Effective Interpersonal Communication

Identifying the Barriers that are Effective for Interpersonal Communication and Ways for Overcoming Them

Because of inefficient and misunderstanding within an organization having around 100 employees a loss of almost $450000 per year or even more than this can be faced. A chief Executive officer from New York firm was attending meeting with most popular clients. For their entire meeting their client was busy on his iPhone. What was the client busy on? Obviously, it was racing game which the executive had a glance on while peeping on the phone from side. With the help recent research it has been seen that most of the employees from US and UK were seen costing their business for worth $37 billion as simply because they were not able to understand the job purpose.

Through this entire work somewhere communication is not working as they should be. Another reason could also be the barrier being faced by managers while establishing interpersonal communication. So here we will have a look at the barriers in detail.

Barriers through communication:

Filtering: If you want your information to appear more favorably for the receiver then this technique known as filtering is used. For any instance, if a person speaks with the manager about the same thing which he is willing to hear then this is referred to as the filtering of information. Otherwise even if the information is being send up within organization through various levels then this is also filtering process.

The number of filtering being taking place includes the vertical level within organizations and also the cultural environment. The more is the number of vertical levels within an organization more filtering can be possible. As the organizations are becoming more of collaborative, so the filtering is getting less problematic. With the usage of email writing communication becomes easier and reduces more filtering chances. The culture of organization encourages or else discourages the filtering process through varied behavioral rewards. More an organization is focusing for styling and their appearances the more of the managers will be motivated for better communicational techniques usage.

Emotional: When any of the messages is delivered to some receiver then how the person does recognizes of interpreting the message with which type of emotions? Emotions that are extreme can hinder communication processes. Thus for such situation rational and other objective way of thing is disregarded and all emotional judgments are substituted.

Overloaded Information: Manager from Marketing is seen moving out for some trip based on sales in Spain and after his return from the trip the manager faces an incoming of 1000 messages. In this situation it is not so easy responding towards all messages one by one, so hence this is further case of information overloading. This happens especially when the number of information crosses the marked capacity. In fact, today employees are seen mostly complaining about overloading of information’s. An average of 107 business emails are been used by the normal employees today and rate of using email has been 87 percent for employees. Over the record being tracked almost 150 emails are sending and receiving each day by the employees. Today there has been a huge demand for such email texting, faxes, sending of onslaught data’s, etc. but what will happen when the number of information’s to be delivered are more than email number? This might ask managers or employees to choose information’s selectively for sending. Or further the employees might stop communication. But this may affect the organizational flow of working.

DEFENSIVENESS: During some case it has been noticed that while threatening some people, often their reaction changes that becomes a hindrance for communicational flow. This also reduces their ability of understanding mutually. This endures a behavior that is offensive, attacking, sarcastic remarks, over judgmental, and also makes them questioning over others.

Language: For example, the journalists Ann Coulter and also Nelly the rapper are seen speaking English but both of them do it in a different manner. It is a fact that different words provide different meaning to all people. The language of a person is mostly affected by the age, cultural background and also education.

Similarly it goes true for employees within organization. Each employee within an organization is from different background so they speak differently. In fact, same organizational employees from varied departments also possess to have varied jargon. Now what is jargon? Basically it’s a kind of technical languages which is often used in mid of organizations employees for better understanding.

Culture of Nation: The people from China are seen disliking the voice mails just for the technical reasons or faults. This often shows a difference in between people regarding communication. For instance, let us consider comparing different countries that are good at valuing the individualism to those who value the collectivism.

In a country like US individualism is mostly preferred and also the way of communication is also formal with clear spelling. This make the manager rely strongly upon the varied reports availability. Whereas in a collective country that is Japan, more of the interpersonal way of communication is followed. Firstly a consult is made by Japanese manager with the subordinates and then a document is prepared for the same to be forwarded.

How to overcome the barriers?

It has been found that on an average that an individual before understands the information correctly try to hear the information’s for more than seven times. Apart from these communicational barriers what else can be done by the managers for effective mode of communication?

Use the feedback: Most of the communicational issues are straight forward related to misunderstanding or else inaccuracy. The only reason to get rid of such issues is by getting proper feedback on time and with both verbal as well as non verbal communication part.

Managers have the right to ask whether the messages have been properly delivered and also understood by the intended recipient. Or even the manager could also ask the recipient to raise the same message in their own words. When an accurate message is being told then definitely proper understanding is done for improvements. Feedback plays a very crucial role as they inform manager about the reaction of receiver of a message.

This doesn’t means that the feedback should also be in verbal form. If suppose in case the sales manager has forwarded an email to the employees regarding completion of monthly sales but if any of the employee ignores opening the message then the manager is done with his feedback. With this feedback the employees needs to be clarified their previous mail details. In fact apart from this the non verbal communication can also be used for better message transformation.

Simplifying the language: Though often languages are found to be one barrier thus managers should be aware before sending the information within the audience. Messages that can be forwarded easily and understood well are the only best way for communication. For an instance, Hospital employees should have a fluent communication process for avoiding language barriers. But the language being used by the surgical staffs should be different from the normal employee. The same was true for Jargon who used different way of communication with known ones and unknown person.

Listen actively: Often when someone is talking we try to hear them but unfortunately we never listen them. Listening is always considered to be active way of searching the meaning but on a contrary hearing is considered as passive. For any listening work a receiver is also found putting efforts for establishing perfect communication.

You know that most of you are quite poor listeners but why is it so? Listening often gets difficult for people as they usually prefer speaking. Not only this but listening gets more tiring work. Similar to the hearing process, active way of listening for grabbing the complete meaning but without taking any type of premature form of judgment or else interpretation is required. This also demands for total concentration. Average speaking rate of a normal person is 125 to 200 words per minute. But on contrary average listeners could have only up to 400 words per minute. This leaves behind lots of time wandering for both parties.

If you desire to be involved for active listening process than probably you are bound to make empathy with those of sender. Attitude of sender’s vary from one person to the other so this needs to be done. Not only attitude but also for expression, needs, and their interest. If you are empathetic listener then you will easily listen that is being stated by the received message. Thus the ultimate aim is to improve understanding of any message without any form of distortions. Other than these even some behavior can be understood well through Exhibit 15-3.

Emotional constrain: It shouldn’t be kept in mind that managers communicate that too in a rational form. Emotions are the only barrier to create distortions within communication. Incoming messages are mostly misinterpreted by managers who are already upset by some issue. The message being communicated by the manager would be distorted. Then what can be done? Best way is controlling emotions simply by cooling down.

Watch over the nonverbal cues: Always try reinforcing your words as per your actions as always actions are seen speaking ahead of words. For any non verbal communicator it gets vital to take proper care of cues before messages being conveyed.

Links of Previous Main Topic:-

• Managing diversity
• What is social responsibility
• Managing change and innovation
• Managers as decision makers
• Foundations of planning
• Strategic management
• Basic organizational design
• Adaptive organizational design
• Managing human resources
• Managing teams
• Understanding individual behavior
• Managers and communication
• The nature and function of communication

Links of Next Fundamentals of Management Topics:-

• Organizational communication
• Information technology and communication
• Communication issues todays organizations
• Case application 1 gossip girls
• Case application 2 delivery disaster
• Chapter fifteen summary by learning outcomes
• Preparing for the career managers and communication
• What is motivation
• Managers as leaders
• Introduction to controlling
• Managing operations