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Unit 8: Communication and Conflict

8.6.8 Medium of Communication–Wrong Choice as a Barrier Notes

A wrong medium or an inappropriate medium chosen for communicating a message will
act as a barrier to communication. On a shop floor you cannot use a long written memo of
instructions whereas your information on a new product in the market could be only
through an effective and attractive advertisement. Complementing one medium of
communication with another appropriately can help overcome communication barrier caused
by the medium chosen. An oral reminder in person or over the telephone followed up with
a written letter can easily produce the desired response or expected reaction.
8.6.9 Physical/Environmental Barriers

The major environmental/physical barriers are—Time, Place, Space, Climate and Noise.
Some of them are easy to alter whereas; some may prove to be tough obstacles in the process
of effective communication. These factors may just cause distraction leading to inattentiveness
or totally alter the message, causing miscommunication.
Time: Time has an important role in a communication process. Do we not often hear
expressions such as “timely caution”, “timely advice”? These expressions indicate the role
of time as a factor in communication. An organization that expects quick results cannot
afford to be slack in its channels of communication. The time lag between countries in
Europe/America and Asia has to be overcome by the adoption of modern and fast
communication channels. Quickness of communication is the watchword in the modern
world of communication.
Every concern has to choose a fast channel of communication with good alternatives. You
have to choose a face-to-face oral communication channel to give instructions to a worker,
a public address system to reach a large member of people scattered over a large area, a
visual signal in crowd management and a courier system to reach clientele spread over and
at distance and so on. Railway Authorities and Airline authorities have computer programmed
voice announcements on arrivals and departures which get constantly updated. Modern
banking through voice recording systems is available today. All these developments
emphasise the importance of ‘time’ in a communication exercise. Immediacy of the objective
usually determines the choice of the medium. In modern times, time consuming slow
channels of communication are getting replaced by effective fast channels of communication.
Space: Space plays an important role in an oral communication situation. It can act as a
barrier to communication or act as an aid promoting good communication. Experts classify
an oral communication situation on the basis of the distance maintained between sender and
receiver as Intimate, Personal, Official and Public.
Intimate: If the distance between the two, the encoder (sender) and decoder (receiver) is less
than a foot and a half (18 inches), the situation is labelled intimate. The mother coddling
the baby, the father and the son, or husband and wife in a familial/private situation
communicate at an intimate level of space.
Personal: Friends and peer groups who are in a process of communication maintain a
distance of about two to three feet which is personal.
Official: In official situation, the space should be at least four to five feet depending on the
message or information.
Public: The distance between the speaker (the encoder) and the listeners (decoder, in this
context an audience) should be over ten feet, in a public situation.

Any reduction of this minimum space parameters will lead to awkward and embarrassing
situations. Generally, Americans and Europeans do not want violation of their personal
space. They refer to their personal body space as the ‘body-bubble’ which they do not want
to be violated by unwanted intrusions. Asians and people from the Middle East do not

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