Communication in Business
Communication in Business
IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION
Success of any business lies in effective communication. The more effective the communication is, the better the results are. Communication is effective when it produces desired action in the reader or audience. Effective communication is essential for the survival and progress of a business concern.
The ability to communicate effectively is an essential quality of a businessman. A person may be intelligent but he may not be able to get his message across to others. Ideas are generally common but the ability to convey them to others is rare.
A successful communicator exercises a good effect on the minds of his readers, employees, supervisors, customers, suppliers, investors and business associates. They form a good impression of the company and the communicator. He builds the goodwill of the company he represents. Goodwill of a person or company attracts customers and wins friends. Therefore, the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing is an asset for the communicator. Through successful correspondence, he leads his business to success. He writes to the people demonstrate his ability or lack of it.
A successful communicator is able to run the affairs of a business house. He can plan well and control the working of his organization. He has the skill to transfer his policies, decisions, objectives and job instructions to the persons working with him at all levels. So this skill is quite essential for a businessman to perform his managerial functions.
Communication is life blood of a business organization. No organization can succeed or progress, build up reputation, and win friends and customers without effective communication skills
In fact successful communication is the bed rock of ground and pleasant relationship between the seniors and sub ordinates, between the workers and the management, between the customers and the sellers good and efficient system of communication helps in better coordination and efficient control. It results in clear understanding, good production, healthy climate within the organization willing cooperation among the various levels, if businessman can communicate effectively and successfully. Profit and prosperity shall knock at the doors of firm, organization or shop keeper through effective system of communication.
Poor and ineffective communication system may result in mismanagement, bad business and sure show down. Communication can build or destroy trust depending or use of words. A poorly worded message or talk may result in communication break down. On the other hand planned and well meant communication helps in better service, removes misunderstanding and doubts; builds up good will, promotes business and earns favorable references. It is the key to success in business and trade. A good businessman believes in the saying, 'take care of communication and success shall take care of itself.'
Lifeblood of an Organization Communication is the lifeblood of an organization. If we could somehow remove communication flows from an organization, we would not have an organization.
It is needed for: • Exchanging information • Exchanging options • Making plans and proposals • Reaching agreement • Executing decisions • Sending and fulfilling orders • Conducting sales
When communication stops, organized activity ceases to exist. Individual uncoordinated activity returns in an organization. So, Communication in an organization, is as vital as blood for life.
Communication
“Any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that person’s needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, it may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or non-linguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes.”
Communication is the exchange of ideas, opinions and information through written or spoken words, symbols or actions. Communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. In fact, communication is more concerned with a dual listening process. For communication to be effective, the message must mean the same thing to both the sender and the receiver.
Business Communication
“Business Communication is the means by which information is shared; activities are coordinated in the organization with the objective of enhancing decision-making.”
In business communication, message is conveyed through various channels of communication including internet, print (publications), radio, television, outdoor, and word of mouth.
Historical Background
Thousands years ago, people use to communicate orally. Greeks use a phonetic alphabet written from left to right. After that, many books appeared on written communication principles. In a result of this, Greek started her very first library. When communism was ruling China, communication had become the biggest challenge within the vast government as well as between government and people. 1st in China and then in Rome postal service was launched. After that paper and printing press was invented in china that made communication easier.
Hence, today’s principles of communications are founded on a mixture of ancient oral and written traditions.
Types of Business Communication
Internal communication
External Communication
Internal Communication
Communication within an organization is called “Internal Communication”. It includes all communication within an organization. It may be informal or a formal function or department providing communication in various forms to employees. Effective internal communication is a vital mean of addressing organizational concerns. Good communication may help to increase job satisfaction, safety, productivity, and profits and decrease grievances and turnover.
Under Internal Business Communication types there come;
a) Upward Communication
b) Downward Communication
c) Horizontal/Literal communication
a) Upward Communication Upward communication is the flow of information from subordinates to superiors, or from employees to management. Without upward communication, management works in a vacuum, not knowing if messages have been received properly, or if other problems exist in the organization.
By definition, communication is a two-way affair. Yet for effective two-way organizational communication to occur, it must begin from the bottom.
Upward Communication is a mean for staff to: o Exchange information o Offer ideas o Express enthusiasm o Achieve job satisfaction o Provide feedback [pic]
b) Downward Communication Information flowing from the top of the organizational management hierarchy and telling people in the organization what is important (mission) and what is valued (policies). Downward communication generally provides enabling information – which allows a subordinate to do something.
e.g.: Instructions on how to do a task.
Downward communication comes after upward communications have been successfully established. This type of communication is needed in an organization to: ➢ Transmit vital information ➢ Give instructions ➢ Encourage 2-way discussion ➢ Announce decisions ➢ Seek cooperation ➢ Provide motivation ➢ Boost morale ➢ Increase efficiency ➢ Obtain feedback Both Downward & Upward Communications are collectively called “Vertical Communication”
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c) Horizontal/Literal communication Horizontal communication normally involves coordinating information, and allows people with the same or similar rank in an organization to cooperate or collaborate. Communication among employees at the same level is crucial for the accomplishment of work. Horizontal Communication is essential for: ➢ Solving problems ➢ Accomplishing tasks ➢ Improving teamwork ➢ Building goodwill ➢ Boosting efficiency [pic]
External Communication
Communication with people outside the company is called “external communication”. Supervisors communicate with sources outside the organization, such as vendors and customers. It leads to better; o Sales volume o Public credibility o Operational efficiency o Company profits It should improve o Overall performance o Public goodwill o Corporate image Ultimately, it helps to achieve o Organizational goals o Customer satisfaction [pic]
COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS: Organizational communication is a subfield of the larger discipline of communication studies. Organizational communication, as a field, is the consideration, analysis, and criticism of the role of communication in organizational contexts.
History of Organizational Communication
The field traces its lineage through business information, business communication, and early mass communication studies published in the 1930s through the 1950s. Until then, organizational communication as a discipline consisted of a few professors within speech departments who had a particular interest in speaking and writing in business settings. The current field is well established with its own theories and empirical concerns distinct from other communication subfields and other approaches to organizations.
Several seminal publications stand out as works broadening the scope and recognizing the importance of communication in the organizing process, and in using the term "organizational communication". Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon wrote in 1947 about "organization communications systems", saying communication is "absolutely essential to organizations".
In the 1950s, organizational communication focused largely on the role of communication in improving organizational life and organizational output. In the 1980s, the field turned away from a business-oriented approach to communication and became concerned more with the constitutive role of communication in organizing. In the 1990s, critical theory influence on the field was felt as organizational communication scholars focused more on communication's possibilities to oppress and liberate organizational members.
Assumptions underlying early organizational communication
Some of the main assumptions underlying much of the early organizational communication research were:
▪ Humans act rationally. Sane people do not behave in rational ways, they generally have no access to all of the information needed to make rational decisions they could articulate, and therefore will make unrational decisions, unless there is some breakdown in the communication process-- which is common. Unrational people rationalize how they will rationalize their communication measures whether or not it is rational. ▪ Formal logic and empirically verifiable data ought to be the foundation upon which any theory should rest. All we really need to understand communication in organizations is (a) observable and replicable behaviors that can be transformed into variables by some form of measurement, and (b) formally replicable syllogisms that can extend theory from observed data to other groups and settings ▪ Communication is primarily a mechanical process, in which a message is constructed and encoded by a sender, transmitted through some channel, then received and decoded by a receiver. Distortion, represented as any differences between the original and the received messages, can and ought to be identified and reduced or eliminated. ▪ Organizations are mechanical things, in which the parts (including employees functioning in defined roles) are interchangeable. What works in one organization will work in another similar organization. Individual differences can be minimized or even eliminated with careful management techniques. ▪ Organizations function as a container within which communication takes place. Any differences in form or function of communication between that occurring in an organization and in another setting can be identified and studied as factors affecting the communicative activity.
Communications networks
Networks are another aspect of direction and flow of communication. Bavelas has shown that communication patterns, or networks, influence groups in several important ways. Communication networks may affect the group's completion of the assigned task on time, the position of the de facto leader in the group, or they may affect the group members' satisfaction from occupying certain positions in the network. Although these findings are based on laboratory experiments, they have important implications for the dynamics of communication in formal organizations.
There are several patterns of communication:
▪ "Chain", ▪ "Wheel", ▪ "Star", ▪ "All-Channel" network, ▪ "Circle".
