Business Communication U1-U15 PDF

UNIT 1 BUSINESS-NETWORK OF COMMUNICATION Structure Introduction- Dependence of business on communication The concept of Business network Variety of Media in Communication Variety of Communication Tools Objectives of Communication ‘Knowledge’ in Comm...

UNIT 1 BUSINESS-NETWORK OF COMMUNICATION Structure Introduction- Dependence of business on communication The concept of Business network Variety of Media in Communication Variety of Communication Tools Objectives of Communication ‘Knowledge’ in Communication Skills needed in Communication Listening Values’ supporting communication Being Passionate Features of Business Communication Summary Keywords INTRODUCTION- DEPENDENCE OF BUSINESS ON COMMUNICATION Business involves in society as the main agency providing goods and services. Thus community has to be aware of businesses that exist around it. The community must know what goods and services are available and business must know who can be their customers. Thus this need is mutual. It is in the interest of business that it communicates and it is in the interest of the people that they should be aware who can give them goods and services. In a way there is interdependence of each other and such an exchange must be supported by communication. Without communication business is not possible. The success of business in a way depends on how it conducts an activity called communication. THE CONCEPT OF BUSINESS NETWORK There must be a link between business and society if both are to exist. The principal link between business and society is established through communication. Lot of individuals and business units, need to come together to form viable and working link. It is not guided by hierarchy but parallel, complementary, supplementary, crisscross and one-to-many relations which can be fittingly described as a network with multiple relations. In a network everyone is connected directly or indirectly and thus forms a huge network organization. The only thread available to it to keep in form and shape is communication. Thus communication is heart of business network. If there is no communication this network will fail. Business communication is network based. VARIETY OF MEDIA IN COMMUNICATION If one has to make any organized activity possible, it cannot be done without resorting to communication. This communication can take shape of signs, even silence, words-spoken or written, pictures, sounds, even fragrance and by arranging supporting environment. ‘Signs’ is an unspoken language, while silence also amounts to communication if receiver of communication can understand the communicator. Long silence, for example, expresses displeasure on part of the communicator. Others such as spoken or written words, pictures are self- expressive. Sounds not representing words, fragrance and supporting environment all express a mood of communication. All these are media used to communicate and thus we have range of media to communicate. Thus making right choice of media is important to communicate. VARIETY OF COMMUNICATION TOOLS Ability to speak and ability to hear are enough if people are opposite to each other, Seeing eye to eye. This is simple and direct communication.. But if there is a distance between the communicator and the listener one has to use long distance tools such as mail, telephone call, E- Mail message, fax, etc. and create technical capabilities to reach words or sounds to the receiver. This makes the need for establishing a process between sender and receiver. Thus one has to code the message, process it and see that receiver is capable of decoding and understanding it. Apart from setting a correct message there could be number of disturbances on way to sender such as traffic jam, technical disturbances etc. and the message may reach in a form incapable of decoding. On mobile how many times one has to say “sorry, I cannot hear you “and we try to move in less congested place. While speaking through a mobile phone it becomes very natural that you expect some disturbances. Through voice mail you can send voice message. One can add pictures, animation, symbols, graphics, slides, movies etc. and make communication interesting as well as attractive. This capability of computers to act as Multimedia communication tool increased utility of computer. The choice of media tool has now become essential before we start communicating. Due to these tools the communication also requires a technical knowhow and maintenance of technical systems. This has increased the ease communicating over distances but has also added cost considerations. Each of these tools adds to our costs. OBJECTIVES OF COMMUNICATION You are in a hurry and you find telephone at hand and pick up and phone someone and then find you have forgotten as to why you are phoning and then say “sorry” and you keep your handset down. What has happened is you have forgotten the purpose of message and have to take back your decision to communicate. If we decide the objectives for communication, then we will develop standards for communications. Thus the objectives also give us standards to evaluate our communication. In the following pages we will elaborate but you must all the time keep the objectives of communication in mind which we may summarize as follows: 1) Purposeful-All communication must be purposeful. Especially business communication is always purposeful. What and why you want to communicate? If you are not clear as to why you are communicating, your communication will never be effective. If you are doing communication purposelessly you are wasting time and money. Any wastage of time and money is reducing profitability of business. 2) Within time-frame -Then you must decide the time frame within which the communication should reach the receiver so that he can act on communication and give you a feed back of his action. Many people expect immediate action without thinking how much time it will take for receiver to decide, act and then give a feedback. When the receiver is reacting to your communication he must be having a peace of mind to act and circumstance as far as possible favorable for taking action. It is the time frame that you are willing to allow that will also decide how you should communicate. If there is a time you may choose a cheaper or slower method. If Sunday is holiday one can arrange communication in such a way that it reaches the receiver the first day of the week. Why hurry and disturb others? 3) Cost-Benefit view- The side consideration of time is a cost. At what cost you  want to communicate? What are the advantages you expect against these costs? In fact you must think in terms of cost benefit analysis as you decide to communicate. Once you form this habit of thinking in terms of cost/benefit, it becomes a part of your behavior and communication costs are reduced and yet maintain its effectiveness. 4) Clear and Brief- Another care you have to take in designing message. The message should be clear and brief. It saves on communication costs without damaging intentions in communication. Thus designing message is an art. Especially when you are conversing one cannot take care of being clear and brief without forming a habit. When you are in a group your communication tends to be loose and unchecked. Many business occasions are of group nature and one requires a lot of behavioral control. Your message must be clear from receiver’s point view because he has to understand it. Most of the senders are self-centric while communicating and do not try to see that others understand it, totally forgetting the interest of the receiver. Ask the question how I will make understand the receiver my message? 5) Action and feedback orientation - The communication must result in anticipated action. The communication must prompt in the receiver of the message an action and we must know it has been taken. Action and its feedback are essential concomitants of communication. It means we must ensure that the communication is received, acted upon and the receiver sends a feedback pertaining to it. The communication cycle ends with action feedback. ‘KNOWLEDGE’ IN COMMUNICATION Language: The most powerful media of communication is words. From the very beginning of life we try to learn words as symbols of expressing all that we see, hear, sense, and then convert it into words. These words make a language and then we use language as a media most of the time. If we are weak in language our expressions are incomplete in terms of persuasion and understanding of the receiver. One of the important area of knowledge for communication is language. Cultivating language is important for communication. in order to overcome differences in languages and variety of expressions in public places  we are resorting to Pictures, emblems for common usage. The best example of this you would find in road signs which you learn while getting a driver’s license. Similarly if one goes to international airports you will find everything is indicated by pictures so that nationals of different countries should understand it effortlessly. The red-cross indicates availability of health care. These are all picture symbols. Technical know-how: Technical knowledge involves selection of media tool, its use and maintenance. One must also understand its cost of purchase and maintenance cost. The type of maintenance it requires and how often. Further we must have its part list, service manual and other descriptive help material. We must know what care one has to take in its use while operating as well as while maintaining. Operator must have a minimum operational knowledge. Merely knowing how to make the best communication possible is not enough, we must be able to choose right media tool and operate. We must know limitations of tool to use it properly. For presentation slides we must know the minimum size of letters and distance up to which the projection can be legible for the audience. What type of projector you should use and how to operate while presenting. All these are technical requirements. Human relations: The sender and the receiver are both human and it is quality of human relations between the two that counts in communication. In any selling you first sell yourself and then your product. In communication, you are selling an idea, a thought, an emotion and as such one must feel like listening to you before they start listening. Thus cultivating as broad, open, transparent, empathetic personality adds to effectiveness of communication. The process of communication involves manners of expression which should create confidence in dealing with you. Communication becomes highly personal when the sender and the receiver both are human. When someone is expecting your communication and when you delay it, your quality of message get affected by the impressions created. Thus mere thoughts are not communicated but the emotions displayed with it. Technically people may learn to write well but may not support it with appropriate emotions. Thus the tone with which you convey a message also creates favorable or unfavorable impression. All this involves  understanding humans and establishing relations which will create a favorable mood at the receiver’s end. One should never undermine the importance of being human in communication. Your personality is expressed through your communication. SKILLS NEEDS IN COMMUNCIATION Listening : If one wants to be a good communicator one must be a good listener. You cannot understand unappreciated a person or situation without being patient in listening. Listening involves concentrated attention on a message given by being in sender’s shoes. In business we are so engrossed that we can misunderstand or misinterpret the message received and therefore, require to give undisturbed attention. The advantage of written communication is that you can read and re-read the same communication but in case of conversation there is no chance of giving second attention. You must listen carefully. Listening involves undivided