Business communication: need, errors and barriers

1. Meaning of business communication

Business communication is communication between persons in or connected with a business, for the purpose of carrying on that business. It is internal (between managers, departments and employees) and external (with customers, suppliers, bankers, shareholders, the government and the public). It is purposeful, mostly formal, and often has legal consequences: an order accepted by letter is a contract.

2. Need for business communication

1. Growth in size. A large firm with thousands of employees and many branches cannot work on personal contact; formal channels are needed.
2. Specialisation and division of labour. Each department works on part of the job; communication puts the parts together.
3. Planning and decision-making depend on accurate and timely information.
4. Direction and control. Orders flow down and reports flow up.
5. Human relations and morale. Workers who are informed and heard co-operate.
6. Trade unions and industrial relations. Negotiation and collective bargaining are communication.
7. Customers and competition. Advertising, enquiries, quotations, complaints and after-sales service.
8. Government and law. Returns, filings and replies to authorities; a company must send notices and reports to shareholders under the Companies Act, 2013.
9. Public relations: building the firm’s image.
10. Technology and globalisation: dealing with partners across countries.

3. Errors in communication

(a) Wrong communication. The message conveyed is incorrect: a wrong price in a quotation, a wrong date in a notice of meeting, wrong goods named in an order. It causes loss, disputes and loss of goodwill, and the firm may be bound by what it said. Causes: carelessness, lack of checking, wrong information at the source, poor drafting.

(b) Partial (incomplete) communication. Only part of the message is conveyed. An order that gives the quantity but not the specification or delivery date, or a notice of meeting that omits the venue, forces the receiver to guess or to write back. Causes: haste, assuming the receiver already knows, poor planning of the message. The cure is the “completeness” C (answer who, what, when, where, why and how).

(c) No communication. The message is never sent, or is sent but never reaches or is never understood by the receiver. A worker not told of a changed safety rule, or a shareholder who never receives notice of the meeting, is in the same position as if the decision had not been made. Failure to give a required notice can make a meeting or action invalid in law.

4. Barriers to communication

Barriers are obstacles that prevent a message from being received or understood as intended.

(a) Semantic (language) barriers

• words with several meanings (“value”, “charge”);
• technical jargon, legal Latin and abbreviations unknown to the receiver;
• poor translation or faulty sentence structure;
• unclarified assumptions (“send it soon”).

(b) Physical (mechanical) barriers: noise, distance, poor telephone or internet connection, defective equipment, bad lighting or seating, time-zone differences.

(c) Psychological (emotional) barriers

• premature evaluation: judging the message before hearing it out;
• inattention and poor listening;
• distrust of the sender;
• emotions: anger or fear distort both sending and receiving;
• selective perception: hearing what one wants to hear;
• loss in transmission: each re-telling loses part of the message; and poor retention.

(d) Organisational barriers: rigid rules and too many levels in the hierarchy; status differences that discourage subordinates from speaking up; lack of upward channels; policies that restrict the flow; overloaded or poorly placed communication centres.

(e) Personal barriers

• superiors: fear of losing authority, lack of time, lack of trust in subordinates, ignoring suggestions;
• subordinates: unwillingness to report bad news, lack of incentive, fear of reprisal.

(f) Cultural and social barriers: different values, customs, gestures and languages; a gesture polite in one culture may be rude in another.

(g) Information overload: too many messages, so important ones are missed.

5. Overcoming the barriers

1. Clarify ideas before communicating: know the purpose of the message.
2. Use simple, clear language suited to the receiver; avoid jargon.
3. Choose the right medium: written for record, oral for urgency, face to face for sensitive matters.
4. Listen actively: attend fully, do not interrupt, ask questions.
5. Obtain feedback to check understanding.
6. Consistency: actions must match words.
7. Reduce levels in the hierarchy; open-door policy; upward channels such as suggestion schemes and grievance procedures.
8. Timing: communicate when the receiver can attend to it.
9. Emotional control: do not communicate in anger.
10. Training in communication skills and cultural awareness.
11. Follow up to make sure the message produced the intended action.

How this is examined

Barriers: January 2026 (both papers), January 2025 (“and how they can be overcome”) and August 2024, as the main 10 or 16-mark question. Short notes: “need for business communication” (January 2026, January 2025, August 2024), “errors in communication” (January 2025) and “partial communication” (August 2024). For barriers, classify under headings (semantic, physical, psychological, organisational, personal, cultural), give two or three points under each, and end with the remedies.