ENGLISH

LANGUAGE AS A
TOOLS IN
BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
•INTRODUCTION :-
Business communication skills are critical to the success
of any organization despite its size, geographical location, and its
mission. Business communication is interlinked with internal culture
and external image of any organization. So it is the determining factor
to communication inside the organization.
Good Business communication practices assist the
organization in achieving its goal of informing, persuading, favorable
relationship, and organizational goodwill. Organizations can only
survive if they accept the rapidly changing global challenges and the
communication processes are structured and delivered. The present
workforce is dynamic in nature so communication is a challenge when
executed against the backdrop of culture, technology and
competition. The success of any business to a large extent depends on
efficient and effective communication.

•Meaning of communication:-

The word communication has been derived from the

Latin word 'communicate’ that means ‘to share’. Communication may
be defined as interchange of thought or information between two or
more persons to bring about mutual understanding and desired
action. It is the information exchange by words or symbols. It is the
exchange of facts, ideas and viewpoints which bring about
 commonness of interest, purpose and efforts. According to Keith
Davis, ‘The process of passing the information and understanding
from one person to another. "Communication is something so simple
and difficult that we can never put it in simple words," says T.S.
Mathews. But we do need a definition to understand the term.

•Importance and purpose of communication: -

Just as communication is vital for our existence in civilizes society, so
also it is essential for functioning of organization. So without
communication there would be no organization. Needless to say,
communication is the ingredient that makes organization possible. It
is the vehicle through which the basic management functions are
carried out. Managers direct through communication; they coordinate
through communication; and they staff, plan, and control through
communication. Virtually all actions taken in an organization are
preceded by communication.

Uses of communication:-
For integration: It is consolidated function under which integration of
activities is endeavoured. The integration function of communication
mainly involves to bring about inter-relationship among the various
functions of the business organization. It helps in the unification of
different management functions.
For information: The purposes or function of communication in an
organization is to inform the individual or group about the particular
task or company policies and procedures etc. Top management
informs policies to the lower level through the middle level. In turn,
the lower level informs the top level the reaction through the middle
level. Information can flow vertically, horizontally and diagonally
across the organization. Becoming informed or inform others is the
main purpose of communication.
For evaluation: Examination of activities to form an idea or judgement
of the worth of task is achieved through communication.
Communication is a tool to appraise the individual or team, their
contribution to the organization. Evaluating one’s own inputs or
other’s outputs or some ideological scheme demands an adequate
and effective communication process.
For direction: Communication is necessary to issue directions by the
top management or manager to the lower level. Employee can
perform better when he is directed by his senior. Directing others may
be communicated either orally or in writing. An order may be common
order, request order or implied order.
•Dimensions of Communication: -
In an organization, communication flows in 5 main directions
1. Downward
2. Upward
3. Horizontal /Lateral
4. Diagonal
5. Grapevine Communication

1) Downward Communication:
Communication that flows from a higher level in an organization to a
lower level is a downward communication. In other words,
communication from superiors to subordinates in a chain of command
is a downward communication. This communication flow is used by
the managers to transmit work-related information to the employees
at lower levels. Employees require this information for performing
their jobs and for meeting the expectations of their managers.
Downward communication is used by the managers for the following
purposes
• Providing feedback on employees’ performance.
 • Giving job instructions.
• Providing a complete understanding of the employees’ job as
well as to communicate them how their job is related to other
jobs in the organization.
• Communicating the organizations mission and vision to the
employees.
• Highlighting the areas of attention.

Organizational publications, circulars, letter to employees,

group meetings etc are all examples of downward communication. In
order to have effective and error-free downward communication,
managers must:

• Specify communication objective.

• Ensure that the message is accurate, specific and
unambiguous.
• Utilize the best communication technique to convey the
message to the receiver in right form

2)Upward Flow of Communication: Communication that flows to a

higher level in an organization is called upward communication. It
provides feedback on how well the organization is functioning.
The subordinates use upward communication to convey their
problems and performances to their superiors. The subordinates also
use upward communication to tell how well they have understood the
downward communication. It can also be used by the employees to
share their views and ideas and to participate in the decision-making
process. Upward communication leads to a more committed and loyal
workforce in an organization because the employees are given a
chance to raise and speak dissatisfaction issues to the higher levels.

