PURPOSES OF COMMUNICATION

The main purpose of communication are :

(i) Conveying the right message to persons concerned.

(ii) Coordinating the efforts of all those who are engaged in the business.

(iii) Development of managerial skill and understanding.

(iv) Maintaining good industrial relations.

(v) Assessing the effectiveness of policies, practices, behavior and procedures etc.

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Following principles should be followed in order to make the communication effective :

1. Principle of clarity, i.e., every point in the communication should be clear having no ambiguity
and conveying the same sense and spirit.

2. Principle of attention, i.e., Communication must draw attention of the communicate.

3. Principle of consistency : This principle implies that communication should always be

consistent with the plans, objectives, policies and programmes of the organization and not
conflicting. Inconsistent messages always create chaos and confusion in the minds of people
which is highly detrimental to the interest of the enterprise.

4. Principle of Adequacy : This implies that the information should be adequate and complete in
all respect. Incomplete and inadequate information delays actions and destroys understanding
and relations. Efficiency of communicator and communicate is also affected.

5. Principle of Integration: Communication is a means to an end and not an end in itself. It should
promote co-operation among people at work to achieve the organizational objectives.

6. Principle of Timeliness: Information of ideas should be communicated at the proper time. Any
delay in communicating the messages will serve no purpose except to make them (messages)
mere historical documents as they lose their importance and effectiveness by the lapse of time.

7. Principle of Informality: Formal communication, however is important in a formal organization

but informal communication does not lose its place in the organization. Managers or executives
should become much informal in their behavior with his subordinates. But in certain situations
where they are the sole and best judge, informality may be avoided.

8. Principle of Feedback: This is the most important principle of an effective communication

system. The communicator must have feedback confirmation from the recipient whether the
messages communicated, have been understood in the same sense in which the sender takes it
and also whether the recipient is agreed or disagreed the proposal. It helps understand the
people.

9. Principal of Communication Networks: Communication networks refer to the routes through

which communication flow to the destination person for whom it is meant. A number of such
networks may exist in the organization at a given point of time but management should consider
the effectiveness of the communication network in the given situation and its effect of the
behavior of the communicate before it finally chooses a network.

10. Principle of Purposefulness: Communication should have a purpose. One's image must
improve by his communication. The purpose for which communication was used must be
achieved.

PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION

The communication process refers to the steps through which communication takes
place between the sender and the receiver. This process starts with conceptualizing
an idea or message by the sender and ends with the feedback from the receiver. In
details, communication process consists of the following eight steps:
1. Developing idea by the sender: In the first step, the communicator develops or
conceptualizes an idea to be sent. It is also known as the planning stage since in
this stage the communicator plans the subject matter of communication.
2. Encoding: Encoding means converting or translation the idea into a perceivable
form that can be communicated to others.
3. Developing the message: After encoding the sender gets a message that can be
transmitted to the receiver. The message can be oral, written, symbolic or
nonverbal. For example, when people talk, speech is the message; when people
write a letter, the words and sentences are the message; when people cries, the
crying is the message.
4. Selecting the medium: Medium is the channel or means of transmitting the
message to the receiver. Once the sender has encoded his into a message, the
next step is to select a suitable medium for transmitting it to the receiver. The
medium of communication can be speaking, writing, signaling, gesturing etc.
5. Transmission of message: In this step, the sender actually transmits the
message through chosen medium. In the communication cycle, the tasks of the
sender end with the transmission of the message.
6. Receiving the message by receiver: This stage simply involves the reception of
sender’s message by the receiver. The message can be received in the form of
hearing, seeing, feeling and so on.
7. Decoding: Decoding is the receiver’s interpretation of the sender’s message.
Here the receiver converts the message into thoughts and tries to analyze and
understand it. Effective communication can occur only when both the sender
and the receiver assign the same or similar meanings to the message.
8. Feedback: The final step of communication process is feedback. Feedback
means receiver’s response to sender’s message. It increases the effectiveness of
communication. It ensures that the receiver has correctly understood the
message. Feedback is the essence of two-way communication.