CHAPTER ONE

COMMUNICATION-AN OVERVIEW

1.1 Meaning of Communication

The term communication is derived from the Latin word “Communis”, which means common.
Literally, to communicate means to tell, show, spread and inform.

As communication is a much more complex factor in our present world, not surprisingly, the problem
of defining it as a subject of study has also become increasingly difficult. For our purposes, however,
we can define communication as:

The process by which people attempt to share meaning (ideas, feeling, thought, experience,
knowledge, skill, etc) for some purpose through the transmission of symbolic messages.

Our working definition of communication calls attention to the following five essential points.

1. Communication is a process

Communication refers to a series of activities to be accomplished in a sequence; it does not refer to

incidental events and transactions among people.

2. Communication is purposeful

When senders - receivers communicate the sender originally should have an objective to be checked
at the end of the communication process. Communication is not just the transfer of messages but
purposeful transfer of messages between senders and receivers. Thus it does not refer to incidental
transactions between people

3. Communication involves people

Communication shows the degree of understanding among senders-receivers and how they relate to
each other. Therefore, it refers to communication among people only and the exchange of
interpersonal behaviors among them.

4. Communication involves shared meaning

This suggests that in order for people to communicate, they must agree on the definitions of the terms
and symbols they are using. The symbols used by the sender should be similarly interpreted by the
receiver in order to ensure equal or similar understanding between them.

5. Communication is symbolic

In communication symbols such as, letters, numbers, words, gestures, sound, etc can only represent or
approximate the ideas they are meant to communicate. In other words symbols are not perfect
representations of our ideas. Thus we have to take care in selecting symbols that best approximate the
sender’s ideas.

Communication is vital to human existence. It is how we pass on to others our thoughts and feelings,
tell them what we want them to do, ask them to help us, share with them our knowledge and
experience. Without communication we would each live as if alone in the world.

1.2. Nature/Characteristics of Communication

As articulated by Gerald Miller, communication has three basic characteristics: dynamism, uniqueness
and transactional nature.

Dynamism

Every communication event stems from a series of past events and triggers a series of new ones.
Communication is affected by prior attitudes, planned thoughts and people to whom the message is
addressed. It is thus a dynamic phenomenon without beginning, without end, continually responding,
and continually changing.

Uniqueness

Evolving naturally from the notion of dynamism is the concept of uniqueness. No two communication
events are a like because of the change in the sender, the audience, delivery, time situation etc.

Transactional Nature

Communication scholars Wenberg and Wilmot mentioned that in communication all persons are
engaged in sending (encoding) and receiving (decoding) messages simultaneously. Each person is
affecting the other. Each communication transaction involves reciprocal exchanges of feelings,
meanings, ideas and responses.
1.3. Significances of Communication

To be specific communication serves the following three purposes in personal or individual life.

Job Success

The two dimensions of management most often cited as the keys to individual and organizational
success are technical ability and understanding of people. Effective communication skills to listen,
speak, and write complement these two dimensions. Therefore enhance ones job success, a person
learn the art of human relations to effectively communicate her/his ideas, experiences, thoughts, skills
and feelings.

Mastery on a certain area goes beyond vocational success or promotion, i.e. personal satisfaction.
Thus communication skill can be a source of personal satisfaction, particularly in the areas of art such
as writing, painting, etc.

Meeting Social and Ethical obligations

A person may be in conflict with him/herself, with other people, and/or with the community at large.

With the help of communication people continue adjusting profitably to themselves, to other people,
to the environment in which they live and work. It is a means of winning respect and confidence from
other people or from the community at large.

As you attempt to fulfil yourself in business and in the private aspect of your life, your brain enables
you to identify, classify, relate and solve issues. But in responding to your environment, you generate
both emotions and ideas. You feel as well as think. Through such experiences you continue adjusting
profitably to yourself to other people, to the environment in which you and they live, cooperate and
compete. In brief, effective communication is a key to success in personal life and in business career.
Communication is essential to each of the five basic functions of management. In order to plan,
organize, staff, direct and control, managers must be able to communicate with other persons- and
communicate well. Information from others helps formulate plans; information provided to others
defines job assignments and helps organize work; information on standards, progress and personal
factors fulfils the directing function; while information in the form of written and oral progress reports
is a fundamental element in controlling. Communication is a linking process that enables each of the
basic functions of management to be carried. Effective communication is therefore the “life blood” of
every organization.

We already have made the claim that communication is vital to the very existence of an organization.
To understand the validity of that claim, one must understand the role communication plays in an
organization’s life. The following figure tries to illustrate specific elements of that role.
To the right of the figure are the elements comprising an organization’s productivity: the quality of
the work done in the organization, the quantity of the work done, the personnel related costs involved
in getting the work done (such as turnover or absenteeism among employees), and the non-personnel
related costs of getting work done (such as wasted materials, scrap, and so on). Naturally,
organizations want to improve productivity by maximizing the quality and quantity of work
completed and minimizing the personnel and non-personnel costs involved in work performance. Just
to the left is the primary factor that determines productivity in organizations the employee’s job
performance. What employees do in the workplace determines how much work gets done and how
well it is done, how costly their own behaviors are and to a large extent, how much is spent on
materials and equipment.

The key elements translating motivation, direction, ability and resources into job performance are in
the middle of the figure: perceptions and attitudes. In short what employees do at work id determined
largely by how they perceive the work environment and how they feel about work. Often employees
misunderstand instructions given to them, and errors in their job performance are the predictable
result. Just as often, the organization fails to communicate expectations clearly to employees. Those
employees in turn perform as they think the organization wants them to relying on their perceptions
(or just plain luck) to guide their efforts. Finally, employees have attitudes toward all elements of their
work lives their jobs, their working conditions, their supervisors their co-workers, their promotional
opportunities their pay and benefits, and so on. Those attitudes influence their willingness to work
effectively and their commitment to the organization’s goals and objectives. For example, employees
who feel they are not being paid a competitive wage may not work very hard and employees who
actively dislike their immediate supervisors may even do things destructive to the company, such as
sabotaging equipment or stealing supplies. Employees’ job performances therefore stem directly from
their attitudes and perceptions. Where do those attitudes and perceptions come from? Communication,
in the form of the things employees hear from management, supervisors and their coworkers, the
things employees hear about their organization from outside sources, the written and oral guidelines
with which employees are provided; the instructions that employees receive. All this and more
comprises the communication in which employees participate every day. By shaping employee’s
attitudes and perceptions communication serves to convert external communication from the work
environment into internal thoughts and feelings that in turn, control, employee’s behaviors.