The Chain can readily be seen to represent the hierarchical pattern that characterizes strictly formal information flow, "from the top down," in military and some types of business organizations. The Wheel can be compared with a typical autocratic organization, meaning one-man rule and limited employee participation. The Star is similar to the basic formal structure of many organizations. The All-Channel network, which is an elaboration of Bavelas's Circle used by Guetzkow, is analogous to the free-flow of communication in a group that encourages all of its members to become involved in group decision processes. The All-Channel network may also be compared to some of the informal communication networks.
If it's assumed that messages may move in both directions between stations in the networks, it is easy to see that some individuals occupy key positions with regard to the number of messages they handle and the degree to which they exercise control over the flow of information. For example, the person represented by the central dot in the "Star" handles all messages in the group. In contrast, individuals who occupy stations at the edges of the pattern handle fewer messages and have little or no control over the flow of information. These "peripheral" individuals can communicate with only one or two other persons and must depend entirely on others to relay their messages if they wish to extend their range.
In reporting the results of experiments involving the Circle, Wheel, and Star configurations, Bavelas came to the following tentative conclusions. In patterns with positions located centrally, such as the Wheel and the Star, an organization quickly develops around the people occupying these central positions. In such patterns, the organization is more stable and errors in performance are lower than in patterns having a lower degree of centrality, such as the Circle. However, he also found that the morale of members in high centrality patterns is relatively low. Bavelas speculated that this lower morale could, in the long run, lower the accuracy and speed of such networks.
In problem solving requiring the pooling of data and judgments, or "insight," Bavelas suggested that the ability to evaluate partial results, to look at alternatives, and to restructure problems fell off rapidly when one person was able to assume a more central (that is, more controlling) position in the information flow. For example, insight into a problem requiring change would be less in the Wheel and the Star than in the Circle or the Chain because of the "bottlenecking" effect of data control by central members.
It may be concluded from these laboratory results that the structure of communications within an organization will have a significant influence on the accuracy of decisions, the speed with which they can be reached, and the satisfaction of the people involved. Consequently, in networks in which the responsibility for initiating and passing along messages is shared more evenly among the members, the better the group's morale in the long run.
Direction of communication
If it's considered formal communications as they occur in traditional military organizations, messages have a "one-way" directional characteristic. In the military organization, the formal communication proceeds from superior to subordinate, and its content is presumably clear because it originates at a higher level of expertise and experience. Military communications also carry the additional assumption that the superior is responsible for making his communication clear and understandable to his subordinates. This type of organization assumes that there is little need for two-way exchanges between organizational levels except as they are initiated by a higher level. Because messages from superiors are considered to be more important than those from subordinates, the implicit rule is that communication channels, except for prescribed information flows, should not be cluttered by messages from subordinates but should remain open and free for messages moving down the chain of command. "Juniors should be seen and not heard," is still an unwritten, if not explicit, law of military protocol.
Vestiges of one-way flows of communication still exist in many formal organizations outside the military, and for many of the same reasons as described above. Although management recognizes that prescribed information must flow both downward and upward, managers may not always be convinced that two-wayness should be encouraged. For example, to what extent is a subordinate free to communicate to his superior that he understands or does not understand a message? Is it possible for him to question the superior, ask for clarification, suggest modifications to instructions he has received, or transmit unsolicited messages to his superior, which are not prescribed by the rules? To what extent does the one-way rule of direction affect the efficiency of communication in the organization, in addition to the morale and motivation of subordinates?
These are not merely procedural matters but include questions about the organizational climate, pr psychological atmosphere in which communication takes place. Harold Leavitt has suggested a simple experiment that helps answer some of these questions. А group is assigned the task of re-creating on paper a set of rectangular figures, first as they are described by the leader under one-way conditions, and second as they are described by the leader under two-way conditions.(A different configuration of rectangles is used in the second trial.) In the one-way trial, the leader's back is turned to the group. He describes the rectangles as he sees them. No one in the group is allowed to ask questions and no one may indicate by any audible or visible sign his understanding or his frustration as he attempts to follow the leader's directions. In the two-way trial, the leader faces the group. In this case, the group may ask for clarifications on his description of the rectangles and he can not only see but also can feel and respond to the emotional reactions of group members as they try to re-create his instructions on paper.
On the basis of a number of experimental trials similar to the one described above, Leavitt formed these conclusions:
1. One-way communication is faster than two-way communication. 2. Two-way communication is more accurate than one-way communication. 3. Receivers are surer of themselves and make more correct judgments of how right or wrong they are in the two-way system. 4. The sender feels psychologically under attack in the two-way system, because his receivers pick up his mistakes and oversights and point them out to him. 5. The two-way method is relatively noisier and looks more disorderly. The one-way method, on the other hand, appears neat and efficient to an outside observer.[3]
Thus, if speed is necessary, if a businesslike appearance is important, if a manager does not want his mistakes recognized, and if he wants to protect his power, then one-way communication seems preferable. In contrast, if the manager wants to get his message across, or if he is concerned about his receivers' feeling that they are participating and are making a contribution, the two-way system is better.
Interpersonal communication
Another facet of communication in the organization is the process of face-to-face, interpersonal communication, between individuals. Such communication may take several forms. Messages may be verbal (that is, expressed in words), or they may not involve words at all but consist of gestures, facial expressions, and certain postures ("body language"). Nonverbal messages may even stem from silence.
Managers do not need answers to operate a successful business; they need questions. Answers can come from anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world thanks to the benefits of all the electronic communication tools at our disposal. This has turned the real job of management into determining what it is the business needs to know, along with the who/what/where/when and how of learning it. To effectively solve problems, seize opportunities, and achieve objectives, questions need to be asked by managers—these are the people responsible for the operation of the enterprise as a whole.
Ideally, the meanings sent are the meanings received. This is most often the case when the messages concern something that can be verified objectively. For example, "This piece of pipe fits the threads on the coupling." In this case, the receiver of the message can check the sender's words by actual trial, if necessary. However, when the sender's words describe a feeling or an opinion about something that cannot be checked objectively, meanings can be very unclear. "This work is too hard" or "Watergate was politically justified" are examples of opinions or feelings that cannot be verified. Thus they are subject to interpretation and hence to distorted meanings. The receiver's background of experience and learning may differ enough from that of the sender to cause significantly different perceptions and evaluations of the topic under discussion. As we shall see later, such differences form a basic barrier to communication.
Nonverbal content always accompanies the verbal content of messages. This is reasonably clear in the case of face-to-face communication. As Virginia Satir has pointed out, people cannot help but communicate symbolically (for example, through their clothing or possessions) or through some form of body language. In messages that are conveyed by the telephone, a messenger, or a letter, the situation or context in which the message is sent becomes part of its non-verbal content. For example, if the company has been losing money, and in a letter to the production division, the front office orders a reorganization of the shipping and receiving departments, this could be construed to mean that some people were going to lose their jobs — unless it were made explicitly clear that this would not occur.
A number of variables influence the effectiveness of communication. Some are found in the environment in which communication takes place, some in the personalities of the sender and the receiver, and some in the relationship that exists between sender and receiver. These different variables suggest some of the difficulties of communicating with understanding between two people. The sender wants to formulate an idea and communicate it to the receiver. This desire to communicate may arise from his thoughts or feelings or it may have been triggered by something in the environment. The communication may also be influenced or distorted by the relationship between the sender and the receiver, such as status differences, a staff-line relationship, or a learner-teacher relationship.
Whatever its origin, information travels through a series of filters - both in the sender and in the receiver - before the idea can be transmitted and re-created in the receiver's mind. Physical capacities to see, hear, smell, taste and touch vary between people, so that the image of reality may be distorted even before the mind goes to work. In addition to physical or sense filters, cognitive filters, or the way in which an individual's mind interprets the world around him, will influence his assumptions and feelings. These filters will determine what the sender of a message says, how he says it, and with what purpose. Filters are present also in the receiver, creating a double complexity that once led Robert Louis Stevenson to say that human communication is "doubly relative". It takes one person to say something and another to decide what he said.
Physical and cognitive, including semantic filters (which decide the meaning of words) combine to form a part of our memory system that helps us respond to reality. In this sense, March and Simon compare a person to a data processing system. Behavior results from an interaction between a person's internal state and environmental stimuli. What we have learned through past experience becomes an inventory, or data bank, consisting of values or goals, sets of expectations and preconceptions about the consequences of acting one way or another, and a variety of possible ways of responding to the situation. This memory system determines what things we will notice and respond to in the environment. At the same time, stimuli in the environment help to determine what parts of the memory system will be activated. Hence, the memory and the environment form an interactive system that causes our behavior. As this interactive system responds to new experiences, new learnings occur which feed back into memory and gradually change its content. This process is how people adapt to a changing world.[7]
Communication Approaches in an Organization
Informal and Formal Communication are used in an organization.
