COMMUNICATION: AN INTRODUCTION

We cannot live without communicating. Communication is just as much a part of mans nature as
are his biological needs. To any person who lives or works in a social situation which involves
contacts with other people, directly by means of a spoken word, or indirectly by means of a
written word or the channels of audio-visual media, communication is a link and a tool for
information, persuading, comforting, counseling, entertaining or stimulating others. It is like a
vital adhesive in the social laminate. Communication is the mediator between our personality and
the outside world of reality. No group or organization can exist without communication as it is
the key to functioning of an organization.
Concept:- The word communication has been derived from the Latin word communico which
means sharing. Management literature defines and explains the concept of communication in
many different ways. It has many definitions-more than one hundred, according to one study.
Most of the definitions dwell on the characteristics of communication. But the most
comprehensive and commonly accepted definition of communication is the process of
transferring of thought or an idea so that the mental picture perceived by the receiver is the
same as that envisioned by the sender. (Robbins). Communication has been defined as a
process. It is the process of encoding and decoding. Initially man made use of signs and symbols
to transmit his message. With the passage of time signs and symbols were replaced bywords and
languages. There have been several attempts by scholars to explain the communication process.
It essentially consists of the following basic elements.
a. Sender- a person or a group who wants to transmit the message to other person or group.
b. Message- the physical form of the idea or the information conveyed, which can be
understood through the receivers sensory receptors. Messages are not meanings but
indicative of meanings. Meaning lies in the receivers mind. For eg- in the message
where manager reminds a worker about the target date for completing the work with an
intention to co-operate but the worker interprets it as an indicator of annoyance.
c. Encoding Putting the meaning of the message into appropriate words, symbols,
gestures or other forms of expressions.
d. Channelis the medium used to transmitting the message.
e. Receiver The person or group who perceives the message and attached some meaning
to it, is the receiver. In a reasonably good communication situation, the intended message

is received by the receiver. But in an imperfect situation, it is possible that the delivered
message has not been received by the receiver. In this situation, by definition, if there is
no receiver there is no communication.
f. DecodingEven if the message is received, it is possible that it has not been understood
in the same sense and spirit as the sender intended it to be because the receiver decodes it
differently. Decoding means attaching meaning to the message. Meanings are already in
the receivers mind, not in the message. The more the senders message matches the
receivers understanding, the most effective the communication will be.
g. Feed backis the reversal of the communication process in which the receiver expresses
the response of the senders message. The response or reaction may be expressions,
questions, asking further explanation or affirmations.
Some of the common answer to the question why communicate? is as follows:
It leads to greater effectiveness.
It keeps people in picture.
It increases motivation to perform well.
It increases commitment to the organization.
BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
To be a successful communicator, mere planning, preparation and practice of communication is
not sufficient. There are certain factors which interfere with the process of communication.
These factors, also known as barriers have to be identified and understood. They are, also
selectively called noise. Noise is anything which interferes with or reduces the fidelity of
communication. These barriers can be
1. Psychological
2. Organisational
3. External
4. Personal
5. Emotional
1. Psychological barriers: These are the most serious obstacles to communication. These can
be categorized as
a. Halo Effect
b. Complexes (inferiority and superiority)
c. Different perceptions
d. Allness and a closed mind
e. Emotional excesses
f. Slanting
g. Abstraction
a. Halo Effect- The Halo Effect is the effect of an oral communication on the listener on the
basis of his impressions of the speaker. If the listener has trust in the speaker, everything that the

