Communication Theories and Applications

This assignment delves into the realm of communication theories, examining influential models and their practical implications across diverse contexts. It covers topics such as message production, communication barriers, collaborative relationships in healthcare, and the impact of technology on communication. Students are tasked with analyzing scholarly sources to understand these theories and their relevance in real-world scenarios.

COMMUNICATIONS IN HEALTH
AND SOCIAL CARE
ORGANIZATION

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................1
PART 1 REVIEW OF COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN.......................................................1
Process of communication...........................................................................................................1
Communication break down between the staff and the Lavarello family...................................2
Communication between Lavarello's family and care staff can be affected by culture and
values...........................................................................................................................................3
Theories of communication.........................................................................................................3
PART 2: ANALYSIS OF COMMUNICATION PROCESS WITHIN A CARE HOME
SETTING.........................................................................................................................................4
Strategies to support users of HSC with specific communication needs.....................................4
Impact of legislation, charters and codes on communication process.........................................5
Effectiveness of organizational systems and policies to promote good communication
practices.......................................................................................................................................6
PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................6
Methods to deal with inappropriate interpersonal communication between individuals............6
Ways in which Park Pines can improve its communication practices.........................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Communication is known as a lifeline of all the businesses. It is basically a process of
encoding and decoding the messages, in which sender encodes or sends a message to the receiver
through various channels and receiver decodes the message by receiving it. However, a
communication process among two or more person only gets successful when receiver perceives
the exact meaning that sender wants to illuminate (Cole and Bird, 2013). There are numerous
barriers to this process and if it blocks at any step, then overall message will be destroyed.
These barriers are largely responsible for the breakdown of communication process.
Therefore, it is the prior responsibility of the managers in the organization to detect and eliminate
such barriers in order to perform a smooth operation of the firm's functionality. The present
report is based on a particular scenario which clearly analyzes the breakdown in the
communication procedure for varied reasons of using an undesirable social communication
between a patient and worker.
TASK 2
PART 1 REVIEW OF COMMUNICATION BREAKDOWN
Process of communication
Communication is an ever going and dynamic process of transmitting messages to one
another for better understanding of things. It is formed by a Latin word comm-union which
means common. It defines a fact which states that unless there is a common understanding
between two or more persons, process and purpose of communication make no sense. It consists
of few major elements which play a crucial role in the formation of communication. These are
sender, ideas or message, encoding, a channel for communicating, receiver, decoding and
feedback. All these elements together play the role of communication (Fairclough, 2013). In
which, there is a step for the functionality of each element that is stated as under- Sender is the person who intends to convey a message with one's own idea or pass certain
information to another person. Message or Idea is the main body of communication which could be either a belief,
command, proposal, one's own feelings or views. Encoding is a process of converting message into a specific form of communication,
which could be either verbal or non-verbal.
1

 Channel of communication is the process of dispatching the encoded message. It can vary
from formal and informal. Receiver is the person to whom message has been transmitted by the sender through
various means of source. It is for the receiver to understand message in the best possible
manner in order to avoid any breakdown of message. Decoding is the conversion of message, especially when it is in the form of any symbol,
actions or pictures to build an appropriate understanding of message.
 Feedback is for the sender in which he or she ensures that message has been successfully
imparted to the receiver in the same sense or meaning in which he wanted to emit.
In context to same, given scenario also has Mr Lavarello as a sender who transmits a
verbal but inappropriate message to Sralatha Gaddamidi who acts as a receiver and is a night
shift worker in Pine Parks Care Home.
Communication break down between the staff and the Lavarello family
Victor Lavarello is a 76 years old male who became a resident in the Pine park care home
since 3 months, once after he agonized few strokes. It was due to his work commitments and a
zealous nature for traveling. His childhood was nurtured in a Catholic family and he primitively
belongs to South Italy. However, in 1990, he took a retiral from his permanent job and started
teaching as a guest lecturer in order to spend more time with his family. In 2009, he found
undergoing strokes when Mrs Lavarello died and he stopped doing all his work.
It was the time when he started residing in the elderly nursing house in which Sralatha
Gaddamidi was a night shift worker. She was well aware of Lavarello’s heart condition and was
equally worried about his health (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Due to which, she arrived at Lavarello's
room at one night and started investigating his medication chart. She found that Lavarello's
record was not marked clearly and as a result to which, she urged to know whether he has taken
his pills and started prompting him. Lavarello was however unable to understand her words and
to know the exact meaning of her question. For which, Sralatha clearly made a refusal note to
him. On her persistence, Lavarello instantly made a response to her which she felt as an assault
to her religion. Lastly, she picked the food with her and left his room by closing doors. It was
where the disintegration of their communication started between the staff and Lavarello’s son.
His son Gregor confronted Sralatha and misunderstood her for picking up his father's food from
his room. Due to which, he started shouting at her, followed by an interruption of Sralatha's co-
2

