Communication For Bussiness & Management

Nature of Communication: 

Communication occurs wherever life exists.

The transmission of any meaningful message is communication. It is as natural a phenomenon as existence itself. Whether we recognize it or not, we have no option but to communicate.

Then we here stands for all things living. A baby cries to convey its hunger. A dog barks to warn his master of an intruder. Corporate organizations which, after all, consist of the human element, use information- based systems like Management Information System (MIS), Decision Support System (DSS) and Strategic Information System (SIS) to run businesses successfully.

This is what communication is all about. Communication is an integral part of human existence. Communication contributes enormously to the success or failure of every human activity. Communication is essentially the ability of one person to make contact with another and to make himself understood.

Since man is a social animal, it is vital that he express his feelings and emotions, receive and exchange information. It is here that communication comes into play.

In case of organizations, it becomes even more important as people working in different departments have to achieve common objectives. The working of inter-personal relationships is possible only through communication.

Apart from binding its various components internally, communication is what links an organisation with the external world. Thus, communication is regarded as the foundation of a successful organisation. No group can exist without communication.

Communication has a significant impact on the ultimate potency of an organisation. It is only through communication that ideas, information, attitudes or emotions get conveyed from one person to another.

At the individual level also, effective communication skills are responsible for success. According to a survey of America’s most successful managers by a leading American magazine, Fortune, excellent communication skill was one of the prime determinants of success.

7 Major Elements of Communication Process

By Smriti Chand

Seven major elements of communication process are:
 (1) sender
 (2) ideas 
(3) encoding 
(4) communication channel 
(5) receiver 
(6) decoding and 
(7) feedback.

Communication may be defined as a process concerning exchange of facts or ideas between persons holding different positions in an organisation to achieve mutual harmony. The communication process is dynamic in nature rather than a static phenomenon.
Communication process as such must be considered a continuous and dynamic inter-action, both affecting and being affected by many variables.

(1) Sender:

The person who intends to convey the message with the intention of passing information and ideas to others is known as sender or communicator.

(2) Ideas:

This is the subject matter of the communication. This may be an opinion, attitude, feelings, views, orders, or suggestions.

(3) Encoding:

Since the subject matter of communication is theoretical and intangible, its further passing requires use of certain symbols such as words, actions or pictures etc. Conversion of subject matter into these symbols is the process of encoding.

(4) Communication Channel:

The person who is interested in communicating has to choose the channel for sending the required information, ideas etc. This information is transmitted to the receiver through certain channels which may be either formal or informal.

(5) Receiver:

Receiver is the person who receives the message or for whom the message is meant for. It is the receiver who tries to understand the message in the best possible manner in achieving the desired objectives.

(6) Decoding:

The person who receives the message or symbol from the communicator tries to convert the same in such a way so that he may extract its meaning to his complete understanding.

(7) Feedback:

Feedback is the process of ensuring that the receiver has received the message and understood in the same sense as sender meant it.

Importance of Communication:

The importance of communication to an organisation cannot be overemphasized. It is critical to the-success of any organisation and has a very significant impact on the ultimate effectiveness of the whole organisation. Communication is a means by which behaviour is modified, change is effected, information is made productive and goals are achieved.
Business communication can be internal when it is directed to persons within the organisation such as superiors, co-workers or subordinates. Business communication can be external when directed to customers, suppliers, government, public, etc.

Internal communication

Whereas internal communication takes place between employees within an organisation, external communication occurs between those within the company and those in the outside world.
There are many forms of internal communication. For example:

• workshops help people to become involved
• project groups at UNISON look at issues and help to put policy into action
• a key way in which UNISON communicates internally is through its in-house magazine called InsideOut. This is sent to all UNISON staff members. It highlights a range of challenges and issues for staff. These include details about their new headquarters, facts about equal pay issues for UNISON members and other news within the organisation.

Such communications may be carried out by the use of e-mail, posters, staff briefings, documents or meetings. More information is on the intranet, which can only be accessed by staff and members.

External communications

External communications are also important for UNISON. With more than 1,300 local branches, it may need to convey issues to receivers and stakeholders in many different areas. These issues could include legal matters, pensions and discussions, as well as disputes.

