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CMA Foundation · Fundamentals of Business Economics and Management · Communication, Co-ordination, Collaboration, Monitoring and Control

In a Pune manufacturing firm, the production head tells a new supervisor, "Get the batch out soon." The supervisor does not know whether 'soon' means today or this week and ships it two days late. Which type of communication barrier is mainly responsible?

The main barrier is semantic. The instruction used a vague word, 'soon', which the sender and receiver understood differently. The problem lies in the meaning of the language used, not in noise, distance or organisational structure, so clearer wording with a specific deadline would have prevented the delay.

  1. ASemantic barrier arising from ambiguous wordingCorrect
  2. BPhysical barrier arising from noise on the shop floor
  3. CPhysical barrier arising from distance between offices
  4. DOrganisational barrier arising from too many management levels

Explanation

The word 'soon' has no fixed meaning, so the receiver interprets it differently from the sender. This is a problem of language and meaning, which is a semantic barrier. Noise, distance and hierarchy are not the cause, as the message itself was unclear.

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