Introduction

It is an obvious fact that communication is such a vital part of each of us that it contributes heavily to the success or failure of every human activity. It is hard to name a human activity in which communication does not play an important role. But such a statement has to be even more true in formal organisations in which people assemble to achieve their common objectives through their coordinated efforts. Individuals in the organisation may perform different activities but they are functionally interrelated. The working and maintenance of these relationships is possible only through communication which provides for exchange of information and sharing of ideas. Communication becomes a necessary element in human relationships by providing the foundation for human interaction. Communication, thus, may be regarded as basic to the functioning of the organisation. In its absence, the organisation would cease to exist. This chapter discusses the various aspects of communication so that suitable action can be taken to make it effective in the organisation.

Meaning

Communication is a process through which an information idea or opinion is transferred to more number of persons. If information is communicated to only one person, it will also be termed as communication. But, the essential element of communication is that the communicated information should be understood correctly and transferred in the right direction.

Concept of Communication

The word communication has been derived from the Latin word communis which means common. However, besides commonality, communication involves the concept of transfer, meaning, and information. There is wide disagreement among communication theorists in respect of definition of communication because of the context in which the word communication is used. It is used as a process which involves various elements through which two or more persons share meanings among themselves. Sometimes, it is used in the context of a particular element of the process, say message, or the means through which the message is passed. Because of these contextual differences, there is lack of common definition of communication. For example, Dance analysed ninety-five definitions of communication and arrived at the conclusion that "the concept of communication as reflected in these definitions is too loose and even includes contradictory components so as to make the precise definition of communication very difficult." Based on the review of the various definitions, he offered his own definition as follows:

“Communication is defined as the process by which people seek to share meaning via the transmission of symbolic messages."

This type of definition is more useful in management. For example, Newstrom and Davis have defined communication as follows:

"Communication is the transfer of information from one person to another person. It is a way of reaching others by transmitting ideas, facts, thoughts, feelings, and values

Thus, from management point of view, communication is the process through which two or more persons come to exchange ideas and understanding among themselves. This definition involves three aspects in communication:

1. There is something which is transmitted such as information, ideas, feelings, etc. which is the subject-matter of communication. However, the subject-matter itself is not communication as is understood sometimes but is only an element of communication process.

2. In order that the process of communication is completed, two parties are involved: the sender of the subject matter of communication and its receiver. The sender of the message must consider the receiver both while structuring his message from a technical standpoint as well as in delivering it. When the receiver is not considered, either there is no response or there is wrong response.

3. There is an element of understanding in communication. Sharing of understanding is possible only when the person to whom the message is transmitted, understands it in the same sense in which the sender of message wants him to understand. Thus, communication involves something more than mere transmission of message or transmission and physical receipt thereof. The correct interpretation and understanding of the message is important from the point of view of organisational effectiveness. The greater the degree of understanding, the more is the likelihood that the human action will proceed in the direction of accomplishing goals.

Definition

According to Louis A. Allen, "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 systematic and continuous process of telling, listening and understanding."

Charless E. Red Field, "Communication is the broad field of human interchange of facts and opinions and not the technologies of telephone, telegraph, radio and the like." 

Newman and Summer, "Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons."

M.W. Cunning, "Communication is the process of conveying messages (facts, ideas, attitudes and opinion) from one person to another so that they are understood." 

Keith Davis, "Communication is defined as the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another."

It is essentially a bridge of meaning between people. By using this bridge of meaning, a person can safely cross the river of misunderstanding that separates all people." 

Theo Haimann, "Communication, fundamental and vital to all managerial action, is the process of imparting ideas and making oneself understood by others."

Billy J. Hedge, "Communication can be thought of as an attempt to achieve as complete and as accurate an understanding as possible between two or more people. It is an act characterised by a desire in one or more individuals to exchange information, ideas or feelings. This desire is implemented by using symbols, signs, actions and pictures as well an other verbal and non-verbal elements in speaking and writing."

William Scott, "Communication is a process which involves the transmission and accurate replication of ideas ensured by a feed back for the purposes of eliciting actions which will accomplish organisational goals."

D.K. Mc Farland, "Communication may be broadly defined as the process of meaningful interaction among human beings. More specifically, it is the process by which meanings are perceived and understanding is reached among human beings."

Fred G. Meyer, "The act of making one's ideas and opinions known to others." Herbert A. Simon, "Communication may be formally defined as any process whereby decisional premises are transmitted from one member of an organisation to another."

Cyril I. Hudson, "Communication in its simplest form is conveying of information from one person to another."

Koontz and O'Donnell, "Communication is an intercourse by words, letters, symbols or messages and is a way that one organisation member shares meaning and understanding with another."

