Communication

Communication

Communication is the process of sharing information. In a simplistic form information is sent from a sender or encoder to a receiver or decoder. In a more complex form feedback links a sender to a receiver. This requires a symbolic activity, sometimes via a language. Communication as a named and unified discipline has a history of contestation that goes back to the Socratic dialogues, in many ways making it the first and most contestatory of all early sciences and philosophies. Seeking to define "communication" as a static word or unified discipline may not be as important as understanding communication as a family of resemblances with a plurality of definitions as Ludwig Wittgenstein had put forth. Some definitions are broad, recognizing that animals can communicate with each other as well as human beings, and some are narrower, only

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including human beings within the parameters of human symbolic interaction. Nonetheless, communication is usually described along three major dimensions: • content, • form, and • destination.

With the presence of "communication noise" these three components of communication often become skewed and inaccurate. Between parties, communication content includes acts that declare knowledge and experiences, give advice and commands, and ask questions. These acts may take many forms, including gestures (nonverbal communication, sign language and body language), writing, or verbal speaking. The form depends on the symbol systems used. Together, communication content and form make messages that are sent towards a destination. The target can be oneself, another person (in interpersonal

communication), or another entity (such as a corporation or group).

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There are many theories of communication, and a commonly held assumption is that communication must be directed towards another person or entity. This essentially ignores intrapersonal communication (note intra-, not inter-) via diaries or self-talk. Interpersonal conversation can occur in dyads and groups of various sizes, and the size of the group impacts the nature of the talk. Small-group communication takes place in settings of between three and 12 individuals, and differs from large group interaction in companies or communities. This form of communication formed by a dyad and larger is sometimes referred to as the psychological model of communication where a message is sent by a sender through channel to a receiver. At the largest level, mass communication describes messages sent to huge numbers of individuals through mass media, although there is debate if this is an interpersonal conversation.

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Communication media

The following model of communication has been criticized and revised. The beginning of human communication through artificial channels, i.e. not vocalization or gestures, goes back to ancient cave paintings, drawn maps, and writing. Our indebtedness to the Ancient Romans in the field of communication does not end with the Latin root "communicare". They devised what might be described as the first real mail or postal system in order to centralize control of the empire from Rome. This allowed for personal letters and for Rome to gather knowledge about events in its many widespread provinces. In the last century, a revolution in telecommunications has greatly altered communication by providing new media for long distance communication. The first transatlantic two-way radio broadcast occurred on July 25, 1920 and led to common communication via analogue and digital media: Analog telecommunications include traditional Telephony, radio, and TV broadcasts.

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Digital telecommunications allow for computer-mediated communication, telegraphy, and computer networks. Communications media impact more than the reach of messages. They impact content and customs; for example, Thomas Edison had to discover that hello was the least ambiguous greeting by voice over a distance; previous greetings such as hail tended to be garbled in the transmission. Similarly, the terseness of e-mail and chat rooms produced the need for the emoticon. Modern communication media now allow for intense long-distance exchanges between larger numbers of people (many-to-many communication via e-mail, Internet forums). On the other hand, many traditional broadcast media and mass media favor one-to-many communication (television, cinema, radio, newspaper, magazines). The adoption of a dominant communication medium is important enough that historians have folded civilization into "ages" according to the medium most widely used. A book titled "Five Epochs of Civilization" by William McGaughey (Thistlerose, 2000) divides history into the following stages:

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• Ideographic writing produced the first civilization; • alphabetic writing, the second; • printing, the third; • electronic recording and broadcasting, the fourth; and • computer communication, the fifth. While it could be argued that these "Epochs" are just a historian's construction, digital and computer communication shows concrete evidence of changing the way humans organize. The latest trend in communication, termed smart mobbing, involves adhoc organization through mobile devices, allowing for effective many-tomany communication and social networking.

Communication barriers

The following factors can impede human communication: Not understanding the language Verbal and non-verbal messages are in a different language. This includes not understanding the jargon or idioms used by another sub-culture or group.

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Not understanding the context Not knowing the history of the occasion, relationship, or culture. Obfuscation Intentionally delivering an obscure or confusing message. Distraction Inadequate attention to processing a message. This is not limited to live conversations or broadcasts. Any person may improperly process any message if they do not focus adequately. This is why an interactive form of communication, one with lots of questions and answers for clarity, would be best so it is easier to stay involved in the message and to have less miscommunication.; Improper feedback and clarification: In asynchronous communication, neglecting to give immediate feedback may lead to larger misunderstandings. Questions and acknowledgment such as ("what?") or ("I see") are typical feedback mechanisms. Lack of time There is not enough time to communicate with everyone.

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Physics Physical barriers to the transmission of messages, such as background noise, facing the wrong way, talking too softly, and physical distance. Medical issues Hearing loss and various brain conditions can hamper communication. Beliefs World-views may discourage one person from listening to another. Emotions Fear and anxiety associated with communication is known by some Psychologists as communication apprehension. Besides apprehension, communication can be impaired via processes such as bypassing, indiscrimination, and polarization. In communications and linguistics, bypassing refers to the

misunderstanding which develops when the recipient of a message infers a different meaning from the message than that intended by the source. Most commonly, this involves confusion that may result from the different meanings of words; particularly, slang and euphemisms—such confusion is sometimes one of the goals of doublespeak.

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In communications and psychology, polarization is the process whereby a social or political group is divided into two opposing sub-groups with fewer and fewer members of the group remaining neutral or holding an intermediate position. When polarization occurs, there is a tendency for the opposing sides of an argument to make increasingly disagreeable statements, via the "pendulum effect". Thus, it is commonly observed in polarized groups, that judgments made after group discussion will be more extreme on a given subject than the average of individual judgments made prior to discussion. Also called 'group polarization'; used to be called the 'risky shift phenomenon', with particular reference to jury decision-making.

Other examples of communication

Silence Almost all communication involves periods of silence or an equivalent (e.g. spaces in written communication). However, computer or electronic communication is less reliant on such delimiters. In certain contexts, silence can convey its own meaning, e.g. reverence, indifference, emotional coldness, rudeness, thoughtfulness, humility, aggressiveness, etc.

