AEC Chapter 1: Theory and Types of Communication PDF

## Chapter 1: Theory and Types of Communication Communication is the nervous system of an organization. Without communication, an organization is lifeless. It keeps the members informed about internal and external happenings relevant to their task. The word 'communication' is derived from the Lati...

## Chapter 1: Theory and Types of Communication Communication is the nervous system of an organization. Without communication, an organization is lifeless. It keeps the members informed about internal and external happenings relevant to their task. The word 'communication' is derived from the Latin word ‘communication' or 'communico' both of which mean 'to share information or intelligence'. Thus, communication is the process of sharing goal oriented messages between two or more sources through a medium or media. According to Keith Davis, Communication is a “process of passing information and understanding from one person to another." According to George Terry, "It is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons." ### Business Communication Business communication is the “Use of language to convey a commercial or industrial message to a well-defined audience for achieving a pre-determined purpose." To achieve this purpose, the language should be direct, plain, concise, to the point and the style should concentrate on drawing attention, developing conviction and inducing action. ### Different Theories of Communication Communication has been defined by many theorists. Some of these definitions are as under: 1. Communication is the process by which information is transmitted between individuals and/or organization so that an understanding response results. (Peter Little) 2. Communication is an intercourse by words, letters, symbols or messages and a way that one member shares meaning and understanding with another. (Belson and Gilson) 3. Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions, emotions by two or more persons. (Newman and Summer) 4. Communication is a process of passing information and understanding from one person to another. (Keith Davis) 5. Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons. (George Terry) 6. Communication is any behavior that results in an exchange of meaning. (The American Management Association) 7. 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 understandings are reached among human beings. (D.E. McFarland) ### Communication Process Communication is the process by which information is transmitted between individuals or organizations so that an understanding response results. - Petter Little Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions, emotions by two or more persons. - Newman and Summer It is clear from the above explained definitions that communication is a continuous process that requires a message. Communication exists only if something is there to express. It shows that the main purpose of communication is to inform or to bring round a certain point of view or to elicit an action. Communication occurs where a sender is there who wants to convey that message, a receiver to whom the sender wants to convey that message, receives the message fully or partially, and responds to it. It involves following elements: 1. **Sender:** Communication begins with a sender which is also known as encoder. It is the sender’s duty to conceptualise and express his idea, opinion, suggestion to other. 2. **Encoding:** The sender encodes that idea, information, opinion or suggestion by using some verbal or non-verbal symbols. 3. **Message:** The message can be conveyed in the form of a letter, memo, notice, E-mail, Fax or face to face communication. The information conveyed by the sender is called message. But it is not sure that the transmitted and received message will be same. It may get change because of some barriers. 4. **Medium:** Medium means communication carrier. It may be sent through post office, internet, telephone, radio or any person or called messenger. 5. **Receiver:** Receiver is also known as decoder who decodes the meaning of the message. It is his/her duty to interpret whatever is conveyed by the sender or encoder. 6. **Decoding:** It is a process of mind. By using his mind, the decoder/receiver tries to translate the message and finds out the exact meaning or intention of the encoder/sender. Decoding is the most important part of communication because the successful communication means not only the transmission of the message but also the achievement of intended result. 7. **Feedback:** The success of communication totally depends on feedback as it determines whether or not the decoder grasped the intending meaning. The response given by the receiver is known as feedback. It doesn’t matter whether the response/feedback is favourable or unfavourable. It may be immediate or delayed. 8. **Noise or interference or semantic gap:** Anything that comes in the way of the message being accurately grasped/received, interpreted and responded to is called noise or semantic gap. It may include external sounds, fear, attitude, ego, mood, a person’s accent, hearing disorder, vision impairment. For example when a teacher is teaching in the class, the students may not be able to understand him because of some external noise or may be the loud sound of speaker/fan, or he may not be able to audible to the last row of students. The personality of both the sender and the receiver may also be reason for the failure of producing intended result. So the communication process is a continuous process which is not possible without the functioning of all the elements. ### The different Models of Communication #### A. Bovee, Thill and Schatzman model According to Bovee, Thill and Schatzman the communication is a dynamic and two way process that can be divided into six parts. 1. **Idea:** The sender gets an idea in his mind and wants to share it. 2. **Encoding of an idea:** The idea in the mind of a sender gets the form of message or words, which can be expressed in many ways. 3. **Transmission of the message:** The next step in the process of communication is the physical transmission of the message from the sender to the receiver by selecting a proper channel or medium like letter, memo, notice, internet, face to face communication. 