Communication in the Organization - Guiding Principles

1. People are not mind readers. They judge you by their behavior & not by your intent We cannot communicate. The very attempt not to communicate communicates something. Through not only words, but through tone of voice and through gesture, posture, facial expression, etc., we constantly communicate to those around us. Through these channels, we constantly receive communication from others.

2. A word is like an arrow, once out of the bow never returns You can't really take back something once it has been said. The effect must inevitably remain. Despite the instructions from a judge to a jury to "disregard that last statement the witness made," the lawyer knows that it can't help but make an impression on the jury.

3. We don’t exchange ideas; we exchange symbols that stand for ideas Words (symbols) do not have inherent meaning; we simply use them in certain ways, and no two people use the same word exactly alike.

Mediated communication

This level of communication occurs when two (or a few) people use some intermediate means for carrying their messages. They do not communicate face to face and thus do not have direct feedback. Mediated communication often uses a mechanical or electrical device to transmit or receive messages. Examples include the telephone, closed-circuit television, radio, radar, and the communication satellite. Mediated communication also occurs through letters, reports, forms, and interoffice memoranda.

Person-to-Group Communication

The person-to-group level involves one speaker and audience. The speaker usually faces the audience, and the audience usually contains people with similar interests. A small, private person-to-group situation often has some of the characteristics of interpersonal communication. However, for large public groups, the person-to-group level lacks the benefits provided by interpersonal exchanges. The traditional speaker and audience setting may include microphones, projectors, and tape player.

Mass Communication

Mass communication includes messages sent to large, public, dissimilar, anonymous, distant audiences using some intermediate instrument of transfer. The instruments include electronic (for example, radio, television, tape, and film) and print (for example, newspaper, magazine, book, pamphlet, brochure, direct-mail campaign). The restricted opportunity for feedback is the most serious barrier to effective mass communication.

The "mass media," as they are often called, have grown to include the print media of books, newspapers and magazines, the electronic media of television, radio, and audio/video recording, and the new media of computers and computer networks. While these media differ in many ways, they all share the characteristics by which scholars define mass communication.

COMMUNICATION IN THE ORGANIZATION

Communication is used extensively in the managerial functions of planning, organizing, staffing, directing and controlling. Virtually every task that a manager performs requires the use of communication in one form or another.

The nature of communication in the modern organization can be studied by examining the direction of communication flow and the destination of the communication. While communication in the modern organization flows downward, upward, and the horizontal, its destination can be either internal or external.

Downward Communication
Downward communication flows from people at higher levels to those at lower levels in the organizational hierarchy. The primary function of downward communication is to inform employees about things important to them such as:

Information about their jobs
Organizational policies and procedures
Feedback about their performance
Organizational goals and objectives

The types of downwards communication may include instructions, speeches, meetings, announcements, memos, notifications, letters, hand-books, pamphlets, company newsletters and periodicals, bulletin boards (notice boards) policy statements, and procedures. For downward communication some use written communication, others use oral communication.

Why is this needed?
When employees receive appropriate downward communication from management, they can be better motivated and become more efficient. While the employees need clear job directions and safety rules, they also need to know facts about organizational strategy, products, and viewpoints on important controversial issues. Employees want to know about their benefits - health care, insurance, promotions, pensions, training, work environment, retirement, etc. etc. In a way the employees, through their collective pressure, force their employers to be accountable for their decisions through effective downward communication.

Upward Communication

Upward communication travels from subordinates to superiors and continues up the organizational ladder. Upward communication is extremely important, as upper management needs to know specifically about:

Production performance, marketing information, financial data, what lower-level employees are thinking, and so on. The better the quality of information they receive, the more useful and effective it will be in their decision-making efforts.

Unfortunately, this flow is often hindered by people in the communication link who filter the messages
and do not transmit all the information, especially unfavorable news to their bosses.

Types of media used to direct information upward are reports, interoffice memos, supervisor subordinate conferences, suggestion systems, and grievance procedures.

