AECC- Communication

Definition

Communication is the process of establishing meaningful relationships among human

beings. Communication is the exchange of ideas, opinions and information through written or spoken
words, symbols or actions. Effective communication ensures whether the transmitted contents are
received and understood by someone in the way they were intended. We use the word communication in
various ways. It is not just the process of transmitting, neither is it merely the message itself. Communication
is not just a set of techniques. Finally it is not just a sense of staying in touch. Communication means all these
things and more.

Communication is a process by which information is transmitted and understood between two or more people.
It should include both transference and the understanding of meaning. As we can observe communication is
important in any human encounter. It plays a vital role in the sharing of information. The word
communication has been derived from Latin word “communicare/communis’ that means to ‘share’ or
‘participate’. Everybody knows that most of the time, through speech or writing or any other means like
exchange of a common set of symbols; we are sharing information with other human beings. It is, therefore ,
first and foremost a social activity. Man as a social animal has to communicate.

Effective Communication

Every one communicates in his/her own special way; we need to communicate to get our ideas across to
others. What is then meant by effective communication when we can get our ideas across to others easily?
Effective communication simply means to communicate in such a manner that we get our desired response
from our audience. Audience means the receiver of our message. If we don’t get our desired response then our
communication was not effective. Different messages and different situations have different responses or
feedback. Sometimes we just require a simple nod of the head; sometimes we require a full page of written
reply to our message. Whatever the case or condition may be if we get our required feedback then we have
communicated effectively.

Six rules of effective communication:

1) Organize your thoughts

2) Don’t think about it, think through it
3) Recognize that actions speak louder than words
4) Be concise
5) Always translate your message for benefit of the other party
6) Listen carefully to the other party.

Types of Business Communication

There are two types of business communication in an organization:

▪ Internal Communication
▪ External Communication
1. Internal Communication

Communication within an organization is called “Internal Communication”. It includes all communication

within an organization. It may be an informal, formal function, or department providing communication in
various forms to employees.

Effective internal communication is a vital means of addressing organizational concerns. Good

communication may help to increase job satisfaction, safety, productivity, and profits and decrease grievances
and turnover.

Under Internal Business Communication types, there are further subtypes:

▪ Upward Communication
Upward communication is the flow of information from subordinates to superiors, or from employees to
management. Without upward communication, management works in a vacuum, not knowing if the messages
have been received properly, or if other problems exist in the organization. By definition, communication is a
two-way affair. Yet for effective two-way organizational communication to occur, it must begin from the
bottom.

Upward Communication is a mean for the staff to:

▪ Exchange information
▪ Offer ideas
▪ Express enthusiasm
▪ Achieve job satisfaction
▪ Provide feedback
▪ Downward Communication
Information flowing from the top of the organizational management hierarchy and telling people in the
organization what is important (mission) and what is valued (policies). Downward communication generally
provides information – which allows a subordinate to do something. For example, instructions on how to
complete a task. Downward communication comes after upward communications have been successfully
established.

This type of communication is needed in an organization to:

▪ Transmit vital information

▪ Give instructions
▪ Encourage 2-way discussion
▪ Announce decisions
▪ Seek cooperation
▪ Provide motivation
▪ Boost morale
▪ Increase efficiency
▪ Obtain feedback

Both Downward & Upward Communications are collectively called “Vertical Communication”
▪ Horizontal/Lateral communication
Horizontal communication normally involves coordinating information, and allows people with the same or
similar rank in an organization to cooperate or collaborate. Communication among employees at the same
level is crucial for the accomplishment of the assigned work.

Horizontal Communication is essential for:

▪ Solving problems
▪ Accomplishing tasks
▪ Improving teamwork
▪ Building goodwill
▪ Boosting efficiency

2. External Communication

Communication with people outside the company is called “external communication”. Supervisors
communicate with sources outside the organization, such as vendors and customers.

It leads to better:

▪ Sales volume
▪ Public credibility
▪ Operational efficiency
▪ Company profits

It should improve:

▪ Overall performance
▪ Public goodwill
▪ Corporate image

Ultimately, it helps to achieve:

▪ Organizational goals
▪ Customer satisfaction

Types of Communication

One- way

Communication involves the transfer of information from one party to another. In one-way communication,
information is transferred in one direction only, from the sender to the receiver. There isn't any opportunity for
the receiver to give feedback to the sender. Eg. weather report on television, newspaper, recorded music on the
CD, billboard messages

Two-way
Two-way communication is a form of transmission in which both parties involved, transmit information.
Two-Way communication has also been referred to as interpersonal communication. Eg. Chatrooms
and Instant Messaging, Telephone conversations, classroom lectures. etc.

