Many of the problems that occur in an organization are the direct result of people failing to communicate. Faulty communication causes the most problems. It leads to confusion and can cause a good plan to fail. Communication is the exchange and flow of information and ideas from one person to another. It involves a sender transmitting an idea to a receiver. And effective communication occurs only if the receiver understands the exact information or idea that the sender intends to transmit.
Studying the communication process is important because you coach, coordinate, counsel, evaluate, and supervise through this process. It is the chain of understanding that integrates the members of an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top, and side-to-side. Let us look into the details and see:
What is involved in the communication process?
The steps involved in this process are:
1. Idea: Information exists in the mind of the sender (who is the source). This can be a concept, idea, information, or feelings.
2. Encoding: The source initiates a message by encoding the idea (or a thought) in words or symbols and sends it to a receiver. The message is the actual physical product from the source encoding. When we speak, the speech is the message. When we write, the writing is the message. When we gesture, the movements of our arms and the expressions of our faces are the message.
3. The Channel: The channel in the communication process is the medium that the sender uses to transmit the message to the receiver. Care needs to be exercised in selecting the most effective channel for each message. Even though both an oral and a written medium may be appropriate to transmit a particular message, one medium may be more effective than the other. To illustrate, let’s assume that an individual desires an immediate reply to a question. Although the message could be in either an oral or a written form, the oral medium most likely will be more effective because of the immediacy, if required.
In selecting an appropriate channel, the sender must assess the following factors, as the situation demands:
-need for immediate transmission of message, (Fax instead of letter)
-need for immediate feedback, (Phone instead of fax)
-need for permanent record of the message, (Written rather than oral)
-degree of negotiation and persuasion required, (Personal meeting – face-to face)
-the destination of the message, and (Far flung area – letter only)
-the nature of the content of the message. (Has to be a contract –written)
In addition, the sender should take into consideration his/her skill in using each of the alternative channels, as well as the receiver’s skill in using each of the channels. Communication rarely takes place over only one channel; two or three even four channels are normally used simultaneously.
Example: in face-to-face interactions, we speak and listen but we also gesture and receive these signals visually.
4. Decoding: It is the act of understanding messages (words or symbols). This is known as Decoding. When the sound waves are translated into ideas, we are taking them out of the code they are in, hence
decoding. Thus, listeners and readers are often regarded as Decoders. During the transmitting of the message, two processes will be received by the receiver.
Content and Context
Content is the actual words or symbols of the message which is known as language – i.e. spoken and written words combined into phrases that make grammatical and semantic (meaning) sense. We all use and interpret the meanings of words differently, so even simple messages can be misunderstood (Are you going to give me or not?). And many words have different meanings to confuse the issue even more (You are smart.).
Context is the way the message is delivered and is known as Paralanguage - tone of voice, the look in the sender's eye's, body language, hand gestures, state of emotion (anger, fear, uncertainty, confidence, etc.). Paralanguage causes messages to be misunderstood as we believe what we see more than what we hear; we trust the accuracy of nonverbal behaviors more than verbal behaviors. Many managers think they have communicated once they told someone to do something, "I don't know why was not the work done?...I told my Secretary to do it." As a matter of fact, the secretary misunderstood the message.
Remember: A message is never communicated unless it is understood by the receiver. Question arises then, how do you know a message has been properly received?
5. Feedback: By two-way communication or feedback. This feedback will tell the sender that the receiver understood the message, its level of importance, and what must be done with it. So the feedback loop is the final link in the communication process. Feedback is the check on how successful we have been, in transferring our messages as originally intended. It determines whether understanding has been achieved or not. The purpose of feedback is to change and alter messages so the intention of the original communicator is understood by the second communicator. It includes verbal and nonverbal responses to another person's message. There are five main categories of feedback. They are listed in the order in which they occur most frequently in daily conversations.
1. Evaluation: Making a judgment about the worth, goodness, or appropriateness of the sender's statement.
2. Interpretation: Paraphrasing - attempting to explain what the sender's statement means.
3. Support: Attempting to assist or support the sender.
4. Probing: Attempting to gain additional information, continue the discussion, or clarify a point.
5. Understanding: Attempting to discover completely what the sender means by his/her statement.
Noise: The presence of noise can result in fairly significant problems in the communication process. Unfortunately, communication is effected by noise, which is anything – whether in the sender, the transmission, on the receiver – that hinders communication.
For example:
1 A noisy environment may hinder the development of a clear thought.
2 Encoding may be faulty because of the use of ambiguous symbols.
3 Transmission may be interrupted by noise in the channel, such as a poor telephone connection, misprinted text, or maybe a typographical mistake.
