communication should be decided based on the urgency and importance of the situation and action required. If strict protocols are to be followed then we can have a combination of communication channels for the execution of the action plan. For example.... if the system of the operation floor konks... and operation comes to a stand still.. The IT wouldn't expect a communication through mail. They would rather take the issue across the phone and do the necessary corrections. Instead if they wait for a mail in the traditional fashion, then get approval, and then take necessary steps for correction it would become too late. Here what they should do is they should take up corrective measures the moment they receive the distress call and they can ask the operations executive to send a mail later for their records. But again this is only in case of an emergency. If it is not urgent and if the company's policy requires you to send a mail for approval or anything... do it accordingly as per the protocol.

4. Shortage of Time: Heard of the word Target.... Month end.... if you have experienced this, then this point shouldn't be difficult for you to understand. When a task has to be completed on time... and there is a lack in the target...what happens??? Ccommunication becomes fast..... at times spontaneous....... understanding becomes super fast..... (Time saving exercise). If a team member is not able to cope up with this speed... communication can become a failure.

5. Lack of Attention: Usually passive superiors are more prone to this. These people pretend to be listening but are in some other world altogether. When proper attention is not given to the subject communication becomes incomplete and doesnot serve its purpose.

6. Ignoring the subordinates: Have you heard of people who are the boss's favourite. There will be another set of people whom the boss would not entertain to this extent but definitely maintains a cordial professional relationship. There is one more set of people in the team, the knowledge of whose existence is not known by the superior. These people feel out of the crowd and hardly interact with their superior.... Neither does the Superior interact with them frequently......... This creates a vacuum in the relationship which in turn affects the communication between these two sets of individuals.

II. Barriers related to subordinates

1. Poor Listening: Have you ever attended a meeting at 2 o clock in the afternoon after a heavy lunch.. How easy was it to concentrate on the speaker without losing attention and concentration of the topic.......... Very difficult..... right......same thing happens with our subordinates... There are times when their listening goes for a toss........ At these times it becomes very difficult to communicate any information to the other person who is mentally not prepared to listen... There are other reasons also for not listening... we will see them in detail when we discuss about active listening.

2. Unwillingness to communicate: This is a very common scenario if there is subordinate feels his superior will not consider his opinion or take any action for what ever he says. Initially he may give away a couple of ideas to his boss... but if the subordinate doesn't see any positive response from the other end, he will stop communicating and mind only his own business. In such cases his first question is .... "Why should I speak... What is the use"

3. Lack of Proper Motivation and Incentive: The superior failed to keep his team motivated and the team lacks the fire in the belly to improve the department or the organisation. In this scenario... they perform their job for the sake of doing things and they neither give out ideas to their superiors nor do they take instructions and suggestions from their supervisors seriously. This inturn affects interpersonal communication.

4. Attitude of the subordiate: If the subordiate is highly egoistic or egocentric... who doesn't care about anything... it becomes very difficult for the superior to get the actual job done through him. There are chances that he may not even listen to him...... This becomes a great barrier in our communication process.

5. Fear of Position : Have you ever been afraid of your superiors... If yes.... I would definitely say you had tough time communicating your reports and agenda with him... This can happen to any one.... Now for the people who were not afraid of their immediate supervisor... How was your experience when you first met your company's GM or CEO..... If you were not tensed... I would say you are great..... if you were tensed........ welcome to the club.... This anxiety will definitely become an obstacle in the subordiate's communication.

Well.. These are some of the most common and important hindrances that can stop you message from being communicated.... In case I come across more....... I will update it accordingly.