Barriers to Effective Communication Free Essays

This paper will discuss the process of communication and its components. The differences between listening and hearing within communication will be reviewed. Formal and informal channels of communication will be described and the different barriers between effective communications will be assessed. We will write a custom essay sample on Barriers to Effective Communication or any similar topic only for you Order Now Lastly, strategies that may be implemented to overcome communication barriers will be examined. The process of communication can be described within five steps. The five steps of the communication process include: transmitting an idea, sending the idea, receiving the message, understanding the message and providing feedback to the sender (Wallace Roberson, 2009). Transmitting an idea involves the development of a thought or thoughts and then a need to divulge the information to another person is conceived. Sending the idea is the way in which the thought is transmitted from one person to the next. This could be done verbally, in writing or by portraying an action to someone else. The intended party must then confirm receipt of the message. If this does not occur then the transmittal of the message could be unsuccessful. Receipt of the message also falls on the responsibility of the sender. The sender should ensure proper transmittal of the message to the intended recipient. Comprehension of the message is the sender’s ability to send a clear and concise message to the receiver. The message needs to be understood by the receiver in order for there to be a proper flow of communication. Feedback can occur in written form or verbally from the receiver. The receiver of the message will provide the sender with an acknowledgement that the intended message was understood or needs further clarification. The process of communication is two-fold and requires responses from both a sender and a receiver in order for it to work properly. Listening and hearing are two different matters when it comes to communication. Hearing is something that happens naturally and we hear things all day. There is no concentration or thought process involved to hear something. Listening requires a thought and concentration. To listen to something is to actually process in our brain what is being heard or read. Listening requires one to hear, but hearing does not require you to listen (Dunn, 2004). Intended communications can be misconstrued when the intended receiver only hears the message instead of listening to the message. Within the criminal justice organization there are formal and informal channels of communication. Formal channels of communication consist of a clear and concise method to ensure messages are transmitted from one person to the next. This type of communication channel typically funnels from the top down, meaning from the boss to the employees. Formal communication in criminal justice includes memorandums, reports, orders and/or regulations. This helps to keep a set standard, organization within a unit and uniformity. There are also disadvantages to a formal channel of communication. The disadvantages consist of this process being time consuming and tedious. Because of the long process, a formal communication process cannot always keep up with things that change often. A formal process can also hinder ideas and thoughts from being transmitted because some people lack the skill or the drive to follow through with such a formal and long process. The informal channel of communication is â€Å"office gossip† or idle office chatter. This allows for information to travel from the employees to the boss in a funnel up theory. This will also allow for employees to discuss information amongst themselves without being in a formal setting or doing formal reports. Informal lines of communication significantly decreases the time it takes to receive an answer rather than doing up a formal report, sending it for signature and waiting for a response back. Questions and answers can be achieved within a matter of minutes via informal channels of communication. Barriers within the communication process exist when one person is concerned with personal or professional status (Wallace Roberson, 2009). There are four different types of barriers that exist within this process and they are: emotional, physical, semantic and ineffective listening barriers. Emotional barriers are when people use their past or present experiences to form a message or decode a message. Self-esteem is at the root of emotional barriers; those with low self-esteem will not transmit many messages for ear of rejection and those with high self-esteem may try to impress their own ideas onto others. Physical barriers are any physical interruptions when trying to transmit a message. This could be equipment malfunctions, distance, or strict rules and regulations requiring certain steps be followed before transmitting any information. Semantic barriers are those words or phrases that can be interpreted differently depending on the person receiving the message. A phrase can be said to mean one thing and three different people could interpret it to mean three different things. Ineffective listening is the fourth barrier that could exist in the criminal justice system. Ineffective listening is the inability to clearly listen to a message and interpret what was being said or read. This could be due to distraction, boredom, fatigue, stress or a failure to connect with the speaker. Barriers to communication hinder the process because it stops the flow of communication from one person to the next. There