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Artificial • Jungle drums • Smoke signals • Morse code • Semaphore (use of devices to increase the distance "hand" signals can be seen from by increasing the size of the movable object) • Voyager Golden Record (sent on Voyager 1 into interstellar space) • Photography • Art (including Theatre)

Biological • Written and spoken language • Hand signals • Body language • Territorial marking (animals such as dogs - stay away from my territory)(and when you place a back pack in a desk in a class room or a purse on, the place you want to sit in at church or putting a name plate on the door of your office) • Pheromones communicate (amongst other things) (e.g. "I'm ready to mate") - a well known example is moth traps, which contain pheromones to attract moths. • Touch

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Language A language is a system of arbitrary signals, such as voice sounds, gestures or written symbols which communicate thoughts or feelings. Human spoken and written languages can be described as a system of symbols (sometimes known as lexemes) and the grammars (rules) by which the symbols are manipulated. The word "language" is also used to refer to common properties of languages. Language learning is normal in human childhood. Most human languages use patterns of sound or gesture for symbols which enable communication with others around them. There are thousands of human languages, and these seem to share certain properties, even though many shared properties have exceptions. There is no defined line between a language and a dialect, but Max Weinreich is credited as saying that a language is a dialect with an army and a navy. Humans and computer programs have also constructed other languages, including constructed languages such as Esperanto, Ido, Interlingua, Klingon, programming languages, and various mathematical formalisms. These languages are not necessarily restricted to the properties shared by human languages.

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Mass media Mass media is a term used to denote, as a class, that section of the media specifically conceived and designed to reach a very large audience (typically at least as large as the whole population of a nation state). It was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks and of mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. The mass-media audience has been viewed by some commentators as forming a mass society with special characteristics, notably atomization or lack of social connections, which render it especially susceptible to the influence of modern mass-media techniques such as advertising and propaganda.

Telecommunication Telecommunication is the transmission of signals over a distance for the purpose of communication. Today this process almost always involves the sending of electromagnetic waves by electronic transmitters but in earlier years it may have involved the use of smoke signals, drums or semaphores.

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Today, telecommunication is widespread and devices that assist the process such as the television, radio and telephone are common in many parts of the world. There is also a vast array of networks that connect these devices, including computer networks, public telephone networks, radio networks and television networks. Computer communication across the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging, is just one of many examples of telecommunication.

Animal communication Animal communication is any behaviour on the part of one animal that has an effect on the current or future behaviour of another animal. The animal communication, called zoosemiotics (distinguishable from anthroposemiotics, the study of human communication) has played an important part in the development of ethology, sociobiology, and the study of animal cognition. This is quite evident as humans are able to communicate with animals especially dolphins and other animals used in circuses however these animals have to learn a special means of communication.

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Animal communication, and indeed the understanding of the animal world in general, is a rapidly growing field, and even in the 21st century so far, many prior understandings related to diverse fields such as personal symbolic name use, animal emotions, animal culture and learning, and even sexual conduct, long thought to be well understood, have been revolutionized.

Organizational communication

Organizational communication is the study of the following: 1. how people communicate within an organizational context, or 2. the influence of, or interaction with organizational structures in communicating/organizing.

History and development of the discipline

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The discipline of organizational communication has roots in the discipline of rhetoric and dates from the time of the orators of Ancient Greece and Rome, such as Aristotle, Cicero and Quintillian. The modern field has a more recent lineage through business information, business communication, and early mass communication studies published in the 1930s through the 1950s. Until then, organizational communication as a discipline consisted of a few professors within speech departments who had a particular interest in speaking and writing in business settings. Through the World War II and post-war years, particularly 1942 through about 1949, studies of effective communication practices in group and organizational settings became particularly salient. Great numbers of servicemen (and some service women) underwent communication training, first in the military, and then in colleges and universities. A concern with effectiveness in transmitting messages soon broadened into concern with environmental factors, characteristics of the people involved in the communicative activity, and differences in utility of different transmission media. Several seminal publications stand out as works broadening the scope and recognizing the importance of communication in the organizing process, and in using the term "organizational communication".

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Nobel Laureate Herbert Simon wrote in 1945 about "organization communications systems", saying "communication is absolutely essential to organizations." In 1951 Bavelas and Barrett wrote An Experimental Approach to Organizational Communication in which they stated that communication "is the essence of organized activity". In 1953 the economist Kenneth Boulding wrote The Organizational Revolution: A Study in the Ethics of Economic Organization. While this work directly addressed the economic issues facing organizations, in it he questions the ethical and moral issues underlying their power, and maintains that an "organization consists of a system of communication." In 1954, a young Chris Argyris published Personality and Organization. This careful and research-based book attacked many things, but singled out "organizational communication" for special attention.

Assumptions underlying early organizational communication

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Some of the main assumptions underlying much of the early organizational communication research were:
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Humans act rationally. Sane people behave in rational ways, they generally have access to all of the information needed to make rational decisions they could articulate, and therefore will make rational decisions, unless there is some breakdown in the communication process. Formal logic and empirically verifiable data ought to be the foundation upon which any theory should rest. All we really need to understand communication in organizations is (a) observable and replicable behaviors that can be transformed into variables by some form of measurement, and (b) formally replicable syllogisms that can extend theory from observed data to other groups and settings Communication is primarily a mechanical process, in which a message is constructed and encoded by a sender, transmitted through some channel, then received and decoded by a receiver. Distortion, represented as any differences between the original and the received messages, can and ought to be identified and reduced or eliminated. Organizations are mechanical things, in which the parts (including employees functioning in defined roles) are interchangeable. What works in one organization will work in another similar organization.

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Individual differences can be minimized or even eliminated with careful management techniques. Organizations function as a container within which communication takes place. Any differences in form or function of communication between that occurring in an organization and in another setting can be identified and studied as factors affecting the communicative activity. Herbert Simon introduced the concept of bounded rationality which challenged assumptions about the perfect rationality of communication participants. He maintained that people making decisions in organizations seldom had complete information, and that even if more information was available, they tended to pick the first acceptable option, rather than exploring further to pick the optimal solution. Through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the field expanded greatly in parallel with several other academic disciplines, looking at communication as more than an intentional act designed to transfer an idea. Research expanded beyond the issue of "how to make people understand what I am saying" to tackle questions such as "how does the act of communicating change, or even define, who I am?", "why do

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organizations that seem to be saying similar things achieve very different results?" and "to what extent are my relationships with others affected by our various organizational contexts?"