Upward internal communication is becoming increasingly important day by day. Today many executives sincerely seek frank comments from employees, in addition to the usual periodic reports. Successful managers listen closely to opinions, complaints, problems, and suggestions especially when they are clearly and effectively stated. As a response to increasing global competition, some companies are developing new management styles, which make input form employees an integral part of important decisions affecting the company.

Lateral Communication

It includes horizontal flow of information, with people on the same or similar organizational levels, and diagonal flow, with people at different levels who have no direct reporting relationships. The lateral communication is used to speed up information flow, to improve understanding, and to coordinate efforts for the achievement of organizational objectives.

Effective lateral communication between peers is essential in organizations to solve problems, perform
job duties, prepare for meetings, listening to and making requests, writing notes and memos, and discussing and writing about projects.

Most lateral communication is of an oral nature, involving a conference between the participants. In some instances the conference is conducted by telephone.

Levels of Communication

Levels of Communication
There are five levels of communication:
1. Intrapersonal Communication
2. Interpersonal Communication
3. Mediated Communication
4. Person-to-Group Communication
5. Mass Communication

Intrapersonal Communication

When you think, you use intrapersonal communication. You initiate, receive, and process messages within yourself. You are playing both the roles of: sending & receiving. Human growth depends on this internal communication. Through it you know yourself and develop your self-concept, selfdetermination, and self-motivation. For example, each morning you decide how to dress, what to eat, where to go, etc. This kind of internal communication forms the foundation for the other four levels of communication.

The word - "Intrapersonal" - means within the person. Intrapersonal communication processes happen inside of you. Some people equate these processes with thinking. Although thinking is part of the process, intrapersonal communication includes more than what we think. More importantly intrapersonal processes include the way we think and the way we communicate with ourselves. Intrapersonal communication affects the way we receive messages from others and affects the way we send messages to others.

The Self:
The role the self plays in communication is vital and complex. In order to be able to identify the complex levels of the self, you first need to understand how such complexity becomes such an intimate part of the communication process. We need to recognize the complex role of the self, and how the self plays into how we communicate. At the center of how you communicate, is how you see yourself, or your sense of who you are. This sense of self is central to how you communicate with others. The term for that sense of self is self-concept.

Self-concept:
Self-concept is your image of who you are. Put another way, self-concept is the total picture of who you are. Or how you see your whole self. It is your psychological self, your physical self, your spiritual self, your social self, and your intellectual self. Self-concept is how you perceive the different parts of yourself that combine to form a total picture. At the same time self-concept also means knowing how others see you, how your colleagues see you, how your parents see you. When you interact with different groups and individuals and they see you and react to you, you pick up signals and eventually you change yourself as a result of this feedback. In fact, what research reveals is that most of our sense of self, thus, comes from interactions with other people (family, friends, co-workers).

Through feedback from the process of communicating with other people, or the sending of verbal and nonverbal indicators through involvement with friends and family, you acquire a sense of how others feel about you, how they perceive you, and what they like and what they don’t like about you. And as a result of this feedback, you develop a sense of self over the course of your life, this big picture of who you are, based on all of the human interactions that you’ve had in life. And you are also constantly modifying your sense of self. Until the day you die, you will constantly modify your self-concept. This is because we are always interacting with other people, and because we are always communicating with others, we are therefore always learning more about ourselves.

Self-concept is made up of two components, self-image, and self-esteem.

Self-image is literally a picture, or image, of who you are. Self-image describes you. If you take out a piece of paper and list the various roles that you play in life, you could come up at least six, eight, maybe ten different roles that you assume in your daily life. For example, the different roles that you play in life could include, you are a student, you are a son, you are a brother, you are a colleague, you are a friend……these are all different roles that you play in life.

Most of our roles can be categorized in one of two categories – either achieved roles, or ascribed roles. Achieved roles are roles that you work to accomplish or to achieve, such as, professor, honor student, etc. Ascribed roles are roles that you are born into, son, brother, and sister. What’s important about identifying the different roles you play in life is that you communicate differently in each one of these roles. To be an effective communicator, you should.

