CHAPTER - I

COMMUNICATION-AN OVERVIEW
1.1 Introduction
The chapter of this course introduces you with the highlight of historical development and
civilization of communication. It gives little highlight when and how communication is
emerged along with the human being development. This chapter also deals with definition and
characteristics of business communication. Apart from this the importance of communication
both in the personal life of individuals and in the business world is also another issue of the
chapter.

1.2 Meaning of Communication

The term communication is derived from the Latin word “Communis”, which means common.
Literally, to communicate means to tell, show, spread and inform.
As communication is a much more complex factor in our present world, not surprisingly, the
problem of defining it as a subject of study has also become increasingly difficult. For our
purposes, however, we can define communication as: The process by which people attempt to
share meaning (ideas, feeling, thought, experience, knowledge, skill, etc) for some purpose
through the transmission of symbolic messages.
Our working definition of communication calls attention to the following five essential points.
1) Communication is a process: Communication refers to a series of activities to be
accomplished in a sequence; it does not refer to incidental events and transactions among
people.
2) Communication is purposeful: When senders - receivers communicate the sender
originally should have an objective to be checked at the end of the communication process.
Communication is not just the transfer of messages but purposeful transfer of messages
between senders and receivers. Thus it does not refer to incidental transactions between
people.
3) Communication involves people: Communication shows the degree of understanding
among senders-receivers and how they relate to each other. Therefore, it refers to
communication among people only and the exchange of interpersonal behaviors among them.
4) Communication involves shared meaning: This suggests that in order for people to
communicate, they must agree on the definitions of the terms and symbols they are using. The

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symbols used by the sender should be similarly interpreted by the receiver in order to ensure
equal or similar understanding between them.
5) Communication is symbolic: In communication symbols such as, letters, numbers,
words, gestures, sound, etc can only represent or approximate the ideas they are meant to
communicate. In other words symbols are not perfect representations of our ideas. Thus we
have to take care in selecting symbols that best approximate the sender’s ideas.
Communication is vital to human existence. It is how we pass on to others our thoughts and
feelings, tell them what we want them to do, ask them to help us, share with them our
knowledge and experience. Without communication we would each live as if alone in the
world.
1.3 Nature/Characteristics of Communication
As articulated by Gerald Miller, communication has three basic characteristics: dynamism,
uniqueness and transactional nature.
Dynamism: Every communication event stems from a series of past events and triggers a
series of new ones. Communication is affected by prior attitudes, planned thoughts and people
to whom the message is addressed. It is thus a dynamic phenomenon without beginning,
without end, continually responding, and continually changing.
Uniqueness: Evolving naturally from the notion of dynamism is the concept of uniqueness.
No two communication events are a like because of the change in the sender, the audience,
delivery, time situation etc.
Transactional Nature: Communication scholars Wenberg and Wilmot mentioned that in
communication all persons are engaged in sending (encoding) and receiving (decoding)
messages simultaneously. Each person is affecting the other. Each communication
transaction involves reciprocal exchanges of feelings, meanings, ideas and responses.
1.4 Significance of Communication
The ability to communicate with others is an essential attribute of human life and we are all of
us grappling with communication tasks most of the time we are awake. Only when we are
alone and also not reading or writing or listening, we stop receiving messages from the world
of people outside ourselves, stop trying to send out messages to the fellow human beings
around us. Communication plays, then, a vital part in our personal daily lives. Furthermore,
communication has been characterized as the “life-blood” of an organization. Every
organization depends for its daily functioning on an intricate communication network, which
has grown up during the years and has proved itself indispensable. “No person is an Island”;

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today more than ever all the people of the world rely upon another for products, services,
ideas, etc.
The above two paragraphs show that the importance of communication be viewed from two
angles: individual angle and organizational angle.
Man conflicts with himself, with his environment and with his fellow creatures. He is capable
of emotions, ideas and reasoning. He must learn the art of adjusting to himself, to his work,
and to his associates even as that self, that work, and those associates change. A person must
learn and practice the art of human relations, an art that enhances the individual person and the
society of which he is a member.

Like all other people, you are a complex system of thoughts and feelings, of ideas and
emotions. Although similar to other human beings, you are a unique person. Yet you must
live and work with others. You are a human being not an island. Multiply this complicated
being you by the millions of other complicated and unique people on this earth. Add the
unpredictable influences of society and nature. Recognize that today a person economically, is
not an island; s/he cannot isolate herself/himself from her/his fellow men. You will then
discover that at the core of human relations is modern man’s obligation to fulfill himself with
in the requirements of nature and society.

