The communication process

By on September 6, 2011

Communication is an essence of human life. Briefly communication can be defined as, “the act of transmitting and receiving information” (Barker, 2010, p.1). To understand the term better, it is important to know the origin of the term communication.

Understand the meaning of communication

’The word ‘communication’ has been derived from the Latin word ‘communis’ which means ‘common’. Therefore communication refers to making an idea or thought common among two or more people (Singla, 2008-09, p.236).

Keith Davis has defined communication as, “the process of passing and understanding information  from one person to another” (Davis, 1967 cited in Singla, 2008-09, p.236). This definition emphasizes on the fact that communication is not just passing the information or thought but also passing an understanding of that information. For communication to be complete, it is essential that the receiver should receives the message in same spirit as has been transmitted by the sender (Singla, 2008-09, p.236). This aim of transmitting information  to the receiver is achieved through the communication process as shown in the following figure. (Reddy, 2004, p.15)

Communication process
Fig. Communication process

 

Understanding the process

The communication process starts with the sender, the person who has an idea or thought to share. The sender encodes this thought in a manner that it can be understood in the same sense by both receiver and him. After encoding the thought into a meaningful message, the message is transmitted to the receiver through an effective channel. There are varieties of channels available to transmit the message from sender to the receiver but the most effective one has to be chosen. The next step in communication process is receiving the message by the receiver for whom this message was intended. But only receiving the information is not enough, as it has to be understood in the same sense as that of the sender. For this purpose, the receiver decodes the message and converts it into thoughts. The whole process of communication is not that easy as it seems. The presence of ‘noise’ which is anything that hinders the communication process makes it difficult to successfully complete the process. However, the effectiveness of the communication process can only be judged through proper feedback mechanism. Therefore feedback is also essential for completing the whole communication process. (Reddy, 2004, p.p.15-16)

References

  • Reddy, R.J. Management Process. 2004. New Delhi: APH Publishing Corporation.
  • Barker, A. Improve your Communication Skills. Revised Second Edition. 2010. Kogan Page.
  • Dr. Singla, R.K. Business Studies: Class XII. 2008-09. New Delhi: V.K. (India) Enterprises.

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