Barriers to Effective Communication

What are the barriers to Effective Communication in the workplace?

Barriers are influencing factors that break the continuous communications loop. In a workplace, it occurs due to the daily interactions involving employees who may or may not have experience.

The important ones are described as follows:

 1.   Information Overload: The state when the person has more information than one can process. In the workplace, employees have to deal with numerous:

•   Emails
  
  
•   Phone calls
  
  
•   Meetings  

  The study found that on average, employees visited 40 websites  during the workday. 

Information Overload in an organisation.(2018).Retrieved from https://image.slidesharecdn.com/barrierstocommunication-141030224301-conversion-gate01/95/barriers-in-communication-27-638.jpg?cb=1414721863

  When the employees have more data, they prefer to:

•       Sort
  
  
•       Ignore
  
  
•       Forget 

As a result of this, communication become ineffective.

     2.   Poor attention:  Poor attention given by the receiver, make the communication inefficient. It leads to a one-way communication process. 

One-way communication.(2018).Retrieved from https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ACpNHCAdu8/Wx8gA9xKG0I/AAAAAAAAACI
/uECj9dkKorUG7YSC0s4l2ReEd8q32JE1QCLcBGAs/
s640/Simplex-Communication-System.png

The common feature is simply failure to read:

•      Notices
  
  
•      Minutes
  
  
•      Reports  

    Therefore, the message conveyed is misunderstood. It may be contradictory due to:

      ·       Beliefs                                       ·       Expectations

     3.  Lack of Trust:  Communication is exchanging information only when there is a mutual trust between:

    In case of doubt, the message would not be conveyed successfully. For instance, Credibility Gaps originate lack of trust.

      4.   Noisy Distractions: If communication occurs in the noisy environment then it could distress your thoughts, which can create barriers to communication. 

     5.  Dependent on emails: Average time spent on emails is 2.5 hours in the workplace. Therefore, it is not the real-time conversation. Depending on emails is considered the main barrier nowadays.

       References

Baker, D. T. (n.d.). IIDM. Retrieved from IIDM: http://www.iidmglobal.com/expert_talk/expert-talk-categories/managing-people/staff_communication/id3264-nine-barriers-to-effective-workplace-communication.html

Information Overload in an organisation.(2018).Retrieved from https://image.slidesharecdn.com/

barrierstocommunication-141030224301-conversion-gate01/95/

barriers-in-communication-27-638.jpg?cb=1414721863

One-way communication.(2018).Retrieved from https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4ACpNHCAdu8/Wx8gA9xKG0I/

AAAAAAAAACI
/uECj9dkKorUG7YSC0s4l2ReEd8q32JE1QCLcBGAs/
s640/Simplex-Communication-System.png

Steven L.McSHANE, S. L. (n.d.). Canadian Organizational Behaviour. McGraw-Hill Ryerson.