worker (Braithwaite and Schrodt, 2014). Her co-worker David finally attempted to tackle the
matter and asked Gregor to evacuate the place.
Communication between Lavarello's family and care staff can be affected by culture and values
While operating in international business environment, communication can easily get
affected by the diversified culture of people. One should positively deal with the cultural
differences of each other. It can be done by respecting the cultural values of one and all.
Different countries have varied cultural background of their own in which the same classification
of a particular thing has various meanings (Casmir, 2013). It sometimes tends people to make
wrong assumptions and they further lead for clarification. Current scenario also showcased a
similar act of misunderstanding between Lavarello and Sralatha. It was because Sralatha belongs
to Indian origin and contrary to that, Lavarello was from Italy. They both were unaware of one
others language and thus, misinterpreted each other.
It is also due to the poor work culture of the organization which could considerably affect
the communication of the employees. In such cases, unhappy employees who feels
uncomfortable at their workplace are less tended to build open communications.
Theories of communication
Followed by the study of communication, numerous theories has been formulated till
now. It is a profound investigation of carrying an appropriate approach to judge the human
behavior. It is a bit complex procedure which is further categorized into varied divisions of
theories, as stated below- Humanistic theory- It focuses mainly on learning by emotions. It emphasizes more on the
individuality of a person and involves playing roles. Humanists strongly has a
positiveness towards an individual's freedom of thoughts. It equally respects the
uniqueness of a person and his own expressions or ideas and selection of views. Thus, it
understands and value the study of one's own capability. Behaviorist theory- This approach applied a scientific method to judge an individual by
his changing behavior. It believes that an individual can be easily controlled by the
environment (Greene, 2013). It rejects the idea of humanistic theory of free thinking
process and strongly believes that the changing surrounding do affect an individual and
his thoughts.
3

 Cognitive theory- In this theory, learning is defined as an internal process. It is a
procedure where a person grasps a particular thing as per his own capabilities and skills
of remembering, thinking, speaking and solving problems, etc. In this process the
presentation of the information is a crucial part which defines the perception of an
individual. It differs from the approach of behaviorist theory.
Being in the position of a trainee manager and investigating the above incident, I found
both Humanistic and Behaviorist theories as the best relevant methods to apply in the given
scenario. According to which, the same theories should be implied in the pine park care, where
Sralatha should be given an equal opportunity to showcase her own skills and abilities and being
judged on the same rather being harsh on her. People in a health care organization are constantly
dealing with numerous challenges to look after patients with varied levels of issues and concern.
Therefore, it sometimes becomes a difficult task for the workers to efficiently face them with a
proper cognition level. Thus, the organization should respect the individuality of Sralatha and
also provide a profound working environment to her (DeFleur and DeFleur, 2016). So that, she
can make open and free communication to all by together addressing her own issues and
concerns.
PART 2: ANALYSIS OF COMMUNICATION PROCESS WITHIN A CARE
HOME SETTING
Strategies to support users of HSC with specific communication needs
A health and social care sector is a sophisticated area where it is essential to utilize an
appropriate method to deal with people's concern and issues. Being in the field of a heath worker,
it is important to utilize few effective tools and strategies of communication. Hence, to overcome
the above situation of communication breakdown, one should be enough sensitive and polite to
the varied needs of people (Bylund, Peterson and Cameron, 2012). It matters the most when one
is to deal with a person with certain disability. In such situations, it is crucial to handle people
with utmost care and understanding by using appropriate gestures or other varied forms of non
verbal communication. It also includes different aids to overcome the communication barrier
between two or more persons, trying to interact with each other.
On concluding the above scenario, one can state that few technological aids should also
be used in HSC sector especially for those who are visually imparted or dealing with hearing
4

