Communication flow

In an organization, communication flows in 5 main directions-

1. Downward
2. Upward
3. Lateral or Horizontal
4. Diagonal
5. External

1.Downward Flow of Communication: Communication that flows from a higher level in an organization to a lower level is a downward communication. In other words, communication from superiors to subordinates in a chain of command is a downward communication. This communication flow is used by the managers to transmit work-related information to the employees at lower levels. Employees require this information for performing their jobs and for meeting the expectations of their managers. Downward communication is used by the managers for the following purposes -

• Providing feedback on employees performance     
• Giving job instructions
• Providing a complete understanding of the employees job as well as to communicate them how their job is related to other jobs in the organization.
• Communicating the organization's mission and vision to the employees.
• Highlighting the areas of attention.

Organizational publications, circulars, letter to employees, group meetings etc are all examples of downward communication. In order to have effective and error-free downward communication, managers must:

• Specify communication objective
• Ensure that the message is accurate, specific and unambiguous.
• Utilize the best communication technique to convey the message to the receiver in right form.

2.Upward Flow of Communication: Communication that flows to a higher level in an organization is called upward communication. It provides feedback on how well the organization is functioning. The subordinates use upward communication to convey their problems and performances to their superiors.

The subordinates also use upward communication to tell how well they have understood the downward communication. It can also be used by the employees to share their views and ideas and to participate in the decision-making process.

Upward communication leads to a more committed and loyal workforce in an organization because the employees are given a chance to raise and speak dissatisfaction issues to the higher levels. The managers get to know about the employees feelings towards their jobs, peers, supervisor and organization in general. Managers can thus accordingly take actions for improving things.

Grievance Redressal System, Complaint and Suggestion Box, Job Satisfaction surveys etc all help in improving upward communication. Other examples of Upward Communication are -performance reports made by low level management for reviewing by higher level management, employee attitude surveys, letters from employees, employee-manager discussions etc.

3.Lateral or Horizontal Communication: Communication that takes place at same levels of hierarchy in an organization is called lateral communication, i.e., communication between peers, between managers at same levels or between any horizontally equivalent organizational member. The advantages of horizontal communication are as follows:

• It is time saving.
• It facilitates co-ordination of the task.
• It facilitates cooperation among team members.
• It provides emotional and social assistance to the organizational members.
• It helps in solving various organizational problems.
• It is a means of information sharing
• It can also be used for resolving conflicts of a department with other department or conflicts within a department.

4.Diagonal Communication: Communication that takes place between a manager and employees of other workgroups is called diagonal communication. It generally does not appear on organizational chart. For instance - To design a training module a training manager interacts with an Operations personnel to enquire about the way they perform their task.

5.External Communication: Communication that takes place between a manager and external groups such as - suppliers, vendors, banks, financial institutes etc. For instance - To raise capital the Managing director would interact with the Bank Manager.

Elements of Communication

Communication is defined as the imparting or interchange of thoughts, opinions, or information by speech, writing, or signs. The elements of communication are:

1. Sender-Receiver
2. Messages
3. Channels
4. Noise
5. Feedback
6. Setting or Environment

All of these elements are important to the communication process. We have used all of these many times throughout our lifetime and will probably do so again.The sender-receiver method of communication is one of the most important because it is the basic concept of a conversation. That basic concept is someone talks and another person listens. The sender is the person that is talking at the time and the receiver is the person that is listening. We use this element of communication every day. We have friends in the campus and we talk to them all the time and when we talk, we usually both have thoughts and opinions we wish to share with one another so we both are sending and receiving messages using the sender-receiver element of communication. The next element of communication is the message. The message is basically what the sender is saying. Messages do not have to be verbal. A message can be sent in all forms of communication: verbally, written, or using signs. We also send messages every day and in each of those forms as well. Every day we will find ourselves talking to someone, texting someone, or just nodding head at someone. So we’re basically sending messages to people all day and every day. Another element of communication is channels. The channel is basically how a message is received. We all use channels in communicating every day. For instance I use the channel of sight when I dress or the channel of touch when I shake someone’s hand. There is channel for every type of communication one can do. Not all elements of communication have to deal with the actual communication itself such as noise. Noise is the interference of communication. It can be anything that disrupts the communication process. Noise is another element of communicating I encounter on a regular  basis. For instance when I am in class and the teacher is trying to teach but some students are talking in the background I might not be able to properly hear what is being taught, this is a form of external noise. Noise can also be internal though. Many times you can find yourself not paying attention to what someone is saying to you because you start to daydream, sometimes it is because you’re having a problem that day, another example may be that you’re focused on something else at the moment. These are all examples of noise and how they can affect the communication process.Elements of communication can also be something that influences how a person might communicate such as a setting. A setting is where the communication takes place. The setting usually influences how the communication process will go. Monday through Friday I go to class and in each of those classes I speak proper English and avoid using slang because it is a learning environment and a more professional setting. I also eat in the cafeteria with my friends everyday and there I use slang and speak loudly without any kind of structure because it is a more casual setting. These are just some of the ways communication can be affected by setting.The final element of communication is feedback. Feedback is the reactions by the receiver of a sender’s message. All the time when I am with my friends I give them feedback. We are always playing around and telling jokes which cause us to laugh. Laughter is a form of feedback because it is a reaction by the receiver to a message by the sender.

