Module 1: Understanding The Process of Communication

Communication can be defined as the process of sending and receiving messages that have
meaning. Interpersonal communication is defined as an interactional process in which one person
sends a message to another. First,
for communication to qualify as interpersonal, at least two people must be involved. Second,
interpersonal communication is a process. It usually involves a series of actions. For example,
Kelli talks/Jason listens, Jason responds/Kelli listens, and so on.Third, this process is
interactional. Effective communication is not a one-way street: Both participants send as well as
receive information when they’re interacting.

Some of the traits of communication is as follows:

1) Every communication has an objective: Communication is done to achieve a desired

individual and/or organizational goal. For example, some might attend an interview to get
a job, or make a sales pitch to prospective customer to persuade him to buy the
company’s product, or one might communicate with others to build or nurture a
friendship.

2) Communication establishes an ongoing relationship between two parties—the

sender and the receiver: In most cases, communication is never a one-time deal. There
may be a series of interviews one would have to go through to get a job; one would
almost never close a deal in one shot with a customer. True communication is seldom a
one-off transactional thing.

3) Every communication is made up of a series of communication cycles: Each of these

cycles contributes to the objective, and builds upon the previous cycle. Each
communication cycle is a brick carefully laid with other bricks to achieve the objective of
communication.

Components and Features of the Communication Process

The essential components of the interpersonal communication process includes (1) the sender,
(2) the receiver, (3) the message, (4) the channel through which the message is sent, (5) noise or
interference, and (6) the context in which the message is communicated.
The sender is the person who initiates the message. In a typical two-way conversation, both
people serve as senders (as well as receivers). Each person brings a unique set of expectations
and understandings to each communication situation.

The receiver is the person to whom the message is targeted.

The message refers to the information or meaning that is transmitted from the sender to the
receiver. The message is the content of the communication—that is, the ideas and feelings
conveyed. Two important cognitive processes underlie the transmission of messages: Speakers
encode or transform their ideas and feelings into symbols and organize them into a message;
receivers decode or
translate a speaker’s message into their own ideas and feelings.

The channel refers to the sensory means through which the message reaches the receiver.
Typically, people receive information from multiple channels simultaneously. They not only hear
what the other person says, they also see
the person’s facial expressions, observe his or her gestures, experience eye contact, and
sometimes feel the person’s touch. Sometimes sound is the only channel available for receiving
information—when one talk on the telephone, for instance. Through sound, people hear both the
literal content of messages and vocal inflections. In computer-mediated communication (email,
chat rooms, and so on), only the visual channel is called into play, as individuals communicate in
writing.

Noise refers to any stimulus that interferes with accurately expressing or understanding a
message.Sources of noise include environmental factors (street traffic, loud music, computer
spam or pop-ups, crowded rooms), physical factors (poor hearing, poor vision), and
physiological factors (hunger, headaches, medications). Noise can also have semantic origins.
For instance, profanity, ethnic slurs, or sexist language can cause a listener to disregard the larger
message.

All social communication occurs in and is influenced by a context, the environment in which
communication takes place. Context includes the physical environment—such as location, time
of day, and noise level—and how aconversation takes place: face to face, in a telephone call, or
via the Internet. Other important aspects of context include the nature of the participants’
relationship (work associates, friends, family), their history (previous interactions), their current
mood (happy, stressed), and their cultural backgrounds. In other words, context refers to how
people are influenced by their situations.

MODES OF COMMUNICATION
The different types of communication interactions can be classified into two categories:
synchronous and asynchronous.

Synchronous communication takes place in real time, one have to act and react
to scenarios as events unfold. There is little time to think, reflect and respond.
Synchronous communication can again be classified into face-to-face communication and
non-face-to-face communication. The meetings one attend, the interviews one conduct, the
presentations one make and the classes one conduct in the classroom are all examples of
face-to-face, synchronous communication.
Some of the traits of such communication are:
1) One should perhaps prepare more extensively and thoroughly for such a
communication.When making a face-to-face communication, any mistake one make is
likely to be pounced upon by the audience.

2) One should anticipate the objections and questions the audience may have well in
advance and be prepared with the necessary answers. The audience will in all likelihood
bring up questions and objections that, if it isnt addressed to their satisfaction, will
undermine the credibility and prevent communication from achieving the desired results.