4 Inaccurate reception may be caused by inattention.
Studying the communication process is important because you coach, coordinate, counsel, evaluate, and supervise through this process. It is the chain of understanding that integrates the members of an organization from top to bottom, bottom to top, and side-to-side. Let us look into the details and see:
What is involved in the communication process?
The steps involved in this process are:
1. Idea: Information exists in the mind of the sender (who is the source). This can be a concept, idea, information, or feelings.
2. Encoding: The source initiates a message by encoding the idea (or a thought) in words or symbols and sends it to a receiver. The message is the actual physical product from the source encoding. When we speak, the speech is the message. When we write, the writing is the message. When we gesture, the movements of our arms and the expressions of our faces are the message.
3. The Channel: The channel in the communication process is the medium that the sender uses to transmit the message to the receiver. Care needs to be exercised in selecting the most effective channel for each message. Even though both an oral and a written medium may be appropriate to transmit a particular message, one medium may be more effective than the other. To illustrate, let’s assume that an individual desires an immediate reply to a question. Although the message could be in either an oral or a written form, the oral medium most likely will be more effective because of the immediacy, if required.
In selecting an appropriate channel, the sender must assess the following factors, as the situation demands:
-need for immediate transmission of message, (Fax instead of letter)
-need for immediate feedback, (Phone instead of fax)
-need for permanent record of the message, (Written rather than oral)
-degree of negotiation and persuasion required, (Personal meeting – face-to face)
-the destination of the message, and (Far flung area – letter only)
-the nature of the content of the message. (Has to be a contract –written)
In addition, the sender should take into consideration his/her skill in using each of the alternative channels, as well as the receiver’s skill in using each of the channels. Communication rarely takes place over only one channel; two or three even four channels are normally used simultaneously.
Example: in face-to-face interactions, we speak and listen but we also gesture and receive these signals visually.
4. Decoding: It is the act of understanding messages (words or symbols). This is known as Decoding. When the sound waves are translated into ideas, we are taking them out of the code they are in, hence
decoding. Thus, listeners and readers are often regarded as Decoders. During the transmitting of the message, two processes will be received by the receiver.
Content and Context
Content is the actual words or symbols of the message which is known as language – i.e. spoken and written words combined into phrases that make grammatical and semantic (meaning) sense. We all use and interpret the meanings of words differently, so even simple messages can be misunderstood (Are you going to give me or not?). And many words have different meanings to confuse the issue even more (You are smart.).
Context is the way the message is delivered and is known as Paralanguage - tone of voice, the look in the sender's eye's, body language, hand gestures, state of emotion (anger, fear, uncertainty, confidence, etc.). Paralanguage causes messages to be misunderstood as we believe what we see more than what we hear; we trust the accuracy of nonverbal behaviors more than verbal behaviors. Many managers think they have communicated once they told someone to do something, "I don't know why was not the work done?...I told my Secretary to do it." As a matter of fact, the secretary misunderstood the message.
Remember: A message is never communicated unless it is understood by the receiver. Question arises then, how do you know a message has been properly received?
5. Feedback: By two-way communication or feedback. This feedback will tell the sender that the receiver understood the message, its level of importance, and what must be done with it. So the feedback loop is the final link in the communication process. Feedback is the check on how successful we have been, in transferring our messages as originally intended. It determines whether understanding has been achieved or not. The purpose of feedback is to change and alter messages so the intention of the original communicator is understood by the second communicator. It includes verbal and nonverbal responses to another person's message. There are five main categories of feedback. They are listed in the order in which they occur most frequently in daily conversations.
1. Evaluation: Making a judgment about the worth, goodness, or appropriateness of the sender's statement.
2. Interpretation: Paraphrasing - attempting to explain what the sender's statement means.
3. Support: Attempting to assist or support the sender.
4. Probing: Attempting to gain additional information, continue the discussion, or clarify a point.
5. Understanding: Attempting to discover completely what the sender means by his/her statement.
Noise: The presence of noise can result in fairly significant problems in the communication process. Unfortunately, communication is effected by noise, which is anything – whether in the sender, the transmission, on the receiver – that hinders communication.
For example:
1 A noisy environment may hinder the development of a clear thought.
2 Encoding may be faulty because of the use of ambiguous symbols.
3 Transmission may be interrupted by noise in the channel, such as a poor telephone connection, misprinted text, or maybe a typographical mistake.
4 Inaccurate reception may be caused by inattention.
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