BARRIERS AND BREAKDOWNS IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Managers frequently cite communication breakdowns as one of their most important problems. Barriers can exist in the sender, in the transmission of the message, in the receiver, or in the feedback. Specific communication barriers are discussed below:

A. Lack of Planning

Effective communication hardly happens by chance. Too often we start talking and writing without first thinking, planning, and stating the purpose of the message. This leads to misunderstanding and resistance to change.

B. Unclarified Assumptions

Message may be misunderstood if the sender does not clearly spell out his intentions. A customer may send a note stating that she will visit a vendor’s plant. Then she may assume that the vendor will meet her at the airport, reserve a hotel room, arrange for transportation, and set up a full-scale review of the program at the plant. But the vendor may assume that the customer is coming to town mainly to attend a wedding and will make a routine call at the plant. These unclarified assumptions in both instances may result in confusion and the loss of goodwill.

C. Semantic Distortion

Semantic distortion refers to misunderstanding between the sender and the receiver due to differences in meaning of words or symbols used in the message. An advertisement that states “We sell for less” is ambiguous; it raises this question: Less than what? Words may evoke different responses. To some people, the word “government” may mean interference or deficit spending; to others, the same word may mean help, equalization, and justice.

D. Poorly Expressed Messages

No matter how clear the idea in the mind of the sender of communication will be obstructed if the message is prepared by poorly chosen words, omissions, lack of coherence, poor organization, awkward sentence structure, unnecessary jargon, and a failure to clarify its implications. This lack of clarity and precision, which can be costly, can be avoided through greater care in encoding the message.

Communication Barriers in the International Environment

Communication in the international environment becomes even more difficult because of different language, cultures, and etiquette. Interpreting advertising sayings is very risky. The slogan “Put a Tiger in Your Tank” by Exxon was very effective in the United States, yet it is an insult to the people in Thailand. Colors have different meanings in various cultures. Black is often linked with death in many Western countries, while in the Far East white is the color of sadness. In business dealings it is quite common in the United States to communicate on a first-name basis, yet in most other cultures persons generally address one another by their last names.

In the Chinese culture, words may not convey what people really mean because they may want to look modest. For example, when a promotion is offered, the person may say that he or she is not qualified enough to assume great responsibility. But the expectation is that the superior will urge the subordinate to accept the promotion and mention all the virtues and strengths of the candidate, as well as his or her fitness for the new position.

a. Loss by Transmission and Poor Retention

In a series of transmissions from one person to the next, portion of the massage may be lost of distorted and becomes less and less accurate.

Poor retention of information is another serious problem. Thus, the necessity of repeating the message and using several channels is rather obvious. Consequently, companies often use more than one channel to communicate the same message.

b. Poor Listening and Premature Evaluation

Poor Listening and Premature Evaluation hinder business communication. Poor listening may result from inattention to what the speaker says. Listening demands full attention and self-discipline. Hasty judgments or premature evaluation of what another person says may also make communication ineffective. A common tendency is to judge, to approve or disapprove what is being said, rather than trying to understand the speaker’s frame of reference. Sympathetic listening can result in greater understanding among managers. In short, listening with empathy can reduce some of the daily frustrations in organized life and result in better communication.

c. Impersonal Communication

Effective communication is more than simply transmitting information to employees. It requires face-to-face contact in an environment of openness and trust. Real improvement of communication often requires not expensive and sophisticated (and impersonal) communication media but the willingness of superiors to engage in face-to-face communication. Such informal gatherings, without status trappings or a formal authority base, may be threatening to a top executive, but the risks involved are outweighed by the benefits that better communication can bring.

d. Distrust, Threat and Fear

Distrust, threat, and fear undermine communication. In a climate containing these forces, any message will be viewed with skepticism. Distrust can be the result of inconsistent behavior by the superior, or it can be due to past experiences in which the subordinate was punished for honestly reporting unfavorable, but true, information to the boss. Similarly, in light of threats-whether real or imagined-people tend to tighten up, become defensive, and distort information. What is needed is a climate of trust, which facilitates open and honest communication.

e. Information Overload

Unrestricted flow of information may result in too much information.

If people are overloaded with too much information, they may respond to information overload in various ways. They may neglect certain information, make errors in processing it, delay processing information either permanently or with the intention of catching up in the future, filter information, or simply escaping from the task of communication.

This will lead to communication breakdown.

Other Communication Barriers

Besides the mentioned barriers to effective communication, there are many others. In selective perception people tend to perceive what they expect to perceive. In communication this means that they hear what they want to hear and ignore other relevant information.

Closely related to perception is the influence of attitude, which is the predisposition to act or not to act in a certain way; it is a mental position regarding a fact or state. Clearly, if people have made up their minds, they cannot objectively listen to what is said.

Still other barriers to communication are differences in status and power between the sender and the receiver of information. Also, when information has to pass through several levels in the organization hierarchy, it tends to be distorted.

