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ACKNOWLEDGMENT We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who, directly or indirectly, helped me complete this project. First, we would like to thank our faculty, Dr. MOUSUMI S. BHATTACHARYA for all the encouragement and guidance rendered to us during our course of study and engaging our interest in sustainable movement. We would also like to thank the authors of different books which we referred during the project. We are very much indebted to them for providing us with such value information. Special thanks to all those people from various organizations, who has incorrigibly had spent time with us sharing their experience. We would like to thank our friends, for their support and encouragement, without which this project would have never been completed. Lastly, and most importantly we are very grateful for all the wonderful opportunities, and guidance rendered by God. It was this faith that gave us strength and courage during the project. 1 | Page

Transcript of final OB 20

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTWe would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who, directly or indirectly, helped me complete this project. First, we would like to thank our faculty, Dr. MOUSUMI S. BHATTACHARYA for all the encouragement and guidance rendered to us during our course of study and engaging our interest in sustainable movement.

We would also like to thank the authors of different books which we referred during the project. We are very much indebted to them for providing us with such value information.

Special thanks to all those people from various organizations, who has incorrigibly had spent time with us sharing their experience.

We would like to thank our friends, for their support and encouragement, without which this project would have never been completed. Lastly, and most importantly we are very grateful for all the wonderful opportunities, and guidance rendered by God. It was this faith that gave us strength and courage during the project.

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Picture taken from (http://askax.net)

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Communication - Introduction  

 

Communication is the process by which a message or information is exchanged from a sender to a receiver. For example a production manager (sender) may send a message to a sales manager (receiver) asking for sales forecasts for the next 6 months so they can plan production levels. The sales manager would then reply (feedback) to the production manager with the appropriate figures.

This is an example of internal communication, i.e. when communications occur between employees of a business. Communication therefore links together all the different activities involved in a business and ensures all employees are working towards the same goal and know exactly what they should be doing and by when. Effective communication is therefore fundamental to the success of a business.

A business will of course need to communicate with people or organizations outside of the business. This is known as external communication. For example a marketing manager will need to tell customers of a new special pricing offers or the finance director may need to ask banks for a loan.

Receivers of messages

Internal External Workers

Directors

Managers

Customers

Local community

Suppliers

Shareholders

Government

Banks

Definition of Communication? (www.yedda.com)

Communication is the process of conveying information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium in which the communicated information is understood the same way by both sender and receiver.

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It is a process that allows organisms to exchange information by several methods. Communication requires that all parties understand a common language that is exchanged, There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, or the use of writing. Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. Use of these processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life: home, school, community, work, and beyond. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur. Communication is the articulation of sending a message, through different media whether it be verbal or nonverbal, so long as a being transmits a thought provoking idea, gesture,action,etc.

Communication happens at many levels (even for one single action), in many different ways, and for most beings, as well as certain machines. Several, if not all, fields of study dedicate a portion of attention to communication, so when speaking about communication it is very important to be sure about what aspects of communication one is speaking about. Definitions of communication range widely, some recognizing that animals can communicate with each other as well as human beings, and some are narrower, only including human beings within the parameters of human symbolic interaction. Nonetheless, communication is usually described along a few major dimensions: Content (what type of things are communicated), source, emisor, sender or encoder (by whom), form (in which form), channel (through which medium), destination, receiver, target or decoder (to whom), and the purpose or pragmatic aspect. Between parties, communication includes acts that confer knowledge and experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These acts may take many forms, in one of the various manners of communication. The form depends on the abilities of the group communicating. Together, communication content and form make messages that are sent towards a destination. The target can be oneself, another person or being, another entity (such as a corporation or group of beings).Communication can be seen as processes of information transmission governed by three levels of semiotic rules: Syntactic (formal properties of signs and symbols),pragmatic (concerned with the relations between signs/expressions and their users) andsemantic (study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent).Therefore, communication is social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a common set of signs and a common set of semiotic rules. This commonly held rule in some sense ignores autocommunication, including intrapersonal communication via diaries or self-talks.

Communication management Communication management is a new approach to analysis communication competence of

business and situations develop new interactive forms of communication, manage all

information flow within and outside of organization. This new direction of applied

communication can create innovative forms for identification and resolving communication

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problems in the modern institution, and also prevent from various information conflicts and

complicated crisis situations.

Roles of communication managers The roles of communication managers are:

* To design of organizational communications

structures

* Define communication principles and standards

* Formulated the communications goals of the

institution or company

* To Manage and monitoring information flows

* Organizing crisis communications

* To implement communications strategies

* Research communication context without institution

* To provide resonance analysis of team networks

* Organizing communications trainings for staff and team's leader

* Corporative presentations to the public, media

and cybernetic space

* To manage knowledge and information meaning in the institution

Communications training Communications training is a new form for education and develops new network culture.

We can use special communication templates for research, planning and evaluation of

communications problems and situations.

New interactive training developing creative thinking, communication skill and media competence.

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We use also module e-learning system for student’s education=

the names of e-courses are: Communication management, Communication strategy and Knowledge

communication management.

Importance of Communication in an Organization

Communication is one of the basic functions of management in any organization and its importance can hardly be overemphasized. It is a process of transmitting information, ideas, thoughts, opinions and plans between various parts of an organization.

You cannot have human relations without communication. However, good and effective communication is required not only for good human relations but also for good and successful business.

You can use softwares like business writing software for writing effective business communication, which is required at various levels and for various aspects in an organization such as -

Importance of communication for manager and employee relations:

Effective communication of information and decision is an essential component for management-employee relations. The manager cannot get the work done from employees unless they are communicated effectively of what he wants to be done? He should also be sure of some basic facts such as how to communicate and what results can be expected from that communication. Most of management problems arise because of lack of effective communication. Chances of misunderstanding and misrepresentation can be minimized with proper communication system.

For motivation and employee morale:

Communication is also a basic tool for motivation, which can improve morale of the employees in an organization. Inappropriate or faulty communication among employees or between manager and his subordinates is the major cause of conflict and low morale at work. Manager should clarify to employees about what is to be done, how well they doing and what are can be done for better performance to improve their motivation. He can prepare a written statement, clearly outlining the relationship between company objectives and personal objectives and integrating the interest of the two.

For increase productivity:

With effective communication, you can maintain a good human relation in the organization and by encouraging ideas or suggestions from employees or workers and implementing them whenever possible, you can also increase production at low cost.

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For employees:

It is through the communication that employees submit their work reports, comments, grievances and suggestions to their seniors or management. Organization should have effective and speedy communication policy and procedures to avoid delays, misunderstandings, confusion or distortions of facts and to establish harmony among all the concerned people and departments.

Importance of written communication

Communication may be made through oral or written. In oral communication, listeners can make out what speakers is trying to say, but in written communication, text matter in the message is a reflection of your thinking. So, written communication or message should be clear, purposeful and concise with correct words, to avoid any misinterpretation of your message. Written communications provides a permanent record for future use and it also gives an opportunity to employees to put up their comments or suggestions in writing.

Importance of Communication Skills

"Identification is one of the key ingredients of effective communication. In fact, unless your listeners can identify with what you are saying and with the way you are saying it, they are not likely to receive and understand your message."

The quote above is the underlying factor that explains the importance of communication skills.

In fact, there are other such quotes, which are as follows that explains the importance of effective communications skills:

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

the newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.

The colossal misunderstanding of our times is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation; but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choicest words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech. Some proverbs;

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

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The problem with communication... is the illusion that is has been accomplished.

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

Argument is the worst sort of communication.

Communication Styles: (http://askax.net)

A little background on communication styles can help us understand the issues and learn how to alter our approach to eventually make life a little easier for both parties.

The BasicsEvery time we speak, we choose and use one of four basic communication styles: assertive, aggressive, passive and passive-aggressive.

Assertive CommunicationThe most effective and healthiest form of communication is the assertive style. It’s how we naturally express ourselves when our self-esteem is intact, giving us the confidence to communicate without games and manipulation.

When we are being assertive, we work hard to create mutually satisfying solutions. We communicate our needs clearly and forthrightly. We care about the relationship and strive for a win/win situation. We know our limits and refuse to be pushed beyond them just because someone else wants or needs something from us. Surprisingly, assertive is the style most people use least.

Aggressive CommunicationAggressive communication always involves manipulation. We may attempt to make people do what we want by inducing guilt (hurt) or by using intimidation and control tactics (anger). Covert or overt, we simply want our needs met - and right now! Although there are a few arenas where aggressive behavior is called for (i.e., sports or war), it will never work in a relationship. Ironically, the more aggressive sports rely heavily on team members and rational coaching strategies.

Passive CommunicationPassive communication is based on compliance and hopes to avoid confrontation at all costs. In this mode we don’t talk much, question even less, and actually do very little. We just don’t want to rock the boat. Passives have learned that it is safer not to react and better to disappear than to stand up and be noticed.

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Passive-Aggressive CommunicationA combination of styles, passive-aggressive avoids direct confrontation (passive), but attempts to get even through manipulation (aggressive). If you’ve ever thought about making that certain someone who needs to be “taught a thing or two” suffer (even just a teeny bit), you’ve stepped pretty close to (if not on into) the devious and sneaky world of the passive-aggressive.

Communication ProcessBy: Nick Sanchez

(http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~ruby/aaa/natalie.html)

Communication can best be summarized as the transmission of a message from a sender to a receiver in an understandable manner. The importance of effective communication is immeasurable in the world of business and in personal life. From a business perspective, effective communication is an absolute must, because it commonly accounts for the difference between success and failure or profit and loss. It has become clear that effective business communication is critical to the successful operation of modern enterprise. Every business person needs to understand the fundamentals of effective communication.

Currently, companies in the United States and abroad are working toward the realization of total quality management. Effective communication is the most critical component of total quality management. The manner in which individuals perceive and talk to each other at work about different issues is a major determinant of the business success. It has proven been proven that poor communication reduces quality, weakens productivity, and eventually leads to anger and a lack of trust among individuals within the organization.

The communication process is the guide toward realizing effective communication. It is through the communication process that the sharing of a common meaning between the sender and the receiver takes place. Individuals that follow the communication process will have the opportunity to become more productive in every aspect of their profession. Effective communication leads to understanding.

The communication process is made up of four key components. Those components include encoding, medium of transmission, decoding, and feedback. There are also two other factors in the process, and those two factors are present in the form of the sender and the receiver. The communication process begins with the sender and ends with the receiver.

The sender is an individual, group, or organization who initiates the communication. This source is initially responsible for the success of the message. The sender's experiences, attitudes, knowledge, skill, perceptions, and culture influence the message. "The written words, spoken words, and nonverbal language selected are paramount in ensuring the receiver interprets the message as intended by the sender" (Burnett & Dollar, 1989). All communication begins with the sender.

The first step the sender is faced with involves the encoding process. In order to convey meaning, the sender must begin encoding, which means translating information into a

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message in the form of symbols that represent ideas or concepts. This process translates the ideas or concepts into the coded message that will be communicated. The symbols can take on numerous forms such as, languages, words, or gestures. These symbols are used to encode ideas into messages that others can understand.

When encoding a message, the sender has to begin by deciding what he/she wants to transmit. This decision by the sender is based on what he/she believes about the receivers knowledge and assumptions, along with what additional information he/she wants the receiver to have. It is important for the sender to use symbols that are familiar to the intended receiver. A good way for the sender to improve encoding their message, is to mentally visualize the communication from the receiver's point of view.

To begin transmitting the message, the sender uses some kind of channel (also called a medium). The channel is the means used to convey the message. Most channels are either oral or written, but currently visual channels are becoming more common as technology expands. Common channels include the telephone and a variety of written forms such as memos, letters, and reports. The effectiveness of the various channels fluctuates depending on the characteristics of the communication. For example, when immediate feedback is necessary, oral communication channels are more effective because any uncertainties can be cleared up on the spot. In a situation where the message must be delivered to more than a small group of people, written channels are often more effective. Although in many cases, both oral and written channels should be used because one supplements the other.