Verbal

In this type of communication the professional uses language as a vehicle of communication.

1. Oral communication – A face-to-face interaction between the sender and the receiver. Eg. Making
presentations and appearing for interviews

2. Written Communication – The sender uses the written mode to transmit his/her messages. Eg. Writing
reports and emails

Non-verbal

When a message is communicated without using a word, the process requires non-verbal cues to be
transmitted and received. Eg. facial expressions, posture, eye contact, walk, person’s voice, volume, pitch,
voice modulation etc.

Communication includes both verbal and non-verbal forms. Therefore, it also includes lip reading, sign
language and body language.

Downward

Communication in the first place, flows downwards. It is based on the assumption that the people working at
higher levels have the authority to communicate to the people working at lower levels. This direction of
communication strengthens the authoritarian structure of the organisation. This is also called Down Stream
Communication.

Upward

Upward Communication is the process of information flowing from the lower levels of a hierarchy to the
upper levels. The function of upward communication is to send information, suggestions, complaints and
grievances of the lower level workers to the managers above. It is, therefore, more participative in nature. This
is also called Up Stream Communication.

Lateral/Horizontal

This type of communication can be seen taking place between persons operating at the same level or working
under the same executive. The main use of this dimension of communication is to maintain coordination and
review activities assigned to various subordinates. The best example of lateral communication can be seen in
the interaction between production and marketing departments.

Interpersonal

Interpersonal communication is an exchange of information between two or more people. It is the process
by which people exchange information, feelings, and meaning through verbal and non-verbal messages. So it
is also known as face-to-face communication. It is called dyadic communication if it is between two
participants and group communication if there are more than two people. Conversations, meetings, project
discussions, sales visits, interviews etc are some examples. Communication in business usually involves
interpersonal communication, communication between management and staff as well as other business
contacts.

Intrapersonal

It is the communication which takes place within one’s own self. This implies individual reflection,
contemplation and meditation.

Organizational

A process by which activities of a society are collected and coordinated to reach the goals of
both individuals and the collective group. It is a subfield of general communications studies and is often
a component to effective management in a workplace environment.

Mass Communication

It is a means of conveying messages to an entire populace. This is generally identified with tools of modern
mass media, which include books, the press, cinema, television, radio, internet etc. It also includes speeches
delivered by leaders to a large audience.

Grapevine

It is called so because it stretches throughout the organization in all directions irrespective of the authority
levels. Man as we know is a social animal. Despite existence of formal channels in an organization, the
informal channels tend to develop when he interacts with other people in organization. It exists more at lower
levels of organization. Eg. Suppose the profit amount of a company is known. Rumour is spread that this
much profit is there and on that basis bonus is declared. Thus, grapevine spreads like fire and it is not easy to
trace the cause of such communication at times.

Barriers of communication

We have seen that communication is a complex process, even if we try our level best in preparing, the receiver
might take it differently or there may be other problems which might cause our communication to be distorted
or problematic.

There are two sets of barriers to communication

i. Psychological barriers
ii. Physiological barriers
iii. Semantic blocks
iv. Organizational Barriers

Psychological barriers

We know that no two people think alike so there will be problems when our messages are taken differently
from different people. Psychological barriers include peoples’ emotions, perceptions and selectivity.
It is the barriers to effective communication created from the lack of interest of the people from whom the
communication is meant. People do not pay attention to the communication which are not interesting to them
and which does not fulfill their wants.

a. Perception: – it is the process of accepting and interpreting the information by the receiver. People
receive things differently for a variety of reasons.

b. Filtering: – communication sometimes filters the negative information to make it more favorable to the
receiver. In this process, knowingly or unknowingly some valuable information may be disposed of.

c. Distrust: – superior provides information or message to the subordinates to their own view, ideas and
opinion which create obstruction in communication.

d. Emotions: – emotion also creates barriers to effective communication like anger, het, mistrust, jealousy
etc.

e. Viewpoint: – it also creates barriers to effective communication. If the receiver doesn’t clear the message
and ignore it without hearing, the message may create obstructions.

f. Defensiveness: – if the receiver receives the message as threat and interprets that message in the same
way, it creates barriers to effective communication.

Emotional

One possible psychological block is emotional. For example if you are announcing a new policy which you
know will be unpopular you will be emotionally blocked, giving the first major presentation for your job,
writing a letter to someone you dislike you will be emotionally blocked. The people we are communicating to
may also have emotional blocks. They may feel indifferent or hostile towards our subject or can be biased
against us or our subject.