Informal communication, generally associated with interpersonal, horizontal communication, was primarily seen as a potential hindrance to effective organizational performance. This is no longer the case. Informal communication has become more important to ensuring the effective conduct of work in modern organizations.
Top-down approach: This is also known as downward communication. This approach is used by the Top Level Management to communicate to the lower levels. This is used to implement policies, guidelines, etc. In this type of organizational communication, distortion of the actual information occurs. This could be made effective by feedbacks.
PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION: DIFFERENT STAGES
Communications Skills – The Importance of Removing Barriers
Stages of the communication consists of the sender, encoding, the channel, decoding, the receiver, feedback and the context. At each stage, there is the potential for misunderstanding and confusion.
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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...
The message is the information that you want to communicate.
Encoding...
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. Your success in encoding depends partly on your ability to convey information clearly and simply, but also on your ability to anticipate and eliminate sources of confusion (for example, cultural issues, mistaken assumptions, and missing information.)
A key part of this is to know 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 the 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).
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.
ORAL COMMUNICATION According to a 2005 study published in the Journal of Employment Counseling, oral communication skills are being increasingly sought after by employers. When surveying over 100 successful businesses, researchers found that more and more employers are emphasizing the development of good speaking skills in their employees. With this in mind, the concept of oral communication is an important idea to study and understand in the context of business.
1. Presentations
One form of oral communication in a business setting is a presentation. Presentations are usually an organized conveyance of information to a group of people. Stylistically, they tend to be far more formal than informal, and rely more heavily on data and facts than they do analysis. Presentations are sometimes more persuasive in nature, like a pitch for an ad campaign, but tend to be informative more often, such as an employee briefing or a report on quarterly earnings. Presentations may include some dialog after the sender of the message has finished their speech, but they are, by and large, much more monologue reliant. This makes it important for the speaker to anticipate possible objections to the message and address them in the actual speech.
Client Interaction
Another form of oral communication in business encompasses interaction with clients. Depending on the level of connection between the employee and the client, the communication in these interactions can range from incredibly formal to informal and casual. These interactions usually include a combination of data and analysis, and will be more persuasive than informative in nature, as the employee is trying to encourage continued and expanded business with the client. Because of the nature of these interactions, the communication is definitely a dialog, making listening skills incredibly important.
Interoffice Interaction
Oral communication in the office can be referred to as interoffice interaction. This is comprised of conversations with superiors, subordinates and co-workers. Depending on the levels of power separation between the individuals engaging in conversation, the communication will fluctuate between formal and informal, though it should always remain professional. Conversations in this context may reference data, but will be much more analysis heavy, and will be a dialog by nature.
Benefits
Oral communication in business provides a variety of benefits. First, oral communication is accompanied by nonverbal signifiers, which provides context that can enhance understanding in the communication process. Posture, facial expressions, and habitual movements may provide clues as to an individuals feelings about the ideas being discussed. Even in telephone conversations, pitch, rate, volume and tone of the respective speakers can help in understanding sentiments.
Oral communication also provides a springboard for relational development. Unlike with email, memos and chat functions, which tend to take a task-oriented approach to communication, the immediacy involved in oral communication allows for instant feedback and a more relational approach. This is important, as strong relationships in business often lead to more profitable and productive cooperation.
Limitations
While oral communication can provide a lot of benefits in a business setting, there are limitations to its utility. Initially, oral communication usually takes a lot more time than written communication to complete, as oral communication's relational nature can blur the focus of a conversation. In a world where time is often equated with money, oral communication can be construed as inefficient.
Moreover, the capability of individuals to effectively communicate orally varies greatly. Some individuals are classified as a 'people person,' and have no problem engaging in oral communication effectively. For others, the task is far more difficult. The pairing of people on these opposite ends of the spectrum can lead to frustration and an overall lack of productivity.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Business Communication involves exchange of information within an organizational setup. It is a continuous process. The more the business expands, the greater is the pressure on the business to find more effective means of communication both with the employees and with the society at large. Business communication is both written as well as oral. But written communication is very important aspect of business communication. It is important to fix accountability and responsibility of people in organization. This requires more of written communication (much of paper work). Everything should be communicated in written by the manager to the people in the organization. Written messages can be saved for future references and cannot be denied.
Business Communication is a permanent means of communication and is much easier understanding then oral means of communication. Good written communication contributes to success of an organization. It helps in building goodwill of an organization. Written business communication includes - letters, memoranda, agenda, manuals, reports etc.
1. Business Letters: It must have a good appealing layout. The content of the letter should be clear in mind of the writer. The letter must be divided into paragraphs. It must have subject written and should be enclosed in an envelope. It should be surely used for future reference. It should be carefully written as it has an impact on goodwill of the organization. Examples of Business letters are - sales letters, information letters, problem letters etc.
2. Memoranda: Memos are generally short means of written communication within an organization. They are used to convey specific information to the people within an organization.
3. Reports: A report is prepared after lot of investigation. Whatever observations are made, an account of them is written in the report. Reports are important for analyzing the performance of the organization. It helps in taking important decisions within an organization.
4. Agenda: Agenda is an outline about all the contents of the meeting. It tells what is the purpose of the meeting and where are the participants heading. While designing an agenda one should be very specific. Designing an agenda beforehand helps the people to come prepared for the meeting.
DIFFRENCE BETWEEN WRITTEN AND ORAL COMMUNICATION
Even though some of the following differences may seem obvious at first glance, it is important to be aware of them. If you should use the language in the incorrect way for a certain form of discourse, the effects could be devastating to the message you are trying to communicate.
Formality
Usually, written language has a higher level of formality than the oral language. Most likely because only the most educated people could write a few centuries ago. This encouraged a competition between them to see who could write the most formal texts, to show off their skills and level in society. Even though almost everyone in the Western World is today capable of writing and reading, this mentality is, unfortunately, to some extent still present. However, nothing directly connects written language with formality and oral language with informality.
One can have formal speeches or presentations (i.e. Alan Greenspan’s economic report), and informal writings (i.e. e-mails, SMS, memos). There is also a formal to informal continuum. Things are not just formal or informal; they should rather be placed within different levels of formality. Usually there is a range of words with the same meaning, although with different levels of formality. One example would be; domicile-home-house-dig-crib. The words are basically referring to the same concept, but the levels of formality are quite different. Worth noticing is the fact that the neutral words (in the centre of the continuum), are the ones which the majority of texts and speech use. The extremities, on the other hand, are only known by a small group of people, and seem ridiculous to use within a setting of the opposite formality level.
Even different cultures and ethnic groups do not agree on what is formal and informal. In Norway, the use of first names is common, and an expression like Herr. Hansen (English equivalent: Mr. Hansen) is old fashioned, seems excessive and is located at the very end of the formality continuum. In Britain however, Mr. Hansen is an almost neutral and required expression, when referring to a male who is not a close friend or relative.
Contractions and abbreviations
To keep an oral presentation flowing, it is important to use easily pronounceable sentences. Shortcuts such as saying it’s in place of it is are therefore made. Written texts, on the other hand, are not concerned with the pronunciation of the sentence, so contractions should be avoided. Oral speech tends to use less short abbreviations such as a/c, etc and i.e., since it is harder to pronounce these abbreviations, without spelling them, than the words which they are abbreviating. Written texts, however, use them to shorten words which are used with a high frequency in normal language. This makes the text faster to read, as someone who encounters these abbreviations instantly knows what they mean. Abbreviations of longer words, on the other hand, tend to be used the other way around. They are used to speed up speech, such as exchanging as soon as possible with its acronym ASAP. In written texts, however, they are often spelled out to make sure the reader knows what the writer is trying to communicate. This reflects the fact of which the sender does not get direct feedback when things are unclear in a written form of discourse.
Sentence composition
There is a difference in the sentence complexity between written and oral forms of discourse. In formal written texts, longer and more difficult sentences tend to be used, because people can re-read the difficult parts if they should lose track. In addition, the writer has the option to write and rewrite sentences in order to make them more sophisticated and formal. In oral speech, however, there is a need to make sure that everyone is with you.