If a sender relays a message through an inappropriate channel, its message may not reach the right receivers. That is why senders need to keep in mind that selecting the appropriate channel will greatly assist in the effectiveness of the receiver's understanding. The sender's decision to utilize either an oral or a written channel for communicating a message is influenced by several factors. The sender should ask him or herself different questions, so that they can select the appropriate channel. Is the message urgent? Is immediate feedback needed? Is documentation or a permanent record required? Is the content complicated, controversial, or private? Is the message going to someone inside or outside the organization? What oral and written communication skills does the receiver possess? Once the sender has answered all of these questions, they will be able to choose an effective channel.

After the appropriate channel or channels are selected, the message enters the decoding stage of the communication process. Decoding is conducted by the receiver. Once the message is received and examined, the stimulus is sent to the brain for interpreting, in order to assign some type of meaning to it. It is this processing stage that constitutes decoding. The receiver begins to interpret the symbols sent by the sender, translating the message to their own set of experiences in order to make the symbols meaningful. Successful communication takes place when the receiver correctly interprets the sender's message.

The receiver is the individual or individuals to whom the message is directed. The extent to which this person comprehends the message will depend on a number of factors, which include the following: how much the individual or individuals know about the topic, their receptivity to the message, and the relationship and trust that exists between sender and receiver. All interpretations by the receiver are influenced by their experiences, attitudes, knowledge, skills, perceptions, and culture. It is similar to the sender's relationship with encoding.

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Feedback is the final link in the chain of the communication process. After receiving a message, the receiver responds in some way and signals that response to the sender. The signal may take the form of a spoken comment, a long sigh, a written message, a smile, or some other action. "Even a lack of response, is in a sense, a form of response" (Bovee & Thill, 1992). Without feedback, the sender cannot confirm that the receiver has interpreted the message correctly.

Feedback is a key component in the communication process because it allows the sender to evaluate the effectiveness of the message. Feedback ultimately provides an opportunity for the sender to take corrective action to clarify a misunderstood message. "Feedback plays an important role by indicating significant communication barriers: differences in background, different interpretations of words, and differing emotional reactions" (Bovee & Thill, 1992).

The communication process is the perfect guide toward achieving effective communication. When followed properly, the process can usually assure that the sender's message will be understood by the receiver. Although the communication process seems simple, it in essence is not. Certain barriers present themselves throughout the process. Those barriers are factors that have a negative impact on the communication process. Some common barriers include the use of an inappropriate medium (channel), incorrect grammar, inflammatory words, words that conflict with body language, and technical jargon. Noise is also another common barrier. Noise can occur during any stage of the process. Noise essentially is anything that distorts a message by interfering with the communication process. Noise can take many forms, including a radio playing in the background, another person trying to enter your conversation, and any other distractions that prevent the receiver from paying attention.

Successful and effective communication within an organization stems from the implementation of the communication process. All members within an organization will improve their communication skills if they follow the communication process, and stay away from the different barriers. It has been proven that individuals that understand the communication process will blossom into more effective communicators, and effective communicators have a greater opportunity for becoming a success.

Shannon's Model of the Communication Process

Shannon's (1948) model of the communication process is, in important ways, the beginning of the modern field. It provided, for the first time, a general model of the communication process that could be treated as the common ground of such diverse disciplines as journalism, rhetoric, linguistics, and speech and hearing sciences. Part of its success is due to its structuralist reduction of communication to a set of basic constituents that not only explain how communication happens, but why communication sometimes fails. Good timing played a role as well. The world was barely thirty years into the age of mass radio, had arguably fought a world war in its wake, and an even more powerful, television, was about to assert itself. It was time to create the field of communication as a unified discipline, and Shannon's model was as good an excuse as any. The model's enduring value is readily evident in introductory textbooks. It remains one of the first things most students learn about communication when they take an introductory communication class. Indeed, it is one of only a handful of theoretical statements about the communication process that can be found in introductory textbooks in both mass communication and interpersonal communication.

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Figure 1: Shannon's (1948) Model of the communication process.

Shannon's model, as shown in Figure 1, breaks the process of communication down into eight discrete components:

1. An information source. Presumably a person who creates a message. 2. The message, which is both sent by the information source and received by the destination.

3. A transmitter. For Shannon's immediate purpose a telephone instrument that captures an audio signal, converts it into an electronic signal, and amplifies it for transmission through the telephone network. Transmission is readily generalized within Shannon's information theory to encompass a wide range of transmitters. The simplest transmission system, that associated with face-to-face communication, has at least two layers of transmission. The first, the mouth (sound) and body (gesture), create and modulate a signal. The second layer, which might also be described as a channel, is built of the air (sound) and light (gesture) that enable the transmission of those signals from one person to another. A television broadcast would obviously include many more layers, with the addition of cameras and microphones, editing and filtering systems, a national signal distribution network (often satellite), and a local radio wave broadcast antenna.

4. The signal, which flows through a channel. There may be multiple parallel signals, as is the case in face-to-face interaction where sound and gesture involve different signal systems that depend on different channels and modes of transmission. There may be multiple serial signals, with sound and/or gesture turned into electronic signals, radio waves, or words and pictures in a book.

5. A carrier or channel, which is represented by the small unlabeled box in the middle of the model. The most commonly used channels include air, light, electricity, radio waves, paper, and postal systems. Note that there may be multiple channels associated with the multiple layers of transmission, as described above.

6. Noise, in the form of secondary signals that obscure or confuse the signal carried. Given Shannon's focus on telephone transmission, carriers, and reception, it should not be surprising that noise is restricted to noise that obscures or obliterates some portion of the signal within the channel. This is a fairly restrictive notion of noise, by current standards, and a somewhat misleading one. Today we have at least some media which are so noise free that compressed signals are constructed with an absolutely minimal amount information and little likelihood of signal loss. In the process, Shannon's solution to noise, redundancy, has been largely replaced

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by a minimally redundant solution: error detection and correction. Today we use noise more as a metaphor for problems associated with effective listening.

7. A receiver. In Shannon's conception, the receiving telephone instrument. In face to face communication a set of ears (sound) and eyes (gesture). In television, several layers of receiver, including an antenna and a television set.

8. A destination. Presumably a person who consumes and processes the message.

Like all models, this is a minimalist abstraction of the reality it attempts to reproduce. The reality of most communication systems is more complex. Most information sources (and destinations) act as both sources and destinations. Transmitters, receivers, channels, signals, and even messages are often layered both serially and in parallel such that there are multiple signals transmitted and received, even when they are converged into a common signal stream and a common channel. Many other elaborations can be readily described.. It remains, however, that Shannon's model is a useful abstraction that identifies the most important components of communication and their general relationship to one another. That value is evident in its similarity to real world pictures of the designs of new communication systems, including Bell's original sketches of the telephone, as seen in Figure 2.

Figure 2: Bell's drawing of the workings of a telephone, from his original sketches (source: Bell Family Papers; Library of Congress;

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http://memory.loc.gov/mss/mcc/004/0001.jpg)

Bell's sketch visibly contains an information source and destination, transmitters and receivers, a channel, a signal, and an implied message (the information source is talking). What is new, in Shannon's model (aside from the concept of noise, which is only partially reproduced by Bell's batteries), is a formal vocabulary that is now generally used in describing such designs, a vocabulary that sets up both Shannon's mathematical theory of information and a large amount of subsequent communication theory. This correspondence between Bell's sketch and Shannon's model is rarely remarked (see Hopper, 1992 for one instance).

Shannon's model isn't really a model of communication, however. It is, instead, a model of the flow of information through a medium, and an incomplete and biased model that is far more applicable to the system it maps, a telephone or telegraph, than it is to most other media. It suggests, for instance, a "push" model in which sources of information can inflict it on destinations. In the real world of media, destinations are more typically self-selecting "consumers" of information who have the ability to select the messages they are most interested in, turn off messages that don't interest them, focus on one message in preference to other in message rich environments, and can choose to simply not pay attention. Shannon's model depicts transmission from a transmitter to a receiver as the primary activity of a medium. In the real world of media, messages are frequently stored for elongated periods of time and/or modified in some way before they are accessed by the "destination". The model suggests that communication within a medium is frequently direct and unidirectional, but in the real world of media, communication is almost never unidirectional and is often indirect.

Derivative Models of the Communication Process

One of these shortcomings is addressed in Figure 2's intermediary model of communication (sometimes referred to as the gatekeeper model or two-step flow (Katz, 1957)). This model, which is frequently depicted in introductory texts in mass communication, focuses on the important role that intermediaries often play in the communication process. Mass communication texts frequently specifically associate editors, who decide what stories will fit in a newspaper or news broadcast, with this intermediary or gatekeeper role. There are, however, many intermediary roles (Foulger, 2002a) associated with communication. Many of these intermediaries have the ability to decide what messages others see, the context in which they are seen, and when they see them. They often have the ability, moreover, to change messages or to prevent them from reaching an audience (destination). In extreme variations we refer to such gatekeepers as censors. Under the more normal conditions of mass media, in which publications choose some content in preference to other potential content based on an editorial policy, we refer to them as editors (most mass media), moderators (Internet discussion groups), reviewers (peer-reviewed publications), or aggregators (clipping services), among other titles . Delivery workers (a postal delivery worker, for instance) also act as intermediaries, and have the ability to act as gatekeepers, but are generally restricted from doing so as a matter of ethics and/or law.

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Figure 3: An Intermediary Model.

Variations of Figure 3's gatekeeper model are also used in teaching organizational communication, where gatekeepers, in the form of bridges and liaisons, have some ability to shape the organization through their selective sharing of information. These variations are generally more complex in depiction and often take the form of social network diagrams that depict the interaction relationships of dozens of people. They network diagrams often presume, or at least allow, bi-directional arrows such that they are more consistent with the notion that communication is most often bidirectional.

The bidirectionality of communication is commonly addressed in interpersonal communication text with two elaborations of Shannon's model (which is often labeled as the action model of communication): the interactive model and the transactive model. This is an important elaboration, and as generally depicted, a radically oversimplified one. Feedback is a message (or a set of messages). The source of feedback is an information source. The consumer of feedback is a destination. Feedback is transmitted, received, and potentially disruptable via noise sources. None of this is visible in the typical depiction of the interactive model. This doesn't diminish the importance of feedback or the usefulness of elaborating Shannon's model to include it. People really do adapt their messages based on the feedback they receive. It is useful, however, to notice that the interactive model depicts feedback at a much higher level of abstraction than it does messages.

Figure 4: An Interactive Model:

This difference in the level of abstraction is addressed in the transactional model of communication, a variant of which is shown in Figure 5. This model acknowledges neither

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creators nor consumers of messages, preferring to label the people associated with the model as communicators who both create and consume messages. The model presumes additional symmetries as well, with each participant creating messages that are received by the other communicator. This is, in many ways, an excellent model of the face-to-face interactive process which extends readily to any interactive medium that provides users with symmetrical interfaces for creation and consumption of messages, including notes, letters, C.B. Radio, electronic mail, and the radio. It is, however, a distinctly interpersonal model that implies an equality between communicators that often doesn't exist, even in interpersonal contexts. The caller in most telephone conversations has the initial upper hand in setting the direction and tone of a a telephone callr than the receiver of the call (Hopper, 1992).In face-to-face head-complement interactions, the boss (head) has considerably more freedom (in terms of message choice, media choice, ability to frame meaning, ability to set the rules of interaction) and power to allocate message bandwidth than does the employee (complement). The model certainly does not apply in mass media contexts.

Figure 5: A Transactional Model:

The "mass personal" media of the Internet through this implied symmetry into even greater relief. Most Internet media grant everyone symmetrical creation and consumption interfaces. Anyone with Internet access can create a web site and participate as an equal partner in e-mail, instant messaging, chat rooms, computer conferences, collaborative composition sites, blogs, interactive games, MUDs, MOOs, and other media. It remains, however, that users have very different preferences in their message consumption and creation. Some people are very comfortable creating messages for others online. Others prefer to "lurk"; to freely browse the messages of others without adding anything of their own. Adding comments to a computer conference is rarely more difficult than sending an e-mail, but most Internet discussion groups have many more lurkers (consumers of messages that never post) than they have contributors (people who both create and consume messages). Oddly, the lurkers sometimes feel more integrated with the community than the contributors do (Baym, 2000).

