Obfuscating the Obvious: Miscommunication Issues in the Interpretation of Common Terms

We communicate via many forms every day. When what we say or write is misunderstood, the fault may lie with either party. One source of miscommunication is the different meaning people place on commonly used words and phrases. In this article, the authors report preliminary results from a study on such miscommunication and lay out an agenda for research on improving business communication based on the Integrative Model of Levels of Analysis of “Miscommunication,” developed by Coupland, Wiemann, and Giles.