Galaxy Global Group of Institutions, Ambala: Course-MBA Sem. - III
Galaxy Global Group of Institutions, Ambala: Course-MBA Sem. - III
MIGP
GALAXY GLOBAL GROUP OF INSTITUTIONS, Ambala
Course- MBA Sem. -III
Learning Objectives
Contents
➢ Introduction
➢ Definition
➢ Methods / Types
➢ Communication Channels
➢ Communication Model
➢ Review Questions
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INTRODUCTION
Communication is the glue that holds organization together. It is the way we share information,
ideas, goals, directions, expectations, feelings and emotions in the context of coordinated actions.
Communication is the process of sharing our ideas, thoughts, and feelings with other people and
having those ideas, thoughts, and feelings understood by the people we are talking with.When
we communicate we speak, listen, and observe. The way we communicate is a learned style. As
children we learn from watching our parents and other adults communicate. As an adult we can
learn to improve the way we communicate by observing others who communicate effectively,
learning new skills, and practicing those skills.
Communication is:
Interpersonal Communication
○ Focuses On All Aspects Of
○ Personal Interaction
○ Contact
Definition:
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Interpersonal communication is the process of sending and receiving information between two
or more peoples.
“Process by which people attempt to share meaning via the transmission of symbolic
messages.”
Thus, interpersonal communication is Process of sending and receiving symbols with attached
meanings.
Communication among individuals and groups is vital in all organizations and its objectives can
be stated differently in different settings. Some of the purposes of organizational communication
are listed in fig 3.1
i) Coordinated Action :
The primary purpose is to achieve coordinated action. Just as the human nervous system
responds to stimuli and coordinates responses by sending messages to the various parts of the
body communication coordinates the actions of the parts of an organization. Without
communication, an organization would be merely collection of individual workers attending to
separate tasks. Organizational actions would lack coordination and be oriented towards
individual rather than organizational goals.
– The most important information relates to organizational goals, which provides members
with a sense of purpose and direction.
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are and what they are not. Employees must also receive information on the results of their
efforts, as in performance appraisal.
i) Expression :
Thus, communication is involved in many activities of the organization. Above all, it is the
process through which individual and group activities and interactions are coordinated for the
improvement of organizational effectiveness.
Typically, organizations produce a great deal of written communication of many kinds. A letter
is a formal means of communicating with an individual, generally someone outside the
organization. Probably the most common form of written communication in organizations is the
office memorandum, or memos. Memos usually are addressed to a person or group inside the
organization. They tend to deal with a single topic and are more impersonal (as they often are
destined to more than one person) but less formal than letters.
Other most common form of written communication includes reports, manuals, and forms.
Reports generally summaries the progress or results of a project and often provide information to
be used in decision making. Manuals have various functions in organizations. Instruction
manuals tell employees how to operate machines; policy and procedures manuals inform them of
organizational rules; operations manuals describe how to perform tasks and respond to work-
related problems. Forms, such as performance appraisal form, are standardized documents on
which to report information
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Written Oral Nonverbal
Letters Information conversations Human Elements
Memos Facial Expression
Body Language
Reports Task-Related Exchanges Environmental Elements
Manuals Group Discussions Office design
Forms Formal Speeches Building Architecture
It is a type of communication done by using words. It can be both written and oral. It
includes letters, memorandums, e-mails, faxes, telephonic talks, etc.
The most prevalent form of organizational is oral. Oral communication takes place everywhere
– in informal conversations, in process of doing work, in meetings of groups and task forces,
and in informal speeches and presentations.
This form of communication is particularly powerful because it includes not only speaker’s
words but also their changes in tone, pitch, speed and volume. As listeners, people use all of
these cues to understand oral messages. Moreover, receivers interpret oral messages in the
context of previous communications and perhaps, the reactions of other receivers. Quite often
top management of the organization sets the tone for oral communication.
One particularly difficult situation occurs when an employee must give the boss some bad
news, such as when results do not meet expectations or goals, when plans go awry or when an
unforeseen event has occurred. Most experts believed that face-to-face communication works
best when giving bad news.
However, it may also be useful to include some form of written documentation to back up the
verbal message and to show some alternative ways to get the jam or work around the problem.
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Non-verbal communication includes all the elements associated with human communication
that are not expressed orally or in writing. Sometimes it conveys more meaning than words.
Human elements include facial expressions and physical movements conscious and non-
conscious. Facial expressions have been categorized as interest-excitement, enjoyment-joy,
surprise-startle, distress –anguish, fear-terror, shame-humiliation, contempt-disgust and anger
–range.
