BARRIERS TO BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Communication plays an important role in bussiness and also in our daily life. However, there are still many barriers that prevent us from communicating effectively. What are those barriers and how to over come them? In this short report, I will show you the basic anwer to that question.

Interferers are the main barriers to communication, they will interfere or distort what the communicator implies. Interferers exist in many forms, it can occurs among individuals as well as within the organization.

Communication barriers between individuals may be caused by the messages sender such as unclear message, wrong jargons using, information overloading, ect.. or by the receiver such as poor reading or poor listening skills. Some times the interferers occurs because of the context with physical barriers, faulty equipment, ect…

We can list out the typical interferers among individuals as below:

1. “ I ‘ve already known” attitude
2. The thought that communication is a simple matter
3. Such little information conveyed
4. Too much information conveyed (Information overload)
5. Insufficient adjustment period or Poor timing
6. Differences in perception and languages: Unclarified assumotions; Perceptial Bias; Foreint language; Slang and idiom; Local intonation and tone…
7. Poor listening or reading skills.
8. Psychological noise.
9. Emotion impact: Lack of interest or hostile attitude, Not in good mood; ect…
10. Cross culture: Social value; Role and status; Making decision custom; Time concept; Prejudice; Cultural context; Body language; Social behavior; Legal and ethical behavior; Ethnocentrism and stereotyping; Corporate culture differences…
11. Physical barries: Distance; Stacks of paper; physical noise; Technical noise…

Within an organization, the barriers are:

1. Information overload and too much prior-resolved information.
2. Inaccurate information selection.
3. Closed or inappropriate communication atmosphere.

Interferers cause distortion. It means that the receiver will misunderstand or only partially understand the message. There fore, it is important for the sender to find ways to overcome the barriers as well as inadequating his personal communication skills.

A good message must obey the 7 C’ principles: Clear, Concise, Correct, Courteous, Complete, Consistent and Convincing. Besides, this message must be sended to the right person, at the right moment, right place and by the right way. But how to effectuate it? We are suggested to follow these four steps:

Fisrt, you must define the purpose. Ask yourself what you want to achieve: find out some one ’s opinion, ask for advice, change his attitude, convince him, educate him, have him do something, enlight him, attack him… or just discuss with him to find out the solution your common issues? Identifying the purpose clearly and exactly is the first step to know what we need to convey.

Then, we need to know our target audience. Who are they? Where and how can we find them? How can we contact with them? What are their cultural background? What is the relationship between us and them? It is also important to study their languages, their attitudes, and their needs. The more we understand the audience the easier we can put ourselves in the place of them and then chose a suitable way to communicate with them. Beside, we can predict their reaction and make plan to handle all situations that may occur.

Next, it is time to decide when and how to communicate. What is the best medium and channel for your particular situation? Do you have to writte or say? What are the contents that you are going to convey? What are the types of language needed? What kind of attitude you need to express ? ... Although all of them are based on the situation, the characteristics of the audience and ofcause, your communication purpose, genarally, there are some advice for us when communicating, as you can see below:

1. Promote an out-going communicating atmosphere. (Encourage feetback and confessions; Be able to respond feetback)

2. Keep ethics in communication. (Provide appropriate and honest information, no deception)

3. Understand the cross culture.

4. Make the audience-centered approach. (Respect the views and oppinions of the audience, estaplish a good relationship with them…)

5. Be positive.

6. Use appropriate language, tone and style.

6. Review and asess for errors.

7. Plan and evaluate the communication.

Finally, do not forget to inadequate your personal communication skills. This require a little theory but a lot of practice. The most important thing in communication is languages.We shoud improve our abilities to use language and understand the orther’s because it is the key to buidl friendships, culturalities and other kinds of relations among people. Speaking and writing skills help express our meanings. Reading skill help understand information and build vocabulary. Listening skill help us be sympathetic with other. And non-verbal language tells us more than what we understand from words. The only-best way to improve language ability is practice more and more. Some technic can help but there is no need to learn if we do not spend time practicing. On the contrary, while praticing, we will naturally think about finding the technic.

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