What is communication? Characteristics, Communication Process, Factors, Types of Communication, 7 Cs of Communication - EDUCATIONLEAVES (2023)

Definition

Communication is the transmission of information from one person, group, or place to another.

Every communication needs at least a sender, a recipient and a message. It may sound simple, but communication is actually a very complex topic.

The transmission of the message from the sender to the recipient can be hampered by many barriers. This includes our cultural situations, emotions, places and the medium used to communicate. Accurate, effective, and unambiguous communication is extremely difficult for these barriers.

communication functions

• Communication includes aat least 2 people- Sender and recipient.
• Communication is basically atwo-way process. It's not just about sending and receiving messages, it's incomplete until the message is understood by the recipient in the same sense.
• The forms of communication are;Order, notification, instruction, queries,etc.
• Communication is present in all human relationships; It is essential in all types ofadministrationeThe organization.
• It is influenced by the mindset of both the sender and the receiver.
• Basically, communication is goal-oriented and effective when it includes a set of sender and recipient goals.
• The main purposes of communication are building interpersonal relationships and improving human behavior.
• communication is onecycle process, starts and ends with sender.

communication process

Communication is a cyclical process that begins with the sender and ends with the sender in the form of feedback. The communication process consists of a few steps, with each step representing the essence of effective communication.

Here are some elements of effective communication;

Sender

A sender is basically a person who initiates a communication by delivering or sending a message. The sender is the initiator of the message to be sent. After the information, ideas, etc. are created, the sender encodes them in such a way that the recipient can easily understand them.

news

The message is the main themeCommunication. Without a message, any communication is meaningless. A message contains a thought, idea, image, symbol, report, or command for serial use of gestures and messages. The message is the heart of communication. A message can be verbal (written and spoken) or non-verbal (pictorial, symbolic or gestural).

codification

Placing the targeted message(verbal or non-verbal, depending on the situation, time, space and type of message to be conveyed)in a suitable medium is called encoding.Coding is the most important step in the communication process. Incorrect and inappropriate coding can change the true intent of the communication.

Channel

Channel refers to how the message flows or istransmitted through. The message is transmitted over a channel that connects the receiver to the sender. The message can be written or verbal and can be transmitted by computer, mobile phone, telephone, television or memo.

receptor

The recipient is the person, group, or community for which the message is intended.. He or she can be reader, viewer or listener. The recipient must fully understand the message being sent in order for the true intent of the communication to be achieved, any negligence on the part of the recipient could render the communication unusable.

Like the sender, the receiver is also an important factor in the communication process as it is the other side of the process. The recipient must be in good standing when receiving the message.

decoding

The conversion of the sent message into an understandable language is called decoding. In general, it means understanding the message. After receiving the message, the recipient interprets it and tries to understand it as best as possible.

opinion

It is thatlast aspect of communication. It is the receiver's reply to receive the message sent by the sender. Feedback is required to ensure the message was successfully encoded, sent, and decoded. It is thatKey to effective and objective communication.

types of feedback

• negative feedback: corrective comments on past behavior.
• positives Feedback: Statements about past behavior.
• negative feedforward: corrective comments on future behavior.
• Positive feedforward: Statements about future behavior.

types of communication

There are 5 types of communication;verbal, non-verbal, written, visual and auditory.

verbal communication

Verbal communication occurs when we interact by talking to other people.It can be face-to-face or virtual (Skype, Zoom, phone, etc.). Some interactions are formal, such aschatting with a friend over tea or coffee or in a face-to-face meeting, while others are more formal, such as B. an appointment at a fixed place. In face-to-face communication, this verbal communication cannot be separated from non-verbal communication.

Nonverbal communication

our body languageAs we speak, it often says more than the actual words. includes non-verbal communicationhand movement, facial expression, eye contact, posture and touch.

When discussing an idea with your boss, it's important to pay attention to your words and non-verbal communication. Sometimes your boss may verbally agree with your thinking, but some nonverbal triggers (sighing, avoiding eye contact, frowning, etc.) show otherwise.

written communication

Written communication includes Emails, memos, Facebook posts, Twitter posts, text messages, letters, etc. It does not contain anyone's speech or expression. All forms of written communication have one purpose, which is to convey information in a clear and concise manner. Written communication should be easy to understand, while poor writing skills lead to confusion, embarrassment and even failure.

There are two things to note here: first,poorly constructed sentences and mistakes make you look bad; and secondly,Make sure the content is something you want to promote or be associated with long-term.

Listen

Listening is one of the most important ways of communicating because if we can't hear the person sitting across from us, we can't really engage with them. Thinking about negotiations means assessing what the opposition wants and needs.

visual communication

We live in a visual society. Where fromTV's on all the time, Facebook is full of pictures, videos, memes etc. andInstagram is a video and image platform where every advertiser used to sell their products and ideas. The newspaper is also an integral part of our society. There we can see advertisements, news and much more. This is also a form of visual communication.

7 Cs of Effective Communication

Employees spend 30% of their time on emails, meetings, presentations, conference calls, reports and various other workplace activities that involve communicating with colleagues and managers. In this area, you need to ensure that your communication is the most efficient and engaging. This increases your productivity at work. To do this, follow the 7 Cs of effective communication; that is – clear, correct, complete, concise, concrete, coherent,and polite.

clear

It must be easy for the recipient to understand your message. Every message needs to be clear in your communication. It consumes your time that you waste on emails.

Don't try to communicate too many things in one message, as this will dilute the reader's or recipient's attention.

Correct

When you write a lot of emails in a day, the likelihood of misspellings in your messages increases. Sometimes the spell checker can't spot your mistakes. You also need to make sure you are addressing people correctly and naming them correctly. You also need to ensure that the viewer or reader of your messages has sufficient knowledge and skills to understand the jargon you use in your message.

Completely

To communicate effectively, you must acomplete message. This helps the reader to understand and act. Incomplete messages lead to a lot of back and forth, iterations and wasted time and effort on both sides.

If you want the reader to act immediately, make sure you a'Call to Action'in your email or any other type of message, and share that toourgency of the taskquestionable.

Concise

You shouldn't write 4 sentences in a message if you can end the message in just 2 sentences. This wastes both the sender's and the recipient's time and reduces your productivity as well. You shouldn't add filler words like "basically", "kinda", "I mean "actually", etc. Remember, your message needs to be concise, clear, and direct.

Concrete

You needacceptwhat you wantbroadcast to the public.Concretenessis an important quality of communication, which has to come into its own during the conversationMarketing or advertising campaigns. Your confidence should capture the audience's attention and, of course, not bore them.

Coherent

Your messagemust have the right logic.All sentences in your email or reportmust be connected to the previous oneand alsokeep main topic.Without coherence, the reader should easily lose track of what you have conveyed.

polite

being polite isgreat importance in a corporate environment. People who work together aren't necessarily friends, so you need to be polite to maintain a healthy working relationship. Offensive and aggressive tones cause interpersonal problems and lead to decreased productivity.

Download what is communication pdf

References:

https://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/what-is-communication.html

https://drexel.edu/goodwin/professional-studies-blog/overview/2018/July/Five-types-of-communication/

https://www.tutorialspoint.com/functional_communication/functional_communication_process.htm#:~:text=Der%20Prozess%20von%20Kommunikation%20bezieht sichin%20aufdas%20Formular%20von%20Feedback.