C.G. Brown, "Communication has been defined as the transfer of information from one person to another, whether or not it elicits confidence. But the information transferred must be understandable to the receiver."

Importance Of Communication

The implementation of policies and programmes of management is possible only through effective communication. We can understand the importance of communication from the following:

1. An aid to managerial performance

A manager can take appropriate decisions with the help of communication. The problems may be solved without much difficulty by the manager. The manager can get things done by sub-ordinates through communication. He can impart the objectives of organisation to the subordinates through communication. Thus, communication acts as a tool of management.

2. Achieving co-ordination

A large-scale business organisation employs a large number of workers. They are working on the basis of division of work and specialisation. There is a need for co-ordination among such workers to attain organisation goals. The coordination is obtained through communication. According to Mary Curling Nilen, "Good communi-cations are essential to co-ordination. They are necessary upward, downward and sideways, through all the levels of authority and advice for the transmission, interpretation and adoption of policies, for the sharing of knowledge and information and for the more subtle needs of good morale and mutual understanding".

3. Helps in smooth working

Communication helps the workers to know the real situation prevailing in an organisation. Subsequently, workers perform their duties without any delay, which leads to the smooth functioning of an organisation. According to G.R. Terry, "communication serves as the lubricant fostering for the smooth operations of the management"

4. Increase managerial efficiency

Out of the total time available to the manager, the manager nearly spends 80% of his time in transmitting the information to others regarding the business targets, rules, programmes, policies, etc. Communication helps the manager discharge his duties systematically and facilitates him to increase his efficiency.

5. Helps in decision-making

Good communication system provides all the necessary information, which enables the manager to take quality decisions in the proper time. Again, these decisions are communicated to those who are in need of them. According to Chester Barnard, "the first executive function is to develop and maintain a system of communication".

6. Maintaining industrial peace

The main reason for industrial unrest is lack of communication or improper communication. This creates a strained relationship between the management and the workers. Communication helps both management and workers to understand each other and facilitates industrial peace.

7. Aid to leadership

Management uses the communication as transmitter to forward its ideas, feelings, suggestions and decisions to the employees. In the same way, the employees express their responses, attitudes and problems through communication to the management. Under this two way communication, the management can assume itself as a leader of its employees.

8. Aid to job satisfaction

If the employees know what would be done and for what purpose, they can perform in a better way and efficiently. Employees know the expectations of the management. If their perform-ance is not upto the standard, they can improve it. Employees may wish to know how their performance is correlated with the achieve-ment of objectives. These are possible through effective commun-ciation. If effective communication exists, employees can get job satisfaction.

9. Saving in time

Effective communication results in the saving of time. A manager can communicate easily to all his subordinates by sitting in his room. There is no need for the manager to meet all the sub-ordinates personally.

In turn, the manager can get all the information from his sub-ordinates. This results in the savings of time and effort for both of them.

10. Aid to public relation

The term public includes customers, potential customers, shareholders, members of the public, state government, central government and the like. The management can create good image among the public through effective communication. In this way, the management can maintain better public relations.

Effects Of Communication

The very purpose of communication is to bring in some changes in the attitude, behaviour and actions of the receiver. The efforts of the sender may produce the following effects:

1. Successful communication

Successful communication refers to the changes desired by the sender in the receiver's action, behaviour or attitude. It may be otherwise called as effective communication.

2. No communication

'No communication' means that the communication has not brought any changes in the behaviour, action, attitude of the receiver. Here the efforts of the sender are totally a waste.

3. Miscommunication

'Miscommunication' refers to the undesirable changes in the receiver's action, behaviour or attitude. The changes may be contrary to what the sender expected. Hence, the miscommunication may produce total waste and adverse effects.

Thus, successful communication brings desirable effects and no effects emanate from no communication. But, adverse effects may be produced by miscommunication.

Objectives Of Communication

The following are the main objectives or purpose of communication:

1. Communicating right information

The information should be communicated to the concerned person. The receiver should understand the information correctly so that he may translate it into practice effectively.

2. Co-ordination of efforts

Co-ordination is one of the functions of management. Communication is an effective tool of co-ordination. Management cannot get co-ordination without proper communication.

3. Development of managerial skill

 Communication helps the manager understand the behaviour of his subordinates. Manager may receive the information regarding the facts, ideas and opinions from his subordinates. So, the manager can know the happenings as and when they occur. This will develop managerial skill.

4. Better industrial relationship

The management can communicate the ideas or views to its employees and vice versa. Each one tries to understand the other's view. It may reduce misunderstanding and develop better industrial relations.

