BARRIERS TO

COMMUNICATION
• Some of the variables which
interfere with communication
– Ineffective use of power
– Language
– Problems of defensiveness and lack of
self-confidence
 POWER DIFFERENCES
• When is power (influence & control) used?
– Decision making
• What is decision making?
– Who does, what, when, where and how
• Can we do without decision making?
– Delaying is also a decision-making
• Power is neither good nor bad
• The manner in which organisational decisions are made
and power is exercised affects interpersonal relations
• If managers have little power, their ability to function
interpersonally is restricted
 POWER TACTICS
• Powerful managers can use their power to
encourage or restrict the participation of
the less powerful in decision-making
• Acquiring power is easy when the “rules of
the game” are more authoritarian
• Who are these powerful managers?
 POWERFUL MANAGERS OF
THE LATE 70s
• Healthy respect for “work ethic”
• Not likely to challenge authority
• Not tolerant towards their authority being
challenged
• Well-disciplined and orderly
• Likely to be familiar with various power tactics
because:
– They would have devoted a major part of their adult
life to attain power
• The power tactics usually revolve around
controlling the communication process
• Such tactics may be barriers to
communication, although they may be
used to maintain power
• A few power tactics often used with the
primary motive of maintaining power:
– Taking counsel
– Maneuverability
– Complete communication
– Compromise
– Negative timing
 TAKING COUNSEL
• Executives should seek advice only
when they think it is necessary
• If they allow subordinates to give
advice, they are likely to be under
pressure to act as per the advice
 MANEUVERABILITY
• Wise executives should never fully commit
themselves
• If they do, they may find themselves in situations
where they cannot defend themselves
• A number of options should be kept available, to
retract previously made commitments, since
they consider such retractions would
• lower their credibility and
• diminish power
 COMPLETE
COMMUNICATION
• Not a good strategy to communicate
everything
• Complete open communication
deprives the executives of determining
who should know what & when
• If future plans do not materialise, it
would be difficult to excuse oneself
from the commitment
 COMPROMISE
• Executives who wish to maintain power
may openly compromise, but
• Should continue to work toward their
own goals
• Any concession made, should be seen
as
– A way of delaying, rather than
– An act of cooperation
 NEGATIVE TIMING
• The executive may encounter pressure to
do something that is not agreeable to
him/her
• The appropriate tactics to take action but
proceed so slowly that little harm is done
• They are taking actions, but by using
negative timing, they make sure that
nothing comes out of the action
• Power-seeking executive’s foremost concern
is “exercising power”
• The power tactics are direct contrast to
cooperation and open communication
• These executives view the concentration of
power as necessary for the success of
– Organisation
– individual
• With such a position, the individual success
becomes the driving concern
• Power concentration tends to distance the
powerless
• The equalisation of power, without
equalisation of responsibility and expertise,
may bring conflict of interest and anarchy
• Such power tactics tend to lead to
– inefficient communication
– Destructive conflict
– Dissatisfaction in the organisation
• The more powerful person
should adopt the viewpoint of
developing the less powerful
member of the organisation
• This leads to increasing
delegation of power, as the
subordinate develops
responsibility and expertise
 CONFORMITY
• The relatively less powerful organisational members have
little direct influence on decision making
• They must conform to the decisions made by the more
powerful
• In this context, one way of gaining influence is through
– Gaining favour of a relatively powerful manager, who has the
power to influence decision making
• Two basic ways of conformity are:
– Ingratiation
– compliance
• One way the lower level manager can gain
influence is by using a strategy of
– Lays the groundwork for later influence attempts
– “appearing” to agree with the idea and attitudes
of the more powerful manager
• Such support results in the person to be liked
by this powerful manager, and thereby
• Such support is described as “Ingratiation”
 INGRATIATION
• Is a strategic attempt to get someone to
like you in order to obtain compliance with
a request, even if at a later stage
• The effectiveness of this depends on
clever concealment of ulterior motives
• The lower-status person disagrees with the
higher-status person on unimportant
issues to appear to be a non-conformist
• A high-status person attempting to
ingratiate himself with lower-status people
will agree on unimportant issues
 COMPLIANCE
• Another way of handling the power issue
which is often used by the less powerful if
compliance
• Amounts to reluctant obedience, obeying
– In letter, but not
– In spirit
• The person does what he/she is told but with
little enthusiasm
 CONsequences of
conformity
• Restricts personal development since
– the individual does not express his or her own
ideas and feelings
• The effect of conformity over a period of
time is to produce “yes men” with not
initiative
• If new ideas are eliminated though
conformity,
– The organisation becomes inflexible
– Inability to adjust to changes
• Managerial strategy aimed solely at gaining
cooperation through conformity is unlikely to
be successful
• The organisation needs both
– Cooperation (stability, law and order)
– innovation
• Conformity and power tactics in combination
tend to lead to a situation where task
accomplishment is less important than power
structure
• By using these tactics, open communication is
not only unimportant, but intentionally avoided
• The result of conformity is dying
interpersonal relationships
• It is suggested that absence of
conflict is an indicator of an
unexciting and unproductive
relationship
• Conformity is a means of avoiding
conflict essentially through the
sacrifice of one’s own individuality
 FACING CONFLICT
• The power issue is to be resolved constructively,
