Barriers To Effective Communication

Barriers to Effective
Communication
Dr. Wasim Hassan
Barriers to
Effective Communication
Why is Communication Imperfect?
• Since no two people think alike, no message

but the most simplistic is ever perceived
precisely as it exists in the communicator’s
mind
Noise
• The loss of meaning which may block communication is
referred to as “Noise”
• Also known as “Communication Falloff”, Communication

Blocks”, “Distortion”, “Interference”, “or “Barrier”
Types
• Psychological Barriers
• Semantic Barriers
• Non-Verbal Barriers
What do you “think”?
All men are …………………………………………

All women are ……………………………………
Men are ………………………………… than women.
All Muslims from Pakistan ………………………………..
All Swiss watches are …………………………………………
All people living in Somalia are ……………………………………
All lawyers are …………………………………..
All disabled people in workplaces are ……………………………..
Psychological Barriers
Each person’s mind is unique filter. Problems with

communication are more likely to occur when the
communicators’ filters are sharply different
Emotional Differences
i. Pre-judgement
• People who tend to jump to the conclusions also bear
emotional differences which create communication block
ii. Close-minds
• People with rigid minds are considered ‘conservative’;
thus, they are found very difficult to communicate with
Perceptual Difference
• Communication involves perception, and perception is

never precise
• We perceive what we expect/want to perceive
• People tend to “fill in” information without checking
the accuracy
• Being selective by remembering the extremes and
forgetting the middle ground
Imagine this scene
• A father and his son are driving to work one morning
when suddenly they’re involved in a terrible car crash.
The father is killed instantly and the son is badly hurt.
An ambulance rushes the son to a hospital. In the
admitting room, the nurse says, “We’ve got to take him
straight into surgery or he may die.” they rush him
down the hall to surgery. The surgeon walks in, take
one look at the boy, and says, “I can’t operate on him.
He’s my son.”
HOW CAN THIS BE!!!

Look at the following pictures and let your
perception at loose
?
Semantic Barriers
• Words are symbols so can’t have precisely the same meaning

for everyone
• Even if you are skilled to comprehend jargons and overly
pompous words, you may still run into semantic blocks
• This problem arises due to explicit and implicit meanings of
words i.e.
 Denotation
 Connotation
Denotation vs Connotation
• Denotation is the literal meaning of a word, the
dictionary meaning, a direct specific meaning as distinct
from an implied or associated idea.
• Connotation is the implied meaning of a word, or the

suggesting of a meaning by a word apart from the thing it
explicitly names.
• Their relationship is just like saying:
“I know what you said, but what did you mean?”

Feel the difference
1.
• a good night's rest.
• “Good night, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to thy
rest (burial).”
2.
• “The sky is blue.”
• “My cousin is blue and on anti-depressants.”

3.
• You may live in a house. But we live in a home.
COLOUR
When I was born, I was black.
When I grow up, I'm black.
When I'm ill, I'm black.
When I go out in the sun, I'm black.
When I'm cold, I'm black.
When I die, I'm black.
But you -
When you're born, you're pink.

When you grow up, you're white.
When you're ill, you're green.
When you go out in the sun, you go red.
When you're cold, you go blue.
When you die, you're purple.
And you have the nerve to call me coloured?

Some key terms to consider
Acronyms
• A word formed from the initial letters of the several words in the
name e.g. NTU (National Textile University)
Euphemisms
• An inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that
is considered offensive or too harsh e.g. ‘kick the bucket’, or ‘pass
away’ is the use of euphemism for the hard expression ‘die’
Homonyms
• Words pronounced or spelled the same way but have different
meanings e.g. bank, mole, race etc.
Non-Verbal Barriers
• Communication does not consist of words alone, so it is

quite likely to have non-verbal barriers to the effective
communication
Appearance
Body Language
Silence, Space, and Time
Appearances
Personal Appearance
• Clothing, hairstyles, neatness, jewelry, cosmetics,
posture/stature
Physical Appearance
For Writing
• Jammed or jagged margins, fingerprints or smudges, unclear
photocopies, or messy corrections, etc.
For Speaking
• Mumbling, poor enunciating, stuttering, irregularities in voice
modulations, etc.
Contd.
• Even the surroundings might distract and cause blocks
in effective communication i.e. hissing ventilations,
blowing air conditioning/fans, clattering sounds, ringing
telephones, slamming doors, construction or traffic
noise, etc.
• So the message might lose meaning as the audience has

some acoustic problems, lack of comfortable seats or
even due to inadequate lighting
Body Language
• Facial Expressions
• Gestures
• Movements
• Voice
Silence, Space, & Time
• Consider how you feel when you make an oral request
that is met with silence
• Consider how would you react if you have stepped into

an elevator filled with people
• Consider how do you feel when you are kept waiting for
two hours for a scheduled meeting
Thank You for Not Creating Any Barriers!
References
• Murphy A, Herta. (2009). Effective Business Communication.
McGraw Hill: New York. pp.15-26
Home Assignment
• Observe the society you live in. Come up with at least 5
Cultural Barriers you think can cause communication
falloff.
• Exchange them among you and prepare a list of those
barriers.

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Barriers to Effective

• Since no two people think alike, no message

• Also known as “Communication Falloff”, Communication

All men are …………………………………………

Each person’s mind is unique filter. Problems with

• Communication involves perception, and perception is

HOW CAN THIS BE!!!

• Words are symbols so can’t have precisely the same meaning

• Connotation is the implied meaning of a word, or the

• Their relationship is just like saying:

“I know what you said, but what did you mean?”

• “My cousin is blue and on anti-depressants.”

When you're born, you're pink.

And you have the nerve to call me coloured?

• Communication does not consist of words alone, so it is

• So the message might lose meaning as the audience has

• Consider how would you react if you have stepped into

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