attention keeping aside all disturbances. We will discuss more about this when we discuss about conversation and meetings. Reading skills: Even though it is possible to read and re-read, the business does not allow so much time so that we can refer the same thing quite often. The shortage of time also demands reading speed to do reading in as less time as possible. This increases need of grasping what is being read. This habit can come only by practicing. As listening is the next stage of hearing so understanding is the next stage of reading. In rapid reading courses effort is made to increase your eye span to more number of words at a time. One must also increase the time span of listening so as to form habit of listening for a long time. Presentation and formatting skills: Whatever you speak, write, show can become effective if its presentation is planned and formatted. This presentation will have to be crisped, short and effective. Though communication is natural one can make it presentable by forming habit of pre-thinking about what and how it is to be communicated. Thus it is necessary that presentation should become a habit. It means you have to practice the best you can give of whatever you have. When we design presentation we try to format it. One of the examples would be when we write  letters we format it with salutation, address and end with using words showing respect for relationship. There can be number of ways we format even telephone conversation. These are given in detail at appropriate places in this book but one must remember that formatting enables us to standardize communication and their by speed it up. If one knows package Microsoft Word one will come across a term “Wizard’ which shows preformatted methods that wise people (termed as Wizards) have developed for your use. Speaking and Conversational skills: Especially with foreign language medium opportunities for speaking come rarely and one has to collect people and see one practices speaking. Speaking speed can be transformed to writing speed to an extent and therefore, speaking is very important aspect of learning language. Remember the old saying reading makes man full, writing an exact and speaking a ready man. VALUES’ SUPPORTING COMMUNICATION When we use words, pictures, symbols we are not only conveying the meaning of these but also give these a tone which is supported by your personal values. If you are transparent your communicated will be drafted differently and if you are cunning it will be drafted differently. Thus your words are interpreted also as values and this may be because of your past impression the receiver carried for you. Though words have the same meaning the tone for it will be guided by values implicit in such words. If you see any word dictionary it will show you the various ways it is interpreted since different people used in different connotations. In business you do not sell your products or service but also your values. Thus person is read along with its communication. Similarly organizations are also read along with their communication. The principal values we look for are: Trust: Any organization and particularly business organization and individuals work on the basis of trust. Your communication will not be believed if there is no mutual trust that exists between communicating parties. The trust has to be cultivated over time and without values it cannot be established. The building blocks of trust are transparency and in time response. The communication alone does not create trust it is the actions that follow such communication that builds it up. A good communicator need not necessarily be a reliable communicator. Empathy: Self-interest is guiding factor in human motivation and human acts in his self- interest. The starting point of empathy knows what is in the interest of receiver of the communication. We must identify this interest and see that our communication satisfies his self-interest. We must also imagine the environment within which he is likely to receive message. We must anticipate the likely repercussions of our communication and be ready to face it now and subsequently. Though communication looks to be independent each time we undertake it has a long term effect and ability to create sustainable relationships. Empathy is putting ourselves in the position of receiver of communication and then thinks of his reaction and decides the presentation of our communication. In order to empathize we must send communication with attitude of service. BEING PASSIONATE One of the less talked aspects of communication is need of presenting it more passionately. Passions show expressions of emotions to support one’s thoughts. The passion heightens the emphasis since the communication is done more forcefully. All communication requires a human touch of feelings, even when business communication is said to be rational than emotional. When you say “I am enclosing a message in duplicate and you can just put your remarks and send me back.” you are trying to make your communication easy and treating the other side as busy and thus showing feelings of respect to the sender. You not only convey thoughts but also emotions. Lot of communication needs to be persuasive. Finding emotional balance with the receiver is a good communication. A manager in the company was for a long away from his place for undertaking a long term course. When he resumed his work, he sent a cable reply to a client against his communication. The action and its communication tone was so different that the receiver immediately sensed that concern manager is back and replied “Welcome to the seat, hope you have done well”. There was no name in the cable yet the receiver perceived by the very tone that the sender is back from a long absence. This message has nothing to do with business but this was expression of business relations. You not only think of business but the relations behind as well. FEATURES OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION So far we have talked about general communication but since now we are going to concentrate on business communication, we must identify its features so that we can tone our approach to communication for business. Some of the factors we have to note are: 1) Purposeful- Business communication is purposefully done and if one does not appreciate the purpose the communication will not be fruitful. One must understand the particular business and occasion to communicate. 2) Direct and result oriented -Most of the relations are business relations with whom we communicate and their interest is obvious. The communication is more direct and result oriented. 3) Time and cost oriented - Since business world is conscious of costs and therefore, time – both these factors need consideration in communication. 4) Emotional flavor -The emotional part is tempered by serving the business purpose. 5) Decline in Presentation Orientation-The initial communication weighs more in terms of mutual impression but soon it assumes a sense of routine and is more action oriented and result oriented than presentation oriented. 6) Series of Communication- Since business involves persuasion and negotiation, it does not end with one communication, it is series of communications. 7) Interactive -Since it is continuous it is interactive. A single communication is not enough to produce results. 8) Human touch - Business communication being formal, you must seek opportunities for emotional expression to develop relationship. 9) Contractual and legal - It is tempered by contractual relationship and legal environment and one must exercise caution in allowing its interpretation. Friends, we have now started our journey towards learning business communication and we have reached the first mile stone. We just gave you an overview of business communication process. This should create many doubts in your mind. This will be cleared when we start thinking them in more elaborate terms evaluating each media and its use. SUMMARY Business serves its purpose through establishing a network of communication. Such a communication can take place through variety of media. Making a right choice of media is important to communication. The use of tools for communication has made communicating technical knowledge oriented. One can increase effectiveness of communication by adding text, voice, pictures etc tool used will add to the cost. One must have clear objectives if one has to communicate. These objectives may include to be purposeful, to decide time frame, thinking of cost versus benefits and having clear and brief message designed for understanding of the receiver. Communication needs language, technical know-how and human relations knowledge as a base. At the same time it demands skills in listening, reading presentation and speaking. Business communication is always purposeful and aiming for results. It is continuous and done in series and therefore, interactive. The time and cost frame of business is more rigid. KEYWORDS  Business – Exchange of goods and services for value  Contractual – Communication by agreement between the parties and affected by law.  Empathy – Showing concern of how addressee of communication will understand by trying to be in his position.  Media – Used as a medium such as words, voice, pictures etc.  Network – direct and indirect weaving of relationships such as fishermen’s net  Presentation – Design to increase understanding of receiver for delivery at the final stage  Time frame – As if time has been framed with beginning and end.  Wizard – A term used by Microsoft to indicate a readymade format developed by wise men. UNIT 2 PREPARING FOR COMMUNICATION Structure Introduction: Towards business network Developing language Developing human relations Humans as individuals Technical know-how Presentation Skills Designing Message Format ‘Values’ in Communication Summary Keywords INTRODUCTION: TOWARDS BUSINESS NETWORK We have so far understood the broad nature of communication. From what one has read it, is obvious that we have to prepare for it on many fronts. Communication is heart of your becoming a part of social influence and leadership. You are more understood by your communication than by other’s observation. The occasions for communication are more than personal observation. The distance is a factor that prohibits observation and person to person meet. One has to take good care of how we communicate so that we can form favorable impression and establish a goodwill which is the basis of success in living in social milieu. Let us start in right earnest to prepare ourselves for communication. Business depends on communication network and you must be able to play your role in this network. DEVELOPING LANGUAGE The most sought after, that we use in the language, are ‘words’. We cannot communicate without words. Any expression of thought or idea requires assistance of words. Thus it is obvious that if we cannot use right word to convey right thought, we will fail in communication. The words, if one has to convey a meaning, must be converted to sentences and it is several sentences that give shape to total expression. This is what we describe as a language. The association of words with objects and meaning starts as a media of communication from the very birth. The language which the family members speak becomes our first acquaintance and this is what we loosely term as ‘Mother tongue’. Unfortunately, since business is social endeavor we have to adopt a common language so that we can communicate with people of different mother tongue. Historically this role is played by some language. Thus the mother tongue and language of business need not be the same. It will depend on areas adopting one of the languages as language of business. Due to historical coincidence it has now happened that we have accepted English as a language of business. It may not be mother tongue of many of us and yet we try to adopt it in the social interest of business. We will see what we can do to develop our language: a) Socialize in language group -Since chances are communication language will be foreign to you, you must make special efforts to create an environment around you in that language. This is one of the best ways to increase familiarity with the language. One of the ways is to formulate or join a circle speaking that language and try to speak in that language to all of them. This should not cost you much. The other way of increasing your social coming together is becoming part of various associations and clubs operating in your area. This not only makes you to speak, but also makes you confident of speaking and gives opportunity to use communication. b) Take coaching -If one can get a coaching facility it would help you to be regularly devoting time for a particular language and get guidance about your problems in a particular language. One can get graded courses through media of audio-video disks, on TV and on internet. In later cases one can do such courses seating at home. c) Increase reading -One of the ways to increase your reading. Reading has two fold advantages; it teaches you language, construction of sentences and gives you knowledge imbibed in the reading. The reading can increase both your language and subject knowledge. If you are learning business communication and start reading material pertaining to business such as business reports in particular language you will develop both sense of business and business language. There are many journals devoted to business news and writings d) Go on writing - Writing skills in language can only be developed through practicing writing. Some practical exercises will be given at the end of each chapter and you try to prepare your replies for this exercise. e) Active speaking -The speaking skills can be increased by deliberately making  efforts to speak in a particular language as has been said in ‘a’ above. f) Increase knowledge of business language -Even when it is a mother tongue, it is experienced that one lacks capacity to use it for purpose communication such as business. The language used in dedicated language to a purpose differs than what we normally speak. Thus your own mother tongue does need purposeful efforts to convert it to dedicated use such as business. DEVELOPING HUMAN RELATIONS If one does not develop human relations despite learning language one will find it difficult to use it in day-to-day transactions. Since both the sender and receiver are human beings, understanding human being as such is essential to develop rapport for communication. In order to understand human being we have to understand him as an individual as well as in context of group behavior. The following considerations may guide our relations on an individual basis. HUMANS AS INDIVIDUALS a) Treat as individuals -Two persons are not alike, even though both of them can qualify to be human. Their degree of spontaneity, value system, perception and interpretation about situation and humans will vary so much that we have to perceive them as individuals and establish interactive relations. Recently one company offered a Sim Card which is used for mobile free to some customers. This was reacted differently viz. some commented now a days we get Sim card free with mobile, some said the cost of sim card is very less compared to mobile, they should have given free mobile instead, others said this is just a gimmick to sale mobile, some said keep it may be useful someday. Thus it is presumed that human likes anything free but in practice you find it does not give satisfaction. Whatever you communicate can be interpreted differently. The first lesson in human relations is humans are to be treated as individuals and different from each other. b) Respect all- In order to know a person one has to remain very submissive whatever may be his position. The best way to start human relations is to accept ‘slavery’ of others till such one is well acquainted one will be submissive. The chances of misjudging a person will reduce to that extent. Respect individual as humans irrespective of their power and position. Everyone plays a role and we should respect role whether he be a  sentry at the gate or the boss in the cabin. c) Keep watching distances -Keep a respectable distance with any individual to get a chance to objectively observe him. When you go very near you loose objectivity. The person becomes more important than a purpose. More than friendship business values alliances. Keeping equidistance and respect for a human is what one needs. d) Create trust -Any communication must produce a trust. Trust has to be cultivated. Being honest, sincere, and quick in response and keeping your words are some of the approaches to win trust. If you walk what you talk people know what you are. Unless one creates favorable personal impression the communication made by the person will not be taken seriously. e) Serve self-interest of others - In communication identify the self interest of all those who are participating and then see how yours and theirs self-interest can be fruitfully utilized. Humans act in their self-interest. And your communication should serve it the best. f) Have self-control- One can only control oneself and not the others so easily. If you control your thoughts and emotions, you can approach to any communication with quiet mind and make a judgment of situation in unbiased manner. More you express yourselves selectively more you will get response from others. g) Develop empathy -One of the qualities you develop is feeling empathy about others. Communication is not made for you it is made for those to whom you communicate. Starting point of empathy is to give importance to others and think about them. Once you start thinking about them. Think of their self- interest and then of the situation in which they will receive the communication. Once you start analyzing in this perspective you will start appreciating other’s position and will become empathetic about others. Human in a Group a) Human is different in a group -One must understand human in a group and as an individual behaves differently. He is as well working as a team member and then to that extent, the group dominates his individual interest. He may not be as transparent as he is as an individual. He are obsesses by feelings what team mates think of him and chances his stance accordingly. He may agree with the majority even though he may not consider it wise as an individual. He  is under pressure of a team and in most of cases he is either a follower or leader –but hardly equal. The same people whom you thought to be good perhaps look very much different in a group. There his role as a follower or a leader is important than as an individual. When you communicate with an individual, you can safely assume that he will be different in a group. b) Communication with individual or group -If you want to communicate with a group you must decide about group average and then start communicating. As an individual they might be strong advocates of a particular view point but generally they mellow down in a group and take a line of least resistance. When you are talking to an individual belonging to an organization, you must keep all the time in mind that your communication is for a group. You be certain, whether you are speaking to an individual or a group; and expect it to be followed by individual or group. c) Think of grape vine- One must see what weight an individual carries in a group. It is his level of acceptance in the group that will decide his role in a group. In all probabilities your communication to an individual in a group is really a password to make group aware. The grape vine works very strongly in a group situation. Most of the people are in reactionary mode and hardly think of long term future and that which interests them in short term is more acceptable. Most of the wise communicator keep away group members from long term thinking and go on disclosing it from time to time. d) Steps towards leadership -It is said if you want to establish leadership in communication, one has to go through states of slavery, paternalism (fatherly relations) –trust and diplomacy. Diplomacy is respecting others and winning them. First people are suspicious about you and therefore, you must be slave and do something for them, then they start looking at you as a child and do not mind giving some work keeping supervision with them (Paternalistic attitude), then they trust in you but then there can be number of trusted people and one has to find a way to establish you as a leader amongst them through respecting others right to become leaders. This is type of diplomacy which one needs to be a leader. e) Negotiate -In a group communication one has to compromise on the results and expect a reasonable level of achievement and not everything as per your  plan. You require negotiating attitude in a group and negotiations are always give and take. f) Avoid divide and rule policy -Try not to divide group and rule. Administratively it may pay for some time but the chances are you will be ruining the cause of business itself. Business cannot be divided according to followers’ interest. g) Communicate with all group members at a time - If you want to communicate with a group take the earliest opportunity to communicate with the group than individuals comprising it. Establish a direct contact since indirect contact does not spread the words in the spirit with which they are spoken. It is then better to use print media and circulate your thoughts. TECHNICAL KNOW-HOW I am using word technical-how since the communication has become technique for various reasons and one must understand this to communicate better and effectively. The numbers of consideration are to be thought over in communication. a) Tools - The tools which we use for communication are technical though these seem to be user friendly. Their feature viz. user friendly make us to think that they are easy to handle and do not require any technical knowhow. This is partially true. Operating computers is friendly but let there be a virus or some failure you will find your job stuck up for some time. Some basic knowledge about technical tools in terms of Manuals, Users handbook, do it yourself tips, service contract, guarantee or warrantee period, possible repairers, part list etc. is minimum you must have ready. Especially one must be able to do a minimum maintenance needed. In a dusty environment covering of computers in any office, when not in use, is more important than air-conditioning. How many computers you find covered in offices? How often we do disk scanning? Or disk fragmentation? Do the operators even know these terms? Thus basic technical knowledge is required to keep communication free from failures. b) Time/Cost considerations -Use of each technical tool involves cost and time – two important points of consideration. The cost involved is capital as well as maintenance cost. One must at the least know whether copying will pay or printing will pay? The cost and time as applied to work must be known to a communicator.  