Perceptual

Even if there are no emotional blocks every person perceives things differently. Communication involves
perception and perception is never accurate. One perceptual problem is that people perceive things differently.
Some people might look at a picture from a different angle and some might look at it from another angle.
Imagine every person in the company reading an annual report. The accountant will only be reading the
financial statements and their footnotes, the sales manager will only be interested in the sales volume and
value and the public relation officer will only be interested in the quality of the paper. Also consider this: A
father and his son are driving to work one morning when suddenly they’re involved in a terrible accident. The
father is killed instantly and the son is badly hurt. He is taken quickly to a hospital where the nurse says we
have to take him to the surgery room immediately or he will die; they rush him to the surgery room. The
surgeon walks in, takes one look at the boy, and says, “I can’t operate on him. He’s my son.” How can this be?
There are a lot of answers which might pop up in the mind; it was a miracle, the father had superpowers and a
lot of other ones but the correct answer is that the surgeon was the boy’s mother.

Selectivity

A final set of psychological barriers exist because of competition for people’s time and attention. In our daily
lives we are bombarded with a huge amount of information from different sources. We only remember the
information which we have selected to remember which we think is important to us or is somehow connected
to us. The rest of the information is discarded from the mind as garbage. Another thing is that we remember
the extremes of everything and forget the moderate information.

Physiological barriers

Communication does not consist of words alone. Another set of barriers is caused by physical appearance,
audience or the context of the document or presentation. For written communication take the examples of bad
handwriting, unclear photocopies, water or tea spots, messy overwriting. Another set of barriers might be
caused by the paper itself. For oral communication the examples are bad seating arrangements, loud noises
inside and outside the room, slamming doors, ringing telephones.

o Physical appearance of the communicator or audience, the context of the document or the presentation.
Illegible documents, jammed margins, faulty typing, unclear photocopies – all are physical barriers.
o Other physical blocks include mumbling, speaking too fast, distracting gestures, noise inside the room
such as ringing telephones etc – or outside the building such as traffic or aero -planes.
o Your message may be blocked because people in your audience are uncomfortable; they cannot hear
because of a bad sound system and cannot see because of inadequate lighting.

Internal structure of the organization and layout of office machines and equipments creates physical barriers
in communication

a. Distance: – communication is found obstructed in long distance. Like communication between America
and Nepal.
b. Noise: – it is from external sources and affects the communication process. Noise negatively affects the
accuracy
c. Physical arrangement: – the physical arrangement of organizational sources like men, money, material
and machines obstruct the communication process.

Semantic Barriers

Words as we know are symbols and therefore limited because they cannot have precisely the same meaning
for everyone. Since words can mean different things, their different meanings may block communication. The
study of word choice is called Semantics, so the barriers associated with use of words are known as semantic
blocks. These arise due to denotation and connotation. Denotation means the dictionary meaning of a word
and connotation is an implication of a word or a suggestion separate from the usual meaning.

Take the following examples: Cheap or inexpensive, heavy or weighty, divide and sever Elevated and
alleviated, proclaim and exclaim.

The use of difficult and multiple use of languages, words, figures, symbols create semantic barriers.

a. Language: – we can find some words having different meanings. The meaning sent by the sender can be
quite different from the meaning understood by the receiver. Long and complex sentences create problems in
the communication process.
b. Jargons: – technical or unfamiliar language creates barriers to communication that may be drawn from
the literature. So messages should be simple and condensed as far as possible so that no confusion creation
will be there to the receiver.

Organizational Barriers

Most of the communication barriers that exist in workplaces can be included into this category. Poor
organization structures, some rules and regulations, poor employee relationships, physical separations,
outdated equipment and noisy environment can badly affect communication processes within the
organization.

It is raised from the organizational goals, regulations, structure and culture.

a. Poor planning: – it refers to the designing, encoding, channel selection and conflicting signals in the
organization.

b. Structure complexities:- difficult organizational structure barrier for free flow of information. Appropriate
communication processes must be used.

c. Status differences – it creates barriers for communication. Superior provides information to the subordinate
about plans and policies. Different information is provided by different subordinates who create barriers in
communication.

d. Organizational distance - distance between sender and receiver also creates barriers to effective
communication.

e. Information overload – if the superior provides too much information to the subordinate in a short period,
the receiver suffers from information overload which creates barriers to effective communication.

f. Timing – communication can be obstructed if not done on time. If the information is not provided in time it
creates barriers to effective communication.

