The Importance of Communication Skills

Unit 1

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Communication? • Act of conveying Information through

exchange of : Thoughts

Messages

Information

Speech

Visuals, signals, writing, or behavior. 2

Oral Communication?

• Communication through mouth.

• Includes individuals:

Conversing with each other

Telephonic conversation.

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Forms of Oral Communication

• Speeches

• Presentations

• Discussions

• Gossip

• Public Speaking

• Debates 4

Advantages of Oral Communication

• High level of understanding & transparency as it is interpersonal

• No element of rigidity in oral communication.

There is flexibility for allowing changes in the decisions previously taken.

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Advantages of Oral Communication

• Spontaneous feedback.• Decisions can be made quickly.• Saves time, money and efforts.

• Best to solve problems. Conflicts, disputes & many

issues/differences can be put to an end by talking them over.

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Advantages of Oral Communication

• Essential for teamwork and group energy.

• Promotes receptive and encouraging morale among organizational employees.

• Can best be used to transfer private and confidential information/matter.

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Disadvantages of Oral Communication

• Relying only on oral communication may not be sufficient as business communication is formal and very organized.

• Less authentic than written communication as:

It is informal.Not organized like written communication.

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Disadvantages of Oral Communication

• Oral communication is time-saving as far as daily interactions are concerned, but useless meetings, long speeches consume lot of time and are unproductive at times.

• Not easy to maintain & thus it is unsteady.• Misunderstandings due to incomplete or

superficial information.

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Disadvantages of Oral Communication

• Requires attentiveness and great receptivity on part of the receivers/audience.

• Oral communication (such as speeches) is not frequently used as legal records except in investigation work.

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Communication Process

• A process of exchanging verbal and non verbal messages.

• It is a continuous process. • Pre-requisite of communication is a message.

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Components of Communication Process

• Context• Sender / Encoder• Message• Medium• Recipient / Decoder • Feedback

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Essential Elements of Communication Process

• Meanings (Context)• Symbols• Encoding• Decoding• Barriers

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Context

• The context may be physical, social, chronological (in order) or cultural.

• Every communication proceeds with context. • The sender chooses the message to

communicate within a context.

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Sender / Encoder

• A person who sends the message.• May use symbols, words or graphic or visual

aids to convey the message and produce the required response.

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Message

• Key idea that the sender wants to communicate.

• It is a sign that elicits the response of recipient.

• Communication process begins with deciding about the message to be conveyed.

• It must be ensured that the main objective of the message is clear. 16

Medium

• Used to exchange / transmit the message.• The sender must choose an appropriate

medium for transmitting the message else the message might not be conveyed to the desired recipients.

• Written, Spoken, etc

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Recipient / Decoder

• A person for whom the message is intended / aimed / targeted.

• The degree to which decoder understands message depends on various factors such as:

Knowledge of recipient.Recipient’s responsiveness to the message.The reliance of encoder on decoder.

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Feedback

• Main component of communication process.• Permits sender to analyze efficacy of

message. • Helps to confirm the correct interpretation of

message by decoder. • Feedback may be verbal (through words) or

non-verbal (in form of smiles, sighs, etc.). • It may take written form also in form of

memos, reports, etc. 19

Communication Setting?

• In different communication environment, people communicate differently.

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Kinds of Communication

Interpersonal• Informal

Communication Between 2 people who have an identifiable relationship with each other.

Small Group Communication

• 2 to 20 people can participate in it.

• The main aim is to solve problems.

• Class rooms’ lecture can be considered as small group communication

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