Question No.

1
Write a detailed note on internal and external forms of communication in an organization.

Answer:
Communication assumes a fundamental importance, both in internal and external
organizational dynamics, allowing the individuals to interact more easily as well as to
have a better performance.
Communication, in what the actor's organizational activity is concerned, is probably the
aspect that is the most connected to “Global Performance”. Without it enterprises could
hardly establish strategic plans to reach their main objectives through a holistic
perspective. According to this point of view, communication relies on two essential
functions for its global activity: promoting and coordinating internal and external
communication. Now let us discuss these two forms of communication in detail.

Internal Communication

Internal communication involves all contextual activities of an organization which are

responsible for all the information production and flux between the organizational actors
and it is also inherent to all activities developed by them.
Related to that, one can stress the activity of selecting and distributing news, producing
and managing multimedia content, organizing formative activities as seminars and
workshops, as well as putting into concept and elaborating propositions. For internal
communication, written media may be:
• Memos, reports, bulletins, job descriptions,
• Posters, notes, employee manuals,
• Electronic bulletin boards, even internal faxes.

Any kind of internal communication is more easily or clearly conveyed in writing

rather than face-to-face or on the telephone.
1) Content Production and Management
Multimedia content production and management is another activity developed by the
 Education and Communication team in order to produce and distribute news on the
website, regarding its interventional areas of domain.
2) Press Review
This function exists in order to inform all employees about articles published in the
press related to Halos as well as its interventional areas like ICT's development
(Information and Communication Technologies); it also includes information related to
cultural and artistic activities.
The process relies on searching, selecting and distributing information, so that employees
can constantly be aware of new developments, in a context of challenges and continuous
innovation.
It also has a far more reaching goal, which is to stimulate the searching of information
and to motivate the employees for an active exercise of knowledge construction in
several contexts.
3) Organization of Formative Actions
Being a “learning organization”, this enterprise is concerned with its own active
learning and evolution, thus it is focused in developing formative actions.
Halos has developed and organized diverse events as workshops and seminars in order to
divulge knowledge on different domains and to present its own products, promoting
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) not only as a business support but
also as an organization’s dynamic and determinant element.
4) Cultural development proposals:
These activities consist in organizing guided visits to diverse cultural spaces for its
employees. As a learning organization, those initiatives are meant to increase the
employees' interest in Education, Art and Culture.
Valuing knowledge and increasing the diversity of cultural knowledge stimulates
motivation for self-formation and personal development in employees.
It is perceived that the search for knowledge as a professional and a personal
development may increase the organizations' actors’ self-esteem and self-confidence,
therefore contributing to their performance and improvement of competences.
 Every organization has an informal communication network that supplements official
channel. It is important source of information. It is casual conversation of an
organization.
External Communication
Communication that takes place outside the organization is called external
communication. The right letter, proposal, report, telephone call, or personal conversation
can win back an angry customer, create a desire for a firm’s product or services,
encourage collections, motivate performance, and in general, create goodwill.
External communication is the casual communication among customers, suppliers,
investors, e-mail face to face conversation, phone calls and discussions as well. It
comprehends all information developed by the company, which is related to its activity
that is released in the press, for public knowledge. Such information is crucial in order to
promote the company’s image. These activities are developed around the company’s
image management and they are related to its thematic and concepts.

Various Aspects of External Communication

Following are the various aspects of external communication:-
• Employment agencies
• Investors and stockholders
• Foreign governments and offices
• The courts
• Trade associations, competitors and other industries.
• Distributors, franchisees, wholesalers, and special interest groups.
• Professional services (auditors, legal, etc.).
• The media:
• Letters, reports, telegrams, cablegrams,
• Mailgrams, faxes, telexes, postcards, contracts,
• Ads, brochures, catalogs, news releases etc.
• Customers and clients are also included in external communication.
• Image management
 Image management is one of the company's most relevant concerns, not only because
of its own presentation, but also because it is considered as a success-factor.
It is commonly assumed that the first image perception is the most important one as far as
impression formation is concerned. However, this company bets on an esthetical and a
visual approach so as to foment a constant reflection on what is seen and how it is seen.
In this context, and contrary to the majority of companies, organization demonstrates a
collective motivation in constantly synchronizing its external image with the accessible
products.
Another way to divulge its image is to provide the media with information on the
company's relevant events and areas of intervention. Although external communication
is formal, informal contacts with outsiders are important for learning customer’s needs.
Plenty of high level manager recognize the value of keeping in touch with “the real world
by creating opportunities to talk with and get feedback from customers and frontline
companies. Letters, pamphlets, annual reports, interviews with the news media, etc are
the different ways of External communication.
Although external communication is formal, informal contacts with outsiders are
important for learning customer’s needs. Plenty of high level manager recognize the
value of keeping in touch with “the real world by creating opportunities to talk with and
get feedback from customers and frontline companies.

