Communication is a human skill and the ability to communicate effectively is one of the major skills of a manager. According to research, managers spend between 70% - 90% of their working hours in communication broken down as follows: 5% writing, 10% reading., 35% talking, 50% listening. Such communication plays a vital role in managerial decision-making. People often communicate through signals such as facial expressions, gestures etc.
Communication is a word derived from the Latin word ‘communis’, which literally means ‘common’, ‘to share’, ‘impart’, ‘convey’ or ‘transmit’. It is the process through which two or more persons come to exchange ideas and understanding among themselves.
Communication is the sum of all the things one person does when he wants to create understanding in the mind of another. It involves a continuous process of telling, listening and understanding.
The word communication describes the process of conveying messages (facts, ideas, attitudes and opinions) from one person to another so that they are understood.
Communication involves more than transmission and receipt of message. Correct interpretation and understanding are more important. Hence the greater the degree of understanding, in the communication, the more likelihood the human action intended will proceed in the desired direction.
Communication involves more than transmission and receipt of message. Correct interpretation and understanding are more important. Hence the greater the degree of understanding, in the communication, the more likelihood the human action intended will proceed in the desired direction.
The Communication Process
Communication process consists of some interrelated steps or parts through which messages are sent form sender to receiver. The process of communication begins when the sender wants to transmit a fact, idea, opinion or other information to the receiver and ends with receiver’s feedback to the sender. The main components of communication process are sender, message, channel, receiver and feedback. In the following, some definitions of the communication process are quoted:
Robert Kreitner defined, “Communication process is a chain made up of identifiable links. The chain includes sender, encoding, message, receiver, decoding, and feedback.”
In the opinion of S. K. Kapur, “The communication process is the method by which the sender transfers information and understanding to the receiver.”
According to Bovee, Thill and Schatzman, “The communication process consists of six phases linking sender and receiver.”
C. B. Mamoria has pointed out the parts of communication process by saying, “That communication process model is making up of seven steps or parts: a. the communication b. Encoding c. The message and the medium or channel, d. reception by the feceiver e. decoding f. Action and g. feedback.”
The following diagram represents the communication process
Thus, it is clear that communication process is the set of some sequential steps involved in transferring message as well as feedback. The process requires a sender who transmits message through a channel to the receiver. Then the receiver decodes the message and sends back some type of signal or feedback.
Steps or elements of communication process
The communication process refers to the steps through which communication takes place between the sender and the receiver. This process starts with conceptualizing an idea or message by the sender and ends with the feedback from the receiver. In details, communication process consists of the following eight steps:- Developing idea by the sender: In the first step, the communicator develops or conceptualizes an idea to be sent. It is also known as the planning stage since in this stage the communicator plans the subject matter of communication.
- Encoding: Encoding means converting or translation the idea into a perceivable form that can be communicated to others.
- Developing the message: After encoding the sender gets a message that can be transmitted to the receiver. The message can be oral, written, symbolic or nonverbal. For example, when people talk, speech is the message; when people write a letter, the words and sentences are the message; when people cries, the crying is the message.
- Selecting the medium: Medium is the channel or means of transmitting the message to the receiver. Once the sender has encoded his into a message, the next step is to select a suitable medium for transmitting it to the receiver. The medium of communication can be speaking, writing, signaling, gesturing etc.
- Transmission of message: In this step, the sender actually transmits the message through chosen medium. In the communication cycle, the tasks of the sender end with the transmission of the message.
- Receiving the message by receiver: This stage simply involves the reception of sender’s message by the receiver. The message can be received in the form of hearing, seeing, feeling and so on.
- Decoding: Decoding is the receiver’s interpretation of the sender’s message. Here the receiver converts the message into thoughts and tries to analyze and understand it. Effective communication can occur only when both the sender and the receiver assign the same or similar meanings to the message.
- Feedback: The final step of communication process is feedback. Feedback means receiver’s response to sender’s message. It increases the effectiveness of communication. It ensures that the receiver has correctly understood the message. Feedback is the essence of two-way communication.
