BARRIERS IN COMMUNICATION
Organisational
By Alka Swain
Definition
The Organizational Barriers refers to the
hindrances in the flow of information among
the employees that might result in a failure of
an organization view following :-
- chances of spreading misinformation
- ambiguities
- conflicts or unnecessary stressful
situations
PROCESS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
• The barrier at sender’s level occurres- While
formulating/organizing thought, ideas,
message; and encoding the message
• The barrier at receiver’s level occurres – While
receiving the message; decoding the received
message; and understanding and interpreting
the message.
• Transmission level where ‘noise’ occurs.
• The feedback/reaction level that is a necessary
condition of the completion of the entire
process.
ORGANIZATIONAL BARRIERS
• Organizational structure greatly affects the
capability of the employees
• Major organizational hindrances in the way of
communication are as follows:
– Organizational Policies
– Organizational Rules
– Status Relationship
– Complexity in Organizational Structure
– Organizational Facilities
Organizational Policies
• Organizational policies determine the relationship
among all the persons working in the enterprise.
• For example, it can be the policy of the
organization that communication will be in the
written form.
• In such a situation anything that could be
conveyed in a few words shall have to be
communicated in the written form.
• Consequently, things get delayed
Organizational Rules
• These become barriers in communication by
determining the subject matter, medium, etc.,
of communication.
• Troubled by the definite rules the senders do
not send some of the messages
Status Relationship
• In organizations all the employees are divided into many
categories on the basis of their level.
• The formal division acts as barrier in communication
especially when the communication moves from the
bottom to the top.
• For example, when a lower level employee has to send his
message to his superior at the top level there is a lurking
fear in his mind that the communication may be faulty, and
because of this fear he cannot convey himself clearly and in
time.
• It delays taking of decisions.
Complexity in Organizational Structure
• The greater number of managerial levels in an
organization makes it more complex.
• It results in delay in communication and information
gets changed before it reaches the receiver.
• In other words, negative things or criticism are
concealed.
• Thus, the more the number of managerial levels in
the organization, the more ineffective the
communication becomes.
Organizational Facilities/ Business Design
• It means making available sufficient stationery,
telephone, translator, etc. where these
facilities are sufficient in an organization, the
communication will be timely, clear and in
accordance with necessity.
• In the absence of these facilities
communication becomes meaningless.
THANK YOU
• An example of a policy is the written
contract received from an insurance
company that guarantees to insure
someone against a certain type of
damage.
Examples of Policies
• Code of conduct. ...
• Attendance/vacation/time off policy. ...
• Equal opportunity and non-
discrimination policies. ...
• Workplace safety. ...
• Alcohol, drug-free workplace, smoking,
cannabis policies. ...
• Whistleblower policy.
Policy:
• Policy defines a set of goals and targets and the way to
achieve those.
• For example(in Indian context) : National Health Policy of
2017 - It has certain targets like increasing expenditure on
health to 2.5% of GDP , arresting the spread and
eliminating epidemics like TB by 2025 among others. Also,
it mentions the ways like partnership with the private sector
etc., making generic medicines available through Jan
Aushadhi stores among others to achieve these targets and
goals.
• One feature of a policy is its non-binding nature.
Rules:
• Rules on the other hand, is a set of guidelines “ought
to be” followed by people in an organisation , citizens
of a country etc. These are binding in nature and
those who breach them may be penalised in the way
mentioned in the rules. Rules help in creating a good
work culture and harmonize the working of various
organs and elements of an organisation through the
tool of discipline.
• In brevity, Rules are enforced and policy is
implemented.