c) Do it yourself -We must have minimum operational knowledge of tools so that one can do use it oneself. I still remember a case in a Consulting firm, where reports is the important production activity, except the office boy no one was knowing how to use copying machine and adjust copy size. Your communication is waiting for an office boy? Is it worth? d) Obtaining best results -One at least must know what a particular tool is capable of and how best we can take advantage of it. When we should do E- Mail or alternatively phone? What is the best way in a particular situation? The communicator has to decide it and not an operator. e) Enable obtaining users’ advice -The real user should be able to advice if new version is to be purchased or any tool is to be updated. Office type users are not found giving such an advice. The main reason being they do not consider them technically qualified tool users. I have been called by a much known Institution to personally visit and then I found that they could have told me on phone and both of use would have saves on time and cost. f) Promote self-use -If tools to be used for communication are user friendly, it is better that user operate it and then a specialist operator. g) Understand technical limits - We must know the limit of handling of any tool in terms of work load and time so that equipment can last for a longer period. h) Use of standardization -For each communication we must design a format that can be regularly used so that some standardization can be brought to work system and which will also reduce specialized knowledge. E.g. if we want to write letters then we must have some format of writing it. We have referred to many of these in this book while using a particular type of communication tool. PRESENTATION SKILLS. These skills will differ according to the tools being used and demands of situation. However, we will discuss them against type of equipment and situation later on but we will attempt here to make some broad conclusions on presentation which will be useful almost across tools and situations. DESIGNING MESSAGE FORMAT The best way would be to ask the following questions and then decide whether a particular communication requires a distinct formatting. a) Minimum facts needed -What are the minimum facts each of your  communication should comprise such as Name, address, location, telephone numbers, E-Mail , Web page, Logo etc. and can we put in design format and use it for repetitive purposes such as letterheads, envelops, any presentation material etc. b) Use of colors -Can you enhance its distinct identity by using particular color or tone? c) Design fill in/tick forms -Do you think particular type of application of communication is quite frequent then can you prepare fill in, tick mark type of letter needing less time and effort to communicate? d) Make Multi copies -Can you make multi copies and distribute so as to cut short processing time? e) Be to the point - Is message brief and to the point? f) Provide for feedback -Can you provide for a reply so that the feedback would be easy? e.g. E-mail provides for a reply. g) Ease at receiving end -How it will be easy to handle at receiving end? h) Suitability of media tool -Is this suitable with what tools and communication methods? i) Denote desired actions - Can it clearly draw attention to actions desired? j) Understanding of receiver – Has it be written from receiver’s angle? These questions are indicative of format needed. We will discuss against each type of communication afterwards. Designing contents of Message Some of the general rules to be observed would be – a) Address - See addressee is reachable on the address given. b) Language -Use simple language and short sentences c) Respect position -Respect the position and role relations while addressing d) Avoid personal approach -Use personal only when it is essential otherwise make impersonal approach. e) Subject - Give clear reference and subject about which you are communicating. Go on direct to the subject f) Support - Say what you want to say in support of the subject. g) End - End with what you expect in terms of action at the other end. Suggest time frame for action on both the sides h) Keep response information ready - Keep possible information for reactions you are expecting and decide the time limit of contacting again the addressee. Though each communication is thought as  independent one should be prepared for a series of communications since it generally takes more than one communication to arrive at some useful conclusion. ‘VALUES’ IN COMMUNICATION Both sender and receiver perceive your behavioral values through communication. The values are perceived in terms of character and culture. The culture refers to the values that have been stabilized in you and which becomes your general guide for behavior. The character is outwardly expression of these values. Values is what you think good or bad, correct or incorrect and virtue and vice. These become part of culture when you behave according to your values. Individuals have culture so also group of people have group culture or if it is organized, organization culture. Most of your communication comes out of values which are molded by your learning and experiences. Thus contribution of your parents, teachers, mentors, leaders is more since one gets opportunity to hear from them and then react to it. Culture will decide your expression in communication. The more important is it makes decision making easier since your reactions would always come out of your culture. It is popularly said water seeks its own level. It means you collect people of your tendency. This happens because people generally find people of their level and liking. Thus your success in social life, which depends on communication, makes number of differences in your influence over others. Some of the values which we try to cultivate are: a) Be empathetic - Receiver is the most important person in communication and we must frame our approach so that he understands and interpret the same way our communication as intended by us. Empathy is heart of communication. b) Be open -We must be open in approach and in the spirit of truth. The biggest single advantage is receiver trusts you and likes to communicate with you. c) Meet deadlines - Act in time. This is one thing people can easily notice. Give at least indication why you are getting delayed and when you promise to complete. d) Be regular and punctual -Other value which is easily noticed is regularity and punctuality. Your absence in the first instance is taken as wrongful act and interpreted as less interest in the job which you have undertaken. Many times people feel communication is art of deceiving and putting a bloated picture about you and your intentions. You cannot sustain this impression for long until  you are really so. e) Love task and people -Love task and people and you will appear to be sincere and honest without making special efforts. SUMMARY Through communication we have to form favorable impression and therefore need preparing for it. The first priority is to develop language. Some of the ways of developing language are socialize with language speaking group, take coaching, reading, go on writing etc. Merely knowing language does not take you to communication but one must use it for building human network for which you must understand human behavior as individual and in groups. In groups the is guided by group interest and shows different behavior. It is now also necessary to understand technical knowledge involved in media tools, its limitations and capacity to give results. Your designing of message is also important. It is must be borne in mind that messages are meant for presentation. Your communication not only communicates your message but your values and culture. Be empathetic, be open, time conscious, regular and punctual. The preparation does not start with a message but building yourself as value communicator. KEYWORDS  Grapevine – The grapevine spreads on its own, not knowing where is the beginning so also human informal communication grows and one does not know where it begins. The grape vine denotes informal communication. UNIT 3 TOWARDS EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION CYCLE Structure Introduction- Towards effective communication cycle The components of Communication Cycle The Sender The Message Choosing Media Encoding Message Transmission Disturbances and barriers Decoding at Receiver’s end Receiver Evaluation and Feedback Message Again with the Sender Communication Cycles Summary Keywords INTRODUCTION- TOWARDS EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION CYCLE We have seen communication is essential for any social activity. No social activity is possible without communication. Man can rarely stay away from society and therefore, from communication. For organized activity communication also needs organized efforts so that it is effective in producing results. We have also seen some preparation in communication starts from the very person who is communicating. It is his personality that is reflected in communication and people can understand his personality by the way he communicates. The real need for communication begins with having thoughts, emotions to express which depends upon the knowledge and the concern created by that knowledge. If there is no intention to communicate, one can hardly do it effectively. Thus knowledge, skills and values need to be cultivated. Thus human qualities reflect in communication. In addition, having ready mind to communicate, one must understand the media of communication so as to transform the intention into communication. We have dealt with the preparation to be done for communication. Now we will spend some time in understanding how we can make Communication Cycle more effective. THE COMPONENTS OF COMMUNICATION CYCLE The communication cycle begins with the sender and ends with the sender. The sender has to send some sort of message to the receiver. He has to first choose the media to communicate and send his message. It is only then he can decide what sort of message to be sent to the receiver. Once he has prepared a message it is transmitted to the receiver. When he has made a choice of media, then he has to encode it for the form of media he uses and then has to choose a method of transmission for a message. We may decide to mail through Post. Then transmission agency is Post. It is through transmission that message reaches the receiver. If the message has reached without any loss in transmission then receiver has received the message free of disturbance. If it does not, there is disturbance, barrier or noise in a system and then we have to start a cycle again. If it is decoded by the receiver in the same way as it was sent the transmission is successful. In return the sender expects a confirmation that the message is received and action if any is taken –which is described as feedback which is transmitted to the sender. We say communication cycle is complete at this stage. The cycles can be many in case it is interactive or comprising series of messages. Thus in a communication cycle Sender –Message –Media –Noise-Encoding –Transmission –Decoding by Receiver –Confirmation – Message - Feedback –Encoding - Transmission –Noise- Decoding by original sender- all these steps makes a cycle. In a telephone conversation we, with every interaction, are completing one cycle and then the second etc. but we do not notice it because the tool is so facile that one cannot analyze these steps without making purposeful efforts. But the cycle do exists with all its components. The care that one has to take in each cycle and at each component stage of cycle will overall improve our communicability and hence this analysis. We will highlight each component stage and its features so that communicator can take precautions at each of these stages and make successful communication. THE SENDER More the improvements in terms of knowledge, skills and values and its reflection in the message; more will be the chance of communication being successful. After all message can be improved but the change in sender’s knowledge, skills and values is a long drawn affair. At least if the sender can understand importance of relation of his personality to communication in competitive times, the Sender will try to improve on these counts. The sender makes a choice of media, message, encoding and transmission and therefore, its tone, cost and speed. If he exercises good caution on these aspects his communication would be produced and encoded properly and sent with due response to situation in time and at optimal cost possible. The sender has to see that it is forceful enough so that the receiver will understand its rationality with fervor. In fact with every message the sender is taking emotional leadership of the thoughts he is conveying. He should have the best possible relations with all those to whom he