PROJECT WORK

ON

PAST AND PRESENT MEANS AND MODES

OF
COMMUNICATION
IN AN ORGANISATION

1
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Particulars Page no.

1. Acknowledgement 3
2. Declaration 4
3. Introduction
4.

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I acknowledge the inspiration and untiring efforts of our faculty Mr.

___________________________, Institute of Management Sciences,
regarding this project work. I also acknowledge the motivating stances of
my dear classmates whose quotes kept me boosted to get this work
completed.

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 DECLARATION
I hereby declare that this project work done on the subject “Past and
Present means and Modes of Communication” is an original piece of work
and is authentic. All the facts and figures used in this project are taken
from authentic books or reliable web-sites.

INTRODUCTION TO COMMUNICATION
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In this project I have tried to elaborate the term communication by means of
research work from latest updates from the reliable and authentic web-sites.

Communication is a process whereby information is enclosed in a package and is

channelled and imparted by a sender to a receiver via some medium. The receiver
then decodes the message and gives the sender a feedback. All forms of
communication require a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, however
the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at
the time of communication in order for the act of communication to occur.
Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative
commonality. There are auditory means, such as speech, song, and tone of voice,
and there are nonverbal means, such as body language, sign language,
paralanguage, touch, eye contact, through media, i.e., pictures, graphics and sound,
and writing.

There are a great many different modes of communication, which include speech,
writing, communication in person or communication at a distance by means of
radio, telephone, television, telegraph, etc.; there are many different languages
which can be used, including sign language which is non-verbal. It is possible to
communicate by dance, by pantomime, or by other forms of gesturing.

Communication is thus a process by which meaning is assigned and conveyed in an

attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of
skills in interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning,
analyzing, gestures and evaluating. It is through communication that collaboration
and cooperation occur. There are also many common barriers to successful
communication, two of which are message overload (when a person receives too
many messages at the same time), and message complexity. Communication is a
continuous process. The psychology of media communications is an emerging area
of increasing attention and study.

Over time, technology has progressed and has created new forms of and ideas about
communication. The newer advances include media and communications
psychology. Media psychology is an emerging field of study. These technological
advances revolutionized the processes of communication. Researchers have divided
how communication was transformed into three revolutionary stages:
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In the 1st Information Communication Revolution, the first written communication
began, with pictographs. These writings were made on stone, which were too heavy
to transfer. During this era, written communication was not mobile, but nonetheless
existed.

In the 2nd Information Communication Revolution, writing began to appear on paper,

papyrus, clay, wax, etc. Common alphabets were introduced, allowing the uniformity
of language across large distances. Much later the Gutenberg printing-press was
invented. Gutenberg created this printing-press after a long period of time in the 15th
century.

In the 3rd Information Communication Revolution, information can now be

transferred via controlled waves and electronic signals.

Communication is thus a process by which meaning is assigned and conveyed in an

attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of
skills in interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning,
analyzing, gestures and evaluating. It is through communication that collaboration
and cooperation occur.

There are also many common barriers to successful communication, two of which are
message overload (when a person receives too many messages at the same time),
and message complexity. Communication is a continuous process. The psychology
of media communications is an emerging area of increasing attention and study.

Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols

(sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are
manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of
languages. Language learning is normal in human childhood. Most human languages
use patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication with
others around them. There are thousands of human languages, and these seem to
share certain properties, even though many shared properties have exceptions.

Communication in organizations encompasses all the means, both formal and

informal, by which information is passed up, down, and across the network of
managers and employees in a business.

OBJECTIVE

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Communication has become an important part of organizational information
processing. Without proper Communication system it is impossible to achieve
smooth processing . Communication can shorter period of the time efficiently.
Communication based information system can help people by freshen them from
many tedious Communication information system and also help people by freeing
them from many tedious and offer erroneous calculation. Some reasons for using
Communication based information are:-

1. Accuracy and improved consistency.

2. Speed of Communication

3. Quick retrieval of Communication /information.

The Project of “Communication” is to be so built that it provides complete

functionally as well as perfectly user friendly environment. Since the Communication
is to be used by the housing , organization department employee who do not have
much working knowledge in the functionality of Communication, therefore care has
to be taken in designing the interface that provides for a full Communication User
Interface (CUI) together with exhaustive data validations.