are ways to overcome communication barriers within the criminal justice system. One way to overcome the barriers is to provide feedback. Feedback keeps the listener involved and lets the speaker know you are paying attention and that you understand what is being said. One can overcome emotional barriers by trying to distress before coming onto the job. Leaving emotional baggage out of the office and trying to stay focused on work at work can help to overcome the emotional barrier. Using certain tones to convey messages can defeat a semantic barrier. Tones in one’s voice can help to portray different messages in different ways. Facial and nonverbal expressions can also help to overcome semantic barriers in communication. In order to improve listening skills requires practice. In order to effectively listen to a message there has to be a need to know. Listening skills are something that everyone can always improve on and this only comes from practice. Effective communication within the criminal justice system is imperative to everyone involved. By learning the barriers and strategies to reduce the barriers we can improve on both transmitting and receiving messages. Communication is key in every facet of life and the criminal justice system depends on it. How to cite Barriers to Effective Communication, Papers Barriers to Effective Communication Free Essays Human communication lies in the fact that the dialogue neither enforces one’s opinion against the other’s one, nor does it add one’s opinion to the other’s one as in some mathematical addition. The dialogue changes both of them. A successful dialogue is of such character that it is impossible to fall again into the disagreement that caused it. We will write a custom essay sample on Barriers to Effective Communication or any similar topic only for you Order Now It is only community, which is so common that it is no longer my or your view but the way how we mutually interpreted the world, what enables moral and social solidarity. What is right and what is considered to be correct, that in its substance needs society, which comes into being by means of mutual human understanding. The mutual view is in reality being built all the time in mutual dialogue and then it again falls into the silence of understanding and common place. Or this reason, it is considered justified the assertion that all non-verbal forms of understanding aim back to the understanding that spreads through speech and dialogue. These are barriers to understanding, which are given by the character of virtual study environment which can be overcome, for example by technical perfection, only when this environment comes closer to reality. There are certain limits in this dialogue, certain barriers to understanding, which have extra-causal basis.Let us list at least the most marked ones: Cultural and national differences; Overall life temperament; Personal disposition and character; Type of thinking, paradigm of rationality; Professional difference; Age difference; Experiential and knowledge difference; Language barrier. Virtual study environment provides structured contents of the subject of study in terms of syllabus and study materials as well as sets of questions, tasks and tests and self- tests, which are composed mainly on the basis of utterance logic and in accord with didactic principles of increasing demands and clarity (there are used not only pictures, but also schemes, visualizations, audio tools, etc.). It also offers space for communication by means of â€Å"dialogues† with various focuses and levels of engagement and shared work space, which enables virtual communities to cooperate at common projects. How to cite Barriers to Effective Communication, Papers Barriers to Effective Communication Free Essays Effective communication is essential to the accomplishment of any organization or company. The easy procedure for attaining the capability to interact properly between one host and another host can result in the real difference of life or death. There are lots of hurdles within communication in case an individual isn’t properly trained to abide by certain principles. We will write a custom essay sample on Barriers to Effective Communication or any similar topic only for you Order Now This document will review a lot of examples of effective communication as well as the hurdles a person may face when trying to properly transmit information to another person. The word communication is depending on a type of a systematic procedure which involves the exchange of information between one person to another or between parties. There are normally a number of arrays between systems of symbols which is intertwined with discipline to produce a particular type of communications. Various parts of communications consist of situation, channel, interference, atmosphere, comments, source, message, and receiver. Communication is exactly what allows people to share particular experiences or knowledge between themselves. Personal communication is noticeable by many types including talking, writing, broadcasting, sign language, as well as gestures. Broken down even more, various types of communication also can be accidental, deliberate, transactive, interactive, inter or intrapersonal and also verbal and nonverbal. The differences between hearing and listening are quite distinct. When an individual is hearing, one simply feels a sound. However, in case an individual is listening, they are simply being mindful or conscious with a wish to hear or reply to others while making sure an understanding of the type of communication. One should be certain that one has a dedication to listening