Hi and a very good morning to all managers. Thank you for having me here today.

It is an honor
to be here with all the managers today. My name is Helmi and today I am here to speak about
Effect of communication barriers and overcoming these barriers. An organization is an
individuals first home as one spends the maximum time here only. No organization runs for
charity, it is really important that the organization achieve its goals. How does an organization
become successful? How will an organization achieve its goals?

Communication means the exchange and flow of information or feeling to a receiver. Effective
communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the
sender intended to transmit. Many of the problems that occur in an organization are the either the
direct result of people failing to communicate and/or processes, which leads to confusion and can
cause good plans to fail. Studying the communication process is important because you coach,
coordinate, counsel, evaluate, and supervise throughout this process. It is the chain of
understanding that integrates the members of an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top,
and side to side. Effective communication is an important element of success of every
organization, leader, manager, supervisor and employee. An organization whose people
communicate effectively experiences fewer of the misunderstandings that create friction between
people, waste time and cause mistakes. Good communication skills also give people an edge in
getting the jobs they want and help them move up a ladder to better paid positions.

Communication barrier means obstacle in a workplace that prevent effective exchange of ideas
and thoughts. Such barriers include status differences, gender differences, cultural differences,
prejudices, the organizational environment and many more. There are several barriers that affect
the flow of communication in an organization. These barriers interrupt the flow of
communication from the sender to the receiver, thus making communication ineffective. It is
essential for managers to overcome these barriers. The employees are the assets for any
organization and the profitability of any organization is directly proportional to the labour put by
its employees. Putting labour does not mean getting involved in hard physical work or digging
the gold mines, it actually refers to the smart work done by employees, transparency between the

team members, free flow of information from the superior to the subordinates. How does free
flow of information happen? How is the transparency between the team members achieved? Through Communication and not only through communication but effective communication.
The main barriers of communication are summarized below.

The first barrier is information overload. In organizations the barriers in communication go a

long way in distortion of the message and the information does not reach in its desired
form.Imagine a situation where you want some report from your team members which needs to
be forwarded to the managing director of the organization. What if your team misinterprets your
information, screws up the project and fails to submit it within the deadline. The managing
director will literally sit on your head and make your life miserable. The poor communication
can actually cost you your job. Human are not robots or some kind of memory machines that can
store or keep a large number of amount of information that are being told to them. Unlike certain
devices such as pendrive or hardisk that we can store mountains of information and we can keep
and retrieve the information at a later date. Thus two way communication is important here. If
only managers speak and the employee listen it will not be effective communication as the
employee might not absorb all the information and at the end of the day no issues or questions
being asked or raised. The manager at least must ask question and give feedback to the
employees if they do not understand.
The second barrier would be noise. Noise acts as a devil in business communication. Any
information downloaded at a noisy place is bound to get distorted and result in a complete mess.
For example a manager, Zara wanted to go through the complete budget of the sales, marketing
and the operations team. She passed on this information to Zul at his workstation around which
lots of other employees were shouting, the base phone was constantly ringing and the
photocopier machine was making a terrible noise. At the end of the day, Zul submitted the report
but the budget for the operations team was missing in the report. Zul actually had heard only
about sales and marketing department and thus skipped the report of the operations team. Zara
fired Joe and even stopped his appraisal. Unwanted distractions, noise, chit chats of the other
employees etc played the culprit and poor Zul missed out on his promotion. Noise reduces the
chances of the correct flow of information from the sender to the receiver. If the office is noisy,

errors are bound to happen and thus increasing conflicts among the team members and
decreasing the efficiency of the employees.

The third barrier is inattention. Sometimes we just not listen but hear. It also leads to ineffective
communication in organizations. Business communications are bound to suffer due to ineffective
communication. If any individual wants something from his team members, he first must be
himself very clear what actually he expects from his team. The boss must clearly mention his
team members key responsibility areas in clear words to avoid wastage of manpower, duplicacy
of work, effective time management and more output from them.Not cross checking among
themselves or with the superiors also spoils the business communication to a large extent. For
example, Niza was sharing her phone number with her client and she never bothered to verify
with her client whether he has noted the correct number or not. One day, the client had a major
query and he had to discuss with Niza on an urgent basis. He kept on trying the same number
which Niza gave but someone else was responding. He then had to call the front desk lady to get
connected with Niza and obviously he was furious. The client had wrongly noted Nizas number
and thus wasted his precious time and lost his temper. While sharing any important contact
number it is the responsibility of the speaker to cross check with the listener. Email ids must be
spelled out properly to avoid wrong spellings and unnecessary wastage of time.

The fourth one would be the tone of ones voice. During any business meeting, presentation or
seminar, the speaker has to be very careful about his pitch and tone. It has been observed that
during seminars or presentations only the front benchers are attentive, the last benchers are
almost lost in their own sweet world. The person who chairs the meeting has to speak very
clearly, has to be very confident and must maintain a tone audible to everyone, even to the
individuals sitting on the last row. Information must pass to them also to expect the best out of
them and increase their efficiency. Try to make the seminar or the meeting interactive. Dont just
speak, the speakers should also ask questions from the team. After any seminar or meeting, the
superior or the incharge must send the minutes of the meeting through e-mail to all the required

recipients to avoid last minute confusions and discrepancies. The speaker must ensure whether
everyone is clear or not.

The fifth barrier is understood the ability and the capability of your employee. In any
organization, it is mandatory to understand which employee can do a particular assignment, and
which employee is not fit for a particular role. Zaki was not keen for a branding profile but his
boss could never understand her interest and always wondered why Zaki was not effectively
performing? In any organization, before assigning responsibilities to the employees, it is a must
to understand the employee and his area of specialization and interest. Communication will be
for sure ineffective if a person from an accounting background is asked to deliver a presentation
on sales techniques. He is bound to get nervous and the message will fail in creating the required
impact. Dont just impose work on any employee, give him the work he enjoys doing the most.