UNISON's website is a vital link with the outside world. To support issues such as collective bargaining, health and safety and to provide legal advice, there are leaflets, booklets and other information. These can be ordered from a communication catalogue or by downloading a pdf from the website.

For example, Welcome to UNISON is a full guide for members, covering topics from health and safety to building skills. DVDs have also become a popular way of making contact with members. Another example, 10 Good Reasons to Join UNISON, is designed to help local branches recruit new members.

Business communication roles and imoratance:  

 Business communication occurs between two or more parties to exchange business related information. The success of a business depends on the efficacy of business communication. For this, communication is regarded as the lifeblood of business. The role or importance of business communication is discussed below:

1. Exchanging information: Communication is mainly the exchange of information between two or more parties. Through communication, organizations exchange information with internal and external parties. Communication also brings dynamism in organizational activities and helps in attaining goals.
2. Preparing plans and policies: Communication helps in preparing organizational plans and policies. Realistic plans and policies require adequate and relevant information. The managers collect required information from reliable sources through communication.
3. Execution of plans and plaices: For timely implementation of plans and policies, managers must disseminate those in the whole organization. In order to disseminate the plans and policies to the internal and external parties, managers rely on communication.
4. Increasing employee’s efficiency: Communication also helps in increasing the efficiency of employees. With the help of communication, organizational objectives, plans, policies, rules, directives and other complex matters explain to the employees that broaden their knowledge and thus help them to be efficient.
5. Achieving goals: Effective communication helps the employees at all levels to be conscious and attentive. It ensures timely accomplishment of jobs and easy achievement of goals.
6. Solving problems: Through various communication channels, the managers can be informed of various routine and non-time problems of the organization and accordingly they take the necessary actions of steps to solve the problems.
7. Making decisions: Making timely decisions requires updated information. Through effective communication, managers can collect information from different corners and can make the right decisions.
8. Improving industrial relation: Industrial relation is the relation between workers and management in the workplace. Good industrial relation is always desired for business success. Communication plays a vital role in creating and maintaining good industrial relation.
9. Publicity of goods and services: In the modern age, business is becoming highly competitive. Almost very competing manufacturer produces products of common consumption. However, all of them cannot sell equally well. The organization that can communicate better, can also sell better.
10. Removing controversies: Effective communication allows smooth flow of information among various parties involved in the negotiation or transaction. As a result, conflicts, controversies and disagreements can be resolved easily.
11. Enhancing employee satisfaction: If there is free and fair flow of information in the organization, it will certainly bring mutual understanding between management and workers. Such understanding enhances the satisfaction of employees.
12. Enhancing loyalty: Effective communication helps the managers to be aware of the performance of their subordinates. In such a situation, the subordinates try to show their good performance. Later on, if management praises their performance, it will enhance employees’ loyalty.

Directions of Communication

The structure of an organization should provide for communication in three distinct directions: downward, upward, and horizontal (Lunenburg & Ornstein, 2008). These three directions establish the framework within which communication in an organization takes place. These communication flows are depicted in Figure 1. Examining each one briefly will enable us to better appreciate the barriers to effective organizational communication and the means to overcome them.

Downward Communication

Traditional views of the communication process in school organizations have been dominated by downward communication flows. Such flows transmit information from higher to lower levels of the school organization. School leaders, from central office administrators to building-level administrators, communicate downward to group members through speeches, messages in school bulletins, school board policy manuals, and school procedure handbooks.

Canary (2011) has identified five general purposes of downward communication:

Upward Communication

The behaviorists have emphasized the establishment of upward communication flows. In a school organization, this refers to communication that travel from staff member to leader. This is necessary not only to determine if staff members have understood information sent downward but also to meet the ego needs of staff. Five types of information communicated upward in a school organization are as follows (Canary, 2011).

Horizontal Communication

Upward and downward communication flows generally follow the formal hierarchy within the school organization. However, greater size and complexity of organizations increase the need for communication laterally or diagonally across the lines of the formal chain of command. This is referred to as horizontal communication. These communications are informational too, but in a different way than downward and upward communication. Here information is basically for coordination — to tie together activities within or across departments on a single school campus or within divisions in a school­wide organizational system. Horizontal communication falls into one of three categories (Canary, 2011):

Vertical Communication

Vertical communication can be divided into two categories i.e. upward communication and downward communication.

