Communication Skills

Barriers

Communication is considered as dynamic process.There are several factors responsible for the breakdown of communication.These factors are known as Noise or Barriers.

Physical Barrier:

· Noise-The noise made by vehicle horns, crackers, loud speakers, cell phones, people talking loudly obstruct flow of communication. The sender or receiver may lose vital information as the receiver can receive distorted message. Moreover it can bring mental fatigue to both parties.

· Distance-When people speak from far distances their voices become inaudible.

· Time

· Environmental conditions-adverse climatic conditions like extreme cold or extreme hot decreases attention level of listener resulting inefficient communication.

Mechanical Barrier

· Faulty Instruments-Use of defective communication devices can affect transmission as well as reception of message.

· Machine Illiteracy-Inadequate knowledge and lack of skill can affect process of communication.

Socio-Cultural Barrier: Socio-cultural barriers influence the interpersonal and cross cultural relations of individuals. Class conflict, caste divide, cross ultural differences may give rise to conflict and raise a barrier to communication. Because of socio cultural barrier many communities feel marginalized, subjugated and victimized. This creates gap between social groups.

Psycholgical Barriers:.

· Fear/Phobia-People with certain fears or prejudices stop communicating with people they don’t feel comfortable with.

· Superiority complex-Some people consider themselves as omnipotent. They do not want to listen to other people’s suggestion and want to nullify other people’s thoughts.

· Halo effect-It is tendency to overrate a person good in all fields because he/she is good in one field. People suffering halo effect receive suggestion only from people they like the most and thereby reject ideas of others.

· Horns effect-It is tendency to underestimate and dislike a person because he is not good in one of the fields. Horns effect blocks the possibility of communication between individuals who dislike each other.

Lnguistic/Semantic Barrier:

· Illiteracy-illiterate people cannot read or write. Hence they can’t communicate.

· Jargon-Excessive use of technical and scientific words can create difficulty in understanding of thoughts. Difficult terms and abstruse words can be responsible for breakdown of communication.

· Errata-An erratum is error in printing or writing. Printing mistakes are common examples.

· Slang-Use of slang gives a bad impression to receiver.

· Spelling and grammar-Grammatical mistakes in writing and structural errors while speaking are major barriers to communication.

· Freudian slip-many a times we say something accidently and which provokes anger of listener. The speaker actually wants say something else but unknowingly says something different. This can also affect communication as well as interpersonal relationships.