Barriers to Communication in Public Organisations

Communication is the process of making one’s intentions known to others through various means and mediums. It is a crucial concept for effective human interaction and lies at the crux of human society and survival, with its history spanning back to the beginning of life. In the context of rapid globalisation today, organisations are aplenty everywhere, ranging from public to private to non-profit, and they form the base of modern civilisation. The importance of communication cannot be emphasized more in the many levels of interconnectedness that allow the organisations and hence, the world, to function smoothly each day in this information age. Particularly in public sector organisations, effective communication thus becomes of utmost importance to ensure the smooth running of such services. Prima facie, it is deceptively simple, but there are numerous complications in the processes of communication. In this essay, we seek to explore the barriers to communication that people experience, with the focus on within public sector organisations, and some of the possible remedies that could allow for more effective communication.
The first key problem that public sector organisations will face in effective communication is the many differences in beliefs and viewpoints between the sender and the receiver who are attempting to communicate. There is a wide range of such differences that could possibly lead to a breakdown of communication. Gender differences – there are still males in the workforce that find it hard to accept a woman being their superior. This could be a potential barrier should a higher-ranking female in the organisation need to transmit or give orders for a task. There is also the problem of cultural differences, which is especially prevalent in Singapore. As a multi-racial country, it is very common for one to work alongside a multitude of other races and religions. Having a difference in cultural/religious perspective could result in disagreements

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