THE BARRIERS IN

COMMUNICATIO
N
 Read this two dialogs:
Scene 1
Manager: Excellent! So
everything’s in perfect
condition.
Secretary: The report is from our
plant supervisor.
Manager: Business report, perfect
report!
 Scene 2

Worker 1: Why has production

stopped?
Worker 2: What will happen to us?
Worker 3: Why hasn’t the
Manager responded to our
needs? How long will we wait?
Eternity?
Worker 4: How can this plant
 Chaos Beneath Order
Questions:
 Is there a possibility for the scenario
to be true?
 What problems could have occurred
considering the written report
submitted and the actual conditions
of the work place?
 How important is communication in a
work place?
 Would you consider communication
as the culprit of “chaos beneath
order” in the work place cited?
What is Communication?
 A process by which information is
exchanged and understood by two or
more people, usually with the intent
to motivate or influence behavior.
 Management communication is a
two-way street that includes listening
and other forms of feedback.
What is Effective Communication?
When two people interact, they put
themselves into each other’s shoes, try to
perceive the world as the other person perceives
it, try to predict how the other will respond.
Interaction involves reciprocal role-taking, the
mutual employment of empathetic skills. The goal
of interaction is the merger of self and other, a
complete ability to anticipate, predict, and
behave in accordance with the joint needs of self
and other.
It is the desire to share understanding that
motivates executives to visit employees on the
shop floor or eat breakfast with them. The things
managers learn from direct communication with
employees shape their understanding
(Richard Draft, of the
1997)
corporation.
Communication and the Manager’s
Job
 Managers: 80% of working day is spent on
direct communication with others; 20% is
spent on doing desk work.
 Communication permeates every
management function.
 When managers lead, they communicate
with subordinates to motivate them.
 When managers organize, they gather info
about the state of the organization and
communicate a new structure to others.
COMMUNICATION AND THE MANAGER’S JOB

External Internal
Information Information

Manager as Monitor
•Information processor
•communicator

Manager as Disseminator Manager as Spokesperson

•Distributes information to •Distributes information to
subordinates people outside the
organization
The Manager as Information Nerve
Center
 Two Levels of Barriers in
Communication
 Barriers at the Individual Level
- Physical distraction
- Emotional interference
- Poor listening
- Cultural difference
- Differences in perception and language

Organizational

Barriers
Organizational Barriers
Organizational barriers pertain to
factors for the organization as a
whole. First is the problem of status
and power differences. Low-power
people may be reluctant to pass bad
news up the hierarchy, thus giving
the wrong impression to upper
levels. High-power people may not
pay attention or may feel that low-
status people have little to
contribute.
 Second, differences across departments
in terms of needs and goals interfere with
communications. Each department
perceives problems in its own terms. The
production dept is concerned with
production efficiency and may not fully
understand the marketing department’s
need to get the product to the customer in
a hurry.
Third, the communication flow may not
fit the team’s or organization’s task. If a
centralized communication structure is
used for non-routine tasks, there will not
be enough information circulated to solve
problems. The organization, dept, or team
is most efficient when the amount of
communication flowing among employees
fits the task.
 Fourth, the absence of formal
channels reduces communication
effectiveness. Organizations must
provide adequate upward,
downward, and horizontal
communication in the form of
employee surveys, open-door
policies, newsletters, memos, task
forces, and liaison personnel.
Without these formal channels, the
organization cannot communicate as
a whole.
 How to Overcome
Communication Barriers
 Climate of trust between the low-
power people and high power people
of an organization.
 Development and use of formal
channels
 Changing organizational group
structure to fit communicatin needs.
 Encouragement of multiple channels,
formal and informal.
 Lesson next meeting:

Linguistic competence vs.

discourse competence