COMMUNICATION

UNIT- 1
“The most important thing in
communication is to hear what isn't
being said.” ― Peter Drucker
THANK YOU
 What is communication?

• What do you think communication is?

• How would you define it?
 COMMUNICATION
• Communication is defined as the interchange
of thoughts or opinions through shared
symbols; e.g. language, words, phrases
• Some synonyms of the word communication
are: message, directive, word, contact,
commerce, communion, intercommunication,
converse, exchange, interchange, conversing,
discussing, talking; conversation, discussion,
talk, advice, intelligence, news, tidings
 Why Study Communication?
• The Only Completely Portable Skill
• You will use it in every relationship
• You will need it regardless of your career path
• The “Information Age”
• The history of civilization is the history of
information
• Language and written documents facilitate the
transfer of information and knowledge through
time and space
• Your Quality of Life Depends Primarily on Your
Communication Skills
• People Overestimate Their Own
Communication Skills
 History of Communication
• Nonverbal: 150,000 years
• Oral: 55,000 years
• Written: 6,000 years
• Early writing: 4000 BC
• Egyptian hieroglyphics ( Use of symbols and
pictures): 3000 BC
• Phoenician alphabet: 1500 to 2000 BC
• Book printing in China: 600 BC
• Book printing in Europe: 1400 AD
 Why we communicate
• We communicate to:
• Share our ideas and opinions
• Provide feedback to others
• Get information from others
• Gain power and influence
• Develop social relationships
• Maintain self-expression and our culture and
other ideas you may have thought of
 How we communicate
• We communicate and build interpersonal
relationships through:
• Speech
• Writing
• Listening
• Non-verbal language
• Music, art, and crafts
 Choosing your medium
Depending upon the situation, one method of
communication may be better than another.
• In person: one-to-one
• In person: meetings, small groups
• In person: presentations, large groups
• Letter
• Memo
• Note
• Email
• Voice mail
 Choosing your medium
To determine the best medium for your
message determine:
• What you as the sender need to achieve
• What the receiver needs to know. What the
receiver wants to know
• How detailed, important, and or personal the
information in the message is
• Which behavior you want to influence and
how.
Shannon and Weaver model of
Communication
 Shannon Weaver Model of
Communication
• In 1948, Shannon was an American
mathematician, Electronic engineer and
Weaver was an American scientist both of
them join together to write an article in “Bell
System Technical Journal” called “A
Mathematical Theory of Communication” and
also called as “Shannon-Weaver model of
communication”.
• This model is specially designed to develop
the effective communication between sender
and receiver.
• Also they find factors which affecting the
communication process called “Noise”.
• At first the model was developed to improve
the Technical communication. Later it’s widely
applied in the field of Communication.
 ELEMENTS OF COMMUNICATION
• Message
• Sender
• Encoding
• Channel
• Decoding
• Receiver
• Feedback
7 Cs of Effective Communication
 Completeness
The message must be complete. It should
convey all the facts required by the audience.
The sender of the message must take into
consideration the receiver and should
communicate all the facts and figures related
to the message.
 Conciseness
• Conciseness means communicating what you want
to convey in least possible words. Conciseness is a
necessity for effective communication. Concise
communication has following features:
– It is both time-saving as well as cost-saving.
– It underlines and highlights the main message.
– Concise communication provides short and essential
message in limited words to the audience.
– Concise message is more appealing and comprehensible to
the audience.
 Consideration
Consideration implies “stepping into the shoes of
others”. Effective communication must take the
audience into consideration, i.e, the audience’s view
points, background, mind-set, education level, etc.
Make an attempt to envisage your audience, their
requirements, emotions as well as problems. Ensure
that the self-respect of the audience is maintained
and their emotions are not at harm.
 Clarity
• Clarity implies emphasizing on a specific message or
goal at a time, rather than trying to achieve too
much at once. Clarity in communication has
following features:
– It makes understanding easier.
– Complete clarity of thoughts and ideas enhances
the meaning of message.
• Clear message makes use of exact, appropriate and
concrete words
 Concreteness
• Concrete communication implies being particular
and clear rather than fuzzy and general.
Concreteness strengthens the confidence. Concrete
message has following features:
– It is supported with specific facts and figures.
– It makes use of words that are clear and that build
the reputation.
• Concrete messages are not misinterpreted
 Courtesy
• Courtesy in message implies the message should show
the sender’s expression as well as should respect the
receiver. The sender of the message should be sincerely
polite, judicious, reflective and enthusiastic. Courteous
message has following features:
– Courtesy implies taking into consideration both viewpoints as
well as feelings of the receiver of the message.
– Courteous message is positive and focused at the audience.
– It makes use of terms showing respect for the receiver of
message.
• It is not at all biased
 Correctness
• Correctness in communication implies that there are no
grammatical errors in communication. Correct
communication has following features:
– The message is exact, correct and well-timed.
– If the communication is correct, it boosts up the
confidence level.
– Correct message has greater impact on the audience/
readers.
– It checks for the precision and accurateness of facts
and figures used in the message.
– It makes use of appropriate and correct language in
the message.
 BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
• Problems/ barriers/ breakdowns may arise at any of
the following levels:
(a) The sender's level in
(i) formulating/ organizing thought, ideas, messages
(ii) encoding the message

