Discuss the Barriers to Good Communication

Communication is what people need to do in everyday life. In an organization, communication is especially important, since people have to work together in order to reach certain outcomes and achievements. According to Robbins et al. (2008), communication in an organization functions as to control member behaviour, to foster motivation for what is to be done, to provide a release for emotional expression and to provide information to make decisions. As a key role to organisational success, communication is very important especially in the changing business environment nowadays. And also it is important for us to examine effective communication and the barriers to good communication. Therefore it is important to improve and have the right communication style within the organisation. However, no matter how good the communication system or channel is, barriers still exist. This essay sets out to discuss about successful organsational communication and identifies the barriers to effective communication.
To better understand the process and styles of communication, here I will first review the definition of communication. There are in general 2 types of communication: verbal and nonverbal. Verbal is conveyed through language, which is the most common way of communication. Samovar et al. (2000, p. 122) explained language as a set of symbols; the rules for these symbols combined together are used and understood by a large community of people, which provides people a way to interact with the outside world. Nonverbal on the other hand, is other means that are different from languages, for example, gestures, signs, written forms of communication. People usually combine verbal language and nonverbal behaviour together to better express themselves.
In an organisational setting, theories on communication are also widely discussed. In classical perspectives, communication is viewed as a managerial tool to command and control workers, which during this period the organsational...