PURPOSE
The main purpose of Communication is :-

1. New modules can be easily added to this project.

2. To perform some task better or more accurately than previous.

3. To save time and effort for the person who is currently performing the
Communication task.

4. To provide a better service to customers , or any one else affected by the new
Communication system.

5. To make Communication system systematic.

6. To create user friendly Communication system.

HISTORY

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The history of communication dates back to the earliest signs of life.
Communication can range from very subtle processes of exchange, to full
conversions and mass communication. Human communication was revolutionized
with speech perhaps 200,000 years ago. Symbols were developed about 30,000
years ago, and writing about 7,000. On a much shorter scale, there have been major
developments in the field of telecommunication in the past few centuries.

There is no formal history of business communication systems. It has existed in some

form since the first business owner hired the first employees and issued the first
instructions. Those instructions were the first official "employee communications,"
an action taken by management to make sure the employee knew what management
expected of him or her. Once the business owner hired enough employees to create a
staff, they reacted to those management mandates by creating the first form of
informal company communications, "the grapevine."

This informal grapevine between and among top management, middle management,
line management, and employees has always been, and no doubt always will be, part
of the process of doing business.

Speech greatly facilitated the transmission of information and knowledge to further

generations. Experiences passed on through speech became increasingly rich, and
allowed humans to adapt themselves to new environments - or adapt the
environments to themselves - much more quickly than was possible before; in effect,
biological human evolution was overtaken by technological progress and socio-
cultural evolution . Speech meant easier coordination and cooperation, technological
progress and development of complex, abstract concepts such as religion or science.
Speech placed humans at the top of the food chain, and facilitated human
colonization of the entire planet.

The imperfection of speech, which nonetheless allowed easier dissemination of ideas

and stimulated inventions, eventually resulted in the creation of new forms of
communications, improving both the range at which people could communicate and
the longevity of the information. All of those inventions were based on the key
concept of the symbol: a conventional representation of a concept.

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION

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Human communication
Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols
(sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are
manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of
languages. Language learning is normal in human childhood. Most human languages
use patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication with
others around them. There are thousands of human languages, and these seem to
share certain properties, even though many shared properties have exceptions.

There is no defined line between a language and a dialect, but the linguist Max
Weinreich is credited as saying that "a language is a dialect with an army and a
navy". Constructed languages such as Esperanto, programming languages, and
various mathematical formalisms are not necessarily restricted to the properties
shared by human languages.

Bernard Luskin, UCLA, 1970, advanced computer assisted instruction and began to
connect media and psychology into what is now the field of media psychology. In
1998, the American Association of Psychology, Media Psychology Division 46 Task
Force report on psychology and new technologies combined media and
communication as pictures, graphics and sound increasingly dominate modern
communication.

Nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication is the process of communicating through sending and

receiving wordless messages. Such messages can be communicated through gesture,
body language or posture; facial expression and eye contact, object communication
such as clothing, hairstyles or even architecture, or symbols and infographics, as well
as through an aggregate of the above, such as behavioral communication. Nonverbal
communication plays a key role in every person's day to day life, from employment
to romantic engagements.

Speech may also contain nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, including voice
quality, emotion and speaking style, as well as prosodic features such as rhythm,
intonation and stress. Likewise, written texts have nonverbal elements such as
handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, or the use of emoticons. A
portmanteau of the English words emotion (or emote) and icon, an emoticon is a

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symbol or combination of symbols, such as :), used to convey emotional content in
written or message form.

Other communication channels such as telegraphy fit into this category, whereby
signals travel from person to person by an alternative means. These signals can in
themselves be representative of words, objects or merely be state projections. Trials
have shown that humans can communicate directly in this way[3] without body
language, voice tonality or words.

Categories and Features

G. W. Porter divides non-verbal communication into four broad categories:

 Physical. This is the personal type of communication. It includes facial

expressions, tone of voice, sense of touch, sense of smell, and body motions.

 Aesthetic. This is the type of communication that takes place through creative
expressions: playing instrumental music, dancing, painting and sculpturing.

 Signs. This is the mechanical type of communication, which includes the use
of signal flags, the 21-gun salute, horns, and sirens.

 Symbolic. This is the type of communication that makes use of religious,

status, or ego-building symbols.

Static Features

 Distance. The distance one stands from another frequently conveys a non-
verbal message. In some cultures it is a sign of attraction, while in others it
may reflect status or the intensity of the exchange.

 Orientation. People may present themselves in various ways: face-to-face,

side-to-side, or even back-to-back. For example, cooperating people are likely
to sit side-by-side while competitors frequently face one another.

 Posture. Obviously one can be lying down, seated, or standing. These are not
the elements of posture that convey messages. Are we slouched or erect ?

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 Are our legs crossed or our arms folded ? Such postures convey a degree of
formality and the degree of relaxation in the communication exchange.