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Question No.2

You have studied communication process, barriers of communication in your course;

analyze with examples complete process of communication.

Answer:

Communication Process:

Communication is the process of sending and receiving messages with attached

meaning. Communication process has the following basic aspects, which are source,
receiver, channel, noise and feedback. The source is the person that encodes a message in
understandable terms, and then transmits it via a communication channel that carries the
message. There are various communication channels such as face-to-face meetings,
emails, memorandums, faxes, telephone, internet, voice-mail, among others. All the
communication channels are all subject to noise and distortion which can have a big
effect on the message been sent. The receiver is the person to whom the message is sent
and if there are noises or other barriers a feedback can spot the error. Feedback is the
response from the receiver back to the source. For communication process to be
successful it has to be effective and efficient which depends largely on the kind of
channel been used.
Communication can best be summarized as the transmission of a message from a
sender to a receiver in an understandable manner. The importance of effective
communication is immeasurable in the world of business and in personal life. From a
business perspective, effective communication is an absolute must, because it commonly
accounts for the difference between success and failure or profit and loss. It has become
clear that effective business communication is critical to the successful operation of
modern enterprise. Every business person needs to understand the fundamentals of
effective communication.
The flow of communication process is very important to the success of any
organization; it is a part of almost everything that happens on a daily basis in an
organizational environment. The advancement of information technology has brought so
many communication channels that are use within an organization. In my workplace, we
use so many means of communication; the most successful is the face-to-face, telephone
and sometime electronic emails while the unsuccessful means is the fax machines. Fax
messages are on the machine without people knowing that they have messages. The all
have their own positive and negative side to it, however the most commonly used with
less complains among employees is telephone and face-to-face communication. The
communication process is the guide toward realizing effective communication. It is
through the communication process that the sharing of a common meaning between the
sender and the receiver takes place. Individuals that follow the communication process
will have the opportunity to become more productive in every aspect of their profession.
Effective communication leads to understanding.
The communication process is made up of four key components. Those components
include encoding, medium of transmission, decoding, and feedback. There are also two
other factors in the process, and those two factors are present in the form of the sender
and the receiver. The communication process begins with the sender and ends with the
receiver. The sender is an individual, group, or organization who initiates the
communication. This source is initially responsible for the success of the message. The
sender's experiences, attitudes, knowledge, skill, perceptions, and culture influence the
message. "The written words, spoken words, and nonverbal language selected are
paramount in ensuring the receiver interprets the message as intended by the sender.” All
communication begins with the sender.
Communication establishes relationships and makes organizing possible. Every message
has a purpose or objective. The sender intends -- whether consciously or unconsciously --
to accomplish something by communicating. In organizational contexts, messages
typically have a definite objective: to motivate, to inform, to teach, to persuade, to
entertain, or to inspire. This definite purpose is, in fact, one of the principal differences
between casual conversation and managerial communication. Effective communication in
the organization centers on well-defined objectives that support the organization's goals
and mission. Supervisors strive to achieve understanding among parties to their
communications. In short we can say that the communication process is comprised of
seven steps:
1. Sender: Sender initiates the message.
2. Message: Expressed purpose is known as message, which is transferred from sender to
receiver.
3. Encoding: The message must then be encoded by sender by converting it into symbolic
form.
4. Channel: How the message travel through (medium).
5. Receiver: The person receives the message.
6. Decoding: The process through which the receiver interpret the message.
7. Feedback: Feedback will go back to the sender confirming that the message has been
understood the way it is intended.
Successful and effective communication within an organization stems from the
implementation of the communication process. All members within an organization will
improve their communication skills if they follow the communication process, and stay
away from the different barriers. It has been proven that individuals that understand the
communication process will blossom into more effective communicators, and effective
communicators have a greater opportunity for becoming a success. Now let us discuss
some of the barriers in the process of communication.