Components of Organizational communication

Organizational communication can include: Flow of Communication, e.g.,
• • • •

formal, informal internal, external upward, downward, horizontal networks

Induction, e.g.,
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new hire orientation policies & procedures employee benefits

Channels, e.g.,
• •

electronic media such as e-mail, intranet, internet teleconference

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• •

print media such as memos, bulletin boards, newsletters etc. face-to-face

Meetings, e.g.,
• • • •

briefings staff meetings project meetings town hall meetings

Interviews, e.g.,
• • •

Selection Performance Career

More recently, the field of organizational communication has moved from acceptance of mechanistic models (e.g., information moving from a sender to a receiver) to a study of the persistent, hegemonic and taken-for-granted ways in which we not only use communication to accomplish certain tasks within organizational settings (e.g., public speaking) but also how the organizations in which we participate affect us. These approaches include "postmodern", "critical", "participatory", "feminist", "power/political", "organic", etc. and draw from disciplines as wide-ranging as sociology, philosophy, theology, psychology (see, in particular, "industrial/organizational psychology"), business, business administration, institutional management, medicine (health

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communication), neurology (neural nets), semiotics, anthropology, international relations, and music. Thus the field has expanded or moved to study phenomena such as: Constitution, e.g.,
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how communicative behaviors construct or modify organizing processes or products how the organizations within which we interact affect our communicative behaviors structures other than organizations which might be constituted through our communicative activity (e.g., markets, cooperatives, tribes, political parties, social movements)

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Narrative, e.g.,
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how

do

group

members

employ

narrative

to

acculturate/initiate/indoctrinate new members?
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do organizational stories act on different levels? Are different narratives purposively invoked to achieve specific outcomes, or are there specific roles of "organizational storyteller"? If so, are stories told by the storyteller received differently than those told by others in the organization?

Identity, e.g.,

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who do we see ourselves to be, in terms of our organizational affiliations? how do communicative behaviors or occurrences in one or more of the organizations in which we participate effect changes in us? do people who define themselves by their work-organizational membership communicate differently within the organizational setting than people who define themselves more by an avocational group?

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Interrelatedness of organizational experiences, e.g.,
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how do our communicative interactions in one organizational setting affect our communicative actions in other organizational settings? how do the phenomenological experiences of participants in a particular organizational setting effect changes in other areas of their lives? when the organizational status of a member is significantly changed (e.g., by promotion or expulsion) how are other organizational memberships affected?

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Power e.g.,
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how does the use of particular communicative practices within an organizational setting reinforce or alter the various interrelated power relationships within the setting?

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do taken-for-granted organizational practices work to fortify the dominant hegemonic narrative? Do individuals resist/confront these practices, through what actions/agencies, and to what effects? do status changes in an organization (e.g., promotions, demotions, restructuring, financial/social strata changes) change communicative behavior? Are there criteria employed by organizational members to differentiate between "legitimate" (i.e., endorsed by the formal organizational structure) and "illegitimate" (i.e., opposed by or unknown to the formal power structure)? Are there "pretenders" or "usurpers" who employ these communicative behaviors? When are they successful?

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THE EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK Just as information flows up, down, and across the organization, it flows in and out as well. Companies constantly exchange messages with customers, vendors, distributors, competitors, investors, journalists, and government and community representatives. Much of this communication occurs informally, and some is carefully orchestrated.

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INFORMAL CONTACTS WITH OUTSIDERS As a member of an organization, you are automatically an informal conduit for communicating with the outside world. In the course of your daily activities, you unconsciously absorb bits and pieces of information that add to the collective knowledge pool of your company. During a trip to the shopping mall, you notice how a competitor’s products are selling; as you read the paper, you pick up economic and business news that relates to your work; when you have a problem at the office, you ask your family or friends for advice. What’s more, every time you speak for or about your company, you send a message. In fact, if you have a public-contact job, you don’t even have to say anything. All you have to do is smile. Many outsiders may form their impressions of your organization based on the subtle, unconscious clues you transmit through your tone of voice, facial expression, and general appearance. Top managers rely heavily on informal contacts with outsiders to exchange information that might be useful to their companies.

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Although much of the networking involves interaction with fellow executives, plenty of high-level managers recognize the value of keeping in touch with “the real world”. FORMAL CONTACTS WITH OUTSIDERS Even though much of the communication that occurs with outsiders is casual and relatively unplanned, most organizations attempt to control the information they convey to customers, investors, and the general public. Two functional units are particularly important in managing the flow of external messages: the marketing department and the public relations department. The role of marketing and public relations As a consumer, you are often on the receiving end of marketing messages: face-to-face or telephone, conversations with salespeople, direct-mail solicitations, TV and radio commercials, newspapers and magazine ads, product brochures, and mail-order catalogues. Although these messages are highly visible, they represent just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to marketing communication. In addition to advertising and selling products, the typical marketing department is also responsible for product development, physical

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distribution, market research, and customer service, all of which involve both the transmission and reception of information. Public relations is closely related to marketing and is often confused with it, but the focus of the two functions differs. Marketing has three basic responsibilities: to find out who the customers are and what they want, to develop products that satisfy those needs, and to get the products into the customer’s hands. The public relations department (also called corporate communication department) manages the organization’s reputation with the various groups, including employees, customers, investors, government agencies, and the general public. Professional PR people may have a journalism, as opposed to a marketing, background. They view their role as disseminating news about the business to the organization’s various audiences. Whereas marketing messages are usually openly sponsored and paid for by the company, public relations messages are carried by the media if they are considered newsworthy. The communication tools used by PR departments include news releases, lobbying programs, special events, booklets and brochures about the

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organizations, letters, annual reports, audiovisual materials, speeches and position papers, tours, and internal publications for employees. Crisis communication One of the most visible functions of the PR department is to help management plan for and respond to crises. A good PR professional constantly scans the business environment looking for potential problems and then alerts management to the implications and suggests the best course of action. Disasters of earthquakes proportions fall into the category of public relations nightmares created by sudden, violent accidents. Plane crashes, oil spills, chemical leaks, and product defects all belong to this group. The other type of crisis is the sort that builds slowly and occurs because of a company’s conscious, but ill-founded, decisions. An inept response to either type of crisis can destroy a company’s reputation, drain its financial strength, erode morale, and invite protracted investigations, heavy fines, and negative publicity. Advertising

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Ads seem to be everywhere: filling magazines, on billboards lining the road, and showing up at regular intervals on television. Their object: to market and sell goods and services. According to Ad Age, a trade magazine, companies spent close to $80 billion dollars on advertising in 1998. Careers in advertising can be lucrative. You might go into the business side of account or account planning; the creative side, where you'll create ads (many people interested in visual arts, design—particularly graphic design—and editorial and writing careers join ad agencies as creatives) or media planning or production. Some people interested in advertising may find they prefer public relations, where you'll have a similar goal, though your means will be quite different. An advertising agency is a marketing consultant. It helps a client—a manufacturer of consumer products such as Nike, or a service-oriented company such as Charles Schwab & Co.—with its marketing efforts, from strategy to concept to execution. Strategy involves helping a client make high-level business decisions, such as how to brand a new line of suntan lotions. The agency takes a client's strategy and turns it into a specific concept for advertisements—such as a series of ads featuring extreme athletes for a soft-drink maker with a strategy of making inroads in the teen market.