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Types of Communication

Communication can occur via various processes and methods and depending on the channel used and the style of communication there can be various types of communication.

Types of Communication Based on Communication Channels

Based on the channels used for communicating, the process of communication can be broadly classified as verbal communication and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication includes written and oral communication whereas the non-verbal communication includes body language, facial expressions and visuals diagrams or pictures used for communication.

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication is further divided into written and oral communication. The oral communication refers to the spoken words in the communication process. Oral communication can either be face-to-face communication or a conversation over the phone or on the voice chat over the Internet. Spoken conversations or dialogs are influenced by voice modulation, pitch, volume and even the speed and clarity of speaking. The other type of verbal communication is written communication. Written communication can be either via snail mail, or email. The effectiveness of written communication depends on the style of writing, vocabulary used, grammar, clarity and precision of language.

Nonverbal Communication

Non-verbal communication includes the overall body language of the person who is speaking, which will include the body posture, the hand gestures, and overall body movements. The facial expressions also play a major role while communication since the expressions on a person’s face say a lot about his/her mood. On the other hand gestures like a handshake, a smile or a hug can independently convey emotions. Non verbal communication can also be in the form of pictorial representations, signboards, or even photographs, sketches and paintings.

Types of Communication Based on Style and Purpose

Based on the style of communication, there can be two broad categories of communication, which are formal and informal communication that have their own set of characteristic features.

Formal Communication

Formal communication includes all the instances where communication has to occur in a set formal format. Typically this can include all sorts of business communication or corporate communication. The style of communication in this form is very formal and official. Official conferences, meetings and written memos and corporate letters are used for communication. Formal communication can also occur between two

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strangers when they meet for the first time. Hence formal communication is straightforward, official and always precise and has a stringent and rigid tone to it.

Informal Communication

Informal communication includes instances of free unrestrained communication between people who share a casual rapport with each other. Informal communication requires two people to have a similar wavelength and hence occurs between friends and family. Informal communication does not have any rigid rules and guidelines. Informal conversations need not necessarily have boundaries of time, place or even subjects for that matter since we all know that friendly chats with our loved ones can simply go on and on.

Types of Communication:

Communication has been classified into several types: in terms of the verbal-nonverbal, oral- written, intentional- unintentional etc. One of the most common typology relates to

the size of the social group or the number of people involved in the experience of communication. Such a typology ranges from the intrapersonal and interpersonal and transpersonal, to the group and the mass.

Intrapersonal communication

You can probably guess that this means communicating within yourself. When you think, daydream, solve problems, and image, you are in the realm of intrapersonal

Communication. Some investigators also include in this area all physical feedback mechanisms, such as the sensations of hunger, pain, and pleasure. Intrapersonal communication is individual reflection contemplation and meditation. Transcendental meditation, for instance, is an example of such communication. Conversing with the

divine, with spirits and ancestors, may be termed “transpersonal” communication. This is

a vital experience in the religious and monastic life, in ashrams and places of prayer, and among aboriginal and tribal communities.

Interpersonal communication

This form of communication describes the interactions of two or more people. The most significant setting for interpersonal communication is direct face-to face communication between two persons. An interview, a conversation, and intimate communications come under this heading. It is more persuasive and influential than any other type of communication, for it involves the interplay of words and gestures, the warmth of human closeness and in fact all the five senses. Feedback is the key word here. Feedback is instantaneous.

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Group communication

Group communication shares all these qualities, though in a much less measure. The larger the group the less personal and intimate is the possibility of exchange. In fact, as

the group grows in size communication tends to become more and more of monologue,

for participation becomes problematic. The degree of directness and intimacy, therefore, depends upon the size of the group, the place where it meets, as also the relationship of

the members of the group to one another, and to the group leader. Group communication requires the following conditions: leadership, equal sharing of ideas, peer pressure, roles and norms, and focuses on a common goal.

Mass Communication

When a message needs help to get from its source to its destination, mass communication begins to function. Usually some form of medium- one meaning of which is ‘between’- is needed to connect the sender to receivers. These media may be print (newspapers or

magazines) electrical (radio, TV or video), or even electronic (computer modems). Mass

communication powerfully affects our attitudes and beliefs, as well as our perspective on social life. Today mass communication is a major source of information, companionship entertainment. Yet mass communication does more than report information and entertain us. It also presents us with views of human beings, events, issues, and cultural life. Mass communication also grants a hearing and visibility to some people and points

of views, whereas it mutes other voices and viewpoints. Thus mass communication affects our perceptions of issues, events, and people.

Communication is part of your social self. Because we are using a person-centered definition of communication, not one related to machine or animal communication, it is

important to see how a person’s self is at the heart of all communication interactions. You think, you listen, you respond, and you speak and you do all of these things from your

self-perspective. You need to look at the self- your self- to understand the key to any communication event. Intrapersonal communication is basis of the entire communication- taking place in variety of settings.

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Intrapersonal Communication- A Definition:

Intrapersonal Communication is communication within you. You engage in intrapersonal communication when you are thinking, listening, daydreaming, studying, creating, contemplating or dreaming. You are both source and destination of this type of communication. You use your brain waves as a channel; and the outcomes are thoughts

or ideas, sometimes decisions, and sometimes actions or behaviors. You still communicate within the context or environment. Your language and other social considerations shape the environment.

Intrapersonal communication takes place whenever we evaluate and react to internal and external stimuli- and involves messages that are sent and received within ourselves. Thus it involves not only our intellect self but also our physical and emotional self. As you can see, intrapersonal communication is more far reaching than just “talking to yourself”. Intrapersonal messages reflect your habits, self- concept; self related roles, and your attitudes, values, and beliefs. This type of communication takes place every moment that we live. The most basic level of communication is intrapersonal communication. It is a function of the physical self, the intellectual self, habits, and private versus public situations. In addition, the need for a unified conceptual system and the picture that you have of yourself- yourself concept- also strongly influence these self-communications. You’re past experiences, reference groups, and accustomed roles combine in ever-changing relationships to form this self concept. At the same time, internal and external stimuli affect the cognitive, emotional, and physiological.

Types of Communication Based on Communication Channels

Based on the channels used for communicating, the process of communication can be broadly classified as verbal communication and non-verbal communication. Verbal communication includes written and oral communication whereas the non-verbal communication includes body language, facial expressions and visuals diagrams or pictures used for communication.

Verbal Communication

Verbal communication is further divided into written and oral communication. The oral communication refers to the spoken words in the communication process. Oral communication can either be face-to-face communication or a conversation over the phone or on the voice chat over the Internet. Spoken conversations or dialogs are influenced by voice modulation, pitch, volume and even the speed and clarity of speaking. The other type of verbal communication is written communication. Written communication can be either via snail mail, or email. The effectiveness of written communication depends on the style of writing, vocabulary used, grammar, clarity and precision of language.

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Nonverbal Communication

Non-verbal communication includes the overall body language of the person who is speaking, which will include the body posture, the hand gestures, and overall body movements. The facial expressions also play a major role while communication since the expressions on a person’s face say a lot about his/her mood. On the other hand gestures like a handshake, a smile or a hug can independently convey emotions. Non verbal communication can also be in the form of pictorial representations, signboards, or even photographs, sketches and paintings.

Types of Communication Based on Style and Purpose

Based on the style of communication, there can be two broad categories of communication, which are formal and informal communication that have their own set of characteristic features.

Formal Communication

Formal communication includes all the instances where communication has to occur in a set formal format. Typically this can include all sorts of business communication or corporate communication. The style of communication in this form is very formal and official. Official conferences, meetings and written memos and corporate letters are used for communication. Formal communication can also occur between two strangers when they meet for the first time. Hence formal communication is straightforward, official and always precise and has a stringent and rigid tone to it.

Informal Communication

Informal communication includes instances of free unrestrained communication between people who share a casual rapport with each other. Informal communication requires two people to have a similar wavelength and hence occurs between friends and family. Informal communication does not have any rigid rules and guidelines. Informal conversations need not necessarily have boundaries of time, place or even subjects for that matter since we all know that friendly chats with our loved ones can simply go on and on.

Barriers to Effective Communication (www.ezinearticles.com)

an effective communication barrier is one of the problems faced by many organizations. Many social psychologists opine that there is 50% to 70% loss of meaning while conveying the messages from a sender to a receiver. They estimate there are four basic places where communication could be interpreted wrongly. A few barriers of effective communication in an organization are given below.

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Physical Barriers - One of the major barriers of communication in a workplace is the physical barrier. Physical barriers in an organization includes large working areas that are physically separated from others. Other distractions that could cause a physical barrier in an organization are the environment, background noise

Language - Inability to converse in a language that is known by both the sender and receiver is the greatest barrier to effective communication. When a person uses inappropriate words while conversing or writing, it could lead to misunderstanding between the sender and a receiver.

Emotions - Your emotions could be a barrier to communication if you are engrossed in your emotions for some reason. In such cases, you tend to have trouble listening to others or understanding the message conveyed to you. A few of the emotional interferences include hostility, anger, resentfulness and fear.

Lack of Subject Knowledge - If a person who sends a message lacks subject knowledge then he may not be able to convey his message clearly. The receiver could misunderstand his message, and this could lead to a barrier to effective communication.

Stress - One of the major communication barriers faced by employees in most of the organization is stress. When a person is under immense stress, he may find it difficult to understand the message, leading to communication distortion. At the time of stress, our psychological frame of mind depends on our beliefs, experiences, goals and values. Thus, we fail to realize the essence of communication.

Physical barriers

Physical barriers are often due to the nature of the environment.

Thus, for example, the natural barrier which exists, if staff are located in different buildings or on different sites.

Likewise, poor or outdated equipment, particularly the failure of management to introduce new technology, may also cause problems.

Staff shortages are another factor which frequently causes communication difficulties for an organization.

Whilst distractions like background noise, poor lighting or an environment which is too hot or cold can all affect people's morale and concentration, which in turn interfere with effective communication

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Attitudinal barriers

Attitudinal barriers come about as a result of problems with staff in an organization.

These may be brought about, for example, by such factors as poor management, lack of consultation with employees, personality conflicts which can result in people delaying or refusing to communicate, the personal attitudes of individual employees which may be due to lack of motivation or dissatisfaction at work, brought about by insufficient training to enable them to carry out particular tasks, or just resistance to change due to entrenched attitudes and ideas.

Psychological factors

Psychological factors such as people's state of mind. We all tend to feel happier and more receptive to information when the sun shines.

Equally, if someone has personal problems like worries about their health or marriage, then this will probably affect them

Different languages

Different languages and cultures represent a national barrier which is particularly important for organizations involved in overseas business

Individual linguistic ability

Individual linguistic ability is also important. The use of difficult or inappropriate words in communication can prevent people from understanding the message.

Poorly explained or misunderstood messages can also result in confusion. We can all think of situations where we have listened to something explained which we just could not grasp

Physiological barriers

Physiological barriers may result from individuals' personal discomfort, caused, for example, by ill health, poor eye sight or hearing difficulties

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Presentation of information

Presentation of information is also important to aid understanding, Recognizing barriers to effective communication is a first step in improving communication style.  Do you recognize these barriers from your own personal and professional experience?

Encoding Barriers 

The process of selecting and organizing symbols to represent a message requires skill and knowledge.  Obstacles listed below can interfere with an effective message.

 

1. Lack of Sensitivity to Receiver.  A breakdown in communication may result when a message is not adapted to its receiver.  Recognizing the receiver’s needs, status, knowledge of the subject, and language skills assists the sender in preparing a successful message.  If a customer is angry, for example, an effective response may be just to listen to the person vent for awhile. 

 

2. Lack of Basic Communication Skills.  The receiver is less likely to understand the message if the sender has trouble choosing the precise words needed and arranging those words in a grammatically-correct sentence. 

