Lecture - 29

Communication
Welcome to the chapter 19 of the discussion which is on communication. In this chapter we are
going to learn the details of what is communication, the meaning of communication? What are the
different issues involved in communication? What are the different steps in communication? What
are the different types of communication and the details of those types like interpersonal
communication, group communication, organizational communication, and also we are going to
learn about the barriers of communication.
(Refer Slide Time: 01:00)
So, as a chapter the objectives of this chapter are to develop and understanding of the importance of
communication, the elements of communication to know the communication process module. We
are also to form an idea of types of channels, channels richness, communicating within the
organizations how do we communicate externally? What are the barriers to effective communication
and how do we improve communications in organizations?
(Refer Slide Time: 01:38)
First will start with, the definition of communication and also the importance of communication. As
you see when we have to talking of the importance of communication, the definition of
communication deals with the transmission of information and the understanding through the use of
common symbols. So, when we are looking into this definition, when it is transmission of
information between two persons or or there is a sender and a receiver, this could be persons, this
could be other things also.
One person is a sender, there is a receiver, there is something to communicate the message which is
that to communicate, there is a medium to communicate that message. When we communication is
proper, when we use language when we use symbols which is known to both the people, who are
involved in the process of communication and then understanding of the communication means that
there is a feedback regarding whether I have understood the message in the sense.
That the sender wanted me to understand it or not? This whole process is called communication and
there lies the importance of communication, it is defined as the transmission of information not only
transmission the understanding of that information through the use of common symbols and when
we talk of understanding of the information here feedback plays a very important role. How do I tell
the other person that have understand understood? What you have told me in the way you want to
me to do it is through the process of feedback, the communication process is the whole lot of steps
which takes place which are there in between when we are talking of transmission of information. It
is something the process, which occurs happens like how this message passes on from the source
and the receiver? How this transfer is takes place?
And how this understanding of this whole situation takes place this whole gamete is called the
communication process. There are important issues related to each of these steps, what will see now
in details is the communication process. What could be the different issues related to each of these
steps and how to like a take care of those issues.
(Refer Slide Time: 04:36)
So, what we talking of here are the elements of communication in the elements of the
communication. Of course, the first person the first thing which is there or the person who is there,
first element is the communicator. There has to be someone who owns to communicate certain
things. So and so that person is called a communicator and who is he is in organizational behavior
context may be a person employee with certain ideas intensions and a purpose for communicating.
He must be communicating with certain purpose in mind and he wants to he or she wants to
communicate certain things. So, the these are the ideas in the persons mind.
He and he intends to communicate and with certain purpose and he communicates with certain
purpose. He wants that purpose to be known by others that that person is called a communicator.
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Now, when the communicator is there and he has a purpose in mind about things that he wants to
communicate it to others. Then comes the question on next step, which is called encoding in
encoding what is done the communicator tries to explain the purpose that he has in mind in certain
lucid terms symbols.
He uses languages that he use that expresses the purpose that he has in mind in two things, that are
communicable to others. So, encoding is translating the communicators ideas into a systematic set
of symbols and language that expresses the communicators purpose. So, this is very important
when we are talking of encoding we are using only that systematic set of symbols and language,
which is expressing the communicators purpose the purpose that is there at the back of his mind or
intension that he has and encoding helps to express.
That when that encoding is done, what emerges out of it is the message. The message is the result of
the encoding process, these encoding process can be vote in the verbal form and in the nonverbal
form. The message can likewise be intended message or unintended message. So, what we find over
here there is a chance of learning training at each of these steps like we have to know properly, how
to encode our ideas into using different symbols.
So, that we can emerge at a proper message that we own to transmit to others and what are the
proper verbal queues that are to be given what the associated non-verbal queues. So, that we can
transmit intended messages and we can reduce the possibility of transmitting on intended messages.
Next comes in process is the medium is through what medium would be or the carrier message
carrier would be like to transmit our message. It depends again on what is the urgency what is the
richness of that medium, whom do you want to communicate?
How many people do you want to address at a certain point of time? All this factors will help us to
choose the particular medium because medium vary the medium, that we choose it varies according
to the it is effectiveness in reaching different people. It has what is provision cause in like if we
want to talk one to one, if we want to address many people. So, these are issues that you have to
choose why you are selecting your medium for communication. Next is a process, which is after
medium at the other end of the medium is the receive decoding process done by the person who is
called the receiver or the recipient of the message. Now, the decoding process is done by the
receiver thought process that interprets the message in terms understandable to the receiver. So, the
receiver will try to use his own thought processes and interpret the message.
In the terms that he is able to understand it and then what is done is the he or she then receiver gives
the feedback about the message to the communicator feedback, regarding what is this feedback? It is
the response from the receiver to the communicator, which helps the communicator to determine
whether the message was received and produced the intended effect or whether it was understood in
a very different way by the receiver? What happens in one way communication?
Whether there is no way to receive this feedback? The communicator never knows like whether
what he intended to transmit as a part of the message was actually received in that same sense or
not, by the receiver but, in two way communication process, where there is a chance to get the
feedback. So, we can understand like whether that message has created the effect or not. So, this
feedback can be given in various ways like receive through verbal exchanges or through indirectly
through some of our attitudes like our behaviors like absenteeism is increasing, productivity is
declining and all this things when we understand.
The message in a different way one in important thing over here is that like, if we can understand
like there could be a possibility when we talking of the receiver is making sense of the message
accord his utilization, his own thought process to decode the message and understand it. So, the
communicator must be very aware of the fact like, if I am communicating certain things. I am
communicating it for whom who is there at the other end, who is going to receive my message, what
are the like I have to see? Even if I am not seeing that person in-front of me, but, I have to be very
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aware of the characteristics of this person, know this person in an out in the sense what could be his
thought process?
What is his personality pattern? His personality pattern, how he interprets facts? How he generally
interprets facts could be, what is the process of thinking of this person? So, that can communicate
the message in the way that this person understands, when I do it then only the receiver receives it
and interprets the message and I communicate what I want to communicate. Otherwise my intend to
communicate such message my intention to communicate certain message and and what I want to
communicate and what a person understands as a part of being a receiver could be very different.
