Organizational Change

                                                                       

The Importance of Communication
Gregory Williams
Grantham University

                                                                                       

The Importance of Communication
In our society today, people cannot function if they do not know how to communicate.   If organizations and small businesses are going to have success, each person within that organization must master the art of communication.   There are many different definitions circulating around as to what defines communication.   Ralph Losee (1999) defines communication as a complementary informative process.   According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., Communication is the exchange of meanings between individuals through a common system of symbols.   Whichever definition individuals decide to use, they should remember that communication is a two way process.   As this communication progresses, there is an interchange of ideas, feelings, or facts known as the process of communication.   This process of communication is a sequential of events that goes from the sender to the receiver and then back to the sender.   This is how the process works.   The sender is the person who has the idea and wants to convey it to the receiver.   The formation of the idea is the first step of communication.   The idea is then converted into a message by either verbal or non-verbal methods.   This process of converting the thought of the sender into a message is called encoding.   The message is very important because this is the content that the sender wants to convey.   The thought, idea, emotion or anything the sender wants to convey whether it’s verbal or non-verbal, is called the message.   The way or the medium of sending the message is called the channel.   The channel can be oral, written or non-verbal.   The receiver is the person who receives the encoded message.   Decoding is the process where the received message...