Communication is a dynamic process that takes place in every sphere of our life, be it in academics, business, international interactions, and personal relations. We spend at least 70 percent of our time communication by either receiving and sending messages in forms of texts or by talking. Barnlund (2017) defines connection as a systematic and continuous process through which information is passed from one person to another to achieve the desired response. Jureddi and Brahmaiah (2016) further define communication as a two-way process of sending and receiving information involving certain elements: a sender, a message, a medium, a channel, a receiver, response, and feedback. However, the elements sometimes do not work effectively because of apparent barriers and obstacles which can be avoidable or unavoidable due to certain circumstances. It is, therefore, the role of the two parties to have a high level of cooperation and understanding to overcome the barriers to communicate effectively. In this research journal involving my real-life experiences, I will highlight the various obstacles that hinder communication.
In the year 2015, I had an opportunity of working as a youth care worker in an organization known as the Ranch Society. Ranch society is a dynamic high -level organization that provides a wide variety of care services to persons suffering from various mental illnesses and health conditions. As an internal coordinator, my primary role involved working with clients with different kind of health challenges to help them shape their lives and experiences. While working there helped me gain diverse knowledge and new skills in a field that I was entirely new, I also learned how effective communication influences the effectiveness of instruction, handling of problems and performance evaluation of clients due to the challenges I encountered.
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My first task at the facility involved talking to a 15-year-old teenager who was suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after escaping unhurt from a high-end restaurant that had been taken hostage by terrorists for approximately 24 hours. In her confession, the teenager amidst tears explained how the sound of anything like a gunshot makes her terrified to the extent of becoming unconscious. As a youth worker, my first aim was to develop a rapport with the client by listening to her and over time build trust for faster healing. However, this was not the case as environmental factors within the vicinity of the organization were making communication difficult. Background noise from patients suffering from relapse and other health conditions were affecting my client’s ability to talk and hear what I was talking about. She tried to disguise to be listening by nodding, but when I asked her what I had told about, she was unable to answer. Mittal (2018) asserts that noise has a negative impact when it comes to how a message is relayed. It distorts the signal and prevents it from being understood the way it was intended ( Harzing, & Feely,2008). Moreover, the level of comprehension is known to deteriorate when the noise is very intrusive, interfering with the assimilation of information ( Hertenstein et al.,2009) .
Along with the challenges of dealing with clients with different kinds of health and psychological problems, my other mandate was to do a complete assessment of the clients and linking with them with various professionals to get the appropriate care. In the evaluation, specific keywords such as engagement, rapport, resilience, and intervention were to be used. Having not had enough expertise in that area, the complex language was almost a kind of intellectual segregation. Besides, some of the meaning of the words used in the assessment was altogether a different thing to what I had learned in my journalism class. This affected how I wrote my assessment reports to the extent that supervisor had to call me to clarify some information I had written. Because communication is a complex, give -and -take process, the lack of clear understanding of social work jargon blocked the transfer of knowledge ( Lunenburg, 2010). While with time I was fortunate enough to learn how to assess patient’s using various assessment procedures such as interviewing and later analyzing the information using specific assessment tools, I realized how important it is for the receiver of the message to respond to the sent information in the desired manner through corrections in order to improve the communication process next time.
The central aim of primary health networks like the Ranch Society is to help clients minimize health issues they might be having as they may also be dealing with other serious problems in their lives. To ensure that clients get reliable, safe and timely care, communication is essential ( Kurtz, Draper & Silverman, 2016). When dealing at clients at the facility, oral communication is one of the most utilized forms of communication. This is because it enables the clients to express their emotions well without any hindrances. However, this is not always the case as the facility hosts clients from diverse areas with their established language and different cultural orientations. In the facility, some of the clients were not native English speakers making it difficult for me to understand what they were saying or what I was telling them. The organization sometimes sought the services of language translators who would often lend additional insights to the message communicated by the clients, but they were not always there. It was therefore up to us to put a lot of effort to understand their language as some knew to communicate in English but not in a coherent manner. Earley and Mosakowski (2004) , asserts that the inability to understand what is being said and the client cultural background may cause increased anxiety to the point of violent behavior erupting. At some point, I remember one of my clients getting agitated to the extent of breaking her glass of water as she could not understand what I was talking about. This created a tremendous barrier between the client and I. A closer analysis into the situation, I realized that I had ignored the client’s body language that had provided several warnings, increasing their anxiety and a total shutdown of communication.
