CHAPTER TWO

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

Learning Objectives

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

- Describe elements of communication

- Describe barriers of communication
- Discuss the groups and teams, interpersonal communication and team work.
- Outline the phases of team development.

Chapter outline

2.1. Elements of Communication Process

2.2. Barriers of Communication
2.3. Interpersonal Communications and Team Work

Introduction

The purpose of this chapter is to offer you comprehensive information about the elements of
communication process, barriers of communication and teams and groups.
This chapter includes activities and self assessment questions. So you are kindly requested to do
the activities and self assessment questions in order to successfully achieve the learning
objectives of the chapter.
2.1. Elements of Communication Process

Communication is a process of sending and receiving verbal and nonverbal messages.

Communication is considered effective when it achieves the desired reaction or response from
the receiver. Communication is a two way process of exchanging ideas or information. Two-way
communication or feedback will help to know if the message is properly received. This feedback
tells the sender that the receiver understood the message, its level of importance, and what must
be done with it. Communication is an exchange, not just a give, as all parties must participate to
complete the information exchange.

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 Thought: First, information exists in the mind of the sender. This can be a concept, idea,
information, or feelings.

Encoding: Next, a message is sent to a receiver in words or other symbols.

Decoding: Lastly, the receiver translates the words or symbols into a concept or information that
he or she can understand.

To be an effective communicator and to get your point across without misunderstanding and
confusion, your goal should be to lessen the frequency of these problems at each stage of this
process with clear, concise, accurate, well-planned communications. We follow the process
through below:

The process of communication has six components: context, sender/encoder, message, medium,
receiver/decoder, and feedbacks.

Context

Every message, whether oral or written, begins with context. Context is a broad field that
includes country, culture, organization, and external and internal stimuli. Another aspect of
context is the external stimuli. Internal stimuli have effect on how you translate ideas into a
message. Your attitudes, opinions, emotions, past experiences, likes and dislikes, education, job
status and confidence in your communication skills, all influences the way you communicate
your ideas, especially important in your ability to analyze your receiver’s cultural,
viewpoint ,needs ,skills, status, metal ability, experience and expectation. You must consider all
these aspects of context in order to communicate a message effectively.

Sender / Encoder

While sending a message, you are the “encoder”, the writer or speaker, depending on whether
your message is written or oral you choose symbols—words, graphic, pictures—that express
your message so that the receiver(s) will understand and react as you desire. You decide which
symbols best convey your message and which message channel will be most effective among the
oral and written media (letter, memo, telephone, etc)

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 Message

The message is the main idea that you wish to communicate; it is of both verbal (written or
spoken) symbols and nonverbal (unspoken) symbols. First decide exactly what your message is.
Also consider the receiver of your message. You must also consider your context and your
receiver’s as well. How your receiver will interpret your message and how it may affect your
relationship.

Medium/Channel

It means the way by which a message is communicated. You can choose electronic mail, the
printed word or sound etc. The choice of medium is affected by the relationship between the
sender and the receiver. The urgency of a message can also be a factor in whether to use the
written or spoken medium. You may also consider factors such as importance, number of
receivers, costs and amount of information; you must also consider which medium is preferred in
the receiver’s culture. Based on research, the following describe some of the characteristics
found in oral and written communication.

Oral Communication

- The oral communication brings back immediate feedback

- It has a conversational nature with shorter words and sentences
- It stresses on interpersonal relations
- This medium needs less technical details
- Its sentence structures are simple

Written Communication

- This medium is more formal with focus on contents

- It can convey any amount of technical information
- It is best for permanent record
- This medium uses longer words and longer sentences
- It brings delayed feedback

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 Internal communication consists of sending messages inside your organization. External
communication consists of sending messages outside your organization.

For internal communication, written media may be:

- memos, reports, bulletins, job descriptions,

- posters, notes, employee manuals,
- electronic bulletin boards, even internal faxes

Oral communication may take the form of:

- staff meeting reports, face to face discussions,

- presentations, audio tapes, telephone chats,
- teleconferences, or videotapes

External written communication media may be:

- letters, reports, telegrams, cablegrams,

- mailgrams, faxes, telexes, postcards, contracts,
- ads, brochures, catalogs, news releases etc

Orally it may be:

- face to face discussions, telephone,

- or presentations in solo or panel situations

Receiver / Decoder

The receiver / decoder of your message is your reader or listener. He may be influenced by the
context and by the external and internal stimuli. The receiver like sender receives messages
through the eyes and ears but is also influenced by nonverbal factors such as physical
environment, physical appearance, body movements, voice quality, touch, taste, and smell. All
factors of a message are filtered through the receiver’s view and experience in the work.

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Therefore, miscommunication can occur when personal biases and individual values cause the
receiver to misinterpret the sender’s internal message.

