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Communication
 Introduction
No individual, group, or organization can exist without sharing meaning among
its members. So, for sharing information, communication should be effective.
Effective communication, if it existed, would occur when a thought or idea
was transmitted so the receiver perceived exactly the same mental picture
as the sender.

 What Is Communication?
Communication is the transfer and understanding of meaning. Communication
encompasses both interpersonal communication-communication between two or
more people-and organizational communication, which is all the patterns,
networks, and systems of communication within an organization. Both types are
important to managers.

 Functions of Communication
Communication serves four major functions: control, motivation, emotional
expression, and information. Each function is equally important.

- Communication acts to control employee behavior in several ways.

Organizations have authority hierarchies and formal guidelines that
employees are expected to follow. Informal communication also controls
behavior.

- Communication acts to motivate by clarifying to employees what is to be

done, how well they're doing, and what can be done to improve performance.
As employees set specific goals, work toward those goals, and receive
feedback on progress toward goals, communication is required.

- For many employees, their work group is a primary source of social

interaction. Communication provides emotional expression of feelings and
for fulfillment of social needs.

- Finally, individuals and groups need information to get things done in

organizations. Communication provides that information.

 The interpersonal communication process

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Before communication can take place it needs a purpose, a message to be

conveyed between a sender and a receiver. The sender encodes the message
(converts it to a symbolic form) and passes it through a medium (channel) to the
receiver, who decodes it. The result is transfer of meaning from one person to
another. Exhibit show the interpersonal communication process model.

As can be seen at Exhibit, there are some key parts of the communication
process as follow:
(1) The sender: initiates a message by encoding a thought.
(2) Encoding: Converting a message into symbols
(3) The message: Massage is the actual physical product of the sender's
encoding. When we speak, the speech is the message. When we write,
the writing is the message. foncon
(4) The channel: Communication channel is the medium through which the
message travels. The sender selects it, determining whether to use a
formal or informal channel. Formal channels are established by the
organization and transmit messages related to the professional activities o
members. They traditionally follow the authority chain within the
organization. Other forms of messages, such as personal or social, follow
informal channels, which emerge as a response to individual choices.
(5) Decoding: Retranslating a sender's message
(6) The receiver: Receiver is the person(s) to whom the message is directed,
who must first translate the symbols into understandable form.
(7) Noise: Any disturbances that interfere with the transmission, receipt, or
feedback of a message.
(8) Feedback: is the check on how successful we have been in transferring
our messages as originally intended. It determines whether understanding
has been achieved.

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 Organizational communication
Organizational communication represents all the patterns, networks, and
systems of communication within an organization.

- Types of organizational communication

Communication within an organization is described as formal or informal.

A) Formal communication refers to communication that takes place within

organizational work arrangements. When, a manager asks an employee to
complete a task, that's formal communication.
B) Informal communication is an organizational communication not
defined by the organization's structural hierarchy. When employees talk
with each other, they engage in informal communication. Employees
form friendships and communicate with each other. The informal
communication system achieves two purposes in organizations: (1) it
encourages employees to satisfy their need for social interaction, and (2)
it can improve an organization's performance by creating alternatives, and
frequently faster and more efficient, channels of communication.

- Directions of communication
Organizational communication can flow vertically across the different
organizational levels or laterally through the same organizational level. Exhibit
shows the directions of organizational communication process.

i. Vertical communication
The vertical communication can be categorized to the downward
communications and the upward communications.

A) Downward communication
Communication that flows from one level of a group or organization to a lower
level is a downward communication. It's used to inform, direct, coordinate, and
evaluate employees. When managers assign goals to their employees, they're
using downward communication. They're also using downward communication
when providing employees with job descriptions, informing them of
organizational policies and procedures, pointing out problems that need
attention, or evaluating their performance.

 One problem of downward communication is managers might think that

sending a message one time is enough to get through to lower-level
employees, most research suggests managerial communications must be
repeated several times and through a variety of different media to be truly

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effective. Another problem in downward communication is its one-way

nature; generally, managers inform employees but rarely introduce advice
or opinions.

B) Upward communication
Upward communication flows from employees to managers. It keeps managers
aware of how employees feel about their jobs their coworkers and the
organization in general. Managers also rely on upward communication for ideas
on how things can be improved. Some examples of upward communication
include performance reports prepared by employees, suggestion boxes,
employee attitude surveys, manager-employee discussions, and informal group
sessions in which employees have the opportunity to discuss problems with their
manager or representatives of top-level management.

 How much upward communication is used depends on the organizational

culture. If managers have created a climate of trust and respect and use
participative decision making or empowerment, considerable upward
communication will occur as employees provide input to decisions. In a
more highly structured environment, upward communication still
takes place but is limited.

ii. Lateral or horizontal Communication

When communication takes place among members of the same workgroup,
members of workgroups at the same level, managers at the same level or any
other horizontally equivalent workers, we describe it as lateral
communication. In today's dynamic environment, horizontal communications
are frequently needed save time and facilitate coordination. Cross-functional
teams, for instance, rely heavily on this form of communication interaction.

 Organizational Communication Networks

The vertical and horizontal flows of organizational communication can be
combined into a variety of patterns called communication networks. Here we
are going to consider the "Formal small group network".

Formal small group networks divided into three common small groups of five
people each (see Exhibit): The chain, the wheel, and the all-channel.

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In the chain network, communication flows according to the formal chain of

command, both downward and upward. The wheel network represents
communication flowing between a clearly identifiable and strong leader and
others in a workgroup or team.

Finally, in the all-channel network, communication flows freely among all

members of a work team; it's most often characterized in practice by self-
managed teams, in which all group members are free to contribute and no
one person takes on a leadership role.

Indeed, the effectiveness of each network depends on the dependent variable

that concerns you. The structure of the wheel facilitates the emergence of a
leader, the all-channel network is best if you desire high member satisfaction,
and the chain is best if accuracy is most important leads us to the conclusion that
no single network will be best for all occasions.

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