Understanding of Communication

This report discusses the importance of effective communication, various communication models, communication skills, and the disadvantages of technology in communication.

Understanding of
communication

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK...............................................................................................................................................3
Models of communication...............................................................................................................3
Shannon and Weaver’s communication model:..........................................................................3
Berlo’s communication model.....................................................................................................4
Schramm’s communication model..............................................................................................6
Communication skills......................................................................................................................7
Disadvantages of technology in communication:............................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Communication is defined as the process that is related to imparting and exchanging information
from one person to another through speaking, writing and other medium. Effective
communication facilitates an individual to inform, express their feelings, influencing others and
meeting social expectations. Communication is very important at workplace and make the
environment suitable for employees to work. There are various barriers are raised in
communication that impact on efficiency of message and create consequences that are raised
from poor communication. This report covers model of communication, communication skills
and disadvantages of modern technology.
TASK
Models of communication
Shannon and Weaver’s communication model:
This communication model is introduced in 1948 by the Shannon and Weaver. This
model is designed with the objective of maintaining effective communication between sender
and receiver. There are some factors also found during the process of communication that affect
the communication in negative manner that are called noise (Contractor, 2019). There are
various concepts are included in this communication model that are mentioned below:
 Sender: Sender is defined as the person who make messages, select effective message
and send the message to receiver in efficient manner.
 Encoder: Encoding is the process in which sender convert message or information into
signals and binary codes.
 Channel: Channel is defined as the medium that are used to send message to receiver
such as cell phones, emails and other.
 Decoder (Receiver): Receiver is the person who receives message or destination of the
message from sender. Decoder converts the signals or binary data into messages.
 Noise: There are various disturbance are occurred during communication process and
impact its efficiency. Noise do not let the message get to the receiver as it was sent from
the sender.
Case study: Barry and Communication Barriers: Effective Communication as a Motivator

The case study is related to the Berry who was the manager of a restaurant and responsible to
maintain food safety standards at kitchen of restaurant. There is training is also providing to
employees to maintain hygiene and food safety aspects but employees are not able to follow all
these standards efficiently. Question answers related to this case study are explained below:
Question: What are the communication challenges and barriers Barry faces?
Answer: Berry faces various communication challenges and barriers that impact overall
communication proves such as there are many employees in restaurant who come from diverse
culture and ethnic background as well as language barrier is occurred in communication.
Question: What solutions might Barry consider in addressing each of these challenges and
barriers?
Answer: Barry need to discuss cultural differences with employees and provides training them
regarding language. Barry also should use simple language, visuals and hire a translator to
communicating with co-workers.
Question: What are some ways Barry might use effective communication as a motivator for
employees to follow safe food handling practices?
Answer: Barry need to understand employees point of views than communicate them
accordingly that maintains positive working environment which improve employee’s motivation
to follow all food handling practices. More efficient training is provided to employees to
improve their efficiency.
Example of poor communication at workplace and how communication improved it
Example: In organisation, I experience poor communication due to ineffective relationship
between management and employees that raises various conflicts and issued at workplace.
Solution: Organisation need to understand employees’ culture, background than provides
communicate them business policies in simple language with the help of signs. Management of
organisation need to maintain strong relation with employees and implement communication
model for maintaining effective communication at workplace.
Berlo’s communication model
Berlo’s communication model is published in the year of 1960 that includes four components
that describes overall communication proves such as sender, message, channel and receiver.
Each of these factors are affected by the various factors (Hansen, 2018). Berlo’s model of

communication take into account the emotional aspects of message and it operates on the SMCR
model that stands for source, message, channel and receiver. All these factors are mentioned
below:
Source: Source is defined as the sender from whom the messages or thoughts are originated.
Sender transfer information to receiver and putting his thoughts into words. This phrase includes
various aspects.
 Communication skill is important for sender to make communication effective and create
positive impact on receiver. Sender also cross check with recipient and listen their
queries.
 Senders must have right attitude that enable them to put long lasting impression on
listeners.
 Sender must have knowledge regarding the information that communicated by them to
others that help them to resolve queries of listeners efficiently.
 Sender would be from the cultural background of the community that maintains mutual
understanding among sender and receiver.
Message: Message is created by an individual through converting their thoughts into words.
The process of converting throughs is defined as the encoding. There are various elements are
included in message such as content, element, treatment, structure and code (Keyton, 2017). All
these aspects or elements need to considered by the sender during forming message.
Channel: Channel is considered as the medium through which information flows from
sender to receiver. Receiver gain the information, thoughts and other relative information from
channel.
Receiver: Receiver is the person who get message. When message is reaches to receiver than
he tries to understand what actually conveyed by the sender and then respond accordingly. this
process is considered as the decoding. Receiver need to have good communication or listening
skill as well as right attitude to understand the message in appropriate manner. Receiver also
come from same background that help them to understand message in right manner.
Case Study: A Day with the Chief
Question: Given the professional context, would you have done the same or differently if you
were in Mark’s position?

