Chapter: Communication An Overview

CHAPTER ONE
COMMUNICATION-AN OVERVIEW

Historical Development of Communication

Communication is perhaps as old as the human civilization. Its origin can be
traced to the growth of the human society. In the primitive stage of human
society, people satisfied their wants, which were limited to the basic needs
for food, clothing & shelter and by their own individual efforts. At that time
life was isolated and there was little communication. But while people hunted
for food, they too were hunted by other wild animals. They lived in constant
danger. The common need for protection and security lead to group life.
Then communication was evolved in the form of sounds, indications, signals,
and expressions. As group life developed, and human wants continued to
increase, forms of communication also developed. Gradually, with the
increase in population, emergence of division of labor and specialization, and
birth of exchange economy human beings had to be in constant
communication.

At some stage, the signs and symbols created language. With the growth of
business-industry and commerce, ways of expressing ideas in languages
developed. Gradually people were able to shape their attitudes, norms,
values, culture, religion, etc through communication. Science entered the
field and new forms of oral, written and audio visual communication
developed. Thus the development of communication is inseparable from the
development of human civilization.
In the present day world of mass production, involving organizations with
large number of personnel with their social and cultural diversifications, and
complex industrial operations and influences, communication is of vital need
at every step in industrial and commercial activities.

Meaning of Communication
The term communication is derived from the Latin word “Communis”, which
means common. Literally, to communicate means to tell, show, spread and
inform. As communication is a much more complex factor in our present
world, not surprisingly, the problem of defining it as a subject of study has
also become increasingly difficult.

For our purposes, however, we can define communication as:

The process by which people attempt to share meaning (ideas, feeling, thought, experience, knowledge,
skill, etc) for some purpose through the transmission of symbolic messages.

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Our working definition of communication calls attention to the following five

essential points.
1. Communication is a process
Communication refers to a series of activities to be accomplished in a
sequence; it does not refer to incidental events and transactions among
people.

2. Communication is purposeful
When senders - receivers communicate the sender originally should have an
objective to be checked at the end of the communication process.
Communication is not just the transfer of messages but purposeful transfer
of messages between senders and receivers. Thus it does not refer to
incidental transactions between people

3. Communication involves people

Communication shows the degree of understanding among senders-
receivers and how they relate to each other. Therefore, it refers to
communication among people only and the exchange of interpersonal
behaviors among them.

4. Communication involves shared meaning

This suggests that in order for people to communicate, they must agree on
the definitions of the terms and symbols they are using. The symbols used
by the sender should be similarly interpreted by the receiver in order to
ensure equal or similar understanding between them.

5. Communication is symbolic
In communication symbols such as, letters, numbers, words, gestures,
sound, etc can only represent or approximate the ideas they are meant to
communicate. In other words symbols are not perfect representations of our
ideas. Thus we have to take care in selecting symbols that best approximate
the sender’s ideas.
Communication is vital to human existence. It is how we pass on to others
our thoughts and feelings, tell them what we want them to do, ask them to
help us, share with them our knowledge and experience. Without
communication we would each live as if alone in the world.

Nature/Characteristics of Communication
As articulated by Gerald Miller, communication has three basic
characteristics: dynamism, uniqueness and transactional nature.
Dynamism
Every communication event stems from a series of past events and triggers
a series of new ones. Communication is affected by prior attitudes, planned
thoughts and people to whom the message is addressed. It is thus a dynamic

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phenomenon without beginning, without end, continually responding, and

continually changing.
Uniqueness
Evolving naturally from the notion of dynamism is the concept of uniqueness.
No two communication events are a like because of the change in the
sender, the audience, delivery, time situation etc.
Transactional Nature
Communication scholars Weinberg and Wilmot mentioned that in
communication all persons are engaged in sending (encoding) and receiving
(decoding) messages simultaneously. Each person is affecting the other.
Each communication transaction involves reciprocal exchanges of feelings,
meanings, ideas and responses.

Role and Importance of Communication

The ability to communicate with others is an essential attribute of human life
and we are all of us grappling with communication tasks most of the time we
are awake. Only when we are alone and also not reading or writing or
listening, we stop receiving messages from the world of people outside
ourselves, stop trying to send out messages to the fellow human beings
around us. Communication plays, then, a vital part in our personal daily lives.

Furthermore, communication has been characterized as the “life-blood” of an

organization. Every organization depends for its daily functioning on an
intricate communication network, which has grown up during the years and
has proved itself indispensable. “No person is an Island”; today more than
ever all the people of the world rely upon another for products, services,
ideas, etc.

The above two paragraphs show that the importance of communication be

viewed from two angles: individual angle and organizational angle. Man
conflicts with himself, with his environment and with his fellow creatures. He
is capable of emotions, ideas and reasoning. He must learn the art of
adjusting to himself, to his work, and to his associates even as that self, that
work, and those associates change. A person must learn and practice the art
of human relations, an art that enhances the individual person and the
society of which he is a member.

Like all other people, you are a complex system of thoughts and feelings, of
ideas and emotions. Although similar to other human beings, you are a
unique person. Yet you must live and work with others. You are a human
being not an island. Multiply this complicated being you by the millions of
other complicated and unique people on this earth. Add the unpredictable
influences of society and nature. Recognize that today a persons
economically, is not an island; s/he cannot isolate herself/himself from
her/his fellow men. You will then discover that at the core of human relations

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is modern man’s obligation to fulfill himself with in the requirements of

nature and society. Even though all people including you are emotional-
rational beings, still you are unique from others in that you have geared your
career to successful business management. Therefore you have assumed the
obligation of striving, ethically and efficiently, to use thoughts and feelings
ideas and emotions, actions and reactions in leading your life and conducting
your work.

