Communication: An overview
Prepared by:
Rasila Jambucha

Meaning of communication
- Term ‘communication’ derived form the Latin word Communis
which means to share ,I. e. sharing of ideas, concept, feelings
and emotions.
- Literally communication means to inform, to tell, to show, or to
spread information.

Definitions of communication
George vardman – “purposive interchange, resulting in workable
understanding and agreement between the sender and receiver
of a message”.
Robert Anderson – “communication is interchange of thoughts,
opinions, or information, by speech, writing, or signs”.
Allen Louis – “communication is the sum of the entire things one
person does when he wants to create understanding in the mind
of another; it involves a systematic and continuous process of
telling, listening, and understanding”.
Keith Davis – “ The transfer of information and understanding from
one person to another. It is a way of reaching others with facts,
ideas, thoughts and values. It is a bridge of meanings among
people so that they can share what they feel and know. By using
the bridge, a person can cross safely the river of
misunderstanding that sometimes separate people”.

Koontz and O’Donnell – “ The transfer of information from one
person to another whether or not it elicit confidence”.
George Terry – “communication is an exchange of facts, ideas,
opinions or emotions by two or more persons”.
The American Management Association – “ communication is any
behaviour that results in an exchange of meaning”.
D. E. McFarland – “communication may be broadly defined as the
process of interaction among human beings. More specifically it is
the process by which meaning are perceived and understandings
are reached among human beings”.
Peter Little – “communication is a process by which information is
passed between individuals and/or organizations by means of
previously agreed symbols”.

Process of communication
- As communication is two way process there is an exchange of
ideas. It includes five key components.
Sender/encoder/
speaker
Message
Medium/
Channels
Receiver/
Decoder/
Listener
Feedback

Process of communication
Communication process follows the following steps:
 There is a sender
 The sender has an idea
 The sender encodes the idea into a message
 The message travels through the channel
 Noise in the transmission process
 The receiver gets the message
 The receiver decodes the ,message
 The receiver gives the feedback

1. The sender has an idea
- The intent of this phase is to start the process at a time when a
sender intentionally decide to send a message to someone else.
So, the sender has an idea.
2. The Sender encodes the idea
- When encoding one’s idea, one has to pick the code that will fit the
message and that will allow the receiver to understand. Humans
use a multitude of symbols to represent their ideas. Some symbols
are linguistic (verbal or written) code developed into complex
languages. Languages are many: the Morse code, the Braille
language, the American Sign Language, and all the spoken and
dead languages of the world. Other symbols are also in use to
communicate: mathematical formulas, paintings, pictographs,
hieroglyphs, traffic signals, zip codes, baseball gestures signaling
instructions from managers to players.

3. The sender transmits the message
- In order for the sender to transmit the encoded message, the
sender has to choose a channel, a medium through which to send
the message. Senders can send information verbally or
nonverbally. In nonverbal communication, messages are sent
through gestures, tone of voice, use of space, etc. In verbal
communication, messages are sent through speeches or through
documents.
- A good medium is one that (1) can convey a message using more
than one type of clue (visual and verbal and vocal), (2) can
facilitate feedback, and (3) can establish personal focus. The
richest medium is a face-to-face conversation
4. The receiver gets the message
5. The receiver decodes the message: The receiver always decodes
the message using his or her knowledge of the code used to
encode the message.

6. The receiver send feedback to the sender
- Using the same phases as the sender, the receiver send a
message back to the sender providing information on his or her
level of comprehension of the message.
Noises or barriers to communication process:
- Throughout the communication process, unintentional
interferences occur, distorting or interrupting the process. These
interferences are called noises. Noises can be real noises,
auditory stimuli, like phones ringing, people talking. Noises
distractions and distortions as well: static over a phone, solar
flares altering a television’s reception, or psychological illnesses
modifying how people perceive the world. Communication
without noises has yet to happen. Therefore, recognizing the
sources of noise and attempting to minimize its effect is essential
to improving the efficiency of one’s communication.

Process of communication
This involves a series of actions taking place that involve
various types of expressions, interpretations, response.

verbal communication – use of language
Non verbal communication – use of sign & symbol

Oral communication
 Anything comes from the mouth is referred to as oral. We can
involve,
Listening
- audio clips(ex. Music, today we also got audio clips in
WhatsApp)
Speaking
- Face to face conversation
- Telephone
- Presentation
- Public speech
- Interview
- Meeting

Written communication
- Anything which was in written form (ex. News paper,
magazines, Email)
- The word Write derived from the old English word Writan
which means to scratch, draw or inscribe.
- Written communication requires conscious and creative
efforts.
- Create a permanent record
Reading
-Book late
-Newspaper
-Magazines

writing
Letter

Memo

Notice

Circular

Report

Minutes

Non verbal Communication
- Communicate without using the words (not even written or
spoken)
- use of sign and symbols
categorized into four parts:
Four
parts
Body
language
paralanguage
Space
language
Sign
language