2) Lateral / Horizontal Communication: Communication that takes

place at same levels of hierarchy in an organization is called lateral
 communication, i.e., communication between peers, between
managers at same levels or between any horizontally equivalent
organizational member. The advantages of horizontal
communication are as follows
• It is time saving.
• It facilitates co-ordination of the task
• It facilitates co-operation among team members.
• It provides emotional and social assistance to the organizational
members.

• It helps in solving various organizational problems.

• It is a means of information sharing.
• It can also be used for resolving conflicts of a department with other
department or conflicts within a department.

4)Diagonal Communication or crosswise communication:

Communication that takes place between a manager and employees
of other workgroups is called diagonal Diagonal communication. It
generally does not appear on organizational chart. For instance - To
design a training module a training manager interacts with an
Operations personnel to enquire about the way they perform their
task.
•Channels of communication:
A breakdown in the communication channel leads to an inefficient
flow of information. Employees are unaware of what the company
expects of them. They are uninformed of what is going on in the
company. This will cause them to become suspicious of motives and
any changes in the company. Also without effective communication,
employees become department minded rather than company
minded, and this affects their decision making and productivity in the
workplace. Eventually, this harms the overall organizational objectives
as well. Hence, in order for an organization to be run effectively, a
good manager should be able to communicate to his/her employees
what is expected of them, make sure they are fully aware of company
policies and any upcoming changes.

1) Formal Channels of Communication:

The messages which are circulating on regulated, preset channels, of
an organization are creating the formal communication. The content
of the communication is related to the organization’s activity, to the
work and to anything which is related to those. The formal
communication can consist in verbal messages, nonverbal messages,
written, under the shape of letters, telephone messages, radio
messages, printed, internal notes. Even some gestures can consist in
 formal communication. The messages are transmitted by the
authorized ones: on official channels, these arrive to the ones who
need to react, to people or machines which need to know the content
of these messages.

The number of communication channels available to a manager has

increased over the last 20 odd years. Video conferencing, mobile
technology, electronic bulletin boards and fax machines are some of
the new possibilities. As organizations grow in size, managers cannot
rely on face to-face communication alone to get their message across.
A challenge the managers face today is to determine what type of
communication channel should they opt for in order to carryout
effective communication.
In order to make a manager's task easier, the types of communication
channels are grouped into three main groups: formal, informal and
unofficial.

• A formal communication channel transmits information such as the

goals, policies and procedures of an organization. Messages in this
type of communication channel follow a chain of command. This
means information flows from a manager to his subordinates and they
in turn pass on the information to the next level of staff.

• An example of a formal communication channel is a company's

newsletter, which gives employees as well as the clients a clear idea
of a company's goals and vision. It also includes the transfer of
information with regard to memoranda, reports, directions, and
scheduled meetings in the chain of command.

• A business plan, customer satisfaction survey, annual reports,

employer's manual, review meetings are all formal communication
channels. Informal Channels of Communication
2) Informal Channels of Communication
Informal communication arises out of all those channels that fall
outside the formal channels and it is also known as grapevine. It is
established around the societal affiliation of members of the
organization. Informal communication does not follow authority lines
as in the case of formal communication.
Informal communication takes place due to the individual needs of the
members of an organization and subsists in every organization.
Normally, such communication is oral and may be expressed even by
simple glance, sign or silence. Informal communication, is implicit,
spontaneous multidimensional and diverse. It often works in group of
people, i.e. when one person has some information of interest; he
passes it on to his informal group and so on.
However, for the efficient working of any organization both formal and
informal communications are required.
An example of an informal communication channel is lunchtime at the
organization's cafeteria/canteen. Here, in a relaxed atmosphere,
discussions among employees are encouraged. Also managers walking
around, adopting a hands-on approach to handling employee queries
is an example of an informal communication channel. Quality circles,
team work.
• Grapevine Communication: -
Grapevine is an informal channel of business
communication. It is called so because it stretches throughout the
organization in all directions irrespective of the authority levels. Man
as we know is a social animal. Despite existence of formal channels in
an organization, the informal channels tend to develop when he
interacts with other people in organization. It exists more at lower
levels of organization. Grapevine generally develops due to various
reasons. One of them is that when an organization is facing recession,
the employees sense uncertainty.
Also, at times employees do not have self-confidence
due to which they form unions. Sometimes the managers show
preferential treatment and favour some employees giving a
segregated feeling to other employees. Thus, when employees sense
a need to exchange their views ,they go for grapevine network as they
cannot use the formal channel of communication in that case.
Generally during breaks in cafeteria, the subordinates talk about their
superior’s attitude and behaviour and exchange views with their
peers. They discuss rumours about promotion and transfer of other
employees. Thus, grapevine spreads like fire and it is not easy to trace
the cause of such communication.
•Barriers in Business Communication: -

