Effective Communication and Its Importance - Coursework Example

COMMUNICATION AND ITS IMPORTANCE Introduction Communication is a skill that is learned. Even though some people are born with this skill, they cannot freely communicate without developing and refining this ability further. Most often, people take communication for granted to the extent that they forget the complication involved. According to Kaul, “communication is a two-way process in which there is an exchange and progression of ideas towards a mutually accepted direction or goal” (2000, p. 2). For communication to be achieved, there are important elements that need to be considered, for example source, destination, message, medium and feedback. Biblically, communication existed among the creators of the universe. This shows that communication took place a long time ago among the trinity when they said, “let there be light”, “let there be heaven and earth” (Weekley, 1967, p.338 as cited by Slater, n.d., p.1). Communication is related to communion and community. It comes from Latin word communicare, which means to make something common (Weekley, 1967, p.338 as cited by Slater, n.d., p.1). Communication is an ongoing process emphasizing that it is always changing, therefore a key concept in communication is change. Steinberg says that “it is dynamic, never ending and ever changing. It does not have a beginning or an end, nor does it follow a fixed sequence of events” (2007, p. 40). In another definition, it’s given as the sharing of feelings, ideas and opinions with others. Man is a social being and as we live in groups, sharing of ideas is phenomenal. In all models and forms of communication, there is two-way traffic between the speaker and receiver of the message. For spoken communication, there is verbal emission and verbal receiver. In written communication, there is a writer and a reader, whereas in visualization and observation, there is inclusion of signs. Communication serves as follows; it “motivates, suggests, warns, orders, changes behaviour, and establishes better relationships, to make interaction meaningful and make one self-understood” (Ashalatha, n.d.). A successful communication is the one that has been acknowledged by the receiver. Since communication involves interaction, it encourages exchange of ideas to the point of making all experiences common. This interactive nature pertain the fact that sending and receiving of messages is connected through space and time. Communication not only exists in human beings; it is available across all nature. Communication is seen as a linear sequence of events transmitted from one person to the other. Technically, communication is the sending and receiving of messages. Solving engineering problems does not describe the complexity of communication or the human aspect of communication (Steinberg, 2007). The ability of humans to communicate distinguishes them from other forms of life and it is a central aspect in human life. All human beings have thoughts and ideas which they would like to communicate. The choice of words, pictures and symbols are very essential to make people convey information effectively. The following steps define a communication model: Source of information, where the message is produced. Transmitter and encoder which encodes a message. A channel which transmits the message. A receiver to decode the encoded message. Destination, where the message is intended to arrive. Noise, which is a dysfunctional factor in the process of communication and involves an external element. Communication requires that all parties understand each another through a common language. According to Ashalatha, “there are auditory means, such as speaking or singing, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, or the use of writing” (n.d., p. 3). Communication is sceptical thus it is a bi-directional process. Its chain involves physiological and physical factors and application of effort by humans. Articulator organs are involved in this process. All living beings produce sound for communication. The sound gets transited as waves in the air and is finally received by a decoder. The receiver on the other end may be a machine or human being who has the ability to interpret and decode the message. Effective Communication Effective communication is crucial for the success of an individual and organisations. It is therefore fundamental to organisations. The ways in which organisations communicate within and across the world influence their competition. In order that one delivers an effective message, he is required to translate the information in away that is specifically designed for the targeted audience. An effective message is delivered through a communication process. One thing to remember during communication is that the message may become misinterpreted. To avoid this, it requires that the message is carefully prepared and delivered Effective communication is essential to all organisations. It makes it possible to motivate individuals to work together. Even the use of best electronic communication systems fails if people do not communicate and work together. Through effective communication, people reach to one another and therefore it is easy to achieve their goals. All organizations consider effective communication as fundamental for survival. Without communication, organisations would not exist. Businesses engage in a wide range of communication activities and therefore communication within an organisation has to be as effective as possible. It does not matter how brilliant and invaluable a person’s idea is, it is worthless unless it is shared with others. This calls for effective communication in an organization. Effective communication is a skill and requires practice. Without proper communication, messages are lost through translation. Effective communication relies on the richness of the ideas. It is boosted by skills that one relies on. It is self-evident that when people from different languages meet, it is hard for them to converse. At times, people from a similar language can have difficulty in communication. When there are too many ways of passing messages, then there is complication in the final message delivered. Effective communication is enriched when the sender communicates with the recipient with existence of correlation between what the sender is thinking about and what the receiver is also thinking about. The requirement for this is a set of consistent correlated messages. Effective communications are the ingredients of safe and effective operations. Barriers to Communication A communication barrier is something that keeps the meaning of information from being understood. It exists between people and becomes more difficult than the way people may think to exist. “Hurdles or problems which affect the transmission of information from the sender to the receiver in the communication process are called communication barriers” (Koneru, n.d., p. 22). It is wrong to assume that communication is easy because when such an assumption becomes otherwise, it causes difficulty. It makes one fail to deal with the difficulty because he was not prepared. Stressed people are more subjected to communication barriers in their conversation. All in all, it is understandable that there are numerous problems and hurdles and frequent errors that often come in the way of communication (Koneru, n.d.). Several kinds of communication barriers prevent people from communicating properly. It is therefore necessary to understand communication problems so that workable steps can be incorporated to eliminate them. Physical barriers: Physical barriers result in physical noise. In most cases, they are as a result of physical disturbances that cause distractions in the surrounding environment leading to the physical noise. It is