So self-image is how you see yourself and how you describe the roles that you play in life. Self-esteem is also how you evaluate yourself in those roles. How do you see yourself as a brother, as a friend, as a best friend? How do you rate your performance in the various roles you play in life? On a scale of one to ten, are you good to bad, great to terrible, positive to negative, effective to ineffective? No matter what evaluative scale you want to use, self-image is measured by how you evaluate yourself in those roles.
Self-esteem is the process of self-evaluation; it is how you feel about yourself in each of those roles.

Self-esteem is certainly affected by how others evaluate your performance in a particular role. To be found lacking in the performance of a particular role results in hurt feelings and diminished self-esteem. Intrapersonal communication processes depend upon communicators':
1. Frame of reference
2. Creativity
3. Self-talk
4. Risk-taking behavior
1. Frame of Reference

Your frame of reference refers to the way you view your world. Your frame of reference is your structure for encoding and decoding messages. Your frame of reference consists of all that you bring internally to the communication situation: your beliefs, attitudes, and values; your memory of experiences; your cultural background; your stereotypes and expectations; your self-concept; your feelings and level of stress; your thinking patterns; and other psychological factors. As a speaker, understanding the frames of reference of your listeners will allow you to adapt your message for high levels of clarity and/or persuasive impact. As a listener, attempting to understand the way the speaker's frame of reference may differ from your own can help you to better understand the speaker and your reaction to the speaker.

2. Creativity
One of the most important skills you can shape is that of creativity. Basically, creative thinking involves visualizing something in an innovative, new, or unique way. Humans have long valued artists because their creativity provides new ways of imagining or conceptualizing our world. In our personal and work lives, creativity can be important to each of us, particularly when solving problems. You can increase your creativity by learning to think in less traditional ways. Habitual and routine thinking patterns and structures prevent free, open problem solving. The extent to which you have developed your creative thinking affects the way you send and receive messages, the way you interact with others, and your potential for success in new situations.

3. Self-talk
Another key aspect of intrapersonal communication is sometimes called self-talk or imagined communication. In imagined communication, individuals talk to someone else or to themselves as if they were another person. However, the communication takes place in their minds (internally instead of
externally).

Practical example of imagined conversations could be of students imagining communicating before it takes place. For example, while they plan their classroom presentations, they see themselves in front of the audience, imagine how fantastic they look, see some classmates listening attentively, and picture their instructor making a positive response.

This approach, by the way, can help most speakers to succeed in public communication situations by reducing their anxiety. Imaginary communication is a phenomenon that most people avoid discussing. Most of us learned at an early age that people who talk to themselves are crazy. Yet, it happens with people often. Although you may not be taught to communicate interpersonally, you discover that it helps you to prepare for future communication, deal with your feelings, and learn from past communication. Imagined communication is an important aspect of your intrapersonal communication processes.

4. Risk-taking Behaviors
Your willingness to take risks is largely dependent on your interpretation of past experience. If you have found risk-taking to be fun, adventure-some, or thrilling, then you are more inclined to make risky moves. At least a minimum amount of risk is necessary for growth and development. Some people consider as risk-taking behaviors only ones that are life-threatening, such as driving fast cars, or doing dangerous stunts. For our purposes, we are focusing on risk-taking in communication. When we communicate, we risk rejection by others. Additionally, behaviors that threaten our self-concept or intrapersonal processes are "risky." Often before you speak, you consider the communication in terms of risk. When you talk in class, express your ideas in a business meeting, give a presentation, or decide to communicate (or not communicate), your behaviors will be interpreted by others. Others may agree or disagree, be interested or bored, understand or misunderstand, be persuaded or argue. Because the frame of reference is different for every individual, you never really know completely how other people will react to you. But effort on your part to understand and adapt to your listeners will reduce the risk of
rejection. The way we communicate is closely linked to our self-image. Most individuals find risky and threatening any efforts to change their self-image.

Your intrapersonal processes about risk-taking are influenced by your past experiences and interaction with others. Your decisions about whether or not you should, or how you will, choose to interact with others are major areas of your internal or intrapersonal communication processes.