Introduction to Communication

The word communication was originated from the Latin word ‘communis’ which
means ‘common’. Communion, community, communism, commonality,
communalism etc. are some related words having the same linguistic roots.
Similarly, newer and newer terms are being coined as the concept of
communication assumes importance day by day. Communication technology,
communication media, communication age, communication management are
just a few. As the very term indicates, the ultimate aim of the communication
process is to create commonness between communicator and receiver of the
message. Through communication, both communicator and receiver enter into
a mental agreement. Thus, they achieve their goal, which may be expression of
an emotion or transmission of an idea

Why need communication?

Survival

The foremost reason to communicate to others for the human beings in particular
is their own survival. There is hardly any sense in believing that a person can all
alone live a life by fulfilling its daily life needs. The fact is that every next moment
a person is dependent on others to survive. Hence it is inevitable for all of us to
bank on communication.

Co-operation

There is a very genuine instinct in all the living creatures to cooperate with each
other to keep the cycle of life running. Humans need this more cautiously as to
keep their hard felt sense of superiority.
Relationships

Feeling of keeping a range of relationship from an individual to family and tribe

was strong from early days of human civilization. It would have been extremely
difficult to promote a life style without acknowledging the relationships among
people living together for sometime. Communication was essential to identify
relations among people to accomplish different tasks.

Persuasion

Communication proved handy in the course of persuasion and influence others

to keep the human civilization grow. The task is done even today, though, with
different techniques and in a rather complex world of communication.

Power

Better communication helped people and tribes to command power over others.
This phenomenon is more evident in the fields of conflict and to bring the enemy
down. To muster support by using better communication skills has always been
the hallmark of human interactivity.

Social needs

Social needs grow with almost the same pace, human culture and civilization
nurture. History stands as testimony to the fact that the circle of human social
needs expands as people try to live together in more organized manner.
Communication is the common most thing which knit societies to fulfill their desire
to rise jointly.

Information

In more advance world, as it is today, it is a piece of information – a piece of

communication, which brings relief to human living in a score of ways. Information
about roads, condition, may help you change your traveling plan, for instance. A
small bit of information may have a lifelong impression on your future business.

Decision making

And not the least, in present day affairs communication goes long way in helping
us in decision making. Not an individual alone, but families and nations, can draw
certain conclusions with the help of available communication on certain matters
which is likely to improve the overall living standards and a more secure life for all
of human beings.

2. Process of Communication/ Elements of Communication

The communication process refers to the steps through which communication

takes place between the sender and the receiver. This process starts with
conceptualizing an idea or message by the sender and ends with the feedback
from the receiver. In details, communication process consists of the following
eight steps:

1. Developing idea by the sender: In the first step, the communicator

develops or conceptualizes an idea to be sent. It is also known as the
planning stage since in this stage the communicator plans the subject
matter of communication.
2. Encoding: Encoding means converting or translation the idea into a
perceivable form that can be communicated to others.

3. Developing the message: After encoding the sender gets a message that
can be transmitted to the receiver. The message can be oral, written,
symbolic or nonverbal. For example, when people talk, speech is the
message; when people write a letter, the words and sentences are the
message; when people cries, the crying is the message.

4. Selecting the medium: Medium is the channel or means of transmitting the

message to the receiver. Once the sender has encoded his into a message,
the next step is to select a suitable medium for transmitting it to the receiver.
The medium of communication can be speaking, writing, signaling,
gesturing etc.

5. Transmission of message: In this step, the sender actually transmits the

message through chosen medium. In the communication cycle, the tasks
of the sender end with the transmission of the message.

6. Receiving the message by receiver: This stage simply involves the reception
of sender’s message by the receiver. The message can be received in the
form of hearing, seeing, feeling and so on.

7. Decoding: Decoding is the receiver’s interpretation of the sender’s

message. Here the receiver converts the message into thoughts and tries
to analyze and understand it. Effective communication can occur only
when both the sender and the receiver assign the same or similar meanings
to the message.

8. Feedback: The final step of communication process is feedback. Feedback

means receiver’s response to sender’s message. It increases the
effectiveness of communication. It ensures that the receiver has correctly
 understood the message. Feedback is the essence of two-way
communication.

Noise

Noise is the term given to anything that disrupts the communication. That is,
anything that prevents the audience from receiving the message the way they
source intended to. It doesn’t necessarily involve and audible distraction.

Barriers to Effective Communication

Physical/Environmental Barriers

 Environment - Some barriers are due to the existing environment. For

example, if you are standing in adverse weather conditions, your
conversation would be hampered because you would not be able to pay
full attention to what the other person is saying.

 Distance - Distance also plays an important part in determining the course

of a conversation. For example, if the staff in an organization are made to
sit in different buildings or different floors, they might have to substitute face
to face communication with phone calls or emails.

