CHAPTER 6

FUNCTIONS OF COMMUNICATION

Communication
- is a way where people can inform, generate awareness, educate, persuade, motivate, entertain, and among others.
It is a process of exchanging messages, ideas, facts, opinions, or feelings. Through language, people get to
communicate and they communicate for different purposes.
- Communication serves five major functions within a group or organization.
These functions consist of the following:
• INFORMATION FUNCTION
- Provides individuals or groups, the details needed to make decisions or participate in
an activity. Use to give and get information.
• MOTIVATION FUNCTION
- Communication is a means used to encourage commitment to organizational
objectives. It is used to inspire or incline other people to continue an aspiration or
achieve a dream or goal.
• REGULATION/CONTROL FUNCTION
- Communication clarifies duties, authority, and responsibilities, thereby permitting
control. Controls an individual, a small group, or a large audience’s course of action in
the form of request, order, command, laws, or rules.
• EMOTIVE FUNCTION
- Communication permits the expression of feelings and the satisfaction of social
needs.
- Workers are human beings and they have a need to express their feelings one way or
another.
• SOCIAL INTERACTION
- Communication used to socialize and interact with other people. This is used to develop
bonds, intimacy, and relations and express preferences, desires, needs, wants,
decisions, goals, and strengths.

Basic Goals of Effective Communication

- To achieve effective communication, both the sender and the receiver must be sensitively involved, but the
sender must take responsibility for achieving the four basic goals of communication:
• To achieve receiver response
• To develop receiver understanding
• To foster favorable relationship
• To gain organizational goodwill

Barriers to Communication
- Communication barriers hinder understanding and conveyance of ideas, thoughts, or information,
impeding effective communication.

Types of communication barriers

• Filtering
- refers to the manipulation of information so that it will be seen more favorably by the
receiver.
• Selective Perception
- describes how individuals tend to interpret information in a way that aligns with their own needs,
experiences, background, and personal characteristics, which can lead to biased or selective
interpretation of messages.
 • Information Overload
- refers to the condition in which information inflow exceeds an individual’s processing activity. When
this happens, the person is no longer able to understand clearly whatever information is sent to him.
• Emotions/Emotional Disconnects
- the receiver’s feelings affect his ability to understand any message sent to him. He cannot receive a
message as clearly as when he is not angry, excited, or afraid.
• Language
- words do not always mean the same thing to different people or they might not mean anything to
another person. This poses a barrier to communication.
▪ Jargon - refers to the use of specialized or technical language not easily understood by all
parties involved in a conversation.
▪ Slang - refers to the use of informal and often non-standard words or phrases that are

• Lack of Credibility of the Sender

- refers to situations where the person delivering a message is not seen as trustworthy, reliable, or
honest by the receiver.
▪ Workplace gossip - gossip and spreading negative rumors at work can damage a person's
credibility, leading to a communication barrier where others may doubt or not trust their
messages.

Kinds of Communication Flow

In an organization, communication flows in 5 main directions

Downward Lateral/ External

Upward Flow of Diagonal
Flow of Horizontal Communication
Communication Communication
Communication Communication

➢ Communication ➢ Communication ➢ Communication that ➢ Communication ➢ Communication that

that flows from a that flows to a takes place at the same that takes place takes place between a
higher level in an higher level in an levels between a manager and external
organization to a of hierarchy in an manager and groups such as -
organization.
lower level organization. employees of other suppliers, vendors,
➢ The subordinates ➢ Communication
➢ Communication workgroups. banks, financial
use upward between peers,
from superiors to institutes etc.
communication between
subordinates in a ➢ For instance - To raise
to convey their managers at same
chain of capital the Managing
problems and levels or between any director would interact
command. performances to horizontally equivalent with the Bank Manager.
their superiors. organizational member.

Improving Communication in Organization

• Provide the right tools • Facilitate frequent feedback

• Be open and transparent • Organize team-building activities
• Listen to what employees have to say