Reading should also be a faster discipline, and does not require breathing as speech does. Should some of the more complex sentences from the written form of discourse have been read out loud, it would have taken forever, and a shortage of breath would probably have occurred quite soon.
It has already been stated, that oral speech contains far less complex sentences than written texts. This could be taken even a step further, as oral forms of discourse often use sentences that are incomplete in a grammatical sense. This concept is usually referred to as ellipsis by linguists. In an oral presentation, for instance, sentences such as looking forward to hearing from you, which would be a poorly written sentence, could be used. The previous sentence encourages us to ask; who was looking forward to hearing? The reason is quite simple; there is a lack of a subject. In oral speech, however, this is allowed and commonly in use because of the context. It is obvious that the speaker is the subject. Even one word sentences such as OK and Right are in frequent use. Oral sentences may also begin with conjunctions such as and, or and but, which in writing is regarded as a bad habit.
Active and passive constructions
There is a distinction between active sentences such as; The boy picked up the bucket and passive sentences such as; The bucket was picked up by the boy. The first structure is typically informal, the latter formal, hence also used by respectively oral and written language to a large extent. The meanings of the two forms are almost the same, but different objects are emphasized. In certain languages, such as Norwegian, intonation could be used to control which object is emphasized when speaking as well, accordingly adjusting the meaning of the passive and active constructions.
Vocabulary
The size of the vocabulary in use is one of the most noticeable differences between an oral and written form of discourse. Written language uses synonyms instead of repeating the same word over and over again. This is, however, not as important in oral language. Especially adjectives and adverbs are hardly reused in written texts, compared to the frequent use of words like very, extremely and nice in speech.
The explanation is quite obvious. The sender of an oral speech needs to ensure that the receiver understands almost every word, in order to grasp the information communicated. In written texts, on the other hand, the reader can quite easily look up words he does not understand. As a sender you may also have more time to come up with more exciting words in a writing situation, compared to an oral presentation where the word that first comes to mind has to be used, in order to avoid awkward pauses.
The level of difficulty in pronunciation may also affect the words chosen. Oral languages tend to use words of fewer syllables. This is because polysyllabic words are generally harder to pronounce than to read. This fact contributes to the limitation of the vocabulary in use, as synonyms of the most regular words generally have more syllables than the word itself. This is especially true for adjectives and adverbs, which unfortunately are the same words that tend to be used with a high frequency. In addition, words rarely in use might be problematic to articulate, as they are unfamiliar.
Repetitions
An oral speech often contains more repetitions to emphasize important points. A presentation should usually start with an introduction to what is going to be communicated. The message should then be repeated in the main part of the presentation and incorporated in to the summary or ending, to make sure the audience has apprehended it.
This, however, is not a good strategy in formal written discourse. You are instead encouraged to just mention the important points once and thoroughly. The reader can always go back and reread the parts he or she did not catch the first time. Secondly, there is less chance of misinterpretation when reading, compared to listening. It is therefore usual to restate scheduled meetings, amounts and so on in an oral setting, but only mention it once in written texts.
Permanence
Most probably, the art of writing evolved because of the need to communicate through time and space. As all of us have probably experienced, information is quickly morphing, and its meaning is soon completely altered, when passed from one source to another in an oral form. A famous example is the anecdote about how one feather became ten chickens.
Written language, on the other hand, is more permanent. We can go back and point out to people what they really wrote. In our technological world, we surely have ways to record the oral language through cassette recorders, television etc. as well. This equipment could be used as evidence as to what was said, but they are still not as good as written language. Mainly due to the fact that it is nearly impossible to record all the different non-verbal sides of speech for a later interpretation. Secondly, oral language is highly dependant on the context in which it was performed, something that is hard to recreate. As a matter of fact, video recordings of confessions have just recently been approved as evidence in most American courts after years of debate.
There are uncountable examples of how texts have survived more or less unaltered from ancient times. Norway has the famous rock carvings Runer. Australia has the aboriginal cave paintings and the Middle East has The Dead Sea Scrolls. Without some form of written language these stories would have been forgotten centuries ago, or at least altered into something completely different. The moment when a language becomes un-retractable, is also divided into different levels. Written texts usually become un-retractable after the text is completed and published. In an oral context, on the other hand, each word becomes un-retractable as they are spoken.
Language Change
Oral language changes rapidly, with slang and new buzzwords appearing all the time. Written language, on the other hand, is considered by most linguists to be nearly unaltered within the same timeframe. At least up to our days, it has taken ages for new styles to be adopted by writers, and buzzwords are forgotten before they make their way into written texts.
The reason is most likely that there exist a lot more examples of written texts. Speech is soon forgotten, and only the most recent examples are remembered and used as a base for our own speech. We have, however, got written texts by the millions, and some of them are even very old.
Although a fraction of these texts are “modern” and contain slang, we unconsciously use our whole repertoire of texts as a base; leaving the effect of a few fashionable texts unnoticeable.
Level of improvisation and planning Oral and written language usually has different levels of improvisation and planning. Writings are often planned, revised and rewritten before they reach the receiver. Oral speech, on the other hand, is mainly a product of the moment, with a fraction of a second to plan and produce, and no time to revise.
There are some exceptions to this claim. There exists well planned, revised and practiced oral speech such as presentations, answers in job interviews and openings of telephone conversations. There are also unplanned and draft-like writings such as memos and messages jotted down during telephone conversations. This claim, however, should be considered a rule of thumb. As a consequence of this level of planning, there is to some extent an excuse for what people have said.
The audience
You can usually both see and get to know your audience in oral presentations (except from TV, radio and distributed media such as CDs etc.). In contrast, it is almost impossible to know how many or exactly who will eventually read a written text. Therefore it is important to take almost every possible individual (or at least every individual within a certain group) into account when writing a text.
In an oral presentation, on other hand, it is possible to make adjustments to the presentation to suit the particular audience at the moment. In oral presentations it is even possible to establish a relationship between the presenter as the sender, and the audience as the receiver. As the presentation goes on, feedback is constantly received through questions, applause and body language. With this feedback, adjustments of the presentation to be clearer, more complex, smaller etc. should be possible.
These concepts are denoted as simplex, half-duplex and (full-) duplex conversations. In a simplex conversation (books, TV etc.) there is no way of getting response and feedback. In a half-duplex situation (rapid letter exchanges, phone conversations etc.), feedback is received, but only between statements or blocks of statements. However, in a duplex situation (presentations, conversations etc.), feedback emerges simultaneously as the statements are being made.
In a written setting, the writer has neither control of what the reader will read or in which order. Oral forms of discourse, on the other hand, gives control of the order and content to some extent, although the sender still needs to hold the attention of the receiver to make sure messages are taken in.
The usage
The oral form is preferred in discussions and negotiations. Feedback is received almost instantly, giving the speaker the opportunity to adjust statements and get new feedback. Performing this exchange by written mediums such as letters, is too time consuming. The subject of discussion would have been forgotten, even before a solution is found. More thoroughly considered arguments may be the only benefit that could be gained from this, as there would have been more time available. When giving information such as a price estimate or time table, on the other hand, writing is preferred as it is less likely to be subject to noise and interference in the transmission.
The reader would also be able to go back and read it over again, if sections are forgotten or not understood. Transmission of an important message, however, raises the problem of which alternative to use. Transmitting the information in a written form, gives the benefits of consistency, permanence and understanding. However, transmitting it orally would give feedback and a confirmation of the message being received. Sending the message in a written form, demanding a written or preferably oral reply, often solves this quandary.
The context
The context, in which a language is used, often contributes to the interpretation of a message as much as the spoken or written words themselves. However, the level of relevant information in the context varies from situation to situation. For instance, a memo is highly dependant on the context, and sentences such as call Sally! will have a very different interpretation when received at work (Sally is your supervisor) compared to at home (Sally is your best friend). On the other hand, an academic paper is expected to be less context-sensitive. However, it still requires a context where the reader is partly familiar with the jargon and interested in the subject.
Because of the incomplete sentences and frequent use of non-verbal communication, speaking is considered to be more dependant on the context. The same presentation could be interpreted completely different when held by a different speaker or for a different audience.
In a written medium, however, the context is often incorporated into the text itself, overriding the external context of the receiver, as it is hard to know by whom or where it will be read. Typical examples from an academic paper would be conscientization of timeframes, for whom the report is intended and the opinion of the sender. In an oral presentation, however, these pieces of information could be interpreted from the context.
IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION
Success of any business lies in effective communication. The more effective the communication is, the better the results are. Communication is effective when it produces desired action in the reader or audience. Effective communication is essential for the survival and progress of a business concern.
