Communication Barriers in Business

The assignment content discusses the concept of business communication, its process, and various barriers that hinder effective communication within an organization. The four main barriers identified are semantic, psychological, organizational, and personal. To overcome these barriers, a firm must impart communication skills training to employees, ensure clear structure and policies, promote transparency and trust, and encourage open discussion and dialogue.

Summary
Business communication is the process through which an organisation informs its employees
about the goals and strategies. It also involves the sharing of ideas and knowledge within an
organisation. Business communication follows the simple communication process. A sender
encodes a message and sends it to receiver who decoders the message and sends feedback.
However, there are certain elements which distort communication process. These are known as
communication barriers.
The communication barriers in business are broadly classified into four areas. The first is
semantic barrier. This barrier occurs when words are wrongly used or interpreted. Signs, gestures
and body language misinterpretation can also lead to this barrier. Use of ambiguous words and
words with different meanings can also lead to this barrier
Another barrier is psychological barrier where emotions of the receiver make him give different
meaning to words and he misinterprets the message leading to error in conduct of business.
Another barrier is organisational barrier where organisational structure causes ambiguity or lack
of understanding. Additionally various rules and regulations confuse the workers leading to
ineffective communication
Barrier arising out of personal nature is another communication barrier. For example, a certain
manager may not have faith in his subordinate or a subordinate may be afraid of his superiors.
This leads to hindrance to proper communication.
If the firm intends to work effectively then it has to remove these barriers. For this purpose the
firm should impart communication skills training to its employees. Additionally, structure and
policies should be clear. Also fear and distrust should be removed through transparency and
inculcation of trust. Discussion and dialogue should be encouraged which will discrete barriers
and improve organisational effectiveness.