Feedback

Feedback can be oral or written; it can also be an action, such as receiving in the mail or an item
you ordered. Sometimes silence is used as feedback, though it is not very useful. Senders need
feedback in order to determine the success or failure of the communication.

Figure 2.1 The Communication Process

Your audience will provide you with feedback, verbal and nonverbal reactions to your
communicated message. Pay close attention to this feedback as it is the only thing that allows
you to be confident 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.

Unfortunately, communication is affected by "Noise" which is anything - whether in the sender,

the transmission, or the receiver - that hinders communication. For example,
a) Understanding can be obstructed by prejudices;
b) Inaccurate reception may be caused by inattention;
c) Encoding may be faulty because of the use of ambiguous symbols. Etc.

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Activity: 1

Discuss the difference between content and context in the process of communication.

Activity: 2
List down the communication process elements and define them by giving specific examples
from an ideal business enterprise.

2.2. Barriers of Communication

The communication process usually operates with problem. The communication must
be interpreted & understood in the same way as it was meant to be a sent by the
sender, otherwise it will not achieve the desired result & communication breakdown
will occur. There are certain external road blocks to effective communication. In
addition there are personal factors such as prejudice, different frame of reference, and
state of mind, different experience and background which may cause problem in the
interpretation of the communication. The communication may be received in away the
receiver wants to receiver, depending up on the stimuli present, emotions or
prejudices for or against a concept or an ideology or personal conflicts between the
sender and the receiver, so that instead of interpreting the content of communication,
the intent of the sender may be interpreted. The communication must be interpreted
and understood in the same way as it was meant to be sent by the sender; otherwise it
will not achieve the desired result & a communication breakdown will actor. Some
researches agreed on the point that communication effectiveness is influenced by our
very natural tendency to judge to evaluate to approve or disapprove the statements of
other group. This evaluation tendency may alter the meaning f entire communication.
Accordingly management should not only attempt to eliminate all external barriers so
that the communication is clear & to the point, but also try to understand the
perceptions & the attitudes of the receiver. A manger has no greater responsibility
than to develop effective communications. A necessary first step to words developing

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effective communication is becoming aware of & understanding barriers that impede
organization communication

Some of the organizational & interpersonal barriers are the following.

1. Noise barrier
Noise is any external factor which interferes with the effectiveness of
communication. It may cause interference in the process of communication by
destruction or blocking a part of the message or by diluting the strength of the
message. Some of the sources contribution to words noise factors are:-

- Poor timing
The manager must know when to communicate. A manager that requires action
in a distant future may be forgotten by the time action is to be taken on the
other hand, time pressures can often lead to serious problems. Short circuiting
is a failure of the formally prescribed communication system from time
pressures. So the message must be sent to the right person on the right time.

- In appropriate channel
Poor choice of channel of communication can also be contributory to the
misunderstanding of the message. The manager must decide whether the
communication would be most effective if it is in writing or by a telephone call
or face to face conversation or a combination or these modes.

If the communications has been initiated through a telephone call, then it may
be necessary to confirm the message of the call in writing.

- The face to face communication strengthens the message as it is supported by

non-verbal communication.
- In proper or inadequate information/ over load.
The information should be meaningful to the employee. Information must be
precise & to point. Too little or too much information endangers effective
communication

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 - Ambiguity or use of words that can lend to different interpretations should be
avoided.

When information over load occurs individuals receive more information then
they are incapable of processing, Individuals may respond to information over
load in variety of ways such as.

- Failing to process or ignoring some information

- Processing the information incorrectly
- Searching for people to help process some of the information
- Lowering the quality of all information processed. All these shows us that all the
information is not decoded hence the organization communication should
implement a communication system that insure proper information flow to
these who need it & not to those who don't.
- Physical destruction
The manager must realize that in the case of face to face communication any
destruction can interfere with the process. Telephone interruptions, walk-in
visitors or attending to other matters or other disturbances should be avoided.

Organization structure

The organization structure should be such that the chain of command &
channel of communication are clearly established & the responsibility &
authority are clearly assigned & are traceable. Communication may be blocked
or distorted it the channels are not clear or if the messages are blocked or if
there are bottlenecks or dead ends

2. Interpersonal barriers
There are many interpersonal barriers that disrupt the effectiveness of the
communication process & generally involved such characteristics of either the
sender or the receiver that causes the communication problems

- Filtering:- Filtering refers to intentionally withholding or deliberately

manipulating information by the sender, either because the sender believes
that the receiver doesn't need all the information or that the receiver is better off

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 not knowing all aspects the given situation. It could also be the receiver is
simply told what he wants to hear.
Filtering is a common occurrence in upward communication in organizations. It
amounts to manipulating information so that the information is received as
positive by the receiver.

Subordinates cover up unfavorable information is messages to their superiors.