3) One should keep their emotions under tight control. The objections and questions may
turn personal or may be distracting. It is important not to easily give in to the temptation
of ‘getting one back on them’.

4) One should watch out for any tangential deviation from the intended objectives of
communication and be quick to steer the communication back to where one want. Having
this control over the communication process is absolutely essential in this form of
communication.
 5) One have access to studying and inferring from additional sources of information that the
audience provides—inputs that one glean from their posture, their body language, their
facial expressions and so on. One should fully exploit and utilize these other stimuli and
inputs. Actions speak louder than words.

In the second category of synchronous communications comes non-face-to-face synchronous

communication. These are the telephone calls and the chat sessions that people have. In this
valuable cues of body language are lost. One don’t have any mechanism to fathom the implied
meaning of any
spoken word. For example, one cannot look at the enthusiasm (or lack thereof) in the gestures
and body language. People would not be able to look into the eyes of the recipient to make a
judgement as to whether or not he is lying and one would not be able to ascertain his/her interest
levels in the conversation.

In Asynchronous communication the sender and recipient are not necessarily available at the
same time for communication. The e-mails and text messages one send, the proposals and
documents that one write, the faxes one send, the voice-mails one leave, are all examples of
asynchronous communication.

In asynchronous communication, people don’t need to get too concerned about being taken
off-guard with an unexpected question that one would have to respond to in the spur of the
moment. They can take their time and respond back appropriately in an objective, dispassionate
and meaningful way. But at the same time, but there are some disadvantages from the recipient
end, for example, recipient may receive the message when he is not in a good mood and hence
(perhaps unreasonably) take out that anger and vent it on the message and send a nasty and
perhaps unreasonable reply. One don’t hold their audience captive during asynchronous
communication and that may be to speaker’s disadvantage and also might have to produce extra
effort to ensure that recipient reads your entire document or e-mail and gets its underlying
message the way you want him to get it and takes actions that one want him to take. In addition,
compared to face-to-face synchronous communication, one also loses the huge advantage of
observing the non-verbal signals of body language, eye contact, voice modulation and so on.
Finally, asynchronous communication will leave a trail of written proof and hence, one have to
be doubly careful about what you say in asynchronous communication as it may have legal
implications as well.
BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

There are several barriers to communication. These barriers manifest themselves in different
ways and affect different phases of communication.
The table below summarize the common types of barriers to communication and how they affect
the different phases of communication.
DISTORTION THROUGH THE STAGES OF COMMUNICATION
Distortion is anything that causes the recipient to understand, interpret or act upon the
transmitted message in any way different from what the sender intended. Distortions come from
several sources. Every stage can and does add distortion. Distortion feeds on itself. Each
distortion that is added compounds the possibility of misunderstanding exponentially. Eventually
the final message that the recipient gets is completely different from what the sender intended
and hence, the action taken by the recipient is completely different from (and sometimes opposite
of) what the sender actually intended.

Firstly, a sender has to think through what he wants to communicate. There may be problems in
this thought process itself. It is possible that the sender does not have adequate knowledge about
what he wants to communicate. When the original understanding is poor or muddled, the
expression will also be unclear.
The person may have to do more research on the topic and may not have the time or resources to
do it. He may have his personal biases and blind spots that prevent him from thinking along the
right directions to enable effective communication.
A possible antidote to help minimize distortion at this level could be for the speaker to only
communicate about topics he is familiar with (or even passionate about). If he is not fully
familiar
with the topic, he should do sufficient research and dig around and arm himself with the required
information.

The next source of distortion could be in the inability or ineffectiveness on the part of the speaker
to formulate and articulate his thought process effectively. This could come about because of
several factors:

1) Lack of familiarity with the language: This is especially true when the language of
communication is not the speaker’s mother tongue or native language.
 2) Lack of appropriate reinforcing stimuli like body language, eye contact and voice
modulation: These stimuli may not only not reinforce the message but may even
contradict the message.
3) Lack of familiarity with the media of communication: Some people may become ‘stage
conscious’ or ‘camera conscious’. They may be perfectly decent communicators on a
one-on-one basis, but may get put off when they have to speak standing on a podium,
under the glaring lights of a camera or a projector.
4) Creeping in of nervousness while communicating: A fully prepared person may get cold
feet while communicating and this may mar the effectiveness of communication.

