COMMUNICATION BARRIERS IN HORECA INDUSTRY ENTERPRISES: ORGANIZATIONAL MEASURES FOR OVERCOMING THEM

Abstract

The paper analyzes the essence, types, and ways of preventing communicative barriers in the functioning of hospitality industry enterprises. The purpose of the study is to generalize existing methodological approaches to overcoming communication barriers in the activities of HoReCa enterprises. The research highlights the issues of the emergence and objective nature of communicative barriers as an inherent regularity of social interaction. The authors emphasize that communicative barriers distort cognitive processes and behavioral responses of hospitality professionals, cause professional misunderstandings, and reduce the effectiveness of job performance. The paper presents the authors’ definition of the essence of communicative barriers in the HoReCa sector, viewing them as a set of objective and subjective obstacles that negatively affect the effectiveness of communication processes between staff and service consumers, as well as within the framework of internal organizational interaction among employees of these enterprises. The authors note that communicative barriers in the functioning of HoReCa enterprises are formed under the influence of a complex of heterogeneous factors, among which cultural differences, language difficulties, unequal levels of professional knowledge and awareness of interaction participants, as well as differences in communication styles and models occupy a special place. The study identifies the types of communicative barriers in the activities of HoReCa enterprises that directly affect service quality and the level of consumer satisfaction. The authors propose a set of approaches aimed at overcoming communicative barriers and preventing the development of conflict situations during customer and guest service by hospitality personnel. The authors conclude that communicative barriers significantly complicate the process of adequate perception and interpretation of information, lead to distortion of message content, and negatively affect the cognitive processes and behavioral responses of HoReCa professionals. Such communication disruptions may have a cumulative effect, resulting in deterioration of service quality, increased conflict levels, and decreased customer satisfaction. In this regard, timely identification, analysis, and targeted overcoming of communicative barriers acquire strategic importance for the effective functioning of hospitality enterprises.