Date Posted: 8/6/2018 10:39:18 AM
Posted By: Faimus Membership Level: Gold Total Points: 1012
Communication is the process by which ideas, knowledge, information and feelings are exchanged through signs, symbols and behavior through a medium. The communication process may be intentional or unintentional. The process is also dynamic in the sense that the recipient of the message in one case may be the sender in another and vice versa. Barriers of communication is anything that distorts or interrupts the communication process. There are several barriers of communication. Some of these are broadly grouped into five main categories as elaborated below.The first barrier is the physical state. This barrier includes the size of the room, location and the gestures used. The size of the room distorts communication in the sense that a person sitting at the back of a large room such as a town hall may be not be able to clearly hear what is being said at the front. A large room such as hall has echo. Echo distorts the message as it is not clearly received by the recipient. Location refers to the place where the communication takes place. A noisy surrounding such as a place with loud music or with numerous people talking at the same time such as a market place hinders the communication process. This is because the recipient is not able to clearly receive the message from originator. In the case of nonverbal communication, the use of different gestures between the originator and recipient of the message is hindrance to the communication process. This can be solved by choosing a place favorable to exchange information and using gestures that are familiar to and easily understandable by all the parties involved.Psychological state of the recipient is another factor. This factor envelops predisposition of the recipient, underlying prejudices and attitude towards the speaker. Predisposition of the recipient deals with the mental state of state of the recipient. It occurs when the recipients mind is preoccupied. This barrier can be overcome by neglecting to think about other personal issues while the communication process is in progress. Prejudices are refer to underlying misconceptions, race, ethnicity and religion. Negative attitude towards the speaker is also a hindrance to the communication process in that the recipient focuses negative energy on the originator of the message and therefore passively receives the message. This can be overcame by separating the message from the speaker and focusing on the message.Another barrier is physiological state of both the sender and the recipient. Under this broad umbrella are factors such as Hunger, fatigue, anger and sickness. In the case of the sender, they may not be able to convey the intended message as effectively as possible to be easily understood by the recipient since the above mentioned factors reduce their concentration on the message. On the other hand, the recipient will not be able to clearly receive, critically interpret and relate, apply or act on the message being conveyed as the above listed factors divert their attention from the message. A possible solution is postponing the communication process until a later time when both the sender and recipient are in a better state.Intellectual ability may also prove a barrier to communication. The intellectual ability includes the level of education and background knowledge on the subject. In a case where the education level of the sender is far above or far below that of the recipient then the message may not be understood and vice versa. A possible solution is the inclusion of a third party to explain the message to either of the parties. If the recipient has no background knowledge on the subject under discussion then they may not understand the message. An originator with little or no background knowledge on the subject under discussion may convey the wrong message and therefore distort communication. This can be solved by doing research on the subject prior to the communication process or asking for more information from the better informed party.The last factor is the linguistics factor. Language differences is one of the common barriers of the communication process. This occurs where the recipient does not understand the sender and vice versa. In this case, the recipient may derive a completely different meaning from the one the originator wanted to convey. This can be solved by inclusion of a translator or the use of a language that is well understood by both parties.
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