|
|
“Communication is not something you need to learn: it’s simply something you need to do and always do.” This is so as it is needed to indicate some action, to impart information, attitudes, beliefs, ideas, and feelings thereby establishing a relationship with other people.
Communication in organisations is any process in which people share information, ideas, and feelings. It does not only involve the spoken word and written word but also body language, personal mannerism, and style – anything that adds meaning to a message.
Communicating effectively is a two way process. Messages are sent by the communicator and received by the other party. The receiver sends back some form of confirmation that the message has been relieved and understood in the form of a feedback or reply to the message sender.
The process of communication begins where the message is conceived, where the decision is made to send the message as a result of an impulse, thought process or external stimulus. The message is then encoded in an appropriate language. The language may take the form of a sympathetic grunt, an abrupt gesture of impatience or in a carefully written form. It may also take the form of a picture, symbol, or non-verbal expression or gesture. The communication medium is then selected. This can either be through written or oral means of communicating with each other. The type of message determines how messages are communicated or what form it takes. For a message to be absorbed or acted upon, one must first grasp and understand the message. Often times, messages fail because the sender experienced difficulty in realising that the language chosen is above the comprehension of the receiver. This stage is known as decoding. However, decoding is not always accurate. The need for feedback is considered as the most important feedback reassures the sender that the message has been received, comprehended and has been correctly interpreted.
Likewise, elements of communication include the receiver, the sender, message, channels, feedback, setting and noise. The receiver plays an important role as an element of communication as he or she determines to the sender if the message is understood how able he/she is to carry out a given task. Communication has to take place in some setting. Context and quality of interaction is influenced by the physical context. There are also other settings that a message can be conceived in these are social, cultural, and chronological settings.
Feedback is a particularly important element as well as stage in the communication process that is vital to the effective communication of messages. Giving feedback has both positive and negative aspects. Since the quality of communication is concerned with how activities in the organisation are coordinated and decisions are made and externally communication shapes how the organisation is perceived by its stakeholders determining the degree to which the organisation’s goals and objectives are met. Feedback impacts on the productivity and by extension profitability of the organisation.
Noise interferes with the communication process as it keeps the message from being understood and achieving its desired effect. It is inevitable that noise distorts the message being sent by getting in the way. However, noise becomes a significant aspect of organisational communication as it suggest to sender to be more careful in the channels chosen to send a message as well as to the receiver to send feedback in a form that noise cannot affect its meaning. As a result of the prevalence of noise in most if not all organisation particularly in manufacturing and constructing industries, one can observe clearly that most of the organisation messages are communicated in the written form using letters, reports and memos, etc. This ensures that the productivity of the organisation is not affected by noise and that conflict does not arise as a result of the message being distorted by noise. It therefore means that the communicator must be aware of the sources of noise in their situation.
People, especially managers much ensure that their organisation maintains productivity and efficiency through proper communication means by reducing at all times the barriers to communication and ensure that they utilize all facets of communication in an effort to ensure that employees are well aware and fully understand their job roles.
References
Adler R. & Elmhorst J. M. (2002). Communicating at Work, Principles and Practices for Business and the Profession. McGraw Hill Publishers.
(1998). CIM Study Text Certficate Paper 3 – Business Communications. BPP Publishing Ltd.
Beebe S. A. , et al. (2002) Interpersonal Communication, Relating to Others. Allyn & Bacon.
Robbins S. (2005). Organisational Behaviour. Prentice Hall.
|
1
Tags
You must be logged in to add tags.
|
Writer Profile
Jae
This user has not written anything in his panorama profile yet.
|
Comments
You must be a TakingITGlobal member to post a comment. Sign up for free or login.
|
|
