BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

KMBN 107

UNIT 1

COMMUNICATION – “Communicate” word has been derived from Latin word “communicare” it
means “to share”. Communication is process of sharing information, thought, messages from
one place to other place, from one individual to other individual. This information or message
can be delivered in written or oral form by using different symbols, languages etc.

COMPONENTS OR PROCESS OF COMMUNICATION

Medium of
Sender Encoding Receiver Decoding Interpretation
information

Feedback

A. Sender- Sender is an individual who is encoding the message or information and send
the message to the receiver. He uses different symbols and methods for this.

B. Encoding- Encoding is the process of preparing message in symbols or language. The

sender must use that language or symbols which can be understood by the receiver
easily.

C. Medium of information- Medium means any language, symbol, writing etc. For oral
communication voice is a medium. This medium should be selected according to the
suitability and availability of sender and receiver.

D. Receiver- Receiver is an individual who is receiving the message sent from the sender.
He must be familiar and having equal knowledge of symbols used in message by the
sender.

E. Decoding- Decoding means to crack the code. Receiver cracks the code and then
interprets.

F. Interpretation- The receiver interprets (understands) the message and finds the
conclusion. It is very important to interpret the message correctly because
misinterpretation of can create many problems.

G. Feedback or response- This is the last and important component of process of

communication. Without feedback this process is incomplete. So the receiver must send
reply or feedback to the sender to confirm that he has properly received the message
and understood it.
FEATURES OR CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNICATION

Meaning Conventional
Based

Features

Structured International
communication

Appropriate

A. Meaning based- The very first important feature of communication is that

communication must be meaningful. If the message does not have any meaning then
there is no use of communication.

B. Conventional- It means the communication should be tradition bound. We should

respect to the time, tradition, place of organization to which we belong.

C. International- It should be interactive either spoken, written or sign language used. It

should be an ongoing dialogue the speaker, writer or listener all should be involved till
the communication is completed.

D. Appropriate- The language used to deliver the information should be appropriate and
suitable. The words written or spoken, style of delivery should be proper.

E. Structured communication- The information should be delivered in structured way so

that starting point, middle and ending point can be understood properly. Example- letter,
application
7 C’s OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

OR
How can we make the communication more effective or successful ?

Clarity
Conciseness
Concreteness

Features Completeness

Courtesy

Correctness
Consideration

1. Clarity- The sender should focus that the message should be clear. It should not have
two or more than two meanings.

2. Conciseness- The information or message should be concise it should not be very

lengthy or boring.

3. Completeness- The message should be delivered completely. Incomplete message will

create problems and wrong or incomplete work done.

4. Correctness- The message should be correctly written, spoken. There should not be
spelling mistake and pronunciation error.

5. Consideration- The speaker or sender must choose suitable words which have
potential effect on the receiver or audience.

6. Courtesy- The sender should be courteous. He should not use insulting words,
aggressive tone and bad jokes during the communication.

7. Concreteness- The sender should focus on the concreteness of the message. It means
the message should be solid enough so that it can impact on reader or listener. It should
be I catching.
ROLE OR IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION

There are following roles of communication.

A. Exchanging the information- Communication has important role in exchanging the

information between two parties. Without communication it is not possible.

B. Achievement of goal- Communication helps to share the information related to any

work. So communication helps the team leader to let the employees understand their
goal.

C. Decision making- Communication helps us to share the information related to previous

projects, surveys, upcoming projects. So a manager can take decision regarding the
new projects.

D. Marketing and sales- Communication also helps to share the information about the
products and services from company to consumer. They do it with the help of
advertisement.

E. Hiring the candidates- An HR manager does the recruitment activities with the help of
communication process.

PURPOSE OF COMMUNICATION
There are following purposes of communication -

A. Flow of information- Communication has a purpose to continuously and properly flow

the information between two parties to complete the task.

B. Coordination- Communication focuses to co-ordinate between two parties so that both

of them can complete the communication and task together.

C. Learning management skills- It also focuses on learning the management skills by the
employees with help of training

D. Developing good human relations- Communication gap creates many problems and
ruins the relationship. So its purpose is to develop healthy relation among human
beings.

E. Preparing the people to accept change -Communication helps to motivate the

candidates or people to accept the changes in the life

F. Ideas of subordinate and encourage -Communication helps to encourage the

subordinate to share their thoughts or ideas.
 CLASSIFICATION OF COMMUNICATION

CLASSIFICATION OF COMMUNICATION

On the basis of On the basis of expression On the basis of flow

relationship
 Verbal- (a) Oral (b) Written  Vertical
 Formal  Non-verbal  Horizontal
 Informal  Cross or diagonal

1. On the basis of expression

S.No Basis of Formal Communication Informal Communication

difference
1 Definition Exchanging information through Exchanging information without
predefined channel is called official predefined channel is called
communication informal communication. It is also
called Grapevine communication.
2 Evidence Documentary evidence is available Documentary evidence is not
available
3 Flow of slow fast
information
4 Speed yes no
5 Time consuming yes no
6 Secrecy yes no
7 example Commands, reports, orders etc Sharing of feeling, casual
used at workplace discussion, gossips etc at any
place

2. On the basis of expression

A. Verbal communication- Verbal communication when we engage in speaking

with other, it can be face to face or over the telephone or video calling etc.