Principles of Business Communication

1. Objective Oriented: Every action of human being is goal directed. Business communication should be made in such a way so that it will serve the purpose of the communication and of the business organization.
2. Clarity: Clarity means getting the meaning of business messages accurately from the head of the sender into the head of the receiver. Clarity requires the following two things:
   1. Clarity of thought: Communication begins with generation of idea in the mind of the transmitter. A great deal of clarity is needed at this stage, for if the beginning is fuddled, it is likely to mar the entire communication process. The communicator must be clear about three points (i) what is the objective of communication? (ii) what is to be communicated? (iii) which media is suitable for the communication process?
   2. Clarity of Expression: The receiver learns about the idea in the transmitter’s mind through the coded message. If encoding is faulty, the message may be misinterpreted. So, it is important to be careful while encoding the message. Since most of the messages are transmitted with the help of words, the transmitter should be careful about the meanings and organization of words. The following points about the choice of words deserve attention:
      1. Use of simple words: Simple and short words are more effective than pompous and heavy words. Prefer ‘do’ to ‘perform’, ‘begin’ to ‘initiate’, ‘stop’ to ‘discontinue’, and ‘show’ to ‘demonstrate’ etc.
      2. Use of definite/concrete expression: Use no vague or generalized statements and give definite facts. Expression like, Goods will be sent soon’, is vague. It is wise to say goods will be sent on August 1, 2020. ‘Our batteries are better’ is a vague sentence. It is better to use ‘Out batteries cost less and last long.
      3. Prefer active constructions: Sentence like, ‘All of us appreciated your efforts’ should be used rather than ‘Your efforts were appreciated by all of us.’ Use the sentence ‘They could not control water’ rather than the sentence ‘Control of water was not possible.’
      4. Avoid jargon: Jargon refers to the special language of a trade, profession, or field of study. Example: The company is too highly leveraged means the company has too much debt. Example: The ‘covered employment’ commonly mean employment covered by social security. To some outsiders, however, they could mean working under a roof. Annuity has a clear meaning to someone in insurance. A contract that guarantees an income for a specified period.
      5. Avoid ambiguity: Careless use of personal pronoun, wrong placing of adverbs, faulty punctuations and words having two or more meaning creates ambiguity and confusion. Example: ‘Mr. X told Mr. Y that he is being considered for promotion.’ The word ‘dispense’ means to prepare medicine with care. It also means to get ride off.
      6. Use of short sentence: Long sentences tend to be complex and demand greater confusion. As a rule, if a sentence runs beyond 30 words, break it up into two sentences. Example: The sentence ‘They acceded to the proposition to undertake a collaborative venture’ can be shortened like, ‘They agreed to work with us.’
3. Completeness: In business communication, completeness of facts is absolutely necessary. Incomplete communication irritates the reader, for, it leaves him baffled and thus receiving proper feedback becomes impossible. Your communication must include all the relevant facts.
4. Conciseness: A reader’s time in invaluable. Don’t make him feel that he is wasting his time in going through your unnecessarily lengthy letter. Be as brief as possible. Brevity in expression effectively wins the attention of the reader. However, brevity should not be at the cost of appropriateness, clarity, correctness, completeness or courtesy. Conciseness means use of relevant facts, no repetition of information, and proper organization of the message.
5. Consideration: Consideration means respect for the reader’s point of view. In communication we must show consideration for the reader. For consideration:
   1. Adopt the you-attitude: Example: Thank you for your interest in our program. Example: We will do whatever we can to protect your investment.
   2. Emphasize positive, pleasant facts: Negative: ‘We regret to inform that we cannot permit you to use our auditorium for your meeting as Sun Club asked for it first. We can, however, let you use our conference room but it seats only 60. Rather we can use a positive sentence like, ‘Although, the Sun Club has reserved the auditorium for Saturday, we can offer our conference room, which seats 60’.
   3. Write only what you sincerely feel to be correct: Showing integrity is perhaps the best way of showing consideration.
6. Courtesy: In business we must create friendliness with all those to whom we write. Friendliness in inseparable from courtesy. And courtesy demands a considerate and friendly behavior towards others. The following principles help to promote courtesy:
   1. Answer the letters promptly
   2. Omit irritating expressions: Example: ‘We disagree totally to your thinking.’ rather use ‘we think in a different way.’
   3. Apologize sincerely for an omission/thank generously for a favor
   4. Correctness: An effective writer should emphasize correctness in writing in order for achieving his /her target result. Correctness here deals with:
   5. Giving factual information with correct language.
   6. Sending the message at the correct time. This means every message must be sent and responded at the most appropriate time. Sending outdated information will be mere wastage of time, money and human resources.
   7. Sending the message in the correct style. This requires the writer to adapt the message to the needs of the receiver.

 Lecture Prepared by Course Teacher: Prof. Dr. M. Ekramul Hoque, School of Business, Bangladesh Open University.