BUS 272 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Communication Apprehension, The Sender, Institute For Operations Research And The Management Sciences
Chapter 7
The Communication Process
Communication - the transfer and understanding of a message between two or more
people
Communication Process:
1) The Sender – initiates a message by encoding a thought
2) Encoding – creating a thought
3) The Message - message is the actual physical product of the sender’s encoding
4) The Channel – the medium through which the message travels
a. Formal Channels - channels establish by an organization to transmit
messages related to the professional activities of members
b. Informal Channel – channels that are created spontaneously and that
emerge as responses to individual choices
5) Decoding – translation of the symbols into understandable form
6) The Receiver – the person(s) that the message is directed to
7) Noise – represents communication barriers that semantic difficulties or cultural
differences
8) Feedback – the check on how successful we have been in transferring our
messages as originally intended
Channel – the medium through which a message travels
Communication Apprehension (Anxiety) – undue tension and anxiety about oral
communication, written communication, or both
<How Channels Differ>
a) Handle multiple cues simultaneously
b) Facilitate rapid feedback
c) Be very personal
Channel Richness – the amount of information that can be transmitted during a
communication episode
- A helpful framework for choosing your mode of communication
- Based on three dimensions: multiple cues, feedback possible, personal
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- A memo doesn’t motivate, but in a true crisis one must be there in flesh to make a
significant difference
- Sending negative information through email is not recommended
Barriers to Communication
Filtering
- A sender’s manipulation of information so that it will be seen more favourably by
the receiver
- More vertical levels in the organization’s hierarchy, the more opportunities for
filtering
- Factors such as fear of conveying bad news and the desire to please the boss often
lead employees to tell their superiors what they think they want to hear, thus
distorting upward communications
Selective Perception
- Receivers selectively see and hear based on their needs, motivations, experience,
background, and other personal characteristics
- Also project their interests and expectations into communications as they decode
them
Information Overload
- A condition in which information inflow exceeds an individual’s processing
capacity
- To deal with information overload, it may make sense to connect technology less
frequently by creating breaks for oneself
- When the information we have to work exceeds our processing capacity, we
select, ignore or forget some information until it’s manageable
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