Barriers in the process of communication:

At any point in the communication process a barrier can occur. Barriers keep us from
understanding other’s ideas and thoughts. Barriers can appear at any point of the
communication loop.
There are two types of barriers:
Internal Barriers: Examples of internal barriers are fatigue, poor listening skills, attitude
toward the sender or the information, lack of interest in the message, fear, mistrust, past
experiences, negative attitude, problems at home, lack of common experiences, and
emotions.
External Barriers: Examples of external barriers include noise, distractions, e-mail not
working, bad phone connections, time of day; sender used too many technical words for
the audience, and environment. Barriers keep the message from getting through.
These can be the main barriers in the process of communication:-

1. Physical barriers

Physical barriers in the workplace include:

• marked out territories, empires and fiefdoms into which strangers are not allowed
• closed office doors, barrier screens, separate areas for people of different status
• Large working areas or working in one unit that is physically separate from
others.

Research shows that one of the most important factors in building cohesive teams is
proximity. As long as people still have a personal space that they can call their own,
nearness to others aids communication because it helps us get to know one another.

2. Perceptual barriers

The problem with communicating with others is that we all see the world differently. If
we didn't, we would have no need to communicate: something like extrasensory
perception would take its place.

3. Emotional barriers

One of the chief barriers to open and free communications is the emotional barrier. It is
comprised mainly of fear, mistrust and suspicion. The roots of our emotional mistrust of
others lie in our childhood and infancy when we were taught to be careful what we said
to others. As a result many people hold back from communicating their thoughts and
feelings to others. They feel vulnerable. While some caution may be wise in certain
relationships, excessive fear of what others might think of us can stunt our development
as effective communicators and our ability to form meaningful relationships.

4. Cultural barriers
When we join a group and wish to remain in it, sooner or later we need to adopt the
behavior patterns of the group. These are the behaviors that the group accepts as signs of
belonging.

The group rewards such behavior through acts of recognition, approval and inclusion. In
groups which are happy to accept people and where people are happy to conform, there is
a mutuality of interest and a high level of win-win contact.

Where, however, there are barriers to the membership of a group, a high level of game-
playing replaces good communication.

5. Language barriers

Language that describes what we want to say in our terms may present barriers to others
who are not familiar with our expressions, buzz-words and jargon. When we couch our
communication in such language, it is a way of excluding others. In a global market place
the greatest compliment we can pay another person is to talk in their language.

One of the more chilling memories of the Cold War was the threat by the Soviet leader
Nikita Khrushchev saying to the Americans at the United Nations: "We will bury you!"
This was taken to mean a threat of nuclear annihilation.

However, a more accurate reading of Khrushchev’s words would have been: "We will
overtake you!" meaning economic superiority. It was not just the language, but the fear
and suspicion that the West had of the Soviet Union that led to the more alarmist and
sinister interpretation.

6. Gender barriers
There are distinct differences between the speech patterns in a man and those in a
woman. A woman speaks between 22,000 and 25,000 words a day whereas a man speaks
between 7,000 and 10,000. In childhood, girls speak earlier than boys and at the age of
three, have a vocabulary twice that of boys.

The reason for this lies in the wiring of a man's and woman's brains. When a man talks,
his speech is located in the left side of the brain but in no specific area. When a woman
talks, the speech is located in both hemispheres and in two specific locations.

This means that a man talks in a linear, logical and compartmentalized way, features of
left-brain thinking; whereas a woman talks more freely mixing logic and emotion,
features of both sides of the brain. It also explains why women talk for much longer than
men each day.

7 Interpersonal barriers

There are six levels at which people can distance themselves from one another:

1. Withdrawal is an absence of interpersonal contact. It is both refusal to be in

touch and time alone.
2. Rituals are meaningless, repetitive routines devoid of real contact.
3. Pastimes fill up time with others in social but superficial activities.
4. Working activities are those tasks which follow the rules and procedures of
contact but no more.
5. Games are subtle, manipulative interactions which are about winning and losing.
They include "rackets" and "stamps".
6. Closeness is the aim of interpersonal contact where there is a high level of
honesty and acceptance between people.

Working on improving our communications is a broad-brush activity. We have to change

our thoughts, our feelings, and our physical connections.
That way, we can break down the barriers that get in our way and start building
relationships that really work. Effective communication in the organization centers on
well-defined objectives that support the organization's goals and mission.

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