Communication: process, importance and channels

Communication (from the Latin communis, 'common') is the exchange of ideas, facts and feelings to create common understanding.

The communication process:

• Sender: the person who has an idea to share.
• Message: the content.
• Encoding: converting the message into words, symbols or gestures.
• Media: the channel (a letter, a call, an email, a meeting).
• Decoding: the receiver turning the symbols back into meaning.
• Receiver: the person the message is for.
• Feedback: the receiver's response, showing the message was understood.
• Noise: anything that disturbs the message on the way.

Why it matters: it brings coordination; keeps the organisation running smoothly; is the basis of decisions; raises managerial efficiency; builds cooperation; and helps leadership and morale.

Formal communication follows the official channels. It is vertical (downward, like orders; upward, like a leave application) or horizontal (between people at the same level in different departments, such as the production and marketing managers). Formal networks: single chain, wheel (everything passes through one superior), circular, free flow and inverted V.

Informal communication, the grapevine, arises from personal relationships. It is fast but often distorted. Its networks: single strand, gossip, probability and cluster (the most popular, where each person tells a few trusted others).