Process of Communication

The process of communication as shown in fig 1.2 involves exchange of ideas and it can be verbal or nonverbal in nature. The prerequisite of communication is a message and this message must be conveyed through some medium to the recipient in such a way that it is understood by the recipient in the same manner as intended by the sender. The recipient must respond within a period. The response from the recipient to the sender is called feedback. Therefore, communication is said to be a two way process, which is incomplete without a feedback from the recipient to the sender on how well the message is understood by him.

Following are the components of the process of communication.

• Context: Communication is affected by the context in which it be physical, social, chronological or cultural. Every communication proceeds with context. The sender chooses the message to communicate within a context. E.g. usage of the term Labour in relation to manpower or workload.

• Sender / Encoder: Sender / Encoder is a person who sends the message. A sender utilizes symbols (words, graphic or visual aids) to convey the message and produce the required response. For instance, a training manager conducting training for induction of new joinees. Sender may be an individual, a group or an organization. The views, background, approach, skills, competencies and knowledge of the sender have a great impact on the message. The verbal and nonverbal symbols chosen are essential in ascertaining interpretation of the message by the recipient in the same terms as intended by the sender.

• Message: Message is a key idea that the sender plans to communicate. It elicits the response of recipients. Communication process begins with planning the message to be conveyed. One must ensure that the main objective of the message is comprehensible.

• Medium: Medium is a means used for exchanging/transmitting the message. The sender must choose an appropriate medium for transmitting the message, as there are high probabilities of the message not being conveyed to the target recipients. The choice of appropriate medium of communication is essential for making the message effective and correctly interpreted by the recipients. This choice of communication medium varies based on the features of communication. Written medium, for instance, is chosen when a message has to be conveyed to a small group of people, while an oral medium is chosen when spontaneous feedback is required from the recipient and queries are addressed on the post.

• Recipient / Decoder: Recipient / Decoder is a person for whom the message is intended / aimed / targeted. The degree to which the decoder understands the message is depends on various factors like knowledge of recipient, their responsiveness to the message and the reliance of encoder and decoder.

• Feedback: Feedback is the main component of communication process as it permits the sender to analyze the efficacy of the message. It helps the sender in confirming the correct interpretation of message by the decoder. Feedback may be verbal or nonverbal (in form of smiles, sighs, etc.). It could also be in written form (memos, reports, etc).

COMMUNICATION PROCESS: MODELS AND THEORIES

There are many communication process models and theories available for understanding the process involved in it, as developed by different people. It is very tedious, time and space consuming to consider all the communication models. It is, therefore, desirable to familiarize with some significant and important models that serve the purpose of understanding the process of communication.

1. Linear Model

According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, one of the most productive schematic models of a communications system that has been proposed as an answer to Lasswell’s question (Who (says) What (to) Whom (in) What Channel (with) What Effect?) in relation to communication that emerged in the late 1940s, largely from the speculations of two American mathematicians, Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver. The simplicity of their model, its clarity and its surface generality proved attractive to many students of communication in various disciplines; although it neither is the only model of the communication process extant nor is, it universally accepted. As originally conceived, the model contained five elements—an information source, a transmitter, a channel of transmission, a receiver and a destination—all arranged in linear order. Messages (electronic messages, initially) were supposed to travel along this course, to be transformed into

electric energy by the transmitter and to be reconstituted into intelligible language by the receiver. In due course, the five elements of the model were renamed to specify components for other types of communication transmitted in various manners. The information source was split into its components (both source and message) as a provision for wider range of applicability. The six constituents of the revised model are:

• A source

• An encoder

• A message

• A channel

• A decoder

• A receiver

Some communication systems have simple components. For instance -

• A person on a land-line telephone

• The mouthpiece of the telephone

• The words spoken

• The electrical wires along which the words (now electrical impulses) travel

• The earpiece of another telephone

• The mind of the listener

In other communication systems, the components are more complicated to isolate e.g., the communication of the emotions of an artist through a painting to people who may act in response to the message long after the death of the artist.

Begging a multitude of psychological, aesthetic and sociological questions concerning the exact nature of each component, the linear model appeared, from the commonsense perspective, at least, to explain generally the ways in which certain classes of communication occurred. It did not indicate the reason for the inability of certain communications—obvious in daily life — to fit its neat model.

2. Aristotle’s Model

Aristotle took the first step towards the development of a communication model. He developed an easy, simple and elementary model of the communication process in the figure 1.4, in a communication event, there are three main ingredients,

• The Speaker
• The Speech and
• The Audience

Subsequently, a number of experts have formulated modern models of communication that are more complex and dynamic.

3. David K. Berlo’s Model

David Berlo’s process theory is one of the fundamental theories for all communication theorists. The various theories of process models specify the idea persuasively to another person; Berlo's model is of general importance in developing other communication models and identifying elements of communication. Berlo's process theory has contributed largely to the subject of communication. In this model, he identified essential elements and other factors affecting them (the five senses). However, the model does not consider verbal and nonverbal stimuli. As shown in figure 1.5, the nine components are included in his model are: Source, Encoder, Message, Channel, Receiver, Decoder, Meaning, Feedback and Noise.