communicates. THE MESSAGE Each message must have an objective as to why it is being sent. The non-objective messages have no place in business communication. No one has either the inclination to waste his time or efforts and therefore, businessman does not appreciate a message without an objective. The message should have an objective to at least get confirmation of its receipt confirmed or action feedback, that too, within a given time frame. The sender has to ensure this in his message. Since some of the aspects of message are media dependent this is elaborated when we are practicing communication in Part II of this book. However, the general qualities of message hold good in all media. For example a message should be as brief as possible and should be restricted to only action expected at that stage. For example if one feels accepting a product technically is more necessary than the commercial terms, we should only speak of technical features and try to convince on these. If one has been dealing with our products and knows its technical specifications, it is preferable we start speaking about commercial terms. Thus messages are to be compartmentalized or done in succession so that we establish interactive communication. Moreover it must have indiscrete human touch so that it is emotionally appealing. It should be crisp i.e. to the point and yet worth reading. It must be drafted for a response for a predetermined time frame. The message should be empathetic respecting the receiver’s frame of mind. It must be addressed in terms of what you think but in terms of your receiver likely to think in terms of response to your communication. In short your message should be planed in terms of reaction of receiving, be objective, be in time frame, expecting a definite action, showing emotional concern for the receiver. CHOOSING MEDIA One must know media available while communicating. If you feel it should be transmitted in real time then phone, fax or E-Mail can do this. By real time we mean when you are sending the message it should be available almost at the same time so as to catch time. Thus we are looking for a time frame within which communication must be complete. This will also entail a cost of using a media tool and therefore, cost also should be worked out. One has also to decide in which form it should reach e.g. you want to communicate message in picture form (Such as in case of legal document) it is better to fax it or do a scanning and send through E-Mail. It depends upon how fare scanning is effective. One has to see whether the reaching time of communication is convenient. But if no written message is involved then telephoning would be convenient. Sometimes sending a communication by mail and confirming so on telephone is wiser. Since number of message related problems would be involved we have shown later on each media and the process to be followed and likely pros and cons. However, we have to consider the likely disturbances and noises in the system and thus assume a degree of quality of transmission of communication. Thus choosing media would depend upon availability, need of the situation, time frame and cost you are looking for, the type of communication message and possible barriers, interference that we may face in communicating. ENCODING MESSAGE Any message goes through a medium of words, sounds, pictures, signs etc., and thus is to be expressed in such media. To put any message in desired media is act of encoding. Even the language used is encoding. The most important consideration in encoding is to avoid loss before it is due for decoding and at the time of decoding proper. The coding used must be decoded in terms of sender’s inherent intentions. It must reach at the receivers end without any disturbance and be capable of decoding at receiver’s end. That particular media tool must be available at his end. The tool must be in working order. If you find there is no electricity at the receiver’s end, you may try a telephone but not E-Mail. Encoding involves both knowledge of encoding and decoding. Thus it becomes somewhat technical job when you encode a message. You may find certain software is essential at the receiving end to decode your message than that software must be available at the other end. TRANSMISSION The transmission is really an act of passing a message to receiver’s hands. Thus the action of transmission can be automatic as in E-Mail, provided you have right equipment and procedure or physical via courier, post, compact disk etc. Transmission may involve transportation, service agency and dependence on human. Thus at the transmission stage one may experience barriers, disturbances or noise which may spoil delivery of message. We have mentioned barriers at each media description. Formerly it was called noise because most the communication was through voice over telephones and this media has a problem of noise. But now it has to be learned in terms of limitations or barriers of communication. DISTURBANCES AND BARRIERS Reducing disturbances and removing barriers is a job one has to do during transmission. When the faults are beyond humans to repair they have to retry at different occasions perhaps complain to media organizers or use some other media. Thus these factors involve actions and hence we consider these aspects. In barriers most of the barriers are through human handling and one has to try to change human handling. The poor listener would be a bigger barrier and can be only changed with repetitive persuasions. Certain faults can be removed if these are in your own system. Good technical know how can reduce technical faults and barriers arising out of it. The problem with most of the communicators is that they show less inclination in having some basic technical knowhow. DECODING AT RECEIVER’S END If transmission is successful and received undisturbed your communication is in the hands of the receiver and now his need is first to decode the message and understand it. Decode needs understanding a coded language used in a message. If these are in words understanding the words of particular language is essential. In a written communication one will have to understand script, words and its meaning. In a business world time weighs on the receiver and he may not try to do it immediately and may sometimes fail to give undivided attention while reading. He requires both reading and listening skills. More such skills quicker he will follow the gist of what sender is saying. This is human barrier. There is no reason if this barrier does not exist why he should not decode it properly. But if his technical knowledge is lacking he may wait till a concerned person comes. He will not know that E-Mail has been received till he opens computer for this purpose. One receives lot of messages and one has to decide priority and finish its reading in time. One of the barriers is not developed capacity of reading and deciding priorities. In the past codes like Bentleys were used to cut short the message and use code for this but now it is rarely done. The idea was also to keep message secret. But now coding means using appropriate language that receiver will be able to understand. Coding of message is really put it in understandable language. RECEIVER First simple job is to acknowledge communication. But one does not like to acknowledge till he is prepared to reply it. Moreover, it becomes another message and all considerations so far described become applicable. So generally instead of merely acknowledging receiver tries to respond in terms of some actions. This consume some time. He has to give some feedback and therefore, starts working on feedback. Feedback is essential in business for both the parties to the transaction. EVALUATION AND FEEDBACK MESSAGE Instead of just calling it a feedback I have called it a feedback message just to make you aware of the fact that feedback itself becomes a message. Now receiver takes a role of sender and goes through the stages of designing message, choosing media, encoding, transmission etc. The same steps apply to feedback message as these apply to business message since this is also part of business communication. More cycles more the possibility of results in terms of business since it indicates sustained interest of both the parties. AGAIN WITH THE SENDER Now the feedback has come from the receivand the same process as decoder and then understanding of it takes place and now sender may have to again communicate or stop communicating since no action is involved. Thus from sender back to sender is a communication cycle. The cycle involves two message original and feedback which till the purpose of business is served will continue in cycles. COMMUNICATION CYCLES When we speak of communication cycles, we emphasize the following: 1) Completion of cycle is needed in communication. Otherwise there would not be communication outcome. 2) Complete action orientation takes number of communication cycles. 3) In order to have number of communication cycles with the same party one has to maintain relations which involve human and business relations. 4) Since communication is being done with number of persons or parties at a time one 5) Must be able to manage jungle of communication- which we have termed as communication network. 6) Business cannot shun away from communication. 7) Communication has both sociological (in terms of relation) and psychological (in terms of feelings) effects. 8) When one is doing communication Communicator may feel uneasy but when he receives response he feels encouraged. Thus communication affects emotions and moods. 9) Communication is not done only for information but also aiming at toning emotions and moods. 10) Communication requires knowledge, skills and values. SUMMARY One must understand communication cycle to make communication effective. Each of the cycle has the ingredients such as sender, objective, media, message, encoding, transmission, decoding by receiver, understanding and then the feedback message in the same way. Each of these stages are important and should work with integrity and no disturbance. Sender should make message persuasive by adding fervor. The message be sent by keeping reader in view and the likely mood in which he may receive it. The media for message should be chosen on the basis of its availability, meet situational needs, time needed for achieving communication objective, cost involved and likely disturbances in transmission. KEYWORDS  Cycle – A circular motion-meeting end to end.  