Factors Affecting Communication

Below are some possible problem areas that may turn out to be barriers to
effective communication:

(a) Status/Role
The sender and receiver of a message may be of equal status within a
hierarchy (e.g. managers in an organization) or they may be at different
levels (e.g. manager/employee, lecturer/student, business owner/clients).
This difference in status sometimes affects the effectiveness of the
communication process.
(b) Cultural Differences
Cultural differences, both within or outside the organisation (for example,
inter-departmental dealings and communication with outside organisations
or ethnic minorities) may impede the communication process.

c) Choice of Communication
Channels Before you choose your communication channel, you should ask
yourself whether the channel is appropriate for a particular purpose and the
person/receiver you have in mind. Sending messages via inappropriate
channels can send out wrong signals and end up creating confusion.
(d) Length of Communication
The length of the message also affects the communication process. You
need to be sure that it serves the purpose and is appropriate for the
receiver. Is the message too long or too brief?
(e) Use of Language
Poor choice of words or weak sentence structure also hampers
communication. The same goes for inappropriate punctuation. The two
sentences below illustrate clearly how different placement of punctuation
can change the entire meaning of a sentence:
Woman, without her, man is nothing.
Woman, without her man, is nothing.
(f) Disabilities
Disabilities such as impaired sight, dyslexia and poor mental health can
also be barriers to good communication, and should be taken into
consideration when evaluating the effectiveness of the communication
process. You may need to use hearing aids, sign language, magnifying
systems, and symbols to alleviate problems caused by disabilities.
(g) Known or Unknown Receiver
Whether the receiver is known or unknown to you also plays a major role
in determining the effectiveness of your communication. A known
receiver may be better able to understand your message despite having
insufficient information as both of you probably have common
experiences and a shared schema. An unknown receiver, on the other
hand, may require more information and time to decode the message.
(h) Individual Perceptions/Attitudes/Personalities
Sometimes, the method of communication needs to take into consideration
the receiverÊs personality traits, age and preferred style. The elderly and
children, for example, have different communication needs and
preferences when compared to young adults. Is the receiver of your
message a visual, auditory, or kinesthetic sort of person? How do you
think they will react to your message? Can you adapt your communication
style to suit theirs?
(i) Atmosphere/Noise/Distraction
Our surroundings can sometimes pose as barriers to effective
communication. A noisy place (a party, for instance) usually puts a strain
on oral communication as both the sender and the receiver need to put
extra effort to get the message across and ensure that it is understood
clearly and correctly.
(j) Clarity of Message
Is the message conveyed in a clear or ambiguous manner?
(k) Lack of Feedback
Feedback is important as it enables confirmation of understanding to be
made by both parties. The lack of feedback can sometimes create problems
as it can lead to uncertainty and confusion.
 Tabitha Wangare Wambui

Alice W. Kibui Elizabeth

Gathuthi

Communication skills vol.I

Barriers to communication
Communication is the answer to the success of any organization
and if there are barriers to its effectiveness, there will be
frustration to the concerned parties. Communication barriers
can arise at every stage of the communication process that is
from the sender, the message, the channel, the receiver, the
feedback and the context.
“A barrier to communication is something that keeps
meanings from meeting. Meaning barriers exist between
all people, making communication much more difficult
than most people seem to realize. It is false to assume that
if one can talk he can communicate.
 Because so much of our education misleads people into
thinking that communication is easier than it is, they
become discouraged and give up when they run into
difficulty. Because they do not understand the nature of the
problem, they do not know what to do. The wonder is not
that communicating is as difficult as it is, but that it occurs
as much as it does.” - Reuel Howe, theologian and
educator
Barriers to successful communication include message
overload, when a person receives too many messages at the
same time, and message complexity (Patrick J. and Charon, B.
H, 2008). Some barriers to communication are discussed here
under:-
Physical barriers - Physical barriers are often due to the nature
of the environment. Example poor or outdated equipment,
distractions, noise, poor lighting etc
System design: System design faults refer to problems with the
structures or systems in place in an organization.
Semantic barriers - semantic refers to meaning of language
used. Often the same word is interpreted by different people in
different ways according to their mental attitude and
understanding. Poorly explained or misunderstood messages
can result in confusion (J. Scott Armstrong, 1980).
i. Physiological barriers - may result from individual’s
personal discomfort, ill health, poor eye sight, hearing
difficulties etc.
ii. Socio-psychological barrier – Certain attitudes can also
make communication difficult. For instance, great anger or
sadness may cause someone to lose focus on the present
moment. Disorders such as Autism may also severely
hamper effective communication (Berko, M.R, 2010).
Other barriers based on social psychological barriers are
according to Saleemi (1997):-
a. Attitude an opinion– if an information agrees with our
opinion and attitude, we tend to receive it favorably
but if it ends to run contrary to our accepted beliefs,
we don’t react favorably.
b. Emotion – emotional state of mind affect
communication. If the sender is exited or nervous his
thinking will be blurred and he will not be able to
organize his message properly.
c. Closed mind – it’s a person with deeply ingrained
prejudices and is not prepared
to reconsider his opinions
 d. Status conscious – are common in organization and
subordinates are afraid of communicating upward any
unpleasant information. Superiors also think that
consulting their juniors would be compromising their
dignity.
e. The source of communication – if the receiver is
suspicious about a prejudice against the source of
communication there is likely to be a barrier to
communication.
f. Inattentiveness – people often become inattentive
while receiving a message in particular, if the
message contains a new idea.
g. Faulty transmission – translator can never be perfect.

h. Poor retention – studies shows that employees retain

only about 50% of the information communicated to
them. If the information is communicated through 3-4
stages, very little reaches the destination. Poor
retention may lead to imperfect responses which may
further hamper the communication process.
iii. Presentation of information – it is important to aid
understanding. The communicator should consider the
audience before making the presentation by simplifying
their vocabulary so that the majority may understand.
iv. Environmental barrier - Noise that physically disrupts
communication, such as standing next to loud speakers at a
party, pulling and moving of seats in a lecture room,
 working in a factory etc
v. Physiological-Impairment barrier - Physical maladies
that prevent effective communication, such as deafness or
blindness.
vi. Syntactical barrier - Mistakes in grammar can disrupt
communication, such subject verb agreement, abrupt
change in tense etc
vii. Organizational barriers - Poorly structured
communication can prevent the receiver from accurate
interpretation.
viii. Cultural barrier: Stereotypical assumptions can cause
misunderstandings, such as unintentionally offending a
Kikuyu person by calling him a thief.
ix. Noise - is any occurrence that inhibits effective communication; it can occur at
any point in the process. Noise is the causative factor for the message being mis-
communicated or misunderstood due to the problem either in the medium
chosen or encoding or decoding or in some stages of the process.