Basic Concepts and Communication Models

1
Basic Concepts and Communication Models

• An introduction to thinking about communication
  in organizations

2
Some Course Assumptions

• Information in this course is valuable to the
  extent that you can use it
• Were trying to provide you with a repertoire of
  skills to meet a variety of situations
• We want to go beyond skills and techniques to
  understand the underlying situationtheory has
  its uses!

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Some Fundamental Concepts

• Context
• Process
• Truth

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Some Initial Observations

• A communication axiom-- You cannot not
  communicate
• Always judge communication in terms of context
• Language is an inherently arbitrary symbol system
• Communication is polysemic

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Communication and Organizations

• Communication is not a secondary or derived
  aspect of organizations--it is not a helper
• Communication is an intrinsic, inherent, defining
  feature of organizations
• No human relationship could be maintained, no
  organizational objective achieved, no activities
  coordinated and no decisions reached without
  communication.

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Unique Perspectives on Communication in
Organizations

• Downward communication (superior to subordinate)
• Upward communication (subordinate to superior)
• Horizontal communication (among colleagues)
• Informal communication (the grapevine)

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Comparative Communication Models

• Early models depicted linear movement
• S-gtM-gtC-gtR
• More accepted view now is transactional/transforma
  tional model of communication--simultaneous
  encoding and decoding of messages
• DoddCommunication is defined as participants
  interpreting information by interacting through
  sending and receiving messages across a channel
  in an organizational context.

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Critical Elements in Communication Models

• Participantsuniquely situated actors in a
  particular context. Those participants are
  affected by their own particular frame of
  referencetheir culture, gender, level of
  education, organizational rank, etc.
• Interpretationinvolves the encoding and decoding
  of symbols transmitted during the interaction.
  Those processes are not uncomplicated.
• Context of the workplacecontext is always
  important in communication, the workplace brings
  special challenges to context.

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Critical Elements continued

• Channel--importance, needs of receiver, amount of
  feedback needed, permanent record?, cost,
  formality level, is it live or is it mediated?
• Feedback--advantages and disadvantages
• Noise--external and internal, technical or
  semantic