 

3. Insufficient Knowledge of the Subject.  If the sender lacks specific information about something, the receiver will likely receive an unclear or mixed message.  Have you shopped for an item such as a computer, and experienced how some salespeople can explain complicated terms and ideas in a simple way?  Others cannot.

 

4. Information Overload.  If you receive a message with too much information, you may tend to put up a barrier because the amount of information is coming so fast that you may have difficulty comfortably interpreting that information.  If you are selling an item with twenty-five terrific features, pick two or three important features to emphasize instead of overwhelming your receiver (ho-hum) with an information avalanche.

 

5. Emotional Interference.  An emotional individual may not be able to communicate well.  If someone is angry, hostile, resentful, joyful, or fearful, that person may be too preoccupied with emotions to receive the intended message.  If you don’t like someone, for example, you may have trouble “hearing” them.

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Transmitting Barriers 

Things that get in the way of message transmission are sometimes called “noise.”  Communication may be difficult because of noise and some of these problems:

 

1. Physical Distractions.  A bad cellular phone line or a noisy restaurant can destroy communication.  If an E-mail message or letter is not formatted properly, or if it contains grammatical and spelling errors, the receiver may not be able to concentrate on the message because the physical appearance of the letter or E-mail is sloppy and unprofessional.

 

2. Conflicting Messages.  Messages that cause a conflict in perception for the receiver may result in incomplete communication.  For example, if a person constantly uses jargon or slang  to communicate with someone from another country who has never heard such expressions, mixed messages are  sure to result.  Another example of conflicting messages might be if a supervisor requests a report immediately without giving the report writer enough time to gather the proper information.  Does the report writer emphasize speed in writing the report, or accuracy in gathering the data?

 

3. Channel Barriers.  If the sender chooses an inappropriate channel of communication, communication may cease.  Detailed instructions presented over the telephone, for example, may be frustrating for both communicators.  If you are on a computer technical support help line discussing a problem, it would be helpful for you to be sitting in front of a computer, as opposed to taking notes from the support staff and then returning to your computer station.

Other Barriers to Effective Communication

D.E. McFarland has defined Communication as the process of meaningful interaction among human beings. More specifically, it is the process by which meanings are perceived and understandings are reached among human being. But there may be some faults /barriers in the communication system that prevents the message from reaching the receiver, these barriers are as follows:-

1. Language Barrier: Different languages, vocabulary, accent; dialect represents national / regional barriers. Semantic gaps are words having similar pronunciation but multiple meanings like- round; badly expressed message, wrong interpretation and unqualified assumptions. The use of difficult or inappropriate words/ poorly explained or misunderstood messages can result in confusion.

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2. Cultural Barriers: Age, education, gender, social status, economic position, cultural background, temperament, health, beauty, popularity, religion, political belief, ethics, values, motives, assumptions, aspirations, rules/regulations, standards, priorities can separate one person from another and create a barrier.

3. Individual Barrier: It may be a result of an individual's perceptual and personal discomfort. Even when two persons have experienced the same event their mental perception may/may not be identical which acts as a barrier. Style, selective perception, halo effect, poor attention and retention, defensiveness, close mindedness, insufficient filtration are the Individual or Psychological barrier.

4. Organizational Barrier: It includes Poor Organization's culture, climate, stringent rules, regulations, status, relationship, complexity, inadequate facilities/ opportunities of growth and improvement; whereas; the nature of the internal and external environment like large working areas physically separated from others, poor lightening, staff shortage, outdated equipments and background noise are Physical Organizational Barrier.

5. Interpersonal Barrier: Barriers from Employers are :- Lack of Trust in employees; Lack of Knowledge of non-verbal clues like facial expression, body language, gestures, postures, eye contact; different experiences; shortage of time for employees; no consideration for employee needs; wish to capture authority; fear of losing power of control; bypassing and informational overloading, while Barriers from Employees includes Lack of Motivation, lack of co-operation, trust, fear of penalty and poor relationship with the employer.

6. Attitudinal Barrier: It comes about as a result of problems with staff in the organization. Limitation in physical and mental ability, intelligence, understanding, pre-conceived notions, and distrusted source divides the attention and create a mechanical barrier which affects the attitude and opinion.

7. Channel Barrier: If the length of the communication is long, or the medium selected is inappropriate, the communication might break up; it can also be a result of the inter-personal conflicts between the sender and receiver; lack of interest to communicate; information sharing or access problems which can hamper the channel and affect the clarity, accuracy and effectiveness.

To communicate effectively one need to overcome these barriers. Working on breaking the barrier is a broad-brush activity and here are certain measures.

DO'S FOR BREAKING THE BARRIER: (www.buzzle.com)

- Allow employees access to resources, self expression and idea generation. - Express your expectations to others. - Use less of absolute words such as "never", "always", "forever", etc. - Be a good, attentive and active listener. - Filter the information correctly before passing on to someone else. - Try to establish one communication channel and eliminate the intermediaries.

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- Use specific and accurate words which audiences can easily understand. - Try and view the situations through the eyes of the speaker. - The "you" attitude must be used on all occasions. - Maintain eye contact with the speaker and make him comfortable. - Write the instructions if the information is very detailed or complicated. - Oral communication must be clear and not heavily accented. - Avoid miscommunication of words and semantic noise. - Ask for clarifications, repetition where necessary. - Make the organisational structure more flexible, dynamic and transparent. - Foster congenial relationship which strengths coordination between superior and subordinate. - Focus on purposeful and well focused communication. - The message of communication should be clear and practical. - Get Proper Feedback.

DONT'S FOR BREAKING THE BARRIER:

- Be a Selective Listener, this is when a person hears another but selects not to hear what is being said by choice or desire to hear some other message. –

- Be a "Fixer", a fixer is a person that tries to find other person's fault.

- Be a daydreamer. - Use long chain of command for communication. - Use too many technical jargons. - Jump to conclusions immediately. - Interrupt the speakers and distract him by asking too many irrelevant questions.

Communication as a tool for improving interpersonal effectiveness

Good communication has many advantages for a business: strong communication:

Motivates employees – helps them feel part of the business (see below)

Easier to control and coordinate business activity – prevents different parts of the business going in opposite directions

Makes successful decision making easier for managers– decisions are based on more complete and accurate information

Better communication with customers will increase sales

Improve relationships with suppliers and possibly lead to more reliable delivery

Improves chances of obtaining finance – e.g. Keeping the bank up-to-date about how the

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business is doing

Importance of Communication Skills

"Identification is one of the key ingredients of effective communication. In fact, unless your listeners can identify with what you are saying and with the way you are saying it, they are not likely to receive and understand your message."

The quote above is the underlying factor that explains the importance of communication skills.

In fact, there are other such quotes, which are as follows that explains the importance of effective communications skills:

Good communication is as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after.

the newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.

The colossal misunderstanding of our times is the assumption that insight will work with people who are unmotivated to change. Communication does not depend on syntax, or eloquence, or rhetoric, or articulation; but on the emotional context in which the message is being heard. People can only hear you when they are moving toward you, and they are not likely to when your words are pursuing them. Even the choicest words lose their power when they are used to overpower. Attitudes are the real figures of speech. Some proverbs

When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen.

The problem with communication... is the illusion that is has been accomplished.

The right to be heard does not automatically include the right to be taken seriously.

Argument is the worst sort of communication.

MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION:

What do we mean by communications plans? What we mean is, how do you, as a manager, intend to have your organization understand your team’s plans, strategies and operations? If you immediately jump to “email and a meeting”, you’re not thinking effectively. Have you ever even THOUGHT about having a PLAN or PROCESS for thinking about HOW to communicate with your team?

Here’s what we bet. We bet that you communicate on autopilot. You don’t think AT ALL about HOW to communicate… you think about WHAT you’re going to communicate, and then use the most basic defaults to get your message across.

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In fact, we would argue that you NEVER think about communicating other than presentations with PowerPoint. You don’t THINK about communicating… you just DO communicating. The problem with that is, if you don’t ever think about it, you WILL NEVER GET BETTER.

How do you know if you’re on autopilot? Let’s say you want everyone on your team to know something. If you think pretty quickly, email! You’re on autopilot. If you say, well, wait. If I have a meeting coming up, I might put it on the agenda, you’re STILL on autopilot. If, on the other hand, you have something to tell an individual, whether it comes from your boss or not, you think, one on one or poke your head into their cube, you’re on autopilot.

By the way, “telling everybody something” is called, in the communications planning world, “broadcasting”… and telling just one person something is “narrowcasting.”

Now look, we’re not saying these defaults don’t work pretty well most of the time. They do. But there are two dangers with them. First, if something unique or special requires communicating, and you’re operating on autopilot without even a hint of being most effective in your communications, you run the risk of the WAY you’re communicating affecting the quality of your message. Putting it in systems language, your poor PROCESS is affecting your CONTENT. What today’s cast about is the PROCESS of communicating, versus the content.

The second danger is that if you don’t think about communicating as a PROCESS, your ability to communicate as you gain managerial responsibilities will break down. If you just take communicating for granted, when you become a director or junior Vice President, and now have to rely on managers and others to carry your messages to your entire organization, you WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DO IT. You’ve got to have more tricks in your bag as you climb the org structure.

This inability to communicate is one of the biggest frustrations of senior executives we know. They often describe their jobs as “swimming” or “running in oatmeal”, because it takes so long to get the word out, and then “people still don’t get it”.

During the podcast, we make reference to a Sample Communications Plan to assist you in planning your communications more effectively. Use this tool to immediately increase the effectiveness of your managerial communications.

COMMUNICATION STYLES:

(http://askax.net)

A little background on communication styles can help us understand the issues and learn how to alter our approach to eventually make life a little easier for both parties.

The BasicsEvery time we speak, we choose and use one of four basic communication styles: assertive, aggressive, passive and passive-aggressive.

Assertive CommunicationThe most effective and healthiest form of communication is the assertive style. It’s how we

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naturally express ourselves when our self-esteem is intact, giving us the confidence to communicate without games and manipulation.

When we are being assertive, we work hard to create mutually satisfying solutions. We communicate our needs clearly and forthrightly. We care about the relationship and strive for a win/win situation. We know our limits and refuse to be pushed beyond them just because someone else wants or needs something from us. Surprisingly, assertive is the style most people use least.

Aggressive CommunicationAggressive communication always involves manipulation. We may attempt to make people do what we want by inducing guilt (hurt) or by using intimidation and control tactics (anger). Covert or overt, we simply want our needs met - and right now! Although there are a few arenas where aggressive behavior is called for (i.e., sports or war), it will never work in a relationship. Ironically, the more aggressive sports rely heavily on team members and rational coaching strategies.

Passive CommunicationPassive communication is based on compliance and hopes to avoid confrontation at all costs. In this mode we don’t talk much, question even less, and actually do very little. We just don’t want to rock the boat. Passives have learned that it is safer not to react and better to disappear than to stand up and be noticed.

Passive-Aggressive CommunicationA combination of styles, passive-aggressive avoids direct confrontation (passive), but attempts to get even through manipulation (aggressive). If you’ve ever thought about making that certain someone who needs to be “taught a thing or two” suffer (even just a teeny bit), you’ve stepped pretty close to (if not on into) the devious and sneaky world of the passive-aggressive.

Ever end up frustrated after a conversation with someone because you didn’t feel like you

Communicated as well as you would have liked? Ever walk away from a conversation asking you what just happened?

Assertiveness is a style of communication that greatly enhances our effectiveness with others and produces the most positive outcomes. Assertiveness can enhance the following:

Improve interpersonal relationships Reduce conflicts/anxiety Enhance self esteem Retrain self respect Minimize stress

Treats others respectfully Reduce feelings of he Gives a sense of control

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Generally, there are 4 styles of communication.

1. PASSIVE

2. AGGRESSIVE

3. PASSIVE-AGGRESSIVE

4. ASSERTIVE

A person operating from the Passive style tends

to avoid conflict at all costs. This person will internalize discomfort rather than risk upsetting others. This style tends to result in a lose-win

situation, and results in feelings of victimization,

resentment, and a loss of a sense of control.

