process of communication

In general, communication means transfer a message or common knowledge from a person to the other person by using a medium. The word “communication” is derived from the Latin world communis which mean “common”. In addition, communication is a two-way process of reaching common understanding between sender and receiver in which there is not only exchange ideas, news, information and feelings but also create and share meaning towards a mutually accepted direction or goal (Kaul, 2006). Especially in an organization, communication is not only important within the organization but also outside the organization in order to succeed in business. Hence, there are six important steps in the process of communication namely sending an idea, encoding, channeling, decoding, receiving a message and giving feedback (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1). The first step in the process of communication is sending an idea from a sender to a receiver. Sender is an essentials element in the process of sending an idea and plays an important role in the communication process to increase the effectiveness of the communication. And according to Kaul (2006), sender is a person who initiates the idea or message in the communication process. Besides, “the sender may be a writer, a speaker, or someone who simply gestures” (Williams, Krizan, Logan, & Merrier, 2011, p. 12). At this stage, sender starts the communication process with an idea in their mindset or thought that they wish to transfer to the receiver. Then, the sender need to select the appropriate type of message such as whether the message need to record permanently or shortly. At the same time, sender also need to analyzing the level of education of the receiver, encouraging feedback from the receiver and removing communication barriers such as noise to enhance the communication effectiveness (Williams et al, 2011). Encoding is the second step in the process of communication. Encoding is the act of transferring the information or idea from a sender’s mindset into the form of logical or coded message (Long, Shawn & Laura, 2012). Lam, Hair and McDaniel (2010) explain that, “a basic principle of encoding is that what matters is not what the source says but what the receiver hears. One way of conveying a message that the receiver can hear properly is to use concrete words and pictures” (p. 474). During this stage, sender encodes the idea by selecting words, sign, symbols, or gestures which then convert to a message. A message is a result of the encoding process which takes the form of verbal, nonverbal, or written language. Hence, the idea must be encoded into a message that can be understood as the sender intended (Lunenburg, 2010). At the end of this stage, the idea had been transferred into words by the sender. The next step in the process of communication is selecting the proper channel or medium. After the idea had been encoded, the message needs to transfer to the receiver through a channel or medium. A channel or medium can be divided into either verbal or nonverbal communication which verbal communication uses words while nonverbal does not. Furthermore, verbal communication not only includes spoken words but also includes both written and oral messages. According to Williams et al (2011), written message channels include report, memo, e-mail, and short message service (SMS) while oral message channel include face to face conversation, telephone conservation, speeches, and video conferences. If the message is transfer through a nonverbal communication, then the message can be conveyed by both people or objects such as body language, sign language, face expression, and appearance. Meanwhile, in this process, sender must consider several things such as the purpose of the disclosure or is the message too long or complicated before select the most appropriate channel so that the receiver can get the correct meaning from sender. Decoding is the next step in the process of communication after the step of selecting the proper channel. Unlike encoding that is transfer thought into words, decoding is the opposite of encoding. Decoding involves the process of converting a message or words into thoughts by translating the received stimuli into an interpreted meaning in order to understand the message communicated. At this stage, the receiving skills of listening, reading and observing are necessary to get the proper meaning. Thus, the process of decoding requires interpretation and analysis of the message (Shankar, 2014). Sometimes the receiver wrongly interprets the meaning of the message send by the sender or misunderstood the message. This happens because the receiver is not paying attention, message not clear or the sender uses specialist language that the receiver find difficult to understand. Receiving a message is the second last step in the process of communication. At this stage, the receiver is an important element. The receiver first decodes the message that received from the sender, and then only converts the message into meaningful information (Lunenburg, 2010). After this, the receiver need to reads, listens or observes to get the information. Similar to sender, receiver also plays an important role in the process of communication or in the process of receiving a message. In order to get the common understanding from the sender, the receiver need to listen or read carefully, open minded to different types of senders and to new ideas, making notes when necessary, providing appropriate feedback to the sender, and asking questions to clarify the message. Apart from that, effective communication depends on both sender and receiver sharing a common understanding of the rules used to encoding and to decode the meaning into a message. The last step in the process of communication is feedback from the receiver to the sender. Without feedback, the communication is just a one-way communication. In two-way communication, feedback is essential for the sender to confirm that receiver had received the message. Feedback occurs when receiver responds to the sender’s message and returns a message to the sender. During this stage, the sender can verify whether the receiver understands or did the receiver get the correct meaning of the message. Meanwhile, the receiver can also ask for further explanation if the message send by the sender is not clear. Feedback can be either positive or negative. The receiver may respond positively by acting on the message or sorting for future reference. In additional to this, the errors and flaws that abound in business situations are the results of lack of feedback (Kaul, 2006). Besides, Kaul (2006) says that
If the feedback is in tune with the original intent of the sender, communication proceeds without a hitch. However, there could be moments when the receiver does not agree with the message of the sender. This does not mean that there is a breakdown of communication. (p. 4)

References
Kaul, A. (2006). Effective business communication. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.my/books?id=0TDdxCDofPwC&pg=PA2&dq=definition+of+communication&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s49oVIz-L86huQSSioCQCA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=definition%20of%20communication&f=false
Lam, C., Hair, J., & McDaniel, C. (2010). Essential of marketing. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.my/books?id=QpCvQfnPpNwC&pg=PT500&dq=communication+process-encoding&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Wh1yVOOEAcyKuATFkYGYCw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=communication%20process-encoding&f=false
Long, Shawn D., & Laura, V. (2012). Interpersonal communication. Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(3), 363-367.
Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Communication: the process, barriers, and improving effectiveness. Schooling, 1(1), 1-11.
Shankar, D. (2014). Signum and significance of skillful communication in the technocratic globalization. Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL), 2(3), 129-134.
Williams, K., Krizan, A. C., Logan, J., & Merrier, P. (2011). Communicating in business (8th ed.). London, UK: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Appendix 1

Figure 1. Process of communication

References: Kaul, A. (2006). Effective business communication. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.my/books?id=0TDdxCDofPwC&pg=PA2&dq=definition+of+communication&hl=en&sa=X&ei=s49oVIz-L86huQSSioCQCA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=definition%20of%20communication&f=false Lam, C., Hair, J., & McDaniel, C. (2010). Essential of marketing. Retrieved from http://books.google.com.my/books?id=QpCvQfnPpNwC&pg=PT500&dq=communication+process-encoding&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Wh1yVOOEAcyKuATFkYGYCw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=communication%20process-encoding&f=false Long, Shawn D., & Laura, V. (2012). Interpersonal communication. Encyclopedia of Industrial and Organizational Psychology, 1(3), 363-367. Lunenburg, F. C. (2010). Communication: the process, barriers, and improving effectiveness. Schooling, 1(1), 1-11. Shankar, D. (2014). Signum and significance of skillful communication in the technocratic globalization. Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL), 2(3), 129-134. Williams, K., Krizan, A. C., Logan, J., & Merrier, P. (2011). Communicating in business (8th ed.). London, UK: South-Western Cengage Learning. Appendix 1 Figure 1. Process of communication