Introduction The word Communication has been derived from the Latin word Communis which means common.

Thus, communication strictly stands for sharing of ideas in common. Popularly speaking, it refers to various means of transmitting information from individual to individual, individual to group of individuals or from one place to another. Communication, therefore, is defined as a process of transmission of messages between two or more persons; a process of transmission of ideas, a process of transmission of methods, a process of transmission of skills and a process of transmission of thoughts. Fundamentals of communication mean that Communication is perception, Communication is expectation, Communication makes demands, and that Communication and information, though different, are largely interdependent. Peter Ducker, while discussing the modern management, placed tremendous emphasis on the importance of communication. According to him, the manager is essentially a communicator and these two functions are so interwoven that one cannot be delinked from the other. The manager has a specific tool and that is information. He does not handle people but motivates, guides, organizes them to do their own work, and for this his tool is either a written or a spoken word or a language of numbers. That is why it is so important for a manager to be a good communicator. The earliest that we have heard of communication is as far back as 3000 B.C. It has an Egyptian origin and is known as Hyrogliphs. It was essentially a picture language. This method of communication was subsequently improved upon by Chinese and later by Japanese. Greeks and Romans further developed the art of communication, and it was Aristotle, who, for the first time, brought about a systematic study of the communication process. According to Aristotle, we have to look to three essential elements namely the speaker, the speech and the audience. Each of these elements is vital to communication and, thus, you must have a person, who talks; the subject of his talk and finally, the persons, who listen. By this time, the ever developing human being, who has been defined by anthropologists as a tool making animal, had introduced and enlarged the tool of language. Important Definitions: 1. Communication is the process that links discontinuous parts of the living world to one another. - Jurgen Ruesch. 2. Communication is a process by which senders and receivers of messages interact in given social contexts. - Frank E.X. Dance 3. Communication: the transmission of information, ideas, emotions, skills, etc., by the use of symbols, words, pictures, figures, graphs, etc. It is the act or process of transmission that is usually called communication.

4. Communication is the art of transmitting information ideas and attitudes from one person to another. Communication is the process of meaningful interaction among human beings. 5. Communication means literally to make common - that is, to create in a receivers mind an idea or image similar to the one in the mind of the sender. 6. Communication is the sum-total of directly and indirectly, consciously or unconsciously transmitted feelings, attitudes and wishes. - Elliot Jagues. 7. Communication is the sum of all the things, one person does when he wants to create understanding in the mind of another. It is a bridge of meaning. It involves a systematic and continuous process of telling, listening and understanding. -Louis A. Allen Factors in communication It was, in 1947, for the first time, that Claude Shannon, a Mathematician, and Warren Weaver, an Electrical Engineer, presented a model of how communication works in a telephone system or in electronic system. Arising out of such research, they said that important factors in communication are: (1) A source, (2) A transmitter, (3) A message (4) A receiver (5) A destination or goal. This model, though similar to the earlier one of Aristotle has added two additional functions of transmitter and goal. (1) Source: All communication must come from source. The source could be one person, might be a group of people, might be a school of thought, and might be an institution itself. The source will operate in communication process depending upon his commu nication skills, ability to think, to write, to speak, his attitude towards the audience, the subject on which he has to communicate, his knowledge about the subject and his audience, and the social system in which he operates. (2) Message: The message in communication has several factors to be considered. The content of the message has to be scanned and organized. The ideas to be presented have to be isolated and tested. The important point that needs to be noted is whether the message is clear to the source itself. (3) Channel: There are different transmitters through which the message could be sent to the receiver and it is accepted that the five human senses can be used to receive a message.

In other words, the channels of communication are ways of presenting a message so that the message can be (i) seen, (ii) heard, (iii) touched, (iv) smelt, and (v) tasted. Each of these channels can be chosen and used for, public speech, discussion, interviewing, radiorecording, television, motion pictures, on-job-training, newspapers, magazines, books, etc. Generally communication is more effective when more channels are used. (4) Receiver: The final link in the communication process is the receiver, the person or persons at the other end of the process from the source. The function or the object of communication is to reach the receiver and, therefore, the receiver becomes the most important factor in this process of communication. The receiver could be one person or a group of people or even an institution. The factors, that will determine how the receiver will operate, would depend on receivers communication skills, receivers attitude and his knowledge, and social system in which he operates. A descriptive sentence, which summarizes briefly the understanding of communication process, is as below: WHO (Source), for what reasons, says What (Message) in what way, over what CHANNELS, to what audience (Receiver) with what effects (reaching the goals of the source.) The communication channels The communication channels in terms of structure are: 1. Downward channels 2. Upward channels 3. Lateral or diagonal channels and 4. Informal communication network. Barriers of communication. The principal barriers to communication between human beings can be placed into five broad categories namely: 1. Limitation of the receivers capacity, 2. Distraction. 3. Intrusion of unconscious or partly conscious mechanism, 4. Confused presentation, and 5. Absence of communication facilities. Another school of thought indicates, three broad categories of barriers; namely, (1) Physical, (2) Psychological and (3) Semantics. Physical barriers are environmental factors, which actually prohibit or limit the extent of communication, such as, distance, lack of time, noise, and external disruptions, such as,

