SBenegaL

Category: Barriers

  • Communication – Barriers 4

    In the last byte, we looked at cultural diversity as a barrier to communication. In today’s byte we look at gender difference and language as barriers to communication.

    Gender Differences:
    We just explained about cultural diversity in the last byte, and highlighted why it could be a potential barrier to communication. It has been said that even the conversation between men and women too is akin to the conversation between people from different cultures or ethnicities!

    A gateway to overcome this barrier is development of the awareness of gender specific differences is a key. Another gateway is to actively seek clarification from the speaker and not interpret it from one’s own frame of reference.

    Language:
    Language is another central element in communication and could be a barrier if its use obscures the meaning or distorts the intent. The same word could possess different meaning across countries too.

    Language barriers are also created across disciplines and professional boundaries by technical terminologies – acronyms could be understood by few while others outside the context wouldn’t be able to get any meaning out of this.

    It is always preferred to use a simple, direct, and declarative language – ensure also that sentences are short yet use words commonly used.

  • Communication – Barriers 3

    In the last byte, we looked at how status difference could act as a barrier to communication. In today’s byte, we look at cultural diversity as a barrier to communication.

    In the current world of globalization, where teams work across time-zones cultural diversity is a major barrier to communication that needs to be recognize and addressed. The difference in cultural values and patterns of behavior lead to a lot of confusion and act as barriers to communication. Given that there are also on-site projects that need to be executed, it so often happens that the outsider working in a foreign culture could find some of the habits extremely confusing and may be bizarre some times.

    Another important aspect that one needs to be aware of in the same context is the existence of cultural stereotypes (we shall discuss about stereotypes elsewhere, but discuss about this in the context of barrier to communication here). When one uses stereotypes to view people of other culture, many a times the individual differences within the other culture blurs out. This could mislead an individual to communicate inappropriately with people from other culture.

    The means to break this barrier – i.e. a gateway to communication is increasing the awareness of cultural diversity and being sensitive to the culture’s uniqueness. Another gateway could be to develop and acquire guide, map or a beacon to understand the interaction with people from other culture.

  • Communication – Barriers 2

    In the last byte, we looked at Physical Separation as a barrier to communication. In today’s byte, we look at how status difference acts as barriers to communication.

    Status Difference:
    Almost every organization has a hierarchy structure. Invariably an individual reports to someone above him and that individual supervisor id the one primary connection to the organization. This hierarchical arrangement creates a barrier to communication – the employee is more likely to distort up-ward communication compared to communication with their colleagues or their subordinates.

    As a supervisor, one would need to make use of the skills discussed in the earlier bytes on effective supervisory skills and become more approachable – this would act as the soothing factor in such status related issues. This would help ease the employee and make him/her more secure and would potentially lead to a straightforward upward communication.

    One would, through the above line of thought be likely to suggest a hierarchy free work environment – this practically would be extremely hard to achieve (refer to the discussion on transaction cost earlier); however the extensive use of information technology could drastically reduced the hierarchy.

  • Communication – Barriers & Gateways

    In the last byte, we looked at the need to be sensitive to employees and the way information is to be managed by a supervisor. In today’s byte, we begin discussion about barriers and gateways to communication which would be the subject matter of the bytes which would follow.

    To begin with defining these terms and understanding them would be the best approach [definitions as per the reference book]:
    Barriers to communication – refers to the aspects of communication content and context that can impair effective communication in a workplace.

    Gateway to communication – refers to the pathways through barriers to communication and antidotes to communication problems

    To solve the problem of barrier to communication, it would be important to first be aware and recognize them. Following is a list of such barriers to communication:

    1. Physical Separation
    2. Status Differences
    3. Gender Differences
    4. Cultural Diversity
    5. Language