speaker says would seem to be white and if he has distrust, then everything the speaker says
would appear to be black. If the speaker is greatly trusted and held in high esteem as an honest
person, his statements are readily taken as true The truth or untruth of the communication is
judged on the basis of the prejudice of the listener. Oral communication is thus conditioned by
the impressions of the listener about the moral eminence of the speaker. The impressions of the
listener and not the intrinsic worth of the message determine the validity of communication.
Under the halo effect in business, buyers tend to go by the trusted sellers view of a thing, rather
than by their own judgment of the products quality. The actual purpose of the communication
would not be served. Communication should not be distorted by the trust or the distrust of the
listener. e.g. One who has trust in a shopkeeper may believe in whatever he says about the
product; this may be considered as the halo effect. In such cases even substandard products can
be sold to one who trusts him. On the other hand, who has distrust in a retailer may not believe
what he says even if he sells the best quality product to him.
b. Complexes (inferiority and superiority)
A lack of confidence or a sense of superiority may prevent proper interaction between persons
differently positioned. Those who suffer from an inferiority complex may not have enough self
confidence to talk to others especially in a group for fear of making mistakes or for fear of being
misunderstood. Persons with a superiority complex may not communicate treating others as
those who will not be able to adhere to their views due to lack of knowledge. Sometimes one
suffers from a sense of being inferior and, therefore, fails to take initiative or involve
himself/herself in conversation/ dialogue or any other form of oral communication.
c. Different perceptions- Every individual has his own perceptions of various situations. These
perceptions differ from person to person. Every perception is reinforced by past experiences e.g
if a person was allergic to a drug on a previous occasion and an advertisement for that drug
would remind him of the adverse effects of it. A person who has had a good experience with that
drug is bound to receive the advertisement message with pleasure. Because of the perception the
same message will produce different results. Inferences, inductions and deductions may also
differ from person to person, place to place and time to time creating a danger of distorted
communication.

The most important aspect of human communication is the fact that it takes place in the world of
reality which surrounds us. This world acts as our sensory environment. While we are engaged in
the process of communicating, our sense organs remain stimulated by the signs (objects of the
outside world the so-called reality) registering different sensations of smell, taste, sound, forms
and colours, or feelings. All these sense perceptions received by our brain through our senses
recreate within each one of us the world which exists within our mind as its content. Thus, there
are two aspects of the same realitythe one that actually surrounds the communicator from
outside and the other which is its mental representation (in his mind) as he sees it or believes that
he sees it. The objects which excite our five senses perceptions/sense organs eyes, ears, nose,
tongue (taste), and flesh (touch) are called signs. Our senses respond to these signs and we
receive sensations which pass from the senses into the brain through a network of sensory nerves
within our brain. Our perceptions, the mental images of the external world, are stored in our
brains as our viewpoint, experience, knowledge, feelings, and emotions. They constitute what we
really are, or how we really think of something, or how we feel or respond to something. These
stored perceptions colour and modify whatever our brain receives from any signs or set of signs,
fresh data, thoughts, or messages. That is why these conditioning perceptions, existing in the
brain are called filters. The mind filters the message received from the signs and gives it
meaning, according to individual perception.
Similarly, some persons consider themselves too big to condescend to talk with others. Often,
these are misplaced notions of self-worth, and they block oral communication.
d. Allness and a closed mind- There are some people who feel they know everything about
everything which is a barrier to their acceptance in communication or the importance of the
message which is contained in the communication. Some persons believe that they know
everything in a field or a subject. Their minds refused to receive things from other sources.
Besides, some persons in business or other work areas feel too satisfied with their ways of doing
things to change or even discuss new ideas. They develop an all knowing attitude which is
detrimental to broadmindedness and openness to the acceptance of the communication. Besides,
some persons in business or other work areas feel too satisfied with their ways of doing things to
change or even discuss new ideas. One should be broadminded and sophisticated enough to be
amenable to change and to get rid of this attitude so that one may develop a pragmatic approach