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Execution is where an agency turns a concept into reality—the production of actual ads: the print layout, the Web design, the film shoot, or the audiotaping. Execution also involves placing the ads—buying space in newspapers, on television, or in subway stations. Account-driven agencies' ads usually focus on product benefits, while creative agencies' ads focus on brand image. As a result, account-driven agencies end up with accounts such as Energizer batteries, for which an "Energizer Bunny" campaign extolled the product's long life. Creative agencies end up with accounts where lifestyle or image is more important, such as Old Navy, which uses retro clothing styles to connect with its teen and twenty-something market. Advertisers play a role in shaping the ads that shape our culture. The work you do will be determined partly by the type of agency you're in and your role within it. You'll work in one of five departments—account management, account planning, media, production, or creative. Account management is the clients' primary contact. There you'll juggle a number of projects, and ensure that they come in on time, on budget, and on strategic target. In account planning, you'll try to understand consumer behaviour and use your knowledge to devise strategies for clients.

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Media decides where to place ads, and in which medium—radio, television, print, or Web—when, and for how long. Production involves physical creation of the ads, either in-house or outsourced. If you're a creative, you'll be responsible for turning strategies into concepts that can be made into finished ads—for example, showing well-dressed people driving up to a discount store to highlight a change in product selection. Creative departments also create storyboards—cartoon-style summaries of what an ad will contain. Some larger agencies contain traffic departments to handle the flow of projects between departments; new-business departments, which keep track of possible new clients and gather resources in preparation for pitches; and public relations departments, which direct publicity programs. To succeed in advertising, you need to be creative, organized, motivated, good with people, tactful, culturally aware, decisive, resilient, and able to handle deadlines and stress. You'll also have to be able to work individually and in a team environment, understand buying and selling patterns, understand and incorporate technology, and appreciate creativity. For a career in account planning, you'll also have to be capable of carrying out qualitative and quantitative research. Good media planners are detailoriented, good at math, and have a thorough understanding of marketing.

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On the creative side, you've got to be able to handle pressure and deal with the frustration of having clients who may not understand or appreciate your creative vision.
Lucrative = profitabil Suntan lotion = loţiune pentru bronzat Extol = a preţui foarte mult Juggle = a jongla Devise = a inventa a plănui / to plan or invent a way of doing something, especially something complicated and clever Pitches = to try to make a business agreement, or to sell something by saying how good it is Sales pitch = what a person says about a product to persuade people to buy it Resilient = rezistent

Public Relations "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers," said the historian, Daniel J. Boorstin. His point? In public relations, your job is to make your client seem great without anybody knowing you were trying. Of course, those in PR do more than make their clients seem great. They speak on behalf of client organizations; help mitigate harmful publicity when, for instance, the federal government sues a client for, say, antitrust violations; and generally represent a client to the media in order to get the most favourable publicity possible. You might think of PR as a specialized

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area of marketing and akin to advertising, which incorporates a similar client-oriented structure. And in many sectors it's a fast-growing field. PR, which is also known as communications, is all about relating (or communicating) to the public—a relationship generally mediated by the press. Unlike an advertising agency, a PR agency communicates a company's message to the press, rather than directly to the client's target market. The objective in PR is to use the press to reach the target market because, when mediated by a supposedly objective third party, the message will become more powerful. Because of their role in generating media coverage, PR professionals are sometimes thought of as disingenuous, deceitful, hucksterish flacks trying simultaneously to pull the wool over the eyes of their clients and the public at large. That's inaccurate. The fact is, in today's business world, every company, CEO, celebrity, and association wants to show the best possible face to the public, and all of them are using public relations to do so. PR serves those fighting to legalize medical marijuana, as well as the Internet start-up seeking funding from investors. Michael Jordan consults with PR pros to figure out how he can best maintain his image; so does Intel, seeking to maintain its image. When you read something in the newspaper about the phone company, it's likely that a PR pro was behind the scenes, either pitching the story or furnishing the reporter with statistics to write it.

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Day to day, PR pros "pitch" story ideas to reporters, trying to elicit coverage of subjects important to their clients. They also serve as company spokespeople, plan and hold events intended to generate publicity, and develop strategies that will spark media interest. An actress's appearance at an awards ceremony wearing nothing but a potholder, for instance, could be a PR ploy to get her in the papers—a well-considered one, perhaps, if the woman happens to be Madonna, but less effective if the woman is Nancy Reagan. Usually, you'll spend much of your day working with the media. You'll make phone calls, issue press releases, and plan events. Reporters will complain, perhaps, but in a world glutted with information, they rely on public-relations practitioners for information they don't have the time or budget to gather themselves. Those with more experience in PR will write speeches, strategize the best time to announce a new product, work alongside an advertising agency to position products in the mind of the public, develop and publish newsletters, and manage crises, endeavouring to put a positive spin on events for a client organization. And along with representing the client to the public, PR practitioners will represent the public to the client, helping the client understand what the public wants, needs, and is concerned about. Those who do well in PR have strong communication skills, are articulate both with the written and spoken word, are able to understand a variety of

