Communication

INTRODUCTION
• Communication plays a vital role in the administration of any type of organization,
whether it be an industry, a hotel or a hospital.
• Inadequate communication between management and employees causes
misunderstanding, confusion and, occasionally, total chaos.
• On the other hand, proper communication can pave the way for better relations,
greater job satisfaction on account of clarity about job requirements and organizational
goals, better co-operation, fostering attitudes necessary for motivation, etc.
• Basic human needs, like recognition, self-actualization and sense of belonging are also
satisfied due to effective communication.
• Since it is the responsibility of the management to make the best use of available
human resources, its first duty is to improve communication between itself and the
employees.
• There are basically five modes of communication:
• Reading
• Writing
• speaking
• seeing and
• listening.
• There are five levels of listening:
i. ignoring
ii. pretending listening
iii. selective listening
iv. attentive listening and
v. empathetic listening.
NATURE AND SCOPE OF
COMMUNICATION
• Communication is the process of passing messages from one mind to
another.
• The use of the word 'mind' is intended to imply the importance of
conveying facts, ideas, emotions, opinions and all other types of
instructions in such a way that they can be understood by the person
receiving them.
• A significant point about communication is that it always involves two
people-a sender and a receiver.
• In addition, whether the sender is an employee or a manager, he
usually wants his receiver to accept his ideas and then to act upon it.
PURPOSE OF COMMUNICATION
• Proper communication is needed at every step and serves several
purposes. It provides
1. information and understanding necessary for group work;
2. the attitudes necessary for motivation, Co-operation and job
satisfaction;
3. work satisfaction; and
4. assistance in decision-making because taking decisions needs
information. A good communication system results in better patient-
care and higher job satisfaction through better team-work.
Barriers to Communication
• The subject of communications cannot be studied in isolation because
it is fundamental to all hospital activity.
• The more complex an organization becomes, the greater is the need
for effective communication.
• There are many barriers to communication that must be overcome if
communication is to be made effective.
• Broadly speaking, communication is impeded by four types of
barriers-listening, physical, personal and semantic.
BARRIERS
Anything that hinders the process of communication at any of
these levels is a barrier to communication

Barriers to communication can be defined as the aspects or

conditions that interfere with effective exchange of ideas or
thoughts.
Listening Barriers
• Though there are other barriers in communication, failure to listen is
also one barrier.
• Often, we make assumption about what the other person is saying
and start thinking about something else.
• People who are under stress or are angry about something often do
not listen at all.
• As a good listener, the human resource manager should practise
active listening.
• There are three kinds of active listening that managers can employ for
different purposes.
• 1. Support listening involves encouraging the employees tell you more and
more so that the human resource manager can find out what they think or
feel.
• One can encourage the employees to say more through nods, smiles,
putting the person at ease, and by asking occasionally the employee to
elaborate on something that he is trying to say or what he has already said.
• His aim should be to understand him.
• 2. Responding listening is more conversational and involves asking
questions for clarification.
• 3. Retention listening is used when the human resource manager needs
together are factual information for policy making or in taking important
decisions.
CLASSIFICATION OF BARRIERS

PHYSICAL BARRIERS

PERSONAL BARRIERS

SEMANTIC BARRIERS

LANGUAGE BARRIERS

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS

CROSS-CULTURAL BARRIERS
• Physical Barriers: Physical barriers are environmental factors which prevent or
reduce the sending and receiving of communication.
• They include physical distance, distracting noise and similar interferences.
• For example, in a hospital, which functions round the clock in three shifts, the
senior officers may not see their subordinates for several days at a time.
• Personal Barriers: Personal barriers arise from judgments, emotions and the social
values of people.
• They cause a psychological distance between people.
• Psychological distance may entirely prevent communication, filter part of it or
cause misinterpretation.
• For example, three doctors were discussing the serious condition of a patient. The
sister-in-charge, who was working in the duty room, thought that they were talking
about her incompetence. She rushed to the matron and requested her to transfer
the patient to another floor because the doctors felt that she could not give
sufficient nursing care to their patient.
PHYSICAL BARRIERS
Noise
• Physical noise (outside disturbance)
• Psychological noise (inattentiveness)
• Written noise (bad handwriting/typing)
• Visual noise (late arrival of employees)
Time and Distance
• Improper Time
• Defects in Medium of communication
• Network Facilities
• Mechanical Breakdowns
• Semantic Barriers: Semantic barriers arise from the limitations of
language.

