Remedies to the Barriers to Communication By Teresa O'Hanlon, eHow Contributor

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Global Tel Communication Business Relationships 1.

Succesful communication plays upon strategies. Effective communication is a tool that can provide innumerable benefits within the workplace, at school and among interpersonal relationships. Despite the strongest communication skills, certain barriers such as defensiveness, underlying negativity or cultural roadblocks may limit the effectiveness of the message. By facing common barriers to communication with well-planned strategies, the messenger and receiver can maximize the impact of the message.

2. Edit the Message

Only half of the message is aborbed, so keep it simple. Often the communicator is so caught up in the subject he is communicating that the message becomes too long, overly detailed, and contains more information than necessary. Offer to-the-point messages that are easy to comprehend and encourage an appropriate reaction on the part of the receiver. Remember the recipient will only remember half of the communication the first time she receives it.

3. Avoid Cultural Confusion o Be clear with the message and avoid using slang or unnecessary metaphors that may challenge or confuse a recipient from a different culture. Create a culture of communication that uses simple language where people of all backgrounds can participate. Celebrate the diversity of a global society by researching how the source culture best receives communication.

Identify Difficult Recipients

Group reaction to communicaiton can be powerful. Difficult people can disrupt the line of communication in many ways. Unreasonable receivers have unrealistic expectations, extremely disagreeable recipients can have a negative effect and back-stabbers can attack the message while appearing to be supportive in person. Identify the type of difficult receiver and do not ignore their tactics. Create a plan to take control of their behavior with the underlying goal of always keeping ownership of the message. For example, corner negativity by restating a difficult person's opposition while inviting all receivers to offer feedback on a proposal. Unrealistic negativity will be brought down naturally as a group supports moving toward a goal.

Nonverbal Knowledge

Body language can complement verbal communicaiton. According to Dr. Edward Wertheim, a business communications expert at North Eastern University, more than 90 percent of interpersonal communication happens through nonverbal cues from the messenger. Body language, gestures and facial expressions can complement or conflict with the message depending on how the receiver interprets both the verbal and nonverbal part of the message. Focus on the impact of nonverbal cues to increase the effectiveness of the message.

Acknowledge Learning Styles

Multimedia messages benefit a variety of recipients. Create a message that targets the different types of learning styles, such as visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and tactile. Some receivers interpret messages better when they can read them, others recall better when audio is involved in the message. The kinesthetic and tactile learning groups appreciate hands-on experience with a task instead of reading about it in a report or manual.

Read more: Remedies to the Barriers to Communication | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/list_7213257_remedies-barriers-communication.html#ixzz1lCy1b2va Health workers' attitudes can create communication barriers. Aubel J, Rabei H, Mukhtar M. Source Diarrhoeal Disease Programme, Ministry of Health, South White Nile Province, Sudan. Abstract In Sudan's South White Nile Province the development of a communication strategy for the diarrhoeal disease programme was preceded by the collection of data from community members and health personnel. A majority of health workers had only a limited knowledge of the community's methods of dealing with diarrhoea. Most of these workers had very negative attitudes towards mothers and home interventions. This information was vital for planning a comprehensive educational scheme for both health workers and communities. PIP: The knowledge and attitudes of doctors and medical assistants, community health workers, and mothers of 0-4 year old children were assessed regarding diarrheal disease management in the Sudan's South White Nile Province. The operating assumption was that communication was a two- way exchange between health staff and mothers. The quality of this interaction was seen as related to the technical knowledge and skills of health workers and their attitudes towards traditional healers and the home management of diarrhea by clients. Knowledge was assessed with a quantitative instrument, and attitudes were obtained from an open ended qualitative interview with 12 questions. A convenience sample was drawn of 20 doctors and medical assistants responsible for diarrheal consisted of 2 medical assistants, a health education officer, a statistical technician, and a senior nurse. Training was provided for interviewers. The analysis of the qualitative data involved content analysis. The findings differentiated doctors and medical assistants from CHWS on their knowledge of popular terms and concepts. None of the formal providers had indepth knowledge of popular terms or an understanding of the relationship between a popular term and the community's approach to diagnosis and treatment of diarrhea. CHWs were more knowledgeable about terms but like the doctors, were unable to understand the connection of terms with diarrheal treatment. The explanation may be that all CHWs were men. Mothers differentiated 12-13 different types of diarrhea and treatment including home remedies, consultation with traditional healers, or office health service was related to the diarrhea type. The attitudes of doctors and CHWs toward traditional healers was that their practices were inappropriate, and doctors consequently tried to convince mothers that healers' practices were ineffective. All of the mothers considered traditional healers to be experts in the diagnosis and treatment of diarrhea and concerned for the community's well being. Traditional healers were rated as superior to health staff. Doctors and CHWs both categorized the treatment of the

mothers as neglectful, inappropriate, or unscientific. Mothers' remedies included continued breastfeeding, and the feeding of yogurt, custard, rice, herbal tea, rice water, and fruit juice. Training of health staff to be less critical of traditional strategies and to develop better communications skills was suggested. PMID: 1821118 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE] Barriers of communication and its remedy

