Barriers to Good Communications - Coursework Example

Title: Discuss the barriers to good communications Student’s name: Instructors name: Course code and name: Institution: Date assignment is due: Discuss the barriers to good communications Communication is central to any business entity anywhere in the world. This is because communication is the medium through which business is transacted. Proper communication is a blessing to a business. The most tragic thing that can happen to a business is communication breakdown. Communication breakdown in a business is caused by communication barriers that cut the flow of communication in any setting. Recognizing the barriers to effective communication is pivotal in the improvement of communication, whether for the personal or professional setting. This essay is going to analyze the barriers that hinder effective communication (Berlo 1960, p.37). Communication is the process of passing information from one person to another. It involves the process of encoding information. Encoding is the prerogative of the information sender. To complete the communication process, decoding is also required. Decoding is due to the receiver of the information. There are barriers that come with encoding, and there are barriers that come with decoding information. This is because a mishap in either encoding or decoding will derail the communication process, and prove to be a barrier to effective communication. Thus, it is important to realize that both the encoder and the decoder can prove to be the vitriol that inhibits communication in any set up. Someone quite rightly observed that communication is a two way process, and communication breakdown can be attributed to both the encoder, and the decoder (Berlo 1960, p.37). One of the barriers to effective communication, or one of the barriers to communication is information overload. Information overload is a condition that the information that flows in to the receicver exceeds his or her capacity to process the information. This is a barrier that is brought about by the sender of the information. This is because as the receiver gets much more information that he can decipher, he puts up barriers to the information he receives. The barriers are erected by the receiver due to the fact that the information might be coming in too fast and is impossible to process. Information overload gives the receiver cognitive problems in interpreting the information. This is because the human brain has stoppers that check information overload (Shannon & Weaver 1949, p.154). Information overload becomes a communication barrier due to the fact that it makes the intended communication become lost to the receiver. For example, if a salesman is selling items with twenty extraordinary features, focusing on all the twenty features contributes to information overload to the customer. Information overload destroys the power of focus on the recipient of the information. As the information, overwhelms the recipient, his mind becomes belligerent to the information. This is because of the uncomfortability that comes with excess information. The recipient concentrates on trying to overcome the uncomfortability that come with the information overload. This concentration on the discomfort of the communication removes the focus of the recipient from the information intended for him, or her. An effective barrier becomes erected in the communication process (Shannon & Weaver 1949, p.154). Another barrier to communication is selective perception. It is a known communication tragedy that people are given to the act of selectively interpreting what they hear based on background, intrests, experience and attitudes. Somebody has rightfully asserted that people hear what they want to hear. Renowned communication and leadership guru, Stephen Covey, say in his book, The Seven Habits of highly effective people (1989, p.236) that communicated is mired by the reality that persons are not trained in communication. He continues that people will only listen to people who they first want to influence. This is not the trend in most settings whether professional or personal. One of the factors that make people selectively interpret what they hear is their background. Background is informed by the growing experience and the cultural orientation of the information recipient. Thus, if two people are communicating, and they have had different backgrounds, they will have problems understanding one another. This is because interpretation is symbolically coded by the background. Thus, the recipient will be given to the interpretation of information based on his or her background. This is a barrier to communication because the encoder is not privy to the background of the recipient, especially in the business world (Chandler 1994, p.132). The experiences people go through make them interpret information based on those experiences. This proves to be an inhibition to the communication process as the source of the information is not privy to those experiences, and the experiences of the recipient do not inform the communicator. This way the gist of the communication is lost to the recipient. This becomes a main barrier to communication. The interests of the recipient also contribute to selective interpretation. This is because the recipient will decode information according to what he wants to hear. Along the way, he will have decoded the wrong thing