Answer: In this professional context, if i was on the position of Mark than I well maintain the
decorum of communication and prefer to talk in formal manner and discuss all changes and
problems to CEO in polite manner and also give suggestions to improve the situation.
Question: Do you think Mark correctly evaluated the context?
Answer: No, Mark did not evaluate the context in appropriate manner.
Question: What communication factors led to the change in the CEO’s attitude?
Answer: Informal way of communication changes the attitude of company’s CEO.
Example of poor communication at workplace and how communication improved it
Example: In my workplace, I have realised the workplace policies, gossips and rumours as well
as information communication structure that impact overall business performance and efficiency.
Solution: It is important for organisation to adopt systematic communication structure in
business and communicate all business policies and strategies to employees in formal manner
that clear their roles and responsibility in business so they put their efforts to attain determined
goals and objectives properly.
Schramm’s communication model
Schramm’s model of communication is introduced by the Wilbur Schramm in the year of 1954
in which it is explained that communication is two-way process in which receiver and sender
take turn to send as well as receive a message (Mehrabian, 2017). There are various elements are
included in this model that are explained below:
 Sender is the person who compose and send message to receiver. Message should be
clear so it is understandable by the receiver in appropriate manner.
 Receiver is the decoder of message and there are multiple factors that need to ensure by
receiver to understanding the message by decoding it.
 Message is the defined as the core content of communication. Message can be verbal and
non-verbal depends on the sender and receiver.
 Feedback is the part of communication process when receiver starts transmitting
information on the bases of input that are delivered by the sender.
 Semantic noise: Noise are the barriers that are occurred during the process of
communication and impact its efficiency.

Case study: MAX the MULTITASKER
This case study is related to the Max who is event organiser and perform all event
activities own-self due to insufficient financial and other recourses. Max organised wedding
event of Tamara two years back wonderfully. Tamara again contacted to Max for organising 50th
anniversary of his parents after two weeks. After some time, she preponed the event data due to
some reason and Max did not note it in his diary so he forgot to organise the event and
disappoint his clients. Question answers related to this case study are mentioned below:
Question: What element of communication do you think was responsible for what happened?
Answer: Inactive listing during the communication is responsible for miscommunication because
at the time of communication Max is busy on other call and thinking about those talks.
Question: How could it have been prevented?
Answer: This situation can be prevented through active listening.
Question: Was Tamara right to behave in the way she did?
Answer: No, behaviour of Tamara is not good.
Example of poor communication at workplace and how communication improved it
Example: In work place, I have experienced poor or ineffective communication due to lack of
conformation in which employers do not confirm that employees understand the business
policies properly or not. Feedback is not taken from the employees that lead their operations in
wrong direction.
Solution: Management of organisation need to maintain strong communication with employees
and during communication ask some questions to ensure that are understanding the same
meaning. Organisation should apply this communication model to take employees feedback.
Communication skills
There are various communication skill that help an individual to convey their ideas, thoughts,
opinions to others and influence them with their ideas as well. At workplace communication
skills play important role to maintain mutual understanding and run business operations in
smooth manner (Passera, Kankaanranta, and Louhiala-Salminen, 2017). Some communication
skills are mentioned below:
Verbal communication: Verbal communication is related to communicating ideas and
information through using spoken language. At workplace verbal communication is used to