The reason for filtering is because management makes merit evaluations,
grants, salary increases, and promote individuals based on what it receives by
way of the upward channels

- Semantic barriers
Communication is the transmission of information & confirms understanding
through the use of common symbols. This barrier occurs due to d/c in
individual interpretations of words & symbols.

Actually we can't transmit understanding we can only transmit information in

the form of words, and symbols. Unfortunately the same word or symbols may
mean entirely different things to different people. The understanding is in the
receiver not in the words. Therefore managers must pay careful attention. To
how they describe both in verbal communication & in written communication
desired actions they want to see take place

- Perception
Perception relates to the process through which we receive & interprets
information from our environment * create a meaningful world out of it.

Different people may perceive the same situation differently Hearing what we
word to hear & ignoring information that conflicts with what we know can only
distort the content of the message. Thus, when people receive information, they
are apt to hear only those parts that confirm to or reaffirm their beliefs.
Information that conflicts with preconceived actions is either not processed or is
distorted to confirm our preconceptions.

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 Example A person may perceived women to be less efficient manager than men.
Punctuality alone or loyalty alone may cause a favorable perception in the mind
of the manager.

Therefore the management must realize & recognize these differences in

perception and take step to understand the environment.

A successful manager must be aware of the impact of factors that affects

perception by interacting with others where necessary so that events and
situations are interpreted as accurately and objectively as possible.

Hence management must realize & recognize these differences in perception &
take steps to understand the environment.

A successful manager must be aware of the impact of factors that affect

perception by interacting with others & show also possesses the necessary so
that events & situations are interpreted as accurately & objectively as possible.

-Cross-cultural diversity

Communication as an exchange of meaning is bounded by culture. Managers

need to understand that senders & receivers from different cultures may encode
and decode their message differently.

Example: Formation of circle with the thumb and index finger in the US mean
ok but it means you worth nothing in France.

-Multi meaning words

The very nature of our language constitutes a source of communication

breakdown .Example: respond to a message immediately, will not be exactly
understood because immediately may mean just as you receive with in a
minute or it may mean after a week or even more.

Many words in English language sound the same but have different meaning
such as right not left, right (privilege)

- Source credibility

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 It refers to the trust confidence, and faith that the receiver has in the words &
actions of the communicator. The level of credibility that the receiver assigns to
the sender directly affects haw the receiver viewers & reacts to words, ideas,
and actions of the communicator

-Poor listening

If the receiver has confidence trust and respect for the sender of the
communication, then the decoding and interpretation of the message will read
to a meaning that will read to a meaning that will be closed to the intended
meaning of the sender conversely. if the sender is not trusted the receiver will
scrutinize the message heavily & deliberately look for hidden meanings or tricks
& may end up with distorting the entire message. Similarly, if the source is
believed to be an expert in a particular field then the listener may pay close
attention to the message & believe it.

- Emotions
The same message received when receiver is angry, frustrated by depressed
may be interpreted different as compared to when he is happy, Extreme
emotions are most likely to hinder effectiveness communication b/c rational
judgment will be replaced by emotion The interpretation of the communication
also depend upon the state of mind of the receiver at the time when messaged is
received.

- Feedback barriers
The final source of communication process problems is the nature of the
feedback or lack of it. Feed back is the only way to ascertain as to haw the
message was interpreted.

Feedback may be for the purpose of communicating the results of an action or

it may be for asking questions about communication for further clarification.

The omission of feedback can cause another problem in that the sender may
have another message. Thus no feedback or a wrong feedback will create
problems with subsequent communication.

Status (different frame of reference)

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 Ex. When a plant manager announces that a budget increase is necessary for
the growth of the plant the general manager may have in mind the necessity of
new equipment & for personnel manager it may mean budget for salary & wage
for existing employees. This difference in understanding is resulted from d/t
frame of reference by associated the message with their responsibilities.

Activity: 3

List down some of the communication barriers that you encountered in your current
organization you are working for and the remedial taken to ensure effective communication
between the source and receiver of the message.

Guidelines to Overcome Barriers to Communication

To deliver your messages effectively, you must commit to breaking down the barriers that exist
in 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.
All personnel should be interested in overcoming barriers to effective work practices in an organization.

The following list outlines points to consider in relation to overcoming communication barriers.
- Feedback - enables communication to become a two way process with both the sender and the
receiver trying to achieve mutual understanding
- Consider the words used - long complicated sentences and unfamiliar words confuse people.
Communication should be clear, complete, concise, concrete, correct and courteous.
- Use repetition - repeating messages several time using different examples can help others to
understand the messages being sent

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- Use empathy - seeing a situation from another person's viewpoint and trying to understand others
opinions concerns and attitudes makes better communicators
- Timing - poor timing can result in messages not being received effectively
- Being positive rather than negative helps make communication more effective - what is wanted
not what isn't wanted
- Select the best location - talk somewhere that will encourage open communication not a noisy
shop floor or a busy office
- Listening reduces communication
- Check written communication for spelling errors and ensure the sentences are clear, concise
and not ambiguous.
Activity: 4
Can you think for a while about the corrective actions to barriers or draw backs of
communication from your own experience and list down them afterwards.