Other than that difference in thought process also results in a poor communication in business
areas. A boss and the employee can never think on the same level. Let us try to understand the
situation with the help of an example. An accounting firm manager, Miss Siti needs the complete
financial report from her employee, Ali by end of the day. By financial report, Miss Siti actually
meant the complete financial analysis, which would include the complete details of how much
the company spends in advertising, promotional activities, and other marketing activities, analyse
the inflow and outflow of expenditure patterns and so on.Ali could never understand Miss Sitis
thought process. He simply compiled the expenditure details and handed over to Miss Siti. She
was obviously not happy. She was expecting much more from Ali. Ali had to resubmit the
project resulting in duplicacy of effort and wastage of time. Miss Siti should have made it very
clear from the very beginning what all she was expecting from Ali. She kept half of her things
within herself and did not share with Ali. Poor Ali had to redo his work. Every individual has a
different mindset, different level of understanding and thus it is important to share each and
every detail with others and clarify the things from the very beginning.
There are several ways to overcome these communication barriers. Both managers and
employees play an important role to make communication not just smoothly but effectively. The

first way is eliminating differences in perception. The organization should ensure that it is
recruiting right individuals on the job. Its the responsibility of the interviewer to ensure that the
interviewee has command over the written and spoken language. There should be proper
Induction program so that the policies of the company are clear to all the employees. There
should be proper trainings conducted for required employees and maybe before they hired the
suitable candidates, the candidates must seat for a computer test or writing test to test on their
computer ability and from the writing itself we can see their personalities, their thinking and
many more.
The second way is use a simple language. Usage of simple and clear words should be
emphasized between managers and employees so that they wont misinterpret what one trying to
say. Usage of ambiguous and jargons should also be avoided. Although we live in a new era
where everywhere is at the end of our finger tips we should avoid using jargons and short forms
as this will create confusion between two parties. Just a simple phrase or words will do. We do
not need bombastic words just to show off to our subordinate or colleagues as this will only
make them lost of the meaning of the word itself.
The third way would be reduction and elimination of noise levels. Noise is the main
communication barrier which must be overcome on priority basis. It is essential to identify the
source of noise and then eliminate that source. This is important not only in term of
communication but also in our daily work. We cant work in a noisy place. This will make us
inefficient and unproductive.
The forth way is active listening. We should listen attentively and carefully.There is a difference
between listening and hearing. Active listening means hearing with proper understanding of
the message that is heard. By asking questions the speaker can ensure whether his/her message is
understood or not by the receiver in the same terms as intended by the speaker. Rather than you
just listen and at the end of the day you forgot all the information. Its ok if you just listen and
absorb all the info and not asking question if you really understand of what the speaker or the
manager has to say. The problem is you just listen but do not want to ask question. It is due to
lack of confidence and shyness. It is ok if your grammar or vocabulary is upside down because
no one will scold you. The managers can correct it for you. Human beings are not perfect. We
make mistakes. The managers like employee who ask questions as they will know the level of

understanding of that employee so that he or she can elaborate more on the topic or issues that
been brought up.
Other than that the managers should avoid information overload. The managers should know
how to prioritize their work. They should not overload themselves with the work. They should
spend quality time with their subordinates and should listen to their problems and feedbacks
actively. There are also several ways that can overcome communication barriers as per below:

1. Emotional State: During communication one should make effective use of body
language. He/she should not show their emotions while communication as the receiver
might misinterpret the message being delivered. For example, if the conveyer of the
message is in a bad mood then the receiver might think that the information being
delivered is not good.
2. Simple Organizational Structure: The organizational structure should not be complex.
The number of hierarchical levels should be optimum. There should be a ideal span of
control within the organization. Simpler the organizational structure, more effective will
be the communication.
3. Give Constructive Feedback: Avoid giving negative feedback. The contents of the
feedback might be negative, but it should be delivered constructively. Constructive
feedback will lead to effective communication between the superior and subordinate.
4. Proper Media Selection: The managers should properly select the medium of
communication. Simple messages should be conveyed orally, like: face to face
interaction or meetings. Use of written means of communication should be encouraged
for delivering complex messages. For significant messages reminders can be given by
using written means of communication such as: Memos, Notices etc.
5. Flexibility in meeting the targets: For effective communication in an organization the
managers should ensure that the individuals are meeting their targets timely without
skipping the formal channels of communication. There should not be much pressure on
employees to meet their targets.

In a nutshell, one should remember that the listeners are also a part of the conversation. The
listeners must give their feedback at the end of the conversation. If you are not clear what your
boss is expecting out of you, or what you are actually supposed to do, please ASK. Dont
hesitate, ask questions. Dont hide your queries, ask and clear your doubts then and there only.
Your boss will only feel happy if you share your queries with him.

For the successful running of an organization, it is important that transparency is maintained

among the employees at all levels. Communication barriers must be overcome in organizations
to ensure the free flow of information between the sender and the recipient and for an effective
communication among the employees. Effective communication reduces the error rate, reduces
conflicts and misunderstandings and in turn increases the profitability of the organization. Every
employee must try their level best to avoid the communication barriers in organizations for an
effective business communication.
(2557 words)

References

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http://www.csedev.com/the-seven-barriers-of-communication/
4. MCPHEAT, S. (2011, 03 28). 7 ways to overcome barriers to communication. Retrieved
from http://www.m-t-d.co.uk/blog/7-ways-to-overcome-barriers-to-communication.htm
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