Communication Process

 Communication is important in building and sustaining

human relationships at work. It cannot be replaced by the
advances in information technology and data management
that have taken place over the past several decades.
 Communication can be thought of as a process or flow.
Before communication can take place, a purpose –
expressed as a message to be conveyed – is needed. It
passes between the sender and the receiver. The result is
transference of meaning from one person to another.

The communication process comprises of seven parts:

1. The communication source,
2. Encoding,
3. Message,
4. Channel,
5. Decoding,
6. Receiver, and
7. Feedback.

1. Source:
  The source initiates a message. This is the origin of
the communication and can be an individual, group
or inanimate object.
 The effectiveness of a communication depends to a
considerable degree on the characteristics of the
source.
 Aristotle believed that acceptance of the source’s
message could be increased by:
Pathos – Playing on the emotions of the receiver.
Logos – Generating logical arguments, or
Ethos – Asking for message acceptance because the
source is trustworthy.
 The person who initiates the communication process
is known as sender, source or communicator.
 In an organization, the sender will be a person who
has a need or desire to send a message to others. The
sender has some information which he wants to
communicate to some other person to achieve some
purpose.
 By initiating the message, the sender attempts to
achieve understanding and change in the behaviour
of the receiver.
2. Encoding: Once the source has decided what message to
communicate, the content of the message must be put in
a form which the receiver can understand. As the
 background for encoding information, the sender uses his
or her own frame of reference. It includes the individual’s
view of the organization or situation as a function of
personal education, interpersonal relationships, attitudes,
knowledge and experience.
Three conditions are necessary for successful encoding of
the message.
 Skill: Successful communicating depends on the skill
you posses. Without the requisite skills, the message
of the communicator will not reach the receiver in
the desired form. One’s total communicative success
includes speaking, reading, listening and reasoning
skills.
 Attitudes: Our attitudes influence our behaviour. We
hold predisposed ideas on a number of topics and our
communications are affected by these attitudes.
 Knowledge: We cannot communicate what we don’t
know. The amount of knowledge the source holds
about his or her subject will affect the message he or
she seeks to transfer.
3. The Message: The message is the actual physical product
from the source encoding. The message contains the
thoughts and feelings that the communicator intends to
evoke in the receiver. The message has two primary
components:
  The Content: The thought or conceptual component
of the message is contained in the words, ideas,
symbols and concepts chosen to relay the message.
 The Affect: The feeling or emotional component of
the message is contained in the intensity, force,
demeanor (conduct or behaviour), and sometimes
the gestures of the communicator.
4. The Channel:
 The actual means by which the message is
transmitted to the receiver (visual, auditory, written
or some combination of these three) is called the
channel.
 The channel is the medium through which the
message travels. The channel is the observable
carrier of the message.
 Communication in which the sender’s voice is used as
the channel is called oral communication.
 When the channel involves written language, the
sender is using written communication.
 The sender’s choice of a channel conveys additional
information beyond that contained in the message
itself.
 For example, documenting an employee’s poor
performance in writing conveys that the manager has
taken the problem seriously.
5. Decoding:
 Decoding means interpreting what the message
means. The extent to which the message is decoded
successfully, i.e., degree of accuracy in transfer of
information to the receiver, depends heavily on the
individual characteristics of both the sender and the
receiver.
 The greater the similarity in the background or status
factors of the communicators, the greater the
probability that a message will be transmitted
accurately.
 Most messages can be decoded in more than one
way. The process of receiving and decoding a
message is a sort of perception.
 The decoding process is therefore subject to
perception biases, and is therefore a subjective
process, which further means that interpretation of
the contents of a message depends largely on
internal factors and a plethora of personal influences
and experiences.
6. The Receiver:
 The receiver is the object to whom the message is
directed.
 Receiving the message means one or more of the
receiver’s senses register the message – for example,
 hearing the sound of a supplier’s voice over the
telephone or seeing the boss give a thumbs-up signal.
 Like the sender, the receiver is subject to many
influences that can affect the understanding of the
message.
 Most important, the receiver will perceive a
communication in a manner that is consistent with
previous experiences.
 Communications that are not consistent with
expectations is likely to be rejected.

7. Feedback:
 The final link in the communication process is a
feedback loop.
 Feedback, in effect, is communication travelling in the
opposite direction. If the sender pays attention to the
feedback and interprets it accurately, the feedback
can help the sender learn whether the original
communication was decoded accurately.
 Without feedback, one-way communication occurs
between managers and their employees. Faced with
differences in their power, lack of time, and a desire
to save face by not passing on negative information,
employee’s may be discouraged from providing the
necessary feedback to their managers.
 Department of Commerce
 Divya Mathur
 Business Communication