issues, etc. In such cases, the firm should includes various sign languages or special equipment's
for blind people by together training their employees about the same. Therefore, the pine park
care home should also mandate such implementations by together guiding their employees on
how to work with it. The given scenario concludes the requirement of the similar method by
using the sign language and avoid making assumptions. A sign language is used to construct a
language, instead of using speech to deliver the message. It effectively manages the conversation
among two people with different languages, without developing any kind misunderstanding
among both. However, people with different languages can also keep a translator with them to
avoid the chances of misinterpretation.
Being a part of the senior management, Ms Muffer need to follow the above strategies
and tools of communication at the workplace to avoid the consequences of termination.
Providing a better workplace to the employees of the organization is the whole and sole
responsibility of the managerial bodies, with all required means or source of services (Utz,
Schultz and Glocka, 2013). Else, such cultural differences will continue making discrimination's
and invalid interpretation of one others values. It is specially where the hospital need to handle
different people from various backgrounds. Ms Muffer should also include certain
communication theories defined above, with their different approaches and varied nature.
Impact of legislation, charters and codes on communication process
In HSC, a legislation states certain set of laws and procedures as per which the employees
are required to work in an organization and perform their own duties and responsibilities of
handling people. There are various governmental acts which effectively defines the formulation
of these laws in an organization. For example, Data protection act 1998 states the circulation and
usage of an individual's personal information by the firm. Communication to our service users
easily get influenced by these important laws of maintaining data. Therefore, in similar regard,
the HSC firm should also include some mandate charter rules and code of practices for their
employees. It reflects some restricted aspects of data sharing by appropriately using the data of
their service users. It is a major responsibility of every health worker to share the requisite data
with a prior consent of the customer. It together follows the strict rules and principles of data
protection which too emphasis that the recorded information of an individual should not be
disclosed until and unless a prior information is given to the individual (Blumler, 2015). Being a
health worker, it is important to protect the data of an individual and timely informing the
5

individual about an accurate manner and purpose in which the data can be used. It should be
followed by a prior information given to the individual in order to acknowledge him about the
area in which his data has been circulated. Deficit knowledge of these laws can easily destroy the
reputation of the firm among the service users. Therefore, it is important to understand the
implementation of such laws and codes at the workplace. It also helps a health worker to obey
the duty of promoting and encouraging a healthy lifestyle by maintaining safe working practices.
Effectiveness of organizational systems and policies to promote good communication practices
Health care organizations must ensure an effective utilization of the above stated laws
and principles. They should carry a proper and systematic approach to have a continuous look
out on the implication of these strategies. By doing so, the organization can attain a quick trust of
their service users. It all together protects the interests of the existing patients retain others to
gain a better experience. Thus, every professional at the health-care sector should follow all the
laws of protecting the service users (Mingers, 2014). It emphasis on creating an environment
where the professionals can meet their own commitments. However, it can be done by the
management to conduct a proper training and development sessions of their employees. It will
help them to understand the needs and benefits of these laws and why there implementation is of
utmost importance and should be applicable in their daily work life. It will also enhance the
professionalism of the firm where few appraisal system will be introduced by the management
for better performance of the employees in regard to maintain all above approaches of work.
Another essential tool of information strategy can be utilized for a timely and appropriate flow of
information. The complaint authority of the premises should also have an active participation of
their work to eliminate the barriers of outcome. Using such techniques will equivalently work
towards the effectiveness of the firm where they will attain the requisite trust of their services
users. It will also rise the flow of users where there will be more number of satisfied customers
with a rising income. The firm will thus get major number of customer response where the
satisfied clients will together refer their services to another users.
In the present case, similar situation raised when Sralatha was accused by Ms Muffer and
he terminated her without even acknowledging the actual issues of Sralatha. However, before
blaming Sralatha, he was supposed to be well aware of the exact situation in that health care
center. Therefore, this incident proved a lack of a rich system of governance laws and act,
showing their unprofessional approach towards work (Ndonye, Kemunto and Machini, 2014).
6

