The Relevance Of Communication Theories
One of the best definitions of communication was given by Lasswell when he described it as “ who says what to whom in what channel with what effect “.Basically communication is a means of passing information from one source to another. The form of communication can be verbal or technical or written or in any other form, but the end result is always the transmission of data or information from one source to another. Communication theory is the study of what actually can be termed as communication; of the processes by which people communicate; and of the meanings and conclusions derived from the communications. Communication theory is still at its nascent stage since it is interconnected with various other fields such as philosophy, sociology, anthropology and psychology. There are no established paradigms so far in this field, since it is a relatively new field, and a consensus on the various theories is yet to be achieved. Communication can take place at various levels, and presently many authors and teachers of this subject tend to divide communication theories into “contexts” or levels. The divide between mass communication and speech communication forms one of these levels, whereas individual communication and group communication is also another one of the levels. These levels often overlap each other, and are interrelated since they involve the same set of characters in many places.
Professor Albert Mehrabian, one of the pioneers in the field of communication, has presented a great statistic on the effectiveness of speech communication. He has stated that only 7% of the meaning is derived from the words that are spoken, 38% is from the manner in which they are spoken, whereas 55% is in the expressions in the face. Understanding something as basic as this can often form the basis of effective communication. Organizational behaviour places a lot of emphasis on communication theories. Effective communication, as we have already elucidated, forms the basis of many good relationships, and organizations depend a lot on good relationships. Communication theories, are and will keep changing as we begin to understand human relationships and organization behaviours better. As with all theories which are based on complex inter-personal relationships, change is the norm rather than the exception and accurate and simple conclusions are difficult to reach.
Patricia Stevens owns and operates Organizational Behaviours Organizational Behavior Website organizationalbehaviours.com. Learn more about Organizational Behaviors. This article may only be used if the author bio and links are included with the article.
|