The ability to communicate effectively is an essential quality of a businessman. A person may be intelligent but he may not be able to get his message across to others. Ideas are generally common but the ability to convey them to others is rare.
A successful communicator exercises a good effect on the minds of his readers, employees, supervisors, customers, suppliers, investors and business associates. They form a good impression of the company and the communicator. He builds the goodwill of the company he represents. Goodwill of a person or company attracts customers and wins friends. Therefore, the ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing is an asset for the communicator. Through successful correspondence, he leads his business to success. He writes to the people demonstrate his ability or lack of it.
A successful communicator is able to run the affairs of a business house. He can plan well and control the working of his organization. He has the skill to transfer his policies, decisions, objectives and job instructions to the persons working with him at all levels. So this skill is quite essential for a businessman to perform his managerial functions.
Communication is life blood of a business organization. No organization can succeed or progress, build up reputation, and win friends and customers without effective communication skills
In fact successful communication is the bed rock of ground and pleasant relationship between the seniors and sub ordinates, between the workers and the management, between the customers and the sellers good and efficient system of communication helps in better coordination and efficient control. It results in clear understanding, good production, healthy climate within the organization willing cooperation among the various levels, if businessman can communicate effectively and successfully. Profit and prosperity shall knock at the doors of firm, organization or shop keeper through effective system of communication.
Poor and ineffective communication system may result in mismanagement, bad business and sure show down. Communication can build or destroy trust depending or use of words. A poorly worded message or talk may result in communication break down. On the other hand planned and well meant communication helps in better service, removes misunderstanding and doubts; builds up good will, promotes business and earns favorable references. It is the key to success in business and trade. A good businessman believes in the saying, 'take care of communication and success shall take care of itself.'
Lifeblood of an Organization Communication is the lifeblood of an organization. If we could somehow remove communication flows from an organization, we would not have an organization.
It is needed for: • Exchanging information • Exchanging options • Making plans and proposals • Reaching agreement • Executing decisions • Sending and fulfilling orders • Conducting sales
When communication stops, organized activity ceases to exist. Individual uncoordinated activity returns in an organization. So, Communication in an organization, is as vital as blood for life.
Communication
“Any act by which one person gives to or receives from another person information about that person’s needs, desires, perceptions, knowledge, or affective states. Communication may be intentional or unintentional, it may involve conventional or unconventional signals, may take linguistic or non-linguistic forms, and may occur through spoken or other modes.”
Communication is the exchange of ideas, opinions and information through written or spoken words, symbols or actions. Communication is a dialogue, not a monologue. In fact, communication is more concerned with a dual listening process. For communication to be effective, the message must mean the same thing to both the sender and the receiver.
Business Communication
“Business Communication is the means by which information is shared; activities are coordinated in the organization with the objective of enhancing decision-making.”
In business communication, message is conveyed through various channels of communication including internet, print (publications), radio, television, outdoor, and word of mouth.
Historical Background
Thousands years ago, people use to communicate orally. Greeks use a phonetic alphabet written from left to right. After that, many books appeared on written communication principles. In a result of this, Greek started her very first library. When communism was ruling China, communication had become the biggest challenge within the vast government as well as between government and people. 1st in China and then in Rome postal service was launched. After that paper and printing press was invented in china that made communication easier.
Hence, today’s principles of communications are founded on a mixture of ancient oral and written traditions.
Types of Business Communication
Internal communication
External Communication
Internal Communication
Communication within an organization is called “Internal Communication”. It includes all communication within an organization. It may be informal or a formal function or department providing communication in various forms to employees. Effective internal communication is a vital mean of addressing organizational concerns. Good communication may help to increase job satisfaction, safety, productivity, and profits and decrease grievances and turnover.
Under Internal Business Communication types there come;
a) Upward Communication
b) Downward Communication
c) Horizontal/Literal communication
a) Upward Communication Upward communication is the flow of information from subordinates to superiors, or from employees to management. Without upward communication, management works in a vacuum, not knowing if messages have been received properly, or if other problems exist in the organization.
By definition, communication is a two-way affair. Yet for effective two-way organizational communication to occur, it must begin from the bottom.
Upward Communication is a mean for staff to: o Exchange information o Offer ideas o Express enthusiasm o Achieve job satisfaction o Provide feedback [pic]
b) Downward Communication Information flowing from the top of the organizational management hierarchy and telling people in the organization what is important (mission) and what is valued (policies). Downward communication generally provides enabling information – which allows a subordinate to do something.
e.g.: Instructions on how to do a task.
Downward communication comes after upward communications have been successfully established. This type of communication is needed in an organization to: ➢ Transmit vital information ➢ Give instructions ➢ Encourage 2-way discussion ➢ Announce decisions ➢ Seek cooperation ➢ Provide motivation ➢ Boost morale ➢ Increase efficiency ➢ Obtain feedback Both Downward & Upward Communications are collectively called “Vertical Communication”
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c) Horizontal/Literal communication Horizontal communication normally involves coordinating information, and allows people with the same or similar rank in an organization to cooperate or collaborate. Communication among employees at the same level is crucial for the accomplishment of work. Horizontal Communication is essential for: ➢ Solving problems ➢ Accomplishing tasks ➢ Improving teamwork ➢ Building goodwill ➢ Boosting efficiency [pic]
External Communication
Communication with people outside the company is called “external communication”. Supervisors communicate with sources outside the organization, such as vendors and customers. It leads to better; o Sales volume o Public credibility o Operational efficiency o Company profits It should improve o Overall performance o Public goodwill o Corporate image Ultimately, it helps to achieve o Organizational goals o Customer satisfaction [pic]
COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS: Organizational communication is a subfield of the larger discipline of communication studies. Organizational communication, as a field, is the consideration, analysis, and criticism of the role of communication in organizational contexts.
History of Organizational Communication
The field traces its lineage through business information, business communication, and early mass communication studies published in the 1930s through the 1950s. Until then, organizational communication as a discipline consisted of a few professors within speech departments who had a particular interest in speaking and writing in business settings. The current field is well established with its own theories and empirical concerns distinct from other communication subfields and other approaches to organizations.
Several seminal publications stand out as works broadening the scope and recognizing the importance of communication in the organizing process, and in using the term "organizational communication". Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon wrote in 1947 about "organization communications systems", saying communication is "absolutely essential to organizations".
In the 1950s, organizational communication focused largely on the role of communication in improving organizational life and organizational output. In the 1980s, the field turned away from a business-oriented approach to communication and became concerned more with the constitutive role of communication in organizing. In the 1990s, critical theory influence on the field was felt as organizational communication scholars focused more on communication's possibilities to oppress and liberate organizational members.
Assumptions underlying early organizational communication
Some of the main assumptions underlying much of the early organizational communication research were:
▪ Humans act rationally. Sane people do not behave in rational ways, they generally have no access to all of the information needed to make rational decisions they could articulate, and therefore will make unrational decisions, unless there is some breakdown in the communication process-- which is common. Unrational people rationalize how they will rationalize their communication measures whether or not it is rational. ▪ Formal logic and empirically verifiable data ought to be the foundation upon which any theory should rest. All we really need to understand communication in organizations is (a) observable and replicable behaviors that can be transformed into variables by some form of measurement, and (b) formally replicable syllogisms that can extend theory from observed data to other groups and settings ▪ Communication is primarily a mechanical process, in which a message is constructed and encoded by a sender, transmitted through some channel, then received and decoded by a receiver. Distortion, represented as any differences between the original and the received messages, can and ought to be identified and reduced or eliminated. ▪ Organizations are mechanical things, in which the parts (including employees functioning in defined roles) are interchangeable. What works in one organization will work in another similar organization. Individual differences can be minimized or even eliminated with careful management techniques. ▪ Organizations function as a container within which communication takes place. Any differences in form or function of communication between that occurring in an organization and in another setting can be identified and studied as factors affecting the communicative activity.
Communications networks
Networks are another aspect of direction and flow of communication. Bavelas has shown that communication patterns, or networks, influence groups in several important ways. Communication networks may affect the group's completion of the assigned task on time, the position of the de facto leader in the group, or they may affect the group members' satisfaction from occupying certain positions in the network. Although these findings are based on laboratory experiments, they have important implications for the dynamics of communication in formal organizations.
There are several patterns of communication:
▪ "Chain", ▪ "Wheel", ▪ "Star", ▪ "All-Channel" network, ▪ "Circle".