Even though all people including you are emotional-rational beings, still you are unique from
others in that you have geared your career to successful business management. Therefore you
have assumed the obligation of striving, ethically and efficiently, to use thoughts and feelings
ideas and emotions, actions and reactions in leading your life and conducting your work.
To be specific communication serves the following three purposes in personal or individual
life.
Job Success: The two dimensions of management most often cited as the keys to individual
and organizational success are technical ability and understanding of people. Effective
communication skills to listen, speak, and write complement these two dimensions. Therefore
enhance ones job success, a person learn the art of human relations to effectively communicate
her/his ideas, experiences, thoughts, skills and feelings.
Personal Satisfaction: Mastery on a certain area goes beyond vocational success or
promotion, i.e. personal satisfaction. Thus communication skill can be a source of personal
satisfaction, particularly in the areas of art such as writing, painting, etc.

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Meeting Social and Ethical obligations: A person may be in conflict with him/herself, with
other people, and/or with the community at large. With the help of communication people
continue adjusting profitably to themselves, to other people, to the environment in which they
live and work. It is a means of winning respect and confidence from other people or from the
community at large.
As you attempt to fulfill yourself in business and in the private aspect of your life, your brain
enables you to identify, classify, relate and solve issues. But in responding to your
environment, you generate both emotions and ideas. You feel as well as think. Through such
experiences you continue adjusting profitably to yourself to other people, to the environment
in which you and they live, cooperate and compete. In brief, effective communication is a key
to success in personal life and in business career.
1.5 Communication in Management

Planning Organizing Staffing Directing Controlling

Communication

External Environment
Customers
Suppliers
Government
Community
Others

As a student or an employee, whatever your academic classification or job title may be, you
participate in the coordination of resources and objectives. In doing so, you participate in
management, the continuing process of achieving order efficiently through intelligent
decisions that govern an organization. Simultaneously, you participate in communication, the
reciprocal process of sharing information through symbols, principally words.
Communication is essential to sound management; your success as a manager- a person who is
in charge of coordinating the human and non-human resources of an organization- greatly
depends upon your ability to communicate effectively.
Communication is essential to each of the five basic functions of management. In order to
plan, organize, staff, direct and control, managers must be able to communicate with other

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persons- and communicate well. Information from others helps formulate plans; information
provided to others defines job assignments and helps organize work; information on standards,
progress and personal factors fulfills the directing function; while information in the form of
written and oral progress reports is a fundamental element in controlling. Communication is a
linking process that enables each of the basic functions of management to be carried.
Effective communication is therefore the “life blood” of every organization.
We already have made the claim that communication is vital to the very existence of an
organization. To understand the validity of that claim, one must understand the role
communication plays in an organization’s life. The following figure tries to illustrate specific
elements of that role.
Role of communication in an organization

Directives
Motivation
Ability
Resources

To the right of the figure are the elements comprising an organization’s productivity: the
quality of the work done in the organization, the quantity of the work done, the personnel
related costs involved in getting the work done (such as turnover or absenteeism among
employees), and the non-personnel related costs of getting work done (such as wasted
materials, scrap, and so on). Naturally, organizations want to improve productivity by
maximizing the quality and quantity of work completed and minimizing the personnel and
non-personnel costs involved in work performance.
Just to the left is the primary factor that determines productivity in organizations the
employee’s job performance. What employees do in the workplace determines how much
work gets done and how well it is done, how costly their own behaviors are and to a large
extent, how much is spent on materials and equipment.
At the far left are the four major factors that ultimately shape an employee’s performance.
1. The employee’s motivation to do the job.
2. The directions the employee receives concerning what to do and how to do it.
3. The ability of the employee to do the job.
4. The resources with which the employee is provided to do the job.
What must occur then is the translation of these four factors into employee job performance.
The key elements translating motivation, direction, ability and resources into job performance

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are in the middle of the figure: perceptions and attitudes. In short what employees do at work
is determined largely by how they perceive the work environment and how they feel about
work. Often employees misunderstand instructions given to them, and errors in their job
performance are the predictable result. Just as often, the organization fails to communicate
expectations clearly to employees. Those employees in turn perform as they think the
organization wants them to relying on their perceptions (or just plain luck) to guide their
efforts. Finally, employees have attitudes toward all elements of their work lives their jobs,
their working conditions, their supervisors their coworkers, their promotional opportunities
their pay and benefits, and so on. Those attitudes influence their willingness to work
effectively and their commitment to the organization’s goals and objectives. For example,
employees who feel they are not being paid a competitive wage may not work very hard and
employees who actively dislike their immediate supervisors may even do things destructive to
the company, such as sabotaging equipment or stealing supplies. Employees’ job
performances therefore stem directly from their attitudes and perceptions.
Where do those attitudes and perceptions come from? Communication, in the form of the
things employees hear from management, supervisors and their coworkers, the things
employees hear about their organization from outside sources, the written and oral guidelines
with which employees are provided; the instructions that employees receive. All this and
more comprises the communication in which employees participate every day. By shaping
employee’s attitudes and perceptions communication serves to convert external
communication from the work environment into internal thoughts and feelings that in turn,
control, employee’s behaviors.