 Physical Contact. Shaking hands, touching, holding, embracing, pushing, or

patting on the back all convey messages. They reflect an element of intimacy
or a feeling of (or lack of) attraction.

Dynamic Features

 Facial Expressions. A smile, frown, raised eyebrow, yawn, and sneer all
convey information. Facial expressions continually change during interaction
and are monitored constantly by the recipient. There is evidence that the
meaning of these expressions may be similar across cultures.

 Gestures. One of the most frequently observed, but least understood, cues is
a hand movement. Most people use hand movements regularly when talking.
While some gestures (e.g., a clenched fist) have universal meanings, most of
the others are individually learned and idiosyncratic.

 Looking. A major feature of social communication is eye contact. It can

convey emotion, signal when to talk or finish, or aversion. The frequency of
contact may suggest either interest or boredom.

Visual communication

Visual communication is communication through visual aid. It is the conveyance of

ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon. Primarily associated
with two dimensional images, it includes: signs, typography, drawing, graphic design,
illustration, colour and electronic resources. It solely relies on vision. It is form of
communication with visual effect. It explores the idea that a visual message with text
has a greater power to inform, educate or persuade a person. It is communication by
presenting information through visual form.

The evaluation of a good visual design is based on measuring comprehension by the

audience, not on aesthetic or artistic preference. There are no universally agreed-upon
principles of beauty and ugliness. There exists a variety of ways to present
information visually, like gestures, body languages, video and TV. Here, focus is on
the presentation of text, pictures, diagrams, photos, et cetera, integrated on a
computer display.

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 COMMUNICATIONS AS A FUNCTION OF MANAGEMENT
During corporate America's early history, which stretches back little more than 150
years, American management operated as strict "top down" communications
companies. Whatever the majority of the company's owners said was the law. If the
company had a senior management committee, strategies for doing everything from
selling product to dealing with employees would be discussed behind closed doors.
Once those decisions were made by managers, lower levels of management were
asked to put those decisions into effect. Employees had little input. They did as they
were told or found work elsewhere.

Such management attitudes, particularly when they applied to worker safety issues in
such places as coal mines and steel mills, led to the growth of labor unions. If nothing
else, unions had the power in many cases to slow or shut down production until
management at least listened to demands.In reaction to union demands, corporations
eventually set up communication systems where rank-and-file members could speak
their minds through union representatives. While forced to create the systems by
unions, corporate managers have realized over the past 20-30 years that employees
are not the mindless drones that the managers of the early part of this century
believed them to be. When presented the opportunity to help the company solve
problems, many employees have jumped at the chance. This is called "bottom-up"
communication.

Most corporations now encourage employees to take an active part in their company.
Employees who notice ways to improve production lines are encouraged, and usually
rewarded, for passing those ideas on to managers. Employees who submit ideas that
withstand intense study can be rewarded with a percentage of the company's savings.
Employees who are harassed on the job are strongly encouraged to report such
harassment as far up the chain of management as necessary to stop it. Regular
employee meetings are held where the lowest level employee can stand up and ask
the CEO a direct question with the full expectation that a direct answer will be
offered in return. Top management also has a method of monitoring how the
company is running while meeting employees and managers halfway. Sometimes
called "management by walking around," this method of communication and
management calls for top managers to get out and see what is happening at the level
where work is done. Instead of reading reports from subordinates, the CEO visits the
factories or service centres, observes line managers' employees on the job.

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 FORMS OF CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS
Although the content of corporate communications within the organization has
remained fairly constant through the years, technology has improved the way
management and employees keep in touch with each other.

Almost all companies of any size have some regular method of keeping in touch with
employees through bulletin boards, newsletters, or magazines. Larger, more
technically proficient and geographically dispersed companies may also use
corporate-produced television shows or copy-only messages transmitted by closed
circuit television. Some companies distribute electronic mail newsletters or messages,
which can be instantly transmitted and placed in all the computers wired into the
company's network.

These forms of communications always get the approval of top management. Many
newsletters, magazines, and television shows leave no doubt about this by including a
"message from the president" column near the front of the publication.

Bulletin boards are the oldest form of corporate communications. In the early days of
businesses, bulletin boards were frequently the only communication that management
might have with employees. Everything from longer-hours demands to the
announcement of new plant openings would be announced on the boards. Today,
bulletin boards are not always found in businesses. Some companies use them for
nothing more important than posting legal requirements such as wage and hour rates.
Other companies try to make bulletin boards a force for employee recognition and
information. The challenge all companies have with bulletin boards is that they fade
in the consciousness of employees who get used to seeing them every day. Unless the
boards' information is changed regularly and presented in an attractive way,
employees can ignore it.

