Communication serves five major functions.

 These are as follows: 

 Managing behavior - communication helps manage member behavior. 
       Feedback - communication creates feedback by clarifying to employees what they
need to do, how well they are doing it, and how they can improve their performance.
       Emotional sharing - communication within the group is a fundamental mechanism
by which members show satisfaction and frustration, thereby providing for the emotional
sharing of feelings and fulfillment of social needs.
       Persuasion - persuasion can be good or bad depending on if, say, a leader is trying to
persuade a workgroup to commit to the organization’s corporate social responsibility
(CSR) initiatives or to, conversely, persuade the workgroup to go against their core
beliefs to meet an organizational goal.
 Information exchange - one of the purposes of communication is information exchange
to facilitate decision making.
Communication process involves the steps between the sender and the receiver,
resulting in transfer and interpretation of a message.  The message to be
communicated is encoded (converted to a symbolic form) and passed by way of some
medium (channel) to the receiver, who retranslates (decodes) the message.  Successful
communication results in the transference of meaning from one person to another.
Key components of communication process are as follows:
 Sender: the person who initiates a message by encoding a thought.
 Encoding: converting the thought into symbols and language.
 Message: the actual physical product the sender is encoding.  It is the encoded
thought to be transferred.
 Channel: the sender-selected medium through which the message travels. 
 Receiver: the person to whom the message is directed.
 Decoding: converting a message from symbols and language back into thought.
 Noise: communication barriers that distort the clarity of the message, such as
perceptual problems, information overload, semantic difficulties, or cultural
differences.
 Feedback: information sent from the receiver back to the sender to indicate how
successful the transference was.
Communication can flow vertically or laterally.  Vertical communications can be
upward or downward from a person's position in an organization.
 Upward communication: moves upward through the organization's hierarchy. It 
is used to provide feedback to organizational superiors, inform superiors of
progress toward goals, to relay current problems, and solicit employee
suggestions. It keeps managers in the loop regarding employee thoughts and
perceptions.
 Downward communication: flows from one level of a group or organization to a
lower level in that organization. Typically used by leaders and managers to
assign goals, provide job instructions, inform employees of policies and
procedures, point out problems that need attention, and offer feedback about
 performance.  It can be an effective means for managers to explain the reasons
why a decision was made. Downward communication tends to be one way, i.e.
from manager to employee.
 Lateral communication takes place among members of the same work group,
among members of work groups of the same level of the hierarchy, among
managers at the same level, or between any horizontally equivalent personnel.
Such communications help to facilitate coordination and save time.  These
lateral relationships may be formally sanctioned or, more often, they are
informally created to short-circuit the vertical hierarchy and expedite action.
There are three basic methods of communication - oral, written, and non-verbal.  They
are discussed below:
 Oral communication is the chief means of conveying messages.  Advantages
of oral communications include speed of  sending message and feedback that
can be received quickly, making corrections relatively simple. However, oral
communications are subject to personal interpretation, and when passed
through a number of people, the message received at the final destination may
not be the one that was originally sent.
 Written communication includes any method that conveys written words or
symbols.  It is useful because it provides a tangible and verifiable record of the
communication, message can be referred to for future purposes, and it allows
the sender to communicate a well thought-out, logical and clear message.
 Non-verbal communication  includes body movements, the intonations or
emphasis given to words, facial expressions, and the physical distance between
the sender and the receiver.  It supports other channels of communication and helps to
express emotions and feelings. However, it is often ridden with misperception and can
greatly influence the receiver’s interpretation of the message.
There are a number of barriers to effective communication that can distort the
message being sent. Some of them are as follows:
 Filtering is a common barrier where the sender sorts the information shared so
that it will be seen as more favorable by the receiver.
 Selective perception distort messages when people selectively interpret what
they see based on their own experiences and attitudes.
 Information overload occurs when the information people receive exceed their
capacity to process it all. This leads to barriers to receiving the complete
message.
 A receiver’s emotions can influence interpretation of the message.
 When communicating, words mean different things to different people,
especially when they are not fluent in the language being used to communicate.
This can influence the message significantly, thereby causing confusion
between the sender and the receiver.
 Silence may be misinterpreted by people, thereby affecting communication.
 Some people are nervous about oral or written modes of communication. Their
anxiety impacts clear communication.
 Some people lie. The frequency of the lies combined with the difficulty of
detecting exactly when it is occurring also contribute to poor communication.