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Communication Concept
Communication represents one of the most
important tools that the leaders have at their disposal to perform their
influencing of tasks. Its significance is such that some authors
consider it as the “blood” that brings life to the
organization. This
importance is essentially due to the fact that only through an effective
communication is possible:
1. Establish and make known, with the
participation of members from all organizations’
hierarchy levels, the
organizational goals as long as they behold not only the
organizations’
interests, but also all its members’ interests.
2. Define and make known, with the
participation of members from all organizations’
hierarchy levels, the
organizational structures, whether at the organizational design level,
whether at the authority distribution level,
responsibility and tasks.
3. Define and make known, with the
participation of members from all organizations’
hierarchy levels,
decisions, plans, policies,
procedures and rules accepted and respected
by all organization members.
4. Coordinate, support and control the
activities of all organization members.
5. Perform the integration of the
different departments and allow the interdepartmental help and
cooperation.
6. Efficiently fulfill the influencing
role through comprehension and performance in conformity with the
people’s needs and feelings satisfaction as a way to raise their
motivation.
Communication Process Elements
To understand and develop efficient
communication policies it’s necessary to analyze before each one of the
elements that are part of the communication process. So, make part of
the communication process the transmitter, a transmission channel,
generally influenced by noises, a receiver and still the receiver’s
feedback.
1. Transmitter (or communications’ message
source): represents who thinks, encodes and sends the message, being,
who initiates the communication process. The message encoding can be
made transforming the thought that one wants to transmit into words,
gestures or symbols that are comprehensible by who receives the message.
2. Message transmission channel: make the
connection between the transmitter and the receiver and represents the
way through which the message is transmitted. There is a wide variety of
transmission channels, each one of them with advantages and inconvenient:
stand out the air (in the case of the transmitter and receptor be front
to front), the telephone, the electronic and computer ways, the memos,
radio, television, among others.
3. Message receptor: represents who
receives and decodes the message. Here it’s necessary to have in
attention that the encoding of the message results in what effectively
the transmitter wanted to send (for example, in different cultures, the
same gesture can have different meanings). Can exist only one or
numerous receptors for the same message.
4. Noises: represent obstructions more or
less intense to the communication process and can occur in any one of
its phases. Internal noises are dominated if they occur during the
encoding or decoding phases and external if they occur in the
transmission channel. Obviously these noises vary depending on the type
of transmission channel used and depending on the transmitters and
receptors’ characteristics, being, for that, one of the criteria used in
the choice of the transmission channel and the encoding type.
5. Feedback: represents the answer of the
message from the receptor to the transmitter and can be used as a
measure of the communication result. Can be or not transmitted by the
same transmission channel.
Written Communication versus Oral Communication
Even though there are numerous types of
communication, they can be grouped in verbal and non verbal
communication. As non verbal communication we can consider the gestures,
sounds, mimics, facial expression, images, among others. Is frequently
used in places where the noise or the situation hinders the oral or
written communication like for example the communications between
dealers on the stock exchanges. It’s also used a lot as support and
assistance to oral communication.
As to the verbal communication, that
includes the written and verbal communication, for being the most used
in general society and in particular in the organizations, can be the
only one which allows the transmission of complex ideas and for being an
exclusive of the human species, is the one that has deserved more
attention from the investigators, characterizing it and studying it when
and how it should be used.
Written communication:
Written communication had its peak, and
still prevails today, in bureaucratic organizations that follow the
principles of Bureaucracy Theory stated by Max Weber. Its main
characteristic is the fact that the receptor be absent making it,
therefore, a permanent monologue of the transmitter. This characteristic
forces to some care from the transmitter, namely with the facto f
becoming impossible or at least difficult the correction and the new
explanations for better comprehension after its transmission.
So, the main care to have in order that
the message be perfectly received and understood by the receptors are
the use of uniform and legible calligraphy (if handwritten), a careful
presentation, correct punctuation and spelling, logic organization of
ideas, wealthy lexical and phrase breaking correction. The transmitter
should also have a perfect knowledge of the themes and should try to
predict the reactions / feedback to his message.
As main advantages of written
communication, we can highlight the fact of being long lasting, allows a
registration and grants a bigger attention of the message to the
organization being, therefore, suitable to transmit policies,
procedures, standards and rules. Also suits to long messages and that
require a bigger attention and time from the receptor such as reports
and several analyses. As main disadvantages stand out the already
referred absence of the receptor which disables the immediate feedback,
doesn’t allow corrections or additional explanations and compels the
exclusive use of verbal language.
Oral Communication:
In the case of oral communication, its
main characteristic is the presence of the receptor (excluding,
obviously, oral communication that uses television, radio or
recordings). This characteristic explains several of its main
advantages, namely the fact that allows an immediate feedback, grants
the immediate transition from the receptor to the transmitter and vice
versa, allows the use of non verbal communication such as gestures,
mimic and tone, for example, ease the corrections and additional
explanations, allow to observe the receptor’s reactions, and still the
great speed of transmission. However, and in order that these advantages
be seized it’s necessary the themes’ knowledge, explicitness, presence
and spontaneous, pleasant voice and good utterance, safety and self
control, and still the availability to listen.
As main disadvantages of oral
communication stands out the fact of being fleeting, not allowing any
registration and, consequently, being inadequate to long messages and
that require a careful analyses from the receptor.
Communications Directional Streams
Communications streams in the
organizations can be divided in vertical communication (ascendant and
descendant) and in lateral or horizontal communication.
Vertical Communication:
Descendant vertical communication consists
on a type of communication that begins in the top management and flows
in the way of the hierarchy base of the
organization. This kind of
information consists, generally, in information, communication and
instructions related with the organizational goals, policies, rules and
regulations and with the present situation of the
organization. This
kind of communication prevails essentially in organizations where the
subordinates’ level of participation is low.
As to the ascendant vertical
communication, consists generally in reports sent to the superiors about
the situation of a certain department or project, clarifications’
requests, suggestions and complaints, searches reports, among others,
depending on the degree of participation and democracy in the decisions.
The main problem that can affect the ascendant vertical communication is
the lack of objectivity or even untruth in the reports handed to the
superiors, especially when the facts are negative.
Lateral or Horizontal Communication:
Lateral or Horizontal Communication
consist in the communication between members of different departments,
between members of a certain interdepartmental work group, between
members of different work groups or between the line agencies and staff.
A kind of lateral communication is the informal communication which can
cross any organizational level and in any direction, not depending from
the standards and rules established by the
formal organization.
Translated from Portuguese
by Susana Saraiva, Portuguese-English and English-Portuguese translation
specialist. Contact: spams@sapo.pt.
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