COMMUNICATION IN EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

COMMUNICATION IN EDUCATION MANAGEMENT

The word communication is derived from the Latin terms cummunis [to make common] and communicare [to share]. Hence, communication is defined as the exchange of information, thoughts, ideas, feeling and the like.  Because of its complexity, scholars and experts cast various definitions of communication. Griffin (2006) says that there are around more than 120 definitions as applied in operationalising the concept of communication.

Meaning of Communication

Communication can broadly be defined as exchange of ideas, messages and information between two or more persons, through a medium, in a manner that the sender and the receiver understand the message in the common sense, that is, they develop common understanding of the message.

1.      “Communication is the transfer of information from a sender to a receiver, with the information being understood by the receiver”.

— Koontz and Weihrich

2.      “Communication is the process by which people attempt to share meaning via the transmission of symbolic messages.”

 — Stoner and Wankel

3.      “Communication is the sum of all things one person does when he wants to create understanding in the mind of another. It is a bridge of meaning. It involves a systematic and continuous process of telling, listening and understanding.”

— Allen Louis

Nature of Communication:

Communication has the following features:

1.      Two-way process:Communication is a two-way process of understanding between two or more persons – sender and receiver. A person cannot communicate with himself.

2.      Continuous process:Exchange of ideas and opinion amongst people is an ongoing process in business and non-business organisations. Continuous interaction promotes understanding and exchange of information relevant for decision-making.

3.      Dynamic process:Communication between sender and receiver takes different forms and   medium depending upon their moods and behaviour. It is, thus, a dynamic process that keeps changing in different situations.

4.      Pervasive:Communication is a pervasive activity. It takes place at all levels (top, middle, low) in all functional areas (production, finance, personnel, sales) of a business organisation.

5.      Two people:A minimum of two persons — sender and receiver — must be present for communication to take place. It may be between superiors, subordinates and peer group, intra or inter se.

6.      Exchange:Communication involves exchange of ideas and opinions. People interact and develop understanding for each other.

7.      Means of unifying organisational activities:Communication unifies internal organisational environment with its external environment. It also integrates the human and physical resources and converts them into organisational output.

8.      Verbal and non-verbal:Though words are active carriers of information, gestures can sometimes be more powerful than words. Facial expressions, sounds, signs and symbols are the non-verbal forms of communication.

9.      Mutual understanding:Communication is effective when sender and receiver develop mutual understanding of the subject. Messages conveyed should be understood by the receiver in the desired sense.

10.  Goal-oriented:Communication is goal-oriented. Unless the receiver and sender know the purpose they intend to achieve through communication, it has little practical utility.

11.  Foundation of management:Though communication is a directing function, it is important for other managerial functions also. Designing plans and organisation structures, motivating people to accomplish goals and controlling organisational activities; all require communication amongst managers at various levels.

12.  A means, not an end:Communication is not an end. Effective communication is a means towards achieving the end, that is, goal accomplishment. It smooth ens managerial operations by facilitating planning, organising, staffing, directing and controlling functions.

13.  Human activity:Since communication makes accomplishment of organisational goals possible, it is essential that people understand and like each other. If people do not understand each others’ viewpoint, there cannot be effective communication.

14.  Inter-disciplinary:Communication is the art of how communicators use knowledge of different fields of study like anthropology, psychology and sociology. Making best use of these disciplines makes communication effective. It is, thus, an inter-disciplinary area of management.

Process of Communication:

Communication is a process that connects the sender with the receiver of the message. A process is “a systematic series of actions, operations or series of changes directed to some end.” However, in real life situations, communication process is more complex than it sounds. It consists of a series of elements which results in sharing of meaning by sender and receiver.

These elements are discussed below:

1. Sender:

Sender is the person who initiates, generates and sends the message. He represents the source of message. The communication process begins when the sender develops an idea or message he wants to transmit. He must arrange the ideas in a manner that can be understood by the receiver.

2. Message:

Message is the idea or information that the sender wants to convey. He may convey it verbally (by writing or speaking) or non-verbally (through gestures or body language). Whatever the form, the message should be clearly formed so that desired objective is accomplished.

3. Encoding:

Once the sender is clear of what message to transmit, he decides the code through which the message shall be transmitted. The message is abstract and intangible and, therefore, has to be converted into some form (words, gestures, pictures etc.) to make it meaningful. Encoding means converting the message into symbols.

4. Transmission:

Transmission involves selecting the medium or channel of communication. Once decided that the message has to be sent in writing, the sender may select the electronic channel and the medium of e-mail or fax. Short messages can be transmitted through telephone but lengthy messages can be sent through letters or circulars.

5. Receiver:

Receiver is the person or a group of persons to whom the message is conveyed. In case of telephonic conversation, the sender can send message to one receiver but in case of group discussions, seminars and conferences, receivers can be more than one. The message must be designed, encoded and transmitted in a manner that receiver can understand it easily.

 6. .Decoding:

Decoding means giving meaningful interpretation to the message. On receiving the message, the receiver translates the symbols into meaningful information to the best of his ability.

7. Noise:

It represents the disturbing factor in the process of communication. It interferes with effective communication and reduces clarity of the message. The message may be interpreted differently than intended by the sender. Conversing near a machine making sounds, disturbance in telephone line, physical ailment or mental distress of sender or receiver, psychological barriers (degree of trust, fear, perception etc.) are the common forms of noise that obstruct the quality of message transmitted from sender to the receiver.

8. Feedback:

Feedback is receiver’s response to sender’s message. The receiver communicates his reaction to the sender through words, symbols or gestures. It is the reversal of communication process where receiver becomes the sender and sender becomes the receiver. Unless the receiver responds to the message, communication process is incomplete.