Because if I do not understand receiver and sense of message, then the receiver may not be in the
same platform of my thought process to receive it in the same way and make the same sense that I
want a receiver to make out of the message that I am sending. So, first we have to understand each
other specifically the communicator has to understand the his target to receiver for whom the
message is designed, whom he wants to convey he or she wants to convey and convey it
accordingly.
So, that the receiver understand it this very important another point is concern point over here is
noise is that factor. That it disturbs the intended message and it may occur at in each of the element
of communication. So, who has, where can this noise of occur noise can occur starting from the
communicator himself or herself like, if I want to communicate something and I have certain
intentions in mind and I want to communicate certain things like I have certain idea, which I want to
communicate. Then I should be very clear and specific about what I want to communicate, if my
ideas if my concepts are not clear.
If I do not know exactly, what I want to communicate. Then I do not, I am not very clear about the
purpose of this communication at certain point of time my ideas may mix up. I am not able to
encode a proper message, so first is if I want to communicate something I must know what I want to
communicate when I when to want to communicate to whom I want to communicate. Why I want to
communicate certain things, these part should be very specifically known to the communicator.
In order to reduce the noise concern at this point next in the encoding stage when these things I
know it very clearly what, when, where, why and how? Then what happens, you know how to
encode your message and what are possible wordings should be there what possible symbols should
be there where to stop. How to write that message, what is the language that I use? What will it be a
very like ascetic part of communication? What will be the emotional content in that
communication? So, will it be very rational message? So, how that message will look like and what
words to use all these factors? What are the symbols to be used over there will be known only when
I know clearly, what are the purpose of my communication and to whom I want to communicate and
what changes do I want to bring through this communication? Expected purpose of expected
objectives out of this communication what I really want to do through this communication, when
you talking of the message accordingly.
The way that would encode will determine what type of message that you are writing or what type
of message that you are communicating is it a rational message is it emotionally loaded message
what is the verbal component of it? What is the non-verbal component of it is it a direct message
that you are giving or it is indirect message where you are mainly communicating something on top,
but underline meaning is something different hidden message.
You are giving to someone, so all this will your purpose will try to define your message next
important thing which is over there is what is the medium that you choose that and there could be
noises in choosing this medium. If you are not very clear about the richness of the medium, rich
medium will transmit, which type of message were you passed. So, that your communication
becomes an effective communication, then what happens? You may choose a wrong medium for the
type of message that you want to communicate and to a target audience, so who is your target
audience?
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Who is your target receiver? First you have to know that whether that person is conversant with the
medium that you are choosing or that person does not use this medium is not very comfortable. This
type of medium these are the considerations and whether the type of message that I want to send
will travel fast through this medium, will be understandable through this medium or for the noises
will be created. These are conditions that if it understand, why we are choosing on medium noises
could be there in decoding also. When we get a message our attitude are personality pattern or
interest or background or values all these variables me affect the decoding of the message, which
has been sent by the communicator when we are talking of feedback. Noises could be there at the
stage also because sometimes, we do not know how to give a proper feedback. We have to give the
feedback there are the giving feedback. Do you gave instantly negative feedback?
If it is to be given or we try to give it in a sandwiched manner to or we aggressive in giving a
feedback or we are assertive in giving our feedback. So, what is the technique that we take to give
the feedback? Now, do we give person oriented feedback sometimes, what happens while giving the
feedback we are exactly not giving the feedback about the message, but, what happens we give
feedback about the person, who is sending the message, which again creates noise in this whole
process.
So, we if we are to give the feedback about the message about the communication, then we have to
know like we have to give the feedback about the content of the communication. How we have
understood it? So, in this if we know this things if we trained in this things, if we practice this things
proper way. Then we can reduce the noises involving which of these stages.
(Refer Slide Time: 21:57)
So, channel is the medium selected by the sender through which the message travels to the receiver.
So, these channels are in organization could be formal channels and could be informal channels now
what are the formal channels of communication is formal channels of communication are designed
by the organizations established by the organization. Transmit messages that are relevant to and
related to the professional activities of the members through when you join a particular
organization. What happens you join a particular post in the organization and there is a
organizational structure there is a hierarchy that you join to or you become a part of the team
member. So, as a result by virtue of joining that position or by virtue of joining the team you
become a part of a communication system, which is there in the organization related to the daily
work that you need to do to get a communication from your pears you get a communication from
your supervisors like things that you have to do and also there could be centrally established
channels of communication which helps you to know like.
What are the benefits that you are going to receive what is your pay system and what are the
rewards what will be your performance appraisal all these things are established by the organization
to transmit messages that are professionally related to the professional activities of the members by
being a part of a particular organization. When we are talking of informal channels of
communication, these are informal channels are formed as a result of joining like when people come
together because of interest personal interest.
You start sharing or proximity of working, whatever it is and you start sharing your personal and
social messages. So, these channels of communication are very spontaneous in nature and immerge
as a response to individual choices. Now, these formal channels and informal channels could be
aligned to each other. If not they could be in contract with each other also. As we will see in the later
part of this discussion like.
(Refer Slide Time: 25:39)
What are the formal channels of communication present in the organization? what are the informal
channels that develop in the organization? And what are the advantages and disadvantages on the
informal channels of communication when we are choosing a particular communication channel?
We are choosing it based on one of the primary characteristics, which is called channel richness.
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When we are talking of channel richness we want to see the amount of information that can be
transmitted during a communication process. So, when we are talking of rich channels of
communication, so it is defined by whether you are able to handle multiple queues at a time. What is
the what is the feedback and whether you facilitate rapid feedback and whether it is personal or
impersonal in nature? These 3 dimensions will define the richness of particular channels.
(Refer Slide Time: 26:49)
Communication we need an organization flows in four distinct directions that we call downward
communication, upward communication, horizontal communication and diagonal communication.
When we are talking of upward downward communication, when we are talking of downward
communication, we are speaking of communication that follows from the communication, that
follows from thus boss to the to the juniors or as if part of the team, which follows from the team
leader to the other members of the team. So, what happens over here like when we are talking of
downward communication. Generally we are talking of communication, which follows from people
in higher level higher positions higher authority level to people in the lower authority level and
these communications are regarding like more of instructions. What you have to do as a part of your
instructions memos job memos that to get like do this things do that things instructions job memos,
then procedures manuals.