to the emerging situation and communication. The I-am what i-am attitude is not conducive
to effective communication. All great men have been learners through life and the attitude of
allness should always be avoided.
e.Emotional excesses- They stand in the way of effective communication. Emotionally charged
discourses are bound to generate emotion in the listener. Negative emotions produce negative
reactions and positive emotions produce positive reaction in the listener. Though emotion is
normal among human beings, emotional excesses can be detrimental to the receipt of objective
and creative communication .e.g. if someone closely associated with us a rude, we would be
provoked to a strong feeling of anger which our emotion.
f.Slanting It is the biased expression of the message and is produced by the interest of the
communicator. It is the divergence of the communication from the communicators way of
approach or line of thought. When the message is communicated according to a particular slant,
some important aspect is covered up, omitted or suppressed. The listeners who are aware of all
the facts may look upon the communication either with prejudice or suspicion, though ignorant
listeners may accept it. A slanted communication fails to communication the actual message
giving it a distorted communication.
g.AbstractingIt is a sort of partial approach to communication on the part of the listener.
When the listener takes a particular approach to form his mind on some aspects communication,
while omitting others, he is said to be abstracting. If abstracting is done with a biased motive on
some personal interest to distort the communication, it can be detrimental to effective
communication.
2. Physical Barriers:
a.Noise- It interferes with the transmission of the signals. It also refers to the unwanted signals
of the messages which interfere and disturb the reception of the wanted signals. This disturbance
is usually in the form of sounds but it need not always be the sounds. It can be visual, audiovisual, written, physical or psychological form -----. There are many people who communicate
with little signal and too much noise. In fact they communicate extraneous matters which may
diminish the interest of the receivers or even annoy them .Anyway, they tell the receiver
something more than they are required to communicate. Their extraneous distracting signal can
be the result of their wandering minds- it can also be because they try to communicate something
more about themselves.

Technical or physical noise refers to loud noise of the machines or the blaring noise of the stereo
and such other noises which make it difficult for any listener to receive the at the meeting hall
and the other members are distracted by the arrival. Poor telephone connections which interrupt
conversations smudged typescripts and bad handwritten are some examples of the technical
noise.
b.Time- The frequency of communication encounters affects the human relationships and the
intensity of human relations is affected by the amount of time that passes between these
encounters. If the employee does not communicate with his supervisor for a long time, it may
create a communication gap between them which may affect their relationship. Also, the time of
conveying of message has to be appropriate for the context routine messages need not be
conveyed at out- of -office hours
c.Age- The age, maturity, educational background and the eras in which a person grows up make
a generation which inevitably comes in the way of human communication. The generation gap
becomes obvious in their use of vocabulary and style of speeches and the values of life to which
they stick or adhere to. Considering the age and maturity, we tend to apply different standards of
judgment to judge, the statements of the speaker. In an organization, older workers tend to form
their social groups, which often remain apart from the younger ones. Their likings and interests
are different and they take less interest in things which are liked by the younger ones. Gradually
the older workers feel socially isolated and insecure due to the widening gap of communication
between the older and the younger workers.
d.GenderMen and women communicate with each other according to their gender. When they
work together in a group, men tend to be more assertive, acquisitive, self confident and
aggressive than the women. Thus, gender stands as a barrier to a direct, honest and appropriate
expression of a females thoughts, opinions and beliefs. On the other hand, man is more assertive
of his thoughts and opinions. The girls tend to be less aggressive because they receive negative
results such as rejection, criticism for such behavior. They are brought up with the feeling that
assertiveness is unfeminine. A girl brought up with such conception about herself may e.g. try to
avoid a frank eye- contact with the interviewer and may even speak in a voice that is almost
inaudible.
e. Distance
3.Organizational Barriers: An organization being a deliberate creation for attainment of certain
objectives, day to day happenings within it require being regulated in such a manner that they