The most effective way to overcome the distortion due to ineffective formulation is through
continuous practice. In the case of spoken communication (especially presentations), it is
essential to practice, rehearse and perfect the delivery as much as possible.
Distortion can be introduced by the media of communication. While using phone, the lines may
be bad or while using an e-mail and have painstakingly formatted the message with various fonts
and colors, might get lost because of poor rendering of the e-mail at the recipient’s end. While
using video conferencing, the ghostly, jaded movements may act as a distraction.

Media is just a part of the overall environment. While using a projector with a
remote control, perhaps the lack of familiarity of operating with the remote control can make the
presentation look jaded. To account for such media/environment-related distortions, it is
important to reinforce the message through multiple media. Such redundancy serves to balance
out any possible disadvantages of a single medium. For instance, one can follow up a phone
conversation by a ‘MOM’ or documented minutes of the meeting; a mail exchange with a
personal visit where possible; you can SMS a person if the
mobile signal is not very clear.

Distortion can be caused by the receiver’s inability to understand the message as it was intended.
This can arise from bias or preconceived notions that the receiver may have about either the
subject or you, the speaker. Just as inadequate thinking process can result in distortion, the
receiver’s inadequate thinking process, or lack of knowledge, could also result in distortion.

A possible mitigation strategy to reduce distortion due to this source is to do a thorough audience
analysis. One might have to educate the recipients about the subject matter or get them to have
favourable disposition towards the speakers’ point of view so that they can understand the
message as it was intended.
If a recipient does not understand a message as intended, there is recourse to a feedback loop.
The feedback loop is supposed to minimize distortion. But in geographically distributed teams
(using media like e-mails, phones and chats), the feedback loop is not always used effectively. In
order to use the feedback loop effectively, the recipient should ask questions or for clarifi cations,
paraphrasing what he heard and by the process of active listening.
HOW DISTORTION OCCURS IN VARIOUS BUSINESS-COMMUNICATION
SCENARIOS

Presentations
Distortions sneak into presentations quite easily because of several factors:
1) Nervousness: Presentations can give cold feet to an inexperienced person or sometimes
even to the most seasoned pro. When a person is nervous, the most appropriate words
 don’t always come out and sometimes even the most inappropriate words, that convey the
opposite of what was intended, may be used. All this can lead to distortion.

2) Lack of preparedness: Presentations in which a presenter is confronted with a possibly

heterogeneous audience calls for a lot of preparation. Preparations include audience
analysis and understanding the objectives of communication as well as anticipating the
questions that the audience will ask. If the questions are not anticipated properly, it can
lead to answers that are not clear and can in fact lead to straying away from the message
to be conveyed, thus leading to distortion. Also, when questions are not answered
properly, it erodes the credibility of the speaker and sets in bias in the mind of the
receiver.

3) Ineffective use of visual aids, body language and voice channel: Sometimes the
different channels of communication give conflicting or confusing messages, different
from what is spoken. For example, a slide in a presentation may indicate certain data is
contradictory to the argument being put forth; the body language and/or the voice may
betray a lack of enthusiasm and energy. These can muddle up the message being
conveyed and hence, lead to distortion.

4) Ineffective time management: Time management is crucial to a presentation as much as

to any form of communication. A presentation
has to have a proper closure wherein the presenter stresses the key points. Ineffective
time management, when a presenter spends an undue amount of time in a part of the
presentation, can lead to insufficient time for the closure part and hence the audience may
walk away with different notions than what were intended.

Non verbal communication

Nonverbal communication is the transmission of meaning from one person to another

through means or symbols other than words. Communication at the non verbal level takes
place through a variety of behaviors: interpersonal distance, facial expression, eye
contact, body posture and movement, gestures, physical touch, and tone of voice.

General Principles

1) Nonverbal communication conveys emotions. People can communicate their

feelings without saying a word—for example, “a look that kills.” Nonverbal
demonstrations of positive feelings include sitting or standing close to those you
care for, touching them often, and looking at them frequently.
 2) Nonverbal communication is multichanneled. Non verbal communication
typically involves simultaneous messages sent through a number of channels. For
instance, information may be transmitted through gestures, facial expressions, eye
contact, and vocal tone at the same time. In contrast, verbal communication is
limited to a single channel: speech. while, nonverbal transmissions can sail by the
receiver unnoticed.