The Chain can readily be seen to represent the hierarchical pattern that characterizes strictly formal information flow, "from the top down," in military and some types of business organizations. The Wheel can be compared with a typical autocratic organization, meaning one-man rule and limited employee participation. The Star is similar to the basic formal structure of many organizations. The All-Channel network, which is an elaboration of Bavelas's Circle used by Guetzkow, is analogous to the free-flow of communication in a group that encourages all of its members to become involved in group decision processes. The All-Channel network may also be compared to some of the informal communication networks.
If it's assumed that messages may move in both directions between stations in the networks, it is easy to see that some individuals occupy key positions with regard to the number of messages they handle and the degree to which they exercise control over the flow of information. For example, the person represented by the central dot in the "Star" handles all messages in the group. In contrast, individuals who occupy stations at the edges of the pattern handle fewer messages and have little or no control over the flow of information. These "peripheral" individuals can communicate with only one or two other persons and must depend entirely on others to relay their messages if they wish to extend their range.
In reporting the results of experiments involving the Circle, Wheel, and Star configurations, Bavelas came to the following tentative conclusions. In patterns with positions located centrally, such as the Wheel and the Star, an organization quickly develops around the people occupying these central positions. In such patterns, the organization is more stable and errors in performance are lower than in patterns having a lower degree of centrality, such as the Circle. However, he also found that the morale of members in high centrality patterns is relatively low. Bavelas speculated that this lower morale could, in the long run, lower the accuracy and speed of such networks.
In problem solving requiring the pooling of data and judgments, or "insight," Bavelas suggested that the ability to evaluate partial results, to look at alternatives, and to restructure problems fell off rapidly when one person was able to assume a more central (that is, more controlling) position in the information flow. For example, insight into a problem requiring change would be less in the Wheel and the Star than in the Circle or the Chain because of the "bottlenecking" effect of data control by central members.
It may be concluded from these laboratory results that the structure of communications within an organization will have a significant influence on the accuracy of decisions, the speed with which they can be reached, and the satisfaction of the people involved. Consequently, in networks in which the responsibility for initiating and passing along messages is shared more evenly among the members, the better the group's morale in the long run.
Direction of communication
If it's considered formal communications as they occur in traditional military organizations, messages have a "one-way" directional characteristic. In the military organization, the formal communication proceeds from superior to subordinate, and its content is presumably clear because it originates at a higher level of expertise and experience. Military communications also carry the additional assumption that the superior is responsible for making his communication clear and understandable to his subordinates. This type of organization assumes that there is little need for two-way exchanges between organizational levels except as they are initiated by a higher level. Because messages from superiors are considered to be more important than those from subordinates, the implicit rule is that communication channels, except for prescribed information flows, should not be cluttered by messages from subordinates but should remain open and free for messages moving down the chain of command. "Juniors should be seen and not heard," is still an unwritten, if not explicit, law of military protocol.
Vestiges of one-way flows of communication still exist in many formal organizations outside the military, and for many of the same reasons as described above. Although management recognizes that prescribed information must flow both downward and upward, managers may not always be convinced that two-wayness should be encouraged. For example, to what extent is a subordinate free to communicate to his superior that he understands or does not understand a message? Is it possible for him to question the superior, ask for clarification, suggest modifications to instructions he has received, or transmit unsolicited messages to his superior, which are not prescribed by the rules? To what extent does the one-way rule of direction affect the efficiency of communication in the organization, in addition to the morale and motivation of subordinates?
These are not merely procedural matters but include questions about the organizational climate, pr psychological atmosphere in which communication takes place. Harold Leavitt has suggested a simple experiment that helps answer some of these questions. А group is assigned the task of re-creating on paper a set of rectangular figures, first as they are described by the leader under one-way conditions, and second as they are described by the leader under two-way conditions.(A different configuration of rectangles is used in the second trial.) In the one-way trial, the leader's back is turned to the group. He describes the rectangles as he sees them. No one in the group is allowed to ask questions and no one may indicate by any audible or visible sign his understanding or his frustration as he attempts to follow the leader's directions. In the two-way trial, the leader faces the group. In this case, the group may ask for clarifications on his description of the rectangles and he can not only see but also can feel and respond to the emotional reactions of group members as they try to re-create his instructions on paper.
On the basis of a number of experimental trials similar to the one described above, Leavitt formed these conclusions:
1. One-way communication is faster than two-way communication. 2. Two-way communication is more accurate than one-way communication. 3. Receivers are surer of themselves and make more correct judgments of how right or wrong they are in the two-way system. 4. The sender feels psychologically under attack in the two-way system, because his receivers pick up his mistakes and oversights and point them out to him. 5. The two-way method is relatively noisier and looks more disorderly. The one-way method, on the other hand, appears neat and efficient to an outside observer.[3]
Thus, if speed is necessary, if a businesslike appearance is important, if a manager does not want his mistakes recognized, and if he wants to protect his power, then one-way communication seems preferable. In contrast, if the manager wants to get his message across, or if he is concerned about his receivers' feeling that they are participating and are making a contribution, the two-way system is better.
Interpersonal communication
Another facet of communication in the organization is the process of face-to-face, interpersonal communication, between individuals. Such communication may take several forms. Messages may be verbal (that is, expressed in words), or they may not involve words at all but consist of gestures, facial expressions, and certain postures ("body language"). Nonverbal messages may even stem from silence.
Managers do not need answers to operate a successful business; they need questions. Answers can come from anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world thanks to the benefits of all the electronic communication tools at our disposal. This has turned the real job of management into determining what it is the business needs to know, along with the who/what/where/when and how of learning it. To effectively solve problems, seize opportunities, and achieve objectives, questions need to be asked by managers—these are the people responsible for the operation of the enterprise as a whole.
Ideally, the meanings sent are the meanings received. This is most often the case when the messages concern something that can be verified objectively. For example, "This piece of pipe fits the threads on the coupling." In this case, the receiver of the message can check the sender's words by actual trial, if necessary. However, when the sender's words describe a feeling or an opinion about something that cannot be checked objectively, meanings can be very unclear. "This work is too hard" or "Watergate was politically justified" are examples of opinions or feelings that cannot be verified. Thus they are subject to interpretation and hence to distorted meanings. The receiver's background of experience and learning may differ enough from that of the sender to cause significantly different perceptions and evaluations of the topic under discussion. As we shall see later, such differences form a basic barrier to communication.
Nonverbal content always accompanies the verbal content of messages. This is reasonably clear in the case of face-to-face communication. As Virginia Satir has pointed out, people cannot help but communicate symbolically (for example, through their clothing or possessions) or through some form of body language. In messages that are conveyed by the telephone, a messenger, or a letter, the situation or context in which the message is sent becomes part of its non-verbal content. For example, if the company has been losing money, and in a letter to the production division, the front office orders a reorganization of the shipping and receiving departments, this could be construed to mean that some people were going to lose their jobs — unless it were made explicitly clear that this would not occur.
A number of variables influence the effectiveness of communication. Some are found in the environment in which communication takes place, some in the personalities of the sender and the receiver, and some in the relationship that exists between sender and receiver. These different variables suggest some of the difficulties of communicating with understanding between two people. The sender wants to formulate an idea and communicate it to the receiver. This desire to communicate may arise from his thoughts or feelings or it may have been triggered by something in the environment. The communication may also be influenced or distorted by the relationship between the sender and the receiver, such as status differences, a staff-line relationship, or a learner-teacher relationship.
Whatever its origin, information travels through a series of filters - both in the sender and in the receiver - before the idea can be transmitted and re-created in the receiver's mind. Physical capacities to see, hear, smell, taste and touch vary between people, so that the image of reality may be distorted even before the mind goes to work. In addition to physical or sense filters, cognitive filters, or the way in which an individual's mind interprets the world around him, will influence his assumptions and feelings. These filters will determine what the sender of a message says, how he says it, and with what purpose. Filters are present also in the receiver, creating a double complexity that once led Robert Louis Stevenson to say that human communication is "doubly relative". It takes one person to say something and another to decide what he said.
