R Logical barrier (different type of thinking)

As you can see from the Table 4.1, although technology is accused of many communication problems, human errors, when either an inadequate channel of communication is used or it is used ineffectively, will take their toll on communication.

Types of Communication Barriers

All the components of the communication model are influenced by a number of communication barriers. According to Lahiff and Penrose (2001:57) the list of communication barriers comprises the following seven categories:

q Semantic barriers – problems in understanding the meaning of the message sent and received;

q Organizational barriers – problems connected with the distance between the participants of the communication process; with specificity of the tasks; with power, status and authority of the participants; with ownership of information, etc.

q Interpersonal barriers – problems connected with psychological climate, value system and negative attitude of the communicators;

q Individual barriers – problems connected with the individual specific thinking and activity that may be caused by physical disabilities, illnesses and those connected with personal communicative skills of receiving and transmitting information that can be determined by bad listening skills, non-attentive reading, psychological state;

q Economic, geographical and time barriers – the problems of time and money resources, different location and influence of time on receiving a message.

q Barriers caused by problems with communication channels and media: the problem of conflicting ways to transmit information.

q Technological problems – those caused by excessive amount of the information to be received by the client.

With this classification in mind, let us remember that as soon as any misunderstanding occurs we hurry to blame the technology for this. Yet Richard Blundel (2000:36) reminds that communication barrier is first of all misunderstanding among the people and tries to illustrate this in the table quoted below:

Perception aspect of communication covers physiological and psychological barriers. Receivers often get many different messages a day. This can result in the receiver’s inability to perceive a particular message fully and accurately. A person’s ability to communicate is influenced by three interrelated characteristics: circumspection and attention; perception and memory. Circumspection and selective attention control which messages are perceived by our senses and which are not. Perception results in different interpretation of the same data. Memory determines which messages we save to be retrieved later. Every person demonstrates a wide range of each of these characteristics in different situations and in different time. People may have perceptual biases and attend to stimuli in the environment in very different ways. We each have shortcuts that we use to organize data. Invariably, these shortcuts introduce some biases into communication. Some of these shortcuts include stereotyping, projection, and self-fulfilling prophecies.

Perception also depends on motives, aims and intentions which we tend to attribute to explain the behaviour of others. This is called causal attribution which may be erroneous and lead to wrong perception of a partner (Spivak 2002:144).

Table 4.1 Commonly known Communication barriers

We usually evaluate the behaviour of others either through the prism of our own personality, or refer the authority which is understandable and close to us. Such egocentric position is quite common (‘There are two sides to every question: my side and the wrong side’ Oscar Levant). Yet the fundamental mistake of attribution is that the influence of the environment is ignored, while personality traits are overestimated (prejudice, first impression effect).

Unfortunately an individual's behaviour cannot always be predicted even if we know his or her attitude on a subject. This leads us to another powerful barrier which is called cognitive dissonance. Described by Leon Festinger, in the late 1950s, cognitive dissonancerefers to any incompatibility that an individual might perceive between two or more of his or her attitudes, or between his or her behaviour and attitudes. It is a state experienced when an individual is presented with cues from reality, which do not conform to his perception of what that reality is (a fable by Aesop about a fox and a cluster of grapes is a good example of cognitive dissonance which is a distressing mental state caused by an 'inconsistency between how a person acts and what he knows.') Festinger regarded cognitive dissonance as similar to hunger. It motivates us to change either our behavior or belief in an effort to avoid unpleasant feeling.

Self-presentation is another factor that influences perception. It is not always consciously held but it is present in any communication. Self-presentation aims at making a desired impression on the partner. By presenting yourself you may communicate superiority, attraction, attitude, actual state, causes of behaviour. In fact, such self-presentation is a manipulation element which should be recognized and distinguished from self-presentation as a professionalism factor, which will be discussed later.

Communicative aspect of the communication process contains communication barriers that are caused by our communicative intentions. Communication barriers operate beyond our will, automatically. There are external and internal barriers. Spivak (2000:145) defines external barriers as certain filters of distrust towards the speaker: for instance, a sense of threat or anxiety which cuts or hinders the information transfer. Communication can be broken by an internal barrier, such as morals, which taboos a certain topics for discussion.

Forms and methods of presenting information contain such barriers as: