When working in groups, there can be various challenges that can keep group from achieving its goals. To gain a full potential it is important for the group members to identify the barriers that may exist in group communication and remove them for a smoother process.
One of the major barriers in group communication is the poor communication with group members that can cause misunderstandings and dominance made by group members. If a group member who sends the message is not knowledgeable about a subject, then he may not be able to convey the message clearly that might cause the receiver to misunderstand his message. This situation can result in ineffective communication, which can have a negative impact on the task due.
Another barrier to proper group communication is the time management. Not every group member has the same mindset and takes the same amount of time to do the task assigned. One member might have better knowledge of the task and the other might not be knowledgeable at all on a subject and might take much longer than the other group members. When a task is deadline oriented, it is important to analyze how much time each member has and if the amount of time provided is sufficient and works well with each member’s schedule.
Other barriers such as lack of organization and structure might occur as well. In this situation, members desire proper instructions to how to go about the task and how to come to a conclusion. Lack of structure and unorganized information can cause members to be unfocused and delays in the completion of the task.