Coding – Preparing in form required by media  Encoding – Act of converting to code  Decoding – Putting back coding to understandable language  Real time – at the same time (without loss of time)  Transmission – process of passing a message from one party to another. UNIT 4 TYPICAL BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AREAS Structure Introduction – Towards defining business communication areas Marketing oriented communication Supplier oriented communication: Reception Office communication Meetings Public Relations Industrial Relations Communication arising out of events Communication with service providers Communications need of Shareholders Communication with Public Agencies Need for understanding Business Communication Summary Keywords INTRODUCTION – TOWARDS DEFINING BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AREAS When we learned business cycle we have taken a look at what business consists but did not speak about the type of communication one encounters in terms of business needs and media that can be used for communication. We will now see in which areas need for communication is felt and in the next chapter we will study media used in such typical areas. The areas that give rise to communication occasions are very typical in business. Large percent of business communication is done in typical areas of business. The communication media may vary in these areas but the emphasis of communication and its objectives remain more or less in the same area. The role each of these areas, if one can appreciate one will be ready to take a total view of business communication of a standardized nature. This may cover more than 80 per cent of typical business areas.. The one which can be classified by objectives within overall objectives of business have been used as a criteria and not necessarily functions. MARKETING ORIENTED COMMUNICATION This is one of the most important area in business communication. The life of business depends upon Customers and most of the marketing activity is woven around the customer. The objective here is to inform the customer about availability of product and services and then persuading customers to buy. Once the goods and services have been purchased the complaints about product or service, its maintenance and overall satisfaction and then new purchases becomes the objective. Thus all our communication efforts are guided towards this. The communication at this stage is customer relations centric and we should be keen to be all out for customer satisfaction. The whole communication should be carried with this objective and we must adopt certain basic rules for maintaining this communication. The salient features of such communication are : a) Primarily product and service orientation - This means we must have good presentation of our product or service capabilities. The supporting information mostly comes from technical personnel. b) Competitive Information - It must be prepared keeping eye on competitive products and services available in the market. Thus competitive information of strategic nature can support such communication. c) Commercial knowledge - There must be sufficient knowledge pertaining to prices and commercial terms so that we can speak of actual sales. d) Legal knowledge -Some legal knowledge about sale of goods act, customer protection laws etc. is essential to keep us within the frame work of contractual and legal responsibilities. e) Publicity orientation - It must have advertisement and publicity orientation to give communication persuasive look. f) Media knowledge - A good knowledge of media that can be used is also essential for effective customer communication. g) Know customer profile - It must be supported by some customer profile study to address effectively any of our customer related efforts. h) Know self interest of intermediaries -The marketing efforts are done through distribution agency and sales force engaged. The understanding of this structure in terms of their self interest is essential to communicate properly with the customers. i) Know logistics and culture -It also study geography and history of market area and have a good sense of logistics involved. One must understand cultural make up of the market area. Thus it will be seen that this area calls for study before undertaking actual communication. SUPPLIER ORIENTED COMMUNICATION Supplier oriented communication is more technical and commercial oriented. More of this is in the nature of follow up and complaints about delivery and price. Much of this communication can be standardized. The communication is word based and routine follow up can be chosen and thus media selection is not a serious problem. No persuasive communication is generally required. RECEPTION What happens at the reception is very important from communication point of view. It is the first contact and the impression about the organization is dependent on this contact. The reception involves the impressions about the total facilities to receive people and then its ability to communicate within organization through telephone links, the information available and the response the reception gets to its own queries from inside organization. If one can prepare for frequently asked questions it is still easier. Basic knowledge about what business we are, whose who and ability to be attentive to walk in or phone in customers goes a long way in communication. It also depends on how one presents in terms of human communication. Lot of patience is called for in this communication since reception is generally at the receiving end. Moreover, the ability to handle exception queries is limited and therefore, person seating at reception must be experienced about organization, its systems and procedures. Good telephone manners or handling E-Mail may be necessary. OFFICE COMMUNICATION Office communication is largely written communication. Popularly it is known as correspondence. Most of it is written and can be standardized. We can also call this organization communication. It covers hierarchical communication mostly flowing from top to bottom. Since communication participants know each other and taken for granted it is more administrative and information oriented and many times on person to person or person to group basis. Thus orders, memos, notices and circulars are found to be used in communication. These are plain, simple and direct.. Since such communication is more based on rules and regulations it requires more knowledge of systems and procedures. Thus any one handling this communication must be aware of policy, decisions taken and procedures to be followed. The whole administrative communication is guided by frame work of rules and regulations. Most of the upward communication deals with reporting, feedback, suggestions and grievances. MEETINGS The reason for making a special mention of this aspect of communication is that there are number of official groups operating in an organization which extensively use meeting technique for group activity. Even the board of directors use meeting as a technique of communication. We will talk about this technique used later on. Weekly meetings, quality circle meetings, departmental meetings, project meetings and topical meetings are part of organizational life. Anywhere meetings are encouraged where group decisions are involved or information is to be distributed. Apparently meeting as a good media is largely misused in actual practice for various reasons. We will talk about communication through meetings especially in view of its importance. PUBLIC RELATIONS One of the important aspects of business is to keep in constant touch with environment factors affecting business and try to create favorable impression about the organization. This involves number of communication needs. There can be number of publicity measures and with each type of measure communication media will differ. However, community work, events sponsoring, events organizing, newspaper publicity, exhibitions are some of the ways organizations try to maintain their public relations. All these activities are communicative about organization and its achievements. Here the mention must be made of World Wide Web, the network facility which an organization can use for public relations. In future hoisting additions and chances to web page and its adequate publicity will be essential. It can be made interactive and some functions can be transferred to web page such as booking orders. We shall speak of this media separately. INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS This is one of the sensitive communication area which is concerned with its employees and their families. Here there is a possibility of lot of informal relations. To keep employees abreast of company news and achievements is essential on a regular basis. This communication must be at regular intervals and go on keeping employees informed about its activities and intentions. Many have house journals organized towards this end. These relations also are surrounded by legal and union level formalities and have to be undertaken with care. COMMUNICATION ARISING OUT OF EVENTS Number of events take place in organization’s life such as foundation day, visits of celebrities, external audit, industry association meetings etc. all of which requires lot of communication from inviting Chief Guest to inviting participants, prepare their list, and note down addresses and arranging contractual services. Generally, for such purpose ad hoc groups are created and given a communication responsibility. Some of this may be outsourced. COMMUNICATION WITH SERVICE PROVIDERS These are bankers, consultants and advisors etc. who ultimately are related to increase the efficiency of an organization. Once the initial services are contracted for rest of the communication becomes routine. One can establish a sort of partnership in nature of alliances. Their communications directly affect the well being of the business, since most of this communication is in form of reports and feedback compliance. COMMUNICATIONS NEED OF SHAREHOLDERS In companies having a shareholder base this is a class of stake-holders who need meticulous communication. One part of their communication consists of various steps involved in registration and transfer of shares. Quite a lot of this communication can be called procedural. But to keep the shareholders updated on its current state in terms of performance is a job by itself. Holding audit, statutory meetings, presenting statutory reports provide number of communication needs including that with the Stock Exchanges. Lot of statistical data and information has to be fed. COMMUNICATION WITH PUBLIC AGENCIES Very few people think of the pressure of communicating with Public Agencies. The organization has to act in a frame work of so many laws that communication in terms of return submitted to Government becomes a sizeable part of communication. Just a reference to few laws as Company law, Customer Protection Act, Factory Act and other labor related Acts , Income Tax Act, Turnover Tax, Excise is enough to show how much relations with Government creates need for communication. Legal knowledge becomes an important consideration in dealing with the Government. NEED FOR UNDERSTANDING BUSINESS COMMUNICATION The business communication thus covers wide areas of activities and the impression that it is unified may prove to be wrong. The needs of business are as varied as individuals and we must take into account the entire range of business communication needs. The observations about business can be summarized as 1. Variety- Though labeled broadly as business communication, it comprises variety of needs in terms of message, media, knowledge and expressions. 2. Largely rational - The business communication is largely based on rational and rarely emotional. 3. Procedural – In practice much of business communication is procedural and therefore can be standardized by using formats. This can bring ease and speed to business communication 4. Number of communicator – Generally business consists of group and therefore, there is more communicator than one. To avoid inconsistencies between different communication policy decisions and standardization is encouraged. It would be preferable the person who takes the responsibility for action should be a communicator. 5. Competitive considerations – Even in communication business is guided by competitive considerations. Adequate competitive information needs to be made available to communicator. 