failure of mechanical equipment, etc. Psychological barriers arise from personal differences in perspective between persons communicating with each other. Emotions, social values and differences in position in the organizational hierarchy can contribute to psychological distances between people that are as great as physical distances. In upward communication a subordinate may hesitate to tell his supervisor unfavorable news because he fears it may affect his relationship with his superi or. For this reason the upward communication may be considerably slower than communication flowing downward. Semantic barriers arise because much of what people say is subjective. Words and symbols, except in technical language, seldom have a single meaning, nor is everything that is said based exclusively on facts. Words, such as, great, small, good and bad, are open to interpretation by the listener or reader. Thus, the intended meaning of a comment by the source may not be the same as the meaning accepted by the receiver. According to Psychologists the reasons of communication failures are; 1. Organizational blocks, 2. Status blocks, 3. Intentional blocks, 4. Faulty expressions and translations, 5. Faulty listening and 6. Communication gap or the semantic gap. Seven Cs in any written or spoken communication. (1) Candid (2) Clear, (3) Complete, (4) Concise, (5) Concrete (6) Correct and (7) Courteous. Katz and Khan have identified five general purposes of superior subordinate communication in an organization. These purposes are as under: 1. To give specific task directives about job instructions. 2. To give information about organizational procedure and practices. 3. To provide information about the rationale of the job. 4. To provide information about their performance. 5. To provide ideological type information to facilitate the indoctrination of goals. Types of Communication: 1. Oral - Meetings, Committees, Personnel talks, Counseling interviews, Training courses, Grievance procedure, Loudspeaker system, Collective Bargaining etc. 2. Written- Instructions, Standing orders, Hand books, Manuals, Company Magazines, Information services, Informative booklets, Annual reports, Suggestion systems, Advertisements, etc. 3. Visual or pictorial Charts, Graphs, Exhibits, Models, Blue prints, Visits, Movies etc. Seven essentials of Communication: According to Millet there are seven factors essential to make the communication effective: -

(1) clear (2) consistent with the expectation of the recipient (3) adequate (4) timely (5) uniform (6) flexible and (7) acceptable. Eight important practices followed in Communication: 1. Inform yourself fully 2. Establish a mutual trust in each other 3. Find a common ground of experience 4. Use mutually known words 5. Have regard for context 6. Secure and hold the receivers attention 7. Employ examples and visual aids and 8. Practice relaying reactions. Nine Key Steps in Communication: 1. Define the purpose 2. Identify your subject 3. Determine the Scale 4. One step at a time. 5. Plan the sequence. 6. Ensure Interconnection. 7. Enlist visual appeal 8. Arouse Interest 9. Check the score. Ten Commandments of Communication: 1. Seek to clarify your ideas before communicating. 2. Examine the true purpose of each communication. 3. Consider the total physical and human setting whenever you communicate. 4. Consult with others, where appropriate, in planning communication. 5. Be mindful, while you communicate, of the overtones as well as the basic content of your message. 6. Take the opportunity, when it arises, to convey something of help or value to the receiver. 7. Follow up your communication. 8. Communicate for tomorrow as well as today. 9. Be sure your actions support your communication. 10. Seek not only to be understood but to understand be a good listener. Eleven causes of ineffective Communication: Communication among employers and employees is not always effective. Some of the more important factors which lead to ineffective communication can be enumerated as under: 1. Illusion that expression is communication. 2. Failure to recognize that the communicative process goes both ways, and receiving is a

