4 .3 Reading Essential Principles of Communication

Within any organization, effective communication is important for a number of reasons. For example:

- coordination of activities of different departments is only possible by effective communication.

- clear instructions are essential if workers are to understand what is required of them and to enable the activities of groups or workers to be integrated.

- relationships with clients, suppliers, bankers, unions, the community, tax authorities and so on will only be satisfactory if communications with them are clear, helpful and understood.

A number of characteristics are required for a communications system to fulfill these objectives. These are: clarity, simplicity, brevity and accuracy. This is so whether the communication is quantitative, or qualitative. Quantitative communication involves the transmission and interpretation of numerical information, for example sales figures, market research findings or financial accounts.

In this unit we are concerned with qualitative communication, using language, either spoken or written. Such spoken or written messages are complicated by the impact of non-verbal signals. Posture, gesture, dress and presentation, tone of voice, facial expression, eye contact, all deliver a message irrespective of the spoken message. In fact, non-verbal signals may totally contradict the verbal message which is being presented. Psychologists suggest that 70% of all communication is of this kind. This may explain why meetings and negotiations do not always go according to plan, no matter how carefully the participants may choose their language.

Types of communication media Various types of communication media are available in an organization. These are set in Table 1.

VERBAL	face to face by phone by presentation by discussion
NON-VERBAL	by gesture by posture by eye contact by tone of voice by physical appearance
WRITTEN	by letter or fax by memo by report by visual aid by notice boards etc
NUMERICAL	by tables of data by bar charts by pie charts by graphs

Table 1 Types of communication media.

Each of these types has advantages and disadvantages which could be clearly seen in Table 2.

Type of communication	Advantages	Disadvantages
face to face	-immediate impact -misunderstandings may be instantly corrected -receiver can instantly respond	-disagreement may produce instant conflict -non-verbal signals may be stronger than the verbal message delivered
phone communication	as in the case of face to face conversation	-the absence of non-verbal signals makes the meaning conveyed by the transmitter of the message more difficult to receive -a poor line and distorted sound may cause the message to be misunderstood
presentations, speeches, lectures	use of clear presentation techniques, visual aids and clear language makes possible a strong one-way impact	-bad verbal presentation and lack of visual aids reduces impact dramatically, unless visual aids are provided -bad acoustics may cause loss of important parts of the message, unless visual aids are provided -the attention span of the audience may be too short to absorb the message, unless written summaries are provided -there is little chance for clarification of important points
written communication	-the message can be precisely presented - the message is permanent and can be stored for future reference -the written message may be supplemented with numerical evidence or other supporting illustrations	-incomprehensible language will destroy the impact -verbosity will have the same effect -if the message is too long, it may not be read in full -careless typing or other reproduction may distort the message -it is not easy to clarify difficult points

Table 2 Types of communication: advantages and disadvantages.

Barriers to good communication At this point we need to develop the above idea a little further, by looking in a more systematic way at barriers to good communication. Despite the importance of good communication in any organization, its creation and maintenance is often neglected. We all take language for granted, failing to realize that a given sequence of words may have totally different meanings to several recipients. There exist many barriers to good communication, but they may be grouped into those stemming from ‘transmission’, ‘reception’, ‘manipulation’ and ‘distance’.

Transmission breakdowns may occur because of deficiencies in the language used. Reception breakdowns may stem from the following factors:

• The emotional state of the recipient may cause him or her to perceive a message as threatening, when it was intended to convey instructions or information. Wrong responses may ensue.

• Stereotypical attitudes (sexist, racist, etc) may cause an innocuous message to be misinterpreted.

• Excessive amounts of communications may cause information overload, or ‘selective attention’, resulting in important information being overlooked.

Manipulation breakdowns may arise when:

• An individual, for his or her own purposes, misdirects or misinterprets a message, in order to achieve some personal objective which runs counter to those of the organization.

• A manager deliberately uses routine communications channels as a weapon with which to attack some rival in the company; this may be done by the number, type and direction of the messages. This sort of intimidation is commonly experienced by women managers working in a male environment. Thus manipulation of communications systems is a means of asserting power over others.

We use the term ‘distance breakdowns’ to cover a number of related points:

• Geographical distance between any two plants in a group may limit the possible amount of face to face communication. This may lead to excessive reliance on other less direct methods which may be less effective.

• Status barriers. These may be critical, especially in UK firms. Strong class barriers may inhibit managers from listening to what workers have to say, or inhibit workers from attempting to express their own point of view. Such barriers are reinforced by symbolic privileges, e.g. company cars, executive dining rooms, and so on. These are regarded with amazement by other cultures, especially the Japanese, who seek to dismantle such barriers and to encourage participation by the workforce through such devices as Quality Circles.