1 Meaning and Process of Business Communication

Ipshita Bansal

1.    Learning Outcome:

After completing this module the students will be able to: Understand the concepts of communication.

Understand the need of the communication.

Describe the importance of the effective communication. Define the process of the business communication.

2.      Introduction

“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.”-  Rollo May

Communication pervades all aspects of a human life whether it’s personal or professional. It is the way through which one can have healthy and positive interactions and can build and maintain the favourable relationships. The ability to communicate and make your message understood is vital in today’s era. No matter howmuch the technology has become complex and advance with the passage of time,moving from the use of postcard to emailing or video conferencing, the core principles of communication continue to apply. Research over the years has established that the communication is the most important ingredient for the success of business. Effective communication skill is ranked highest among all the skills required to achieve success in business. A businessperson plays a part in the process of the communication in different ways , such as while making customer aware about their products, getting employees clear about their jobs, roles and responsibilities, informing the employees about the mission, vision and strategies of the business, motivating the employees or collecting information about the business and environment. In brief we can say that communication covers all the spheres of business whether it is purchase, production, marketing, finance or human resource management.

3. Origin and Meaning of Communication

Communication is the word originated from the latin word “Communis” and “Communicare” which means “to make common” or “to share”. Thus the meaning of communication can be derived as to make common or to share facts, ideas, thoughts and requirement. Communication, therefore, is the way of exchanging the messages, ideas, information etc via. speech, signals or writing. The need of communication had been felt from the time the man exists. As time passed communication transformed from different kinds of forms. Different channels of communication were used from time to time. As the time passes new and improved vehicles of communications are identified for the purpose of transmission.

For example, in the ancient times the kings used pigeons to exchange ideas and information and then in the middle era postman were the channels of the transmissions and now in modern era there lots of channels are available for the transmission of information i.e. mobile phones, fax, emails, video conferencing, social media, social websites etc. A study of these channels of communication helps us in understanding the process of business communication.

Before giving the definition of the communication, some questions need to be asked -.

What is the importance of communication? Why should it be studied?

Why should channels be analysed and examined? What factors affects while you communicate?

What are the issues involved in communication?

The importance of the communication can be understood from the fact that in our daily lives we communicate with our family, friends, colleagues and even strangers.While we are playing, talking, sitting, shopping in market, watching movie, performing our jobs or even while sleeping, continuously we are forming and delivering messages. Man is a social animal who constantly interact with others. While interacting he understands others and others also want to be understood. Man has the ability to symbolise or communicate. Everyone is unique and how onecommunicates dependsupon one’s individual profile,demographic characteristics, experiences with life and educational experience etc.

The questions raised above will be answered as we move on this journey of understanding Business Communication and its related concepts.

3.1 Definition of Communication

understand the concepts in the terms of images and symbols. This ability of man helps him to The different scholars define communication in their own ways. Some definitions of communication are as follows:

3.1.1 According to Theo Haimann, “Communication is the process of passing information and understanding from one person to another….. It is the process of imparting ideas and making oneself

understood by others.”

3.1.2     In the words of Newman and Summer, “Communication is an exchange of facts, ideas, opinions or emotions by two or more persons.”

3.1.3     As per Louis A. Allen, “Communication is the sum of all the things which a person does when he wants to create understanding in the mind of another. It involves a continuous process of telling, listening and understanding.”

Here also some key points regarding the communication:

1. Communication is about building relationship which involves developing understanding.
2. Communication builds the relationship through establishing trust, which develops over a period of time.
3. Communication relates to the environment in which it occurs. The environment is constantly changing so the communication changes and evolves over a period of time.
4. The fact of the life is that it’s every aspect whether its personal, social, political, business, religious, national or international, involves the communication. So the business communication is the special type of communication. In this module we will study the various aspects of the business communication.

4. Business Communication

The form of communication undertaken by the business firms to fulfil the needs of the business is known as Business communication.