All this things campaign publications these you get from top to bottom like it flows this
communication flows from people higher in hierarchy and authority to people lower in hierarchy
and authority. When we are talking of upward communication, then we are talking of a
communication flow from below from down to up. So, here what happens what a what are the
different nature of this communication here.
We are like people lower in hierarchy tries to communicate to people higher up in the hierarchy
about certain things like could be their grievances like whether they are satisfied or not like any
suggestions that they want to give appeals grievances and procedures to be taken in group meetings.
These are the certain things, so what happens in large organizations? It is, if these process is not
channelized if it is not inbuilt in the system of the organization, like how to get this feedback from
the lower level and move to the upper level information may get lost in between.
So, there should be some organizationally designed process so that the and in that reflects a culture
of a very open organization, who gives a proper hearing to what the employees are telling. What are
their views on certain things issues, how to how they will express their views about the different
procedures work procedures? How what suggestions they can give to improve these procedures? So,
there should be some organizationally designed mechanism to tap this information and move it up to
the higher levels.
(Refer Slide Time: 31:14)
When we are talking about horizontal communication, we are talking when we are talking about
horizontal communication it is about communicating in the same hierarchy. So, like person from
one position is communicating is trying to communicate with the person from the who is working in
the same level may be at the certain other department, so what it depends. So, organization it is, it
again depends on the cultural of the organization whether there is this is open to discussion like
horizontally people can communicate or they have to come through the departments. It is a boss and
they can communicate to with each other.
So, if it is a organization which encourages horizontal communication, then people at two different
departments working at the same level may communicate with each other and share about their
work processes and increase their social network also. It all depends how the communication is
encouraged in the organization? Diagonal communication is a communication, which flows between
employee and higher level manager. So, of may be other departmental to whom is not reporting to
so this is important in to for the people specially for the lower level people in the organization to
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express their views to get to know from others certain learnings and if the organization is open
enough.
This type of communication is also encourages like if in certain cases you are not able to share with
your direct boss or if or you want learn something different, which will feel like other people in
different sections, can help you to learn whether you are able to communicate directly to that person
or not. To have to come through that process of you have to give tell your boss. Your boss will refer
to the other person and then he will agrees to talk to you or communicate to you, all this things will
determine whether the diagonal communication is encouraged in the organization or not?
(Refer Slide Time: 34:16)
Communication within a particular organization can be at three levels like; interpersonal level,
group level and organizational level. So, co when we are talking of interpersonal communication,
these communication is which flows from individual to individual and in the face to face and in
group settings. So, it varies from like direct orders to casual expressions and impresses, how people
feel about the organization. So, it is a one to one either face to face communications and whether we
do it in a in face to face and group settings. So, it can be direct orders and to casual expressions so
the range is from formal to informal. (Refer Slide Time: 35:32)
Different types of interpersonal communications are like first is of course, oral communication.
When we try to express orally about the message, what it is how we are feeling about certain things
and we communicate it directly through oral message. The advantage of this is it, is the it is very
speedy and it gives a proper feedback disadvantage, could be like that message can get distorted.
Because why you are transmitting a oral message general it is not documented in the form of either
keeping a record of it.
So, it becomes very intangible and what happens because there is no evidence, no proof. Generally
we means of this oral message, what happens people me latter on distort your message and try to put
words in your mouth. So, that tact is the disadvantage of this oral communication when we are
talking of written communication. It is more formal than in oral communication because it is written
it is tangible it is very foible and later on you can refer back to it as a part of evidence, but
disadvantage of this message is that this type of message it is a like it is very time consuming and
you do not get immediate feedback.
What happens in oral communication? While you are a communicating, if your if your
communicating directly face to face, you can see, you can understand the can interpret the
expression on the receivers face his body language. Her body language responses and you can get
instantaneous immediate feedback and try to reorient your thought process, while communicating
with the other person. But in terms of written communication, you do not have those possibilities of
like getting immediate feedback you get feedback. May be but the time is it is a deferred feedback,
that you get when the communication reaches that persons and interacts you back and it reaches
you. So, it is already deferred feedback it is not immediate feedback.
(Refer Slide Time: 38:43)
So, in non-verbal so that that was oral communication and written communication another part of
communication is the non-verbal communication in non-verbal communication. What is done
information is sent by a communicator that may or may not be related to the verbal communication.
So, it is it is sent by via physical queues such as facial and most facial features and eye movements
postures distance. What is the voice tone and gestures?
So, these are not related directly to the verbal communication, but it expresses a lot about how the
person is reacting to the communication mean, may and non-verbal communication. It may differ
from other forms of communication. In the sense, like it is very, very difficult to hide it from others.
You are not able to suppress from others and it is more apparent to the others. Then to those produce
them and people may interpret this non-verbal queues in different ways. So, eye contact eye
movement and the emotional intensity delivered by the physical queues such as distance postures
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and gestures this tells a lot about the how a person is receiving a particular message.So, sometimes
whatever is communicating verbally is supported by the non-verbal queues also. But sometimes
there is a mismatch between the verbal, that is been given through the verbal message and the nonverbal produced by the non-verbal message. So, prudence of the communicator lies in the fact like,
if he is able to interpret the these two together, find out what exactly is going in the receivers mind
and about how he is reacting to the communication? That was intended to intended that for that
person to receive.
So, these are very important things and this we can get the advantage of understanding this nonverbal queues, only then we are in a face to face communication, when we see the receiver in front
of us. Either directly or through certain electronic medium, we have to see the receiver in front. So,
that we have to hear the receiver and specifically see the receiver its if it is. So, that we can study
the body language and get to know that how that person is reacting. So, but again we have to be a
very trained and we have to very expert in interpreting the non-verbal queues, because if we
interpreted differently it will create all together different meaning of what this person is may be
trying to communicate. So, advantages of non verbal communication, it supports other
communications and provides observable expressions of emotions and feelings and disadvantage is
misperception of body language and gesture can influence receivers interpretation of message.
Problems in communicating with other person can arise from perceptual differences and
interpersonal style differences. So, these happens when we are in an interpersonal situation that is
what we are discussing when we are discussing noises in communication, if the receiver and a
communicator and not at the same platform of thought process if the communicator does not know
the perceptual style interpersonal style of the receiver. Then what happens?