 Noise : Noise is the disruption found in the environment of the

communication. It interrupts the communication process and acts as a
barrier as it makes the message less accurate, less productive and unclear.
It might even prevent the message from reaching the receiver.

 Workplace Design Workspace also has an effect in the communication in

an office setting.If the employees' workspaces are far away from the room
of employers', they will not be able to communicate with the employers,
take proper orders, make plans, get feedbacks and suggest new ideas.
 They must work through phones or emails. These mediums have more noise
and other technical problems than face to face communication. In this
way, workspace designs act as a physical barrier to effective
communication.

 Technological Issues . Message not delivered due to technical failure (e.g.,

receiver was not in mobile network area and the sender has not activated
delivery report in message setting).

Psychological Barriers

The psychological barrier of communication is the influence of psychological

state of the communicators (sender and receiver) which creates an obstacle for
effective communication.

Lack of Attention

When a person’s mind is distracted or preoccupied with other things, the person
is not able to form proper message, listen to what others tell him/her, interpret the
message as required and give proper feedback.The communication will face
problems and becomes ineffective.

A person in tragedy, for instance, does not want to listen to other people giving
advice. A person might be preoccupied by the problems of his/her professional
life or personal life, which affects both.

Poor Retention

Retention of information is the capacity of the memory of the brain to store

information and the way brain stores information in memory. Brain does not store
all the information it comes across, but only the ones it deems useful for future. So,
half the information is lost in the retention process.
Perception, Viewpoint, Attitudes and Opinions

Perception is the mindset using which people judge, understand and interpret
everything. Each person has his/he own perception of reality which is shaped
from mental and sensory experiences.

Likewise, viewpoint is also a mindset to look at the world. Sender might have a
particular viewpoint that is not shared by the receiver. The sender does not
explain the viewpoint but takes the viewpoint as granted. The message is not
understood by the receiver as must have been understood, creating a barrier to
effective communication.

Attitude is the established way in which we think and feel about things and
ideas which also creates a psychological communication barrier.

For example, a person takes females to be weak which is the person’s perception.
He/she tells that to someone who does not think so. This causes a
misunderstanding between the two. Everything they communicate after that
becomes unsuccessful that the view of the person is already set.

Premature Evaluation

Some people are always in a hurry by habit. These kinds of people most likely
make quick judgments and jump into conclusions. They do not consider all
aspects of the information such as social, cultural, economic, etc. and often end
up taking quick and wrong decisions.

It is important to hear the whole message to make proper judgments because

they are not changed easily after they are once made.

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.

Physiological Barriers

A physiological barrier to communication is the result of a sensory dysfunction,

either on the part of the receiver or the sender. Speaking, hearing and seeing are
fundamental parts of effective communication. For a person who is not able to
speak, hear or see, certain measures must be taken to provide alternative
communication options and methods and ensure communication is possible.

Hearing Impairment

One physiological barrier to communication is a hearing impairment. Hearing

disorders can result from hereditary or genetic issues, developmental
abnormalities, medical conditions such as infections, or other environmental or
traumatic factors. While hearing loss typically will not cause a mental
developmental problem, other areas such as speech and language, social
development and educational achievement are affected by the condition. All
of these areas rely heavily on a person’s ability to communicate with others.
Auditory impairments not only delay an individual’s communication skills, but also
decreases the amount of effective communication possible with other people.

Speech Disorders

Speech disorders are a common physiological barrier to communication. This

includes different types of disorders such as stuttering, apraxia and dysarthria.
Stuttering hinders the fluency of communication with prolonged speech sounds
and repetitions of parts of words or entire words.
Apraxia of speech is a condition which occurs due to damage to the speaking
part of the brain. This condition results in a person losing the ability to form syllables
and words with sounds. The severity of the condition depends on the severity of
the brain damage.

Another motor speech disorder is dysarthria, a condition in which the muscles of

the face, mouth and respiratory system are weak and not able to work at full
capacity. This condition may be caused by injuries and disorders such as muscular
dystrophy, a stroke, a head injury or cerebral palsy. For a person unable to speak
in an understandable and clear manner, communication will quickly break down.

Vision Impairment

Vision impairment is also a physiological barrier to communication. The level of

impairment is different for every individual. Loss of vision may not result in total
blindness, but in difficulty noticing details, tunnel vision, blind spots, blurring or a
sensitivity to glare and bright lights. Regardless of the level of disability, vision
impairment greatly limits communication for a person in many ways. A person
who is vision impaired is not able to see mood suggestive facial expressions and
body language, is not able to see whom they are speaking with, may not
understand language which is spoken in a unclear manner, and may find
understanding conversations difficult and confusing.