3) Nonverbal communication is ambiguous. A shrug or a raised eyebrow can

mean different things to different people. Moreover, receivers may have difficulty
determining whether nonverbal messages are being sent intentionally. Nonverbal
cues are informative, but they are most reliable when accompanied by verbal
messages and embedded in a familiar cultural and social context.

4) Nonverbal communication may contradict verbal messages. At times, people

often shows inconsistency in what they speak and what they show through their
bodies. Because of their greater spontaneity, one can probably heed the nonverbal
signs. Research shows that when someone is instructed to tell a lie, deception is
most readily detected through nonverbal signals.

5) Nonverbal communication is culture-bound.Like language, nonverbal signals

are different in different cultures. Culture influences how people notice, retain,
and decode nonverbal behaviors they witness. For example, people in Asian
countries greet other people by bowing their head with joined hands, while in
Germany a firm handshake is used to greet other people.

Elements of Nonverbal Communication

Nonverbal signals can provide a great deal of information in interpersonal interactions.

Personal Space
Proxemics is the study of people’s use of interpersonal space. Personal space is a zone of space
surrounding a person that is felt to “belong” to that person. Personal space is like an invisible
bubble around individuals in their social interactions. The size of this mobile zone is related to
cultural background, social status, personality, age, and gender.

Distance in relationships is psychological as well as physical. The amount of interpersonal

distance people prefer depends on the nature of the relationship
and the situation. The appropriate distance between people is also regulated by social norms and
varies by culture. For instance, people of Northern
European heritage tend to engage in less physical contact
and keep a greater distance between themselves than people
of Latin or Middle Eastern heritage.

Anthropologist Edward T. Hall (1966) has described four interpersonal distance zones. He
explained, people like to keep a certain amount of distance between
themselves and others. The distance that makes one feel comfortable depends on whom one is
interacting with and the nature of the situation.

Facial Expression
Facial expressions convey emotions. Paul Ekman and Wallace Friesen have identified six
distinctive facial expressions that correspond with six basic emotions: anger, disgust, fear,
happiness, sadness, and surprise. Early research involving participants from many countries
supported the idea that these six emotions are universally recognized. Recent research suggests
that there may also be a seventh distinct facial expression for anxiety that
occurs in ambiguous situations where perceived threats (e.g., feelings of being watched or
followed) are unclear. Anxiety is marked by darting of the eyes and head swivels. As an emotion,
anxiety is often confused with fear, a reaction that occurs when perceived threats are more
apparent (e.g., confronting a snarling dog).

Each society has rules that govern whether and when it is appropriate to express one’s feelings.
Display rules are norms that govern the appropriate display of emotions in a culture. In the
United States, for instance, it is considered bad form to gloat over one’s victories or to show
envy or anger in defeat.Besides cultural differences, there are gender differences in facial
expression. For example, men typically show less facial expression than women do, a finding
linked to social pressures for males to inhibit such displays.

People can deliberately deceive others through facial expression ie., they are better at sending
deceptive messages with their faces than with
other areas of their bodies. As an example,the term “poker face,” an allusion to poker players
who are experts at controlling their excitement about a good hand
of cards (or their dismay about a bad one).

Eye Contact
Eye contact (also called mutual gaze) is another major channel of nonverbal communication. The
duration of eye contact is its most meaningful aspect. Among European Americans, people who
engage in high levels of eye contact are usually judged to have effective social skills and
credibility. Similarly, speakers, interviewers, and experimenters receive higher ratings of
competence when they maintain high rather than low eye contact with their audience. As a rule,
people engage in more eye contact when they’re listening than when they’re talking.

Gaze also communicates the intensity (but not the positivity or negativity) of feelings. For
example, couples who say they are in love spend more time gazing at each other than other
couples do. Also, maintaining moderate (versus constant or no) eye contact with others typically
generates positive feelings in them. When women make eye contact with men, a longer gaze can
generate the latter’s interest, sustaining it when smiling is part of the interaction.

