Lecture#6

Communication in the Organization

Guiding Principles
1. People are not mind readers. They judge you by their behavior & not by
your intent

We cannot communicate. The very attempt not to communicate communicates
something. Through not only words, but through tone of voice and through gesture,
posture, facial expression, etc., we constantly communicate to those around us.
Through these channels, we constantly receive communication from others.

2. A word is like an arrow, once out of the bow never returns

You can't really take back something once it has been said. The effect must
inevitably remain. Despite the instructions from a judge to a jury to "disregard that
last statement the witness made," the lawyer knows that it can't help but make an
impression on the jury.

3. We dont exchange ideas; we exchange symbols that stand for ideas

Words (symbols) do not have inherent meaning; we simply use them in certain
ways, and no two people use the same word exactly alike.

Mediated communication

This level of communication occurs when two (or a few) people use some
intermediate means for carrying their messages. They do not communicate face to
face and thus do not have direct feedback. Mediated communication often uses a
mechanical or electrical device to transmit or receive messages. Examples include
the telephone, closed-circuit television, radio, radar, and the communication
satellite. Mediated communication also occurs through letters, reports, forms, and
interoffice memoranda.

Person-to-Group Communication

The person-to-group level involves one speaker and audience. The speaker usually
faces the audience, and the audience usually contains people with similar interests.
A small, private person-to-group situation often has some of the characteristics of
interpersonal communication. However, for large public groups, the person-to-
group level lacks the benefits provided by interpersonal exchanges. The traditional
speaker and audience setting may include microphones, projectors, and tape player.

Mass Communication

Mass communication includes messages sent to large, public, dissimilar,
anonymous, distant audiences using some intermediate instrument of transfer. The
instruments include electronic (for example, radio, television, tape, and film) and
print (for example, newspaper, magazine, book, pamphlet, brochure, direct mail
campaign). The restricted opportunity for feedback is the most serious barrier to
effective mass communication. The "mass media," as they are often called, have
grown to include the print media of books, newspapers and magazines, the
electronic media of television, radio, and audio/video recording, and the new
media of computers and computer networks. While these media differ in many
ways, they all share the characteristics by which scholars define mass
communication.