4.1 Definition of BusinessCommunication

4.1.1     According to R. Ludlow, “Business communication is a process of transfer of information and understanding between different parts and the people of a business organisation. It consists of various modes and media involved in communication interchanges. ”

4.1.2     In the words of Dr. Heinz Goldmann, “Effective communication needs to be built around simple foundation and realization: communication is a dialog not a monologue. In fact communication is more concerned with a dual listening process.”

5. Goals of Business Communication

    Business Communication cannot be effective until it fulfil the goals of the communication. As the communication involves the two parties’ one is sender and the other is receiver. It is the responsibility of the sender to achieve the four basic goals of the communication:

Adapted from Krizan, Merrier, Logan, Williams, Effective Business Communication

5.1 Receiver Understanding: The First and the most important goal of the business communication is the Receiver Understanding. It is also the biggest challenge for achieving the receiver understanding.

For example: Mr. Sharma messages to Mr. Saxena “Lets meet today to finalize the report on monthly operations of West Delhi Zone”. The sender and the receiver might have different ideas about the location of the meeting and confusion may prevail. So it is required that a clear message should be developed. The message must beso clearthat the receiver understands the message in the same way as the sender intended it to be understood by the receiver.

While developing the clear message the sender must consider the following issues:

Receiver Characteristics Message form and content Receiver Feedback

Communication Barrier

5.2 Receiver Response: Second and the most important objective of the communication is to receive receiver’s response. The receiver’s response can be positive, negative or he may be neutral towards it. The receiver can respond by words, actions or by both according to the situation.

Example- In a class room teacher asks the students after explaining a concept, “ Is the concept clear to all?” The students can respond by saying ‘yes’ or by shaking their head in positive manner.

The reply of the receiver reveals the understanding of the receiver. So by the receiver’s response we can know about the achievement of the first goal of the communication. The message should be drafted in such a manner which encourages the receiver’s response. In the oral communication the sender can directly ask some questions which shows receiver’s understanding or can ask whether he gets the message or not? But in the written communication the sender can encourage the receiver response by asking some questions or by attaching a reply envelope

Example-Mr.Joseph is the chairperson of committee. He distributes a memo regarding the date, time, venue and agenda of the meeting to be held shortly. In addition to this, for getting the response of committee members,Mr. Joseph requests the people to notify the chair whether the member will attend the meeting or not. This encourages the receiver response.

5.3 Favourable Relationship: The third goal of the communication is to build the favourable relationship that can be achieved by focusing on the people involved in the process of the communication. The sender and the receiver must relate to each other positively, personally and professionally to build a strong business relationship . While communicating it is the first and foremost responsibility of the sender to create and maintain a strong, favourable and healthy relationship by focusing on the receiver interest and benefitsand using the positive language.

5.4 Organisational Goodwill: The fourth goal of the communication is to build and maintain the goodwill of the organisation. The success of the business depends upon the goodwill of the business. The more the goodwill of the company, the more it will be successful as the investors invest in the company because of its reputation, suppliers attach with the company due to its credit worthiness, customer buy from the company due to its brand reputation, reasonable prices and promotions & quality of product. All these things build the goodwill of the organisation. So it is the sender’s responsibility to increase and maintain the goodwill of the company by ensuring that their communication reflects positively on quality of company’s policy, product, services and personnel.

6. Importance of Business Communication

With the advancement of the technology the world shifted from the industrial era to information era.

The need of information flow for the success of business is as the flow of blood for the life.

The importance of the communication in the business can be understood after analysing the following points:

6.1 Basis of Managerial Function:Success of the managerial function depends upon the effective communication. Managerial functions include Planning, Decision Making, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating and Controlling. Communication becomes the basis for all. Planning is essential for the growth of the business, which requires extensive communication between the executives and the employees of the organisation. On the basis of the available information the decisions are taken by the management. In the big organisation the work is divided among the units to focus on the specialization of the employees. So it is necessary to set coordination between the units for the successful working of the organisation. All this will be possible by the way of effective communication.

6.2 Building & Maintaining Human Relations:Communication is the tool of building, maintaining and developing the human relations. Through the communication one can change the attitude of people, motivate them,cooperate with them. Through effective communication the disputes between the employees or between the management and employees can be resolved.