as well as have an open mind to think about ones point of view. Keep up with the capability to listen to what an individual is stating irrespective of whether one agrees or disagrees with the other. Avoid the impulse to spring to results and recognize body gestures. Don’t end a talk suddenly, rather be very sensitive, sympathetic, as well as understanding (Sykes, 2005). Sometimes, an individual’s notion of listening can be to jump in the middle of the talk and attempt to give undesirable advice. But, the ord listening doesn’t involve an invitation when a problem should be fixed. At times the speaker is just looking for an ear which would listen sympathetically. The capability to efficiently listen can make a difference in the achievement of a relationship or a job. Just listening can sometimes, help in accomplishing degrees of success required in order to go ahead. Formal communications is a much more m anaged or organized method in which pertinent information is shared between persons in an attempt to achieve a secure, synchronized action in the company. The idea behind formal communication bases an individual’s part in a company and distributes their communication in an organized way which goes as per the established chain of command. In a criminal justice organization, formal communication normally moves in a downward manner generally starting at the police commissioner stage and working its way down toward the stage of police officer. Formal communication also works the other way round by having reports or facts from the police officer stage passed on as high as the police commissioner stage, based on its significance. When talking about informal communications in a criminal justice company, we will know that it meets a variety of requirements, more specifically, emotional as well as social requirements. Informal communication isn’t really depending on the position that an individual takes up in the company. Informal communication isn’t a planned, a managed type of communication, however, it’s a lot more like a casual, relaxed type of communication in which word of mouth swiftly passes through a company since there is restriction on the secrecy of the information. Grapevine will be the word most frequently used for informal communication in a criminal justice company. As per Wilhelm, â€Å"Grapevine communication can spread information quickly and can easily cross establish organizational boundaries, the information it carries can be changed through the deletion or exaggeration of crucial details thus causing the information to be inaccurate – even if it’s based on the truth† (2010). A known hurdle to efficient communication is inhibition. Different personalities, family characteristics, or dependencies may influence communication. One more known hurdle to efficient communication is referred to as denial. Believe it or not, denial is kind of a human expression in which we refuse circumstances in which we don’t feel any comfort in showing or being sincere about. Alternatives have been known to turn into hurdles in a number of ways toward efficient communication. Incongruence’s happens when a spoken message isn’t congruent or equivalent to the language of the body nor the pitch, volume, as well as power of facial expressions. To assess an individual’s efficiency of how to communicate with other people, one should have the capability to exchange ideas with other people, fix problems, as well as know another’s point of view. The simple act of communication isn’t easy; one should be capable to communicate verbally, nonverbally, as well as know preverbal components. While referring to the subject matter of a message for example the arrangement or selection of our phrases, we are interacting verbally. Transmitting messages through body gestures is a type of nonverbal communication. While talking about how we say what we say for example the pacing or volume of our sounds, we are communicating in a preverbal context. All three parts should be used successfully so as to accomplish efficient communication. We should be capable to send brief, clear messages and also hear and understand the message another is attempting to convey. So far as communication is concerned, we wish to attempt to send nonverbal, preverbal, as well as verbal messages. The listener can become baffled with our message in case we are irregular. It might also form a lack of confidence in which it might undermine the opportunity to develop a good connection with another. However, when individuals listen efficiently, they may be capable to recognize particular phrases or actions which may lead that individual to knowing the scenario as the other person is attempting to express it. In case a person gives a message which includes contradictory information, the nonverbal information is what the other person might think as believable. We successfully have covered much of the various hurdles of communications and also developed strategies as well as solutions to assist us overcome a variety of different hurdles to efficient communication. Even though the reality may be subjective or a matter of belief when it involves efficient communication, we should see a much deeper knowledge of the issue and assess any potential route in which a contract might be reached. Reference 1. Sykes, J. F. (2005). Communication Skills. The Sykes Group. Retrieved from http://www.thesykesgrp.com/BiteYourLipListenArt01.htm 2. Wilhelm, L. (2010). Formal/Informal Communication. Express Yourself to Success. Retrieved from http://www.expressyourselftosuccess.com/formal-informal-communication-channels/ How to cite Barriers to Effective Communication, Papers