Physical and cognitive, including semantic filters (which decide the meaning of words) combine to form a part of our memory system that helps us respond to reality. In this sense, March and Simon compare a person to a data processing system. Behavior results from an interaction between a person's internal state and environmental stimuli. What we have learned through past experience becomes an inventory, or data bank, consisting of values or goals, sets of expectations and preconceptions about the consequences of acting one way or another, and a variety of possible ways of responding to the situation. This memory system determines what things we will notice and respond to in the environment. At the same time, stimuli in the environment help to determine what parts of the memory system will be activated. Hence, the memory and the environment form an interactive system that causes our behavior. As this interactive system responds to new experiences, new learnings occur which feed back into memory and gradually change its content. This process is how people adapt to a changing world.[7]
Communication Approaches in an Organization
Informal and Formal Communication are used in an organization.
Informal communication, generally associated with interpersonal, horizontal communication, was primarily seen as a potential hindrance to effective organizational performance. This is no longer the case. Informal communication has become more important to ensuring the effective conduct of work in modern organizations.
Top-down approach: This is also known as downward communication. This approach is used by the Top Level Management to communicate to the lower levels. This is used to implement policies, guidelines, etc. In this type of organizational communication, distortion of the actual information occurs. This could be made effective by feedbacks.
PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION: DIFFERENT STAGES
Communications Skills – The Importance of Removing Barriers
Stages of the communication consists of the sender, encoding, the channel, decoding, the receiver, feedback and the context. At each stage, there is the potential for misunderstanding and confusion.
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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...
The message is the information that you want to communicate.
Encoding...
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. Your success in encoding depends partly on your ability to convey information clearly and simply, but also on your ability to anticipate and eliminate sources of confusion (for example, cultural issues, mistaken assumptions, and missing information.)
A key part of this is to know 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 the 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).
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.
ORAL COMMUNICATION According to a 2005 study published in the Journal of Employment Counseling, oral communication skills are being increasingly sought after by employers. When surveying over 100 successful businesses, researchers found that more and more employers are emphasizing the development of good speaking skills in their employees. With this in mind, the concept of oral communication is an important idea to study and understand in the context of business.
1. Presentations
One form of oral communication in a business setting is a presentation. Presentations are usually an organized conveyance of information to a group of people. Stylistically, they tend to be far more formal than informal, and rely more heavily on data and facts than they do analysis. Presentations are sometimes more persuasive in nature, like a pitch for an ad campaign, but tend to be informative more often, such as an employee briefing or a report on quarterly earnings. Presentations may include some dialog after the sender of the message has finished their speech, but they are, by and large, much more monologue reliant. This makes it important for the speaker to anticipate possible objections to the message and address them in the actual speech.
Client Interaction
Another form of oral communication in business encompasses interaction with clients. Depending on the level of connection between the employee and the client, the communication in these interactions can range from incredibly formal to informal and casual. These interactions usually include a combination of data and analysis, and will be more persuasive than informative in nature, as the employee is trying to encourage continued and expanded business with the client. Because of the nature of these interactions, the communication is definitely a dialog, making listening skills incredibly important.
Interoffice Interaction
Oral communication in the office can be referred to as interoffice interaction. This is comprised of conversations with superiors, subordinates and co-workers. Depending on the levels of power separation between the individuals engaging in conversation, the communication will fluctuate between formal and informal, though it should always remain professional. Conversations in this context may reference data, but will be much more analysis heavy, and will be a dialog by nature.
Benefits
Oral communication in business provides a variety of benefits. First, oral communication is accompanied by nonverbal signifiers, which provides context that can enhance understanding in the communication process. Posture, facial expressions, and habitual movements may provide clues as to an individuals feelings about the ideas being discussed. Even in telephone conversations, pitch, rate, volume and tone of the respective speakers can help in understanding sentiments.
Oral communication also provides a springboard for relational development. Unlike with email, memos and chat functions, which tend to take a task-oriented approach to communication, the immediacy involved in oral communication allows for instant feedback and a more relational approach. This is important, as strong relationships in business often lead to more profitable and productive cooperation.
Limitations
While oral communication can provide a lot of benefits in a business setting, there are limitations to its utility. Initially, oral communication usually takes a lot more time than written communication to complete, as oral communication's relational nature can blur the focus of a conversation. In a world where time is often equated with money, oral communication can be construed as inefficient.
Moreover, the capability of individuals to effectively communicate orally varies greatly. Some individuals are classified as a 'people person,' and have no problem engaging in oral communication effectively. For others, the task is far more difficult. The pairing of people on these opposite ends of the spectrum can lead to frustration and an overall lack of productivity.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
Business Communication involves exchange of information within an organizational setup. It is a continuous process. The more the business expands, the greater is the pressure on the business to find more effective means of communication both with the employees and with the society at large. Business communication is both written as well as oral. But written communication is very important aspect of business communication. It is important to fix accountability and responsibility of people in organization. This requires more of written communication (much of paper work). Everything should be communicated in written by the manager to the people in the organization. Written messages can be saved for future references and cannot be denied.
Business Communication is a permanent means of communication and is much easier understanding then oral means of communication. Good written communication contributes to success of an organization. It helps in building goodwill of an organization. Written business communication includes - letters, memoranda, agenda, manuals, reports etc.
1. Business Letters: It must have a good appealing layout. The content of the letter should be clear in mind of the writer. The letter must be divided into paragraphs. It must have subject written and should be enclosed in an envelope. It should be surely used for future reference. It should be carefully written as it has an impact on goodwill of the organization. Examples of Business letters are - sales letters, information letters, problem letters etc.
2. Memoranda: Memos are generally short means of written communication within an organization. They are used to convey specific information to the people within an organization.
3. Reports: A report is prepared after lot of investigation. Whatever observations are made, an account of them is written in the report. Reports are important for analyzing the performance of the organization. It helps in taking important decisions within an organization.
4. Agenda: Agenda is an outline about all the contents of the meeting. It tells what is the purpose of the meeting and where are the participants heading. While designing an agenda one should be very specific. Designing an agenda beforehand helps the people to come prepared for the meeting.
DIFFRENCE BETWEEN WRITTEN AND ORAL COMMUNICATION
Even though some of the following differences may seem obvious at first glance, it is important to be aware of them. If you should use the language in the incorrect way for a certain form of discourse, the effects could be devastating to the message you are trying to communicate.
Formality
Usually, written language has a higher level of formality than the oral language. Most likely because only the most educated people could write a few centuries ago. This encouraged a competition between them to see who could write the most formal texts, to show off their skills and level in society. Even though almost everyone in the Western World is today capable of writing and reading, this mentality is, unfortunately, to some extent still present. However, nothing directly connects written language with formality and oral language with informality.
One can have formal speeches or presentations (i.e. Alan Greenspan’s economic report), and informal writings (i.e. e-mails, SMS, memos). There is also a formal to informal continuum. Things are not just formal or informal; they should rather be placed within different levels of formality. Usually there is a range of words with the same meaning, although with different levels of formality. One example would be; domicile-home-house-dig-crib. The words are basically referring to the same concept, but the levels of formality are quite different. Worth noticing is the fact that the neutral words (in the centre of the continuum), are the ones which the majority of texts and speech use. The extremities, on the other hand, are only known by a small group of people, and seem ridiculous to use within a setting of the opposite formality level.
Even different cultures and ethnic groups do not agree on what is formal and informal. In Norway, the use of first names is common, and an expression like Herr. Hansen (English equivalent: Mr. Hansen) is old fashioned, seems excessive and is located at the very end of the formality continuum. In Britain however, Mr. Hansen is an almost neutral and required expression, when referring to a male who is not a close friend or relative.
Contractions and abbreviations
To keep an oral presentation flowing, it is important to use easily pronounceable sentences. Shortcuts such as saying it’s in place of it is are therefore made. Written texts, on the other hand, are not concerned with the pronunciation of the sentence, so contractions should be avoided. Oral speech tends to use less short abbreviations such as a/c, etc and i.e., since it is harder to pronounce these abbreviations, without spelling them, than the words which they are abbreviating. Written texts, however, use them to shorten words which are used with a high frequency in normal language. This makes the text faster to read, as someone who encounters these abbreviations instantly knows what they mean. Abbreviations of longer words, on the other hand, tend to be used the other way around. They are used to speed up speech, such as exchanging as soon as possible with its acronym ASAP. In written texts, however, they are often spelled out to make sure the reader knows what the writer is trying to communicate. This reflects the fact of which the sender does not get direct feedback when things are unclear in a written form of discourse.
Sentence composition
There is a difference in the sentence complexity between written and oral forms of discourse. In formal written texts, longer and more difficult sentences tend to be used, because people can re-read the difficult parts if they should lose track. In addition, the writer has the option to write and rewrite sentences in order to make them more sophisticated and formal. In oral speech, however, there is a need to make sure that everyone is with you.
