Meaning, Importance & Types of Communication Barriers & Measures to Overcome Them

1 Mark Questions

1. What is meant by decoding as an element of communication? (All India 2014)

Ans. Decoding is the process of converting encoded symbols of the sender.

2. What is meant by feedback in the concept of communication? (Foreign 2014)

Ans. The action of the receiver, which reciprocates to the sender of the message, that he has understood the message in its true sense is called feedback.

3. What is meant by encoding as an element of communication? (Delhi 2014)

Ans. The sender translates the message into words, symbols, gestures or other symbols, which he feels, he will make the receiver understand the message. This is known as encoding of message.

4. Define formal communication. (Delhi 2012)

Ans. Formal communication refers to the official communication which takes place through the chain of command.

5. What is meant by informal communication? (Delhi 2012)

Ans. Informal communication is the communication that takes place without following the formal lines of communication.

6. Define communication. (All India 2012)

Ans. Communication is the process of exchange of ideas and views among two or more persons to create common understanding. According to Newman, Summer and Warren, 'Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions between two or more persons'.

3 Marks Questions

1. Explain any three personal barriers to effective communication. (Foreign 2014) Personal barriers to effective communication are-
2. Lack of confidence of superior in his subordinates If superiors have no

confidence and trust in their subordinates, then they pay no attention to their advice, opinion or suggestions.

1. Lack of incentives If there is no incentive for communication, then subordinates

may not take initiatives to give suggestions, e.g. if there is no reward given for giving some good suggestion, then employees will take no initiative to give good suggestions.

1. Fear of authority Some superiors may modify feedback going from lower-level

employees. This may be done especially if the feedback is a complaint directed against the superior. The dishonest superior may block complains reaching to senior management in order to prevent challenge from authority. In other words, sometimes superiors conceal and hide information if they have fear of losing their authority over the subordinates.

1. Explain any three organisational barriers to effective communication. (Foreign 2014)

Ans. Organisational barriers to effective communication are:

1. Organisational policy If organisational policy does not support free flovy of

information, it may result in barriers, e.g. in centralised organisation, most of the information remains at top level only. People at lower level may not be able to communicate freely in centralised organisation.

1. Status Sometimes the people working at higher level do not believe in the information supplied by lower level employees as they feel how would he know about my job and who is he giving suggestions.
2. Rules and regulations Rigid rules and regulations may also create barriers as following rules may lead to red tapism, delay of action and delay in movement of information.
3. There are some barriers in communication which are concerned with encodingand decoding of message. State any three such barriers. (HOTS; All India 2008; Delhi 2008)

Ans. These barriers are known as semantic barriers. Three types of barriers in communication are as follows: (Any three)

1. Badly expressed message Sometimes due to lack of vocabulary, manager may use wrong words, omission of needed words, etc. Due to this, the manager may fail to convey the same meaning to his subordinates.
2. Symbols with different meanings Sometimes a word may have different meanings. Receiver may understand the other meaning, e.g. price, prize, principle, principal, right, write, etc.