BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

UNIT I

Business Communication, Characteristics and Process of Business Communication

Communication means Transferring the information from one person to another person is

called Communication.

Business Communication means convey the idea, facts, emotions, plan etc. related to

business information through transmission from one person to another person is called

Business Communication

CHARACTERISTICS OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

1. Two way process

2. Continuous Process

3. Sharing information

4. Understand to other person

PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION OR CYCLE OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Feedback of message

Barrier or Brain Drain

Sender Of Message

1. Encoding of message

2. Channel of message

3. Receiver of message

4. Decoding of message

5. Feedback of message

6. Barrier or Brain Drain of message

How to create a successful communication in an organization

In an organization message can be communicate through two way that is oral and written.

There are some important principles which make an effective or successful communication

channel. These are as follows:-

BARRIER OF COMMUNICATION IN AN ORGANISATION

Communicate the message through particular medium which help to fulfill the gap between sender

to receiver, but due to some reasons message cannot be convey to the receiver . These reasons

called barrier of communication. These barriers are as follows which show in a figure.
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INTERPRETATION
BARRIER

EXPLAINATION
BARRIER

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ATTITUDE
BARRIER

EMOTION
BARRIER

POOR RETENTION
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CLOSE MIND
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 1. Wrong Choice of Medium Each communication must be transmitted through an

appropriate medium. An unsuitable medium is one of the

biggest barriers to communication.

Examples: When communication takes place in big organization and departments or division are

far from each other. If any manager wants to communicate with others for confidential matter

than they opt written communication as compared to other medium of communication. So, it is

required that medium should be accurate and if wrong or unsuitable medium is selected

than it leads to the biggest barrier to communication.

2. Physical Barriers

a. •Noise—In factory, oral communication is rendered difficult by the loud noise of

machines.

•Electronic noise interferes in communication by telephone or loud speaker system. The word

noise is also used to refer to all kind of physical interference like illegible handwriting, bad

photo-copies etc.

b. •Time and distance.—Congestion in telephone and network facilities.—People

working in different shifts.—Faulty seating arrangement in a hall.

3. Semantic Barriers

a. •Interpretation of words person interprets same word in a different meaning and this

will cause barrier between the communications. Murphy and Peck in their book

‘Effective Business Communication ‘mentioned, the little word ‘run’ has71 meanings

as a verb35 as noun4 more as an adjective.

Bypassed instructions Bypassing is said to have occurred if the sender and the receiver of the

message attribute different meanings to the same word or use different words for the same

meaning.“Take it to be our stockroom and burn it “In official language burn it means to make

more copies of the same document.

b. Denotation & Connotations Words have two types of meanings denotative and

connotative. Denotative—the literal meaning of a word is called its denotative

meaning. It must inform and names objects without indicating any positive or

negative. Connotative—It allows qualitative judgments and personal reactions. Like—

Honest, cheap, sincere etc.Ex:—“He gave us cheap material”.“At this shop, they sell

things cheap”. First one is favorable connotation and second is unfavourable.To

avoid this problem (By passed instruction and connotative meaning of words)

the followings can be used:❖Prefer words which are familiar to the receiver. If words

are unfamiliar to the receiver, we should make meanings clear the very first time we

use it. We should choose words with positive rather than negative connotation.

4. Psychological or Emotional Barriers refers to the psychological state i.e. Opinions,

attitudes, status consciousness, emotions, etc. of a person that deeply affects the

ability to communicate. The communication largely depends on the mental condition

of a person, if the person is not mentally or emotionally sound, then he cannot

communicate effectively either as a sender or a receiver.

The main kinds of Psychological or Emotional Barriers are:

 a. Lack of Attention: When the person is pre-occupied by some other things and do not

listen carefully what the other person is speaking, then arises the psychological barrier in

the communication. When the person does not listen to others, then he won’t be able to

comprehend the message as it was intended and will not be able to give proper

feedback.

b. Premature Evaluation: Many people have a tendency to jump to the conclusions directly

and form judgments without considering all the aspects of information. This is generally

done by the people who are impatient and resort to a selective listening. This premature

evaluation of the information acts as a barrier to the effective communication and lowers the

morale of the sender.

c. Poor Retention: The retention refers to the capacity of a brain to retain or store things in

the memory. The brain does not store all the information came across but in fact, retain only

those which deems to be helpful in the future. Therefore, much of the information gets lost

during the retention process, and this acts as a barrier to the effective communication.
d. Loss by Transmission: The loss by transmission means, whenever the information

exchanges hand its credibility reduces. It is most often observed in the case of an oral

communication where people handle information carelessly and transmits the information

which has lost some of its truth. Thus, the improper and lack of information being

transmitted to others acts as a hindrance in the communication process.

e. Distrust: To have an effective communication, it is must that both the communicators

(sender and receiver) trust each other. In case there is a lack of trust between both the

parties, then they will tend to derive negative meaning out of the message and often ignore

what has been communicated. If the receiver has no trust, then he will not listen to whatever

is being said by the sender, and this will result in a meaningless communication.

f. Emotions: The communication is greatly influenced by the emotions of a person. If a

person is not in a good temperament, then he would not listen properly to whatever is said

and might say things offending the sender. Several other emotions such as anger,

nervousness, confusion, restlessness, etc. affects the communication process.

Thus, every human being has a unique mind which is composed of varied emotions, beliefs,

perceptions, opinions, and thoughts that facilitate different forms of communication.

Question4:- Explain the following statement:

A. Vertical communication

B. Horizontal communication

C. Consensus communication

D. Grapevine communication.

E. Non verbal communication

F. Formal communication

G. Informal communication

A. Vertical communication:- A communication that exists between superior and

subordinate can be termed as vertical communication. When

the communication process flows from upward to downward in other word from

superior to subordinate it is called downward communication.

B. Horizontal Communication:  Horizontal communication is the transmission of

information between people, divisions, departments or units within the same level of

organizational hierarchy

C. Consensus communication is based on mutual consideration and respect on the

part of the members of a group. It involves consultation. Consensus is arrived at after

the discussion of a problem and after careful consideration of possible solution to the

problem. Once a final decision is taken, and all the parties agree to stand by it,

consensus is said to have been reached.

D. Grapevine is a form of informal communication, operates both in internal and

external informal channels which can contribute to and benefit the organization.

Therefore, it is found in all organizations. It does not follow any prescribed or

predetermined rule and spreads any information quickly.

E. Nonverbal communication refers to gestures, facial expressions, tone of voice, eye

contact (or lack thereof), body language, posture, and other ways people

can communicate without using language.

F.  Formal Communication is the exchange of official information that flows along the

different levels of the organizational hierarchy and conforms to the prescribed

professional rules, policy, standards, processes and regulations of the organization.

G. Informal communication in the workplace is communication that takes place

outside the formal, communication structures of the workplace. Some people refer

to informal communication as the 'grapevine.'