In a negative interpersonal context, a steady gaze becomes a stare that causes most people to feel
uncomfortable. Culture strongly affects patterns of eye contact. For example, direct eye contact
is perceived as an insult in Mexico,
Latin America, Japan, and Africa, and in some Native American tribes. By contrast, people from
Arab countries look directly into the eyes of their conversational partners.

Body Language
Body movements—those of the head, trunk, hands, legs, and feet—also provide nonverbal
avenues of communication. Kinesics is the study of communication through body movements.
By noting a person’s body
movements, observers may be able to tell an individual’s level of tension or relaxation, or
whether a person’s expressed remorse is sincere and genuine or merely fabricated “crocodile
tears”. For instance, frequent touching or scratching suggests nervousness.

Posture also conveys information. It refers to how one stand or sit. Leaning back with arms or
legs arranged in an asymmetrical or “open” position conveys a feeling of relaxation. Posture can
also indicate someone’s attitude. A body leaning toward you typically indicates interest and a
positive attitude. Conversely, a body angled away from you or a position with crossed arms may
indicate a negative attitude or defensiveness.People use hand gestures to describe and emphasize
the words they speak, as well as to persuade. One
might point to give directions or slam their fist on a desk to emphasize an assertion. To convey
“no,” people can extend the index finger of dominant hand and wave it back and forth from left
to right. The meaning of gestures is not universal. For instance, a circle made with thumb and
forefinger means that everything is “OK” to an American but in Germany it means zero or
nothing.

Touch
Touch takes many forms and can express a variety of meanings, including support, consolation,
and sexual intimacy. There are strong norms about where on the body people are allowed to
touch their friends. These norms are quite different for same-gender as opposed to cross-gender
interactions.

Paralanguage
The term paralanguage refers to how something is said rather than to what is said. Thus,
paralanguage includes all vocal cues other than the content of the verbal message itself. Cues to
paralanguage include grunts, sighs, murmurs,
gasps, and other vocal sounds. It can also entail how loudly or softly people speak, how fast they
talk, and the pitch, rhythm, and quality (such as accent, pronunciation, sentence complexity) of
their speech. Each of these vocal characteristics can affect the message being transmitted.

Aspects of vocalization can also communicate emotions. For example, rapid speech may mean
that a person is happy, frightened, or nervous. Slower speech might be used when people are
uncertain or when they want to emphasize a point. Loud vocalization often signals anger. A
relatively high pitch may indicate anxiety. Slow speech, low volume, and low pitch are often
associated with sadness. Thus, vocal quality provides another window on someone’s true
feelings.

COMPONENTS OF VOCAL VARIETY

A good voice (or a vocal channel) can mean the vital difference between engaging the audience
in the communication and lulling them to sleep; between a compelling, persuasive presentation
and a mere ritualistic one; between achieving the objectives of communication and failing in
objectives.

There are certain important constituents of a good voice channel. These are:
Pronunciation and Articulation
Emphasis
Pace
Pitch
Volume
Pause

Pronunciation and Articulation

Pronunciation refers to your ability to utter the words in the same way as is considered standard.
It depends on accent, which may override the ‘standard’ way of pronouncing a word. Also,
pronunciation applies at a word level.

Articulation refers to coherence of the words and phrases in a talk. When a person is articulate,
the message would be easier to understand for the audience. Articulation stems from proper
pronunciation but is more than mere pronunciation. Lack of articulation could arise from several
sources:
1) Excessive speed while talking: When the speaker speaks too fast, it may indicate they
are thinking even faster. Before completing one word, mind has gone on ten words ahead
and the spoken words are trying to catch up. As a result, either some words get missed
out or the ending of one word gets eaten up by the beginning of the next word.

2) Not using your natural or mother tongue: Normally, we tend to think in our natural or
mother tongue first and then translate to the language in which people speak. During this
translation process, we may lose some words, use inappropriate words or say the words
with the wrong emphasis or pronunciation. This results in loss of articulation.

3) Inability to utter certain special letters or sounds: For example, in certain East Asian
cultures, ‘r’ is pronounced as ‘l’. In some regions in India we tend to pronounce ‘r’ as
‘d’. This is not a pronunciation issue per se, but a cultural issue that results in poor
articulation.

