Organizational barriers: The barriers that generate form within the organization are

known as organizational barriers may be of the following types:

Negative organizational climate: The main aspect of organizational climate that acts
as communication barrier is the negative attitude of top management. Negative
attitude of top management discourages communication initiative of the
employees.
Absence of communication policy: Well-designed communication policy encourages
communication in the organization. In the absence of such policies, employees fail
hesitate to communicate.
Excessive authority layers: Excessive authority layers acts as a severe impediment
to successful communication. In the case of excessive authority impediment to
successful communication. In the case of excessive authority layers, information
reaches to its final destination passing through several hierarchical levels. As a
result, information may be distorted or lost. Excessive authority layers also causes
delay in communication.
Filtering: Filtering implies willful distortion of information. This problem usually arise
in upward communication. In upward communication, employees tend to pass only
those messages that create positive impression about them.
Individual Barriers: Barriers created by the sender and receiver are known as
individual barriers. Such barriers include the following:
Differences in personality: Personality is the set of attributes that define a person.
Every person holds a distinct personality. This individual nature of personality acts
as barrier to communication.
Perceptual differences: Perception is the unique way in which people respond or
interpret an object. Difference in perception is a very common problem in effective
communication. It for example, a subscriber of BTTBs land phone in Bangladesh
may positively react to the governments move to privatize BTTB expecting a better
service. But an employee of BTTB might view this as step to cut jobs and retrench
existing employees.
Fear: Fear of reprisal or attack, fear of criticism for knowing very little etc. may
create problem in communication.
Stereotyping: Stereotyping is generalizing about a class of people or events that is
widely held by a given culture. In case of stereotyping, people develop
communication statements and mindsets about others. This orientation exposes
itself in such statements and mindsets. For example, All used car salesmen are
dishonest, or All foreign recruiting agents are liars. Such all inclusive perceptions
not only are seldom correct but they also block mental activity that is necessary for
successful communication.

Halo Effect: The halo effect is the tendency to use a general impression based on
one or a few characteristics to judge other characteristics of that same individual.
For example, a manger might identify one trait of an employee, such as an excellent
attendance record, and perceive that the employees productivity and quality of
work must also be outstanding.
Inattention: Sometimes communication does not reach due to the inattention of the
receiver. Such inattention may result from busyness, lack of interest about subject,
suffering from disease or family problem etc.
Language or Semantic Barrier: A common barrier to effective communication is
semantic distortion, which can be deliberate or accidental. Semantic problem arises
when words and symbols have different meanings for different people that lead to a
misunderstanding. For examples, an advertisement states, we sell for less. It is
ambiguous and raises the question: less than what? In another case, during
meeting, a male colleague said to one of his female colleague, Why dont you dye
it? meaning her hair. The female colleague thought he said, Why dont you diet?
she did not speak to him for a month. Semantic barrier presents difficult challenge
when people from different cultures communicate with each other.
Other Barriers: The following factors also act as the barrier to effective
communication:
Information Overload: Information overload may also be a problem of effective
communication. Information overload is the situation when a person is given too
much information at a time.
Faulty expression: Faulty expression of message fails to convey exact meaning to
the receiver. It happens due to lack of clarity, use of vague terms, badly expressed
information, improper organization of ideas etc.
Status or power difference: Communication problem may arise when people of
different power or status try to communicate with each other. For example, the
manger of a company may neglect suggestion from his subordinates simply
because of difference in their status. This under treatment of people makes the
communication ineffective.
Negative attitudes to change: Some people always resist any kind of change in the
organization. They think that old is good, and are fearful about the changes.
Therefore, they create problems in communication through inattention, false
interpretation, rumor, resistance and non-cooperation.
Noise: Environment factors may also disrupt effective communication. One such
factor is noise. For example, in oral communication, noise hiders smooth flow of
information or message. In factories, loud noise of machines makes oral
communication very difficult.