Coomunication

What is communications and how it relates to organizational behavour.

Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place to another. Although this is a simple definition, when we think about how we may communicate the subject becomes a lot more complex. There are various categories of communication and more than one may occur at any time.

The different categories of communication are:

a) Spoken or Verbal Communication: face-to-face, telephone, radio or television or other media.

b) Non-Verbal Communication: body language, gestures, how we dress or act - even our scent.

c) Written Communication: letters, e-mails, books, magazines, the Internet or via other media.

d) Visualizations: graphs, charts, maps, logos and other visualizations can communicate messages.

Communication theory states that communication involves a sender and a receiver (or receivers) conveying information through a communication channel. The desired outcome or goal of any communication process is understanding. The process of interpersonal communication cannot be regarded as a phenomena which simply 'happens', but should be seen as a process which involves participants negotiating their role in this process, whether consciously or unconsciously. Senders and receivers are of course vital in communication. In face-to-face communication the roles of the sender and receiver are not distinct as both parties communicate with each other, even if in very subtle ways such as through eye-contact (or lack of) and general body language. There are many other subtle ways that we communicate (perhaps even unintentionally) with others, for example the tone of our voice can give clues to our mood or emotional state, whilst hand signals or gestures can add to a spoken message.  In written communication the sender and receiver are more distinct. Until recent times, relatively few writers and publishers were very powerful when it came to communicating the written word. Today...