UGC NET Study Notes on Barriers of Communication

Physical Barrier

• Crowded places act as a barrier against effective verbal communication.
• There can be traffic noise in the background.  The message is not transmitted effectively and leads to miscommunication.
• Overload of information also acts as a communication barrier.
• Illegible handwriting hinders written communication.
• Not having good sleep, poor health, mood variation is also a physical barrier to effective communication.

Technical Barrier

• In 2020, we can see most of the communication taking place through online medium
• But, this form of communication could have barriers like:
• Any problem in software and hardware or Internet not working in rain and storm.
• The difference in the version of Hardware of software that is with sender and receiver.
• Not having enough knowledge about the Technical part of the Internet.

Organizational Barrier

• This is due to the structure and size of the organisation.
• Hierarchy in the organization restrict effective communication- If the superior doesn’t listen to their subordinates then this act as a barrier to effective communication.
• Also, if in the hierarchy, the chain of command is too long, then the message pass through several levels and some time distortion in the message occurs.
• Specialization of jobs hinders communication with people who restricted to their domain of work.
• Organization rules, power structure and complex structure also affect effective communication.

Psychological Barriers

• Each and every person have a different world view about people, event and situation. Now, here communication is obstructed due to opinion attitude, emotions, interest, attention, participation, etc.
• If the sender and receiver do not trust each other, then this will restrict communication.
• People respond positively to those messages that reinforce their self-concept and reject those messages that are perceived to be threatening self-image.
• Introvert people have difficulty in communicating with other people.

Linguistic and Cultural Barriers

• Also called as Semantic Barriers.
• It is related to language and the meaning of words, symbols and signs.
• This occurs when the sender and receiver speak different languages.
• For example- North Indians going to south India or South Indians coming to North India.
• If the sender and receiver attribute different meanings to the words, symbols and signs, they won't be able to communicate effectively.
• Miscommunication also arises if one takes the literal meaning of a word when in fact sender is trying to communicate figuratively.
• Vocabulary also creates a barrier to communication. A person who does not have good vocabulary may not be able to decipher senders communication.

Physiological Barrier

• People suffering from deafness, vision impairment speech disorders, short-term memory loss, etc will feel difficulty in communicating.

Mechanical Barrier

• If there is difficulty in reception or some elements of the message may not reach the destination.
• Channel noise is a technical term used for such mechanical barriers that include any disturbance in the physical transmission of a message.
• Example- a disturbance in radio transmissions, blurredness on TV screens, spreading of ink on a newspaper, inaudibility of Telephone, etc.

Perceptual Barrier

• The message depends upon how it is perceived through the senses. 
• People have a different perception of reality. Therefore, they interpret the message in a different way.
• Example- glass half-full is perceived differently. Some will perceive it as half empty and some will perceive it as half-full.

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We hope you all got the idea about different types of barriers to effective communication for the UGC NET Exam 2022.

Thank you,

Team BYJU'S Exam Prep