The receiver may not understand the message in the sense that the communicator wants the receiver
to understand and make his or her own meanings based on his own perceptual ways, of his own
ways of looking at the whole at the meaning that he or she understands, introduce out of it, so that
that could result a noises of communication.
(Refer Slide Time: 44:59)
When we are talking of perceptions at group levels, we are talking of three common formals small
groups networks, which are there in the organization and the patterns of communication in it. The
three ways to communicate in a group are first is chain, second is feel and the third is all channel.
When we are talking of a chain of communication, what happens in this formal chain of
communication? It is typically vertical in nature, it is about the work that means to be
communicated and it tells about the authority check. So, when we are talking of a chain of
communication it it looks like something like this part.
(Refer Slide Time: 46:19)
This sort of like here. So, what is rigidly follow is the formal chain of command. So, who talks to
whom, sort of thing both in the like typically in the hierarchy sort of thing, this is called chain. Next
we come to what is called a feel when we are talking of the wheel network, there is a central leader
and they these are the followers and all communications are deducted to the leader. They derived
from the leader, this is called the wheel of communication.
So, leader is the central to this communication process. Communication gets directed towards the
leader and come backs from the leader there is no linkage between the people, who are they? Can
they are not communicating with each other? We are talking of all channels communication, we are
talking of all channels communication it is something of this nature where all the parties can
communicate to each other.
They are very active in this process of communication, so all the members can communicate to each
other get to know. So, there is also (( )), you can find in this in all channels communication there is
upward communication. There is downward communication, there is horizontal communication,
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there is diagonal communications. All channels are active and every person can communicate with
the other person based on the primary thing.
(Refer Slide Time: 49:23)
What we need to know and what we need to learn and what is the source from where get this
feedback. How do you get to know things properly when we are talking of informal channels of
communication? We are talking of informal networks in communication in group situations and one
of the of the primary informal network in the group situation is the grape wine. The characteristics
of grape wine is it is it is informal in nature. It is not controlled by the management. So, and it is
informal and so how does it look like grape wine looks like this sort of one goes to other.
The other come and it is every person trying to communicate with the other person in every person
is trying to communicate with the other person. In this way and everybody can communicate with
the other things, so when it goes in this way this this, these are like telling telegraphers where is that
that is going? So, what happens over here? This is informal in nature. It is not controlled by
management and most of the employees perceives it to be more reliable source and believable
source of information than the formally designed source of information.
In most cases, it is used to serve the self interest of the person, who is generating this
communication and it is generally used to spread rumors in the organization. What happens when
there is a need for particular information regarding the certain important issues in the organization?
The organization set up the management does not provide any avenue any clear cut information
about these things, stories start spreading and it spreads very fast through this informal
communication channel, which is called grape wine. Like what happens as these generates new facts
goes on adding to it and people actually it comes to like rumors?
It is spreads very fast as a formal rumor in which the truth is like (( )), what is the truth people go on
making up stories for it and it spreads very fast. So, and it generates in ambiguous conditions and
sometimes it gives raise to exiting what can be done, is we the organization can use this grape wine
positively for its own purpose to connect informally to the employees, like even before because it is
the speed of grape wine is very fast. So, if we want to spread certain message, which will help the
organization to perform we can use this grape wine positively for the organization also. There lies
the pronounce of the manager, how he or she going to utilize this grape wine. So, before we come to
the organizational level, what happens in this another type of communication, which is very
prevalent at the informal network level for the groups is also about the social net workings. That that
are becoming very important, these are also informal networks that people for and where you have
to become a member and you tell your views about this things. So, expressive views in a platform,
you get connected to your life minded people. You get connected to others who share your views
and that is speed of this network is also very fast. Now, organizations can utilize social networks
also for the purpose of the better performance of the organization. Otherwise if there is lack of
understanding, lack of communication, lack of openness and trust to the employees from the
organization side, this communication and these networks informal networks either grape wines or
social networks may work against the organizations purpose also.
Because if the purposes of the organizations and employs purpose their feelings their interest their
goals are not matching and there organization are not very clear about transmitting messages and
they are hiding certain messages from the people they are not open to them to tell about this like,
why things are done in certain ways? Why employees are expected to perform in certain ways?
What they are going to get in their future? What, why are these expectations from them if this
questions are not answered properly from the organizations side. What happens like these start
thinking their own way.
Try to fill up this gap with their level of understanding, there ways of feeling up this with messages
that they can gather from their own sources and this grape wines and social networks they may try
to act against the purpose of the organization. So, organizational communication is also one of the
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vital issues of communication and what organization can do to give a proper message to share
information with the employees? To receive feedback is one of the vital part of this discussion when
we are talking of communications and we will take it up in a next lecture to be followed.
Lecture - 30
Communication (Contd.)
Today, we are going to continue with the lecture on communication. In the last session, we
discussed about what is communication and what are the different types of communication. In
which, we covered interpersonal communication and communication at the group level. Today, we
are to discuss about communication at the organizational level and the barriers to effective
communication. Before moving to that, as a recapitulation, if we understand like communication
helps us, there are actually are four functions of communication. It helps us in controlling other
persons behavior, it helps us in motivating people in a group and it helps to share emotions or
emotional expression, and also it also helps to share information. These are the four major functions
of communication.
Now, one of the major parts, important parts of communication is also listening and which is one of
the major responsibilities of the receiver likewise, that person is decoding the message. The
listening style - that is important, that has to be learned is called the reflective listening style. In
reflective listening, it is a skill which is developed. What is done is, in reflective listening, while we
are listening, we listen very carefully to what the other person is telling and try to repeat the words.
We try to repeat the words back to the speaker to verify the heard message, so that there is certain
scope for correction if there is a misunderstanding. So, reflective listening, it emphasizes the role of
the receiver and it helps the receiver to understand the communication clearly and fully understand
the message what has been sent by the sender. It is very useful in problem solving. Otherwise, there
could be a gap of information about what the sender wants the receiver to understand and what the
receiver actually understands.
So, the things which are there in reflective, which are more important for reflective listening and
listening are, first is listening very carefully and we have to be very concerned about also what are
the feelings that are communicated through the message, so that, we can get to understand the
emotional part of the message that is being communicated by the sender. Then, we should be
responding to the communicator, but, and, but, not try to lead the communicator to certain thought
process and it helps us in reducing the interpersonal barrier and understand people.