The eyes are the most expressive component of the face. Physical movements and “body
language” are also highly expressive human elements. Body language includes both actual
movement and body positions during communication. The handshake is a common form of
body language. Other examples include making eye contact that expresses a willingness to
communicate; sitting on the edge of a chair, which many indicate nervousness or anxiety , and
sitting back with arms folded, which may mean an unwillingness to continue the discussion.
Environmental elements such as buildings, office space, and furniture can also convey
messages. A spacious office, expensive draperies, plush carpeting and elegant furniture can
combine to remind employees or visitors that they are in the office of the President and CEO
of the firm. On the other hand, the small metal desk srt in the middle of the shop floor
accurately communicates the organizational rank of a first-line supervisor. Thus, office
arrangements convey status, power and prestige and create an atmosphere for doing business.
The physical setting can also be instrumental in the development of communication networks,
because a centrally located person can more easily control the flow of task-related
information.
INTERPERSONAL SKILLS
A set of behaviors’ which allow you to communicate effectively and unambiguously in a face-
to-face setting to assist progress towards achieving an objective
COMMUNICATION CHANNELS
1. Direct Channel:
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Using direct channel means that there is a face-to-face interaction between the sender and
receiver while communicating the message.
2. Indirect Channel:
Using indirect channel means that there is not a face-to-face interaction between the sender and
receiver and a device like telephone or computer is used while communication.
To compose effective written or oral message, sender has to apply certain communication
principles. These principles provide guidelines for choice of content and style of presentation
called the seven Cs.
1. Completeness:
Completeness means that the message contains all the information and facts needed by
the receiver to provide the desired feed-back to the sender.
2. Conciseness:
Conciseness is the principle to express a message in the fewest words without sacrificing
other Cs’ qualities.
3. Consideration:
Consideration means to prepare the message while considering your self in the position
of reader/listener.
4. Courtesy:
Courtesy means “politeness, civility, affability and socially accepted manners”. In simple
words, it means to show respect.
5. Concreteness:
Concreteness principle means that a message should contain solid based information.
6. Clarity:
Clarity simply means that the words used in the message should be clear and simple.
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7. Correctness:
This principle states that the information of message should be correct and message
should be according to the rules of language in which it is conveyed.
COMMUNICATION MODEL:
The communication process is a simple model that demonstrates all the factors that can affect
communication. Communication is effective if the message that is received is the same one that
is sent.
To be an effective communicator and to get your point across without misunderstanding and
confusion, your goal should be to lessen the frequency of problems at each stage of this process,
with clear, concise, accurate, well-planned communications. We follow the process through
below:
Source...
As the source of the message, you need to be clear about why you're communicating, and what
you want to communicate. You also need to be confident that the information you're
communicating is useful and accurate.
Message...
This is the process of transferring the information you want to communicate into a form that can
be sent and correctly decoded at the other end. The success in encoding depends partly on
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person’s ability to convey information clearly and simply, but also on person’s ability to
anticipate and eliminate sources of confusion (for example, cultural issues, mistaken
assumptions, and missing information.)
A key part of this is knowing your audience: Failure to understand who you are communicating
with will result in delivering messages that are misunderstood.
Channel...
Messages are conveyed through channels, with verbal channels including face-to-face meetings,
telephone and videoconferencing; and written channels including letters, emails, memos and
reports.
Different channels have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, it's not particularly
effective to give a long list of directions verbally, while you'll quickly cause problems if you
give someone negative feedback using email.
Decoding...
Just as successful encoding is a skill, so is successful decoding (involving, for example, taking
the time to read a message carefully, or listen actively to it.) Just as confusion can arise from
errors in encoding, it can also arise from decoding errors. This is particularly the case if the
decoder doesn't have enough knowledge to understand the message.
Receiver...
Your message is delivered to individual members of your audience. No doubt, you have in mind
the actions or reactions you hope your message will get from this audience. Keep in mind,
though, that each of these individuals enters into the communication process with ideas and
feelings that will undoubtedly influence their understanding of your message, and their response.
To be a successful communicator, you should consider these before delivering your message,
and act appropriately.
Feedback...
Your audience will provide you with feedback, as verbal and nonverbal reactions to your
communicated message. Pay close attention to this feedback, as it is the only thing that can give
you confidence that your audience has understood your message. If you find that there has been a
misunderstanding, at least you have the opportunity to send the message a second time.
Context...
The situation in which your message is delivered is the context. This may include the
surrounding environment or broader culture (corporate culture, international cultures, and so on).
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Removing Barriers at All These Stages
To deliver your messages effectively, you must commit to breaking down the barriers that exist
within each of these stages of the communication process.
Let’s begin with the message itself. If your message is too lengthy, disorganized, or contains
errors, you can expect the message to be misunderstood and misinterpreted. Use of poor verbal
and body language can also confuse the message.