communicate business strategies, policies and other important information to employees so they
can perform their operations with efficiency and effectiveness. To improve verbal
communication, regular meetings and conferences are conducted at workplace through which
management as well as employees can communicate their ideas to others in understandable
manner.
Non-verbal communication: Non-verbal communication is defined as the communicating
ideas, thoughts and information through using imaginary or wordless cues. In this form of
communication messages are communicated through body language that includes gesture,
posture, body language, signal and signs, tone and pitch of voice (Prince-Paul, and Kelley,
2017). Non-verbal communication can be improved at workplace through maintaining proper
eye contact, displaying courteous facial expression and using positive voice of tone.
Written communication: Written communication consist sharing ideas, thoughts and
information to others using written language. Written communication is more formal than
written communication. At workplace written communication is mostly used to convey
information and message through emails, faxes, memorandums and other written medium.
Active listening: Active listening is defined as the communicating message effectively
through summarizing and restating that listened message in their own words in order to confirm
proper understanding of message. In this communication, listener pay attention on the message
that is delivered by the sender. Active listening in very important to make communication
successful and effective as well as create mutual understanding between sender and receiver. At
workplace active listening is important to understand business policies and strategies so these
policies can be implemented in appropriate manner.
Disadvantages of technology in communication:
Now these days various technologies are used with the objective of transferring information from
one person to another. Technologies makes communication process quicker, easier and more
efficient. In organisational communication technologies are used to gat consumer insights as well
as overall experience of customers with organisation because business can resolve their problems
quickly (Schechter, and Serpa, 2018). Communication technologies are social media platforms,
live videos, conferencing technologies and others. There are various disadvantages of using these
communication technologies. Some disadvantages or drawbacks are mentioned below:

Data insecurity and identity theft: Modern technology of communication creates threat
through increasing the cases of identity theft and data insecurity. In social media and other
platforms people make their accounts that contains their information regarding their personal and
professional life. People can steal data or identity from their accounts that creates threat of data
security. It is the major drawback that reduces the importance of technologies.
Social interaction: The tendency of people to socialize and communicate with other people
through digital devices and social media platform in increased instead of real-life contact. It
enhances the sense of social disconnection and isolation that lead an individual towards stress.
Cyber bullying: Cyber bullying is defined as the using cell phones, e-mails, instant
messaging as well as social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and other to harass, threaten
and bullying someone (Tang, 2018). There are various negative impact of cyber bullying such as
increasing stress and anxiety, mental health, depression and low self-esteem. It is important to
use technologies and social media carefully to prevent from all these side-effects.
CONCLUSION
As per the above report, it can be concluded that effective communication is very important
to convey all ideas, thoughts and information to others in understandable manner. It helps to
create mutual understanding and run business operations in smoother manner. There are various
communication models are used to established effective communication and deliver message
with efficiency. During the process of communication various barriers are raised that affect
efficiency and effectiveness of message. These barriers must be identifying to improve the
communication. Communication skills are important to convey message properly to receiver
such as active listening, verbal communication, written communication and non-verbal
communication.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Contractor, N., 2019. How can computational social science motivate the development of
theories, data, and methods to advance our understanding of communication and
organizational dynamics. The Oxford Handbook of Networked Communication. Oxford
University Press. https://doi. org/10.1093/oxfor dhb/97801, 90460(518.013), p.7.
Hansen, A., 2018. Environment, media and communication. Routledge.
Keyton, J., 2017. Communication in organizations. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology
and Organizational Behavior, 4, pp.501-526.
Mehrabian, A., 2017. Communication without words. In Communication theory (pp. 193-200).
Routledge.
Mercieca, J.R., 2019. Dangerous demagogues and weaponized communication. Rhetoric Society
Quarterly, 49(3), pp.264-279.
Passera, S., Kankaanranta, A. and Louhiala-Salminen, L., 2017. Diagrams in contracts: Fostering
understanding in global business communication. IEEE Transactions on Professional
Communication, 60(2), pp.118-146.
Prince-Paul, M. and Kelley, C., 2017, December. Mindful communication: Being present.
In Seminars in Oncology Nursing (Vol. 33, No. 5, pp. 475-482). WB Saunders.
Schechter, D.S. and Serpa, S.R., 2018. Understanding how traumatised mothers process their
toddlers’ affective communication under stress: towards preventive intervention for
families at high risk for intergenerational violence. In Early Parenting and Prevention
of Disorder (pp. 90-117). Routledge.
Tang, X., Guo, Y., Jiang, B. and Liu, S., 2018. Metagenomic approaches to understanding
bacterial communication during the anammox reactor start-up. Water research, 136,
pp.95-103.