The importance of communication in organizations, is well recognized, - “it serves as the lubricant fostering the smooth operations of the management process”. Some of the important reasons are:
- Forms the basis for coordination: Increasingly large and complex organizations with high degree of specialization and division of labour with large number of employees require effective coordination which can only be achieved through communication.
- Smooth working of the enterprise: Process of communication makes cooperative action of people possible. Without communication organized activity ceases to exist.
- Basis for Decision-making: Communication is the primary requirement for decision-making. In its absence, it may not be possible to take any meaningful decision, as information must be received before any decision can be made or implemented.
- Increases managerial efficiency: Communication is essential for quick and systematic performance of managerial functions. Management conveys the goals, targets, instructions, job allocations and responsibilities, and performance of subordinates through communication.
- Promotion of cooperation and industrial peace: High productivity is the aim of management. This can only be achieved when there is industrial peace in the organizations and mutual cooperation between management and workers. Downward communication helps management tell workers their expectations while upward communication helps workers put their grievances, suggestions or reactions to management.
- Establishment of effective leadership: Communication is the basis of direction and leadership. It is a process of influencing others behaviour. By developing communications skills and using them, managers become effective leaders.
- Morale building and motivation: Communication is the basis of participative and democratic pattern of management. It improves good human relations in industry. An efficient system of communication enables management to change attitudes, motivate and build morale – hence employee satisfaction.
- Growth in size of organizations: Complex and large organizations have several levels in the hierarchy, and many employees. Direct contact is not possible, hence a communication system to direct all their activities.
- Growth of trade unions: Cooperation between organizations and trade unions is essential for industrial peace. This can only be achieved through an efficient communication system e.g. collective bargaining process, negotiations etc.
- Technological Developments: Rapid change in technology affects the composition of groups, relationships between managers and subordinates, and methods of work. The necessary adjustments in the social, organizational and physical aspects of work can only be possible through communication.
- Emphasis of human relations in industry: The growing importance of human relations in industry and the desire of management to maintain it has necessitated communication. The change of employer relationship from master-servant to partnership or associates helps in the attitude change process.
- The work of research psychologists and sociologists: Their findings and conclusions have increased knowledge of the nature and process of communication.
Communication Channels
The major channels of communication are:
1. Words.
Words are like a map that purports to represent a certain territory. The map is not the territory but the representation and so are words. The meaning of a word is easy when it represents a tangible object e.g. cup or book but more difficult when it refers to abstract concepts such as management, labour, levels etc. People will assign different meanings to the same word because they have different frames of reference due to background, culture, education, experience or associates. Words constitute the most important symbols in the communication process. They can be oral or written. The important skills required are: Reading, writing, speaking and listening.
Verbal/Oral Communication
Refers to exchange of ideas between sender and receiver through oral words – face to face or telephone, radio call e.t.c In Organizations this can take the form of; personnel instructions, management conferences, interviews e.t.c.
Advantages.
- Easy to clarify a point.
- High degree of potential for speedy exchange of information – timely.
- Effective as can be used together with non-verbal communication e.g. gestures, guttural sounds, tone of voice etc.
- Popular – preferred by managers and supervisors. Gives opportunity to employees to ask questions and participate in the discussion – boosts morale.
- Absence of any permanent record of communication.
- Not taken seriously by receiver hence objective of communication is not achieved.
- Possibility of misquoting or misinterpretation especially where relations may be strained between superior and subordinate.
When communication is put in written form it becomes written communication. In organizations, these appear in the form of; - letters, circulars newsletters, reports, budgets, rulers, orders, regulations, policies, schedules, manual, etc. Includes other symbols such pictures, graphs, charts etc
Advantages.
- Stored as record for future reference.
- Communication effort is minimized by simultaneous communication to various points e.g. a circular to all employees.
- Enables communication between distantly placed parties without much cost.