Posted Date: 28-Jun-2009 Author: Jyoti Malhotra Rating:

Category: Education Member Level: Diamond Points: 15 (Rs 10)

Communication can face barriers and it can be due to delay, distortion and dilution. When the information gets distorted due to the faulty system or jealousy or faulty listening or inadequate vocabulary or baldly chosen words, it looses its meaning. There are psychological barriers which are caused by prejudice, preconceived notion, distrust of the communicator, misinterpretation of his intention and the things like. Dilution is caused by a person who is posing as a yes man as to what he expects to hear rather than presenting the actual feedback of the matter concerned.

The reasons that can cause interferences in communication are personal, physical and semantic (science of sound). These barriers need to be lowered to achieve effectiveness in communication. There have to be methods to overcome these barriers as they help in enhancing the effectiveness in communication.

Communication is the integral part of an organization therefore it becomes necessary to overcome the barriers in order to minimize the effect of these barriers. There are many methods to overcome these barriers they are: 1. The policy of the organization must be clear and explicit. It should be designed in such a way so that it encourages communication flow. It should be easily understandable by all the levels. The policies for communication should be clear and should favor the promotion of communication in the organization. 2. The policy should be able to specify the subject to be communicated to others. It means that the subject matter should be expressive enough to determine the needs of the organization rather than creating any confusion. 3. Communication through proper channel works out effectively. But the flow of communication in the orderly form should not be insisted upon every time. At times it can be ignored and not strictly followed in order to keep the functioning of the organization smooth and effective. 4. There should be an adequate facility of promoting communication in an organization. Proper attention should be given for the effective use of words and language. Superiors should take care of using supportive attitude methods and proper behavioral needs to overcome any embarrassing situation. Barriers to Effective Communication Barriers to Communication may be broadly classified as below: 1. Physical Barriers Following are the physical barriers: (a) The Competing Stimulus: It becomes very difficult to pass on the message orally, if another confirmation giving information simultaneously within hearing distance, sometimes-loud music or traffic noise creates barrier in the communication process. (b) Environmental Stress: A strong light puts hindrance in case of visual communication. Because of undesired strain on the eyes of the communicatee, message is not received properly. A high temperature, humidity, bad ventilation etc. contribute in the sending and receiving of message. (c) Subjective Stress: Due to sleeplessness, ill health, consumption of drugs, mental strain etc. communicator can not interpret the message in desired manner.

(d) Ignorance of Media: User should be well conversant with media that is adopted for conveying the message. The use of a media with which the receiver is not familiar would turn the media itself into a barrier. For example, the uses of visual media like maps and charts to instruct workers, who have not been familiar with maps and charts, would switch off their attention for lack of knowledge of the media. 2. Psychological Barrier: Every person has his own way to look at the world, at people, at events and situations. A way of thinking of a person many times takes a shape of strong base of communication. No two persons possess accurately similar frames of reference. Following are the psychological barriers (a) Unjust Assumptions: It creates a lot of misunderstanding. A manager, for example, incorrectly assumes that the subordinates understand the technical terms he adopts to give the instructions. (b) Barrier of Allness: Certain people think that they know everything about a subject. Usually they are not prepared to accept that they could be mistaken. Many make the generalized statements like women can not become superior to men or insincerity is the base of business. An attitude of allness is an outcome of biased approach. (c) Snap Reactions: Some listeners tend to pass remarks or criticize the communicator even though his communication is not completed. Hurried interpretations are not needed. Audience needs to be patient enough to let the communicator finish his speech. (d) Apathetic Listener: One who is psychologically dead and indifferent to speaker. Receivers apathy is an intolerable condition, when the communicator tries to carry out effective communication. (e) Sophisticated Role: The receiver is not willing to learn from the communicator. That means he is unteachable. In such situations the communicator should try to create right impact. (f) Defensiveness: Man always tries to justify himself. He thinks that admitting the mistake means a loss of face. Therefore, he tends to rationalize the mistake that he commits. This type of attitude of the communicatee is a great hindrance in the effective communication. (g) Fear: A fear gives rise to slow and narrow thinking. It is clearly destructive to communication. So the primary objective must be to eliminate fear. 3. Linguistic and Cultural Barriers: Language is perhaps the greatest barrier in communication area. A language is ambiguous by nature. The words of a language are mere symbols and they rarely represent only one meaning. These symbols are understood differently by the communicator and communicatee. Ultimately this results into misinterpretation. The words possess objective and subjective meaning. It should be kept in mind that the words carry numerous associations depending upon the political and cultural situation. 4. Mechanical Barriers: Mechanical barriers include any disturbances, which interfere with the fidelity of the physical transmission of the message. A telephone in poor working condition

