An Introduction to Communication

What is Effective Communication?

Communication is defined as a two way process of understanding something, in which people exchange ideas and information ⁽¹⁾. Effective communication means the communication that has been done that will contribute to a positive and correct outcome. For instance, if a message is transferred correctly to the right person, the communication is effective. Similarly, if the message isn’t sent to the right person, the communication wasn’t effective. 

What is Internal and External Communication?

There a two kinds of communication; External Communication and Internal Communication. Internal Communication is any kind of communication that occurs within a company, between the employer and his employees. This means that internal communication might be private and confidential, and cannot be shared openly to everybody. Some examples of internal communication would be Video Conferencing among staff and the bosses, emails and many more too. External Communication means the communication that occurs outside of company, and is open to the public. Types of external communication include posters, advertisements and many more.

Suitability of Communication Methods in Different Situations.

There are so many methods of communication that are used in the current world. However, not all of these methods will be suitable and applicable in all situations. For example, in a situation involving a manager who has twenty staff below him; the method he would use to communicate with his staff’s would be different from a manager who has only six people under him. In the situation with twenty staff, it is not suitable to use verbal communication. This is because it would take too long time, and the message that it communicated might not be right. He would instead write an email, conduct a meeting, or write a memo to the staff. However, if the manager has only six staff to communicate too, it will be fine to use verbal communication.

Barriers of Communication

There will definitely be some sort of barrier or conflict that will be faced in communication. Some of it include; 

• Misunderstanding, 
• Physical and Environmental barriers
• Cultural barriers ⁽²⁾.

An example of misunderstanding can occur even at home, and might be common among all of us. When we call for food delivery or take away, the order that we place can be mistaken for a different order. For instance, if the costumer says: I would like to take away 3 Chicken Burgers and one Set D. The message that the staff got was: I would like to take away the Chicken Burger and one Set D. From this, there is a huge difference between the original message and the message understood, and a really small error can make such a big difference. Misunderstanding can cause a lot of major conflicts worse than this too. This barrier can be overcome by the staff repeating the costumers order before ending the call, so that he can ensure that what he understood from the message was correct, according to the demand and what the customer wants.

An example of physical and environmental barrier would be network issues; when a manager is in a rural area, with no Internet access and Network, he would not be able to communicate and connect with his staffs, who are in the city. Therefore, if there is an urgent message that he needs to pass to them, this message might not be passed on time, or might be passed, but the message passed might be incorrect. Innovations that have been done in technology can be used to overcome this barrier. The manager can always subscribe to a Data Plan, by his mobile phone line, which would allow him to obtain Internet Access at all times, at any corner of the world. Another real life example on physical/environmental barriers in communication would be the disruption n train services by the Central Railways of Mumbai ⁽³⁾. The Central Railway authority only informed the public one day before there was going to be a disruption in train services. This has affected many of the people living there, as majority of them travel via train every day to their destinations.

An example of cultural barrier would include language barriers. For instance, if someone who does not understand/speak Mandarin go to a China and want to know how to get to a specific place, the people around him might not be able to direct or understand what he wants to know. Language issues take place all the time, all around the world, because there are so many languages, and not everybody would be able to understand/speak all these languages. This barrier can be overcome by carrying a dictionary to the place to travel to, so that you will be able to understand their language, and they will be able to understand what you are saying too.

References:

1. "Communication." BusinessDictionary.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 Jan. 2013. <http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/communication.html>.
2.    N.d. Photograph. Communicationtheory.org. Communication Theory Organisation. Web. 8 Jan. 2013. <http://www.google.com.my/imgres?hl=en>.
3.  DNA(Daily News and Analysis India). Central RailwayÂ’s Communication Failure to Blame. Central RailwayÂ’s Communication Failure to Blame. DNA India, 31 Dec. 2012. Web. 9 Jan. 2013. <http://www.dnaindia.com/mumbai/report_central-railways-communication-failure-to-blame_1784080>.