A person who uses this style in many of his daily interactions has the underlying belief that other peoples’ needs are more important than their own, and that if he speaks up, others will ignore or reject him. This individual usually has a low sense of self-esteem, and has a difficult time recognizing his/her own needs and knowing how to get them met more appropriately.

The Aggressive person creates a win-lose situation. This individual uses intimidation and control to get his/her needs met, and is disrespectful and

hurtful to otherin communications. This person has the underlying

beliefs that power and control are the only way to get needs met. This person operates from a real sense of inadequacy and may have a lack of

empathy for others.

The Passive-Aggressive person incorporates elements of both of the previous styles. He tends to use procrastination,

forgetfulness and intentional inefficiency rather that being direct in his communications with others.

The Assertive person is direct with the goal of creating a win-win situation. This style respects one’s own rights and opinions, as well as those of the other person. This individual operates from the belief that each of us is responsible for solving our own problems, and neither party in communication has to justify themselves to eachother. This person takes responsibility for his own decisions and actions.

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Our “preferred” style is influenced by a number of factors. Gender roles often influence our style. Little boys are sometimes culturally conditioned to be “strong”, and that winning is what matters most. Little girls are sometimes taught that it is their primary role is to serve others, be nice at all costs, and that self worth is defined by relationships with others. Our parents, our role models, the media, and our own personality all play a role in our communication with others.

WHAT DOES ASSERTIVE COMMUNICATION LOOK LIKE?

Much of our communication is non-verbal. A person with an assertive communication style has a body language that conveys openness and receptiveness. Posture is upright, movements are fluid and relaxed, tone of voice is clear and with inflection. An assertive person makes good eye contact, and is aware of personal space.

When giving opinions, an assertive person is willing to express his opinion, and also is open to hearing other’s points of view. He is direct, but not argumentative or threatening. He does not use sarcasm or gossip as a way to communicate. He does not silently sit back out of fear of not being liked.

When an assertive person receives feedback from others, she is able to listen and accept what the other person has to say, even if she doesn’t agree. Many people have a hard time receiving feedback, even if it’s positive. How many times has someone paid you a compliment and you simply dismiss it, or minimize it rather than hearing it and simply saying “thanks”! No one likes to hear negative feedback, but an assertive person does not react to criticism by counter-attacking, denying, or feeling anxious or inadequate. She makes conscious choices about how to respond the criticism.

She may ask for clarification to make sure she is really hearing what the other person is saying. She can validate the others’ feelings, without necessarily agreeing with the person’s feedback. If the negative feedback is valid, she accepts responsibility.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Be patient – learning new behaviors takes time, and it will feel awkward at first.

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Practice leads to improvement.

Expect some resistance from others.

Becoming assertive may never feel as comfortable as being passive or aggressive, if that’s your learned style, but the rewards are worth the effort.

Recognize and validate yourself for improvementCommunication can occur via various processes and methods and depending on the channel used and the style of communication there can be various types of communication.

Organizational communication

Broadly speaking is: people working together to achieve individual or collective goals.People can relate to each other only through some form of communication. The survival of an organization depends on individuals and groups who are able to maintain among themselves effective and continuing relationships. If we can understand organizational communication, we will understand the organization itself. Communication can be defined as "the transfer of meanings between persons and groups". The purpose of communication may range from completing a task or mission to creating and maintaining satisfying human relationships. The word transfer means more than the simple process of "packaging" an idea as conceived by a sender and transporting it to the mind of a receiver, where it is "unpackaged". It implies the creation of meaning in the mind of a sender followed by a re-creation of the same meaning in the mind of a receiver. If something occurs along the way to change the sender's original meaning, the communication has failed in its intent.

Communication may be considered a functional part of an organizational system, and it may be considered in an interpersonal context.

The structure of an organization is determined in part by the network of channels or paths along which information must flow between members or subunits.

Assumptions underlying early organizational communication

Some of the main assumptions underlying much of the early organizational communication research were:

Humans act rationally. Sane people behave in rational ways, they generally have access to all of the information needed to make rational decisions they could

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articulate, and therefore will make rational decisions, unless there is some breakdown in the communication process.

Formal logic and empirically verifiable data ought to be the foundation upon which any theory should rest. All we really need to understand communication in organizations is (a) observable and replicable behaviors that can be transformed into variables by some form of measurement, and (b) formally replicable syllogisms that can extend theory from observed data to other groups and settings

Communication is primarily a mechanical process, in which a message is constructed and encoded by a sender, transmitted through some channel, then received and decoded by a receiver. Distortion, represented as any differences between the original and the received messages, can and ought to be identified and reduced or eliminated.

Organizations are mechanical things, in which the parts (including employees functioning in defined roles) are interchangeable. What works in one organization will work in another similar organization. Individual differences can be minimized or even eliminated with careful management techniques.

Organizations function as a container within which communication takes place. Any differences in form or function of communication between that occurring in an organization and in another setting can be identified and studied as factors affecting the communicative activity.

Herbert Simon introduced the concept of bounded rationality which challenged assumptions about the perfect rationality of communication participants. He maintained that people making decisions in organizations seldom had complete information, and that even if more information was available, they tended to pick the first acceptable option, rather than exploring further to pick the optimal solution.

Through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the field expanded greatly in parallel with several other academic disciplines, looking at communication as more than an intentional act designed to transfer an idea. Research expanded beyond the issue of "how to make people understand what I am saying" to tackle questions such as "how does the act of communicating change, or even define, who I am?", "why do organizations that seem to be saying similar things achieve very different results?" and "to what extent are my relationships with others affected by our various organizational contexts?"

Communication Networks

Networks are another aspect of direction and flow of communication. Bavelas has shown that communication patterns, or networks, influence groups in several important ways. Communication networks may affect the group's completion of the assigned task on time, the position of the de facto leader in the group, or they may affect the group members' satisfaction from occupying certain positions in the network. Although these findings are based on laboratory experiments, they have important implications for the dynamics of communication in formal organizations.

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There are different patterns of communication:

"Chain", "Wheel",

"Star",

"All-Channel" network,

"Circle".

The Chain can readily be seen to represent the hierarchical pattern that characterizes strictly formal information flow, "from the top down," in military and some types of business organizations. The Wheel can be compared with a typical autocratic organization, meaning one-man rule and limited employee participation. The Star is similar to the basic formal structure of many organizations. The All-Channel network, which is an elaboration of Bavelas's Circle used by Guetzkow, is analogous to the free-flow of communication in a group that encourages all of its members to become involved in group decision processes. The All-Channel network may also be compared to some of the informal communication networks.

If it's assumed that messages may move in both directions between stations in the networks, it is easy to see that some individuals occupy key positions with regard to the number of messages they handle and the degree to which they exercise control over the flow of information. For example, the person represented by the central dot in the "Star" handles all messages in the group. In contrast, individuals who occupy stations at the edges of the pattern handle fewer messages and have little or no control over the flow of information.These "peripheral" individuals can communicate with only one or two other persons and must depend entirely on others to relay their messages if they wish to extend their range.

In reporting the results of experiments involving the Circle, Wheel, and Star configurations, Bavelas came to the following tentative conclusions. In patterns with positions located centrally, such as the Wheel and the Star, an organization quickly develops around the people occupying these central positions. In such patterns, the organization is more stable and errors in performance are lower than in patterns having a lower degree of centrality, such as the Circle. However, he also found that the morale of members in high centrality patterns is relatively low. Bavelas speculated that this lower morale could, in the long run, lower the accuracy and speed of such networks.

In problem solving requiring the pooling of data and judgments, or "insight," Bavelas suggested that the ability to evaluate partial results, to look at alternatives, and to restructure problems fell off rapidly when one person was able to assume a more central (that is, more controlling) position in the information flow. For example, insight into a problem requiring change would be less in the Wheel and the Star than in the Circle or the Chain because of the "bottlenecking" effect of data control by central members.

It may be concluded from these laboratory results that the structure of communications within an organization will have a significant influence on the accuracy of decisions, the speed with

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which they can be reached, and the satisfaction of the people involved. Consequently, in networks in which the responsibility for initiating and passing along messages is shared more evenly among the members, the better the group's morale in the long run.

Direction of Communication

If it's considered formal communications as they occur in traditional military organizations, messages have a "one-way" directional characteristic. In the military organization, the formal communication proceeds from superior to subordinate, and its content is presumably clear because it originates at a higher level of expertise and experience. Military communications also carry the additional assumption that the superior is responsible for making his communication clear and understandable to his subordinates. This type of organization assumes that there is little need for two-way exchanges between organizational levels except as they are initiated by a higher level. Because messages from superiors are considered to be more important than those from subordinates, the implicit rule is that communication channels, except for prescribed information flows, should not be cluttered by messages from subordinates but should remain open and free for messages moving down the chain of command. "Juniors should be seen and not heard," is still an unwritten, if not explicit, law of military protocol.

Vestiges of one-way flows of communication still exist in many formal organizations outside the military, and for many of the same reasons as described above. Although management recognizes that prescribed information must flow both downward and upward, managers may not always be convinced that two-wayness should be encouraged. For example, to what extent is a subordinate free to communicate to his superior that he understands or does not understand a message? Is it possible for him to question the superior, ask for clarification, and suggest modifications to instructions he has received, or transmit unsolicited messages to his superior, which are not prescribed by the rules? To what extent does the one-way rule of direction affect the efficiency of communication in the organization, in addition to the morale and motivation of subordinates?

These are not merely procedural matters but include questions about the organizational climate, pr psychological atmosphere in which communication takes place. Harold Leavitt has suggested a simple experiment that helps answer some of these questions. А group is assigned the task of re-creating on paper a set of rectangular figures, first as they are described by the leader under one-way conditions, and second as they are described by the leader under two-way conditions.(A different configuration of rectangles is used in the second trial.) In the one-way trial, the leader's back is turned to the group. He describes the rectangles as he sees them. No one in the group is allowed to ask questions and no one may indicate by any audible or visible sign his understanding or his frustration as he attempts to follow the leader's directions. In the two-way trial, the leader faces the group. In this case, the group may ask for clarifications on his description of the rectangles and he can not only see but also can feel and respond to the emotional reactions of group members as they try to re-create his instructions on paper.

On the basis of a number of experimental trials similar to the one described above, Leavitt formed these conclusions:

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2. Two-way communication is more accurate than one-way communication.

3. Receivers are more sure of themselves and make more correct judgments of how right or wrong they are in the two-way system.

4. The sender feels psychologically under attack in the two-way system, because his receivers pick up his mistakes and oversights and point them out to him.

5. The two-way method is relatively noisier and looks more disorderly. The one-way method, on the other hand, appears neat and efficient to an outside observer.

Thus, if speed is necessary, if a businesslike appearance is important, if a manager does not want his mistakes recognized, and if he wants to protect his power, then one-way communication seems preferable. In contrast, if the manager wants to get his message across, or if he is concerned about his receivers' feeling that they are participating and are making a contribution, the two-way system is better.

Interpersonal communication

Another facet of communication in the organization is the process of face-to-face, interpersonal communication, between individuals. Such communication may take several forms. Messages may be verbal (that is, expressed in words), or they may not involve words at all but consist of gestures, facial expressions, and certain postures ("body language"). Nonverbal messages may even stem from silence.

Ideally, the meanings sent are the meanings received. This is most often the case when the messages concern something that can be verified objectively. For example, "This piece of pipe fits the threads on the coupling." In this case, the receiver of the message can check the sender's words by actual trial, if necessary. However, when the sender's words describe a feeling or an opinion about something that cannot be checked objectively, meanings can be very unclear. "This work is too hard" or "Watergate was politically justified" are examples of opinions or feelings that cannot be verified. Thus they are subject to interpretation and hence to distorted meanings. The receiver's background of experience and learning may differ enough from that of the sender to cause significantly different perceptions and evaluations of the topic under discussion. As we shall see later, such differences form a basic barrier to communication.

