Effective Communication in Organizations: Roles and Elements

Roles in Communication

• Motivating: employees and creating a proper cooperative environment.
• Reporting: providing data for decision-making and spreading goals.
• Controlling: performance of plans and behavior of members.
• Expressing: emotions about work achievements and relating organization with environment.

Communication Elements

• The sender: person transmitting the message.
• The receivers: recipients of the message.
• The message: information transmitted by sender.
• The channel: medium through which message is transmitted.
• The code: set of signs and symbols transmitting the message.
• The context: location, time, culture of participants.

Barriers to Communication

• Factors related to context: location or timing.
• Factors related to message/channel: noise.
• Factors related to sender and receiver: lack of empathy, stereotypes, prejudices, etc.
• Factors related to code: sender and receiver not sharing the same code.
• Factors related to feedback: lack of feedback.

Physical Barriers

Constraints in physical environment where communication process develops.

Intellectual Barriers

Occurs when knowledge of sender and receiver do not match.

Psychological Barriers

Occurs when previous ideas of interlocutors play a significant role in interpreting the message.

Solutions

Physical Barriers

To eliminate or refine such barriers: Workspace design, Reduce hierarchical levels, Use multiple channels.

Intellectual Barriers

To prevent such barriers: Use rich vocabulary, Adapt to intellectual level, Use defining words, Empathize.

Psychological Barriers

To prevent such barriers: Establish trust, Check for signs of tiredness, Accept differences positively, Adopt impartial attitudes.

Differences Between Communication and Information

Information: sender issues message to receiver through a channel.

Communication: adds feedback to the message flow.