In an
agriculture extension organization, effective communication is very important.
Several factors render communication in an extension organization ineffective.
In classifying barriers to communication, they are group in four categories
which are intrapersonal, interpersonal, organizational as well as
technological.
Intrapersonal factors
Intrapersonal
factor in communication involve two barriers which are perception and
individual differences in the communication skill. Every individual has his or
her personal view on different issues. This has much to do with selective
perception which occurs, when people are block out or distorted with new
information, especially if it conflicts with what they believe. At the end, the
receiver gives his own interpretation to the message that is transmitted far
different from what the sender meant. Apart from selective perception, people
also have different abilities to develop and adopt from each other.
Interpersonal factors
Interpersonal
factors include the relationship between super ordinate and sub-ordinate, trust
credibility, and sender-receiver similarity. The relationship the super
ordinate and sub-ordinate emanating from attitude and treatments, each receiver
from the other is very important in an extension organization. It is the
relationship between the chief extension officer, sender and the extension
agent. Receiver is not cordial; this may lead to destruction of messages.
Likewise,
distrust, suspicion and incredibility can also create ineffective communication
when these are the definition of the relationship between the chief extension
officer, and the deputy chief extension officer. Similarity, between the sender
and the receiver in respect of age, sex, intelligence, social economic status,
common attitude and mind frame affects communication. Different mind frame in
the communication process causes distinctive perceptions.
Organizational factors
The barriers
to effective organizational communication include hieratical differentiation,
extension organization size, time pressure, and network breakdown as well as
status differences. The taller the organizational chart. The more rung the
message descent through, the longer it takes for the message to reach its
recipient and the more distorted it becomes. The distortion may be as a result
of condensation, closure or expectation. Condensations occur when the message
one receive becomes shorter when repeat. At this time, it becomes less detailed
than the original message. Closure refers to the tendency of relaters to be ambiguous,
such as rumors to fill in, which are gaps in the information they are relying
upon.
Technical factor
The major
factor here as regard technical factor is communication overload. The chief agricultural
extension officer may face some difficulty in taking decision on communication
because of the too much information. Many times, the chief agricultural
extension officers are overloaded with information and data to the extent that
they find it difficult to absorb or respond adequately to all the pieces of
information directed at them. The outcome is that they screen out majority of
the messages and consequently do not respond to all.
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