A phenomenological one-parameter model potential that includes rR-_ hybridization and core-core exchange contributions is used to calculate the phonon dispersion curves in the lattice dynamics of the body-centered cubic alkaline-earth metal, barium. There is good overall agreement between theory and experiment, and in particular, in the (100) direction we obtained frequencies of the transverse dispersion curves that are lower than those of the longitudinal dispersion curves along the (100) symmetry direction thereby restoring the normal ordering of the branches.