6. Levels and positions – Communication styles should change with levels and positions. The chances are at the higher level more personal style is used in communication. Once you begin relations your communication one should adequately mix relations. SUMMARY One must understand areas in business needing communication. The marketing area occupies a big portion of such a communication. Rest of communication largely belongs to communication with suppliers, reception, office, meetings, public relations, industrial relations, events based communication, service providers and public agencies. We must appreciate in terms of variety, need for rationality, procedural, number of communicators, competitive considerations and respecting levels and positions. KEYWORDS  Service providers – Business requires services like marketing agencies, advertising services, janitor services, canteen services etc. Those who provide these services are service providers. UNIT 5 THE MEDIA JUNGLE Structure Introduction – Media Mix The Words and Text The voice communication- Eye to Eye Voice Communication – with Distance Written communication- One-to-one Written communication – One-to-many Communicating through pictures – One to One and One-to-Many Silent Communication Multi Media Communications Summary Keywords Typing Media Combinations INTRODUCTION – MEDIA MIX Why we are calling it a jungle? Its rational classification is difficult. In modern tools when media are crossing boarders and can be usefully combined. I may call someone to discuss and show during discussions some video film to make it more effective or I may talk on telephone and then make a voice mail without the second party being present. The text, words, pictures, voice everything is coming together and the real choice of media has become more dependent on technical tools which can be used with ease in reasonable cost and time frame. So the permutations and combinations will change to present a message. Thus speaking of media is like moving in a jungle of your own making. What we intend to present here some major media available for communication. We will have to mix these media to create effective communication. The effective communication is the one which makes people to act towards communication objective. The age is that of media mix. THE WORDS AND TEXT The language is the basic force behind communication. The words form the base unit of language, the arrangement of which expresses a concept. Words are objective oriented and good language expresses even concepts which are not in a hard form to see. Our first acquaintance with the words is from mother and that is why we call it mother tongue. The language which is not our mother tongue and which society near about does not speak becomes a foreign language for us. The communication becomes difficult when we are doing it in a language foreign to us. It is possible that some of you may be acquainted with communication in English and some of you may be in the process of learning. The words can be expressed in two ways in speaking (voice) and the other is written. These are two basic media of communication. THE VOICE COMMUNICATION- EYE TO EYE The voice communication can be eye to eye and long distance. Eye to eye communication (conversation) One to one voice communication is called conversation. Here people facing each other converse and exchange communication. It is, therefore, necessarily inter active conversation where both the parties speak to each other. We can call this as direct communication since it is done directly with the person opposite. Being interactive we can impress what we want to say, we can arrive at a decision with conversation between the two. The chances are people are happy to meet this way and communicate. Being natural one has to make less effort. However, if one has to come a long way to hold conversation it may be easy but expensive and time taking. Eye to eye communication in a group (Discussions) In meetings of all sorts one has an eye communication with many at the same time. With an individual when one has eye to eye communication, one can read reactions in the eyes and then change the conversation to be more effective. However, in a group eye to eye contact you cannot concentrate on an individual and are more interested in hammering out a solution, a rational approach than a relational approach. There is absence of empathy. Eye to Eye Communication – One to Many (Lectures) Here the communicator is lecturing and communicating his idea and other are listening. Most the class room or public lectures are of this type. Instead of looking in the eyes of an individual, we look for group reaction and we are happy if we find group reaction overall happy. It requires non-conversational type of communication because others are patient listeners. Eye to eye communication – Many to One ( Group representation) This type of communication takes place when a group is trying to speak to an individual. One popular example is talks with Worker Union or at the time of demonstrations, grief etc. Here the individual is primarily a listener and all others are speakers. Eye to eye talk –with a position (Official) Some time you undertake conversation or discussion with a position of authority. This communication differs from communication mentioned above. The reason is you take your authority into consideration when you are communicating. The conversation with the boss, subordinates and colleagues will vary, depending upon how much authority you mix with it. Each of the above categories forces different scenarios on the communicator and needs a change in communication. VOICE COMMUNICATION – WITH DISTANCE This category would not have become so popular if Telephone system would not have existed. Most of the voice communication is now being done on Telephone lines. The distance is no limitation. We can talk all over the earth and with wireless Telephony even to a man in the space. The distance has shrunk. Moreover telephone talk has not remained as expensive as transportation and therefore, to save on time and distance people have now resorted to telephone communication. Thus intervention of telephone has created a new category. The telephones have now increased their capabilities by entering into audio conference making it possible to have multi person communication. The coming of Mobile (Cell telephone) has made it possible not to have a fixed place for telephoning and we can speak to a person direct because he carries a portable telephone in the form of mobile. In the past it was necessary to be stable at one place while phoning but now you can catch a mobile man while he is in motion. People are talking from cars and planes while traveling. Business has tried to catch on with trend by having their own mobile. We do not have to depend upon human assistance for this purpose like exchange operator. Automatic exchange boxes are now in operation and one can talk with concerned person. What one looses is eye to eye contact has gained in terms of time, place and speed. The addition of recording facility we can record voice as answering system, voice mail and add tunes, buzzers, music, stories etc. and make more useful. Communication is also becoming entertaining. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION- ONE TO ONE With the existence of postal and courier system it is possible to spread a written word all over the world. Worldwide postal system exists today and we can mail written communication to all over the world. One to one correspondence is the most popular system needing at a very primary stage pen, paper, pencil, envelop and postage. Many times we confirm voice communication by written communication as a safety measure and for permanent record. The commercial correspondence forms the major subject in written communication. One can take out copies and distribute it or mail to different receivers. The written language poses more problems of accuracy and presentation. The use of typewriter, then electronic type writer was supposed to be media for written communication. But with digitalization of words it is now possible to do writing in digital forms transferring the subject to the computers as word processors. The capability of word processor as communicator has tremendously increased its popularity as communication system. The E-Mail has become convenient to transfer words in written forms along with a facility to send its copies to many users. WRITTEN COMMUNICATION – ONE TO MANY Circular letters were once very popular to communicate in written format to many. Originally this was being done by making copies on cyclostyling machine, copying machines like Xerox made it possible to take as many copies as one wants and circulate and afterwards high speed color printing machines made it possible to take as many copies as possible. The newspaper is the best example of this type of communication. Now we see business of copying all over, within a walking distance or right with us. With the desk top publishing facilities on the smallest possible computer printing has become a major media of circulation. Hand bills, leaflets, books have made it possible to distribute in bulk and involve many people than one. Now communication through printing media has become one of office tasks with almost in all types of businesses. Concepts like electronic notice board, World Wide Web and simultaneous display capacity of computers have made it possible to do it in real time on wider scale. With the help of scanners to digitize has opened further possibilities. Telex in bygone days and fax in these days is a tool of transmission to one and many. Now, world-wide web communication has made inroads in communication through chat, links and slowly becoming an interactive media and transaction communicator. Since marketing involves lot of communication it has become advertising and publicity tools – all using words as a carrier. In fact addition of audio-video and text capabilities computer is going to be a bearer of communication in future. COMMUNICATING THROUGH PICTURES – ONE TO ONE AND ONE TO MANY It is not unusual when someone comes to home we perhaps show our family album. The album depicting pictures of our family tree and then we go on telling the impressions we have about the family history. What it gives to onlooker a peep in the past of family. We then hardly realize that we are communicating through media of picture. This can be done even in a business discussion or business meet. Many times one will find on reception table album showing important land marks in company’s history, and VIPs visited so that something can be said about organization. You may also find photo frames hanged in lounges. All this is communicating in pictures. Particularly showrooms are well made out with this purpose. This is simplest form of communication through pictures. One may organize a slide show with picture transparencies or have video-show. Thus we can change our picture media from still to movie. With scanning and video cameras it is possible to communicate in variety of ways by selecting picture as a media. One can also add voice and make it two dimensional presentations. Adding animation is also possible. Another category to communicate in pictures is using symbolic communication. Instead of writing in words people use symbols. Anyone who drives a vehicle knows road signs which direct you without speaking. You go and visit airports and you will come across many of them since they expect a crowd with different language origins. SILENT COMMUNICATION When guests are visiting our home, we clean, dust and try to keep things in orderly fashion. What we are aiming is to form a favorable impression about us without speaking. The communicator, our surroundings are silent and yet these speak of our efficiency, discipline. We do such a silence communication all the time by keeping our surroundings impressive and speak through that media. You will thus find lot of interior decoration is really a communication of your thoughts and feelings. We neither use pictures, nor voice and yet communicate. This type of communication can be described in different ways. Communication through personality appearance: We try to dress properly especially when we want to communicate something special. We know if we are not accepted as persons our communication will not impress them. When some guest is coming we try to give one look a mirror and see if we are tidy enough to impress. Mahatma Gandhi preferred to wear a short Dhoti without shirt because he felt if he wants to convince the down trodden and simple people, he should be as simple as they are. He succeeded in communicating his thoughts with that type of attire. Your outwardly look contributes quite a lot to your image. Is this not a silent communication? Receptive Working Environment: Comfortable place to seat, availability of facilities like drinking water, toilet (and its  cleanliness) and place to things one has to carry all these comforts add to your communication. Informative