During my work at the facility, I had the privilege of sitting in many of the committees in the organization such as the Program Access Committee (PAC). The committee which comprises of senior management officials, as well as some employees in the organization, has the responsibility of ensuring that patients receive high -quality care. During the meeting, each member of the committee is required to come with various insights on how to improve services offered through different presentations. It is the role of the administrator, the chair of the committee to reaffirm whether the presentation presented meets the criterion or not. However, during the actual performance, I noticed that the administrator's tone of voice and expression was receptive to the responses given by one of my colleagues. These had a tremendous impact on the whole committee regarding their reaction towards the message. Some of them were afraid of presenting their work for fear of being reprimanded. According to Voinea, et al. (2015), this kind of barrier which occurs due to differences in opinions and views are known as perceptual barriers and are known to interfere with the functioning of the organization.
Just like other organization, health care organizations have different levels of authority, chain of command, between superior and subordinates' levels of the organization, and various departments. The systems can be complex and challenging to navigate when it comes to passing information ( Argyris, 2012). It is, therefore, the role of the organization administration to ensure that every staff of the organization receives the information passed promptly. At Ranch Society, most of the information was communicated through the use of emails. Most of the times, some of the employers complained of not having received any emails sometimes due to technical errors such as poor mobile networks. This was a major hindrance when it came to the achievement of organizational goals as well as getting immediate feedback. In other instances, the employees could receive too many messages sometimes diluting the intended message. The lack of a proper communication channel caused a lot of misunderstanding in the organization to the extent of creating mistrust in the communication mistrust in the organization.
As I started my new job at the Ranch Society, I had little expectations but was excited to know that my modern workplace would bring new and different experiences. I knew it would be a challenge working in a field that I had little knowledge about and also balance my studies. Regardless, I had committed to accept any problem that would come my way as the experiences and knowledge acquired would be worth. Working with a diverse group of clients with different health challenges helped me understand the importance of effective communication. Besides, working in a complex organization with different department helped in gaining an understanding of how the process of communication is involved, thus the need for a familiar context for successful and meaning discussion. In my opinion, this kind of knowledge was precious regardless of my future career prospects.
In conclusion, every communication experience specific barrier distorting message and miscommunication. These barriers often originate from the sender, channels of communication or the receiver. It is therefore essential for organization and individuals to recognize the presence of these barriers and how to effectively overcome them to enhance proper communication flow.
References
Argyris, C. (2012). Good communication that blocks learning. Harvard Business Review , 72 (4), 77-85.
Barnlund, D. C. (2017). A transactional model of communication. In Communication theory (pp. 47-57). Routledge.
Earley, P. C., & Mosakowski, E. (2004). Cultural intelligence. Harvard business review , 82 (10), 139-146.
Harzing, A. W., & Feely, A. J. (2008). The language barrier and its implications for HQ-subsidiary relationships. Cross-Cultural Management: An International Journal , 15 (1), 49-61.
Hertenstein, M. J., Holmes, R., McCullough, M., & Keltner, D. (2009). The communication of emotion via touch. Emotion , 9 (4), 566.
Jureddi, D. N., & Brahmaiah, N. (2016). Barriers to effective communication. Journal of English Language and Literature , 3 (2), 114-115.
Kurtz, S., Draper, J., & Silverman, J. (2016). Skills for communicating with patients . CRC Press.
Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Communication: The process, barriers, and improving effectiveness. Schooling , 1 (1), 1-11.
Mittal, S. (2018). Barriers to communication. International Journal of Advanced Research and Development , 3 (1), 243-245.
Voinea, D. V., Busu, O. V., Opran, E. R., & Vladutescu, S. (2015). Embarrassments in managerial communication. Polish Journal of Management Studies , 11 .