There are two types of verbal communication-

a) Oral communication- It is done in oral form. There is no use of
written document in talking on phone, face to face interaction
 b) Written communication- It is done in written form that is an
email, notice, contact, Facebook post etc.

B. Non verbal communication- It includes facial expressions, body posture, eye

contact, hand movement etc

3. On the basis of flow

i. Vertical communication - It has two types-

a) Downward communication- The message flows downward from top

management to lower management
b) Upward communication- The message flows upward from lower management
to top management

ii. Horizontal or lateral communication- Message flows between same level employees
in same or different departments. Example- Communication with coworker, executive,
employees at same level like HR manager to marketing manager, production manager
to purchase manager etc.

iii. Cross or diagonal communication- Communication between the employees of

different department with different levels. Example- HR executive talking with production
manager

IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATION-

a) Smooth working of organization- communication ensures smooth working of

organization to achieve the objective successfully. It is important to have effective
communication.

b) Quick decision and implementation- The managers need information report

statements from different sources for decision making and planning. For this purpose
they need communication.

c) Coordination- Coordination among the team members can be maintained through the
communication process.

d) Direction and leadership- Direction means to give instructions about the task to be
completed. The leaders or managers need communication to direct the team members.

e) Managerial control- For controlling the managers need the information about the actual
performance after that they compare it with the pre-decided standards.

f) Achieving the organizational goals- Communication plays an important role in

keeping in the various sub-systems of organization together and to achieve the
organizational goal.

g) Management of change- Communication is needed whenever the management

changes the policies, organizational structure etc.
 h) Democratic management- For effective system and management the organization
needs participation of all employees through sharing their ideas, suggestion, complaints
etc.

i) Poor judgments and decisions communication is essential for managers, top

management for doing judgments related to problems.

COMMUNICATION IN CRISIS

Crisis communication means to communicate effectively during a major threat to its business
with the help of technology and systems.

All organizations must be prepared for crisis situation like weather, cyber crime, flood
etc. This preparation enables employees to communicate quickly and effectively. During
moments of threat sharing information helps the organization to handle the situation quickly,
protect customers, employees and assets to ensure business continuity.

How to communicate in crisis?

Or how should be the communication in crisis?

1) Communication should be in real time- Real time information means up to

date information should be delivered.

2) Information should be accessible everywhere- During the crisis a single

information can solve a big problem so it should be accessible at every place all
time whenever required.

3) Message should be relevant to individual- An individual must receive

information relevant to him or her only. Unnecessary information or irrelevant
information can create problems it will result in heavy loss and time wastage.

BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION –

BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION

Physical or Semantic/ Psychological/ Perceptual and

environmental Language/ attitudinal/ reality
Linguistic personal
Types of various barriers-
Emotional Organizational or Cultural
hierarchical
1) Physical or environmental barriers- Noise or problem arisen due to environmental
issues or physical objects is called physical or environment weather problem in mobile,
speaker, electricity etc.

2) Semantic/ Language/ Linguistic barriers- Noise arisen because of language is called

semantic barriers. Unknown language for listener creates problems in communication

3) Psychological/ attitudinal/ personal barrier- It is seen that very rich people hardly
communicate with very poor people and vice-versa. One’s family background also
affects one’s attitude

4) Perceptual and reality barriers- Sometimes we create a perception about someone

that he is very polite or very rude but in reality he is not like that. It also creates problems
in communication.

5) Emotional barriers- Very angry overjoyed behavior creates problems. It also negatively
affects the communication.

6) Organizational or hierarchical barriers- It is seen that lower level employees hesitate

to talk with higher level employees. It is an organizational barrier.

7) Cultural barriers- Different cultures have different styles of verbal and nonverbal
communication. There is difference between greeting style of people of far East and
West. Sometimes it creates problems in communication.

Some other barriers-

i. Poor listening
ii. Goal conflict
iii. Poor planning
iv. Wrong assumption
v. Information overload

COMMUNICATION STRUCTURE

A word can have ambiguous (double) meaning. There can be two kinds of meanings-
Denotative and Connotative.

Denotative means immediate, nearest or referential meaning. It is easy to understand.

Connotative meaning have wide meaning. Example- space, date etc.

TYPES OF NETWORK-
1) Circle network- In this network the information is circulated clockwise or anticlockwise.
An individual may communicate directly next member sitting with him. It is very slow
network.
2) Wheel Network- In this network individual members communicate with the central
member separately. The central member is a senior authority and surroundings are
subordinates.

3) All channel network or free flow network- All members of a group can communicate
without any restriction to anybody there is no Central authority.

4) Line or chain network- In this a person communicates directly superior or subordinate

in hierarchy. One person communicates with one person only. This is very slow network.

5) Y network- In this structure the higher authorities communicate to one person close to
them after that the message is delivered downward to hierarchy.

B
A

F B G C
A
F D

E C
E
D

Circle network Wheel Network

E B

D C

All Channel Network

A B
A

B
C

C
D

D
E

E
F

Y Network Line Network