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people, are confident, and quick studies—you'll need to learn quickly what your clients do in order to communicate their messages effectively. PR professionals should also be quick thinkers and persuasive. While there are some behind-the-scenes opportunities such as research that could accommodate introverted types, most jobs in the PR field require assertiveness and an outgoing personality. One insider says that if you know you're shy, PR probably isn't the best career choice for you. A public relations professional who is afraid of the public won't be able to represent his or her clients authoritatively.
Mitigate = to make a situation or the effects of something less unpleasant, harmful, or serious Antitrust (violations) = which attacks monopolies and encourages competition Akin to = foarte asemănător cu Huckster(ish) = someone who uses very strong, direct selling methods, sometimes dishonest Flack = strong criticism To pull the wool over the eyes of somebody = to deceive someone by not telling the truth Elicit = to succeed in getting information or a reaction from someone, especially when it is difficult Spark = a stârni interesul cuiva în ceva Potholder = a piece of thick material used for holding hot cooking pans Ploy = a clever method of getting an advantage, especially by deceiving someone Issue = a emite Glutted = încărcat, plin de Practitioners = someone who regularly does a particular activity Endeavor = a încerca din greu Assertive(ness) = behaving in a confident way so that people notice you Authoritative(ly) = în mod autoritar, plin de încredere şi care impune respect Outgoing = liking to met and talk to new people

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THE INTERNAL COMMUNICATION NETWORK Although all companies have to communicate in order to function, their approaches to communication vary. These variations are not surprising when you consider the vastly different communication requirements that organizations have. Some companies are better at communicating than others. At topperforming companies such as Procter & Gamble and IBM, communication is a way of life. At IBM, for example, big rolls of paper are placed throughout the building so that people can jot down thoughts during informal discussions. Because managers at these companies communicate freely with employees, everyone develops a clear sense of mission, derived from a constant repetition of the organization’s values. In these firms management is communication. FORMAL COMMUNICATION CHANNELS Information may travel up, down, and across the formal hierarchy. Downward information flow

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When a manager transmits information to a subordinate, communication is flowing downward. The message might take the form of a casual conversation or a formal interview between a supervisor and an individual employee, or it might be disseminated orally to a group through a meeting, workshop, or videotape. On other occasions, the message might be a written memo, training manual, newsletter, bulletin board announcement, or policy directive. Most of the information that flows downward is geared toward helping employees do their jobs. Typical messages include briefings on the organization’s mission and strategies, instructions on how to perform various jobs, explanations of policies and procedures, feedback on the employee’ performance, and motivational pep talks. Upward information flow From the organization’s standpoint, upward communication is just as vital as downward communication. To solve problems and make intelligent decisions, management must learn what’s going on in the organization. Because they can’t be everywhere at once, executives depend on lowerlevel employees to furnish them with accurate, timely reports on problems,

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emerging trends, opportunities for improvement, grievances, and performances.

The danger, of course, is that employees will report only the good news. People are afraid to admit their own mistakes or to report data that suggest their boss was wrong. Companies try to guard against the “rose-colored glasses” syndrome by creating reporting systems that require employees to furnish vital information on a routine basis. Many of these reports have a “red flag” feature that calls attention to deviations from planned results. Other formal methods for channeling information upward include group meetings, interviews with employees who are leaving the company, and formal procedures for resolving grievances. In recent years, many companies have also set up suggestion systems that encourage employees to submit ideas for improving the business. Horizontal information flow In addition to transmitting messages up and down the organization, the formal communication network also carries messages horizontally from one department to another.

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For example, the marketing director might write a memo to the production director, outlining sales forecasts for the coming period.

The amount of horizontal communication that occurs through formal channels depends on the degree of interdependence among departments. If each department operates independently, official communication between departments is minimal. But if the business requires coordinated action by its organizational units, horizontal communication may be frequent and intense. The recent trend is toward more cross-functional interaction. Companies that have already moved in that direction report dramatic increases in productivity, largely because cooperation between employees from various departments breaks down the bureaucratic barriers that inhibit innovation and camouflage problems. INFORMAL COMMUNICATION CHANNELS Formal organization charts illustrate how information is supposed to flow. In actual practice, however, lines and boxes on a piece of paper cannot prevent people from talking with one another. Every organization has an

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informal communication network – a grapevine – that supplements official channels. As people go about their work, they have casual conversations with their friends in the office. They joke and kid around and discuss many things: their apartments, restaurants, movies, sports, and other people in the company. Although many of these conversations deal with personal matters, business is often discussed as well. In fact, about 80 percent of the information that travels along the grapevine pertains to business, and 75 to 95 percent of it is accurate. Furthermore, although employees say they would prefer to get their information from other sources, they currently rely on the informal network as a main source of information. In some companies, the top executives are wary of the informal communication network, possibly because it threatens their power to control the flow of information. However, attempts to quash the grapevine generally have the opposite effect. Informal communication increases when official channels are closed or when the organization faces periods of change, excitement, or anxiety. Instead of trying to eliminate the grapevine, sophisticated companies minimize its importance by making certain that the official words gets out.

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THE BASIC FORMS OF COMMUNICATION Nonverbal communication If you were applying for a job, you would know almost as soon as you walked in the door whether you wanted to work for a particular company. Even if you spent the first five minutes sitting in a reception area, you would see and hear things that would tell you an enormous amount about the corporate culture. The most basic form of communication is nonverbal. Anthropologists theorize that long before human beings used words to talk things over, our ancestors communicated with one another by using their bodies. They gritted their teeth to show anger, they smiled and touched one another to indicate affection. Although we have come a long way since those primitive times, we still use nonverbal cues to express superiority, dependence, dislike, respect, love, and other feelings. Nonverbal communication differs from verbal communication in fundamental ways.

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For one thing, it is less structured, which makes it more difficult to study. A person can pick up a book on nonverbal language and master the vocabulary of gestures, expressions, and inflections that are common in our culture. We don’t really know how people learn nonverbal behaviour. No one teaches a baby to cry or smile, yet these forms of self-expression are almost universal. Other types of nonverbal communication, such as the meaning of colours and certain gestures, vary from culture to culture. Nonverbal communication also differs from verbal communication in terms of intent and spontaneity. We generally plan our words. When we say anything we have a conscious purpose. We think about the message, if only for a moment. But when we communicate nonverbally, we sometimes do so unconsciously. Without our consent, our emotions are written all over our faces. Why nonverbal communication is important Although nonverbal communication is often unplanned, it has more impact than verbal communication.