if the manager wishes to improve the
interpersonal relations in the organisation
• Conflict must be faced, rather than avoided
• Best method is through self-disclosure and
feedback
• This should be sequenced in a way which builds
and strengthens interpersonal trust
LANGUAGE AS A BARRIER
• The barrier arising from differences
in the use of language
– Associated with the segregation of
people into various groups within the
organisations
 LANGUAGE DIFFERENCES
WITHIN ORGANISATIONS
• Characteristics of present day organisations are that
they are
– Large
– Complex
– hierarchical
• These characteristics tend to produce numerous
groups of people which are separate from each other
on the basis of
• This separation of groups, tends to be emphasised by
differences in the use of language between groups
– Specialty
– Status
– Physical location within the organisation
 SPECIALISISED
LANGUAGE
• Each specialised function in organisation has evolved
a precise language to describe its experience
• The various groups have terminology which they use
to precisely communicate to others of the same group
• Specialised language exists for
– Specialised functions
– Top management policies
For specialised functions
• Division of work results in specialised functions
which is turn would be responsible for
development of specialised language
• This language is inappropriate for communication
between people performing different
organisational functions
• The specialised vocabulary of one groups
appears as jargon to the other groups
• This results in minimal transmission of
information
 FOR TOP-MANAGEMENT
POLICIES
• Top management are generally involved in
formulating policies of the organisation
• If policy decisions are made using information
which is inaccessible to lower levels of
management
– Managers at lower levels will not be able to interpret
the policies
– Especially true if top management is unaware of the
problems and routines of lower management
– The language used to formulate policy is likely to be
ambiguous since the information on which the policy
is based is not shared
• In the language difference between two
specialised groups in an organisation,
both are aware that they do not
understand the language
• However, between the top and the
lower managements, they are unaware
of these differences of language
• The language of the policy decision
may be clear but the communication
might be poor
• Language is an integral part of our
experience that the limitations it can
have are numerous
• Language is an
– Abstraction
– Labeling of experience
– At best an approximation
 COMMUNICATION WHICH
PROVOKES DEFENSIVENESS
• Greatest barrier is the style of communication
• When a message is sent in a way that provokes
defensiveness, he/she contributes to poor
interpersonal relationship
• When relationships are strained, the chances of
communication breakdown is extremely high
• Four types of communication which often
provoke defensiveness:
– Evaluative
– Dogmatic
– Manipulative
– Implying superiority
 EVALUATIVE
COMMUNICATION
• Evaluation = labeling, especially
negative
• Once a person is labeled it is difficult
to see the “whole person”
• We tend to see the label
 DOGMATIC
COMMUNICTION
• Dogmatic are close-minded people who resist
new ideas and unable to see other’s viewpoint
• The supervisor’s
– resistance to feedback, and
– tendency to see the situation in black-and-white
• Of all the barriers, dogmatism is perhaps the
most difficult to overcome
• Research suggests that dogmatism is a personal
trait that is difficult to change
• Highly resistant to feedback
• React to negative feedback by
counterattack
• Because of the rigidity in their
beliefs, they tend to have little
creativity and flexibility
 IMPLYING SUPERIORITY
• People who believe their contribution more important
because of their possession of
– Superior knowledge
– Expertise
– Experience
– Superior position, etc
• If a manager, is constantly implying his or her
superiority, then in turn implies that the other person is
inferior
• Such implications are likely to lead to defensiveness
• The insistence of superiority is not generally a
successful communication strategy
• The manager has the opportunity of establishing
rapport simply by listening to other viewpoints
 MANIPULATIVE
COMMUNICATION
• When we perceive that someone is trying to
influence us, with an ulterior motive, we tend to
react negatively
• Rather seeing the communication as neutral,
they tend to oppose the communication, even if
it is detrimental to them
• Manipulative communication excites the control
issue and reaction is based on “not wanting to
be controlled”
• Managers who are aware that force meets resistance,
often try to use manipulative tactics
• The subordinates in turn are likely to be defensive,
become increasingly critical of the management
• The communication understood by subordinates, in
these instances, is that subordinates are
– easily influenced, and
– are incapable of participating in decision making
• The end result of manipulation, may be disastrous
 DEFENSIVENESS
• The four types of communication discussed are
themselves defensive in nature
• When a person evaluates another person, it is often self-
defense
• Manipulation is generally used when we think that our
true feelings/motives may be misunderstood or
unaccepted
• Dogmatic, closed-minded individuals are busy defending
their ideas and beliefs that they are not receptive to new
ideas – may be associated with feelings of insecurity or
inadequacy
• Implying one’s superiority are directly defending their
self-concept
• Best way to increase effective
communication is to
– increase one’s self-confidence and
– decrease one’s defensiveness
• For effective communication,
managers need to be able to
distinguish between
– confronting others and constructively,
and
– provoking defensivenss
 CONFRONTING CONFLICT
• Confrontation of conflict through self-
disclosure and feedback involves
– The description of one’s own ideas, attitudes,
feelings opinions, etc
• While confronting conflict , the way to avoid
provoking defensiveness is by
– Describing one’s own position
– Encouraging the other person to describe his/her
position
• When a manager can communicate a
message that he values the ideas of others,
the defensive reactions are considerably
lessened