and well decorated furniture and fittings along with pleasing eye colors give one, a feeling that you are eager to communicate. It gives you a good head start. Creating Brand Image: Brand is a representative one uses to carry an image for your business. Thus one sees Tata, one thinks of people with fair business deal in products or services or in employment. Instead of communicating in thousand words, one can communicate all these words in symbol. It abridges the gap between past and present and gap of place from one to another. It is an attempt to capsule name, time and space in the present. All advertising, publicity, packaging is aimed at brand image. Human silence: There is saying in English that if speech is silver, silence is golden. When generally you communicate but all of a sudden remain silent, you communicate your displeasure without speaking about it. This can be practiced only if human relations are already established. Thus communication can be used without speaking. This is what we have described as human silence. Body gestures We communicate through body gestures using our eyes, facial expressions, movements of hands etc. In a business we should use it to welcome and show respect. Silent man speaks a lot through his appearance. MULTI MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS If one sees history of communication media first started with the development of language and then with voice communication. The radio and telephone are good example of this development. Then people started developing picture communication like silent movies and then they combined voice and picture and came to area of TV and multimedia communication. The tendency is now combining media due to development of video recording, digitization and multimedia computers. Its miniaturization has made it facile to carry media tools on a person and thus multimedia communication is bound to spread. One example we have already cited above that while discussing as using voice media you can also demonstrate picture like in Microsoft Power Point and make it more entertaining and useful. We shall speak of media and its use in second part of this book. SUMMARY The use of single media which was quite conventional changed to mixed media creating a jungle of media. We can use lot of media together by bringing together text, voice and pictures together and use these in variety of communication with spectrum of media tools made available through development in technology. Thus we have now entered into era of multimedia. For communication we have to choose a language our own mother tongue or foreign depending upon the language of community with which we want to establish relations. Voice communication can be with individuals in terms of conversation or with groups in terms of discussions, in form of lectures or representations. Voice communication on a long distance has been made easy with Telephones. The words also form part of written communication and then we get correspondence, circular letters, print media etc. We can also communicate with pictures in the form of print media, movies, web pages, slides shows etc. Use of picture symbols is quite common. Some media can be called silent communicator such as personality appearance, work environment, brand exhibition and body gestures. It has now become more convenient to use them some of these media in clusters and arrival of multimedia tools have created a jungle and one has to think quite a lot to find out media or media mix to come out of this. KEYWORDS  Multi-media – combination of text, voice and pictures.  Conversation – communication between two parties  Direct communication – without any intermediary  Digital language – electronic communication through 1 and 0 digits  Scanners – a document that can be scanned and converted to digital language  Animation – series of drawn pictures showing movements and thus putting lie in the picture. TYPING MEDIA COMBINATIONS Type Media used Press advertisement /Publicity Text/ Pictures Sales literature Text/ Pictures Slides Text/Pictures/Voice Video Pictures with action/voice Radio Voice and musical sound Audio Voice and music UNIT 6 UNDERSTANDING MEDIA TOOLS Structure Introduction – within cost, time and availability Voice media tools Reading and Writing Media Tools Communication through pictures Multi Media Tools Silent Communication – Communication by impression Summary Keywords Media tools and communication capabilities INTRODUCTION – WITHIN COST, TIME AND AVAILABILITY We can use such a wide mix up of media that it appears almost as a jungle in choosing the best possible combination for our purpose. It is the time available, cost and tools available that decide the media tool to be used. When we speak of tools it is hardware and it is presumed that we know how to use these tools and understand these in terms of time, cost and availability. Thus in a way some basic technical knowledge is preferred in terms of it use and limitations. Thus communication has to be understood along with technical limitation of tools. Some very known and extinct variety of tools has been included along with the ones which seem to have wider horizon in years to come. Really we can find many more details if one goes through user literature pertaining to product and see what particular media product is offering. Here the attempt is just to know these as tools for use in our communication. Most of these tools are now in use and you will find these being used in many business offices. VOICE MEDIA TOOLS Telephone system The telephone is the most used media for distance communication. The system comprises of exchange, instruments and telephone cables. At user’s end there is very negligible maintenance. The charges include rental and use charges and depend upon the distance involved. One can have number of instruments plug in or in parallel operation. One can also install exchange either manual or automatic with number of users. Now tendency to use automatic exchange is on increase since it saves on operator’s cost. Numbers of facilities are available on instruments and exchange to redial, answering machine, hold, direct, participating in audio group discussions, magnifying speaker system to enable more number of people to hear the conversation, record keeping of incoming calls, user identification service etc. Each of these facilities if properly used can give number of advantages to communication. Video telephones which will soon make appearance in the market will also enable view the receiver and his expressions at the other end. With memory provided one may be able to keep telephone directory of our frequently dialed numbers. The initial installation cost involves cost of laying down lines from nearest telephone pole. The recurring expenses for fixed period of a month in terms of rental, service and use charges need to be paid. Since these charges vary from place to place one can  ascertain these from telephone providing company. Since service is available for telephoning almost 24 hours a day and to any one who is connected the misuse of office telephone for conversational use of private nature and prolonged conversations is a factor that may increase telephone cost on non needed and non business communication. Moreover, there cannot be any control over quality of communication since it is used in highly personalized way. Some control over its use along with restricting too few users are some of the ways of reducing costs. The biggest advantage of telephone is this is a direct communication without intermediaries, communication can be done in real time not involving loss of time and be used for any language (not requiring coding and decoding of special nature) by the user and can generate more clear understanding as if it is being done on person to person basis. The voice communication on telephone is so common that we find even illiterate people using it very easily. Formerly because of manual exchange a person of full time nature was needed but with automatic exchange the need of operating exchange does not arise. The system is available in most of the countries in the world. Mobile or Cell Phone System: The telephone system has become mobile with introduction of this system. The earlier system was lock to a place and it could not be moved without wiring to any other place. To overcome this weakness now satellite and tower based wireless system has come up setting aside the need of laying down cables and making available telephone mobile facility by carrying on your person. The size of telephone system has been made to accommodate within hand. One can catch a person when he is mobile in train, car, in plane, ship or any transportation mode. The land line described above is giving way to mobile communication thus replacing need to be near the telephone but have it with you all the time. With galloping number of mobile users this system is becoming cheap in terms of purchase and operation. It hardly requires any service and have very low maintenance cost except service charges. Since there is no human intervention in the system within the two, one is more sure of contacting the right person easily. In a way this has assured privacy over land line system. This system has communication facilities as Caller identity, ring tones, short written message system, call hold, transfer etc. It has become both written and voice communication. With radio facilities one can get news and now pictures of TV and is slowly becoming multi media. Except charging and getting sim card exchanged it requires no servicing. Again it operates within real time frame and the most user friendly system. Most of the business people are moving and needing instant connection and mobile has become ideal for this. To day it is mainly being classified as voice system but it will soon become also a writing system replacing talking by short messages as people are doing on E-Mail. Voice Mail: Voice Message can now be recorded on mobile and it can be transferred on E-Mail so that the receiver instead of receiving written message receives voice message. One can avoid keying words and can use any language to do this. The mobiles are available with this facility. Soon this will become a standard  provision on mobiles. Sound recording equipment: The arrangement to record sound is being used in communication world quite a lot. The Dicta phones, used for dictating voice message is one good example which has replaced the age old shorthand. Software to convert voice to written form directly has also been introduced and when fully matured a voice communication and written communication will not be two different medias to operate. Some leading pleaders are already using such transcription systems. The recording systems have already become of a size of ‘hand held’. Sony walkman is being used as portable voice recorder in entertainment communication. Mobile telephone is also now getting better sound recording capacity. Such electronic based systems are expensive to begin with and then soon become cheap. In a way most of the sound recording systems do not have transmission capability so that it can be only used to support preparation of message and not its communication. One has to use tape cassettes or compact audio disks for this purpose. Audio conferencing facility: The telephone exchanges can now offer a connectivity with many people at a time and we can hold a meeting on telephone of more than two participants. The advantage is that people do not have to be physically at one place and therefore, saves transportation costs. We can always think of this alternative instead of meetings. The whole discussion can be recorded and can become documentation of a meeting. It may prove economical than physical meeting. It would require some more knowledgeable person to make such event possible. All must be available on telephone to make this possible. Voice amplifying devices: These are known as amplifiers assisting in amplification of voice sent through mike and then amplified