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Nonverbal cues are especially important in conveying feelings, accounting for 93 percent of the emotional meaning that is exchanged in any interaction. In fact, nonverbal communication is so powerful that it actually releases mood-altering chemicals in the sender as well as in the receiver. One reason for the power of nonverbal communication is its reliability. Most people can deceive us much more easily with words than they can with their bodies. Words are relatively easy to control; body language, facial expressions, and vocal characteristics are not. By paying attention to these nonverbal cues, we can detect deception or affirm a speaker’s honesty. Not surprisingly, we have more faith in nonverbal cues than we do in verbal messages. If a person says one thing but transmits a conflicting message nonverbally, we almost invariably believe the nonverbal signal. If you can read other people’s nonverbal messages correctly, you can interpret their underlying attitudes and intentions and respond appropriately. Successful people generally share this ability.

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A recent study involved 1,000 school children who were tested on their ability to determine whether people were happy, sad, angry, and so forth on the basis of their expressions. The students who scored lowest on the test were among the least popular children in their class and were also less successful academically, even though they were just as intelligent as their peers. Their inability to read other people’s reactions prevented them from adjusting their behaviour to improve their relationships. Nonverbal communication is important for another reason: it can be efficient from both the sender’s and the receiver’s standpoint. You can transmit a nonverbal message without even thinking about it, and your audience can register the meaning unconsciously. At the same time, when you have a conscious purpose, you can often achieve it more economically with a gesture than you can with words. A wave of the hand, a pat on the back, a wink – all area streamlined expressions of thought. The varieties of nonverbal communication According to one estimate, there are over 700,000 forms of nonverbal communication. These forms can be grouped into general categories: facial

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expressions and space.

and

eye

behaviour,

gestures

and

postures,

vocal

characteristics, personal appearance, touching behaviour, and use of time

Researchers have drawn some interesting conclusions about the meaning of certain nonverbal signals. But remember that the meaning of nonverbal communication is in the observer, who both reads specific signals and interprets them in the context of the particular situation. Facial expressions and eye behaviour The face is the primary site for the expression of certain nonverbal expression of emotion, revealing both the type and the intensity of a person’s feelings. A person’s eyes are especially effective as a tool of communication. They can be used to indicate attention and interest, to influence others, to regulate interaction, and to establish dominance. Although the eyes and the face are usually a reliable source of meaning; people sometimes manipulate their expressions to stimulate an emotion they do not feel or to mask their true feelings. Gestures and postures By moving their bodies, people can express both specific and general messages, some of which are voluntary and some of which are involuntary.

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Many gestures have a specific and intentional meaning; other types of body movement are unintentional and express a more general message. These unconscious signals reveal whether a person feels confident or nervous or hostile, assertive or passive, powerful or powerless. Vocal characteristics Like body language, a person’s voice carries both intentional and unintentional messages. On a conscious level, we can use our voices to create various impressions. However, your vocal characteristics also reveal many things that you are unaware of. The tone and volume of your voice, your accent and speaking pace, and all the little um’s and ah’s that creep into your speech say a lot about who you are, your relationship with the audience, and the emotions underlying your words.

Personal appearance An individual’s appearance helps establish his or her social identity. People respond to us on the basis of our physical attractiveness. Because we see ourselves as others see us, these expectations are often a selffulfilling prophecy.

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Our grooming, our clothing, our accessories, our “style” – all modify our appearance. If your goal is to make a good impression, adopt the style of the people you want to impress. In most businesses, a professional image is appropriate. But some companies or industries are more casual. Touching behaviour Touch is an important vehicle for conveying warmth, comfort, and reassurance. Even the most casual contact can create positive feelings. Perhaps because it implies intimacy, touching behaviour is governed by relatively strict customs that establish who can touch whom, and how, in various circumstances. The accepted norms vary, depending on the gender, age, relative status, and cultural background of the individuals involved. In business situations, touching suggests dominance, and so a higher-status person is more likely to touch a lower-status person than the other way around. Use of time and space

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Like touch, time and space can be used to assert authority. In many cultures, people demonstrate their importance by making other people wait; they show respect by being on time. However, attitudes toward punctuality are cultural. In North America, being on time is a mark of good manners; in other places, it is more polite to be somewhat late. People can also assert their status by occupying the best space. In US companies, the chief executive usually has the corner office and the prettiest view. Apart from serving as a symbol of status, space determines how comfortable people feel talking with each other. When people stand too close or too far away, we feel ill at ease. The comfort zone varies from culture to culture. Spatial zones are different for women and men. Women initially approach more closely, prefer side-by-side conversations, allow other women to be closer than men, men have more face-to-face conversations, tend to stand closer to women than women feel comfortable etc Intimate Personal Social Public Distance

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Verbal communication Although you can express many things nonverbally, there are limits to what you can communicate without the help of language. If you want to discuss past events, ideas, or abstractions, you need words – symbols that stand for thoughts – arranged in meaningful patterns. In the English language, we have a growing pool of words, currently about 750,000, although most of us recognize only about 20,000 of them. To create a thought with these words, we arrange them according to the rules of grammar, putting the various parts of speech in the proper sequence. We then transmit the message in spoken or written form, anticipating that someone will hear or read what we have to say. Oral versus written communication channels

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30% Listening Reading Writing Speaking 9%

45%

16%

As the above picture illustrates, business people tend to prefer oral communication channels to written ones. It’s generally quicker and more convenient to talk to somebody than to write a memo or letter. Furthermore, when you’re speaking or listening, you can pick up added meaning from nonverbal cues and benefit from immediate feedback. On the other hand, relying too heavily on oral communication can cause problems in a company. Reception versus transmission The above picture illustrates another interesting fact: people spend more time receiving information than transmitting it. Listening and reading are every bit as important as speaking and writing.

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Unfortunately, most of us are not very good listeners. Immediately after hearing a ten-minute speech, we typically remember only half of what was said. A few days later, we’ve forgotten three-quarters of the message. Worse, we often miss the subtle, underlying meaning entirely. To some extend, our listening problems stem from our education, or lack of it. We spend years learning to express our ideas, but few of us ever take a course in listening. At the same time, our reading skills often leave a good deal to be desired.

Recent studies indicate that approximately 20 percent of the adults in the United States are functionally illiterate; 14 percent cannot fill out a check properly; 38 percent have trouble reading the help wanted ads in newspapers; and 26 percent can’t figure out the deductions listed on their paychecks. Even those who read adequately often do not know how to read effectively. They have trouble extracting the important points from a document, so they cannot make the most of the information contained in the document.