creates mechanical barrier. In mass communication, mechanical barriers also include smeared ink in the printed matter, a rolling screen on TV, a type too small to be read in the newspaper. A good business communication requires the communicator to try and ensure that the message is received properly by the communication. Mechanical devices used for the communication need frequent checking and proper maintenance. Barriers to Effective Communication Barriers to Communication may be broadly classified as below: 1. Physical Barriers Following are the physical barriers: (a) The Competing Stimulus: It becomes very difficult to pass on the message orally, if another confirmation giving information simultaneously within hearing distance, sometimes-loud music or traffic noise creates barrier in the communication process. (b) Environmental Stress: A strong light puts hindrance in case of visual communication. Because of undesired strain on the eyes of the communicatee, message is not received properly. A high temperature, humidity, bad ventilation etc. contribute in the sending and receiving of message. (c) Subjective Stress: Due to sleeplessness, ill health, consumption of drugs, mental strain etc. communicator can not interpret the message in desired manner. (d) Ignorance of Media: User should be well conversant with media that is adopted for conveying the message. The use of a media with which the receiver is not familiar would turn the media itself into a barrier. For example, the uses of visual media like maps and charts to instruct workers, who have not been familiar with maps and charts, would switch off their attention for lack of knowledge of the media. 2. Psychological Barrier: Every person has his own way to look at the world, at people, at events and situations. A way of thinking of a person many times takes a shape of strong base of communication. No two persons possess accurately similar frames of reference. Following are the psychological barriers (a) Unjust Assumptions: It creates a lot of misunderstanding. A manager, for example, incorrectly assumes that the subordinates understand the technical terms he adopts to give the instructions. (b) Barrier of Allness: Certain people think that they know everything about a subject. Usually they are not prepared to accept that they could be mistaken. Many make the generalized statements like women can not become superior to men or insincerity is the base of business. An attitude of allness is an outcome of biased approach. (c) Snap Reactions: Some listeners tend to pass remarks or criticize the communicator even though his communication is not completed. Hurried interpretations are not needed. Audience needs to be patient enough to let the communicator finish his speech. (d) Apathetic Listener: One who is psychologically dead and indifferent to speaker. Receivers apathy is an intolerable condition, when the communicator tries to carry out effective communication. (e) Sophisticated Role: The receiver is not willing to learn from the communicator. That means

he is unteachable. In such situations the communicator should try to create right impact. (f) Defensiveness: Man always tries to justify himself. He thinks that admitting the mistake means a loss of face. Therefore, he tends to rationalize the mistake that he commits. This type of attitude of the communicatee is a great hindrance in the effective communication. (g) Fear: A fear gives rise to slow and narrow thinking. It is clearly destructive to communication. So the primary objective must be to eliminate fear. 3. Linguistic and Cultural Barriers: Language is perhaps the greatest barrier in communication area. A language is ambiguous by nature. The words of a language are mere symbols and they rarely represent only one meaning. These symbols are understood differently by the communicator and communicatee. Ultimately this results into misinterpretation. The words possess objective and subjective meaning. It should be kept in mind that the words carry numerous associations depending upon the political and cultural situation. 4. Mechanical Barriers: Mechanical barriers include any disturbances, which interfere with the fidelity of the physical transmission of the message. A telephone in poor working condition creates mechanical barrier. In mass communication, mechanical barriers also include smeared ink in the printed matter, a rolling screen on TV, a type too small to be read in the newspaper. A good business communication requires the communicator to try and ensure that the message is received properly by the communication. Mechanical devices used for the communication need frequent checking and proper maintenance. Barriers to Effective Communication Barriers to Communication may be broadly classified as below: 1. Physical Barriers Following are the physical barriers: (a) The Competing Stimulus: It becomes very difficult to pass on the message orally, if another confirmation giving information simultaneously within hearing distance, sometimes-loud music or traffic noise creates barrier in the communication process. (b) Environmental Stress: A strong light puts hindrance in case of visual communication. Because of undesired strain on the eyes of the communicatee, message is not received properly. A high temperature, humidity, bad ventilation etc. contribute in the sending and receiving of message. (c) Subjective Stress: Due to sleeplessness, ill health, consumption of drugs, mental strain etc. communicator can not interpret the message in desired manner. (d) Ignorance of Media: User should be well conversant with media that is adopted for conveying the message. The use of a media with which the receiver is not familiar would turn the media itself into a barrier. For example, the uses of visual media like maps and charts to instruct workers, who have not been familiar with maps and charts, would switch off their attention for lack of knowledge of the media. 2. Psychological Barrier: Every person has his own way to look at the world, at people, at events