So, generally there are four levels of verbal response when we are talking of reflective
communication. So, first step is affirm communication and affirm contact rather. In that what is
done is, the communication is done assertively. Next is, the thoughts are rearranged accordingly to
the, it is like rearranging thoughts process and expressions.
Next stage is that of paraphrase. In which, whatever is heard by the receiver is reflected back to the
speaker and with as much of accuracy as possible. So, whatever we hear will try to accurately
reflect back to the speaker as much we have heard it. It helps in building empathy and we feeling
and the positive bounding between the receiver and the sender. It generates a feeling of openness
and acceptance.
So, third step, important step is clarify the implicit. What happens while we communicate certain
things? In most cases, we do not communicate the whole thing. We take certain things like as
implicit part of it; as accepted part of understanding. Like, we take it for granted. May be we want
to tell something. We do not want explicitly to tell it and we would not feel like the receiver is well
matured enough to understand that part of the implicit communication. So, those part of reflective
listening is one of the important functions of reflective listening is also to bring up those unspoken
words and it builds greater awareness.
9

Fourth part is reflecting core feeling. In that, what happens is important thoughts and feelings are
restated, so there is no scope for ambiguity. It should be done with caution. In reflective listening,
there is a part of non verbal behavior also. It is important for the speaker to eye contact, like one of
those important things is that of eye contact. It helps the speaker to open a discussion and get to
know like, whether like your eye contacts, expressions of eyes tell that whether the listeners are
listening properly, they are interested or not, and whether they have understood things properly.
Here, we have to be concerned about the cultural differences also. What eye contacts mean in
different cultures and how it gets interpreted with them. So, and it helps the listener in sorting out
the thoughts and feelings and identify personal responses. So, these are certain things that help in
like moving the communication forward, when either we are in a face to face situation or we are not.
In face to face situations, may be through electronic media, we are hearing certain things and we
want to interpret those things, we want to interpret the meanings of those things and how the
speaker is telling and what that speaker is telling.
So, reflective listening is one of the important criteria, important things, one of the important things
to be learned; how to do or how to listen in a reflective way, if you want to go for effective
communication. Next part of the discussion, which is very important, which we started in the earlier
class it that of the richness of the media. We touched upon it in the earlier class and we thought of
discussing it in this session is the richness of the media through which the message is getting
transmitted.
(Refer Slide Time: 09:33)
What we find in this diagram is, when we are talking of the richness of the media, it means like
whether it is the ability of the medium or channel to elicit or evoke meaning in the receiver. Ability
of the medium to elicit, evoke, elicit or evoke meaning, in the receiver. Now, when it is so, we find
like there are some routine things that we do and some non routine things that are as a part of the
media that communication that is done. What you find like, these can be classified as a part of like
whether this media is rich in terms of the ability to transmit or evoke meaning and whether it is
more rich.
From the left hand side, we find formal reports of bulletins, memos, letters, prerecorded speeches,
electronic mail, online discussion groups, and groupware. Then, this is voice mail, live speeches,
telephone conversations, video conferences, face to face conversation. So, again there is a
relationship between what we find over here media richness and the data capacity of the medium.
What we find over here, face to face conversation is very high in the richness of the channel, but, it
is highest in the richness. But, the data capacity is lowest.
While in a face to face communication, it is, that we cannot share a bulk of information. The
information shared is, its quantity is the lowest, but, it is very highest in the level of richness. Is that
we can share ideas, get to know like what others are understanding about it and we can make
ourselves communications clear in what you want to communicate what the person has understood.
So, face to face conversation is highest in channel richness, but, it is the lowest as parts of the data
capacity what is there.
When we come to telephones over here, telephones are again high in channel richness, but, it is low
as far as data capacity is concerned. It is higher than face to face communication, but, it is again
lower than voice mails and all these things. When we are talking of memos and letters over here,
this is low in channel richness and, but, it is low or moderate in channel richness and it is also
moderate in data capacity. When we are talking of reports, formal reports and bulletins, these are
highest in terms of data capacity, but, it is low in terms of channel richness because, lots of data is
shared and we do not know and we do not have the feedback about whether people are
understanding what is being communicated to them or not.
So, as we move up in the channel richness, to me may be the data capacity of that medium becomes
low. Meanwhile, low in channel richness or data capacity is somewhat high. So, we have to, like
10

when we want to communicate certain things, we have to do a mix and match of these things; these
modes of communication, these channels of communication. So that, whatever we are
communicating, it is both like, it is we are able to make others understand what we want to
communicate and we can communicate the whole things like, quite a bit of information that is
certain points of time. So, we have to do a mix and match of these channels based on their channel
richness and data capacity.
(Refer Slide Time: 14:14)
We have already discussed about this part of, like while we are talking of communicating in a group
and we found in formal channels of communication, like there are three ways of communicating.
One is chain, one is wheel and the other is the all channel process. So, what we may try to do over
here is like is to classify these things based on certain criteria. So, we can classify these modes of
communication. We can classify it based on certain aspects or criteria that are called and we can
take it over here, the chain, the wheel and all channel.
(Refer Slide Time: 15:09)
So, these criteria according to which we can classify. First is the speed of communication. What we
can find over here in chain, the speed is moderate. In wheel, it is fast and all channel, it is also fast.
Because, you can, in all channel it is fast because, here you are not like, you can move from here,
there and whichever you want to go and communication spreads very fast. The speed of
communication is very high. Next we are talking of accuracy of communication. In which, the chain
the accuracy of communication is high. In wheel also it is high, but, in all channel, it is moderate.
Reason is, like in chain, what we know is one person is communicating to the other person. This
person is communicating to the other person. So, one to one communication is there and we know
like who is communicating to whom. There could be a process of validating and rechecking. In
wheel also, all the communication passes through the leader. So, there is a great possibility of
accuracy in it. But, what happens in this one? In all channels, everybody starts communicating with
the other person and there is hardly any check on what is the validity of the data and whether it is
been transmitted in an accurate way or not.
When we are talking of immergence of a leader, it is the third criteria emergence of a leader. The
chances of emergence of a leader are moderate in chain communication because, all are just passing
information. It is very high in wheel because all information gets centrally passed on to one person
and that person passes that information to the outside parties or the outside world. So, there is great
chance of immergence of a leader when we are talking of wheel communication. But, when we are
talking of all channels communication, when we are talking of all channels communication, may be
possibility of immergence of leader is none.