important as sending. 3. Failure to recognize that messages which support the status quo are more easily received than those relating to change. 4. Persistent quest for rigidly defined communication and communication structures. 5. Managerial tendency to over-communicate orders and to discourage upward communications which do not reinforce the managers own ideas and feelings. 6. Clogging of the downward channels of information, which forces decisions to be made on the basis of limited information. 7. Tendency to filter out ideas, which are disquieting and threatening. 8. Failure to recognize that communications are altered by the perceptions of individuals. 9. Tendency to look for formulas and gimmicks rather than to come to grips with the fundamental problem. 10. Failure to recognize that creating the right atmosphere for communication is a long, slow process and 11. Illusion that authority and status and capacity for adverse action are enough for communication. Interpersonal Communications According to Myron R. Chartier, five interpersonal components offer clear distinction between good communicators and poor communicators. These components are SelfConcept, Listening, Clarity of Expression, Coping with Angry Feelings, and SelfDisclosure. I- Self-Concept: The important single factor affecting peoples communication with others is their self-concept-how they see themselves and their situations. The self is the greatest determinant in every act of communication. A strong self-concept is necessary for healthy and satisfying interaction. A w eak self-concept on the other hand, often distorts the individuals perception of how others see him, generating feelings of insecurity in relating to other people. II- Listening: Most communication education has focused on skills of self-expression and persuasion; until quite recently, little attention has been paid to listening. Each person needs information that can be acquired only through the process of listening. Listening, of course, is much more intricate and complicated than the physical process of hearing.&nb sp; Hearing is done with the ears, while listening is an intellectual and emotional process that integrates physical, emotional, and intellectual inputs in a search for meaning and understanding. III. Clarity of Expression: A person who can communicate his meaning effectively to others has a clear picture in his mind of what he is trying to express. He is receptive to the feedback that he gets and uses it to further guide his efforts at communication. The poor communicator leaves the listener to guess what he means, while he operates on the assumption that he is, in fact communicating. Mutual misunderstanding is an obvious result of lack of clarity in expression. One important point to be remembered is whatever is likely to be misunderstood shall be misunderstood.

IV-Coping with Angry Feelings A persons inability to deal with anger frequently results in communication breakdown. A common adage is when mud is thrown, the ground is lost. V. Self-Disclosure: According to Sidney Joward, self-disclosure i.e. the ability to talk truthfully and fully about oneself is necessary to effective communication. An individual cannot really communicate with another person or get to know that person unless he can engage in self-disclosure. Self- disclosure generates self-disclosure. Th e effective communicator is one who can create a climate of trust in which mutual self-disclosure can occur. Supervisory Communication: Supervisory communication is an important dimension of management communication for a proper functioning of an organization. It is mainly the supervisor who is constantly in touch with workers and therefore it is necessary for him to acquaint himself with the importance of communication and the principles to be followed for effective communication. A survey of employees views on supervisory communication shows that talking it over is very important to an employee. Employees have asserted that where communication is lacking, frustration and misunderstanding exist, and that this condition not only reduces their productivity, but also has an adverse effect on total working of the establishment. Supervisors therefore should always 1. Discuss problems immediately with subordinates, 2. Keep the discussion frank and open, 3. Choose proper place 4. Be fair and impartial 5. Develop good attitudes and maintain good relations 6. Make good Human Relations an every day process in work pattern. In this context, the characteristics of good supervisors are as under:1. They suggest rather than dominate. 2. They clarify situations with illustrations and / or visual aids, 3. They listen carefully to see if their message is being received. 4. They recognize workers who do well. 5. They deal fairly with all employees. 6. They give reasons for policy changes etc. 7. They maintain an informal friendly atmosphere. They are People oriented as well as Organization oriented. Grapevine Grapevine is the communication system of the informal organization in business. The formal organization is one usually shown on organization charts and functional charts and

it is built by means of a chain of command, in which authority is delegated, successively from one person to another. The maintenance of this chain of command requires an elaborate network of orders, instructions and reports, which constitute the formal communication system of the business. The informal organization on the other hand, arises from the social relationships of people. It is neither required nor controlled by management. To serve this in formal organization, an informal communication system arises. It is variable, dynamic and fickle, running back and forward, straight and across organizational lines and rapidly changing its course. Hence, the term grapevine is used to describe its spreading and meandering, like the uncontrolled grapevine plant itself. Grapevine thrives on information, not openly or generally available to employee, either because of its confidential or secret nature or because of defective or inadequate formal communication lines. Grapevines is inevitable but at the same time valuable and an intelligent manager uses this form of communication by feeding accurate information at the right places and thus gain very quick communication around the establishment. Every manager must re cognize that grapevine is a natural, normal activity. It is an essential part of the total human environment. Neglecting grapevine is likely to lead to serious consequences in an establishment. It is in this context that grapevine is sometimes described as Devils radio or an under ground telegraph system which through its whispering campaign can create critical complications. Types of Responses in Communication: Words do not always mean what they say. Meaning attached by the sender of a message may not be the meaning attached by the receiver. We therefore look to his verbal and nonverbal behavior to gain some feedback whether our message has been received and understood as we intended it. As Seymon has said dictionaries carry definitions but people carry connotations and the latter rules thinking and influences behavior. The major responses that people make are under the following categories: 1. Aggressive - attack 2. Defensive - defend 3. Regressive - withdraw 4. Fixative - repeat 5. Supportive - help or develop Feed-back: Communication is always a two way process and unless the receiver gets the message from the source no communication can be treated as completed. It is the receiver who gives the feed back i.e. extent to which he has understood the message communicated by the source. The feedback is of importance to the source to judge, to what extent he has been successful in conveying the proposed message and to what effect. No matter how many channels we use in person-to-person communication, there is still considerable doubt that we will be effective in obtaining the response from people that we want. If we look only on ourselves as sources, we have even less chance of success. If we are