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Although listening and reading obviously differ, both require a similar approach. The first step is to register the information, which means that you must tune out distractions and focus your attention. You must then interpret and evaluate the information, respond in some fashion, and file away the data for future reference. The most important part of this process is interpretation and evaluation, which is no easy matter. While absorbing the material, you must decide what is important and what isn’t. One approach is to look for the main ideas and the most important supporting details, rather than trying to remember everything you read or hear. If you can discern the structure of the material, you can also understand the relationship among the ideas. If you are listening as opposed to reading, you have the advantage of being able to ask questions and interact with the speaker. Ten tips for communicating successfully with a global audience In your job you may have occasion to communicate with people in other countries or from other cultures. Whether you are buying, selling, consulting, or simply trying to obtaining information, you will need to get across ideas to an audience you are not used to dealing with.

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Just as you need to understand the characteristics of your audience when you communicate with others from your own country, you need to understand something about the culture, business customs, and communication styles of foreign audiences. Here are ten tips to assist you in your intercultural communications: • Be clear and simple. Whether communicating orally or in writing, avoid long, complex sentences, highly technical language, jargon, and colloquialisms. Don’t be condescending, but do use simpler words when they are available (pay rather than compensate, soon rather than momentarily). • Don’t assume that someone you hear speaking English will understand you. If you talk too fast, slur your words, have an accent, or use slang, even a foreigner who seems to speak impeccable English will have a hard time following you. An added problem is that many English-speaking foreigners are too polite to let you know they haven’t understood.

• Learn the business customs and terminology of those you’ll be communicating with. Most countries, for example, use the metric system, unlike the system measurement used in the United States. And many countries use the day/month/year system for dating
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opposed to the U.S. system of month/day/year. A meeting arranged in one of these countries on 7.5.05 is scheduled for May not for July. • Use written messages whenever possible. Foreigners read English more easily than they understand spoken English. If you communicate by phone, follow up with a confirmation in writing to guard against miscommunication. • Don’t be in a hurry to get to the point. Europeans, Africans, and Arabs, in particular, are put off by the straight-to-the-point style of North American business communication. They prefer a more roundabout approach. The French, for example, like to have time to digest information and ideas and tend to look on a letter as only one in a series. • Don’t ask questions that require a yes or no answer. Whereas North Americans tend to say yes when they mean yes and no when they mean no, that’s simply not the case in most other cultures. In Asian countries, for example, it is considered impolite to say no, so Asians may answer affirmatively if only to mean “Yes, I heard you.” (The Japanese have more than a dozen ways to avoid saying no.) Europeans, on the other hand, may initially react negatively to any question, but they actually mean “maybe” or “it depends.” In many countries, the answer you get is what the person thinks you want to hear.
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• Learn about the country’s body language. Gestures have various meanings in different places. In Romania, turning the head from side to side means yes; in Japan, looking someone in the eye is considered judgmental or hostile; and in Ghana, thumbs up is a rude gesture. To avoid giving offense, keep your hands quiet. • Control your style of expression. The North American style of expressing emotions is considered impulsive and wild by Asians but restrained and cold by Latin Americans. You need to be aware of how your habits of emotional expression will affect people in a particular culture. • Don’t interrupt periods of silence. Many foreigners are offended by the North American penchant for jumping in to fill any gaps in a conversation. Speakers in many cultures enjoy periods of silence and use them to gather their thoughts. Be patient. Allow the person to formulate what he or she wants to say, and try not to be “helpful” by putting words into the other person’s mouth. • Use an interpreter or a translator. Whenever possible, have your messages translated into the other person’s language. A translated letter is more likely to be read sooner – and by the right person – than one in Romanian, and your message is more likely to be understood as intended. When choosing an interpreter or translator, be sure to
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find someone familiar with both cultures and with the terminology of your business.

The process of communication Whether you are speaking or writing, listening or reading, communication is more than a single act. Instead, it is a chain of events that can be broken into five phases, as follows: 1. The sender has an idea; 2. The idea becomes a message; 3. The message is transmitted; 4. The receiver gets the message; 5. The receiver reacts and sends feedback to the sender. Then the process is repeated until both parties have finished expressing themselves. Communication is effective only when each step is successful. Special problems of business communication Although all communication is subject to misunderstandings, business communication is particularly difficult. The material is often complex and controversial, yet both the sender and the receiver may face distractions that divert their attention. Furthermore, the opportunities for feedback are often limited, making it difficult to correct misunderstandings.

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When the message finally does reach the receiver, he or she may be unable to digest it in peace. You may have to compete with a variety of interruptions. The phone rings every five minutes, people intrude, meetings are called, and crises arise. In short, you rarely have the benefit of the receiver’s undivided attention. Your message may be picked up and put down several times. HOW TO IMPROVE COMMUNICATION Think about the people you know. Which of them would you call successful communicators? What do these people have in common? Chances are, the individuals on your list share five qualities: • Perception. They are able to predict how their message will be received. They anticipate your reaction and shape the message accordingly. They read your response correctly and constantly adjust to correct any misunderstanding. • Precision. They create a “meeting of the minds”. When they finish expressing themselves, you share the same mental picture. • Credibility. They are believable. You have faith in the substance of their message. You trust their information and their intentions.

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• Control. They shape your response. Depending on their purpose, they can make you laugh or cry, calm down, change your mind, or take action. • Congeniality. They maintain friendly, pleasant relations with the audience. Regardless of whether you agree with them, good communications command your respect and goodwill. You are willing to work with them again, despite your differences. What sets the effective communicators apart is their ability to overcome the main barriers to communication. They do this by creating their message carefully, minimizing noise in the transmission process, and facilitating feedback. Create the Message Carefully If you want the people in your audience to understand and accept your message, you have to help. You cannot depend on others to carry the communication ball. Think about your purpose and your audience The first step is to define your goal in communicating. Why are you sending your message? What do you want your audience to do or know as a consequence?
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When you have answered these questions, you can begin to build a message to achieve your purpose. You must create a bridge of words that leads the audience from their current position to your point. Before you can do this, of course, you have to know something about the audience’s current position. What do they know now, and what do they need to know? If you are addressing strangers, try to find out more about them; if that’s impossible, try to project yourself into their position by using your common sense and imagination. Tell the audience what to expect Once you have defined your readers’ or listeners’ information needs, you can launch them on their journey toward the intended destination. As they travel, you must be their guide, providing them with a map of the territory they will cover. Tell them at the outset what they can expect to gain from the trip. Let them know the purpose of the message; tell them what main points they will encounter on the way. Even if you do not want to reveal controversial ideas at the beginning of the message, you can still give receivers a preview of the topics you plan to cover.