Ms Muffer should understand the demand of Sralatha, which clearly recognized the need of a
proper assistance while interacting with the clients of another background, who uses different
language.
PART 3: RECOMMENDATIONS
Methods to deal with inappropriate interpersonal communication between individuals
Interpersonal communication can be identified when various professionals together
merge their thoughts for the welfare of an individual. It consists of various procedures to interact
with each other and listening through varied means of verbal and non verbal communication. In
this case, the interpersonal theory can be implied to examine the social factors involved between
the interactions of Sralatha and Lavarello. It is a theory which highers the pleasure by lowering
the issue or concern. Therefore, Ms Muffy was not supposed to speak negative things for
Sralatha and terminate her on an immediate basis (Craig, Campbell, Bichard and Baker, 2013).
Another theory that can be applied over their case is the uncertainty reduction theory which is
based on the initial interaction and make an effective utilization of the sign and body languages.
Here it is for Sralatha, where she should have tried to first identify the gestures made by
Lavarello, instead of constructing a final conclusion. However, Ms Muffy also needed to carry a
professional approach towards her own responsibility and duties of listening to the worker and
afterwards make necessary decisions.
An HSC organization should also exclude the use of highly technical words which
becomes difficult for the user to understand. Therefore, they should duly train their employees to
prominently deal their clients in the requisite manner by using simplified terms to address their
concerns. Secondly, they should opt for a two way communication method where their should be
a good flow of response in the form of feedback. For example if one person is unable to address
the issue of another person, then they should act with an obligation of making confirmation.
Ways in which Park Pines can improve its communication practices
Effective communication reflects a significant impact on the overall working of the
organization. It is important for the managers of Park Pines to have an outstanding
communication skills in order to perform the basic function of planning, organizing, controlling
and then leading the company to achieve the heights of success. Effective communication acts as
a key towards a successful organization (Crump and Hennum, 2015). It acts as a necessary
7

building blocks which helps the manager to provide its employee with a sense of motivation by
clarifying them about the projects to be completed, how it is to be completed and what should be
the measures to be taken while doing a particular task. Communication serves as a basic source
of providing relevant information for decision making and analyzing the alternative course of
actions for a particular situation.
With regard to the discussed significance of effective communication in an organization,
Park Pines implements certain measures which helps it to enhance the efficiency of
communication within the organization thereby leading the company to achieve success in the
long run competition (Nottage, Tibbles and Cox, 2014). Some of its measures are discussed as
follows-
 Communicate across multiple channels- Park Pines established a strategy to communicate
the relevant information using multiple channels which includes e mail, fax, text
messages, phone call etc. This strategy helped the company to get a positive feedback
from its employees in all the aspects of achieving the set goal.
 Delivering a consistent message- The company makes sure that correct message is
delivered to its staff. The communication process should maintain a proper hierarchy
system such that the message concept does not change and remains constant throughout
the level of hierarchy.
 Communicate regularly- Communication on a regular basis helps the employees along
with the organization to stay in touch with the relevant information necessary for
attaining organizational goal. The said company establishes a communication chart or a
calendar which helps to provide automatic information on a certain date to a certain
employee in order to ensure the smooth conduct of communication process in the
organization.
 Altering the communication barriers- Removing the communication barriers between the
management of the company and its staff serves as one of the way to improve the
effectiveness of communication (Obregon and Hickler, 2014). Park Pines develops
measures which helps the staff to feel free to express their opinions about a particular
decision without any hesitation. This helped the company to get a positive response from
its employees in order to attain success in the global marketplace.
8