The communication process can be represented as follows:

Barriers To Communication

Some of the important barriers to communication have been discussed below:

1. Physical Barriers:

A communication is a two-way process, distance between the sender and the receiver of the message is an important barrier to communication. Noise and environmental factors also block communication.

2. Personal Barriers:

Personal factors like difference in judgement, social values, inferiority complex, bias, attitude, pressure of time, inability to communicate, etc. widen the psychological distance between the communicator and the communicate. Credibility gap i.e., inconsistency between what one says and what one does, also, acts as a barrier to communication.

3. Semantic or Language Barriers:

Semantic is the science of meaning. The same words and symbols carry different meanings to different people. Difficulties in communication arise when the sender and the receiver of the message use words or symbols in different senses. The meaning intended by the sender may be quite different from the meaning followed by the receiver. People interpret the message in terms of their own behaviour and experience.

4.  Status Barriers (Superior-Subordinate Relationship):

Status or position in the hierarchy of an organization is one of the fundamental barriers that obstructs free flow of information. A superior may give only selected information to his subordinates so as to maintain status differences. Subordinates, usually, tend to convey only those things which the superiors would appreciate.

This creates distortion in upward communication. Such selective communication is also known as filtering. Sometimes, “the superior feels that he cannot fully admit to his subordinates those problems, conditions or results which may affect adversely on his ability and judgment.

5.  Organizational Structure Barriers:

Effective communication largely depends upon sound organizational structure. If the structure is complex involving several layers of management, the breakdown or distortion in communication wall arise. It is an established fact that every layer cuts off a bit of information. In the words of W.C. Bennis, “Communication gets distorted particularly as it goes up the hierarchy.”

6.  Barriers Due to Inadequate Attention:

Inadequate attention to the message makes communication less effective and the message is likely to be misunderstood. Inattention may arise because of over business of the communicate or because of the message being contrary to his expectations and beliefs. The simple failure to read notices, minutes and reports is also a common feature.

7. Premature Evaluation:

Some people have the tendency to form a judgement before listening to the entire message. This is known as premature evaluation. As discussed in the previous point, “half-listening is like racing your engine with the gears in neutral. You use gasoline but you get nowhere.” Premature evaluation distorts understanding and acts as a barrier to effective communication.

8.  Emotional Attitude:

Barriers may also arise due to emotional attitude because when emotions are strong, it is difficult to know the frame of mind of other person or group. Emotional attitudes of both, the communicator as well as the communicate, obstruct free flow of transmission and understanding of messages.

9. Resistance to Change:

It is a general tendency of human beings to stick to old and customary patterns of life. They may resist change to maintain status quo. Thus, when new ideas are being communicated to introduce a change, it is likely to be overlooked or even opposed. This resistance to change creates an important obstacle to effective communication.

10.  Barriers Due to Lack of Mutual Trust:

Communication means sharing of ideas in common. “When we communicate, we are trying to establish a commonness.” Thus, one will freely transfer information and understanding with another only when there is mutual trust between the two. When there is a lack of mutual trust between the communicator and the communicate, the message is not followed. Credibility gaps, i.e., inconsistency in saying and doing, also causes lack of mutual trust which acts as a basic obstacle to effective communication.

11.  Other Barriers:

There may be many other barriers, such as un-clarified assumptions, lack of ability to communicate, mirage of too much knowledge of closed minds, communication overload, shortage of time, etc., which cause distortion or obstruction in the free flow of communication and thus make it ineffective. Failure to retain or store information for future use becomes a barrier to communication when the information is needed in future.

Important Measures to Overcome the Barriers of Communication

In order to remove hindrances in the way of communication the following steps are worth consideration:

(1) Clarify Ideas before Communication:

The person sending the communication should be very clear in his mind about what he wants to say. He should know the objective of his message and, therefore, he should arrange his thoughts in a proper order.

(2) Communicate According to the Need of the Receiver:

The sender of the communication should prepare the structure of the message not according to his own level or ability but he should keep in mind the level, understanding or the environment of the receiver.

(3) Consult Others before Communication:

At the time of planning the communication, suggestions should be invited from all the persons concerned. Its main advantage will be that all those people who are consulted at the time of preparing the communication plan will contribute to the success of the communication system.

(4) Be Aware of Language, Tone and Content of Message:

The sender should take care of the fact that the message should be framed in clear and beautiful language. The tone of the message should not injure the feelings of the receiver. As far as possible the contents of the message should be brief and excessive use of technical words should be avoided.

(5) Convey Things of Help and Value to the Listener:

The subject matter of the message should be helpful to the receiver. The need and interest of the receiver should specially be kept in mind. Communication is more effective in such a situation.

(6) Ensure Proper Feedback:

The purpose of feedback is to find out whether the receiver has properly understood the meaning of the information received. In the face-to- face communication, the reaction on the face of the receiver can be understood.

But in case of written communication or some other sort of communications some proper method of feedback should be adopted by the sender.

(7) Consistency of Message

The information sent to the receiver should not be self- contradictory. It should be in accordance with the objectives, policies, programmes and techniques of the organisation. When a new message has to be sent in place of the old one, it should always make a mention of the change otherwise it can create some doubts.

(8) Follow up Communication:

In order to make communication effective the management should regularly try to know the weaknesses of the communication system. In this context effort can be made to know whether to lay more stress upon the formal or the informal communication would be appropriate.

Similarly, suggestions can be invited in respect of the medium of communication (oral, written and gestural) to know as to which medium would be more effective and appropriate.

(9) Be a Good Listener:

It is the essence of communication that both the sender and the receiver should be good listeners. Both should listen to the each other’s point of view with attention, patience and positive attitude. A sender can receive much relevant information by being a good listener.