Barriers in context tend to stem from senders offering too much information too fast. When in
doubt here, less is oftentimes more. It is best to be mindful of the demands on other people’s
time, especially in today’s ultra-busy society.
Once you understand this, you need to work to understand your audience’s culture, making sure
you can converse and deliver your message to people of different backgrounds and cultures
within your own organization, in your country and even abroad.
Keeping your stakeholders regularly informed is a critical activity for any team. Whether it's
through status reports, regular meetings or informal email, you can ensure that the right
messages are distributed about the progress of your project. This will help your project team and
external stakeholders to remain focused on delivery and to provide you with all of the support
you need to deliver your project successfully.
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Gaining Information:
One reason we engage in interpersonal communication is so that we can gain knowledge about
another individual. Social Penetration Theory says that we attempt to gain information about
others so that we can interact with them more effectively. We can better predict how they will
think, feel, and act if we know who they are. We gain this information passively, by observing
them; actively, by having others engage them; or interactively, by engaging them ourselves.
Establishing Identity:
Interpersonal Needs:
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• Control is the need to exercise leadership and prove one's abilities. Groups provide
outlets for this need. Some individuals do not want to be a leader. For them, groups
provide the necessary control over aspects of their lives.
• Affection is the need to develop relationships with people. Groups are an excellent way
to make friends and establish relationships.
– The greater the uncertainty regarding the tasks of a work group, the more information the
group needs to operate effectively and efficiently. In other words, when the task
uncertainty is high, the information processing of the individual or group responsible for
the task must be correspondingly high to reduce the uncertainty.
– Changing customer demands, likes and dislikes represent increasing uncertainty to which
the organization must respond with more innovative products and services. The need for
a response or for more coordinated action among interdependent units requires managers
to process more information, make decisions and communicate them to other
organization members.
1. Emotions:
Extreme emotions are most likely to hinder against effective communication because the ideal or
message maybe misinterpreted.
2. Filtering:
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This is where the sender manipulates the information that he communicates to the receiver. The
purpose of this is because sometimes people would shape and reform the message so that it
appears and sounds favorable to the receiver.
Too much information about the same subject matter may be confusing. Normally, the human
brain can only take in so much information to process, overloading it with information will
exceed our human processing capacity and the receiver would often misunderstand or not
understand at all what the sender is telling them.
4. Defensiveness:
Defensiveness normally consists of attacking what the sender tells you, putting out sarcastic
remarks, questioning their motives or being overly judgmental about the subject matter.
5. Cultural Difference:
Sometimes our culture may be a huge hinder for effective interpersonal communication. When
two people with different cultures communicate, they often do not understand each other's
cultures and may misunderstand the true meaning of what each other are trying to convey
through such a sense.
6. Jargon:
Not everyone understands each other's jargon words. Jargon should be avoided especially when
talking to someone who isn't familiar with you personally or within your organization
Communication should be always done in the language which is understandable by the receiver.
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• Skills: The message should be conveyed skillfully so that it becomes understandable
properly by the receiver.
• Attitudes: The preexisting ideas (attitudes) of the sender directly affect the message he
or she conveys and also the receiver of the message.
3. Knowledge of the Sender: The amount of knowledge the sender has about the subject will
also affect as we can't communicate what we don't know and if knowledge of sender is too
extensive, it's possible that his or her message is not understood by the receiver.
4. Socio-Cultural System: The beliefs and values (part of culture) act to influence what and
how the sender communicates.
3. USE FEED-BACK:
There will be no use of doing the communication if the person intended to receive the message
doesn't receives the message. To avoid this type problem, confidential messages should be orally
or personally conveyed.
“You” approach should be used instead of “I” or “we” approach while delivering the message.
The sender should focus on how message will benefit receivers, what will they receive, and what
they want or need to know.
Message should be first planed by the sender before delivering it so that it can be organized in a
proper form. A disorganized message might leave no impact on receiver of the message while
doing interpersonal communication.
7. MAINTAIN EYE-CONTACT:
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Eye-contact should be kept during direct conversation which should be clear, acceptable and
social. Speakers who stare off into space or keep their eyes glued to their feet do not inspire
much attention or confidence.
Body language refers to gestures, facial expressions and other body movements that convey
meaning. Non-verbal language accounts for 93% of the message while actual word accounts for
7% only. Body language of sender should be up to that mark that is acceptable be the receiver.
Tone of the voice of the sender should show respect for the receiver. It shouldn’t show anger in
any case. A level, well-modulated conversational tone is persuasive without being intimidating.
The tone, inflection, volume and fluency, all matter a great deal to have a successful
interpersonal communication.