6.3 Developing Positive Business Image:In today’s era building positive image is the biggest challenge for the organisation. Every organisation has some responsibilities toward the government, employees, shareholders, creditors, investors, customer, and society. By establishing the effective communication system with all the parties, an organisation can build the positive image in the among all the stake holders of the business.But for positive image to sustain it has to be ensured that communication is backed by suitable actions or results.

6.4 Promoting Industrial Peace:Two way communication is an effective method for promoting the industrial peace. In every organisation there exist both kinds of communication, downward and upward. With the help of the downward communication the management makes the employees understand the goals, objectives, and the expectations of the management. On the other hand by upward communication the management can understand the problems faced by the employees and the grievances of the employees, suggestions and the reactions of the employees.

6.5Building Relationship with Supplier: A healthy relationship with the supplier always helps the business in maintaining the level and quality of the production. Through communication we provide the information to the supplier about the requirement of the raw material, what kind of raw material required, what are the conditions for the acceptance of the quality of raw material and receive the information from the supplier about the prices, discount (cash/ trade) of the raw material and the quantity available with the supplier etc.

6.6 Promoting the sale of Goods and Services: Through effective business communication,the customers whether existing or potential are informed regarding the existing product/services or the new product/services launched by the company, or new feature added by the company in the existing offering, importance and the quality of the offering information about prices and promotions.

  6.7Reporting to Owner-shareholder: Shareholders are the persons who hold the shares of the company and are known as the real owners of the company. As the real owners of the business they are informed about the performance and health of the business through reports and other suitable forms of communication.

7. Process of Business Communication

       Communication cannot be effective unless and until a clear message is developed & delivered well, received & decoded successfully and completely understood by the receiver. The process of communication consists of the following steps:

7.1. Idea

Idea is the beginning of the process of communication. Every message either oral or written starts with an idea. Idea is the thought originated in the mind of the receiver. The sender gives the shape to the idea. Every idea refers to some context. Every business also has its internal and external context of communication.

7.2 Sender

The person who begins the process of communication is known as the sender. When an idea occurs in his mind, he encodes it and sends the idea to another person, institution, organisation to achieve some specified objective. The sender uses his personal data bank from where he selects the ideas and encodes the message and finally transmits to the receiver. As we know that the process of communication starts with the sender so whole of the burden of the success of communication and fulfilment of its objectives largely depends upon the sender. From selecting an idea to its transmission large number of factors plays an important role, most important among them is the understanding of the receiver and his needs. So while selecting a message and encoding it, the sender must keep in mind the understanding capabilities of the receiver. Language used must also be in accordance with the background of the receiver etc.

If the message is encoded in accordance with the needs and expectations of receiver, the level of rejection reduces to its minimum.

Example-Lavanya (a consultancy) wishes to communicate with the manager of Human Resource department of Sigma Sign Standard Life Insurance Company. The objective of the consultancy is to secure its consultancy project regarding the training of its employees. The success of this communication depends upon the answer of the following questions to the company such as why should company pays attention to his proposal? Why should company spend extra on the training of its personnel? So the consultant must adopt such a good strategy which explains its perspective the proposal in accordance with the company specification.

7.3 Message

Message is the idea, emotion or the opinion encoded and transmitted by the sender. Or in simple words we can say that message is the idea converted into text or word or picture or symbol for the understanding of the receiver. The formation of the message is very crucial in the process of communication. A single wrong appeal can make rejection of the message. So the selection of the words and their ordering is very important. The idea must be ordered or sequenced in accordance with the need of the receiver so that its significance is immediately grasped. The time when the receiver of the message starts decoding the message, he starts listening, understanding and responding to the message carefully.

7.4           Encoding

Encoding is the way of expressing the message. Encoding is the process in which the idea is converted into the form of message which is understood by the receiver. Encoding can be done in the form of words, pictures, symbols, multi- media etc. So encoding of the idea is very crucial step in the process of communication and requires more attention of the sender. So the encoding is done by keeping in mind the goals of communication earlier stated in this module.