The Seven 7 C’s of Effective communication -Principles of communication

i. Completeness
ii. Conciseness
iii. Consideration
iv. Concreteness
v. Clarity
vi. Courtesy
vii. Correctness

Additions:

1. Confidence
2. Conversational tone
Completeness

Your business message is complete when you have given everything that is required to induce a reaction from
the audience (reader). Your message should be complete in all terms of data and facts. To accomplish this you
need to follow this guideline:

● Provide all necessary information

● Answer all questions asked
● Give something extra, if desired

This means you have to provide all the necessary information required to complete your message which
means all the facts and all the details. Secondly if you are replying to a message make sure that you answer all
questions asked in the request or message that you are replying to, in the last give a little something extra to
the reader as this extra information might help the reader but only when desirable, be careful not to put in too
much extra information.

Conciseness

Conciseness means to convey your message in the least possible words, meaning in a nutshell. While
following conciseness do not in any case sacrifice the other principles of communication. To make your
message concise follow this guideline:

● Discard lengthy expressions

● Only add relevant facts
● Avoid unnecessary repetition

This means do not use lengthy sentences where short sentences can suffice just to make your message longer,
secondly do not put in a lot of extra information in your message and in the last do not repeat things which the
reader already knows or have already been mentioned.

Consideration

Consideration means to prepare messages considering the receivers of the communication, not yourself.
Consideration means while preparing your message try to imagine yourself in place of the audience. Consider
what their situation, problem or circumstances might be, then prepare the message. For consideration in
communication the following guideline should be followed:

● Focus on “You” instead of “I” or “We”

● Show audience benefits
● Focus on positive and pleasant information

By this it means that the message should use the word “You” in places of “I” and “We” and sentences should
then be structured for the message. The audience will react more effectively if they see something of their
benefit in your message and lastly no one likes bad ideas or bad news so try to be more positive and friendly.

Concreteness

Concrete basically means the mixture of cement and gravel used for construction purposes, concrete here
means that your message should be strong and the ideas in that message should be well established. It means
you should be precise and sure of what you are communicating, not unsure or indefinite. In order to be
concrete while communicating follow this guideline:

● Use specific facts and figures

● Put action in your verbs
● Choose vivid and image-building words

Whenever possible use all facts and figures with exact information not vague ideas for example do not use
some time ago use 3 days ago instead. Be precise about your facts. Try to use active voice instead of passive
voice in your message as it relates to the readers and they can picture themselves in the message. Use words
which the reader can relate to and make out like in real life. “The best storyteller is the one who takes the
reader to the place mentioned in the story and puts the reader in the main character.”

Clarity

It does not mean anything but that the message should be conveyed in a clear manner. The reader should not
get confused after reading your message. You should be accurate in what you want to say. To achieve clarity
use this guideline:

● Choose concrete, easy and familiar words

● Structure effective and easy paragraphs

Use words which convey precise information easily and the reader can easily read, don’t use words that are
not common and are used rarely in only a few situations. Use paragraphs that are easy to read with small
sentences and easy language, grammar and punctuation. This will help make your message much more
effective.

Courtesy

Courtesy is basically being aware of other people’s values and feelings and respecting them, it does not only
mean mere politeness such as words thank you or please but it means much more. Remember that a more
courteous message will leave a good and lasting impression on your receiver. Courtesy means to have respect
and concern for others. For courtesy in your messages the guideline is:

● Be sincerely thoughtful and appreciative

● Use sentences which show respect
● Do not use discriminatory remarks

This means that you have to appreciate other people and use sentences which have a reflection of respect in
them. No one wants to read or hear messages which offend them in any way whatsoever. Moreover you
should not use any remarks or gestures that would normally offend other people like religion, race, color,
gender etc.

Correctness

As the word suggests, correctness is all about being correct in all terms in language as well as in facts and
information. You should use proper grammar, punctuation, spelling and tone. Not only this, you have to check
whether the information you are giving in your message is accurate or not. Guideline for correctness:
 ● Use correct level of language
● Verify accuracy of facts, figures and information
● Use acceptable medium of messages

The correct level of language means you have to use the level that is most suited with your audience, not the
level you think is better because the message is intended for the reader not yourself. If you are giving any
details in your message such as figures or facts check that they are correct and verify the sources you took the
data from. Acceptable medium means use ways in which communication is usually done, do not attempt to
discover new ways of communicating which would confuse your audience.

Confidence

Remember when you communicate you should show confidence in yourself because this will impact the
receiver’s mind. As the case is when someone tells a truth half-heartedly and without much self-confidence
people tend not to believe, but if the same person tells a lie with full confidence people usually believe what is
being said. So the sender should always show confidence in one’s self. Do not use words which reflect that
you do not have much confidence such as I hope, I believe, maybe, I think.

Conversational Tone

This means that you should prepare your message in such a way that the receiver is right in front of you. The
reader should be reading as if talking to you face to face instead of just reading a piece of paper. This means
that your message should be formal to a limit not over the edge formal, if this happens the reader will lose
interest in the message and you might fail to get a desired response.