MEANING OF COMMUNICATION

Communication is the process of conveying message from one person to another so that they are understood. It refers to the exchange of ideas, feelings, emotions, knowledge and information between two or more persons. There is a communication when you talk or listen to someone. For example, a teacher while delivering his lecture communicates to his students. But if he speaks in a language which is not understandable to his students, there is no communication. It does not include only written or oral messages; it can be everything that may be used to convey message from one person to another; for e.g. movement of lips or the wink of an eye or the wave of hands. In business management ideas, objectives, orders, appeals, instructions, suggestions have to be exchanged among the managerial personnel and their subordinates for the purpose of planning and executing the business policies.

TYPES OF COMMUNICATION
Communication, very broadly, is classified into the following two categories: 1. Formal communication 2. Informal communication 1. FORMAL COMMUNICATION Formal communication is that which takes place in an enterprise in a formal manner via the scalar chain or the line of command. This type of communication has the following variations: a) Downward communication b) Upward communication c) Sideward (or horizontal) communication a) Downward communication: Downward communication moves downwards in an organization, from the top management to middle and lower level managements travelling via various links in the scalar chain. Such communication is imperative for organizational purposes. Mostly it consists of communicating plans and policies of the enterprise to lower level managers and in particular issuing orders and instructions to subordinates, for initiating action according to these for execution of assigned jobs. b) Upward communication: This type of formal communication is really a feedback to downward communication. Upward communication proceeds upward in an organization from

the lower level management to middle and upper levels of management, travelling via various links, in the scalar chain.  Upward communication, usually takes the following forms:  Reports by subordinates to superior on work performance.  Grievances, problems or difficulties of subordinates forwarded to superiors, at appropriate levels.  Suggestions and ideas of subordinates to upper management for kind consideration and appropriate implementation.  Clarifications sought by subordinates from superiors as to the orders and instructions issued by the latter (i.e. superiors). c) Crosswise communication:This type of communication includes the horizontal flow of information that takes place among managers, placed at the same rank in the organization and the diagonal flow, among persons at different levels who have no direct reporting relationships with one another. It is necessary for achieving coordination of actions of individuals, doing the similar type of work under managers of equal ranks. For example, a communication between two assistant production managers is an instance of horizontal communication. Sideward (or horizontal) communication might take place through the gang plank as suggested by Fayol, or through the scalar chain in a hierarchical manner.

b) INFORMAL COMMUNICATION
Informal communication, also called grapevine communication takes place through informal groups existing inside or outside the formal organizational structure. This communication has no formal manner of routing. It might spread from any person to any person in any manner and in any direction, like the structuring of grapevine. Point of comment In fact the basic cause behind the formation of many informal groups is the necessity for a mutual exchange of information related to organizational matters or social or personal matters of individuals comprised in informal groups. Hence the need for informal communication arises.

Classification on the basis of methods or media used or expression: 1. Written communication

Written communication implies transmission of messages in writing. It may take the forms like; reports circular, magazines, manuals, memoranda, newspapers, pictures, diagrams, graphs, agreements, rule and procedure books, orders, instructions, notice boards etc.

This type of communication has the advantage of providing records, references and legal defenses. A message can be carefully prepared and then directed to a large audience through mass mailings. It can also promote uniformity in policy and procedure and can reduce costs in some cases. The disadvantages are that written messages may create mountains of paper, may be poorly expressed by ineffective writers and may provide no immediate feedback. Consequently, it may take a long time to know whether a message has been received and properly understood.

2. Oral communication
Oral communication can occur in a face- to- face meeting of two people or in a managers presentation to a large audience, it can be formal or informal or it can be planned or accidental. Its advantage is that it makes possible speedy interchange with immediate feedback. People can ask queries and clarify points. In a face-to- face interaction, the effects can be noted. Its disadvantages are: it does not always save time, as many managers knows who has attended meetings in which no results or agreements were achieved. These meetings will be costly in terms of time and money.

3. Non- verbal or gestural communication

Non- verbal communication includes facial expressions and body gestures to convey meanings from one person to another, for e.g. movement of lips or the wink of an eye or the wave of hands, nodding of head, or a mere silence. Clearly it gives rise to the saying actions speak louder than the words.

PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION
The process of communication consists of following steps or stages: MESSAGE This is the background step of the process of communication; which, by forming the subject matter of communication necessitates the start of a communication process. The message might be a fact or an idea, or a request or a suggestion, or an order. SENDER The actual process of communication is initiated at the hands of the sender; who takes steps to send the message to the recipient. ENCODING

Encoding means giving a form and meaning to the message through expressing it into-words, symbol, gestures, graph, drawings etc. MEDIUM It refers to the method or channel, through which the message is to be conveyed to the recipient. For example, an oral communication might be made through a peon or over the telephone etc; while a written communication might be routed through a letter or a notice displayed on the notice board etc. RECIPIENT (or THE RECEIVER) Technically a communication s complete only when it to the knowledge of the intended person i.e. the recipient or the receiver. DECODING Decoding means the interpretation of the message by the recipient-with a view to getting the meaning of the message, as per the intentions of the sender. It is at this stage in the communication process, that communication is philosophically defined as, the transmission of understanding. FEEDBACK To complete the communication process, sending feedback to communication, by the recipient to the sender is imperative. Feedback implies the reaction or response of the recipient to the message, comprised in the communication. All told, communication is a circular process, as illustrated, by means of the following circular diagram:

SENDER

ENCODING PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION MEDIUM

FEEDBACK

DECODING

RECIPIENT

PROBLEMS IN COMMUNICATION
Though communication is regarded as providing a basis for the operational life of the enterprise; yet many a times there are problems in communication. All attempts should be made by management to overcome these problems; otherwise the basic purpose of communication might be meeting with frustration: For sake of clarity and comprehension, problems in communication have been departmentalized into the following categories:

Problems on part of the sender of communication

1. Unplanned communication Sometimes the superior i.e. the sender of communication, never cares to plan for communication either because of laziness or because of pressure of work and makes or issues a communication to subordinates in a rough and casual manner. As a result the subordinates i.e. the recipient get only a half hearted and hotchpotch idea of what the superior really intends to convey to them which state of affairs lead to many organizational and operational problems. 2. Badly expressed messages Sometimes the sender even through getting ready to communicate is not in a position to make an effective communication because of one or more of the following- making for what are called badly expressed messages:       3. Poor organization of ideas Lack of coordination Inadequate vocabulary Repetition Awkward sentences Careless omissions etc. Unclarified assumptions or too many assumptions

Sometimes either there is too many assumptions in the message assumed by the sender which puzzle the recipients or there are unclarified assumptions in the message which create confusion for the recipients. 4. Egoistic communication Some superiors make egoistic communication to subordinates just to satisfy their false ego and impress subordinate with their power, status and authority in doing so. Such communications merely waste the time of both the sender and the recipients; and make no meaningful contribution to organizational objectives.
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5. Fear of challenge to authority Some superiors might be reluctant or hesitant to make even important communications to subordinates fearing that any feedback or reaction to their communication might challenge their authority. Under such psychological situations, they better prefer to avoid making any communications, whatsoever. This again invites organizational problems.

Problems on part of the recipient of communication

6. No attention So many recipients of communication pay no attention to it either because of tension created by personal and family problems or because of being overburdened with emergency issues. In such situations, the very purpose of the sender in making a communication is frustrated. 7. Premature evaluation Many recipients especially subordinates go in for a pre mature evaluation of the communication; even before the communication is fully communicated to them. In such cases misunderstandings and grievances to develop between the sender and the recipients of communication.

ORGANISATIONAL PROBLEMS
Some of the organizational problems in communication are: 8. Lengthy scalar chain When the scalar chain which is the basic route of travelling for all formal communications is too lengthy; communication gets unduly delayed. 9. Too wide a span of management Where in an organization span of management is too wide, the superior might not be able to effectively communicate, with an unduly large number of subordinates. 10. One way communication system When in an organization the communication system is only one track i.e. only from the top management to downwards at lower levels; grievances do develop on the part of subordinates owing to lack of feedback to communication. 11. Irrelevant and out of context communication The situation accounting for irrelevant and out of context communication usually emerges when organizational objectives are not clearly defined and organizational policies are imperfect.

12. Lack of adequate communication facilities Sometimes in many organizations adequate communication facilities like telephone, intercom, peons, messengers, Photostat or typing facilities etc. are not available. As a result, communication delays, impairing with a free flow of communication.

LINGUISTIC PROBLEMS:
Some linguistic (i.e. relating to language of communication) problems to communication are as follows: 13. Poor or harsh language When the communication whether oral or written is expressed in a poor or harsh language; the sentiments of the recipient are emotionally affected and resistance (or reaction) to such communication is invited on this part. 14. Vague language When language used in drafting a communication is vague (i.e. the same word meaning differently to different individuals); the communication lends to manifold interpretations; creating confusion in the minds of the recipients as to the real meaning proposed to be conveyed by the sender. 15. Technical language Sometimes the sender of communication might use technical language e.g. regarding production engineering or financial management etc; while drafting his communiqu so as to create problem for the ordinary recipient to get at the meaning of such communiqu. In such cases, the purpose of communication is frustrated.