CONCLUSION
The above report effectively determines the process of communication along with certain
barriers of communication faced by an organization, if it is not making a prompt utilization of
the stated laws and acts by the governments. It also showcases the need and considerations of
carrying a positive outlook while working in the sector of health care.
9

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Blumler, J. G., 2015. Core Theories of Political Communication: Foundational and Freshly
Minted. Communication Theory. 25(4). pp.426-438.
Braithwaite, D. O. and Schrodt, P., 2014. Engaging theories in interpersonal communication:
Multiple perspectives. Sage Publications.
Bylund, C. L., Peterson, E. B. and Cameron, K. A., 2012. A practitioner's guide to interpersonal
communication theory: An overview and exploration of selected theories. Patient
education and counseling. 87(3). pp.261-267.
Casmir, F. L., 2013. Building communication theories: A socio/cultural approach. Routledge.
Clochesy, J. M. and et.al., 2015. Enhancing communication between patients and healthcare
providers: SBAR3. Journal of health and human services administration. 38(2). pp.237.
Cole, S. A. and Bird, J., 2013. The medical interview: the three function approach. Elsevier
Health Sciences.
Craig, C., and et.al., 2013. Digital house calls: US healthcare professionals and online media
communication. Journal of Communication in Healthcare. 6(4). pp.187-196.
Crump, D. and Hennum, J., 2015. How to improve payer-provider relationships during audits:
clearer communication between healthcare providers and payers can streamline the
process of auditing medical records, reduce frustration, and save time and
costs. Healthcare Financial Management. 69(4). pp.78-83.
DeFleur, M. L. and DeFleur, M. H., 2016. Mass communication theories: Explaining origins,
processes, and effects. Routledge.
Fairclough, N., 2013. Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Routledge.
Greene, J. O., 2013. Message production: Advances in communication theory. Routledge.
Kline, C and et.al., 2012. Effects of a unique pediatric hematology–oncology palliative care
program on medical decision-making and communication between healthcare providers
and families: Results of a supportive care survey. Progress in Palliative Care.20(1).
pp.13-18.
Lazure, P., and et.al., 2014. Communication–the foundation for collaborative relationships
amongst providers, and between providers and patients: a case in breast and colorectal
cancer. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 7(1), pp.41-56.
Mingers, J., 2014. Theories of Information, Communication and Knowledge.Cybernetics &
Human Knowing. 21(3). pp.79-80.
10

Ndonye, M. M., Kemunto, G. and Machini, S., 2014. Deconstructing Media and Communication
Theories: Critical Assessment of the Advent of the New Media. International Journal of
Marketing and Technology. 4(7). pp.164.
Nottage, C., Tibbles, R. and Cox, S., 2014. MyKidneyCare App: using smartphone technology to
engage young adults in their kidney care. Journal of Renal Nursing, 6(2), pp.82-85.
Obregon, R. and Hickler, B., 2014. Opportunities and challenges for health communication in
health disparities settings. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 7(2), pp.77-79.
Utz, S., Schultz, F. and Glocka, S., 2013. Crisis communication online: How medium, crisis type
and emotions affected public reactions in the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. Public
Relations Review. 39(1). pp.40-46.
Yoder-Wise, P. S., 2014. Leading and managing in nursing. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Online
Chand, S., 2015. Barriers to Communication: 16 Barriers to Communication within a Business
Organization. [Online]. Available through: <http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/business-
communication/barriers-to-communication-16-barriers-to-communication-within-a-
business-organization/28010/>. [Accessed on 16 March 2016]
Lunenburg, C. F., 2015. Communication: The Process, Barriers and Improving Effectiveness.
[Online]. Available through: <http://www.nationalforum.com/Electronic%20Journal
%20Volumes/Lunenburg,%20Fred%20C,%20Communication%20Schooling
%20V1%20N1%202010.pdf>. [Accessed on 16 March 2016]
11