contribute to attain these objectives in the most efficient manner. This is -achieved through
official measures such as designing the organizational arrangements for performance of various
activities , prescribing of various policies, rules- regulations and procedures, laying down norms
of behavior, instituting a reward, punishment systems, etc. All the inner processes, including
communication in different directions are markedly affected by these prescriptions. We can
discuss major organizational barriers as listed below.
a. Hierarchical barriers- In an organization, communication transmission must flow through
certain formal channels which are established by organizational hierarchy. The employees are
expected to contact the superiors and the subordinates through their immediate superiors or
subordinates. This often results in hardships and difficulties in maintaining free flow of
communication.
Usually the subordinates do not find it easy to communicate their problems to their superiors.
They experience an awe of authority in communicating with their superiors. Sometimes the
upwards communication is deliberately distorted and suitably edited in order to make it pleasant,
palatable and acceptable to the loss. The long lines of hierarchical communication are
responsible for the loss of information and also for exaggerations and understatements.
Frustration is caused among the employees when their communication is restricted to formal
channels only. They resort to grapevine in such situations.
b. Specialisation of the workforce- In large size organizations the tasks are specialized and
procedures are structured in such a way that the workforce can hardly communicate with people
in other departments. Due to increasing work specialization, it becomes very difficult to
communicate outside ones specialization.. In such organizations the right hand never comes to
know what the left hand is doing.
c. Communication loadIt refers to the amount and complexity of messages received by the
receiver. The increasing specialization and complexity of the modern business has resulted in our
growing needs of boundless information. In a busy organization, is bound to be very busy in
receiving and imparting the messages through a single channel. He has a large information to
access and can handle It provided it is of a routine and simple nature. But it becomes very
difficult to handle information which is relatively more complex and unpredictable. Even
communication under load can be a problem. An employee who is under communicated gets
bored because of his un-involvement and ultimately starts communicating with the help of
gossip, rumour etc.

d.Status: In organizations, there are formal and informal status levels that affect the
effectiveness of face-to-face oral communication. A subordinate would generally listen more and
speak less while interacting with his/ her superior. The exchange of ideas is blocked by
diffidence in the subordinate because of superior position of the speaker (boss). The upward oral
communication is not very frequent in organizations. The fear of superior status prevents free
upward flow of information. It conditions free and fair exchange of ideas.
Poor retention : In dialogue, or two-way oral communication, the sequence of thought is
essential for carrying on communication. To speak coherently one has to remember the sequence
of ideas. The speech sequence is also equally important for listening with comprehension. The
structure of thought must be received and retained by the listener to understand arguments. The
cues that signal the movement of thought from one set of ideas to another must be retained by the
listener to be able to grasp the full sense of the message discussed. In case of poor retention, the
listener fails to relate what he hears with what he had heard before. Moreover, if the listener fails
to remember the previous discussion, the whole thing is likely to be lost in the absence of any
written record.
Premature evaluation and hurried conclusions as distortions: To listen patiently until the
speaker completes his / her argument is necessary for correct interpretation of an oral message.
The listener often distorts the real or intended meaning of communication by either pre-judging
the intention of the speaker, or inferring the final purpose and meaning of the message or giving
a different twist to the argument according to his/her own assumptions, or just picking out a few
shreds of information, perhaps from his/ her point of interest. These mental processes, during the
act of listening, may at times act as a block, affecting the free and fair exchange of meaning.
Language barrier: The language of communication should be the medium shared by both
speaker and listener. In business, English is most widely used in almost all parts of the world.
The facility of conversing in English is essential for executives within a multilingual country like
India. English is now the global medium for conducting business and establish one-to-one
contact. The lack of knowledge and practice of spoken English would act as a barrier to oral
communication

Halo effect: The awe in which a speaker is held by the listener conditions the act of true
listening. If the speaker is greatly trusted and held in high esteem as an honest person, his
statements are readily taken as true. Oral communication is thus conditioned by the
impressions of the listener about the moral eminence of the speaker. The impressions of
the listener and not the intrinsic worth of the message determine the validity of
communication. Under the halo effect in business, buyers tend to go by the trusted
sellers view of a thing, rather than by their own judgement of the products quality.
Complexes: A lack of confidence or a sense of superiority may prevent proper oral
interaction between persons differently positioned. Sometimes one suffers from a sense
of being inferior and, therefore, fails to take initiative or involve himself/herself in
conversation/ dialogue or any other form of oral communication.
Perception and reality: The most important aspect of human communication is the fact
that it takes place in the world of reality which surrounds us. This world acts as our
sensory environment. While we are engaged in the process of communicating, our sense