2.3 Interpersonal Communications and Team Work

Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication is also referred to as dynamic communication, or communication

between two individuals. This also means being able to handle different people in different
situations and making people feel at ease. Gestures such as eye contact, body movement, and
hand gestures are also part of interpersonal communication. The most common functions of
interpersonal communication are listening, talking and conflict resolution. Types of interpersonal
communication vary from verbal to non-verbal and from situation to situation. Interpersonal
communication involves face-to-face communication in a way that accomplishes the purpose and
is appropriate.

Small Group Communication

Small group communication is an interaction process that occurs among three or more people
interacting in an attempt to achieve commonly recognized goals either face-to-face or through
mediated forms. This is sometimes included in the interpersonal level- the most obvious
difference is the number of persons involved in the process. The small group may be a family of
three talking at supper, or a meeting of an organization with just a few members.

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Activity: 5
Discuss briefly the difference between interpersonal communication and small group
communication? Give some examples of the two types of communication.

Why Form Groups and Teams?

Businesses are constantly looking for ways to do jobs better at less cost. They are forming teams
for the following reasons:

 Better decisions. Decisions are generally more accurate and effective because group
members contribute different expertise and perspectives.
 Faster response. When action is necessary to respond to competition or to solve a
problem, small groups and teams can act rapidly.
 Increased productivity. Because they are often closer to the action and to the customer,
team members can see opportunities for improving efficiency.
 Greater buy-in. Decisions arrived at jointly are usually better received because members
are committed to the solution and are more willing to support it.
 Less resistance to change. People who have input into decisions are less hostile,
aggressive, and resistant to change.
 Improved employee morale. Personal satisfaction and job morale increase when teams
are successful.
 Reduced risks. Responsibility for a decision is diffused, thus carrying less risk for any
individual.
Four Phases of Team Development

Small groups and teams may be formed to complete single tasks or to function as permanent
ongoing bodies. Regardless of their purpose, successful teams normally go through predictable
phases as they develop. In this section we will discuss four phases of team development. You
will learn how team members can perform positively or negatively in achieving the group’s
goals. You will also study the role of conflict and how to apply a six-step plan for resolving
conflict.

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When groups are formed, they generally evolve through four phases, as identified by
psychologist B. A. Tuckman: forming, storming, norming, and performing. Some groups get
lucky and move quickly from forming to performing. But most struggle through disruptive,
although ultimately constructive, team-building stages.

 Forming. During the first stage, individuals get to know each other. They often are
overly polite and feel a bit awkward. As they search for similarities and attempt to bond, they
begin to develop trust in each other. Members discuss fundamental topics such as why the team
is necessary, who “owns” the team, whether membership is mandatory, how large the team
should be, and what talents members can contribute. A leader functions primarily as a traffic
director. Groups and teams should resist the efforts of some members to dash through the first
stages and race to the performing stage. Moving slowly through the stages is necessary to build a
cohesive, productive unit.
 Storming. During the second phase, members define their roles and responsibilities,
decide how to reach their goals, and iron out the rules governing how they interact.
Unfortunately, this stage often produces conflict, resulting in storming. A good leader, however,
should step in to set limits, control the chaos, and offer suggestions. The leader will be most
successful if she or he acts like a coach rather than a cop. Teams composed of dissimilar
personality types may take longer to progress through the storming phase. Tempers may flare,
sleep may be lost, leaders may be deposed. But most often the storm passes, and a cohesive
group emerges.
 Norming. Once the sun returns to the sky, teams and groups enter the norming stage.
Tension subsides, roles are clarified, and information begins to flow among members. The group
periodically checks its agenda to remind itself of its progress toward its goals. People are careful
not to shake the hard-won camaraderie and formation of a single-minded purpose. Formal
leadership is unnecessary because everyone takes on leadership functions. Important data are
shared with the entire group, and mutual interdependence becomes typical. The group or team
begins to move smoothly in one direction. Members make sure that procedures are in place to
resolve future conflicts.
 Performing. In Tuckman’s team growth model, some groups never reach the final stage
of performing. Problems that may cause them to fail are shown in Figure 2.1. For those that

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survive the first three phases, however, the final stage is gratifying. Group members have
established routines and a shared language. They develop loyalty and a willingness to resolve all
problems.

Activity: 6
What are the importance of forming groups and teams?

Activity: 7
Discuss briefly the difference among the different phases of team development.

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