Newsletters and magazines try to address the inability of management to speak to

each employee. Written communication explains management policies, announces
new products, answers questions, and provides each employee with a reminder of
what the company is all about. The downside of written communication is that it is a
slow and cumbersome process. In other cases, the editorial content of such
newsletters might not be aligned with any corporate objectives, and thereby may
convey confused or irrelevant messages.

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That is one of the reasons why closed-circuit, satellite, and videotape-based programs
have become popular with some corporations. Employees are used to watching
television. Some corporations have spent millions of dollars in developing a
television presence that would be difficult to distinguish from the quality produced by
regular television networks, an approach that can quickly grab the attention of
employees. Television is also immediate. A CEO who has to make an emergency
announcement to employees can do so within minutes' notice, while a newsletter or
magazine takes weeks to produce.

The latest and fastest growing method of corporate communications is e-mail. E-mail
is instantaneous and is available to anyone with a computer terminal. An employee
who has a great idea, but who is afraid a superior may take credit for it, can send the
CEO a message on the corporation's computer system. There is no guarantee that the
CEO has not set up a program to filter out such E-mail messages from employees, but
most report that they have not. Some corporations even encourage their computer-
literate customers to e-mail comments and complaints directly to the people at the
top. The downside, of course, is that e-mail, particularly in group distributions, can be
misused for personal or trivial matters, tying up network resources and causing
employees to ignore messages that aren't personally directed to them.

Memos and reports are the life blood of many corporations. They frequently are the
only way some business gets done. The boss either approves or disapproves
something based on what a sheaf of memos and stack of reports recommend. Live
presentations are sometimes conducted to put life in what the reports have concluded.

The key to making memos and reports effective is to make them both readable and
pertinent to the entire company. A memo from the head of accounting outlining
procedure changes may be useless to the CEO who has a marketing background
unless the memo plainly spells out why accounting changes will improve the
company's operations.

Bureaucratic language, pompous phrasing, technical jargon, departmental protection,

and incorrect conclusions all contribute to unclear communication within the
corporation. One management book author estimates that up to 70 percent of business
communications between managers misses the mark.

Informal methods of communication, such as rumors and the company "grapevine,"

can be out of the company's control. The grapevine is a bottom-up form of
communication, in which employees try to understand what is happening around
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them when there is no official word from management. When management is silent,
employees fill the void with verbal guesses about what is happening. It may start
when the graveyard shift's loading-dock workers are laid off because better
production scheduling eliminates their jobs. The second shift loaders may interpret
the loss of that shift's jobs as an economic signal that the company is in trouble. A
telephone receptionist who fields calls for senior managers from competitors might
conclude that the company is negotiating to buy out, or be bought out. She passes the
word that something big is up. Junior managers who notice out-of-town consultants
nosing around may smell "restructuring" in the wind.

There is no way the grapevine can be stopped. It can only be influenced. When
dealing with questions that cannot, or should not, be answered, senior managers
should take the initiative before negative rumors get started. If it is true and obvious
to employees that the company will soon undergo major changes, management
should be as forthright as possible as quickly as possible. In any event, management
should never lie or threaten people to stop the rumors. The most respectful and
effective approach is to tell the employees that management recognizes they have
legitimate concerns, which will be addressed when possible. If official talk would
damage the company, employees should be told as much.

EXPECTATIONS AND PERCEPTIONS

Old school managers of employees sometimes do not believe that employees can
contribute anything useful to the operation of a company other than their
unquestioning labor. These managers separate "management" from "employees" with
the idea that managers will tell employees what to do. They don't want any
questioning or backtalk. Employees, operating from the same circumstances, usually
see little stake for themselves in a company in which they are not personally
involved.

SELECTIVITY

Most people pick and choose what they actually retain when someone is talking. Any
number of factors can cause this, ranging from the respect a person has for the
speaker to what the speaker is saying and how it relates to what the employee is
doing. For example, line employees might not pay too much attention to a hated
supervisor who stands up in a general meeting to address quality problems of
components that are delivered to the line.

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 BABILIOGRAPHY
1.David, Werner. Managing Company-Wide Communicaton. London: Chapman & Hall, 1995.

2.Johnson, J. David. Organizational Communication Structure. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Publishing,

1993.

3.Poertner, Shirley, and Karen Massetti Miller. The Art of Giving and Receiving Feedback. Amer
Media, 1996

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 REFFERENCES AND WEB-SITES
1. www.wikipedia.com

2. www.answers.com

3. www.enotes.com

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