Sunday, December 15, 2013

6 Common Communication Barriers in The Workplace

There are several ways that individuals can go wrong when they're trying to communicate. Unfortunately, the barriers to communication in the workplace could lead to co-worker alienation, misunderstandings, arguments, and failure to make a good impression. Both psychological, physiological, language, perceptual, physical, and cultural barriers may hinder effective communication.

Psychological Barriers

Negative attitude and boredom can influence employees' receptiveness to messages sent. If employees attend a meeting about a company's bankruptcy, their anger or fear may lead them to misinterpret the message being conveyed. Also, communication could shut down when a listener gets embarrassed by what the speaker is discussing. For example, a salesperson can become inattentive due to failure in meeting sales quota. Other professionals in the meeting may also be focusing on on-going tasks and deadlines rather than listening to the comments of the speaker. These situations could result in communication barriers that could be hard to overcome.

Physiological Barriers

These barriers are the characteristics of the listener or speaker that hinder the reception or transmission of messages or information. For example, sleepiness or allergy can make it difficult to focus and be attentive to conversations. Depression and physical pain can also negatively affect the hearing and interpretation of messages. Other issues such as fatigue, emotional distress, and hunger can also affect communication.

Language Barriers

Words can have varying meanings for different people, complicating communication. A security engineer may hear the word "trust" and associate it with a computer system's integrity, while an attorney may think of real property. Language barriers can also be caused by using jargons such as "web 2.0" and "value-add" or discriminatory and insensitive language. Complex sentences, incorrect pronunciation, faulty spelling and grammar, can confuse a listener.

Perceptual Barriers

Employees are used to perceiving things in specific ways, making it hard to recognize new meanings. For instance, a manager who prefers hiring university graduates may overlook the great contributions that can be made by a graduate from a community college. Differing values, life experiences, interests may prevent two employees from perceiving a message the same manner. An employee may recommend solutions that are not sound or correct due to invalid or wrong perceptions. Intelligence and education can also affect people's perceptions, as well as their social and safety needs.

Physical Barriers

The physical communication barriers are the environmental elements affecting the ability of an employee to bring across or acquire information. Any type of noise and loud talking will affect hearing. Also, the mannerisms and overall appearance of the speaker could negatively affect his ability to send his message to an audience. The seating arrangements of the listeners as well as their physical comfort level can also affect communications, since sitting at the back row of a huge auditorium can prevent them from clearly hearing the full message.

Cultural Barriers

These workplace communication barriers go beyond language. Those who speak English with excellence may have different approaches and attitudes that come from the manner they were raised or their places of origin. Typically, a person who's born and raised in the U.S. may have cultural differences from someone from another country. How people react, see, and react to the many things can vary vastly because of culture.


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To overcome these communication barriers in the workplace, consider a well-deveoped communication skills course Melbourne. Follow the links below to learn about Verve Potential, a team of professional and expert learning and development consultants, who can help you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZANwgStn1Hs
http://www.vervepotential1.webgarden.com/blog/communication-skills-how-to


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