and situations. A way of thinking of a person many times takes a shape of strong base of communication. No two persons possess accurately similar frames of reference. Following are the psychological barriers (a) Unjust Assumptions: It creates a lot of misunderstanding. A manager, for example, incorrectly assumes that the subordinates understand the technical terms he adopts to give the instructions. (b) Barrier of Allness: Certain people think that they know everything about a subject. Usually they are not prepared to accept that they could be mistaken. Many make the generalized statements like women can not become superior to men or insincerity is the base of business. An attitude of allness is an outcome of biased approach. (c) Snap Reactions: Some listeners tend to pass remarks or criticize the communicator even though his communication is not completed. Hurried interpretations are not needed. Audience needs to be patient enough to let the communicator finish his speech. (d) Apathetic Listener: One who is psychologically dead and indifferent to speaker. Receivers apathy is an intolerable condition, when the communicator tries to carry out effective communication. (e) Sophisticated Role: The receiver is not willing to learn from the communicator. That means he is unteachable. In such situations the communicator should try to create right impact. (f) Defensiveness: Man always tries to justify himself. He thinks that admitting the mistake means a loss of face. Therefore, he tends to rationalize the mistake that he commits. This type of attitude of the communicatee is a great hindrance in the effective communication. (g) Fear: A fear gives rise to slow and narrow thinking. It is clearly destructive to communication. So the primary objective must be to eliminate fear. 3. Linguistic and Cultural Barriers: Language is perhaps the greatest barrier in communication area. A language is ambiguous by nature. The words of a language are mere symbols and they rarely represent only one meaning. These symbols are understood differently by the communicator and communicatee. Ultimately this results into misinterpretation. The words possess objective and subjective meaning. It should be kept in mind that the words carry numerous associations depending upon the political and cultural situation. 4. Mechanical Barriers: Mechanical barriers include any disturbances, which interfere with the fidelity of the physical transmission of the message. A telephone in poor working condition creates mechanical barrier. In mass communication, mechanical barriers also include smeared ink in the printed matter, a rolling screen on TV, a type too small to be read in the newspaper. A good business communication requires the communicator to try and ensure that the message is received properly by the communication. Mechanical devices used for the communication need frequent checking and proper maintenance. Communication can face barriers and it can be due to delay, distortion and dilution. When the information gets distorted due to the faulty system or

jealousy or faulty listening or inadequate vocabulary or baldly chosen words, it looses its meaning. There are psychological barriers which are caused by prejudice, preconceived notion, distrust of the communicator, misinterpretation of his intention and the things like. Dilution is caused by a person who is posing as a yes man as to what he expects to hear rather than presenting the actual feedback of the matter concerned.

The reasons that can cause interferences in communication are personal, physical and semantic (science of sound). These barriers need to be lowered to achieve effectiveness in communication. There have to be methods to overcome these barriers as they help in enhancing the effectiveness in communication.

Communication is the integral part of an organization therefore it becomes necessary to overcome the barriers in order to minimize the effect of these barriers. There are many methods to overcome these barriers they are: 1. The policy of the organization must be clear and explicit. It should be designed in such a way so that it encourages communication flow. It should be easily understandable by all the levels. The policies for communication should be clear and should favor the promotion of communication in the organization. 2. The policy should be able to specify the subject to be communicated to others. It means that the subject matter should be expressive enough to determine the needs of the organization rather than creating any confusion. 3. Communication through proper channel works out effectively. But the flow of communication in the orderly form should not be insisted upon every time. At times it can be ignored and not strictly followed in order to keep the functioning of the organization smooth and effective. 4. There should be an adequate facility of promoting communication in an organization. Proper attention should be given for the effective use of words and language. Superiors should take care of using supportive attitude methods and proper behavioral needs to overcome any embarrassing situation.