organs remain stimulated by the signs (objects of the outside world the so-called reality)
registering different sensations of smell, taste, sound, forms and colours, or feelings. All
these sense perceptions received by our brain through our senses recreate within each one
of us the world which exists within our mind as its content. Thus, there are two aspects of
the same realitythe one that actually surrounds the communicator from outside and the
other which is its mental representation (in his mind) as he sees it or believes that he sees
it. The objects which excite our five senses perceptions/sense organs eyes, ears, nose,
tongue (taste), flesh (touch) are called signs. Our senses respond to these signs and we
receive sensations which pass from the senses into the brain through a network of sensory
nerves within our brain. Our perceptions, the mental images of the external world, are
stored in our brains as our viewpoint, experience, knowledge, feelings, and emotions.
They constitute what we really are, or how we really think of something, or how we feel
or respond to something. These stored perceptions colour and modify whatever our brain
receives from any signs or set of signs, fresh data, thoughts, or messages. That is why
these conditioning perceptions, existing in the brain are calledfilters. The mind filters
the message received from the signs and gives it meaning, according to individual
perception.
Similarly, some persons consider themselves too big to condescend to talk with others.
Often, these are misplaced notions of self-worth, and they block oral communication.
Closed and all-knowing mind: Listening, to a large extent, depends on ones curiosity to
know things. Some persons believe that they know everything in a field or a subject.
Their minds refused to receive things from other sources. Besides, some persons in
business or other work areas feel too satisfied with their ways of doing things to change
or even discuss new ideas. The closed state of mind acts as a barrier to oral
communication, which demands a readiness/ willingness on the part of listener to enter
into a dialogue.

Poor retention : In dialogue, or two-way oral communication, the sequence of thought is

essential for carrying on communication. To speak coherently one has to remember the
sequence of ideas. The speech sequence is also equally important for listening with
comprehension. The structure of thought must be received and retained by the listener to
understand arguments. The cues that signal the movement of thought from one set of
ideas to another must be retained by the listener to be able to grasp the full sense of the
message discussed. In case of poor retention, the listener fails to relate what he hears with
what he had heard before. Moreover, if the listener fails to remember the previous
discussion, the whole thing is likely to be lost in the absence of any written record.
Premature evaluation and hurried conclusions as distortions: To listen patiently until
the speaker completes his / her argument is necessary for correct interpretation of an oral
message. The listener often distorts the real or intended meaning of communication by
either pre-judging the intention of the speaker, or inferring the final purpose and meaning
of the message or giving a different twist to the argument according to his/her own
assumptions, or just picking out a few shreds of information, perhaps from his/ her point
of interest. These mental processes, during the act of listening, may at times act as a
block, affecting the free and fair exchange of meaning.
Abstracting : Abstracting is mental process of evaluation of thought content in term of
relative importance of ideas in the context of the total message. This is possible only on
listening to the whole message, and not during the process of discussion.
Abstracting acts as a barrier when a listener approaches a message from a particular point
of view focusing his / her attention on some aspects of the conversation or dialogue. The
rest of the communication is missed.
Abstracting is partial and selective listening. Some parts of the discussion are lost or just
partially received. This acts as a barrier to a full understanding of whatever is exchange
between two persons.

Slant is usually attributed to the biased presentation of a matter by speaker. Instead of

straight talk, one speaks in an oblique manner that could be almost like telling a lie.
When a matter is expressed with a particular slant, many other important aspects of the
message are suppressed, left out or indirectly hinted. Well-informed listeners usually do
suspect the cover up/slant. But uninformed listeners do accept the slanted message.
Language barrier: The language of communication should be the medium shared by
both speaker and listener. In business, English is most widely used in almost all parts of
the world. The facility of conversing in English is essential for executives within a
multilingual country like India. English is now the global medium for conducting
business and establish one-to-one contact. The lack of knowledge and practice of spoken
English would act as a barrier to oral communication.