- Orderly and binding on subordinates.
- Enable superiors to take suitable actions based on recorded communications.
- Time consuming in preparation and understanding (reading and interpreting).
- Chance of misunderstanding.
- Can be more costly than oral communication.
Actions can be used as a non-verbal form of communication e.g. body language, facial expressions, gestures, tone of voice/pitch of voice, etc. It can also take the form of physical actions such as location of one’s desk, removal of equipment or furniture, searching drawers/opening ones cabinet/office, delays etc
A manager is the center of attention to subordinates. All observable acts communicate something to the observer whether intended or not by the supervisor. When unexplained actions by management occur, a vacuum of meaning is thereby created which is filled by the receiver’s own interpretation of the actions. If an action is not explained, the receiver will supply the missing signal by creating one of his own.
3. Pictures
Pictures are powerful means of conveying meaning and understanding to other people. This is demonstrated by cartoons, films, TV, photographs etc.
Important, accurate and comprehensive reports, have been given little attention because of the complexities of reading, but the use of charts, graphs, posters etc. can convey more meaning sometimes than volumes of long, uninterrupted passages of writing.
A chart or graph has the advantage of depicting many complex relationships in one picture, contrasts, trends, etc can be seen and grasped more clearly.
Common Pictures in Business are: curves, bar graphs, columns, circles, pie charts, pictorial, maps, organization charts, ranking and frequency distributions.
4. Numbers.
It has generally been found that people are impressed by numbers – figures and statistics. Acceptance and belief – also confidence tend to rise for a report that has data statistics e.g. percentages, proportions, etc. Numbers however can be misleading as they can be manipulated by unscrupulous people. Skillful use of numbers can be applied to lead or mislead.
TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
Several types of communication can be identified in a business organization.
According to organizational structure.
- Formal communication: Associated with the formal organizational structure. Information travels through the officially recognized positions in the organization chart. E.g. orders, instructions, decisions, rules, procedures, policies etc maybe written or oral.
- Informal communication: Also known as the ‘grapevine’. They are free from all sorts of formalities. Based on friendship, membership of a group/club, or origin of place, e.g. opinions, views, comments, suggestions, complaints, rumours, whispers, gossip etc may use symbols such as glance, gestures, nod or silence, anonymous letters etc.
- Downward communication: Communications that flow from superiors to subordinates. Include orders, instructions, ruled, policy directives etc. They are directive in nature.
- Upward communication: Reverse of downward communication, flows form subordinates to superiors. Includes reaction and suggestions from workers, grievances, and disputes. They maybe in the form of reports, proposals, memorandums, etc. Upward communication is now considered to be a main source of motivation.
- Horizontal communication: Refers to communication between persons at the same level in the management hierarchy. Also known as lateral or cross-wise communication e.g. meeting of general managers, Divisional heads etc. can be oral or written.
- Oral/verbal communication: Exchange of ideas/information occurs through face to face conversation or mechanical media e.g. Telephone, loud speaker, radio call etc conferences, seminars, workshops, interviews, consultations are other media.
- Written communication: Takes the written form (black & white) includes written words, pictures, graphs, diagrams, maps, etc. They may take the form of circulars, personal letters, memos, manuals, reports etc.
- Grapevine Communication: The informal channel of communication is also known as the grapevine. It results from the operation of social forces at the workplace. The term arose during the days of the American Civil war when intelligence telephone lines were strung loosely from tree to tree like grapevine plants and the message was usually distorted, hence any rumour was popularly referred to as the grapevine. Today all types of informal communication are referred to as the grapevine.
Advantages:
- Operates with much greater speed than the formal communication network.
- Appropriate for some subject matters which do not require the formal channel e.g. when management wants to sound out the feelings of employees before formalizing a rule or policy.
- Satisfies the needs of persons who like to mix up with others freely and ‘chat’.
- Can compensate for an inadequate or non-existent formal communication network.
- Disorderly and unreliable hence cannot be acted on.