Downward communication refers to communication that flows from the superior authority to the subordinate authority or from the higher level to the lower level. It is the most important direction of communication and the very nature of the organisation. No organisation can function without it. Downward communication is mostly used give instructions - both written and spoken, letters, memorandum, policy matters, speeches, meeting, information etc.

Upward communication refers to communication that flows from the subordinate to the superior or from the lower level to the upper level. It is mainly used by employees to give feedback about various responsibilities and also to give suggestion about how the task was executed. It includes reports, proposals, suggestions, grievances, etc

Diagonal Communication

It includes the horizontal flow of information as well as interaction across different levels of an organisation's hierarchy. Diagonal communication is used to speed up the flow of communication. It makes effective efforts for achieving organisational goals.

Grapevine Communication

Grapevine communication is a type of informal business communications which develops within an organisation. It means gossip. Usually gossip that spreads and covers a lot of ground (a lot of people) like vines do. However there are disadvantages or limitations to grapevine communication. It has the potential to spread unnecessary  gossips.It can be dangerous to the organisation if allowed to grow without monitoring. It may result in character assassination and personal vilification of individuals. It may provoke sudden unwanted and unexpected reactions from emotionally unstable people. Grapevine channel can be moderated but not eliminated.

Channels of communications

Internal Communication

When communication flows from one person or part to the other within an organization it is called internal communication. It is intra-company communication. Through this type of communication manager leads, guides, directs, motivate, counsels, informs his subordinates. Internal communication has the following channels, or kinds.

External Communication

It is intercompany communication. Well worded letters, reports and proposals improve business relations. Oral communication is also used. Disgruntled customers are satisfied. New customers are discovered. New dimensions and depths of the market are exploited. It improves goodwill, public image, safety productivity, profits and public credibility.

1. Formal channel of communication:

A formal channel of communication is the means of communication normally controlled by people in positions of authority in an organisation. Hence, it has also been referred to as an organization’s ‘main line of operational communication’.
All the reports, records and other forms that supply working information to various parts of an organisation are included in the formal channel of communication. These channels of communication do not function automatically. A good business organisation will ensure that these are carefully planned and designed to its needs.

2. Informal Channel of Communication / Grapevine:

The informal channel of communication is often discouraged or looked down upon in an “organization, and is not officially sanctioned. It is popularly referred to as grapevine. This is because it runs in all directions irrespective of the formal structure.
The origin of the term grapevine can be traced to the way the botanical vine grew over telegraph wires, making telegraphic messages go in unintended directions. In business life, grapevine owes its existence to man’s gossipy nature.
Humans tend to speak loosely or lightly with their associates wherever they may be. Time to time they feel the need to get freed from the necessity to stick to logic or truth.
As people go about their work, they have casual conversation with their friends in the office. These conversations deal with both personal and business matters. This results in the generation of a rumour mill, which is a grapevine.
Grapevine is classified into four categories:
Single strand: Each one tells another.
Group or gossip chain: One tells all persons in his/her group.
Probability chain: Each randomly tells a number of people.
Cluster chain: Some tell selected others.
Grapevine satisfies the social needs of members, leads to more relaxed human relations (partly through the release of fantasy), serves to fill the possible gaps in the formal communication and links even those people who do not fall in the official chain of command.

Cross-Culture Communication

It's no secret that today's workplace is rapidly becoming vast, as the business environment expands to include various geographic locations and span numerous cultures. What can be difficult, however, is understanding how to communicate effectively with individuals who speak another language, or who rely on different means to reach a common goal.

Cross-Cultural Communication – The New Norm

The Internet and modern technology have opened up new marketplaces that allow us to promote our businesses to new geographic locations and cultures. And given that it can now be as easy to work with people remotely as it is to work face-to-face, cross-cultural communication is increasingly the new norm.
After all, if communication is electronic, it's as easy to work with someone in another country as it is to work with someone in the next town.

And why limit yourself to working with people within convenient driving distance when, just as conveniently, you can work with the most knowledgeable people in the entire world?

For those of us who are native English-speakers, it is fortunate that English seems to be the language that people use if they want to reach the widest possible audience. However, even for native English speakers, cross-cultural communication can be an issue: Just witness the mutual incomprehension that can sometimes arise between people from different English-speaking countries.
In this new world, good cross-cultural communication is a must.