Reading should also be a faster discipline, and does not require breathing as speech does. Should some of the more complex sentences from the written form of discourse have been read out loud, it would have taken forever, and a shortage of breath would probably have occurred quite soon.
It has already been stated, that oral speech contains far less complex sentences than written texts. This could be taken even a step further, as oral forms of discourse often use sentences that are incomplete in a grammatical sense. This concept is usually referred to as ellipsis by linguists. In an oral presentation, for instance, sentences such as looking forward to hearing from you, which would be a poorly written sentence, could be used. The previous sentence encourages us to ask; who was looking forward to hearing? The reason is quite simple; there is a lack of a subject. In oral speech, however, this is allowed and commonly in use because of the context. It is obvious that the speaker is the subject. Even one word sentences such as OK and Right are in frequent use. Oral sentences may also begin with conjunctions such as and, or and but, which in writing is regarded as a bad habit.
Active and passive constructions
There is a distinction between active sentences such as; The boy picked up the bucket and passive sentences such as; The bucket was picked up by the boy. The first structure is typically informal, the latter formal, hence also used by respectively oral and written language to a large extent. The meanings of the two forms are almost the same, but different objects are emphasized. In certain languages, such as Norwegian, intonation could be used to control which object is emphasized when speaking as well, accordingly adjusting the meaning of the passive and active constructions.
Vocabulary
The size of the vocabulary in use is one of the most noticeable differences between an oral and written form of discourse. Written language uses synonyms instead of repeating the same word over and over again. This is, however, not as important in oral language. Especially adjectives and adverbs are hardly reused in written texts, compared to the frequent use of words like very, extremely and nice in speech.
The explanation is quite obvious. The sender of an oral speech needs to ensure that the receiver understands almost every word, in order to grasp the information communicated. In written texts, on the other hand, the reader can quite easily look up words he does not understand. As a sender you may also have more time to come up with more exciting words in a writing situation, compared to an oral presentation where the word that first comes to mind has to be used, in order to avoid awkward pauses.
The level of difficulty in pronunciation may also affect the words chosen. Oral languages tend to use words of fewer syllables. This is because polysyllabic words are generally harder to pronounce than to read. This fact contributes to the limitation of the vocabulary in use, as synonyms of the most regular words generally have more syllables than the word itself. This is especially true for adjectives and adverbs, which unfortunately are the same words that tend to be used with a high frequency. In addition, words rarely in use might be problematic to articulate, as they are unfamiliar.
Repetitions
An oral speech often contains more repetitions to emphasize important points. A presentation should usually start with an introduction to what is going to be communicated. The message should then be repeated in the main part of the presentation and incorporated in to the summary or ending, to make sure the audience has apprehended it.
This, however, is not a good strategy in formal written discourse. You are instead encouraged to just mention the important points once and thoroughly. The reader can always go back and reread the parts he or she did not catch the first time. Secondly, there is less chance of misinterpretation when reading, compared to listening. It is therefore usual to restate scheduled meetings, amounts and so on in an oral setting, but only mention it once in written texts.
Permanence
Most probably, the art of writing evolved because of the need to communicate through time and space. As all of us have probably experienced, information is quickly morphing, and its meaning is soon completely altered, when passed from one source to another in an oral form. A famous example is the anecdote about how one feather became ten chickens.
Written language, on the other hand, is more permanent. We can go back and point out to people what they really wrote. In our technological world, we surely have ways to record the oral language through cassette recorders, television etc. as well. This equipment could be used as evidence as to what was said, but they are still not as good as written language. Mainly due to the fact that it is nearly impossible to record all the different non-verbal sides of speech for a later interpretation. Secondly, oral language is highly dependant on the context in which it was performed, something that is hard to recreate. As a matter of fact, video recordings of confessions have just recently been approved as evidence in most American courts after years of debate.
There are uncountable examples of how texts have survived more or less unaltered from ancient times. Norway has the famous rock carvings Runer. Australia has the aboriginal cave paintings and the Middle East has The Dead Sea Scrolls. Without some form of written language these stories would have been forgotten centuries ago, or at least altered into something completely different. The moment when a language becomes un-retractable, is also divided into different levels. Written texts usually become un-retractable after the text is completed and published. In an oral context, on the other hand, each word becomes un-retractable as they are spoken.
Language Change
Oral language changes rapidly, with slang and new buzzwords appearing all the time. Written language, on the other hand, is considered by most linguists to be nearly unaltered within the same timeframe. At least up to our days, it has taken ages for new styles to be adopted by writers, and buzzwords are forgotten before they make their way into written texts.
The reason is most likely that there exist a lot more examples of written texts. Speech is soon forgotten, and only the most recent examples are remembered and used as a base for our own speech. We have, however, got written texts by the millions, and some of them are even very old.
Although a fraction of these texts are “modern” and contain slang, we unconsciously use our whole repertoire of texts as a base; leaving the effect of a few fashionable texts unnoticeable.
Level of improvisation and planning Oral and written language usually has different levels of improvisation and planning. Writings are often planned, revised and rewritten before they reach the receiver. Oral speech, on the other hand, is mainly a product of the moment, with a fraction of a second to plan and produce, and no time to revise.
There are some exceptions to this claim. There exists well planned, revised and practiced oral speech such as presentations, answers in job interviews and openings of telephone conversations. There are also unplanned and draft-like writings such as memos and messages jotted down during telephone conversations. This claim, however, should be considered a rule of thumb. As a consequence of this level of planning, there is to some extent an excuse for what people have said.
The audience
You can usually both see and get to know your audience in oral presentations (except from TV, radio and distributed media such as CDs etc.). In contrast, it is almost impossible to know how many or exactly who will eventually read a written text. Therefore it is important to take almost every possible individual (or at least every individual within a certain group) into account when writing a text.
In an oral presentation, on other hand, it is possible to make adjustments to the presentation to suit the particular audience at the moment. In oral presentations it is even possible to establish a relationship between the presenter as the sender, and the audience as the receiver. As the presentation goes on, feedback is constantly received through questions, applause and body language. With this feedback, adjustments of the presentation to be clearer, more complex, smaller etc. should be possible.
These concepts are denoted as simplex, half-duplex and (full-) duplex conversations. In a simplex conversation (books, TV etc.) there is no way of getting response and feedback. In a half-duplex situation (rapid letter exchanges, phone conversations etc.), feedback is received, but only between statements or blocks of statements. However, in a duplex situation (presentations, conversations etc.), feedback emerges simultaneously as the statements are being made.
In a written setting, the writer has neither control of what the reader will read or in which order. Oral forms of discourse, on the other hand, gives control of the order and content to some extent, although the sender still needs to hold the attention of the receiver to make sure messages are taken in.
The usage
The oral form is preferred in discussions and negotiations. Feedback is received almost instantly, giving the speaker the opportunity to adjust statements and get new feedback. Performing this exchange by written mediums such as letters, is too time consuming. The subject of discussion would have been forgotten, even before a solution is found. More thoroughly considered arguments may be the only benefit that could be gained from this, as there would have been more time available. When giving information such as a price estimate or time table, on the other hand, writing is preferred as it is less likely to be subject to noise and interference in the transmission.
The reader would also be able to go back and read it over again, if sections are forgotten or not understood. Transmission of an important message, however, raises the problem of which alternative to use. Transmitting the information in a written form, gives the benefits of consistency, permanence and understanding. However, transmitting it orally would give feedback and a confirmation of the message being received. Sending the message in a written form, demanding a written or preferably oral reply, often solves this quandary.
The context
The context, in which a language is used, often contributes to the interpretation of a message as much as the spoken or written words themselves. However, the level of relevant information in the context varies from situation to situation. For instance, a memo is highly dependant on the context, and sentences such as call Sally! will have a very different interpretation when received at work (Sally is your supervisor) compared to at home (Sally is your best friend). On the other hand, an academic paper is expected to be less context-sensitive. However, it still requires a context where the reader is partly familiar with the jargon and interested in the subject.
Because of the incomplete sentences and frequent use of non-verbal communication, speaking is considered to be more dependant on the context. The same presentation could be interpreted completely different when held by a different speaker or for a different audience.
In a written medium, however, the context is often incorporated into the text itself, overriding the external context of the receiver, as it is hard to know by whom or where it will be read. Typical examples from an academic paper would be conscientization of timeframes, for whom the report is intended and the opinion of the sender. In an oral presentation, however, these pieces of information could be interpreted from the context.
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