- Difficult to assign responsibility for false information as it is hard to pinpoint the source.
- Negatively affect productivity as rumours can lower morale and much time is taken in “rumour mongering”.
Communication does not always give the desired results due to certain barriers or obstacles. These are classified as follows:
- Semantic Barriers: These arise from the linguistic capacity of the parties e.g.
- Badly expressed message – lack of clarity and precision, poorly chosen and empty words, phrases, careless omission, lack of coherence, bad organization of ideas, bad sentence structure, inadequate vocabulary, jargon, etc.
- Faculty Translation – managers often receive communications from superiors which must be translated into appropriate language suitable for lower levels of employees e.g. policy decisions etc. If the translation is faulty or inaccurate, it is misunderstood.
- Unclarified assumptions – uncommunicated assumptions are common in most messages, so others have to “read between the lines”.
- Specialists language (jargon) – some groups eg. Legal, insurance or personnel develop a special, peculiar and technical language of their own. This increases their isolation thus building a communication barrier.
The meaning ascribed to a message depends upon the emotional or psychological status of the parties involved e.g.
- Premature Evaluation – the tendency to evaluate (judge) communications instead of being neutral during the interchange of ideas. Such evaluation interferes with the transfer of information form the sender.
- Inattention – the pre-occupied mind of the receiver and resultant non-listening is a major chronic psychological barrier. It is the reason why people fail to respond to notices, circulars, memos etc.
- Loss by transmission and retention – when communication passes through various levels in the organization, successive transmission of the same message decreases accuracy. In oral communication about 30% of the message is lost. Poor retention is also common. Employees retain about 50% of information which superiors retain about 63%.
- Undue reliance on the written word – written word cannot substitute for face-to-face relationships. Employees do not accept management’s views through publications unless level of trust and confidence is very high.
- Distrust of Communication – arises out of illogical decisions or frequent changes of the original communication by the communicator. Repeated experience of this kind gradually conditions the receiver to delay action or to act unenthusiastically, hence making communication unsuccessful.
- Failure to communicate – managers may fail to transmit needed messages because of laziness, procrastination, hoarding information to embarrass, or assuming that everybody knows.
- Organizational Policy – general organizational policy regarding communication acts as an overall guideline to all. However if the policy is not supportive to the flow of communication in different directions, communication flow would not be smooth and adequate.
- Organizational rules regulations – These affact the flow of communication by prescribing the subject matter to be communicated, the channel of communication, restrictions on what and who to communicate, etc. These specifications may cause delays and work against the willingness of persons to convey the message.
- Status Relationships – the superior – subordinate relationship may block particularly upward communication. The greater the difference between hierachical positions, the greater the possibility of communication breakdown.
Personal barriers.
Barriers in superior: e.g.
- Attitude of superiors – this affects the flow of messages in different directions. Unfavourable attitude means messages would not flow properly to and from superiors/subordinates.
- Fear of challenge to authority – superiors, when ambitious and want to maintain their power and authority may withhold information coming down the line or going up if it will expose their weaknesses.
- Insistence on proper channel – in exercise their authority superiors insist on communication passing through them. However, if by passed they may block other communication as they see this as thwarting of their authority.
- Lack of confidence in subordinates – generally, superiors perceive their subordinates as less competent and incapable, hence their suggestions, advice etc are ignored. This works against upward communication.
- Ignoring communication – sometimes superiors consciously and deliberately ignore communication from their subordinates to maintain their importance. This works against the willingness of subordinates to communicate.
- Lack of time – superiors feel whether correct or otherwise that their workload is heavy and have little time to talk to subordinates.
- Lack of awareness – superiors sometimes lack awareness about the significance and usefulness of communication in different directions in general, hence blocking the flow of communication.
Barriers in Subordinates: e.g.
- Unwillingness to communicate – subordinates may feel that the information may have adverse effect on their future relations with the superior, or there is no mutual trust and confidence with superior etc. He would not be willing to communicate.
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