Nonverbal content always accompanies the verbal content of messages. This is reasonably clear in the case of face-to-face communication. As Virginia Satir has pointed out, people cannot help but communicate symbolically (for example, through their clothing or possessions) or through some form of body language. In messages that are conveyed by the telephone, a messenger, or a letter, the situation or context in which the message is sent becomes part of its non-verbal content. For example, if the company has been losing money, and in a letter to the production division, the front office orders a reorganization of the shipping and receiving departments, this could be construed to mean that some people were going to lose their jobs — unless it were made explicitly clear that this would not occur.

A number of variables influence the effectiveness of communication. Some are found in the environment in which communication takes place, some in the personalities of the sender and

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the receiver, and some in the relationship that exists between sender and receiver. There are different variables and suggests some of the difficulties of communicating with understanding from one person to another. The sender wants to formulate an idea and communicate it to the receiver. This desire to communicate may arise from his thoughts or feelings or it may have been triggered by something in the environment. The communication may also be influenced or distorted by the relationship between the sender and the receiver, such as status differences, a staff-line relationship, or a learner-teacher relationship.

Whatever its origin, information travels through a series of filters, both in the sender and in the receiver, before the idea can be transmitted and re-created in the receiver's mind. Physical capacities to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch vary between people, so that the image of reality may be distorted even before the mind goes to work. In addition to physical or sense filters, cognitive filters, or the way in which an individual's mind interprets the world around him, will influence his assumptions and feelings. These filters will determine what the sender of a message says, how he says it, and with what purpose. Filters are present also in the receiver, creating a double complexity that once led Robert Louis Stevenson to say that human communication is "doubly relative". It takes one person to say something and another to decide what he said.

Physical and cognitive, including semantic filters (which decide the meaning of words) combine to form a part of our memory system that helps us respond to reality. In this sense, March and Simon compare a person to a data processing system. Behavior results from an interaction between a person's internal state and environmental stimuli. What we have learned through past experience becomes an inventory, or data bank, consisting of values or goals, sets of expectations and preconceptions about the consequences of acting one way or another, and a variety of possible ways of responding to the situation. This memory system determines what things we will notice and respond to in the environment. At the same time, stimuli in the environment help to determine what parts of the memory system will be activated. Hence, the memory and the environment form an interactive system that causes our behavior. As this interactive system responds to new experiences, new learnings occur which feed back into memory and gradually change its content. This process is how people adapt to a changing world.

Differences in Background

Communication between persons brings individual personalities and individual views of the environment into contact. People can agree on many things if they are products of the same experiences. But the fact that they have had different experiences may lead to disagreement. Extremely different backgrounds can cause serious communication problems. In other words, if you and I are trying to communicate with each other but do not see the same world, we are simply not talking about the same things. There are several possible consequences:

1. Can assume that I know what I am, talking about and you don't. This can cause inattention and create an emotional impression in such basic reactions as: "You are wrong, I am right," and even "You are evil, I am good." The struggle over differences may thus intensify.

2. I can assume that since I am right, my objective must be to get you to agree with my point of view. At first, this may lead me into trying to be logical. I assume that you will be convinced once the facts are set straight. If I fail in this, I may resort to

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strategies of winning at any cost. I will dominate the discussion, talk instead of listening, and generally demean your ideas. All of these things would tend to heighten emotions and increase frustration, leading to an impasse in which we both would lose.

3. I will interpret what you say according to my understanding of the situation. In many cases, this would be about as appropriate as trying to find a city in Russia using a map of France. Carl Rogers has described this "tendency to judge, to evaluate, to approve (or disapprove) the statement of the other person" from the listener's point of view as the major barrier to interpersonal communication. Rogers' remedy to this problem is what he calls "listening with understanding" — that is, trying to understand through a deliberate effort to see the other person's point of view, to see the world as he sees and experiences it. In other words, we must abandon the "I-know-what-I'm-talking-about-you-don't" attitude and, instead, open our minds and our ears to the other person's viewpoint. This means that we must admit to ourselves that there may be ideas that, though they are different from ours, are just as valid and just as worthy as our own. We may, in fact, learn something if we listen. This attitude is clearly difficult to achieve, since few people like to admit they may be wrong. But opening our minds to others' opinions is the only way we can gain the advantage of perceiving another side of the problem.

Really listening (and not just "hearing") has another important advantage. If I listen attentively to another person, I am expressing to him a form of respect, and in a very substantial way contributing to his feeling of self-worth. This strengthens his ego and at the same time evokes in him a feeling of respect for me. These mutually supportive feelings help to chase out antagonisms, fears, and defensive tactics. A supportive attitude can lead the way to cooperative problem solving, in which both of us emerge winners.

Levels of Communication

Differences in perception are not the only sources of misunderstanding and difficulty in interpersonal communication. Communication is also complicated by the fact that it takes place at different levels simultaneously. As we send verbal messages by word and voice, we also send nonverbal messages by our gestures, expressions, posture, status, and even by the way we dress and comb our hair. We cannot avoid these silent comments on what our words are meant to say. Sometimes we may deliberately twist or distort messages to achieve our purposes, and sometimes we send distorted messages without being aware that they are distorted. Occasionally, we may be able to transmit what we mean so that it means the same thing to the person on the receiving end.

One way to think about the different levels from which messages emerge is the Johari Window. Imagine that the human personality could be divided into four parts according to the level or degree to which each part is "open" and "known" to both the sender and the receiver of a communication. This structure could then be represented in matrix form. Each of the areas in the figure can now be defined. The "Open" area contains motivations and behavior whose meanings are shared by the individual and others with whom he is in contact. The individual's feelings and his understanding of these feelings and what he communicates (verbally and nonverbally) are consistent, and they are received and understood by others in the same sense as they are understood and sent by the sender. There is no cover-up and no confusion between his words and his gestures, his expression, and how others interpret his

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meaning. This is free, honest, and relevant behavior, unburdened by cynicism, distrust, naivete, or any other hidden attitude or feeling. The meanings experienced and sent are the same as those that are experienced and received.

The "Hidden" area includes concealed motivations that are known to the sending individual but unknown to others. In this category are all the "little white lies" in which we indulge, including the bigger deceptions we sometimes use in communicating with others. One illustration is the use of ingratiating behavior for our own gain, aimed at a manager whom we do not like or with whom we privately disagree. Or suppose a friend goes by and calls out, "Hello, how are you!" It is a social convention in our culture that such greetings are not to be taken at face value. They are most often merely a form of recognition. But we cannot always be sure. Is our friend merely using her greeting as a form of recognition, a signal of acknowledgment, an automatic pleasantry to which we automatically respond, "Fine! How are you?" Or is she genuinely concerned with the state of our health and should we tell her that we feel lousy and just lost money in the stock market? In this case, the greeting may be influenced by some hidden agenda or concealed motive that is not clear to us. And to that extent, our communication is not on the same wavelength.

The "Blind" area includes motivations and behavior that are known to others but to which the individual is blind. This is sometimes indelicately called the "bad breath area." We have all known people who have feelings that they do not verbalize, but that manifest themselves in little mannerisms, nervous tics, habitual gestures, grimaces, and the like, which actually change the implications of things they say to us. As an example, think of the person who says, "I'm not scared!" while his face whitens and tightens with visible nervous tension.

Consider the spectacle of high government officials arriving at the White House to discuss the nation's energy crisis in their big limousines on a wintry day, keeping the motors running and the heaters on during the meeting, and later driving off as news cameras clicked and passersby stared. These public servants seemed blissfully unaware of the inconsistency between what they were saying and how they were behaving. In other words, their "blind" side was showing in a way that would have been comical if it had not been so serious.

The "Unknown Potential" area is unknown to both the individual and to others. It is the area that Freud describes as the "unconscious." This area probably contains aspects of ourselves that, if available to us, could increase our general effectiveness as persons. By definition, however, this area is available only through a process of self-discovery, sometimes requiring deep and prolonged psychoanalysis. For our purposes here, we need say only that this unconscious part of our personality influences in unknown ways our communications with other people, as well as affecting our internal communication with ourselves.

To increase our effectiveness in interpersonal communication, it would appear helpful to enlarge the "Open" area of our personality, while at the same time reducing the "Hidden" and "Blind" areas. This may be accomplished through the two interdependent processes of exposure and feedback. If we trust others in a relationship, we may be more willing to reveal some of the motives that we would otherwise keep hidden out of fear of consequences, should our motives become known. At the same time, by giving us information about those nonverbal messages that originate in the "Blind" area, others can help us become aware of the effect that such messages have on the meanings we are trying to convey. This feedback,

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however, must be in a form that helps to create a supportive, nonthreatening psychological climate. Lacking this emotional support, we would probably continue to be defensive.

Sometimes we complicate the clarity and reliability of verbal messages by either unknowingly or perhaps purposely expressing something that is inconsistent with what we think or feel. Such behavior is not always dysfunctional. For example, we may occasionally feel the need to defend our self-esteem against threats, for example, a seemingly (to us) unfair reprimand by a teacher or a friend that might reduce our personal effectiveness in a particular situation. In addition, there are social conventions that require that we mask our true feelings to avoid hurting someone unnecessarily. These social conventions often help us to maintain stability in relationships with other people.

On the other hand, hidden agendas and blind spots can be dysfunctional if they hide information that could improve rather than hinder our ability to solve the problems we share with others. If someone appears to feel one way about something when in fact he does not, and we base our plan for dealing with him on a mistaken impression, we may miss an opportunity to solve a mutual difficulty. Or, if we are unknowingly doing something that garbles our messages but, if brought to our attention, could be corrected, we would increase our potential for effective communication and for effective action.

Current Organizational Communication Research

Organizational communication can include:

Flow of Communication, e.g.

formal, informal internal, external

upward, downward, horizontal

networks

Induction, e.g.

new hire orientation policies & procedures

employee benefits

Channels, e.g.,

electronic media such as e-mail, intranet, internet teleconference

Print media such as memos, bulletin boards, newsletters etc.

face-to-face

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Meetings, e.g.

briefings staff meetings

project meetings

town hall meetings

Interviews, e.g.,

Selection Performance

Career

More recently, the field of organizational communication has moved from acceptance of mechanistic models (e.g., information moving from a sender to a receiver) to a study of the persistent, hegemonic and taken-for-granted ways in which we not only use communication to accomplish certain tasks within organizational settings (e.g., public speaking) but also how the organizations in which we participate affect us.

These approaches include "postmodern", "critical", "participatory", "feminist", "power/political", "organic", etc. and draw from disciplines as wide-ranging as sociology, philosophy, theology, psychology (see, in particular, "industrial/organizational psychology"), business, business administration, institutional management, medicine (health communication), neurology (neural nets), semiotics, anthropology, international relations, and music.

Thus the field has expanded or moved to study phenomena such as:

Constitution, e.g.

how communicative behaviors construct or modify organizing processes or products how the organizations within which we interact affect our communicative behaviors,

and through these, our own identities

structures other than organizations which might be constituted through our communicative activity (e.g., markets, cooperatives, tribes, political parties, social movements)

when does something "become" an organization? When does an organization become (an)other thing(s)? Can one organization "house" another? Is the organization still a useful entity/thing/concept, or has the social/political environment changed so much that what we now call "organization" is so different from the organization of even a few decades ago that it cannot be usefully tagged with the same word--"organization"?

Narrative, e.g.,

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How do group members employ narrative to acculturate/initiate/indoctrinate new members?

Do organizational stories act on different levels? Are different narratives purposively invoked to achieve specific outcomes, or are there specific roles of "organizational storyteller"? If so, are stories told by the storyteller received differently than those told by others in the organization?

In what ways does the organization attempt to influence storytelling about the organization? Under what conditions does the organization appear to be more or less effective in obtaining a desired outcome?

When these stories conflict with one another or with official rules/policies, how are the conflicts worked out? in situations in which alternative accounts are available, who or how or why are some accepted and others rejected?

Identity, e.g.

