Minimizing Barriers to Communication in Workplaces

COMMUNICATION AND SCHOLARSHIP 1
Communication and Scholarship
Student's name:
Code +course name
Professor's name
University name
City, state
Date

COMMUNICATION AND SCHOLARSHIP 2
Barriers to communication in workplaces can be minimised by appropriate
strategies.
Introduction
Appropriate communication strategies can be used to eliminate communication
barriers in workplaces. There are various barriers to communication in work places. They
include language barriers, perceptual barriers and cultural barriers. . People in workplaces
come from diverse backgrounds in terms of culture and language. This makes them perceive
things differently thus making communication ineffective. Strategies need to be developed to
eliminate communication barriers. These strategies include listening properly, avoiding the
use of jargons and having an open mind.
Barriers of Communication in workplaces
Communication barriers are known to hinder proper communication in workplaces.
The commonly identified barriers of communication in an organization include; perceptual
barriers they arise because of differences in opinion between people thus giving rise to the
need for effective communication (Lutgen-Sandvik, 2010.p,206) (Keyton, 2010.p, 300). We
also have emotional obstacles which are brought about by fear and mistrust thus leading to
poor communication with other people. Language barrier is another hindrance to effective
communication it is a situation where people communicate in different languages. Culture
also acts as a barrier to effective communication. Cultural barriers are experienced when
people come from diverse countries, religions or state. Life would be easier if there was
proper communication between people and each other and every misunderstanding was
resolved effectively. However, this has not been the case especially in organization

COMMUNICATION AND SCHOLARSHIP 3
workplaces where people from diverse background come together only to work. Without
effective communication skills, there will always be misunderstandings, tensions between
workers and misinterpretations (Pauley, 2010 p. 348). Even without considering the industry
these situations are very much common. To work well as a team or in a company
communication barriers need to be removed.
Strategies to minimising barriers of communication
Listening properly is a major strategy to overcome perceptual barriers in
communication. However, everyone wants to be heard, and this is what has negatively
influenced the ability to listen in many people. This is commonly observed in workplaces
where there is a lot of competition among people. Although people may be hearing what
another person is saying, they might not be listening. There is a huge difference between
listening and hearing. Thus people should learn to differentiate these two terms to
communicate effectively. To avoid these mistakes, a person should pay attention to the
speaker to understand what they mean with their statements (Tourish, 2010 p. 68). Through
this one can easily avoid misunderstanding by showing the other person that you are taking
note on what he might be saying thus promoting respect among the two of you. To win the
respect and trust of people, one has first to become an active listener (Larson, 2011 p, 300).
Active listening is a combination of utterances and body languages to show the one who is
speaking that you are concerned about the topic he may be talking about. The listener may
choose to summarize the whole issue in one statement or questions. Summarizing a topic
come about because of active listening. There are various levels of active listening which
come about depending on how one summarizes an argument from the speaker. The listener
can easily repeat what the speaker is talking about (Canary, 2011 p, 67). This is thought to be
the lowest level of active listening. A listener may also choose to paraphrase the topic using