5. Effectivness of policies

Policies and programmes should be communicated to the persons who are responsible for their execution. These are necessary to achieve the objectives of the organisation. Effectiveness of policies depends upon effective communication.

The above discussed objectives of communication are necessary to ensure the success of the organisation.

Elements Of Communication

A communication which is transmitted from one person to another in any organisation has the following elements:

1. Information

The term 'information' refers to the content of communication which is to be transmitted. The information is supplied to the staff and workers. 

2. Sender

A person who is supposed to pass on the information is called 'sender'. Normally, he may be the manager or the top executive.

3. Receiver

A person who is supposed to receive the information is called 'Receiver'. Normally, the receiver may be the subordinate in the organisation.

4. Communication channel

Communication channel is the way through which the information is passed from the sender to the receiver. There are a number of communication channels available now a days.

5. Symbols

The sender can correctly transmit the information with the help of symbols. Symbols include spoken or written words, signs, play cards or even gestures. The sender cannot produce desired changes in the receiver without using symbols. Sometimes, written words are more effective than spoken words and vice versa. So, the sender may use the symbols according to the circumstances prevailing.

6. Feedback

There is a need for using a technique to know the effect of transmitting the information. In other words, the sender should know how far the receiver has understood the information in the right sense.

Barriers To Communication / Problems Of Communication 

There may be filtering or distortion of information while it is being communicated. If such a thing happens, the object of communication will not be achieved. The barriers to communication or problems of communication are given below:

1. Noise

There is a possibility of noise interruption while communicating information. The noise may be produced by the conversation of somebody-else nearly or by the machine operation and the like. In such circumstances, the communicator takes an extra effort to overcome the noise. The communicator must also use right vocabulary which is easily understood by the receiver.

2. Missing information

The communicator may miss some of the information. It may be caused due to giving undue emphasis to a few pieces of information. Sometimes, the communicator may fail to supply the required information if he communicates the information in a hurried manner.

3. Alteration of information

The information is altered if the communicator sends the information through a third party. The third party may twist or alter the information according to his convenience. It may be done intentionally or unintentionally. Normally, this is possible in the case of upward communication. The reason is that the third party wants to earn a good name from his superiors.

4. Overloading

This barrier arises due to an increase in the number of messages to be sent. There is a need for the introduction of communication channel to reduce workload. If it is not done, the messages do not reach the correct persons or places in time. So, the manager should make a special arrangement to send the urgent and important messages.

5. Lack of facility

Sometimes, meetings and conferences are necessary to impart the information to the employees or else the communication will not be an effective one. If the management does not have any facility to conduct meetings and conferences, there will be no possibility of conveying the information to employees correctly.

6. Inadequate policies, rules and procedures

The management should adopt the communication policy which is adequate to meet all the present and future requirements of the organisation. The communication policy should be a flexible one. This is necessary to meet any contingency. The rule of 'through proper channel' may be relaxed if itaportant messages are to be passed during emergency periods. If it is not done so, the information cannot be passed in time. It means that there is a delay of communication.

7. Status patterns

Problems may arise due to the status prevailing between the superiors and subordinates. Superiors have executive chair and table, phone connection and a separate room to indicate then status. But the subordinates have only chairs and tables. This differential treatment widens the communication gap between the superior and subordinates. The trend has however, changed, following the emergence of a strategic global communication network.

8. Lack of attention

The receiver does not pay any attention in grasping the information. This attitude of the receiver may be caused by the receiver's immersion in his own thoughts, his difficulty in understanding the idioms and phrases or his having no belief in the information. Sometimes, the receiver may think that the information is not worth paying attention to.

9. Quick conclusion

The receiver comes to a conclusion without giving due weightage to the information. Besides, he has his own opinion and belief. So, the quick conclusion may not be a correct one.

10. Lack of confidence over the communicator

The receiver may feel that the communicator is not able to effectively extend the information. Then, the receiver does not believe the information which he gets. This may defeat the very purpose of the communication ultimately.

11. Improper state of mind

At times, the receiver may not be in a sound state of mind to receive the information accurately. If he is mentally upset, it will definitely affect the free flow of information.

12. Lack of time

The opportunity to communicate is limited because of the lack of time the communicator has at his disposal.

13. Badly expressed messages

If there is no coherence of information and no clarity of information, then the receiver will not be in a position to understand the information correctly.

14. Technical language

There are large number of special languages as computer, system analysis, operation research and the like. Different types of vocabulary are used to communicate the message. A single word may have different meanings. 15. Poor retention: Generally, the employees retain only 50% of the information which they receive, so poor retention is also one of the barriers of communication.