Who do we see ourselves to be, in terms of our organizational affiliations? do communicative behaviors or occurrences in one or more of the organizations in

which we participate effect changes in us? to what extent are we comprised of the organizations to which we belong?

is it possible for individuals to successfully resist organizational identity? what would that look like?

do people who define themselves by their work-organizational membership communicate differently within the organizational setting than people who define themselves more by an vocational (non-vocational) set of relationships?

for example, researchers have studied how human service workers and firefighters use humor at their jobs as a way to affirm their identity in the face of various challenges Tracy, S.J.; K. K. Myers; C. W. Scott (2006). Communication Monographs 73: 283-308.. Others have examined the identities of police organizations, prison guards, and professional women workers.

Interrelatedness of organizational experiences, e.g.,

how do our communicative interactions in one organizational setting affect our communicative actions in other organizational settings?

how do the phenomenological experiences of participants in a particular organizational setting effect changes in other areas of their lives?

when the organizational status of a member is significantly changed (e.g., by promotion or expulsion) how are their other organizational memberships affected?

Power e.g.,

how does the use of particular communicative practices within an organizational setting reinforce or alter the various interrelated power relationships within the setting? Are the potential responses of those within or around these organizational

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settings constrained by factors or processes either within or outside of the organization--(assuming there is an "outside"?

do taken-for-granted organizational practices work to fortify the dominant hegemonic narrative? Do individuals resist/confront these practices, through what actions/agencies, and to what effects?

do status changes in an organization (e.g., promotions, demotions, restructuring, financial/social strata changes) change communicative behavior? Are there criteria employed by organizational members to differentiate between "legitimate" (i.e., endorsed by the formal organizational structure) and "illegitimate" (i.e., opposed by or unknown to the formal power structure)? Are there "pretenders" or "usurpers" who employ these communicative behaviors? When are they successful, and what do we even mean by "successful?"

Roles of communication managers

The roles of communication managers are

* To design of organizational communicationsstructures* Define communication principles and standards* Formulated the communications goals of theinstitution or company* To Manage and monitoring information flows* Organizing crisis communications * To implement communications strategies* Research communication context without institution* To provide resonance analysis of team networks* Organizing communications trainings for staff and team's leader* Corporative presentations to the public, mediaand cybernetic space* To manage knowledge and information meaning in the institution

Communications training

Communications training is a new form for education and develops new network culture.We can use special communication templates for research, planning and evaluation of communications problems and situations.New interactive training developing creative thinking, communication skill and media competence.We use also model e-learning system for students education=The name of e-courses are: Communication management, Communication strategy and Knowledge communication management.

Importance of Communication in an Organization

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Communication is one of the basic functions of management in any organization and its importance can hardly be overemphasized. It is a process of transmitting information, ideas, thoughts, opinions and plans between various parts of an organization.

You cannot have human relations without communication. However, good and effective communication is required not only for good human relations but also for good and successful business.

You can use software like business writing software for writing effective business communication, which is required at various levels and for various aspects in an organization such as -

Importance of communication for manager and employee relations:

Effective communication of information and decision is an essential component for management-employee relations. The manager cannot get the work done from employees unless they are communicated effectively of what he wants to be done? He should also be sure of some basic facts such as how to communicate and what results can be expected from that communication. Most of management problems arise because of lack of effective communication. Chances of misunderstanding and misrepresentation can be minimized with proper communication system.

For motivation and employee morale:

Communication is also a basic tool for motivation, which can improve morale of the employees in an organization. Inappropriate or faulty communication among employees or between manager and his subordinates is the major cause of conflict and low morale at work. Manager should clarify to employees about what is to be done, how well are they doing and what can be done for better performance to improve their motivation. He can prepare a written statement, clearly outlining the relationship between company objectives and personal objectives and integrating the interest of the two.

For increase productivity:

With effective communication, you can maintain a good human relation in the organization and by encouraging ideas or suggestions from employees or workers and implementing them whenever possible, you can also increase production at low cost.

For employees:

It is through the communication that employees submit their work reports, comments, grievances and suggestions to their seniors or management. Organization should have effective and speedy communication policy and procedures to avoid delays, misunderstandings, confusion or distortions of facts and to establish harmony among all the concerned people and departments.

Importance of written communication:

Communication may be made through oral or written. In oral communication, listeners can

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make out what speakers is trying to say, but in written communication, text matter in the message is a reflection of your thinking. So, written communication or message should be clear, purposeful and concise with correct words, to avoid any misinterpretation of your message. Written communications provides a permanent record for future use and it also gives an opportunity to employees to put up their comments or suggestions in writing

Human and non human communication

Communication is the process of attempting to impart information from a sender to a receiver with the use of a medium. Communication requires that all parties have an area of communicative commonality. There are auditory means, such as speaking, singing and sometimes tone of voice, and nonverbal, physical means, such as body language, sign language, paralanguage, touch, eye contact, or the use of writing. Communication is defined as a process by which we assign and convey meaning in an attempt to create shared understanding. This process requires a vast repertoire of skills in intrapersonal and interpersonal processing, listening, observing, speaking, questioning, analyzing, and evaluating. Use of these processes is developmental and transfers to all areas of life: home, school, community, work, and beyond. It is through communication that collaboration and cooperation occur.[1]

Communication is the articulation of sending a message through different media, whether it be verbal or nonverbal, so long as a being transmits a thought provoking idea, gesture, action, etc. Communication is a learned skill. Most people are born with the physical ability to talk, but we must learn to speak well and communicate effectively. Speaking, listening, and our ability to understand verbal and nonverbal meanings are skills we develop in various ways. We learn basic communication skills by observing other people and modeling our behaviors based on what we see. We also are taught some communication skills directly through education, and by practicing those skills and having them evaluated.

Communication as an academic discipline relates to all the ways we communicate, so it embraces a large body of study and knowledge. The communication discipline includes both verbal and nonverbal messages. A body of scholarship all about communication is presented and explained in textbooks, electronic publications, and academic journals. In the journals, researchers report the results of studies that are the basis for an ever expanding understanding of how we all communicate. Communication happens at many levels (even for one single action), in many different ways, and for most beings, as well as certain machines. Several, if not all, fields of study dedicate a portion of attention to communication, so when speaking about communication it is very important to be sure about what aspects of communication one is speaking about. Definitions of communication range widely, some recognizing that animals can communicate with each other as well as human beings, and some are more narrow, only including human beings within the parameters of human symbolic interaction.

Nonetheless, communication is usually described along a few major dimensions: Content (what type of things are communicated), source, emisor, sender or encoder (by whom), form (in which form), channel (through which medium), destination, receiver, target or decoder (to whom), and the purpose or pragmatic aspect. Between parties, communication includes acts that confer knowledge and experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These

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acts may take many forms, in one of the various manners of communication. The form depends on the abilities of the group communicating. Together, communication content and form make messages that are sent towards a destination. The target can be oneself, another person or being, another entity (such as a corporation or group of beings).

Communication can be seen as processes of information transmission governed by three levels of semiotic rules:

1. Syntactic (formal properties of signs and symbols), 2. pragmatic (concerned with the relations between signs/expressions and their users)

and

3. Semantic (study of relationships between signs and symbols and what they represent).

Therefore, communication is social interaction where at least two interacting agents share a common set of signs and a common set of semiotic rules. This commonly held rule in some sense ignores auto communication, including intrapersonal communication via diaries or self-talk.

In a simple model, information or content (e.g. a message in natural language) is sent in some form (as spoken language) from an emisor/ sender/ encoder to a destination/ receiver/ decoder. In a slightly more complex form a sender and a receiver are linked reciprocally. A 47 | P a g e

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particular instance of communication is called a speech act. In the presence of "communication noise" on the transmission channel (air, in this case), reception and decoding of content may be faulty, and thus the speech act may not achieve the desired effect. One problem with this encode-transmit-receive-decode model is that the processes of encoding and decoding imply that the sender and receiver each possess something that functions as a code book, and that these two code books are, at the very least, similar if not identical. Although something like code books is implied by the model, they are nowhere represented in the model, which creates many conceptual difficulties.

Theories of co regulation describe communication as a creative and dynamic continuous process, rather than a discrete exchange of information.

Illustration: 1

Electronic Communication: Implications for Human Interaction and Social Change

(Natalie Hanson)

(http://astro.ocis.temple.edu/~ruby/aaa/natalie.html)

This paper was presented at a panel at the American Anthropological Association meetings, December 2, 1998 in Philadelphia entitled Seeing Culture: The Anthropology of Visual Communication at Temple University. Do not cite without author's permission.

There are a number of different theoretical approaches in the field of Anthropology that can make a contribution to the study of computer-mediated communication (CMC), including the anthropology of visual communication, cyborg anthropology, and sociolinguistics. These all provide valuable ways of thinking about CMC. Computer users are often perceived of as being "in their own little world." And indeed, that is often the case. However, those users also reside in a day-to-day reality which informs and is the broader context for their communications. Since anthropologists are trained to focus on the subtle details of culture as well as place that culture in its global context, they are especially well equipped to theorize this complex dynamic. Unfortunately, much of the work done on discussion in the electronic realm fails to take this into account. Ultimately, computer-mediated communication is a reflection of the larger (even global) context in which it resides, and it needs to be theorized as such.

While the Internet started in military and academic institutions, its driving force is now commercial. For example, to go to the Walt Disney web site, you used to type . Now the http, www, and, most importantly the dot-com are assumed. To go to the Disney site now, you can just type disney. However, it is not possible to omit the dot-edu for academic institutions. Keep in mind too that addresses originating in the United States are the only ones that do not have country codes after them. That is, disney-dot-com is assumed to be a United States web

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site, or the URL would be disney-dot-com-dot-fr. These subtleties do much to indicate by whom the Internet is being shaped and controlled.

CMC encompasses many different forms of communication. And, while these forms have much in common, their differences must be understood before the communication that takes place within them is analyzed. These forms (such as email, Listservs, chat rooms, MOOs and MUDs) maybe be centralized or decentralized, moderated by an individual or a group, allow anonymity or fictitious characters, may be synchronous or asynchronous. Why individuals or groups may choose one form over another and how the constraints of the media may shape communication should all be considered before embarking on an analysis of that communication.

Most forms of CMC is that they are asynchronous, and consideration of this is absent in current discussions about the Internet and other electronic forums. Anthropologists engaged in the creation and analysis of visual media have begun to consider issues of audience and reception, including consideration of the unintended audience. Perhaps some studies of audience and reception might help elucidate some of the effects of a synchronicity on CMC.

In his essay entitled "Fiction as Truth: Viewer Use of Fiction Films as Data about the "Real" World", George Custen demonstrated that many viewers associate the actor with the character he portrays in the film. Similarly, in her article on phone-sex operators, Hall discusses that clients calling into the service make associations and a connection to a voice despite its abstraction from a physically present human being. (p 335) Equally, language on the screen may become the concrete piece by which we come to know people, and we may forget that the individual who exists behind that text is infinitely more complex than their written words can reveal.

In her book The Argument Culture, Deborah Tannen expresses her concern that additional communication with strangers and the lack of face-to-face accountability in computer-mediated communication will lead to increasingly hostile exchanges. William Leap's account of the development of anti-gay graffiti on a bathroom wall might also provide some interesting perspective, both on issues of asychronous communication, and the negativity which often seems to accompany it. While Tannen's argument does not seem especially well grounded in fact (she is a linguist not a psychologist), such issues do ring true for many. Wilton Martinez' essay "Who Constructs Anthropological Knowledge? Toward a Theory of Ethnographic Film Spectatorship" addresses just these issues. His study shows that audiences essentially see what they would like to see, and impose stereotypes at will. Much as filmmakers would hope to educate and inform through film, his study suggests that the gap between the creation of the film and its viewing will necessarily lead to misinterpretation.

