Communication is very vital to all business organizations amongst employees and between the organizations and the audience.
Effective communication generates income and profits for the organizations, goods are sold, services are rendered, and partnership deals are sealed. It is safe to say that without effective communication, there are no business organizations.
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Despite all these, it’s no surprise that various barriers still impede effective communication within an organization. These barriers either prevent information from getting to the right audience or promote miscommunication and if not removed immediately, can lead to major losses for the organizations.
Below, I will be addressing the barriers to effective communication within a business organization.
What Are Barriers To Effective Business Communication?
Barriers to effective business communication are obstacles that prevent information from being heard or received as intended. These obstacles interrupt the meaning of a message to the recipient or completely misinterpret the meaning.
Barriers to effective communication can cause rifts amongst the employees of an organization or result in the loss of important deals or customers for the business.
The barriers could be on either end of the spectrum from the organization’s end or the customer or partner’s end or both ends.
In any of the cases, barriers to effective communication can destroy a well-built relationship with little to no effort.
What are these barriers and how do they affect effective business communication?
Below, I would be talking about 7 barriers to effective business communication?
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Barriers to effective communication
Here we have 7 barriers that affect effective business communication
1. Complex messaging
Most organizations make the mistake of using complicated grammar and tone to pass a message to the general audience. When communicating, with other organizations or with the general audience, you must communicate in words, language, and tone that is understandable in either case.
Don’t complicate the message or information that is being passed with terminologies that are foreign to the audience. Use clear and concise words and sentences.
It keeps the attention of the intended recipient and also makes for easy understanding. When the recipient understands the intended meaning behind the message, only then has effective communication taken place.
2. Status relationship
In a business organization, the status of employees can affect effective communication in the organization.
Low-ranked employees don’t want to get on the bad side of the higher-ranked ones, so they don’t voice their opinions in meetings or communicate when the need arises.
The higher-ranked employees think the lower-ranked ones are not worthy to interfere in the organizations’ relations or affairs.
So they don’t even bother to hear them out or disregard whatever opinion that they give.
This leaves room for lack of communication or even miscommunication in the organization.
3. Distractions
Distractions of any form are barriers to effective communication in an organization.
During meetings, loud noises and irrelevant talks can hinder the proper passing of information or demeans the meaning behind the information.
To avoid this, ensure that all agents of distractions like mobile phones are on silent and kept away when not in use or loud notifications from messages and emails are muted.
This would promote prompt attention to what is being discussed in the meeting and the importance of the meaning would not be lost.
4. Ineffective timing
The time that information is passed also matter a lot, as communication at the wrong time can lead to miscommunication. Information should be passed at the appropriate time so that it gets to the intended people at the right time.
Within the organization, vital information should be passed during working hours of the organization and when everyone is present.
This leaves no room for excuses like “I wasn’t present at the time the information was passed” or “I already left for home at the time this message was passed”.
All these can be avoided if the time was effective.
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5. Ineffective communication channels
Passing the right information is as important as using the right medium or channel to pass the information. Although there are different means of passing information, the means to be used are dependent on the type of information to be passed.
In situations requiring immediate attention, such as emergencies, it is recommended to communicate the information via phone calls for a quicker response. For brief and essential messages, a simple SMS is sufficient. When dealing with detailed and crucial information, sending an email is deemed the most suitable method.
Sending information through the wrong channels can irritate and infuriate customers or business clients and may lead to loss of deals for the organization.
6. Language differences
When passing information that includes people, business partners or customers that speak a different language from others, especially in an organization that runs internationally, language can be quite a barrier in communication.
To avoid this, passing information using clear and brief words instead of ambiguous grammar and idioms is more appropriate.
Doing this allows for the language to be interpreted accurately in other languages without leading to ineffective communication.
7. Lack of intended context in the message
It is very possible to say a few lines and sentences and still make no sense whatsoever to the listening party.
This is what happens when your message lacks the intended context due to unnecessary additions to the message. It is quite okay to give a brief introduction about what the message is about but forgetting the context of the message just because of an introduction doesn’t cut it.
At this point, even the introduction makes no meaning. It all boils down to being concise and clear about the information being passed. Communication can only occur if the recipient receives and understand the message that was passed.
Conclusion
Barriers to effective business communication in an organization always come with a great price. To avoid paying for the cost that these barriers or communications can incur, the next best thing is to manage the barriers properly in the organization.
The above are the most common barriers in communications in an organization and most of them can be overcome from the organization’s end.