Overcoming Communication Barriers and Importance of Cultural Awareness in Business Communication

This leaflet discusses the common challenges and barriers to effective communication, such as physical, emotional, organizational structure, perceptual, and interpersonal barriers. It also provides effective strategies for overcoming these barriers and emphasizes the importance of cultural awareness in business communication.

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INTRODUCTION
Business communication is the approach of sharing and transferring information among people within and outside a company. This leaflet is designed to discuss the
barriers to effective communication and strategies that can be used for overcoming the barriers. The leaflet will be discussing the importance of cultural awareness.
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
COMMON CHALLENGES AND BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
• Physical barriers- Due to the global pandemic and easy transferability of the virus, the employees are not willing to use public modes of transportation which
are creating a barrier for Brit-tech from encouraging their employees to work from the office for 2 days after the pandemic (Kalogiannidis, 2020). Due to the risk of
transferability of the deadly virus, the employees of Brit-tech are avoiding travel from public transportation at peak times which can affect their health and make them
face any health-related issues.
• Emotional barriers- This is another barrier which Brit-tech is facing as employees feel more confident while working from their home where they can feel
confident and more productive. Such barriers are faced by the company which is the restraining and challenging factor in employee engagement in the workplace
after the global pandemic.
• Organizational structure barriers- Due to lack of ventilation and poor safety standards, employees are more concerned about the safety and security
standards that will be maintained by Brit-tech while working from the office after the global pandemic, COVID-19 (Klimova, Klimova and Dubinka, 2019).
Employees are also unsure about the social distancing measures which will be followed within the company as employees are more worried about getting affected by
viruses which is a challenge for the company is encouraging employees to re-join.
• Perceptual barriers- As some of the employees are not yet vaccinated and this has been a challenge for Brit-tech as such factors can make employees face
criticism and discrimination which is the reason for employees not being interested in working from the office.
• Interpersonal barriers- This has been another challenge where employees are not interested in working from the office as they have been comfortable
working from home which also affected the interpersonal skills and such challenges are faced by the company after the pandemic.

• Encouraging employees to share their ideas and opinions.
• Acknowledging what others are expressing (Naidoo and Dulek, 2022).
• Showing respect and empathy.
• Engaging in active listening.
IMPORTANCE OF CULTURAL AWARENESS
EFFECTIVE STRATEGIES FOR OVERCOMING COMMUNICATION BARRIERS
Cultural awareness is recognizing and understanding the different values which can shape diverse cultural backgrounds (Pikhart, 2018). The
importance of cultural awareness for companies and Brit-tech is discussed below:
• Cultural awareness plays a crucial role in eliminating cultural barriers by appreciating own and other’s cultures.
• It is also helpful in minimizing the impact of cultural myopia.
• It helps in empathizing with the people you work with.
• This fosters creativity and innovation in the workplace.
• It improves communication and collaboration between colleagues.
CONCLUSION
The purpose of business communication is to improve organizational practices and eliminate errors. There are various forms of communication
methods that can be followed by companies to share the required information. Some of the approaches of business communication are- formal,
informal, verbal, and non-verbal communication. The disturbance and hindrance in sharing the message while interacting with other people can
make people face challenges within the organization.

Kalogiannidis, S., 2020. Impact of effective business communication on employee performance. European Journal of Business and Management Research. 5(6).
Klimova, I.I., Klimova, G.V. and Dubinka, S.A., 2019. Students’ communicative competence in the context of intercultural business communication.
Naidoo, J. and Dulek, R.E., 2022. Artificial intelligence in business communication: a snapshot. International Journal of Business Communication. 59(1). pp.126-
147.
Pikhart, M., 2018, August. Technology enhanced learning experience in intercultural business communication course: a case study. In International Symposium on
Emerging Technologies for Education (pp. 41-45). Springer, Cham.
REFERENCES