4. **Message to the receiver:** It is compulsory to get the message by the receiver to make the communication successful. The receiver will have to pay attention to the listener to understand the message. 5. **Decoding of the message:** After listening the message attentively, the receiver will have to interpret to understand the meaning of that message and to store it in his mind. 6. **Feedback from the receiver:** After interpreting or decoding the message the receiver responds to it and sends his reaction or feedback to the sender. Feedback is the most important part in the process of communication as it shows the intended result expected by the sender. #### B. Shannon-weaver Model In the year 1949, Clande Shannon, an electrical engineer and warren weaver found a mathematical model of communication. According to this model the communication occurs only when the message gets transferred without any change. But practically somewhere distortion occurs because of filtration in the process. The model has been shown as below: 1. **Information source:** This is the first step of the communication process. The sender sends information to someone with a specific purpose. 2. **Encoding process:** The sender frames his information or idea in a particular form/words. 3. **Medium:** After framing an idea into his words, the sender sends the same by selecting a proper channel or medium to the part of receiver. 4. **Noise:** At the time of sending the message, sometimes because of some external disturbance the message gets distracted. It can be of many types like any loud, sound, some mechanical problem or any kind of barrier. 5. **Decoding process:** After receiving the message, the receiver interprets and tries to find out the exact meaning that has been conveyed by the sender. 6. **Destination:** This is the last step of communication as here the receiver reacts after getting the message and sends his feedback to the sender or desired by him. #### C. Murphy’s Model This model was propounded by three writers i.e., H.A. Murphy, H.W. Hildbrandt and J.P. Thomas. As per this model, there are six components in the process of communication. 1. **Context:** Every message gets start with context. Context is a broad field that includes country, culture, organisation and internal and external cause of action. This action is the basis of encoding ideas. 2. **Sender-the encoder:** The sender sends the message by using words or symbols and expects the desired response. 3. **Message:** The message can be conveyed by using verbal or non-verbal symbols. 4. **Medium:** The channel through which the message gets conveyed from the sender to the receiver is called medium. Medium can be a letter, e-mail, fax, memo or notices, etc. 5. **Receiver-the decoder:** The receiver is the person who receives the message and decodes its meaning. 6. **Feedback:** Feedback can be immediate or delayed and can be oral or written. The decoder after getting the message sends his reaction or his response to the sender which can be positive or negative. #### D. Berlo’s S-M-C-R-Model David Berlo's S-M-C-R (Source-Message-Channel-Receiver) Model (196) stresses the importance of five elements i.e., communication skills, knowledge, social system, culture and attitudes. This model proposes the importance of the relationship between the source and receiver. **Berlo’s S-M-C-R-Model** | **S Source** | **M Message** | **C Channel** | **R Receiver** | |---|---|---|---| | Communication skills | Elements structure |Seeing | Communication skills | | Knowledge | Treatment | Hearing | Knowledge | | Social system | Content | Touching | Social system | | Culture | Code | Smelling | Culture | | Attitudes | | Tasting | Attitudes | #### E. Lesikar, Petitt and Flatley Model This model is propounded by R.V. Lesikar, J.D. Petitt and M.E. Flatley as a psychological model of communication in their book “Business communication”. According to them, this world is full of symbols and senses which act as stimulus. When these symbols and senses stimulate our sense organs, then our eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin feels and reacts accordingly. They divided the whole communication process into five situations by taking two persons Mr. A and Mr. B, who talk to each other. 1. **The beginning:** Mr. A sends a message and the message arrives in B's sensory world. Here sensory world means the message is received by any of his senses like eye, ears, nose, smell or skin. 2. **Detection by the senses:** Mr. B's sensory world picks up the message as well as some additional information from the sensory world inspite of being disturbed by some external noise. The noise may distort the message which is received by Mr. B. 3. **The filtering process:** The message sent by Mr. A to B gets filtered in the mind of Mr. B. He interprets the message on the basis of his knowledge and experiences and tries to get the meaning intended by the sender. But their mind is totally different to each other, so the message gets change a little bit, because of different point of views of two persons. 4. **Formation and sending of response:** After getting the message from Mr. A., Mr. B sends his response to MR. A. in the form of feedback, which may be verbal or nonverbal, and may be positive or negative. 5. **The cycle repeated:** When Mr. B sends his response to Mr. A in the form of feedback then one cycle of the communication gets ended and other cycle gets start if both are interested to talk to each other. Therefore, the receiver gets many additional sounds or noise in addition to the actual message, but he picks up the relevant message and responds to it. In short, business communication is a complex process that involves ideas, sender, encoder, message, medium, receiver-decoder and finally response i.e. feedback. ### The Importance of Communication The leader must be able to share knowledge and ideas to transmit a sense of urgency and enthusiasm to others. If a leader can’t get a message across clearly and motivate others to act on it, then having a message doesn’t even matter. -Gilbert Amelio Communication skills play a very significant role in helping employees to communicate with each other in an efficient manner. In communication, there are usually two major types of communication—Internal and external. It is important in following ways: 1. **Helps in achieving goals:** Without communication in business the concept of achievement of goal is difficult so it is important to have good communication for achieving business goal. After all good communication means good business. 