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CMA Foundation · Fundamentals of Business Laws and Business Communication · Barriers to Business Communication

Ravi, a manager, believes that all employees from a particular region are lazy, and so he filters their reports with suspicion and reads only the parts confirming his belief. Which combination best describes the barriers involved?

Stereotyping and selective perception. Ravi applies a fixed generalisation to a whole group of employees, which is stereotyping, and he notices only the content that confirms it, which is selective perception. The other pairs describe overload, noise, wording or layout problems that the facts do not show.

  1. AStereotyping and selective perceptionCorrect
  2. BInformation overload and channel noise
  3. CSemantic ambiguity and homonyms
  4. DTime pressure and poor layout

Explanation

Holding a fixed generalisation about a group is stereotyping. Reading only what confirms his belief is selective perception. Both are personal or socio-cultural barriers rooted in the receiver's mind. Overload, noise, homonyms and layout are unrelated to the facts given.

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