• Language may take any of three forms: words, pictures and actions.

• Words have several meanings and they become meaningless unless

they are put in the proper context

• The basic problem in communication is that the meaning which is

actually understood by one person may not be what the order
intended to imply
LANGUAGE BARRIERS

Those who speak do not know

Those who know do not speak
- Random Japanese Guy
 LANGUAGE BARRIERS

• Different Languages

• No Clarity in Speech

• Different Occupation

• Not being specific

PSYCHOLOGICAL BARRIERS
 Psychological
barrier?
Psychological barriers
can be described as the
cause of distorted
communication because
of human psychology
problems.
 Psychological barriers
• Attitude
• Emotions
• Filtering and distortion of message
• Status difference
• Closed mind
• Fields of experience
CROSS-CULTURAL BARRIERS
 Different Cross Cultural Barrier

• Language
• Values
• Social Relation
• Gestures
• Concept of space
• Concept of time
Planning Communication
• 1. Know your objective.: what is that you intend to accomplish by this communication?

• 2. Identify the audience. It is necessary to know whom you are communicating

• 3. Determine your medium. The method of communication

• 4. Tailor the communication to fit the relationship between sender and receiver.

• 5. Establish mutual interest.

• 6. Watch your timing.

• 7. Measure results.
 EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Effective communication skills are fundamental to success in
many aspects of life. Many jobs require strong communication
skills and socially people with improved communication skills
usually enjoy better interpersonal relationships with friends and
family.

Effective communication
is a key interpersonal
skill and by learning
how we can improve our
communication has many
benefits.
ESSENTIALS OF EFFECTIVE
COMMUNICATION
Clear information and objective
Treat People Equally
Attempt to Resolve Conflict
 Clarity
 Medium
Start with general questions
Opinion about current communication system
Amount of message must be adequate
Effective communication plans

• Do a needs assessment

• Start with general questions

• Organize the data into categories

• Opinion about current communication

• Analyse the response

DIRECTIONS OF COMMUNICATION
 Style

Style & Modes of Communication

Style & Modes of communication

Communication !
-
How important…

• Failure to communicate is a big “NO-NO”

• Different work requires different types of

communication

• Road to success
Styles Of communication

• Interaction with superiors

• Interaction with subordinates

• Interaction with colleagues

Interaction with superiors

• Make suggestion

• Assist

• Providing backup information

• Regular submission of reports

INTERACTION WITH SUBORDINATES

• Persuade

• Facilitating and explanation

• Equality in relationship

• Maintaining distance

• Cautious
Interaction with colleagues

• Making requests

• Sharing information

• Give and take

• Assisting
Modes of communication
• Notice board
• House magazine
• Suggestion scheme
• Meeting and conference
• Hospital and departmental letters
• E-mail
• Personnel policy manuals
Notice boards

• Well located

• Attractive

• Responsibility of staffs

• Outlive their usefullness

House magazine

• Team spirit and mutual understanding

• Explain policies of top level management

• Remind employees of the advantages of schemes

• There are two types of house magazine

a-Bulletin type
b-Proper magazine type
Suggestion schemes

• Encourages participation of employees

• Employees can give suggestions

• See through process

• Fair to all

• Employees can identify themselves with the

organization
Meetings & conferences
• Two way communication

• Putting up new ideas

• Free participation

• Sense of involvement
HOSPITAL & DEPARTMENTAL
LETTERS
• Used to indicate any changes in policies, salary
scales etc

• Chief executive officer writes such letters

• Utmost important to communicate

• Brief and simple

E-MAIL

• Democratizing

• Mundane tasks can be done

• Efficient and effective

• Modern and fast method

• Less expensive
Personnel policy manuals

• Indicates rules and regulations

• Promote mutual understanding and cooperation

• Effective vehicle of formal communication