Question

Describe at least two types of individual and at least two types of organizational barriers to communication. Assuming that you were a manager who encountered each of these barriers, provide two or more examples of how you would overcome or remove these barriers. Support your response.

Answer 1

Two types of individual barriers are:

1. Lack of confidence: A person sometimes lacks confidence to speak in frontbof audience or to communicate with others mostly because of inferiority complex or due to introvert nature.

2. Lack of soft skills: Also people do not have sufficient soft skills and are not able to communicate properly since they make a lot of errors while communicating. Such people often struggle to communicate and hence they prefer to remain silent only.

Two types of organizational barriers are:

1. Politics: Due to politics in the organization, sometimes people feel afraid and reserved to speak up and communicate since they feel that it may backfire on them and thet may be in trouble.

2. Restrictive policies: Some of the organizations have restrictive policies and they do it encourage the employees to come forward and speak about the challenges they face in work. These organizations do not promote open work culture due to which employees feel afraid to talk.

Two examples to overcome these barriers:

1. Open work culture: The organizations must promote open work culture wherein the employees are motivated to come forward and communicate about the challenges they face while work and also the good things they want to talk about. This would be a huge enabler for them.

2. Soft skills training: Organizations should develop a training program for its employees and impart them soft skills training to make them feel confident and competitive as well while communicating with others.