When we are talking of like the status of members and the satisfaction of members, what we find is,
status of members and their satisfaction, we find it is moderate in chain communication because,
one is communicating to the other and there could be a hierarchy of like communication and may be
closer to the boss. It is low in terms of wheel because, some people get to communicate to the leader
and some people may not. It is very high when we are talking of all channels because, everybody is
trying to communicate with the other person and that is why they get satisfaction from this
communication. So, these are like the small group networks. How the communication process is
effective in these small group networks. What will try to with this knowledge of media richness,
with this knowledge of data capacity, manage data capacity of the richness, with the knowledge of
reflective listening and how these chains are working in terms, things are working as a part of wheel
chain and all channels, with this knowledge of this communication medium and then networks and
everything, we move to the next level of discussion where we try to see like what are the
communication processes and systems when we are talking of communication at the organizational
level.
(Refer Slide Time: 20:18)
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Communication at the organizational level is mainly through new types of technological

communication, which if you bring in the idea of media richness and data capacity, we can
understand they vary in their richness and data capacity. The types of the channels which are there
are intranet or internet and then, e-mails, voice mails, video conferences and teleconferencing and
electronic meetings. Each of these has their both positives and negatives attached to the medium that
is taken for communication. We will try to discuss some of these things in detail. When we are
talking of e mails, now life is such that, may be, we cannot think without an e-mail and without an
e-mail and like which is cannot think of written and it has become a part of our life. Now these,
what are these e-mails and what we do with it and how to be a person who is like irrespon[se]-, who
uses this e- mails with quite a good responsibility in the organization is what is the focus now for
the organization. Now, when we are talking of e-mails, e-mails are organized. It is where we are
using technology to internet to transmit and receive internet, transmit and receive computer
generated text and documents. So, what it is done? It is more quickly written and quickly
transmitted like and we can edit it and store and main purpose is it can be sent to many. It is also not
required and It can be stored and it is not required that the person that you sent the e mail to, reads it
immediately and give the feedback. That person can read the e-mail at the considerable time later
and they can give the feedback.
So, these are may be the advantages of e mails. But, e-mails are not without its draw backs also.
Like, what happens because more of like writing part of it and you cannot see the person expressing
the feeling? Then, what happens is, there could be misrepresentation of the meaning and negative
messages can spread also through e-mails. So, it is very time consuming in nature and sometimes it
becomes so much irresistible for us, like we do find it difficult to stop ourselves from checking the e
mails.
Sometimes, emotions are like, emotions are expressed through long e-mails that we write and those
may hamper the organizational relationships. So, like privacy issues are also there when we are
talking of e-mails. If e-mails, e mail id is trapped, then our privacy regarding certain things also
become questionable. So, we have to know, it is not only very important that we use e-mails for as
one of the ways of doing things in organizations, but, side by side we have to be very careful about
what to do with these e-mails and how to use them. So, if we can think of like certain thumb rules
like we should not check e-mails right at the morning when we are into the organization because, emails checking is the considerable time consuming factor. So, try to check e-mails in batches. So,
you should dedicate such a time of yours like, this is the hour that I am going to check e-mails.
Never use the same e-mail id for different purposes, which are professional in nature and which are
public in nature or which are like personal in nature; privacy issues. Because, then you get to, like
when the separation is done, you get those messages which are appropriate for each of these
categories and your part of segregating them to different trailing will be less. So, sometimes we may
have to delete e-mails also. Unnecessary e-mails come to us and we have to block those e-mails.
There is another relief which we call over here, SMS or text messaging, which is like where
instantaneously we sent message about certain things that we feel, like certain happenings that we
watch etcetera. So, what is important over here and how it is differentiated from e-mail is, e-mail is
a long message and SMS is a short message. But we, for understanding those SMSs, what we have
to understand is the language of the SMS. So, many people are not very comfortable with the
language of the SMS. They have to learn it to understand what is being told in that SMS.
There are other parts like also networking software, where we like register to that, like my space or
Face book. Then, we know what are the functions and we try to form a common bond with the
people that we need or quit. Blogs are again social media, where entries are written and generally
displayed in reverse chronological order. So, one of these, may be type of blog is tweeter. So, next
important thing is that of video conferencing. In video conferencing, what happens? It helps people
meet. It helps you to meet with people in different locations. What happens as if you are interacting
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face to face, but, you are placed at different locations. What is important like, all are present at the
same point of time and all are accessing the net at the same point of time, when we are talking of
video conference.
So, all these things may lead to certain, one of the important issues is like how to manage
information. How to manage information may require like, there are two separate parts to it. One is
information overload and the other is one is information overload the other is could be like the
security of the information, whether like stress from bombarded with information at all types.
So, now what happens even if you are in the aero plane, you are not able to switch your phone
because of some facilities were provided and you can call through those. So, these sometimes
become irritating for the people who want to spend some time with the family members and may be
do keep oneself away from the job situation. But, these things like, more the technology advances, it
is more easy for the organization to keep track of employees who are there. So, that may lead to
information overload.
(Refer Slide Time: 30:16)
Next, we will move on to knowledge management in the organizational context. In knowledge
management, what is happening is, it is organizations way of generating collective wisdom, so that,
the right information gets to the person right person at the right time. So, this is very important for
the organization as they are important assets and even if people are leaving, then this is the implicit
asset that stays with you in terms of the knowledge and experiences and things learned out of that.
So, another part of organization communication is communicating externally through distinct
programs like public relations, advertising, promotions, customer or client or patient surveys and all
these things. (Refer Slide Time: 32:00)
So, these are some of the different types of organizational communication. When we are talking of
multicultural communication and we are talking of barriers to effective communication in
multicultural communication, so what are these barriers or factors that block significantly or
significantly distort the successful communication and what happens over here in multicultural
communication.
So, there are issues of ethnocentrism; tendency to consider the values, norms and customs of ones
own country as superior. So, it may be implicit or explicit. Cultural insensitivity is not being
sensitive to cultural differences. This is very important. Non verbal cues. In fact, it means different
things to different cultures and if you are not sensitive to the culture, then you may land up in great
trouble. Because, non verbal cues from different countries vary. I mean totally different things.