Methods Of Overcoming The Barriers

There is no possibility of eliminating the above discussed barriers altogether. But some managerial actions may minimise the effect of barriers to some extent. So the management should take necessary steps to overcome the barriers. They are explained below:

1. The management should clearly define its policy to the employees. It should encourage the free flow of information. Then, the employees at all levels of management can realise the full significance of communication.

2. The management sets up a system through which only essential information could be supplied. Besides, these are supplied in a prescribed manner.

3. All the information should be supplied through a proper channel. But, it should not be insisted upon always. The reason is that in the case of emergency, proper channel process may cause a delay in the supply of information. Proper channel system can be insisted on only for routine information.

4. Every person in the management shares the responsibility of good communication. Top management people should check from time to time whether there is any barrier or not in the free flow of information. It can be achieved only if there is strong support from the top management.

5. Adequate facilities should be provided by the management. In other words, the available communication facilities should be properly utilized.

6. Communication is an inter-personal process. Each person has confidence in another person. There should be mutual understanding. In large organisations, the disparity status pattern may be reduced through forming good friendship between the superior and the sub-ordinates.

7. The communication should be in a known language for both the receiver and the communicator. Ambiguous words should be avoided while supplying the information.

Characteristics Of Effective Communication

The effective communication has the following characteristics.

1. Complete communication

There are two persons necessary for complete communication i.e., a sender and the receiver. Besides, the receiver should understand the message. For example, if a person shouts in a locked room without anybody present, at the top of his voice, he will communicate nothing. Here there is no complete communication.

2. Understanding in the same sense

The receiver should understand the message in the same sense i.e., in right direction. If he does not understand it, there will be no effective communication. For example, if a message is written in uncommon words, the receiver will not be able to understand it correctly.

3. Message to have substance

The receiver can take ideas, information or facts out of the message. It means, only related information is communicated to the concerned persons. If it is not done, the receiver will not evince any interest in receiving the message.

4. Communication may be oral, written or a gestural

Information may be communicated orally, in writing or through gestures. These three modes of communication have equal importance, so, the apt mode should be selected for effective communication. Rolling of eyes and movement of lips are some of the gestures used by the sender.

5. Communication may be formal or informal

An information passed through proper channel is referred to as formal communication. For example, a manager informs the matter to the supervisor and in turn, the supervisor communicates the same message to the subordinates and vice versa.

If the messages are not passed through proper channels, they will be referred to as informal communication. These pieces of information are passed through personal contact. The sender communicates the information to other members of the organisation whenever he meets them.

6. Vital to managerial function

Communication is not only necessary to the planning function of management but also necessary to organising, staffing, directing, controlling and decision-making. So, communication is vital to all the functions of management.

7. Continuous process

Communication is a regular process just like blood circulation in our body. Communication fulfils its purpose when the receiver understands the message. No organisation, business or management survives without communication.

8. Mutual understanding

Management can achieve its objectives with the help of group efforts. Group efforts are obtained through mutual understanding. Only communication facilitates mutual understanding.

Proces Of Communication

There are two persons necessary irrespective of the mode of communication. They are the sender and the receiver. The sender may be called as resource person. A communication process comes to an end only when the receiver understands the message as the sender communicates. The following is the process of effective or proper communication: 

1. Ideation

The sender can create an idea to communicate. In simple words, a sender decides what is to be communicated and how? This is the content of communication.

2. Encoding

The sender can decide the series of symbols which are necessary to communicate the information. Besides, the symbols facilitate the understanding of the receiver. Encoding includes the selection of the methods of communication. Different words are used in different methods of communication to extend the same information. Some methods to initiate a conversation or action are showing a green signal to start a train etc.

3. Transmission

Transmission confirms the channel of communication. The term channel of communication includes a letter, telegram, telephone and the like. A lengthy information cannot be transmitted through a telegram. As such, confidential matters and important matters are not to be transmitted by telephone. When confidential matters are sent, it is better to use an envelope marked 'Confidential' or 'Personal matter' etc. The selected channel should be free from any barrier to communication.

4. Receiving

Receiving the message is the fourth step in the process of communication. The receiver should pay great attention in this regard. The reason is that all the relevant information should be received and all unnecessary information neglected. Mere listening is not enough. The receiver should understand the entire information.

5. Decoding

Decoding means translation of symbols encoded by the sender into the message for understanding. The receiver may misunderstand the message. The reason is that the perception of the sender may be different from the perception of the receiver. The communication will be an effective one, if the receiver understands the message correctly.

6. Action

The receiver has the responsibility to see that the received message reaches its destination. The receiver may ignore the message he receives. There is a need for action to complete the process of communication. Sometimes, the message may be a direction to 'stop the work'. It means that there should be some reaction on the part of the receiver.