Business Communication Barriers

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Six Major Barriers to Effective Business Communication
Name withheld for anonymous peer review
University of the People

Six Major Barriers to Effective Business Communication
This paper will discuss six major barriers to effective business communication, primarily through providing an example for each. The six major barriers which will be focused on are those described in the textbook Business Communication for Success, namely cliché, jargon, slang, sexist and racist language, and euphemisms (McLean, 2010). Additionally, a personal experience in which one of these barriers was present, and hampered effective communication is included.
The first barrier to discuss is cliché. This is the use of expressions which are thought to convey a specific …show more content…

If I tell my friend that a concert was, “sick,” he is likely to understand I mean it was incredible or amazing. If, however, I tell my mother the same thing she will likely wonder what was so disturbing about it. Slang comes down to experience. Unlike jargon, background such as common interest or skills may not have exposed all individuals to a slang term and its meaning. This understanding typically only comes about through prior exposure, and, again unlike jargon, this exposure may occur between vastly different individuals who happen to encounter one …show more content…

I spent 23 years living in the southern United States where racial prejudices still run quite rampant. I have been engaged by far too many sources who, at first, seemed to wish to discuss something completely innocent, and, as casually as chatting about the weather, suddenly launched into some offensive tirade about African Americans. My reaction whenever this occurred was to be inclined to stop listening. I would fail to truly hear any other content which may have indeed been meaningful because I was too turned off of the source’s message. Any time this happened my mind became shocked at first, unable and uncaring to continue being a receiver of the message, but eventually always turned to looking for the earliest possible exit from the conversation. This relates to my point on why racist language is a tremendously awful barrier to effective communication. Once this issue appeared within a message, there was absolutely nothing a speaker could do to bring my attention back in tune with their delivery.
These examples are common for many people, and hopefully make a clear case for why they are considered barriers in communication. It is not impossible to imagine that there may indeed be situations where some of these factors exist, yet a message is still delivered and received in a relatively accurate manner. What is important to understand is that these are not effective communication strategies, so not

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