Understanding Communication

• Communication is the exchange of information between people through language, speech, words, sounds, signs, and behavior.
• The sender and receiver must understand the message in a common sense to develop a common understanding.
• "Communication" comes from the Latin word 'Communicare', meaning to share, impart, participate, exchange, transmit, or make common.
• Communication is a two-way process involving a receiver or audience that reciprocates.
• Communication is effective when it achieves the desired reaction or response, which can be positive or negative.

Definition of Communication

• Koontz and Weihrich define communication as the transfer of information from a sender to a receiver, with the information being understood.
• The Oxford dictionary defines communication as imparting or exchanging information through speaking, writing, or another medium.
• Newman and Summer state communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions, or emotions by two or more people.
• Communication involves passing information and understanding.
• Communication is a two-way process for reaching mutual understanding.
• Communication is making one's ideas and opinions known.
• Communication involves imparting ideas and ensuring oneself is understood.
• Effective communication ensures ideas are accurately replicated with feedback to elicit actions.
• Communication is a systematic and continuous process of telling, listening, and understanding.

Types of Communication

• Electronic communication involves sending information via the internet, modern technology, and software applications, such as social media, radio, and mobile phones.
• Verbal/human communication is the process of using words, sounds, signs, or behaviors to exchange information, ideas, thoughts, and feelings.
• Formal communication is official, conducted through formal channels, and aimed at fulfilling organizational objectives, using emails and formal letters.
• Informal communication occurs spontaneously between people or groups without formal restrictions, like informal tasks or chit-chats.

Importance of Communication

• Communication fulfills the need to socialize and form organized groups.
• Managers communicate changes in technology and structure effectively to subordinates for understanding.
• Communication is vital for individuals and organizations.
• Planning is based on well-designed and communicated plans.
• Effective communication helps in environmental scanning and obtaining information.
• Implementing plans requires communication, making it the basis of planning.
• Communication helps managers understand employee needs, enabling them to adapt motivators and inspire a positive work environment.
• Exchange of information builds trust and confidence among managers and subordinates, leading to better job understanding and performance.
• Committed employees understand their job positions better and are committed to organizational objectives, promoting job satisfaction.

Commitment to Organizational Objectives

• Effective communication helps managers to understand employees' needs, provide motivators, appraise performance, and give feedback.
• Employees work with commitment towards organizational objectives as a result of these effective communication systems.
• Communication coordinates organizational resources, individual goals, and internal and external environments, which enables coordination and success.
• Managers interact with external parties to adapt to the dynamic environment, requiring effective communication.
• Managers interact internally, needing effective communication for accurate information.
• Communication encourages healthy industrial relations by bringing managers and trade unions together, promoting mutual understanding and peace.

Managerial Roles

• Managers play interpersonal, informational, and decisional roles.
• Communication helps managers perform effectively in these roles.
• In interpersonal roles communication enables interaction with superiors, peers, and subordinates.
• In informational roles communication enables managers to provide information to people inside and outside the organization.
• In decisional roles communication enables managers to communicate decisions to organizational members for implementation.
• Effective leaders use communication to interact with followers, guiding and inspiring them to achieve goals.
• Effective communication facilitates leadership functions.
• Planning effectiveness relies on effective control, which is based on assessing performance and providing feedback.
• Control largely depends on communication within the organization.

Training and Development

• Imparting training and development depends on superiors' communication.
• Trainers with good communication skills are more effective.
• Communication provides information for planning, awareness of structure, and coordination of activities, aligning with the 7 Cs of Communication.
• The 7 Cs (Clear, Concise, Concrete, Correct, Coherent, Complete, Courteous) serves as a checklist to ensure your communications are well-constructed and clear.
• Clarity in communication means being clear about your goal or message to minimize confusion and avoid assumptions.
• Conciseness in communication involves sticking to the point.

Process of Communication

• Communication has interconnected components: idea, sender, encoding, message, channel & medium, receiver/decoder, and feedback.
• Every message starts with an idea in the sender's mind.
• The sender/encoder initiates the communication process, having a clear need to communicate.
• Encoding is formulating an idea into a message, using symbols (verbal/non-verbal, written/oral), ensuring the receiver understands.
• Encoding involves creating a message for transmission by an addresser to an addressee.
• Senders and receivers must attach the same meaning to symbols to avoid communication failure.
• Messages are ideas transformed into words, expressed based on subject, purpose, audience, and sender's style.
• The channel is the system used to send a message by the sender to the receiver and the medium is the tool used.
• Oral communication is a channel and a telephone conversation is a medium.
• The three broad channels of communication are oral, written, and audio-visual.
• The receiver/decoder is the person who receives the encoded message.
• A receiver may listen, read or view the message, then interpret its meaning.
• Decoding is the process where the receiver interprets the message, translating it into meaningful information based on symbols and tone.
• Feedback is the receiver's response to the sender's message.
• Feedback indicates that communication has been accomplished and can be immediate or later, positive or negative.
• The goal of feedback is to ensure the receiver received and understood the message as it was intended by the sender.

Role of Feedback in Communication

• Communication involves a sender transmitting an idea, information, or feeling to a receiver.
• Effective communication relies on the receiver understanding the sender's intent.
• Feedback is essential to know if the recipient understood the message as intended.
• Receivers respond to the message, and this response is called Feedback.
• Feedback can be non-verbal (smiles, sighs) or oral.
• Feedback enables evaluation of message effectiveness and makes communication meaningful.
• Feedback is an important factor in making communication continuous.
• Creating an open communication climate is an environment for feedback and the sharing of views.
• "Static" communication lacks feedback, and lacks the modification that helps in better understanding the listener's position.
• Management can't improve messages to employees, which often leads to workers failing to ask business improvement questions.
• Feedback completes the communication process.
• Feedback sustains a communication process.
• Feedback indicates if the communication is accurately communicating
• Feedback provides a basis for measuring the communication effectiveness.
• Feedback forms a basis for planning what needs to be done.
• Communication is ineffective without feedback.
• Feedback facilitates new idea generation and is the livewire of communication.
• Communication finishes only when the cycle ends with feedback.