Next is, intercultural communication succeeds when the communications are made in such a way it
shows like communicators are aware of the cultural, structural, cultural differences, significant
cultural differences which are there and it should be taken care of like ethnocentric feelings and
tendencies are avoided. It should be understanding, like people are different and they understand
things in different ways. So, these things, like if we move or start with these assumptions, may be
life is easy for us in communicating in different cultures.
(Refer Slide Time: 34:39)
When we are talking of barriers to effective communication, barriers could exist within an
individual or within the organization. So, when we are talking of barriers, we will try see some of
the points clubbed and the different headings. First is the frame of reference. What is it? As we are
discussing as people are from different backgrounds, different emotional and social setups, what
happens due to their differences in background and experience is, they may encode or decode
messages differently.
Selective listening is a form of selective perception, where we give the feedback in such a way like
that it consists of only the positives. It does not share. It throws much of light on the negative part of
the situation, which may have an impact on the communicators also. Value judgment is, where we
judge an overall, give an overall value to the message based on his or her evaluation of the
13

messages anticipated meaning and then you get the value to this. Source reliability is trust,
confidence and faith that the receiver has in communicators actions. So, what happens over here we
have to find. We have to be cautious about some of these barriers based on like, where is the block
being created and how it is trying to reflect on the behavior pattern. So, like value judgments, source
credibility these are important parts of barriers that have to be taken care of
(Refer Slide Time: 37:46)
Next is filtering of the message. When the communicator manipulates the information so that the
receiver hears it positive. It frequently occurs in upward communication. So, that is, it is just
generally telling the boss what he or she wants to hear and maybe it is not like the correct feedback.
So, when we are again talking of in-group language, these are certain group languages, jargons
developed by the members within a group, which that particular group member will only understand
and not understood by others. So, we have to be careful of using those words and not using those
words in particular situations.
So, it appears as the status difference and like time pressures, communication overload, all these
things will affect the behavior of the individuals and their performances in the organization. We ave
to take care of these issues, if we are to go for better performance. There could be like, if we are not
aware of these things, due to this things, the barriers may be found and this could be acting contra to
the performance of the organization. What we can do is to try to take corrective measures to check
these barriers.
(Refer Slide Time: 39:48)
There could be communication barriers between men and women also. So, it means like women talk
in certain ways and men do talk in certain other ways. Like, men talk to emphasis status power and
independence, complain that the women talk on and on and offer solutions and to boast about their
accomplishments. Women talk to, like they are more on the social front. They talk to establish
intimacy and connections, criticize men for not listening, speak of problems to promote the
closeness like emotional bonding and express regret and restore balance to a conversation, like
something are not working, they generally share and regret and try to restore the balance in the
conversation. So, if we can understand, women are more of like betrayed formal groups and
relationship oriented, when we are talking of the barriers between what men communicates and
wants to here and what women communicates.
(Refer Slide Time: 41:30)
Barriers to effective cross cultural communication could be semantics, word connotations and tone
differences and perceptual differences. So, communication could be there across cultural context
also. Like, when it is a very high context culture, cultures that really rely heavily on nonverbal and
subtle situational cues to communication. In low context cultures, cultures rely heavily to convey
meaning in the heavily in words convey meaning in communication.
(Refer Slide Time: 42:22)
So, what happens over here? Based on these two things, like the cultures that the people are in,
people give importance to different things, when they belong to these different cultures and
accordingly the factor may vary. So, while communicating in different cultural context, we have to
keep these things also to mind. We also have a type of communication, which is called, before we
go on discussing like improving this communications in the organizations, we will try to discuss
something which is on like defensive communication, which is aggressive and angry in nature and
passive and withdrawing in nature, which leads to injuries, communication breakdowns, attention,
then nonproductive efforts, problem solving features.
So, in defensive communication, what happens like characteristics are like either passive,
withdrawn, submissive or either they are passive or submissive or they are very aggressive in
nature, if their defensiveness behavior is dominating them. People take different techniques while
14

they are trying to communicate defensively. Defensive techniques which are taken by boss are like
your power play, like, showing power play, like finish the reports by month end and sort of things.
Then, we are talking of put down things. Like, telling others if someone is capable like, I can put
you down, in the sense, we compare you with someone effective and tell like this person have been
able to do this job more clearly. So, leveling someone as either as fast learner or slow learner and
raising doubts in the whole situation, if whether we can raise doubts, whether we can trust someone
and if you are not able to finish the thing in time.
So, these are some of the defensive tactics taken by boss. Defensive tactics taken by employees
could be like misleading information. In order to show that we have collected so many information,
but, misleading information to detract the evaluator. So, scapegoating. Like, scapegoating some
person in the organization so that, we can blame that person. So, telling hostile jokes and deception
are some of the defensive techniques taken by the employees to defend their own interest.
Non defensive communication is one which is very assertive in nature and which is direct and
powerful. It provides the basis for defense and it restores orders, balances and effectiveness, when
situations arise. The non defensive communication is a powerful tool. In the sense, people get to
know their self control and self esteem and self position and it helps in relationship building and it
helps the listener to feel accepted and rather than rejected because, it is how that person interprets
your cues. It is very important. So, non defensive communication is where self control and self
position are more important as the speaker has a very centered, holistic role as at even control role
in this communication.
When we are talking of different slab of communication, which is again very important part of
communication, which is called nonverbal communication. Nonverbal communication is that type
of communication where in every situation words are not required. So, there are four types of which
helps in nonverbal communication. Basic types are one is proxemics. Like, if we are sitting close to
one another, that sitting techniques itself will determine what is the intended nonverbal
communication that I want to send.
Kinesics is study of body movement, facial and eye behavior is always there and paralanguage and
use of paralanguage. These are the four elements of nonverbal communication. When we are talking
of proxemics, then everyone, even an animal has what is called territorial space. So, just some
degree around us is comfort zone, where we are, which is very intimate zone and there may be
personal zone, social zone and public zone. These are the four zones in a persons mind. So,
proxemics deals with how this spaces being invaded or taken care of or respected by the tactics that
we desire for communication.
What happens sometimes, sitting arrangements may tell like what we want people to do. Like, if
you want to communicate in certain ways, if you want to co-operate with each other, then the sitting
element is something, if you want them to compete to one another, then sitting arrangement is
certain things. If we just to communicate, then sitting arrangements is something. If no response is
required and non communication, we want we will do it in other ways. So, the types of sitting
arrangements that you are doing, this tells about the ways in which communication is done.