important to eliminate the source of noise to avoid distracting elements which make the entire communication process ineffective. Psychological barriers: This is the mental interrupt that prevents relaying of the information. It could be caused by preoccupation, fatigue, and anxiety. This kind of a barrier can be eliminated by ensuring that the level of the sender and the receiver is the same. It is often more easy for a peer groups to communicate than members of different groups. Semantic barriers: This is the selection of unsuitable and improper words to form a sentence. Such sentence proves to be detrimental to effective communication. According to Koneru, “the absence of clarity and precision are use of connotative words, vague words, ambiguous words and abstract words “(n.d., p. 24). Many times, people communicating insert negative words and ideas that make others feel heavy inside. It may occur as a result of communicating with a boring person who has a boring content or stories one would not care to listen to. Communication can therefore be interrupted by poor first impression. Communication barriers can also be classified as external and internal barriers. The external barriers are attributed to the circumstances outside the sender and the receiver. Examples are lighting, weather and noise. Sometimes, a document may cause a communication barrier due to its appearance, a condition that causes one to make errors. In a working environment, openness to people’s ideas makes the employees feel appreciated, but when their ideas are shuttered, the working environment makes communication harder. Internal barriers are the conditions within the sender and the receiver and that hinder communication. They are caused by differences in the level of education, experience and biases among the people (Means, 2009, p. 11). Use of two way communication creates a dialogue that helps reduce misunderstandings through communication of feelings and facts. It eliminates communication barriers since it builds connection among the people (Dubrin, 2011). The interaction also makes clear what the other person could not understand. Communications barriers can also be eliminated by use of elicit verbal and nonverbal feedback. This enables one to confirm the clarity of the message passed, and it is a recommended managerial practice. Nonverbal communication is also essential as it ensures that one is following whatever it is being communicated. Another way of reducing communication barriers is by enhancing listening skills; this is much applicable to managers since they need to get much information so as to provide solutions to matters arising in organisations. Das (n.d.) further adds that for communication to be effective, it is important to ensure that the message conveyed is clear in the mind of the communicator. The message should be adequate and appropriate to the purpose of the communication. Semantic barriers can be avoided by use of simple, brief and clear language. Since communication is between the sender and the receiver, the barriers can be eliminated at either point. The sender has to make good choice of verbal and nonverbal functions to apply by analysing and understanding the audience, understanding the environment, using symbols that would be understood by the receiver, and encouraging the use of feedback. Verbal and Nonverbal Communication Nonverbal communication is a basic occurrence often being an aspect of behaviour emerging from the first day of life. It can be relayed through gestures and touch. Postures and movements too express nonverbal communication. Any nonverbal communication can be translated into verbal communication. It is more primitive, less adequate and less explicit (Key, 1980). Nonverbal form of communication occurs in the absence of the verbal communication and therefore it is regarded redundant in the presence of verbal communication. This kind of communication is most common among children before having full verbal communication, but it decreases as the child grows therefore according to Key, “nonverbal communication behaviours occur when appropriate verbal forms are unavailable” (1980, p. 275). Nonverbal communication occurs in the absence of verbal communication and it later becomes verbal communication. Before early humans developed spoken language, they could still communicate. This is because there was lack of words but there were forms of expression. After development of language, human beings still communicated through expressions. Words convey facts and information, while body language communicates feelings, emotions and attitude (Sonneborn, 2012, p. 11). Nonverbal communication is passed through haptic communication which is communication through touch and gestures, as well as facial and eye contact. Speech has nonverbal components called paralanguage. These are emotion, style, rhythm, and stress. Nonverbal communication is less structured as compared to verbal communication. The most positive thing about it is that it reflects the communicator’s true feelings. Nonverbal communication proves to be more effective since gestures and body language can be easily registered. When combined with the verbal communication, it makes communication more presentable, efficient and appealing to many audiences. Verbal communication is not as limited as the nonverbal counterpart; its message is more structured, sequential and is meaningful since the words used are well arranged in a meaningful way that observes the grammatical rules. The conveyance can be verbal or written. Appendix Models of Communication Linear and nonlinear models of communication Oral and media systems are classified into non-linear and linear communication models. Linear models represent one direction flow of information from speaker to the audience irrespective of effect (Narula, 2006, p. 13). In non-linear models, the message flow is bidirectional. Linear models were mostly used during the early times of communication. Linear models were designed for experiments and have limitations which come from the facts that they do not have a cyclical process, are biased towards the source of information rather than those who communicate, and lay focus on the message rather than punctuations and timings. Nonlinear models follow the cybernetic principle characterised by information concept, feedback, networks and information purpose. Network circuits are most important in information circulation as individuals are interconnected; the feedback produces a response due to the input and then generates a reaction as a modification to subsequent behaviour. Linear models could be both vertical and horizontal, while nonlinear models are circular and have convergence. References Ashalatha, D., n.d. Concept of Communication [pdf]. Available at: [Accessed 13 November 2014]. Das, B., n.d. Business Communication. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Dubrin, A., 2011. Essentials of Management. Canada: Cengage learning. Kaul, A., 2000. Effective Business Communication. New Delhi: PHI Learning. Key M. R., 1980. The Relationship of Verbal and Nonverbal Communication. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. Koneru, A., n.d. Professional Communication. Noida, Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Means T., 2009. Business Communication. Canada: Cengage Learning. Narula U., 2006. Handbook of Communication Models, Perspectives, Strategies. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Dist. Slater T., n.d. A Definition and Model for Communication. [pdf] InfoAmerica. Available at: [Accessed 13 November 2014]. Sonneborn, L., 2012. Nonverbal Communication: The Art of Body Language. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group. Steinberg S., 2007. An Introduction to Communication Studies. Cape Town: Juta and Company Ltd. Read More