Last week I had covered Introduction of Communication, for this week I have planned to cover Theories and Barriers of communication.. I hope you enjoy reading. 🙂
Information Theory:
Information theory is a strict scientific approach, deeply intertwined with the probability theory of mathematics. It is concerned primarily with the transmission aspects of encoder and decoder in the terms of both their functional roles and their contribution to the achievement of a given level of performance.
Non-verbal Communication:
This is the other extreme of the continuum which is often called silent language. Non-verbal communication can be defined as “all behaviour expressed consciously or unconsciously in the presence of others, and perceived either consciously or unconsciously. Thus, whether a person says something or does not say anything, communication still takes place.
There are many forms of non-verbal communication.
Probably the most widely recognized is body language. Body movements convey meaning and massages. This is called kinesics. Some of the types of body language are movement of lower limbs, personal clothing and physical appearance.
A second dimension of non-verbal communication is Para-language. This includes things such as voice quality, volume, speech role, laughter pitch and yawning.
The organizational and interpersonal approach to communication lies in the middle of information theory and nonverbal communication, interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication looks into the transfer of information from one person to another. Variable such as feedback, trust, expectation values, status and compatibility greatly influence the interpersonal aspect of communication. Interpersonal communication plays a central role in the organizational communication.
The communication process:
Communication can best be comprehended when we consider it as a process. It can be described as an interpersonal process of sending and receiving symbols and signals with meaning attached to them. Any communication involves
- A sender -` who sends out the message
- A receiver- who receives the message
- A medium – through which the message is communicated. This medium could be written, oral or nonverbal
In addition to the sender and receiver, message and the medium, there are two other features in the communication process, viz;
- Noise – this refers to the factor that hinders effective communication. And
- Feedback – this is the process that ensures that the two way communication occurs so that the sender and receiver of the message can make sure that the intended message and the received message are the same. Thus, feedback facilitates effective communication.
The barriers of communication:
- Semantic problems: Language could act as a barrier between the sender who encodes the message and the receiver who decodes the message. For instance, the word gas- station to an American is a place to get petrol but when he says so to a taxi driver in India, he may think that the American wants to get an L.P.G. cylinder shop.
- Status Effects: In organizations, superior subordinate status comes in the way of effective communication. For example, if a subordinate wants to clarify a message, he may be either afraid of asking or may think it is disrespectful.
- Physical distractions: This distraction could be of various kinds. In a factory, for instance, it could be due to the machine, or in the office due to continuous telephone’s interruption or people walking in and out of the room. Distracters could be the sender’s mannerism. If the sender starts practically each sentence with words like ‘you see’ also batting his eyelids constantly, it could distract the receiver and the message is not effectively communicated.
- Information overload: with too much information given, the receiver cannot grasp everything due to limited attention span or other such reasons. Information overloads can also lead to forgetting f lots of material.
- Time pressures: Time pressure leads to hurried and shortened modes of action which may lead to confusion and ambiguity.
- Cultural differences: Words and symbols have different meaning in different cultures and between different national boundaries.
The present author was appointed Honorary Editor to edit Indian Journal of Industrial Relations. There were three members on the editorial board. One, a Bengali speaking gentle man (from Bengal in East India), other was from Gujarat (Guajarati speaking from Western India) and the third was from Kerala (Malayalam speaking area in South India). I was from Bihar with my mother tong Hindi from mid-east India. Everybody in our meetings spoke either in English or in Hindi (Indian National language), but they all spoke in different accents.
The result was there was semantic conflict in each meeting as all four of use belonged to different sub-cultural (so to say) background though within India and could not understand each other’s’ meaning every time. There was lot of misunderstandings and confusion leading to arguments and counter arguments. I, having background in cross cultural psychology, was the only one in the group to have even realized that what has been troubling and creating confusion. It was more a matter of misunderstanding of different words rather than intensions. Though, I was the person who was least misunderstood in the group and, by and large, all three members had good understanding with me. Yet, emotionally, it was difficult for me to endure anymore and ultimately, in disgust, I resigned.
- Trust level: When trust level between the sender and receiver is low, several types of noises (hindrances and disturbances) enter the communication process because complete information is seldom exchanged.
- Perceptual differences: The receiver’s comprehension of the message will largely depend on his/her own perception about people and things.
- Absence of two-way communication: If communication is only one way, it leaves thing unclear.
10. Grapevine: This term is used to refer to the informal communication system in organizations. It can be traced back to the Civil War period when telegram line was strung from tree to tree like grapevines. Messages sent over this haphazard system often become garbled. So all confusion in communication through informal channels are labeled as grapevine. During the World War II any false information or rumour that came along was therefore ironically said to come from grapevine
Rest in the next week …. have a great time till then 🙂
daftuar 