2. **Helps to boost the morale:** Communication plays a part in almost every aspect of your business, so being able to communicate well, can boost your overall performance. Team morale tends to be higher in a workplace where communication is good. The more people feel confident, the lower their stress levels tend to be. By boosting the morale of team members, you can minimize the risk of industrial problems developing in workplace. 3. **To create atmosphere of co-ordination:** All the organisational activities lead to productivity and prosperity performed in an atmosphere of co-ordination. Greater effectiveness in communication always leads to greater harmony in team work, quicker decision taking, quicker problem solving. So business communication helps to increase the profitability of the organisation by boosting team work and the presence of mind. 4. **To create an atmosphere of trust, responsibility and confidence:** Business communication helps to fulfil the gap between the employer and the employees by creating an atmosphere of trust, responsibility and confidence. The employer can know about the potential of employees and the employees may know about the expectations of the management which may further lead to harmonious relations between them. 5. **Helps in negotiation and maintaining business relationships:** In the dynamic business world of today’s era, the communication skills of the employer can make the difference between business success and business failure. As all the dealings with the banks, financers, transporters, income tax offices, sales tax officer, customers are dealt by the employer in a very tactful manner through negotiation. And negotiation is nothing but communication only. 6. **Helps to promote sale:** The Company which communicates better, can sale better. So the sale of the product totally depends on the confidence and convincing tendency of the persons of the sales department. Each product of common consumption is available in almost all brands. But the sale of a particular brand goes up as compare to others. Its all because of the business communication, which ultimately leads to enhance the sale of products. So effective communication is must for an efficient salesman. Communication skills are very important for assessing the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns. 7. **A job recruitment:** In today’s cut throat competitive world, business communication skill is a job requirement, as the persons to be placed in companies are expected to draft speeches, to prepare pamphlets, brochures, souvenirs of the organisation. So business communication skills help in getting job or may be an important factor for promotion. 8. **Helps to gather and convey brilliant ideas:** Through business communication, the employer may gather or catch the brilliant ideas from his employees and may convey his own ideas to the employees which ultimately lead to achieve the company’s goals and the organization will perform at its optimal level. That is why it has been said that “Communication is the oil that keeps the engine of the organisation working effectively." 9. **Helps to maintain a balance within the internal and external factors:** Business communication is important to maintain the balance by not only responding a client’s inquiry but also feedbacks or problems arising inside and outside the business as well. 10. **Helps to know ‘why’ not only ‘what’:** ‘Why’ is important if you want to stimulate involvement that is connected to employees’ hearts and minds. Effective internal communication can keep employees engaged in the business and helps companies to retain the talent, provide consistent value to clients and give excellent financial performance to shareholders. So let the employees know “Why, not only what to do.” 11. **Helps to bring positive results:** Proper business communication helps to bridge the gap between planning and execution. Good plans can be fruitful only with cooperation of executives. It means positive results can be produced by using proper business communication, 12. **Helps to create corporate images:** An identity of a person is the most important thing which differentiate him from others, likewise, identities of the firms also differentiate them from others. Differentiation from rivals and recognisation by target can collectively called as corporate image. If a corporate has a corporate image, it is believed to be more powerful and organised. It shows how the corporate behaves mentally. And business communication lends a very important hand to create corporate images of the organisation. 13. **Development of human relations:** Through communication, a manager can develop relationships, change attitude, boost the morale and also create co-ordinating atmosphere. 14. **Effective control:** With the help of communication situation can be controlled very easily. For example a teacher can control a naughty class just by his/her effective communication skills. 15. **Nervous system of the organization:** Communication serves as a nervous system of the organization. It helps in efficient and smooth working of an institute. ### Conclusion Basically, your business communication skills as a communicator are required in nearly all of your business dealings. If you and your team members communicate well in business, you maximise efficiency. You can find out the problems before the time and can solve them on time. **QUESTIONS** **Exercise for Practice** 1. What is communication? 2. What is business communication? 3. What is George Terry's theory of communication? 4. How does D.F. McFarland define communication? 5. What are Newman and Summer's views about communication? 6. Define communication process. 7. Define encoding and decoding of the message. 8. What do you mean by semantic gap? 9. What do you understand by feedback? 10. Explain communication process. 11. Describe Bovee, Thill and Schatzman model and Shannon Weaver model. 12. Explain Murphy’s model and Berlo’s S-M-C-R Model. 13. Discuss Lesikar, Petitt and Flatlay Model. 14. Describe the importance of business communication. 15. What is the role of communication in business?