For any kind of communication to be successful, it is

essential that the receiver attributes the same meaning to the
message as intended by the sender of the message. But all acts of
communication are not perfect or successful. At times, some meaning
is lost as the message encounters various barriers along its passage
between the sender and the receiver. Such barriers may arise at any
of the stages through which a message passes during the process of
communication. This is also called miscommunication.
Some of the common problems that lead to the
failure of communication are: noise, cultural differences, complexity
of subject matter, personal biases, semantic problems,
sociopsychological barriers, filtering, information overload, poor
retention, poor listening, goal conflicts, slanting, inferring, etc.
• Types of barriers :-

1) Physical or Environmental Barriers

Physical barriers are those barriers which are caused due
to some technical defects in the media used for communication
and/or due to certain disturbances in the surrounding environment.
Often, the term ‘noise’ is used as a blanket term to refer to the physical
barriers in general. But noise, in its literal sense, is also one of the
factors that give rise to the physical barriers during the process of
communication.

2)Noise
Noise is the first major barrier to communication.
Communication is distorted by noise that crops up at the transmission
level.
For example, the noise of the traffic around a school obstructs the
smooth flow of information between the teacher and the students. It
makes oral communication difficult. Similarly, poor signal or static
while talking over the cell phone or while using the public address
system or while watching TV also distorts the sound signals and
disrupts communication. Bad weather conditions may also sometimes
interfere with the transmission of signals and may lead to breakdown
of the communication channels.

3)Time and Distance

Time and distance may also obstruct the smooth flow of
information. Today, because of technological advancements, we have
faster means of communication available to us .
Time differences between people living in two different countries may
affect communication between them. Even people working in
different shifts in the same organization may also face problems in
communicating effectively. Improper seating arrangement in a
classroom or in a conference hall may also act as a barrier to effective
communication as it is difficult to maintain eye contact with one’s
audience.

4)Wrong Choice of Medium

This can also create a barrier to effective communication. For example,
if an expert uses charts or graphs or PowerPoint presentations to
orient the illiterate workers or volunteers to a new method of working,
they are bound to be ill-equipped to infer any information or
instructions from such sophisticated presentations.

5) Physiological Barriers
Physiological barriers are related to a person’s health and fitness.
These may arise due to disabilities that may affect the physical
capability of the sender or the receiver. For example, poor eyesight,
deafness, uncontrolled body movements, etc. Physical defects in one’s
body may also disrupt communication. While communicating, a
person uses– his vocal (speech) organs to produce sound/speech .
6) Semantic or Language Barriers :-
Semantics is the systematic study of the meaning of words. Thus, the
semantic barriers are barriers related to language. Such barriers are
problems that arise during the process of encoding and/or decoding
the message into words and ideas respectively. Both the oral and the
written communication are based on words/symbols which are
ambiguous in nature. Words/symbols may be used in several ways and
may have several meanings. Unless the receiver knows the context, he
may interpret the words/symbols according to his own level of
understanding and may thus misinterpret the message.
The most common semantic barriers are listed as under:

7) Emotional or Perceptional :-
If the receiver does not evaluate the information with an open mind,
i.e. objectively, his judgment/evaluation would be colored with his
biases and/or his emotions, thus inducing him to read too much into
a message. This would interfere with the exact transfer of information
and cause misinterpretation.
Such a barrier may also emerge at the time of encoding the message.
Over enthusiasm on the part of the sender may lead him to invest his
message with meaning/s which he may actually not have intended to.
Indolence, apathy, or the tendency to procrastinate, either on the part
of the sender or the receiver, also lead to withholding of important
information thus creating a barrier.

8) Cultural Barriers :-
Cultural differences give rise to a great deal of complexity in the
encoding and the decoding of messages not only because of the
difference in languages, but also because of plenty of culture specific
assumptions at work in the mind of the sender as well as the receiver.
People belonging to different cultures may attach different meanings
to words, symbols, gestures, and behaviour or they may perceive each
others’ social values, body language, attitude to space distancing and
time, social behaviour and manners, etc., i.e. the entire culture in
general, very differently depending upon their own standards,
attitudes, customs, prejudices, opinions, behavioral norms, etc., i.e.
their own distinct culture.