Non-verbal communication refers to all those messages excluding spoken words. Those messages are body language such as gesture, facial expressions, eye contact and body posture. For instance, smile on our friends face on seeing us, before they utter even a greeting word, when we go to meet them after long time indicates that he or she is happy to see us. Touch is another cue of non-verbal communications. It helps in indicating a person’s feelings or expressions, closeness, and illustrates characteristics of that person. A firm and stiff handshake or warm and lovely hug signify obviously different than a loose one. Never the less, the sound, pitch, tone and volume of our voice while we are communicating can also be referred as forms of non-verbal communication. Voice use intonation, tone and vocally produced sounds. We use the pitch of voice to differentiate whether the sentence is a command, or advice Continue reading
Communication Principles
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
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
Priestley’s Paradox – Impact of Technology on Communication
Communication is an essential part of everyday life. There are many things which have effect on communication, technology having a very large effect. Through the increase of communication technology, there has been a decrease in the quality of effective communication. While considering the theory of Priestley’s Paradox, the lack of interpersonal communication in new forms of technology have significantly affected the quality of communication. Modern technologies decrease the quality of communications through the lack of verbal and non-verbal feedback, the distortion of messages and also the unequal access to forms of these technologies. Verbal and non-verbal elements of interpersonal communication have effectively declined due to technology. The most impacted area of communication in society today is interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication is referenced as communication between two or more people which try to create and understand meaning. Throughout interpersonal communication there can be noise. Noise is anything which can distort or Continue reading
Seven C’s of Effective Communication
Seven C’s of Effective Communication(with respect to written communication) Written communication occupies an important position in the communication sphere, so written communication has to pay adequate attention on certain principles of necessity. The essentials of every written communication are principles of unity, coherence and emphasis. These principles along with other essentials of effective communication, like language, planning and organization make the written communication effective. Clarity: The writing should be correctly planned and expressed in a logical way,and the writer should make sure that the ideas flow smoothly from beginning to end. The message must be so clear that even the dullest man in the world should readily understand it. The communicator must be very clear about all the aspects of the idea in his mind and about the purpose for which it is to be communicated. Next to it, he must be clear about the selection, suitability and usage of Continue reading
Elements of the Communication Process
Communication is a dynamic process involving a series of actions and reactions with a view to achieving a goal. How does it work? Think that you are in conversation with your friend. You are a sender or communicator, formulate (encode) an idea or message as best as you can, and pass on the message to your friend, who to the best of his ability receives or acts on the message (decode). He responds by formulating his own message and communicates to you (feedback) . If you think your message is understood or well received by your friend, then you go ahead with the next idea that you have in mind and the conversation goes on and on. Communication is, therefore, a two way process, that is, the ability to receive is as important as the ability to send. For successful communication, feedback is crucial because it tells how your message Continue reading