Question

In principless of communication we have discussed different causes of communication failures. which of these have you personally experiences? What were the results and how could you avoid repeating the situation?

Thank you.

Answer 1

In a business, there are three main types of communication failure. Each has its own indicative signs.

• The first type is known as allocative failure. This occurs when a firm is not gathering enough intelligence about its market or (most often), the information is not reaching the right points. The firm will not be allocating resources in step with the shifts in demand. If demand is rising but the firm is suffering from allocative communication failure, then stocks will fall and there will be understaffing. If the inverse happens, there will be a surplus of stocks and overstaffing.

• The second type is executive failure, where communication to trigger specific events/actions is either late, lacking or in error. The symptoms of this are a general loss of direction in the company or departments, a loss of co-ordination and an increase in complaints from customers as things happen late or not at all.

• The final type is human failure. This occurs when the general culture of a business or the relationships between particular individuals or departments do not foster effective communication. This leads to alienated staff, an increase in staff turnover, an increase in absenteeism and general frustration among staff. Creativity, especially that which takes place across departmental boundaries, is likely to suffer hugely as team synergy slips.

Communication involves two groups, the sender and the receiver, and each has unique responsibilities to ensure effective communication. If either or both parties fail to fulfill their responsibilities, there will be a communication breakdown. Since communication always involves at least two distinct individuals and these individuals bring their biases into any conversation, the cause of any miscommunication can be on either the sender or the receiver end. Understanding the responsibilities of each participant can help us understand the causes of communication failure and how to prevent it.

Assuming Knowledge

What may be obvious to you may not be obvious to your audience. Skipping over key details because they are obvious to you can leave your audience bewildered and frustrated. It is often difficult to know what knowledge an audience or individual brings into a conversation, so it is incumbent on the speaker to give a thorough explanation while looking for clues of confusion in the audience. In addition, being able to fully understand and address questions is vital. Listening to the question and understanding where the confusion lies is an important skill that many people do not possess.

Unclear Language

Using language that is not appropriate to the subject or audience is another problem. Reliance on technical jargon could confuse your audience. In addition, vague or imprecise language can leave your audience with an incomplete understanding or a misunderstanding of what you are communicating. Getting the right balance between the technical language necessary to convey the message and using vocabulary that is comprehensible and stimulating to your audience is the key.

Non-Receptiveness

As a receiver of a message, it is important to be receptive to the message -- to understand what the speaker is trying to communicate. This can be complicated by personal biases or boredom. If we disagree with what is being communicated, it is sometimes difficult to listen with an open mind. If a subject is not interesting, it is easy to tune the speaker out and miss out on key components of the message. Active listening, either taking notes if in an audience or repeating and paraphrasing if in a conversation, can help to increase our receptiveness to a message.

Excessive Ego

Sometimes in a conversation, it becomes more important to be right than to understand what the other person is saying. Instead of listening to the other person’s points, we spend the time they are speaking thinking about what our response is going to be. When a conversation degenerates into an argument, it is easy to fall into using this tactic. Instead of understanding the other person’s ideas, we are fully concentrated on how best to impose ours on them. The ability to divorce your ego from an argument and listen to the other person is a difficult but vital skill to effective communication.

example

Once I had gone for an interview for airline cabin crue trainer, that time I had not much experience for this kind of job and my communication was not that good. Apart from that the room was over crowded and so many disturbances and noise was there. Later I realize there are some barriers because of which I did not performed up to the mark. After analyzing my experience there are some points I found which could be barrier for healthy communication and analysis of which are needed before coming up with ways to eliminate or minimize them. These barriers may be classified as follows – Barriers to Communication 1. Environmental Barriers – This is the same as physical noise, which could be in the form of distracting sounds, an overcrowded…show more content…

Using a wrong medium of advertising, or conveying a message orally when a written letter would be more appropriate, are examples. The written channel is more appropriate when the communication is more formal or for keeping things on record, while emotional messages such as feelings about co-workers are better conveyed orally. 5. Linguistic and Cultural Barriers –When the sender of the message uses a language that the receiver does not understand, the communication will not succeed. Either the sender may be using a different or foreign language, or the language used may be too highly technical for the receiver to understand. Linguistic barriers may also occur in cross-cultural advertising and distort the communication, when translating campaigns or slogans literally from one language to another. For example, Pepsi’s slogan “Come Alive with Pepsi”, when translated into Chinese, read “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave!” Cultural differences refer to differences in values and perceptions, which may affect the interpretation of the message by the receiver. For example, a joke about women may be taken in the wrong sense if the receiver belongs to a culture where women are highly respected.