Being conscious of some of the barriers to pronunciation and articulation could help work on
them and improve upon them. Clearly articulating every word and phrase in every sentence
makes speech more coherent and understandable.

Emphasis
Emphasis of words is another important tool in this direction. When you have a sentence, not
every word in the sentence is equally important. By emphasizing certain words, one can get the
correct meaning across. Uttering all the words with the same stress, makes it monotonous and
each audience member could potentially walk away with totally different interpretations of the
message.
Pace
Pace refers to how fast one speak. In general, in many cases, higher the pace of speech, the more
persuasive it is. Higher pace gives an aura of confidence for the speaker but also gives less
opportunity for the audience to intervene.The pace with which you speak is decided by several
factors.

1) Passion in the subject: More the passion in the subject matter of communication, higher
the pace is likely to be. When passionate about what one speak, the internal energy levels
tend to be higher and these invariably show up in the pace of the presentation.

2) Speed at which you think: When one possess command and depth in the subjects they
talk,it helps in thinking faster. The speed of speech tries to catch up with your speed of
thought. But it is never going to be really possible, as in general people tend to think 2 to
3 times faster than they speak.

3) Physical energy you possess: Speaking fast requires more energy than speaking at a
slower pace. Some people possess indefatigable energy and can speak really fast for
hours. There may be parts of a talk that would require you to talk fast (and loudly) to
indicate emphasis.

4) Your empathy towards the audience: While one may be a whiz kid in their subject
matter, the audience may not be so. Similarly, the audience may not share levels of
enthusiasm on the subject matter as the speaker does. In communication, it is always
good to empathize with the audience and accordingly pace your communication.

5) Cultural background: Some cultures and languages naturally favour a higher (or lower)
pace of talking. For example, people from South India have a tendency to speak English
faster than native English speakers like the British and the Americans.

Pitch
Pitch refers to how shrill voice is – the baseline frequency of voice. The pitch of your voice is
dictated by the thickness and length of speakers’ vocal chords. When people are under stress,
their voice generally becomes shriller. It is important to recognize natural boundaries and provide
variation within these
boundaries, sufficient enough to be interesting, but not excessive enough to cause strain.

Volume
It refers to the loudness with which one speaks. Volume goes in tandem with other parameters
like speed, pitch, and articulation. When an individual speaks with high speed, will generally
tend to speak in a louder volume. Talking in high pitch and high volume may drain resources
fast. When people don't articulate well (like words blending into one another), it lowers the
volume.

Pauses and Fillers

Periodic pauses during a presentation are essential. These enable to recover breath and also
enable the audience to reflect on what speaker have said. A pause can bring in a certain element
of suspense and anticipation. For instance, seeing the results of the final round of any reality TV
show the announcer would
say ‘the second runner up is...’, then there would be a pause, some suspenseful music would be
played then the name would be announced. A pause can also be used for emphasis and better
comprehension. It can also be used to separate out distinct parts of a presentation and to indicate
that speaker is changing directions. It can also give an opportunity for the audience to reflect on
what you said and ask questions. It will engage the audience more, instead of making them hear
(not listen to) a monologue from you.

Some people try to cover up such long pauses with what are called fillers—the ‘ah’s, or ‘umm’s.
Some even use words like ‘and’, ‘of course’ ‘you know’ and so on as fillers. When there are too
many fillers in a presentation, it not only wastes time, but also distracts the audience.

IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE VOCAL CHANNEL

One of the best ways to cultivate good vocal variety is to awaken the child in oneself; spending
some time and trying to read a nursery rhyme or a kid’s story book introducing a lot of vocal
variety to show emphasis, emotion and variation can help. This helps in getting out of any
inhibitions that might harness the vocal variety.

Speaking, especially with varying volumes, pitch, and so on, requires a lot of physical energy
and good coordination between speaking and breathing organs—lungs , vocal chords, jaws, etc.
Doing some breathing exercises ahead of a speech would be worthwhile. Also, staying fit by
avoiding not-so-healthy food (at least the day before a presentation and on the day of a
presentation) would be useful.

Throat may dry up during a speech. It would be useful to take periodic sips of water during
speech. Speaker can integrate such mini-breaks with intentional pauses after asking the audience
some question so that it can be used to create an air of suspense.