7.5           Medium and Channel

Another important element of the communication is its medium / channel. The method or the means by which the message is transferred from the sender to the receiver is known as the medium /channel of the message. The medium of the message can be oral, written, verbal or non-verbal. There is a slight difference in the medium and the channel of the communication. Let us take an example: if the message is communicated via telephone then telephone is the channel of the communication and oral message is the medium. If the message is deliver via a report (Published or not published), then the report is the channel of the message and written message is the medium. Before the formulation of the message, the medium of the message is decided as the rules and regulations are applicable on each and every medium of communication.

Lets us take another example, while using the oral medium one can be informal with the audience but when we are using the written medium of communication we have to follow all principles of communication as the text written in the document becomes the record and can be filed or used as the evidence.

7.6           Receiver

Receiver is the person who receives the message encoded and transmitted by the sender. Actually receiver is the person who decodes the sender’s message. A receiver can be individual or can be a group. In his absence the process of communication cannot be completed because he is the destination of the message. He can be a decoder, listener, reader or the viewer of the message. As the selection of idea and its encoding in accordance with the needs and understanding receiver is

the duty of the sender, the decoding of the message in the same terms as were intended by the sender is the responsibility of the receiver.

The receiver must have the following responsibilities in the process of communication such as  actively listens, views, reads  the message of the sender, not make any perception about the message and sender before the message has been properly decoded, Responds to the message.

In the previous example as soon as the manager of the Sigma Sign realizes the tangible benefits his company can have from the proposal of the Lavanya Consultancy, he becomes more receptive and starts reinforcing his interest in communication.

7.7           Decoding

The mental process through which the receiver extracts the meaning from the words, symbols, pictures encoded by the sender in the message is known as decoding. Decoding shares the same importance as the encoding in the process of communication. If the decoding is done perfectly then the process of communication completes successfully.

7.8           Feedback

Most important element of the communication is the feedback. The process of communication is incomplete without the feedback. Feedback is defined as the receiver response toward the message forwarded by the sender. The feedback is the medium via which the sender comes to know whether the message is understood by the receiver or not. Feedback informs the sender that how the message is interpreted by the receiver. The effective communication is always responsive to the feedback and continually amends his or her message as per the feedback received.

• 8 Summary

Communication is considered as the life blood of the organisation. Through communication every kind of details whether internal to or external to organisation, is transmitted between the different parties of the organisation. Communication is the medium through which the details of the mission, vision, goals, objectives, operations, strategies etc. are explained to the employees of the organisation. Through communication only the organisation comes to acquire the information about the opportunities offered by the markets and threats to the organisation, the needs and wants of the customers, the expectations and demands of the society and rules and regulations detailed out by the government. So Communication is the most demanding skill in the today’s era. For communication to be effective, all the steps in the process of communication should be properly managed. So we can say that the communication is necessary for the efficient, smooth and successful working of the organisation

QUADRANT- III

Learn More

Few important sources to learn more about Business Communication:

1. Kaul, A. (2013). Effective Business Communication. New Delhi-110092: PHI Learning Private Limited.
2. Kaul, A. (2000), Business Communication, second ed. ,Printice hall publication, New Delhi
3. Krizan. A. C., Merrier. P., Logan J., Willaims K., (2008) .Effective Business Communication. New Delhi-110001 :Cenegage Learning India Private Limited.
4. Madhukar, R.K. (2005) Business Communication, 2nd ed., Vikas publishing house, Delhi.
5. Raman, M. & Singh, P. (2006), Business Communication, Oxford University Press.
6. Sri Jin Kushal, Business Communication, VK Publications, New Delhi.
7. Young, D. J. (2007). Foundation of Business Communication: An Integrative Approach.New Delhi 110008 : Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company Limited
8. http://en.m.wikipedia.org>wiki>Business_Communication.html
9. http://thebusinesscommunication.com/what-is-communication-process/
10. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-business-communication-organisation-2876.html

Points to Ponder

1. Communication is the basis of all progress of the mankind.
2. Words are not all ways necessary for communicating with others.
3. If people don’t listen to and understand each other no communication can take place.
4. It is not necessary that the intension with which the sender encoded the message, is interpretedin the same way by the receiver while decoding the message.