Miscellaneous problems
16. Mechanical problems In some cases mechanical appliances used in the communication process, might suffer from mechanical defects leading to e.g. distortion of messages owing to technical faults in telephone lines or sudden disconnection of telephone link rendering communication incomplete etc; creating serious communication problems. In some other cases, peons, messengers etc. employed for conveying messages, might not convey exact communications as intended by the sender. 17. Loss of transmission and poor retention There is usually a loss of contents of the message; when it is in a course of transmission via various links in the scalar chain especially when the communication is made verbally. Also
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there is associated with it a phenomenon of the poor retention of messages by recipients, as a matter of poor memorization power with most individuals.

IMPORTANCEOF COMMUNICTION
Importance of communication could be brought into limelight through the following points: y Communication is the basis of organizational functioning

Communication is the basis of organizational functioning as it is only when necessary communications are made to subordinates and operators, about their jobs that action on their part is possible. In fact, communication is the petrol which drives the vehicle of the organization. y Communication as an aid to planning

Communication is helpful in the process of decision making in general and in planning, in particular. , Any type of decision making (including planning decisions) requires, among other things, basic information about the enterprise resources and limitations and the external environment factors, which must be supplied i.e. communicated to the management by suitable agencies. In fact much of the accuracy of planning would very much depend on the accuracy of the information communicated to the management, in this regard. y Communication as an aid to leadership

Communication is very basic to the process of exercising interpersonal influence, through leadership. A leader communicates the objectives, policies, rules and procedures of the enterprise to followers and also communicates the necessary work orders, instructions and guidance to them, for the proper execution of the intended jobs, to be performed by the group. The members of the group i.e. followers would communicate their problems, needs and performance to the leader. The better is the communication system existing between the leader and his followers; the better are likely to be the results, produced by the group, during the process of exercising leadership. y Communication as an aid to co-ordination

Co-ordination is greatly facilitated when persons doing similar work or related aspects of work, are in perfect mutual understanding with one another- as to the manner and approach to work performance. Such mutual understanding among people interest, is largely an outcome of free communication allowed to exist among them; through which they can reconcile their differences and agree on a common approach to work performance. Hence communication is a good and great aid to achieving co-ordination of individual efforts. y Communication helps in overcoming resistance to changes and ensures their implementation
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People, in general, resist to changes when changes are either not properly communicated to them or the purpose behind introducing such changes is not explained to them. Through communication, the management can convince people of the desirability of introducing organizational changes; overcome resistance to them and prepare a base for their implementation. y Communication as the basis of good human relations

Communication promotes good human relations in the organizational life. Apparently communication is transfer of messages; while intrinsically it is transmission of understanding among the sender and the recipients of messages. A free flow of communication, through facilitating transmission of understanding paves the way for the development of good human relations in the organization. In particular, communication helps to resolve mutual differences, helps in redressal of grievances and becomes the basis for -sound manager subordinate relations -sound labour management relations y Communication helps in good public relations

Good public relations comprise relations of the enterprise with outside agencies, particularly consumers and the public at large. Many business enterprises, now a days maintain a separate public relations department; which basically entertains problems, complaints of the public and assures them of their solutions. What process the public relations department follows in building good public relations, is largely a process of entering into communication with the publiccommunicating to the public and being communicated by it. y Communication as an aid to controlling

The essence of controlling is the remedial action initiated by management to correct deviations in actual performance as against the planned standards. Such remedial action is possible only when the actual performance of people and the deviations from standards are communicated to management for controlling purposes. y Communication facilitates delegation of authority

Delegation of authority is entirely based on the process of communication. A superior communicates the job assignment, necessary instructions etc. to the subordinate and the latter, in turn, communicates his problems, difficulties and progress of work to the former. Maintaining open lines of communication between the superior and the subordinate, is a pre requisite for successful delegation of authority. y Communication as pervading all walks of organizational life
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Communication is needed in personnel matters, like recruitment, selection, training, orientation, and placement etc. of employees. It is needed for purposes of motivating subordinates. Enforcement of discipline, in the organization, requires communication of the rules of organization to all the members of the organization. As a matter of fact, communication pervades all walks of organizational life. General point of comment Communication is a process by which human behavior is modified and shaped for organizational purposes and good results are expected of the members of the organization.

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