4. Harold D. Lasswell Model

The communication process of Lasswell, in its broader analysis, spawns to four basic and important questions. They are: Who? What? Whom? Which? These behavioural aspects of the sender in the communication process are well defined.

Lasswell's model ignores the essential elements of the communication process. However, Lasswell's model indicates the major elements in the process by posing some questions related to the act of communication. They are:

1. Who?
2. Says What?
3. In What Channel?
4. To Whom?
5. With What Effect?

1. Why?

Why do we want to communicate? What is the purpose of the communication? Is it to persuade or to inform? Is any particular action required?

2. What?

What do we want to communicate? It may be an order, an idea, an attitude or a feeling. What form of words or possible actions suits the situation?

3. How?

How are we going to communicate? In what form will the communication get home the message fastest? What impact will a particular form have on the recipient?

4. Who?

Is there a key to the communication situation? How does he feel about me, about this situation?

5. When?

Finally, when is the right time to get across this message? When is the receiver likely to give it the most attention? Is timing critical to the success of the communication?

In this model, he covers the five elements in the process by putting forth the above questions. The model emphasizes on the effects of communication and the response of the receivers. The behavioral aspects of the sender are the important element in the process.

Barriers of Communication

Most people would agree that communication between two individuals should be simple. It’s important to remember that there are differences between talking and communicating. When you communicate, you are successful in getting your point across to the person you’re talking to. When we talk, we tend to erect barriers that hinder our ability to communicate. There are seven of these types of barriers to effective communication.

1. Physical barriers are easy to spot – doors that are closed, walls that are erected, and distance between people all work against the goal of effective communication. While most agree that people need their own personal areas in the workplace, setting up an office to remove physical barriers is the first step towards opening communication. Many professionals who work in industries that thrive on collaborative communication, such as architecture, purposefully design their workspaces around an “open office” plan. This layout eschews cubicles in favor of desks grouped around a central meeting space. While each individual has their own dedicated work space, there are no visible barriers to prevent collaboration with their co-workers. This encourages greater openness and frequently creates closer working bonds.

2. Perceptual barriers, in contrast, are internal. If you go into a situation thinking that the person you are talking to isn’t going to understand or be interested in what you have to say, you may end up subconsciously sabotaging your effort to make your point. You will employ language that is sarcastic, dismissive, or even obtuse, thereby alienating your conversational partner. Think of movie scenarios in which someone yells clipped phrases at a person they believe is deaf. The person yelling ends up looking ridiculous while failing to communicate anything of substance.

3. Emotional barriers can be tough to overcome, but are important to put aside to engage in conversations. We are often taught to fear the words coming out of our own mouths, as in the phrase “anything you say can and will be used against you.” Overcoming this fear is difficult, but necessary. The trick is to have full confidence in what you are saying and your qualifications in saying it. People often pick up on insecurity. By believing in yourself and what you have to say, you will be able to communicate clearly without becoming overly involved in your emotions.

4. Cultural barriers are a result of living in an ever shrinking world. Different cultures, whether they be a societal culture of a race or simply the work culture of a company, can hinder developed communication if two different cultures clash. In these cases, it is important to find a common ground to work from. In work situations, identifying a problem and coming up with a highly efficient way to solve it can quickly topple any cultural or institutional barriers. Quite simply, people like results.

5. 

   Language barriers seem pretty self-inherent, but there are often hidden language barriers that we aren’t always aware of. If you work in an industry that is heavy in jargon or technical language, care should be taken to avoid these words when speaking with someone from outside the industry. Without being patronizing, imagine explaining a situation in your industry to a child. How would you convey these concepts without relying on jargon? A clear, direct narrative is preferable to an incomprehensible slew of specialty terms.

6. Gender barriers have become less of an issue in recent years, but there is still the possibility for a man to misconstrue the words of a woman, or vice versa. Men and women tend to form their thoughts differently, and this must be taken into account when communicating. This difference has to do with how the brain of each sex is formed during gestation. In general, men are better at spatial visualization and abstract concepts such as math, while women excel at language-based thinking and emotional identification. However, successful professionals in highly competitive fields tend to have similar thought processes regardless of their gender.

7. Interpersonal barriers are what ultimately keep us from reaching out to each other and opening ourselves up, not just to be heard, but to hear others. Oddly enough, this can be the most difficult area to change. Some people spend their entire lives attempting to overcome a poor self-image or a series of deeply rooted prejudices about their place in the world. They are unable to form genuine connections with people because they have too many false perceptions blocking the way. Luckily, the cure for this is more communication. By engaging with others, we learn what our actual strengths and weaknesses are. This allows us to put forth our ideas in a clear, straightforward manner.

Communication is not a one-way street. To have others open up to you, you must be open yourself. By overcoming these barriers to communication, you can ensure that the statement you are making is not just heard, but also understood, by the person you are speaking with. In this way, you can be confident that your point has been expressed.