Communication: Verbal and Non-Verbal, Formal and Informal, Barriers to Communication

INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

COMMUNICATION
Communication is a two-way process in which a sender sends an encoded
information to the receiver of the information who decodes it and sends a feedback
to the sender. Following are the components of the communication (Rowe, 1978):
1. Sender- Sender is a person who sends the required information.
2. Encoding- the data which is sent by the sender is encoded.
3. Channel- channel means the way through which the sender sends the
information to the receiver.
4. Receiver- Receiver is the person to whom the sender sends the required
information.
5. Feedback- Feedback is the response which receiver sends back to the sender
regarding the information which is sent by the sender.
A communication process can be further classified into two categories i.e. Verbal
communication and Non-verbal communication
VERBAL COMMUNICATION: When a message is sent verbally the sender it is
known as verbal communication. A verbal communication is further categorized into
categories i.e. it can be either Oral or it can be either written.
Oral Communication- When the communication is done through the spoken words it
is represented as oral communication. Oral communication can be conducted
through telephonic, radio, television, etc.
Written Communication- When the communication between two or more persons is
done through written signs or the symbols which may either be printed or written is
known as written communication. Almost all organizations prefer the written
communication way to send or receive the messages (Cartwright, 2002).
NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION- A communication process which is other than
the written or oral way of communication is known as Non-verbal communication.
This type of communication is represented through facial expressions or a gesture of
a person or the body language of the speaker. A non-verbal communication
comprises of mainly three elements which are: appearance, the body language of
the speaker and the sounds while communication takes place between two persons.
Appearance- Appearance mainly includes the clothing style of the speaker, looks of
the speaker, hairstyle of the speaker or even the cosmetics used by the speaker.
Apart from these it also includes the environment in which the communication is
taking place. The surroundings of the area are also included in this.
The Body language- The body language includes the expressions in which the
sender conveys the message.
Sounds- Sounds includes the volume of the speaker used while conveying the
message and it also includes the tone used by the speaker while exchanging the
communication (Berlo, 1974).
Further communication can be further subclassified into formal communication and
informal communication.