1.

THE COMMUNICATION PROCESS

What is communication?
Imparting or exchange of information, ideas or feelings.

Why do we communicate?
1. Initiating action
a) expressing needs and requirements
b) persuading and motivating others to carry out desired action.

2. Imparting information
a) creating awareness
b) creating understanding
c) persuading others
d) influencing others

3. Establishing relations
a) a node or wave
b) use of person’s name
c) looking people in the eye
d) keeping in touch by telephone

Why do we receive or accept communication?

1. To share communicator’s aim
2. Message appear relevant to our needs
3. Message appear to confirm our own ideas
4. Message is accessible and understandable
5. The source has credibility
6. Message attracts our attention

Source of message is acceptable, if

1. Credibility
a) personal appeal
b) perceived authority
c) perceived intentions

2. Congeniality
a) agreeable
b) compatible

Stages of communication process

1. Impulse to communicate
a) deciding to communicate
b) deciding what to communicate
c) message may conceived as a result of an impulse
2. Encoding the message
a) turn the idea in brain into words which can be transmitted
b) translate ideas into a code which receiver will understand
c) verbal code
 spoken words
 written words
d) non-verbal code
 pictures, diagrams, symbols
 numbers
 facial expression, gestures
e) a mixture of verbal and non-verbal

3. Relaying the message

The particular route or path via which the message is sent, connecting the sender
and receiver, is called the channel of communication.

The tool or instrument which is used to sent the message is called medium.
a) visual communication
b) written communication
c) oral communication
d) electronic communication

The choice of medium will depend upon:

a) time required b) complexity of message
b) distance d) written record
e) interaction f ) confidentiality
f) sensitivity h) cost

4. Decoding the message

a) to understand what it says
b) receiver must grasp the meanings of words and symbols
c) interpret the message as a whole
d) meaning may be deliberately disguised if sender uses one of the following
 sarcasm
 innuendo / suggestions
 double meaning
 context
 relationship
 tone of voice
 5. Feedback

It may be positive and negative.

a) positive
 Action taken as requested
 Asking for receipt or replying to question
 Smile, node, thumbs up
b) negative
 no action or wrong action taken
 no response at all
 silence, gesture or sound of protest

Levels of communication
1. Intrapersonal communication
2. Interpersonal communication
a) individual to individual
b) individual to group
c) group to individual
3. Impersonal communication

Another model of levels of communication

1. Level one: face to face
2. Level two: telephone
3. Level three: written communication

Potential problems in communication

1. Distortion
It refers to the way in which the meaning of a communication is lost in handling
at encoding and decoding stages.
a) the intention of sender is not translated accurately into language
b) language used by sender is not properly understood by receiver.

Foreign or regionally specific language, incorrect use of words, technical or

obscure terms, unfamiliar pictures, diagrams or gestures with more than one
possible interpretations.
In addition, difference of opinions and lack of concentration or co-operation
can set up barriers to understand.

2. Noise
Distraction or interference in the environment in which communication takes
place, obstructing the process of communication.
a) physical noise: other people talking in the room,
b) technical noise: failure in channel, crackle on telephone
c) social noise: difference in personality, culture or outlook
d) psychological noise: excessive emotion, prejudice, nervousness
 The problem of noise can be reduce by redundancy: using more than one
channel of communication, so that if a message fails to get through by one
channel, it may succeed by another. A spoken message might be confirmed
by gesture, an agreement on telephone can be backed up by issuing a letter.

3. Other potential problems

a) not communicating
b) sending the wrong message
c) omission of information
d) overload of information
e) misunderstanding due to clarity
f) non-verbals confusing the recipient
g) difference in social, racial background
h) perceptual bias
i) poor listening and reading skills
j) failure to seek or offer feedback
k) failure to plan for physical context
l) lack of credibility

4. Personal differences
a) ethnic, racial or regional background
b) religious beliefs and tradition
c) social economic grouping
d) education and training
e) age
f) gender
g) health and fitness
h) personality traits and types
i) intelligence
j) occupation
k) interest
l) national and linguistic differences

Role of perception in communication

1. Perception: process by which data gathered by senses is selected, sorted, organized

and interpreted by brain in order to form meaningful message.
2. Expectations: learned from past experiences, create a readiness to respond in a
particular way to a given stimulus
3. Motives: is based on the belief that human beings behave in a purposive or goal
directed way in order to satisfy needs, wants or aims
4. Attitude: a relatively consistent learned predisposition to behave in a certain way
in response to a given object
5. Belief: a perception in which we have confidence: our own experience or
observations, or credible information from someone else