because of his interests (Chandler 1994, p.132). Filtering is another barrier to communication. Filtering is the manipulation of information by the sender to meet the approval from the receiver. It is important to know that the sender has to a large extent to manipulate the communication process. This is because every communication act has an objective behind it. Filtering becomes a disadvantage to communication because some vital information is always left out. In the senders’ scheme to manipulate the information to suit the acceptance of the recipient, the message is destroyed. Filtering also becomes particularly bad if the receiver gets to know that manipulation is involved. The recipient feels used and withdraws from the communication process. The withdrawal is mostly emotional, and it erects barriers in the communication process that are difficult to overcome (Schramm 1954, p.16). Filtering destroys the sense of trust that is remarkably important in the communication process. For without trust, communication is impossible to become effective. Filtering also destroys important links that carry meaning in the communication process. Filtering comes with the misrepresentation of information that is the death knell to any communication. It enhances negative perception that is a killer to any communication process (Schramm 1954, p.16). Another barrier to communication is emotions. How a receiver feels at the moment of receiving the information; will influence how the message is interpreted. Emotional interference does much damage to the communication process. Emotions like resentment, anger, joy or fear make an individual be too preoccupied to receive the intended message. Emotions create mental blocks that strangle the information. Emotions give messages a different colouration that disarrays the information in the receivers mind (Mehrabian 1971, p.213). For example, it is known that if you do not like a certain individual you might not hear what he or she is telling you. Emotions clog the natural process of decoding information, and the result is that the information is misinterpreted. The meaning of the information is lost to the recipient if they are emotionally charged at the moment of the transmission of the information. This is why in the business setting; it is good to establish an environment that is not emotionally charged. Both negative and positive emotions are a barrier to the communication process. Daniel Goleman in his book, Emotional intelligence (1995, p.108) observes that emotions hijack the rational brain in the communication process. That is the reason that makes emotions dangerous to the communication process. Emotions alienate interpretation of information. They introduce facts of meaning that are beyond the information at hand (Mehrabian 1971, p.213). Language is the vehicle of communication. Like all vehicles, it might carry one to the intended destination, or it may not carry one to the intended destination. This is because words have dissimilar meanings to diverse people. The innuendos that come with all words communicate different things to different people. That is the reason why one should choose words with discretion in the communication process. An innocent allusion might be instrumental in destroying the communication process. The tragedy of language is that the communicator cannot get into the mind of the receiver to know which words he or she would want used. Thus, the sender of the information will use language cautiously.Languge in communication is informed by the culture of the recipient. The age, education, gender, social class and other factors (Roy 2010, p.11). An additional hindrance to communication is communication apprehension. This is the tension that comes with communication whether oral or written. This is because communication apprehension shifts the focus from information to the individual receiving the information. In the case of oral information, the receiver wants to get done quickly with the information. He or she does not give attention to the nuances that underlie words. Apprehension puts pressure on the receiver, and unbalances him to the point that a wrong interpretation is assumed (Roy 2010, p.11). There are many more other barriers to communication like using the wrong communication channel and lack of sensitivity to the receiver. The fact is, however, that some of these barriers can be eliminate especially in the business arena. It is always advisable that the receiver and the sender will work to eliminate the communication process. This is because communication is mutual and it takes two people to make it, or destroy (Roy 2010, p.11). References Berlo, K 1960, The process of communication, Holt, Rinehart, & Winston, New York, p.37-48. Chandler, D 1994, The Transmission Model of Communication, Aber, London, p.132. Covey, S 1989, The Seven Habits of highly effective people, Pocket Books, New York, pp 236. Goleman, D 1995, Emotional intelligence, Bantam, New York, P.108. Mehrabian, A 1971, Silent Messages, Wadsworth, Belmont, CA, p.213. Roy - Berko et al 2010, Communicating, Pearson Education, Boston, MA, p.11. Schramm, W 1954, How communication works, In W. Schramm (Ed.), The process and effects of communication, University of Illinois Press Urbana, Illinois, p.16. Shannon, E & Weaver, W 1949, The mathematical theory of communication, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, p.154. Read More