1)body language covers this points:
Facial expression Eye contact
Gestures
Gestures Appearance

2)

3) sign language
Telephone booth No Smoking
No
Electrical Danger

Objectives of Communication
To inform
To educate
To train To motivate
To integrate
To relate To promote
To entertain
To facilitate
decision-
making

Merits and Demerits of Upward Communication
What does mean by Upward Communication ?
- Process of information flowing from the lower levels of hierarchy
to the upper level
- Ex. Complain and suggestion box, job satisfaction survey,
feedback
- Keeps managers aware of how employees feel about their jobs,
coworkers and organization in general
- Managers also gets ideas on how things can be improved

Merits Demerits

Merits Demerits

Merits and Demerits of Downward communication
What does mean by Downward communication ?

Merits Demerits

Merits and Demerits of Vertical & Horizontal Communication
What does mean by vertical Communication ?

- in this communication, transmission of message takes place in two
opposite level as per situation
- Ex. Just as worker in organization communicating with the
manager of his department, at the same time he communicates
with his co-workers
Merits (Advantage)
- Conveying message of subordinate
- Maintains good labor-management
relations
- Maintains organizational discipline
- Explaining polices and plan
- Effective decision making
- Help in decentralizations
- Avoid by-passing

- Maintains chain of command
- Assigning jobs and evaluating performance
- Increase efficiency
Demerits (Disadvantage)
- Delay process
- Disturbing discipline
- Efficiency reduces
- Loss or distortion of information
- Reduces relationship
- Slowness system
- Negligence of superiors

Merits & Demerits of Horizontal Communication
Merits Demerit

Merits & Demerits of Grapevine Communication

Merits & Demerits of Kinds of Communication Network
• Two types of communication network:
1. Internal communication
2. External communication
Internal communication – interaction between members of the
same organization

Merits
 It can be readily used
 It is instantaneous
 It is persuasive and cost
effective
 It facilitates effective
person-to-person exchange
 It works very well in small
groups
 It can be supplemented by
non verbal messages
Demerits
 It is not very effective when
the target group is spread
out
 It is constrained by
language, accent and
vocabulary
 It is also constrained by
noise and other physical
barriers
 It is not normally recorded
or documented
 It does not permit repeated
references
Merits & Demerits of Oral Communication

 Less expensive
 Save time
 Immediate feed back
 Personal contact
 Useful for all kind of
audience
 Adjustable
 clarification
Demerits
 It is often dependent on
memory
 Time consuming
 Easily forgotten
 Wide Scope of errors
 No useful for long distance
 No records
 Misunderstanding
 Not useful if speaker is poor
Merits

Merits
 It has an extremely wide
reach
 It creates record and is
easily documented
 It can be erased and
rewritten
 Take a time in high level of
planning and structuring
 Repeated references
 Permanent record
 Legal document
 Suitable for long message
Demerits
 Take a time in reaching the
target
 Less interactive
 Depends on word power
 Takes more time to get
feedback
 Depends on the messenger
and the mode of transmission
 Slow and time consuming
 Lengthy and expensive
 Unsuitable for illiterate people
 Does not provide instant
feedback
Merits & Demerits of written Communication

Formal & Informal Channel of Communication
Recorded vs. Live Communication
- Prepared in advance of its delivery
- Ex. Audio tapes, video tapes
Advantage – delivers a consistent message each time and the
recipient can access the communication at a time that suits them
Live Communication
- Delivered as it happens, in real time
- Ex. Live Radio, T.V broadcast, meeting, video conferencing
Advantage - it is immediate

Passive vs. Interactive communication
- Receiver is not able to respond directly Ex: Audio tapes ,printed
materials ,radio and TV broadcast.
Advantages:
Requires less efforts from the receiver because there are no
opportunities for interaction.
Interactive communication:
- Two way communication
-Each party in the process is able to send and receive messages .
Ex: Emails, Phone calls, videoconferencing calls
Advantages:
Provides feedbacks

Local vs. Remote communication
- t It Stand-alone and off-line.
- Ex. Letters, printed materials, audiotapes, videotapes
Advantage
no sacrifice has to be made to quality because of bandwidth
limitations, and that there are fewer restrictions on where the
media can be used or communication take place
Remote Communication
- Delivered from distance
- Ex. E-mails, internet, videoconferencing
Advantage
there is no delay in sending the message to receiver, whenever they
are. So it can take place over large distances

Push vs. Pull Communication
- Message will be sent to specific receiver
- Ex. Letter - in college in Uni. Send a letter , it was for principle or
managing head not for teachers or student. So here the specific
receiver is principle or managing head.
Advantage
message will reach its target within an appropriate timeframe
Pull communication
- Made available to be enter at the receivers desire
- Ex. Internet, radio, TV broadcast
Advantage
it is less stressful for the receiver, and that very large quantities of
information can be made available at any time

Let’s see the example in Business,