(b) The receiver's level in

(i) receiving the message;
(ii) decoding the received message;
(iii) understanding/interpreting the message.
(c)Transmission level where 'noise' occurs.

(d)The feedback/reaction level that is a

necessary condition of the completion of the
process.
 Barriers
• A barrier is something that exists between one
thing or person and another and keeps them
separate.
• Also called interference that can enter into the
communication process.
• Each communication must be transmitted
through an appropriate medium. An
unsuitable medium is one of the biggest
barriers to communication
 CASE 1
• A salesman has to submit a report on the
comparative sales figures of the last five years.
If he writes a lengthy paragraph incorporat­ing
the information, or talks on the phone, he will
fail to communi­cate anything.
• He should present the figures in a tabular
form, or preferably make a bar diagram,
which will make communication an
instantaneous process.
 CASE 2
• An employee wants to express his regrets to
his supervisor over his misconduct.
• In this case, written explanation alone may
prove to be ineffective. Face-to-face
communication will probably be the best. Let
him speak very little, but let him look
remorseful; his supervi­sor will be satisfied and
the whole matter will be amicably settled.
 CASE 3
• A manager wants to compliment an employee
for a distinguished performance. Shall he send
a peon with a memo?
• The manager should choose a medium that
transmits his compliments with a personal
touch.
 BARRIERS
• Physical barriers
• Semantic barriers
• Psychological barriers
• Cultural barriers
• Organizational barriers
• Gender barriers
 Physical Barriers
• Obstacle that prevents movement or the flow
of message physically.
• Anything that impedes your progress or
movement physically.
For example
• Power off while working.
• Unwanted sound while meeting.
• Network down while mailing etc…..
• Noise
• Time
• Distance
• Objects
• Landscape
 Semantic Barriers
• Badly Expressed Message
 inadequate vocabulary
 usage of wrong words
• Faulty translations
 translator has to be proficient with both the languages
• Symbols with Different Meanings
 the term “round” has 110 diff. meanings
• It is quite possible that the receiver of the
message does not assign the same meaning to a
word as the transmitter had intended.
• Murphy and Peck in their book Effective Business
Communications mention that in an abridged dic­
tionary, the little word 'run' has 71 meanings as a verb,
another 35 as a noun, and 4 more as an adjective. If
this word occurs in a message, the re­ceiver is at liberty
to interpret it in any of the 110 senses.
• Use Of technical Jargon
• Symbols or words with different meanings
• Unqualified Assumptions
• Body language and gesture decoding
 Psychological Barriers
An inattentive receiver

Self- Centred attitude of receiver

Defensiveness
• Examples: people not paying attention
because they are absorbed in their own
thoughts, jumping to conclusions, faking
attention, yielding to distractions,
overreacting to emotional words and tuning
out topics that one considers to be dull.
 Cultural Barriers
There are some issues that can separate one person from another and can
create barrier between them.
• Age
• Religion
• Education
• Gender
• Social status, standards
• Economic position
• Cultural background
• Popularity, priority
• Political belief
• Ethics, values, motives
• Rules/regulations
 Organizational barriers
Organizational structure greatly affects the capability of the employees as far
as the communication is concerned. Some major organizational hindrances in
the way of communication are the following:-

Organizational Policies
Rules and regulations
Status
Complexity
Organizational facilities
Reasons of Occurrence of Barrier in Communication

Getting distracted
Daydreaming
Interrupting
Listening only to contents ,not the feelings
Not attending to non verbal clues
Prejudging the speaker
Jumping to conclusions
Talking, not listening
Failing to express opinion
Tone of voice
Talking too fast
Being judgmental
Body language
 Steps to Overcome Barriers
Use proper of channel of communication (print, audio,
video or audio- visual)

Hit the right audience

Credibility actions speak louder than words

Blah..
Bla bla…

Follow- up Action
Common Causes of
Unethical Behavior
• Pressure
• Fear
• Greed
• Convenience
 Discussion:
Communication Matters
• “The Truth, The Whole Truth,
and Nothing But The Truth…”
– Why do people lie ?