Socio-Cultural Barriers

Socio cultural barrier socio-cultural barriers influence interpersonal relationships

class conflict, caste divide, cross-cultural differences, sociocultural codes and
conduct could be the source of the socio-cultural barriers. people must make an
effort to make the cross-cultural communication succeed.
Stereotypes and Prejudices

Stereotyping is the process of creating a picture of a whole culture,

overgeneralizing all people belonging to the same culture as having similar
characteristics and categorizing people accordingly. It is a belief about a certain
group and is mostly negative.

Stereotyping can be done on the basis of many things like nationality, gender,
race, religion, ethnicity, age, etc.

Negative stereotyping creates prejudices as it provokes judgmental attitudes.

People look at those cultures as evil and treat the people following the religion
wickedly. Media is a tool of mass communication which promotes stereotypes
and prejudices and creates more communication barriers.

Attitude and opinions:

The personal attitude and opinions of the receiver often interfere with
communication. If the message is consistent with the receiver’s attitude and
opinion they receive it favourably. When the message is inconsistent with the
receivers attitude and opinions, they are not likely to be received favourably.

Closed mind:
A person with closed mind is not willing to listen and is not prepared to reconsider
his opinion. As such it is very difficult to communicate with such person.

Distrust:
Distrust after fails to deliver the right message. When the receiver is biased or
hostile towards the sender the message is – either ignored or misinterpreted.
Poor retention:
Successive transmission of the message are decreasingly accurate. In the process
of transmission a part of the message is lost at every stage. This is because of poor
retention on the part of the receiver. Thus incomplete message is conveyed.

Emotions:
Emotions like fear, anger, worry, nervousness block the mind. It also blurs the
thinking power and one fails to organise the message properly. When the
message is not organised properly it cannot be conveyed effectively.

Semantic Barriers

The Semantic Barriers refers to the misunderstanding between the sender and
receiver arising due to the different meanings of words, and other symbols used
in the communication.

The semantic barriers usually arise when the information is not in the simple
language and contains those words or symbols that have multiple meanings.

Differences in dialects

People from different parts of the world use different dialects for the same
language and pronounce a word differently. People, who speak more than one
language can not speak a particular language they use less in the same way the
people whose native language or mother tongue. The mothertongue or the
language used most is always prominent and affects the pronunciation of other
languages. Dialects or use of different words to give the same meaning
according to places makes communication less effective. It causes semantic
barrier as meaning of words are different. For example, the dialect of speaking
English by an Australian is different than than of an American. People from
Australia use the word "autumn" whereas Americans use the word "fall".
Badly Expressed Message:

Because of the obscurity of language there is always a possibility of wrong

interpretation of the messages. This barrier is created because of the wrong
choice of words, in civil words, the wrong sequence of sentences and frequent
repetitions. This may be called linguistic chaos.

Symbols or Words with Different Meanings:

A symbol or a word can have different meanings. If the receiver misunderstands

the communication, it becomes meaningless. For example, the word ‘value’ can
have different meanings in the following sentences:

(a) What is the value of computer education these days?

(b) What is the value of this mobile set?

Faulty Translation:

A manager receives much information from his superiors and subordinates and
he translates it for all the employees according to their level of understanding.
Hence, the information has to be moulded according to the understanding or
environment of the receiver. If there is a little carelessness in this process, the faulty
translation can be a barrier in the communication.

Technical Jargon:

Generally, it has been seen that the people working in an enterprise are
connected with some special technical group who have their separate technical
language.
Their communication is not so simple as to be understood by everybody. Hence,
technical language can be a barrier in communication. This technical group
includes industrial engineers, production development manager, quality
controller, etc.

Organizational Barriers

Organizational Policies:

Organizational policies determine the relationship among all the persons working
in the enterprise. For example, it can be the policy of the organization that
communication will be in the written form. In such a situation anything that could
be conveyed in a few words shall have to be communicated in the written form.
Consequently, work gets delayed.

Rules and Regulations:

Organizational rules become barriers in communication by determining the

subject-matter, medium, etc. of communication. Troubled by the definite rules,
the senders do not send some of the messages.

Status:

Under organizing all the employees are divided into many categories on the basis
of their level. This formal division acts as a barrier in communication especially
when the communication moves from the bottom to the top.
For example, when a lower-level employee has to send his message to a superior
at the top level there is a lurking fear in his mind that the communication may be
faulty, and because of this fear, he cannot convey himself clearly and in time. It
delays the decision making.

Complexity in Organizational Structure:

The greater number of managerial levels in an organization makes it more

complex. It results in delay in communication and information gets changed
before it reaches the receiver. In other words, negative things or criticism are
concealed. Thus, the more the number of managerial levels in the organization,
the more ineffective the communication becomes.

Organizational Facilities:

Organizational facilities mean making available sufficient stationery, telephone,

translator, etc. When these facilities are sufficient in an organization, the
communication will be timely, clear and in accordance with necessity. In the
absence of these facilities communication becomes meaningless.