Grapevine communication is an informal channel of business communication. It is called so because it stretches throughout the organization in all directions irrespective of the authority levels. Despite existence of formal channels in an organization, the informal channels tend to develop when he interacts with other people in organization. It exists more at lower levels of organization. Grapevine generally develops due to various reasons. One of them is that when an organization is facing recession, the employees sense uncertainty. Also, at times employees do not have self-confidence due to which they form unions. Sometimes the managers show preferential treatment and favor some employees giving a segregated feeling to other employees. Thus, when employees sense a need to exchange their views, they go for grapevine network as they cannot use the formal channel of communication in that case. Generally during breaks in cafeteria, the subordinates talk about their superior’s attitude and Continue reading
Business Communication
As the term suggests, business communication includes all communication that occurs in a business context. A knowledge of business communication presupposes an understanding of both business and communication.
The Characteristics of Business Communication
Business communication is a special facet of human communication. In business organizations people working in coordination to produce, market goods and provide services for mutual profit are essentially goal-oriented and need to communicate effectively. Persing has defined business communication as “the spiraling process of transaction of meaning through symbolic action involving all elements associated with the sending and receiving written, oral and non verbal messages, internal and external to organizations of paid people working together to produce and market goods and services for profit.” Business communication, as emphasized in this definition, is a spiraling process as communication between sender and receiver does not start at the same level of ability, understanding, behavior and psyche. External factors as noise, time, and culture also have an impact on communication in the business world. Therefore communication takes a spiral shape in the process of being transmitted from the sender to the receiver. On Continue reading
Supportive Communication – Meaning and Attributes
Communication is an everyday activity. It is the ordinary interaction that occurs between coworkers, friends, acquaintances, or intimates on daily bases. Communication comes in different forms. Verbal communication which includes sounds, words, language and speaking whiles non-verbal communication involves physical ways of communication like, tone of voice, touch, smell and body language. The quality of communication and how communications are evolves and is maintained are the basis of whether a relationship amongst individuals are stable, become more intimate when appropriate and if additional information is shared between individual reflecting trust between the both parties in every facet of human life. Ineffective communication may lead individual to dislike each other, be offended by each other, lose confidence, refuse to listen and disagree to each other as well as causing a host of other interpersonal problem. Normally positive interpersonal relationships results when always things are going on well and people do what Continue reading
Mass Communication – Definition, Components, and Functions
Outside the realm of interpersonal communication exists another form of communication, which involves communication with mass audiences and hence the name mass communication; and the channels through which this kind of communication takes place are referred to as mass media. Both mass communication and mass media are generally considered synonymous for the sake of convenience. Mass communication is unique and different from interpersonal communication as evident from the following definition. Any mechanical device that multiplies messages and takes it to a large number of people simultaneously is called mass communication. The media through which messages are being transmitted include radio, TV, newspapers, magazines, films, records, tape recorders, video cassette recorders, etc and require large organizations and electronic devices to put across the message. It is clear from the definition that mass communication is a special kind of communication in which the nature of the audience and the feedback is different Continue reading
Introduction to Group Communication
Group communication is an extension of interpersonal communication where more than two individuals are involved in exchange of ideas, skills and interests. A group is a number of people with a common goal who interact with one another to accomplish their goals, recognize one another’s existence and see themselves as part of the group. Groups provide an opportunity for people to come together to discuss and exchange views of common interest. There could be many different groups for as many different reasons. For instance, casually formed groups with friends over a drink, coffee break, games, dances or religious gatherings have a different purpose than that of groups attending a meeting or seminar to help fight AIDS or interacting with committee members to draft a proposal. Communication in a group, small or big, serves many goals including collective decision-making, self-expression, increasing one’s effect, elevating one’s status and relaxation. Group communication is Continue reading
Process of Communication – Communication Process
The most basic form of communication is a process in which two or more persons attempt to consciously or unconsciously influence each other through the use of symbols or words to satisfy their respective needs. The communication process is dynamic, continuous, irreversible, and contextual. It is not possible to participate in any element of the communication process without acknowledging the existence and functioning of the other elements. The communication process goes through several phases. Here is a description of those phases. 1. The Sender has an Idea Difficult to think of someone “trying to make common,” to communicate, if that person has nothing to share. Yet, thinking of the sender as needing to have an idea in order to start the communication process is misleading since everything people do and everything people are communicates something to others. The intent of this phase is to start the process at a time Continue reading