Communication Concept
Communication represents one of the most important tools that the leaders have at their disposal to perform their influencing of tasks. Its significance is such that some authors consider it as the “blood” that brings life to the organization. This importance is essentially due to the fact that only through an effective communication is possible:
- Establish and make known, with the participation of members from all organizations’ hierarchy levels, the organizational goals as long as they behold not only the organizations’ interests, but also all its members’ interests.
- Define and make known, with the participation of members from all organizations’ hierarchy levels, the organizational structures, whether at the organizational design level, whether at the authority distribution level, responsibility and tasks.
- Define and make known, with the participation of members from all organizations’ hierarchy levels, decisions, plans, policies, procedures and rules accepted and respected by all organization members.
- Coordinate, support and control the activities of all organization members.
- Perform the integration of the different departments and allow the interdepartmental help and cooperation.
- Efficiently fulfill the influencing role through comprehension and performance in conformity with the people’s needs and feelings satisfaction as a way to raise their motivation.
Communication Process Elements
To understand and develop efficient communication policies it’s necessary to analyze before each one of the elements that are part of the communication process. So, make part of the communication process the transmitter, a transmission channel, generally influenced by noises, a receiver and still the receiver’s feedback.
- Transmitter (or communications’ message source): represents who thinks, encodes and sends the message, being, who initiates the communication process. The message encoding can be made transforming the thought that one wants to transmit into words, gestures or symbols that are comprehensible by who receives the message.
- Message transmission channel: make the connection between the transmitter and the receiver and represents the way through which the message is transmitted. There is a wide variety of transmission channels, each one of them with advantages and inconvenient: stand out the air (in the case of the transmitter and receptor be front to front), the telephone, the electronic and computer ways, the memos, radio, television, among others.
- Message receptor: represents who receives and decodes the message. Here it’s necessary to have in attention that the encoding of the message results in what effectively the transmitter wanted to send (for example, in different cultures, the same gesture can have different meanings). Can exist only one or numerous receptors for the same message.
- Noises: represent obstructions more or less intense to the communication process and can occur in any one of its phases. Internal noises are dominated if they occur during the encoding or decoding phases and external if they occur in the transmission channel. Obviously these noises vary depending on the type of transmission channel used and depending on the transmitters and receptors’ characteristics, being, for that, one of the criteria used in the choice of the transmission channel and the encoding type.
- Feedback: represents the answer of the message from the receptor to the transmitter and can be used as a measure of the communication result. Can be or not transmitted by the same transmission channel.
Written Communication versus Oral Communication
Even though there are numerous types of communication, they can be grouped in verbal and non verbal communication. As non verbal communication we can consider the gestures, sounds, mimics, facial expression, images, among others. Is frequently used in places where the noise or the situation hinders the oral or written communication like for example the communications between dealers on the stock exchanges. It’s also used a lot as support and assistance to oral communication.
As to the verbal communication, that includes the written and verbal communication, for being the most used in general society and in particular in the organizations, can be the only one which allows the transmission of complex ideas and for being an exclusive of the human species, is the one that has deserved more attention from the investigators, characterizing it and studying it when and how it should be used.
Written communication:
Written communication had its peak, and still prevails today, in bureaucratic organizations that follow the principles of Bureaucracy Theory stated by Max Weber. Its main characteristic is the fact that the receptor be absent making it, therefore, a permanent monologue of the transmitter. This characteristic forces to some care from the transmitter, namely with the facto f becoming impossible or at least difficult the correction and the new explanations for better comprehension after its transmission.
So, the main care to have in order that the message be perfectly received and understood by the receptors are the use of uniform and legible calligraphy (if handwritten), a careful presentation, correct punctuation and spelling, logic organization of ideas, wealthy lexical and phrase breaking correction. The transmitter should also have a perfect knowledge of the themes and should try to predict the reactions / feedback to his message.
As main advantages of written communication, we can highlight the fact of being long lasting, allows a registration and grants a bigger attention of the message to the organization being, therefore, suitable to transmit policies, procedures, standards and rules. Also suits to long messages and that require a bigger attention and time from the receptor such as reports and several analyses. As main disadvantages stand out the already referred absence of the receptor which disables the immediate feedback, doesn’t allow corrections or additional explanations and compels the exclusive use of verbal language.
Oral Communication:
In the case of oral communication, its main characteristic is the presence of the receptor (excluding, obviously, oral communication that uses television, radio or recordings). This characteristic explains several of its main advantages, namely the fact that allows an immediate feedback, grants the immediate transition from the receptor to the transmitter and vice versa, allows the use of non verbal communication such as gestures, mimic and tone, for example, ease the corrections and additional explanations, allow to observe the receptor’s reactions, and still the great speed of transmission. However, and in order that these advantages be seized it’s necessary the themes’ knowledge, explicitness, presence and spontaneous, pleasant voice and good utterance, safety and self control, and still the availability to listen.
As main disadvantages of oral communication stands out the fact of being fleeting, not allowing any registration and, consequently, being inadequate to long messages and that require a careful analyses from the receptor.
Communications Directional Streams
Communications streams in the organizations can be divided in vertical communication (ascendant and descendant) and in lateral or horizontal communication.
Vertical Communication:
Descendant vertical communication consists on a type of communication that begins in the top management and flows in the way of the hierarchy base of the organization. This kind of information consists, generally, in information, communication and instructions related with the organizational goals, policies, rules and regulations and with the present situation of the organization. This kind of communication prevails essentially in organizations where the subordinates’ level of participation is low.
As to the ascendant vertical communication, consists generally in reports sent to the superiors about the situation of a certain department or project, clarifications’ requests, suggestions and complaints, searches reports, among others, depending on the degree of participation and democracy in the decisions. The main problem that can affect the ascendant vertical communication is the lack of objectivity or even untruth in the reports handed to the superiors, especially when the facts are negative.
Lateral or Horizontal Communication:
Lateral or Horizontal Communication consist in the communication between members of different departments, between members of a certain interdepartmental work group, between members of different work groups or between the line agencies and staff. A kind of lateral communication is the informal communication which can cross any organizational level and in any direction, not depending from the standards and rules established by the formal organization.