Importance of Communication for personal life

To be specific communication serves the following three purposes in
personal or individual life.

Job Success
The two dimensions of management most often cited as the keys to
individual and organizational success are technical ability and understanding
of people. Effective communication skills to listen, speak, and write
complement these two dimensions. Therefore enhance ones job success, a
person learn the art of human relations to effectively communicate her/his
ideas, experiences, thoughts, skills and feelings.

Personal Satisfaction
Mastery on a certain area goes beyond vocational success or promotion, i.e.
personal satisfaction. Thus communication skill can be a source of personal
satisfaction, particularly in the areas of art such as writing, painting, etc.

Meeting Social and Ethical obligations

A person may be in conflict with him/herself, with other people, and/or with
the community at large. With the help of communication people continue
adjusting profitably to themselves, to other people, to the environment in
which they live and work. It is a means of winning respect and confidence
from other people or from the community at large.
As you attempt to fulfill yourself in business and in the private aspect of your
life, your brain enables you to identify, classify, relate and solve issues. But
in responding to your environment, you generate both emotions and ideas.
You feel as well as think. Through such experiences you continue adjusting
profitably to yourself to other people, to the environment in which you and
they live, cooperate and compete. In brief, effective communication is a key
to success in personal life and in business career.

Importance of Communication at Organization level

Planning Organizing Staffing Directing Controlling

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As a student or an employee, whatever you academic classification or job

title may be, you participate in the coordination of resources and objectives.
In doing so you participate in management, the continuing process of
achieving order efficiently through intelligent decisions that govern an
organization. Simultaneously, you participate in communication, the
reciprocal process of sharing information through symbols, principally words.
Communication is essential to sound management; your success as a
manager- a person who is in charge of coordinating the human and non-
human resources of an organization- greatly depends upon your ability to
communicate effectively.

Communication is essential to each of the five basic functions of

management. In order to plan, organize, staff, direct and control, managers
must be able to communicate with other persons- and communicate well.
Information from others helps formulate plans; information provided to
others defines job assignments and helps organize work; information on
standards, progress and personal factors fulfills the directing function; while
information in the form of written and oral progress reports is a fundamental
element in controlling. Communication is a linking process that enables each
of the basic functions of management to be carried. Effective communication
is therefore the “life blood” of every organization.

We already have made the claim that communication is vital to the very
existence of an organization. To understand the validity of that claim, one
must understand the role communication plays in an organization’s life. The
following figure tries to illustrate specific elements of that role.

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Role of communication in an organization

Directives Communicati Employees Employees Productivity

Motivation on Perceptions Job Quality
Ability Quantity
And Performanc Personnel
Resources Attitudes e Related costs
Nonpersonnel
related costs

To the right of the figure are the elements comprising an organization’s

productivity: the quality of the work done in the organization, the quantity of
the work done, the personnel related costs involved in getting the work done
(such as turnover or absenteeism among employees), and the non-personnel
related costs of getting work done (such as wasted materials, scrap, and so
on). Naturally, organizations want to improve productivity by maximizing the
quality and quantity of work completed and minimizing the personnel and
non-personnel costs involved in work performance.

Just to the left is the primary factor that determines productivity in

organizations the employee’s job performance. What employees do in the
workplace determines how much work gets done and how well it is done,
how costly their own behaviors are and to a large extent, how much is spent
on materials and equipment.

At the far left are the four major factors that ultimately shape an employee’s
performance.
1. The employee’s motivation to do the job.
2. The directions the employee receives concerning what to do and how to
do it.
3. The ability of the employee to do the job.
4. The resources with which the employee is provided to do the job.

What must occur then, is the translation of these four factors into employee
job performance. The key elements translating motivation, direction, ability
and resources into job performance are in the middle of the figure:
perceptions and attitudes. In short what employees do at work is determined
largely by how they perceive the work environment and how they feel about
work.
Often employees misunderstand instructions given to them, and errors in
their job performance are the predictable result. Just as often, the
organization fails to communicate expectations clearly to employees. Those
employees in turn perform as they think the organization wants them to
relying on their perceptions (or just plain luck) to guide their efforts. Finally,
employees have attitudes toward all elements of their work lives their jobs,
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their working conditions, their supervisors their coworkers, their promotional

opportunities their pay and benefits, and so on. Those attitudes influence
their willingness to work effectively and their commitment to the
organization’s goals and objectives. For example, employees who feel they
are not being paid a competitive wage may not work very hard and
employees who actively dislike their immediate supervisors may even do
things destructive to the company, such as sabotaging equipment or stealing
supplies. Employees’ job performances therefore stem directly from their
attitudes and perceptions.

Where do those attitudes and perceptions come from? Communication, in

the form of the things employees hear from management, supervisors and
their coworkers, the things employees hear about their organization from
outside sources, the written and oral guidelines with which employees are
provided; the instructions that employees receive. All this and more
comprises the communication in which employees participate every day. By
shaping employee’s attitudes and perceptions communication serves to
convert external communication from the work environment into internal
thoughts and feelings that in turn, control, employee’s behaviors.

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