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By telling your audience what to expect, you help them recognize the relationship among the ideas you hope to convey. When they encounter individual facts and thoughts, they can then fit them into a rational framework. By telling the audience how to categorize the information in your message, you eliminate one of the main barriers to communication: the discrepancy between your mental filling system and theirs. In addition, you make it easier for the audience to cope with the distractions that occur in most environments. Use concrete, specific language Because business communication often involves difficult, abstract, and even boring material, you must do something to help your audience understand and remember the message. The best way to do this is to balance the general concepts with specific illustrations. At the beginning, state the overall idea; then develop that idea by using vivid, concrete examples to help the audience visualize the concept. The most memorable words are the ones that create a picture in the receiver’s mind by describing colors, objects, scents, sounds, tastes. Specific details can also be vivid.

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Stick to the point You can also help your audience by eliminating any information that doesn’t directly contribute to your purpose. Many business messages contain too much material. The sender, in hopes of being thorough, tries to explain everything there is to know about a subject. But most receivers don’t need everything there is to know about a subject. All they need are a few pertinent facts, enough information to answer their questions or facilitate their decisions. By keeping your messages as lean as possible, you make them easier to absorb. With few exceptions, one page is better than two, especially in a business environment where the receiver is bombarded by competing claims for attention. By eliminating unnecessary ideas, you focus the other’s person’s thoughts on those few points that really matter. You have to be careful, however, to develop each main idea adequately. You’re better off covering three points thoroughly rather than eight points superficially. Don’t rush the audience through a laundry list of vague generalities in the mistaken belief that you are being brief. If an idea is worth including, it’s worth explaining. Connect new information to existing ideas

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The mind absorbs information by categorizing it into mental files. If you want the receiver to understand and remember new ideas, you have to indicate how those ideas are related to the files that already exist in her or his mind. When the connection with familiar concepts is lacking, the new material tends to get lost, to become mentally misplaced, because it doesn’t fit into the receiver’s filing cabinet. By showing the audience how new ideas relate to familiar ones, you increase the likelihood that your message will be understood correctly. The audience can say: “Oh yes, I see. We can market the new cosmetics line the way we did nylon stockings. We’re trying to reach the same consumer.” The meaning of the new concept is clarified by its relationship on the subject; all she or he has to do is apply it to the new idea. Connecting new ideas to existing ones also helps make the new concepts acceptable. Most of us approach anything unfamiliar with caution. When we discover that it’s similar to something familiar, we become more confident. We pick it up and look it over more carefully and then take it home with us. It becomes part of our collection, one of many related things. Emphasize and review key points

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Another way to help the audience is to call attention to the most important points of your message. You can do this with your words, your format, and you body language. When you come to an important idea, say so. By explicitly stating that an idea is especially significant, you wake people up; you also make it easier for them to file the thought in the proper place. Underscore key points by calling attention to them visually. Use headlines, bold type, and indented lists to emphasize major ideas. Reinforce the text of your message by using charts, graphs, maps, diagrams, and illustrations that will help your audience see the point. If you are delivering the message orally, use your body and voice to highlight important concepts. Before you conclude your message, take a moment or two to review the essential points. Restate the purpose, and show how the main ideas relate to it. This simple step will help your audience remember the message. Because business audiences are frequently interrupted, it’s a good idea to provide summaries at the end of major sections of a long message as well as the end of a document or presentation. Such summaries not only refresh people’s memories but also help simplify the overall meaning of complex material. Minimize noise

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Even the most careful constructed message will fail to achieve results if it does not reach the receiver. To the extend possible, you should try to eliminate potential sources of interference. The key to getting through to the receiver often lies in the choice of communication channels and media. Choose the method that will be the most likely to attract the receiver’s attention and enable him or her to concentrate on the message. If a written document seems the best choice, try to make it physically appealing and easy to comprehend. Use an attractive, convenient format, and pay attention to such details as the choice of paper and quality of type. If possible, deliver the document when you know the reader will have time to study. If the message calls for an oral delivery channel, try to eliminate environmental competition. The location should be comfortable and quiet, with adequate lighting, good acoustics, and few visual distractions. In addition, think about how your own appearance will affect the audience. An outfit that screams for attention creates as much noise as a squeaky airconditioning system. Another way to reduce interference, particularly in oral communication, is to deliver your message directly to the intended audience. The more people who filter your message, the greater the potential for distortion. Facilitate feedback

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In addition to minimizing noise, give the receiver a chance to provide feedback. But one of the things making business communication difficult is the complexity of the feedback loop. If you’re talking face-to-face with one other person, feedback is immediate and clear. But if you’re writing a letter, memo, or report that will be read by several people, feedback will be delayed and mixed. Some of the readers will be enthusiastic or respond promptly, others will be critical or reluctant to respond. As a consequence, revising you message to take account of their feedback will be difficult. When you plan your message, think about the amount of feedback that you want to encourage. Although feedback is generally useful, it reduces your control over the communication situation. You need to know whether your message is being understood and accepted, but you may not want to respond to comments until you have completed your argument. If you are communicating with a group, you may not have the time to react to every impression or question. For this reason, think about how you want to obtain feedback and choose a form of communication that suits your needs. Some channels and media are more compatible with feedback than others. For example, if you want to adjust your message quickly, talk to the receiver face-to-face or by

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phone. If feedback is less important to you, you can use a written document or give a prepared speech. Remember, that in order to get feedback, you have to listen, which is more difficult than you might think. We tend to let or minds wander and miss important points, or we jump in too quickly with comments of our own, so the other person doesn’t have a chance to complete a thought. We make the mistake of prejudging other people because we don’t like the way they look or because they represent an opposing group. Often we lack patience, objectivity, and understanding. We send signals, subconsciously perhaps, that we don’t value the other person’s comments. Regardless of whether the response to your message is written or oral, you have to encourage people to be open if you want them to tell you what they really think and feel. You can’t say, “Please tell me what you think,” and then get mad at the first critical comment. So try not to react defensively. Your goal is to find out whether the people in your audience have understood and accepted your message. If you find that they haven’t, don’t lose your temper. After all, the fault is at least partially yours. Instead of saying the same thing all over again, only louder this time, try to find the source of misunderstanding. Then revise your message. Sooner or later, if you keep trying, you’ll achieve success.

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