We have been looking at the effects of different technologies on human society and human communication for quite some time. From the "Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" by Walter Benjamin to Rakow's book Gender on the Line about women's use of the telephone in the Midwestern United States. Cyborg Anthropology is one of the most recent trends, and while to-date it has been more philosophical and less applied than I would like, it can be useful for the study of CMC. In their essay entitled "Cyborg Anthropology," Downey et al describe three main thrusts of cyborg anthropology: (1) it considers science and technology in the context of culture, (2) it challenges the traditional focus of anthropology on people, broadening the focus to include machines as subject, (3) it considers more thoroughly the

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effects technology is having on us, most especially different subjectivities it is generating within contexts familiar to anthropologists.

While I agree with some of these objectives, I am less clear that it serves us as anthropologists to shift our focus away from people as subject. It seems that such a shift could present some of the same dangers as systems theory. Systems theory and cybernetics provide useful models and ways of thinking about the big picture of networks, ideas, and processes. But the contribution of this theoretical approach remains a big picture without people; there is no element of human agency, and no room in the model for power relations, something I think that many anthropologists would find problematic. What is valuable about this notion is that it helps explain cross-fertilization of these worlds. It is not a one way influence of people building technology but rather technology shaping people as well.

I think that sociolinguistics must also be a central part of the analysis of computer-mediated communication. From conversational analysis to communities of practice, it can provide the concrete examples to look at all kinds of patterns of communication while at the same time couching that information in the broader social context. The danger in this work is getting caught in microanalysis.

Many of the issues which exist in the study of literacy must also be considered when discussing CMC. Computer-mediated communication requires knowledge of the written language (which presumes a certain degree of literacy and access to education), but it also requires access to and learning of the technology by which that communication is transmitted. And, as is now well documented, illiteracy may lead to inequality in other ways. As Cameron points out in her introduction to The Feminist Critique of Language, this may result in an ever-widening gap: "the conditions are in place for a communicative practice originally dominated by men for material reasons (e.g., better access to technology) to go on being dominated by men for social reasons even after material conditions have changed."

Of all of the theoretical models which can be applied to computer-mediated communication, the notion of communities of practice is perhaps the most valuable, because it provides a graceful way to conceptually transcend the limitation of geographic communities associated with traditional anthropology. It is important to understand that CMC is both situated in the larger socio-cultural context in which its participants and the technology they use reside, while at the same time it takes place within a self-contained subculture (with its own lexicon, space, sense of time). Some theorists (like Sherry Turkle and Bill Nichols) have already addressed this dichotomy, but many social scientists considering the implications of computer technology and electronic communication fail to consider and describe both aspects.

We have questioned the human capacity to cope with the technology we create. Not so long ago, criticisms were levied regarding the telephone and how it might affect human communication and creativity. Given this trend, it is not surprising to see similar pessimism about CMC. In the past several months, a study conducted at Carnegie Mellon gained national attention when researchers claimed that ongoing use of computer-mediated communication resulted in increased dissatisfaction and depression in "real life." Deborah Tannen goes a step further in her book The Argument Culture when she argues that our advances in technology result in increasing isolation and contact with strangers, which will ultimately lead us to more violence and/or aggressive exchanges. I think that much of the

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backlash and fear about the Internet is based in ignorance and the fact that we are still learning to cope with and shape our expectations of these new modes of communication.

Sherry Turkle is a trained clinical psychologist and professor at MIT's Program in Science, Technology, and Society. He work shows many ways in which computer-mediated communication has been useful way for people to process emotions. There are two important things to note about Turkle's work, however. The first is that her research seems to be conducted primarily on MOOs and MUDs, which provide synchronous (real time) computer-mediated communication. In addition, her work provides specific examples couched in the broader context of culture and developing technologies. Turkle's work helps clarify directions for research for anthropologists. Her work is accessible and concrete and not unlike an ethnography. Perhaps because of the philosophy of science influence in Cyborg Anthropology, little ethnography of the Internet has been done. Most of the work I have seen to date is theoretical in nature, with the few exceptions being in sociolinguistics. In addition to shorter language-focused essays, the work of Rakow and others on the telephone, Roger Silverstone on television audiences, and Hakken's book Computing Myths, Class Realities are among the first to shape an ethnography around such issues.

Ultimately, what I hope future ethnographic work will answer is not how computer-mediated communication is different, but what about it helps elucidate behaviors and values that are already present in the broader culture. There are many issues under contentious discussion in electronic forums of all kinds. People express concern about the discrepancies in terms of race, class, gender, and about who has access to technology. There are ongoing concerns about how to legislate the Internet to protect individuals from harassment, to control proliferation of pornography, and so on. On one hand, many hope for the deregulation of Internet, but if this is to happen, it will have to be on a global scale. Thus it will be harder than ever before to reach consensus on social issues and effectuate social change. I hope that an anthropological approach to understanding computer-mediated communication will help to change that.

Illustration-2

15 November 2005

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION

(http://pf.ujep.cz/files/_konferenceKPG/KPG_konferenceprisp03.pdf)

Exertion of electronic medium vehicles, besides printed papers, provides essential conditions

for the successful joining to the modern information society. At the present, it means a

new challenge, not only in the developing of education, but in the process of training as

well. In our mainly empirical research, we examine the characteristics of electronic

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communication within school surroundings, as in a given social environment. Our

results are interpreted from the point of wiew of educational social psychology.

I. INTRODUCTION

Communication derives from the Latin verb communicare, which means to inform, transmit, convey and mediate. According to the dictionary definition, communication is the process of conveying information.Human communication means the transfer of information by different signes and symbol-

systems. The process can be demonstrated by the following figure:

I1 I2coding decoding

TRANSMITTER CHANNELfeedback

RECEIVER

It comes to electronic communication if a channel transfers modulated electromagnetic

waves. These days the notion of communication is continually expanding, because the process

of information exchange takes place not only between human beings, but it may happen between different living beings (such as animals or plants), between people and machinery or merely between the computational systems.

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Perc

ent

II. METHOD

In our examination, in order to reveal the attributes of electronic communication, we used questionnaires. We primarily attempted to survey the features of how the school age-group related to electronic communication. Besides, we found it important to represent in the sample

the total school population of the Eastern Hungarian Region, including all the segments of its age-groups, the sexual proportion, and the disadvantaged and minority pupils’ situation. The technique applied was stratified sampling.

The pupils examined were between the age of 6 to 20. The girls-boys’ ratio was 51.3% :

48.7%. The ratio of the disadvantaged minority was 23.3%, and 6.8% of the gypsy children’s. The age stood for the independent variable:

50

40

30

20

10

0from 6 to 10 from 11 to 14 from 15

AGE

Our questionnaires were filled out by 130 teachers, who happened to be in school on the day

of examination and were disposed to give response on them.. We can presume that because they did not refuse to respond, and had positive attitude towards electronic communication, this sample reflects a more positive image than that of the total teacher population. The examined teachers’ age ranged from 35 to 50.

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Our observations are valid in the Eastern Hungarian Region, but we suppose that this could be applied to the overall electronic communication civilization in Hungary, so our conclusions may be analogue in other regions as well.II. RESULTS

1. Teachers

Teachers were asked about the using of electronic communication:

In what form do you think your communication is more productive?

email6%

sms9%

letter9%

oralcommunication52%

writtencommunication24%

The pie chart shows that this group does not feel close enough to electronic communication,

but 15% of them have already been in contact with the electronic facilities of communication.

Through which channel do you prefer to get information?

Advertising30%

Media25%

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Internet45%

Have you ever had a conflict because of unsuccessful electronic communication?

Yes: 65%. No: 35%. Distribution-rate of the answer “yes”:

misunderstanding15%

lack ofinformation39%

unsucsessful business23%

anger8%

bad market15%

People examined in the survey have experienced negative effects of unsuccessful electronic

communication; they missed a large amount of information (39%), they told about making unsuccessful business in their office work (23%), and so the misunderstandings were accompanied by anger and negative sentiments in their lives. Procrastination, the missing or

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the lack of precise information brought teachers into uncomfortable situations.

How does the computational business routine help the office work?

"I am better inwriting expression."

10%

saves time45%

economicefficiency25%

quick back transmission20%

The examined teachers are aware of the importance of electronic communication in everyday

office work. In this process they emphasized the time factor (65%) and appreciated the economic efficiency. Some of them got more able to better express themselves in writing.

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2. Students

Mobile phone

The possession of mobile phone is increasing along with the age: in the elementary schools

36.4% of pupils in junior classes, 64.2% of pupils in senior classes and 88.7% of secondary school students have a mobile phone. The socio-demographic characteristics of the parents’ educational level significantly define the possession of mobile phone. In this, the influence ofthe mother’s profession is stronger than that of the father’s. (Etafather’profession= 0.1,

Etamother’s professin= 0.2)

They use the phone mainly for telephoning, and more than the half of them (53.8%) for sending text messages. Some of them told us that they downloaded ringtones, pictures and games, but there were no indications in the samples about their browsing the Internet with the help of their mobile phones. According to the survey, they send 2 text messages a day, on theaverage. The number of the sent SMSes grows linearly with the age:

SMS/day

4

3,5 Age from 15

3

2,5

2Age from 11 to 141,5

1

0,5 Age from 6 to 10

0

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Phone-dependence does exist: 56% of the children tell about their bad feeling when they

forget their phone at home. In this aspect there is no significant difference between the three age groups.

Computer

2/3 of the pupils have computer at home. Half of them (31.7% of total sample) have Internet access. According to the survey, 163 pupils marked that they work on the computer at school, and 146 do the same at home. The 55 another possibilities of Internet-access were the following: library, friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, relatives, and parents’ workplace and student hostel. Between the age groups their is no significant difference.

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III. CONCLUSION

According to the survey results, we attempt to highlight some general psychological tendencies in connection with the teachers’ attitude and the use of the mobile phone, computer and the Internet.The cognitive component of teachers’ attitude towards electronic communication is a special knowledge which can be acquaired. It means a new challenge mainly for elderly teachers. The affective component refers to the emotions. The greater part of the teachers has a positive feeling towards electronic devices. The behaving component refers to the suitable communication behaviour in electronic circumstances which causes pleasure.The mobile phone gives emotional safety due to the gripping instinct. The SMSes take part in

the organization of social connections. The probability of availability is growing which raises

the safety sense. At the same time it is easier to express intimate emotions in text messages than in real life, so this way with the possibility of a less limited self-actualization, SMSes could help also in improving the living connections and relationships.The anxiety of isolation, which naturally occurs in case of spatial distance, may decrease, because important people to the self become accessible (parents on the outing, girlfriend or boyfriend during class.).The Internet has a role of behaviour formation. As an area of virtual communication, the Internet makes it possible for people to try out different behaviours without taking a risk. The individual brings with him the problem from real life. Entering a chat-room he may test different conduct patterns and social roles in social surroundings chosen by him. Experimentation with the roles, the playing with different personalities may result such experiences which when getting back into reality may yield real changes in the behaviour.

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The interaction field of the Internet is similar to the psychodrama. In a virtual environment

people react on the already tried behaviours or raised problems (in common chat-rooms or in

private chating) and these notions throughout the integration of experiences may build up the

individual’s behaviour-store. The integration of experiences serves the purpose of the child’s

developing.

In the virtual field, one isn’t fixed to a certain place, he may travel to a Platonic ideal world,

and may put on different identities. This is the space where the contours of interpersonal and

intersocial identities may be faded out. Putting on the mask of anonymity, one can become a

total starnger, he can change his name, age as well as his appearance. Creeping into a virtual

skin, one can chat as a more self-confident person. Temporally, this causes a breaking up in

the self, the splitting up of the self-image into parts. During the integration of the parts of self-

image, the individual is able to form a better personality, which is the process of socialization,

Conclusion

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Through the project which has been assigned to us on “Communication as a Managerial Tool”, we came to know about the importance of management activities in organization.

Communication is backbone of any organization. Without communication it is not possible for any organization to survive. For each and every activity we do, communication is needed either in verbal, non-verbal or written forms. It is vital for conveying message in the organization, manager and employee relations, for motivation and employees morale, for increase productivity, etc. its essentiality is endless.

In this modern era of ever growing and expanding business this project gave us an opportunity to understand how to behave in the corporate world, understand its functions & working and the importance of listening.

So Communication is the key to growth and success of any organization.

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