(Refer Slide Time: 50:24)
So, we can think of like, suppose this is where we want people to cooperate and this is where we
want people to compete because, one cannot see the other. This is where we want this person to
communicate with this one and this is where may be they are not able to communicate with each
other. So, these things have to be taken care of. Next is, there is another part of nonverbal
communication which is called paralanguage. In which, the tones that we use, the voices that we use
are pitch of the voice tonal quality, interruptions as I said, all this will determine like what we want
to convey through this speech or a message. So, that is very important. Like, variations brought into
the speech either through ways of speaking or accents connected or body movements connected to
the ways of speaking.
15

What is, could be the disease of communication, if you put it in that way is failing to communicate
in a proper way and where there is a lack of heartfelt communication and we are just
communicating from the head, just sort passing on the message and there is less of emotional
attachment and softness of what we are speaking. So, and it shows less of personal integrity of the
speaker who is communicating the message. So, that is very important. All these things, like when
we are talking of positive and healthy communication, it should be from head to heart and then,
there should be some competence for written and then, emotion competence and personal integrity,
these are important parts of healthy communication. So, again nowadays, like this information
passed through communication technology, these are easy in our life to certain extent because, it
helps us to communicate faster and it helps us to reach many people at a certain point of time. But
again, it also affects our life, and it also invades our life to certain extent. Like, suppose we do not
want to communicate, we want to be our own self, we want to be with our family members, but, due
to this, like high accessibility of electronic medium, suppose we have become like ever reachable
and always reachable quality of type of people and as a result, like schedules of office hours become
irrelevant and considerations of time and distance become irrelevant and sometimes these time
zones, boundaries, geographical boundaries become irrelevant and these may create tensions and
stress on the individuals. So, we have to understand where we need to stop and how do we need to
balance all these activities while we are talking of communicating in the organization.That brings us
to the last part of the discussion, which is now on improving communications in organizations based
on the barriers that we have discussed, based on the characteristics of the different communications
that we have discussed, based on the defensive communication and the requirement of healthy
communication. We now have to feature into how communication can be improved in the
organization. So, first is of course, follow up. Following up, attempting to determine whether you
received the intended message in which it was intended, so, actually received it.
Regulating information flow is one of the important issues that about the things that you have just
discussed. It is, we have to know like how to eliminate communication overload and by the quantity
and the quality of information that you need to may be reject and look into and utilizing feedback in
a proper way is one of the important things. Then, developing empathy for people like who are
listening to your communication, empathy for the receiver will help you to anticipate, could be how
the message will be decoded. Repetition, so that, this is what we are talking of reflective listening,
repetition of the message, so that, we can understand, like we have understood the intended message
in a correct way.
(Refer Slide Time: 56:01)
So, encouraging mutual trust is very important between, specifically between the manager and the
subordinate, so that, we can know like we share information and there is organization process of
sharing information. We trust each other with the information shared, so that, we know like it should
be not be miss utilized. When this is done, the grapevine and rumors decrease in the organization
and people communicate to know the organizations purpose. There is less of guess work and
deviance in the organizations purpose is not there. Effective timing is what you need to understand,
so that, like at a certain point of time, like employees are not bombarded with too many of
information and they have to prioritize those information. So, we have to use simple languages, so
that, people are able to decode it even if they are not very conversant with the particular language.
So, effective listening is, it is listening with understanding and which helps you to decode the
messages. Using of the grapevine is, managers should know how to use the grapevine in the positive
purpose because, if the grapevine starts functioning against the organizations purpose and because
it has got a great speed through which message can travel and because of that high speed, then there
is less way to check the accuracy of the information. This can be devastating if message distortions
travel through grapevine.
(Refer Slide Time: 58:11)
16

We have to promote ethical communication. In the sense, people should not intentionally deceive
each other. They should not intentionally harm each other and they should be treated justly. So,
whether there are certain issues of discussion like, there are to what extent privacy should be
respected in the organization. Regarding privacy of information shared, so, whether we can allow
for monitoring our communications, getting our communications getting monitored by others and
organizations spying on whatever we are doing as part of telephonic communication, e-mails.
So, these are the things that we need to be very careful about. We may think like we are just writing
an e-mail and others are not following us, but, we could be under the surveillance of the
organization, who is monitoring all the e mails that we are writing or the phone calls that we have
made to other people and other parties. So, and those may act as evidence against us in later point of
time. So, we have to be very careful about these things while we are using organizational channels
of communication and the work time and the work place. There should be also some understanding,
some points of agreement, and some points of drawing the line, that is working where to stop and
where to begin. That balance should be there while we are talking of ethical issues in
communication and what type of monitoring, to what extent about and what matters and what
degree we can do it.
(Refer Slide Time: 60:12)
So, this is and how to use it in a very responsible way. These are some of the issues that are related
to ethical communication. We will come to the questions over here. Like, what is the importance of
communication in organization, justify with examples, what are the elements of communication,
define communication process, what are the different types of channels and the channels richness
with communication effectiveness, discuss with suitable examples the different directions and levels
of communication within organizations, discuss issues related to communicating externally, what
are the barriers effective communication, how do you think of ways of improving organizational
communication and how can the organization promote ethical communication. So, these are the
important questions which help us to learn what is the importance of communication, how we get
the sender and receiver involve in the process of communication, how do we transmit messages
which are important for the organization smooth functioning and helping the team getting informed.
In that sense, we communicate and we express our feelings and information, we share things and the
sender and the receivers understand it in the way, they take a feedback and they come closer due to
this process of communication, and they work towards an organizational purpose. Also, ethical
communication is in the sense, what to communicate, how to communicate, what should be the
language that we should be using, what is the media that we should be using, what all information
can we shared with outside world or should we be trustworthy enough to retain some of the
organizations information, which leads to the competitive edge for the organization and like and we
should not share with it outside, things outside the world or other competitors around; or we should
not use the organizations platform to just show some disrespectful opinion, which is our personal
opinion to others and use the companys channel of communication for it. So, these are certain
things where we have to be very responsible communicators, and communicating that way. If that is
done properly, then communication works wonders for organizational effectiveness.

17