willing to serve as receivers as well, the chances go up. Feedback is one way of looking at us as receivers. Person-to-person communication allows maximum feedback. The source can see the receiver, can hear him. The source can watch facial expressions, gestures, as well ass the words which the receiver uses to respond. When our messages are difficult and our purposes are important, inter-personal communication is extremely useful- in large part because of the opportunity for feedback from the receiver. Difficulty arises even in person-to-person communication because each one of us is really not one person, but THREE Persons; one we think we are, the one others think we are and the one we really are. Listening Listening is a dual responsibility of speaker and listener. The major benefits of good listening are: 1. A good listener can make better decisions because he has better information. 2. A good listener saves time because he learns more within a given period of time. 3. Listening helps the communicator determine how well his message is being received. 4. A good listener stimulates others to better speaking. 5. Good listening decreases misunderstanding. Listeners Laws for speech substance: 1. Listeners like examples in story form 2. Listeners like examples, which involve great people. 3. Listeners like examples from the golden pages of history 4. Listeners like examples based on interesting analogies 5. Listeners like examples which dramatics important statistics and 6. Listeners like examples supplemented by visual aids. Listeners Laws for speech phraseology: Listeners like simple speech phraseology: that is grammatically correct, conversational, specific, picturesque and clear. Listening is much more intricate and complicated than the process of hearing. Hearing is done with the ears while listening is an intellectual and emotional process that integrates physical, emotional, and intellectual inputs in a search for meaning and understanding. Effective listening occurs when the listener discerns and understands the senders meaning. Raik refers to the process of effective listening as Listening with the third ear. An effective listener listens not only to words but also to the meanings behind the words. A listeners third ear, Raik says, hears what is said between sentences and without words,

what is expressed soundlessly, what the speaker feels and thinks. Effective listening is not a passive process. It plays an active role in communication. The effective listener interacts with the speaker in developing meaning and reaching understanding. According to George R. Terry, Communication serves as the lubricant fostering the smooth operation of the management process; John D. Millet describes communication as the blood stream of administration. Communication is the heart of management for Pfiffner. Peter Drucker emphasizes the importance of communication as the managers main function. Often the words information and communication are used interchangeably. They in fact signify quite different things. As Sydney Harris has said, Information is giving out while Communication is getting through. Body Talk - Silent Language All of us communicate with one another non-verbally. Most of the time we are not even aware that we are doing it. We gesture with eyebrows or a hand, meet someone elses eyes and look away, shift positions in a chair. These actions we assume are random and incidental, but researchers have discovered that there is a system almost as consistent and comprehensible as language. Every culture has its own body language, and children absorb its nuances along with spoken language. Usually, the wordless communication acts to qualify the words. When a person feels liked or disliked, often it is a case of not what he said but the way he said it. Psychologist Albert Mehraban has devised this formula: total impact of a message = 7 percent verbal + 38 percent vocal + 55 percent facial. Kinesics- Gestural and postural communication that is the study of communication through body movement is a young science about twenty five year old- and very much the brainchild of one man, anthropologist Dr. Ray Birdwhistell. One of the most potent elements in body language is eye behaviour. According to Flora Davis, getting the message is often easier by looks than by words. There are times when what a person says with his body gives the lie to what he is saying with his tongue. Freud once wrote: No mortal can keep a secret. If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips; betrayal oozes out at every pore. Rage is another emotion, feet and legs may reveal. During arguments the feet often tense up. Fear sometimes produces barely perceptible running motions a kind of nervous leg jiggle. Recent studies by psychologists suggest the posture often reflects a persons attitude towards people he is with. One experiment indicates that when men are with other men whom they dislike, they relax either very little or very much.

Dr. Hall in his book The Silent Language has explained the whole range of culturally determined non-verbal cues. Silence Silence is also a language. It is a scientific discovery that people close to one another can communicate much better without words. An objective study of the ways in which meanings are transmitted has shown that, at times, much more is relayed from one man to another through and in silence than in words. Even words and sentences are composed of silences and pauses which are much more meaningful than the sounds. According to Ivan D. Hitch the learning of the Grammar of Silence is an art much more difficult than the Grammar of Sounds. __________________ Sharing What is Shared with ME. M.Peer Mohamed Sardhar

Good is the Enemy of GREAT