1. Effective communication skills can enable managers to draw on the vast array of talents
available in the multinational world of organization.
-As managers encounter customs and expressions and meanings that probably seem very
foreign, they might be tempted to shy away and avoid trying to communicate .That can be a
major missed opportunity.
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3. Managerial time is spent largely in face-to-face, electronic /telephonic communication with
employees, supervisors, suppliers or customers. Other ways are writing, dictating, memos,
letters, and reports.
Experts have described four factors that influence the effectiveness of organizational
communication:
3. Job specialization
4. Information Ownership
First, the formal channels cover an ever widening distance as organizations develop and grow.
For example, effective communication is usually far more difficult to achieve in a large retail
organization with widely dispersed branches than in a small department store.
Second, the formal channels of communication can inhibit the free flow of information between
organizational levels. An assembly line worker, for example, will often communicate problems
to a supervisor rather than to the plant manager. While this accepted restriction in the channels of
communication has its advantage such as keeping higher level managers from getting bogged
down in information, it also has its disadvantages such as sometimes keeping higher level
managers from receiving information they should have.
The Duke Power Company, based in Charlotte, North Carolina uses an electronic newspaper,
Power News, as a formal channel of communication to keep employees informed on industry
news and trends. As an electronic innovation, it cuts down on the paper flow and communicates
messages about environmental issues in addition to industry updates, future developments, and
employee concerns. The computer based information is presented in a variety of forms, including
videotaped interview, graphics, still pictures, text, and animation.
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At Lantech Inc., a $50 million manufacturer of packaging machinery, a “group leader” report
serves as a formal channel of communication. Each report, prepared by one of the company’s top
six managers, helps to promote effective internal communications by offering a complete picture
of company morale, climate, and communication. Founder Pat Lancaster credits this five minute
form with improving company lines of communication and reducing departmental turf battles.
2. Authority Structure:
The organization’s authority structure has a similar influence on communications effectiveness.
Status and power differences in the organization help determine who will communicate
comfortably with whom. The content and accuracy of the communication will also be affected
by authority differences. For example, conversation between a company president and a clerical
worker may well be characterized by somewhat strained politeness and formally.
3. Job specialization:
4. Information Ownership:
The term information ownership means that individuals possess unique information and
knowledge about their jobs. For example, a dark room employee may have found a particularly
efficient way to develop photo prints. A department head may have a particularly effective way
of handling conflict among employees. And a salesperson may know who the key decision
makers are in his or her major account. Such information is a form of power for the individuals
who possess it. They are able to function more effectively than their peers. Many individuals
with such skills and knowledge are unwilling to share this information with others. As a result,
completely open communication within the organization does not take place. Still, ownership
can be shared.
COMMUNICATION NETWORKS
need to do their jobs and coordinate their work with that of others in the system. Over a long
period, these communication relationships become a sophisticated social system composed of
both small –group communication network. These networks serve to structure both the flow and
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the content of communication and to support the organizational structure. The pattern and
content of communication also support the culture, beliefs, and value systems that enable the
organization to operate.
Wheel Network:
• Communication flowing between a clearly identifiable and strong leader and others in
the work group or team.
• There is no horizontal communication.
• Problem solving is the major drawback.
• High accuracy and fast.
• Member satisfaction is low.
• High emergence of leadership
Chain Network:
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Members communicate with people next to them in sequence.
Circle Network:
Members communicate with others close to them in terms of expertise, office location, etc
Found in teams, with high levels of communications between each member and all others
Inverted V:
• One can communicate to his/her superior and superiors superior.
• It has moderate speed
• Accuracy is moderate
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Review Questions:
Q1. “Managerial functions cannot be carried out without an efficient system of communication.”
Do you agree with the statement? Give any three reasons in support of your answer.
i) Noise
ii) Feedback
Q5. Explain briefly the barriers of communication. What are the essentials of effective
communication?
Q6. What do you mean by ‘Communication Networks’? Discuss its various types.
Book Reference:
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Web Reference:
http://www.shrmindia.org/managing-organizational-communication
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Organizational_communication
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30150972/Organizational-Communication-Network
http://www.scribd.com/doc/23740181/communication-network-of-an-organization
http://www.scribd.com/doc/30150972/Organizational-Communication-Network
http://www.communicationandconflict.com/interpersonal-communication.html
http://www.mindtools.com/CommSkll/CommunicationIntro.htm
http://www.suite101.com/content/communication-model-a58125
http://www.method123.com/communication-process.php
Elements of the Communication Process: The Journey of a Message and Ways to Reduce
Interference http://www.suite101.com/content/communication-model-
a58125#ixzz0xDnUNsX4
http://www.citeman.com/4951-factors-influencing-organizational-communication/
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