There are various barriers in communication that are commonly faced in organisations. Before we go right into the barriers of communication, we must first understand the meaning of communication.
Communication is defined in many different ways. It is defined as sharing of ideas among two or more people through verbal and non-verbal communication. Examples of verbal communication is communicating face-to-face or through telephone. While non-verbal communication is through email, letters, memos and more written forms.
Now we will discuss some of the examples of barriers to communication gathered from various articles.
Noise
Noise is the biggest common barrier in communication. It can be internal and external. It acts as an interference that occur during a communication process and prevents us from listening effectively. Here are the examples of internal and external noises. Internal noise begins with the person himself. For example, instead of noises that can be heard, internal noise occurs in a person’s mind. Noises that can be heard, such as a construction which is in working progress or traffic noise, are the examples of external noise.
Information Overload
In communication, we are prone to getting information. But sometimes it can be too much of an information. Otherwise known as information overload. This means that when there is too much information, it can exceed one’s ability to process. When one does not process the given information, there will be a barrier.
Cultural Differences
A barrier to intercultural communication happens when the behaviour of an individual is different from your own (Chaney and Martin 2000). However, it is not only the cultural differences that cause a communication barrier but the inability to recognize and understand the cultural differences. A number of barriers to communication have been identified in the literature, including the following by Hodgettes and Luthans(2003),
References: Time, Trust & Credibility, Filtering – Mieke Witsel, Drs. (Amsterdam), M.A. (Amsterdam), M.A.C.E., F.R.S.A. 2008 Communication in Organisations Cultural Differences – Judith Dwyer. Communication in Business 3rd Edition Emotion – Bovée Thill. 1997 Business Communication Today 6th Edition