Introduction to the Communication Process

Estimated Time: 1 hour

Communication is a constant feature of our daily lives, so it can be easy to overlook what is occurring during the process. Therefore, before jumping into writing specifically, we are going to:

1. Discuss the general process of communication.
2. Then, once we have a clear picture of the overall communication process, we will discuss the different barriers that can lead to miscommunication.

In its simplest form, the communication process is about accurately getting the thoughts in the sender's head into the receiver's head. There are a few key terms to know (click the ▷ to see the definitions):

A simple picture of communication could look like this:

• In the above image, the person on the left (the sender) has a thought in her head about a shoe that needs to be cleaned, so she transmits a message to the receiver that says, "Clean the boot". The receiver gets the message and translates it into her own thoughts.
• But something went wrong! The thoughts in the sender's mind and the receiver's mind are not the same.

Let's walk through the steps of the communication process to see how this happened.

Steps of the Communication Process

Miscommunication

What do you think caused the miscommunication in the "boot" example above?

It might be helpful to know that the sender is American and the receiver is British, and the word "boot" has different meanings in those two countries.

This situation is a good reminder that there are many factors (called communication barriers or noise) that can impact the effectiveness of communication. Additionally, communication does not occur in a vacuum. There is always a context around communication that affects the barriers that could lead to miscommunication.

This example may seem trivial. However, ineffective communication and miscommunication are common phenomena that can have severe consequences in personal and professional contexts.

📺 Watch this video to learn more about miscommunication.

Different Types of Miscommunication

Miscommunication occurs when the message the receiver decodes does not match the original message that the sender intended. There are three general categories of miscommunication: 1) Sender-related, 2) Channel-related, and 3) Receiver-related. However, most miscommunications fall into the category of sender-related. To understand this category better, let's explore it through the analogy of two people playing catch (i.e. throwing a ball back and forth).

Sender-related Miscommunication:

✍🏿 The responsibility for effective communication sits with the sender. The sender is the one with the idea that they want to communicate and must do what is required to get the idea to the receiver as intended with minimal effort from the receiver.

⚾️ When playing catch, the person who throws the ball is responsible for throwing it so that the receiver can catch it. If the sender throws the ball over the receiver's head, and the receiver has to jump to catch it. It is the sender's fault if the ball is not caught.

✍🏿 The sender needs to know their audience to tailor the delivery of their message to match their audience's interests, expectations, knowledge level, etc.

⚾️ When playing catch, the thrower should know the skill level and habits of the person that they are throwing to so that they can throw the ball to them in a way that allows the catcher to catch it. For example, the thrower would throw the ball at a different height when throwing to someone that was 185 cm tall versus someone that was 150 cm tall.

✍🏿 The sender should avoid distractions like incoherent narratives or grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, which might make it harder for the receiver to understand the message as intended.

⚾️ When playing catch, the thrower should avoid distractions (e.g., flashing lights, making too much noise) that might make it harder for the catcher to focus on the ball that is being thrown at them.

A note on the other two categories:

Channel-related Miscommunication - Miscommunications can also arise due to the channel that was chosen for conveying the message. The channel used can send unintended messages and influence how well the receiver can process the information and give feedback. Ultimately, a channel-related miscommunication could still be considered sender-related if the sender chose an inappropriate channel for their message. An example of this is sending an important and urgent message to a colleague via email, when it might have been better to call or text them due the time sensitive nature of the communication.

Receiver-related Miscommunication - While the sender holds most of the responsibility in communication, the receiver has a responsibility to focus their attention on the message sent to them. A receiver-related miscommunication occurs when they fail to do so. An example of a receiver-related miscommunication would be if someone gets a vital email with instructions for accessing the online content for a course, but they don't read the email due to a lack of motivation and thus are unable to follow the course instructions.

Discuss: Miscommunication

💬 Think back over the last few months at work or school. Have you been involved in a miscommunication incident?

Post a summary of this experience in the Padlet below. When summarising, include the following information:

• What were the details of the miscommunication?
• Was it related to the sender, receiver, or channel?
• What was the consequence or outcome of the miscommunication?
• What could you have done to avoid the miscommunication?

Communication Barriers

Several barriers can lead to miscommunications. These can be separated into the following categories: 1) Semantic, 2) Physical or Environmental, 3) Psychological or Attitudinal, which are presented in the image below with some examples.

Semantic barriers occur because words can have different meanings to different people. This could be due to language or culture (as with the "boot" example), but it could also be due to the use of jargon or unfamiliar words. Such miscommunications can occur in professional contexts where acronyms and buzzwords are used to communicate concisely but result in miscommunication if, 1) the receiver is not aware of what the term means, or 2) the receiver and sender have different understandings of a word's meaning. Lack of clarity in writing can also lead to semantic barriers because the receiver may not be able to decode the message's meaning at all.

Physical and environmental barriers are things like how much time someone has available to encode or decode a communication, things in the environment that cause distractions (e.g. noise, temperature, other people, spelling and grammatical errors), or the physical proximity between the sender and receiver.

Similar to semantic barriers, the root of psychological and attitudinal barriers is that people are unique. People come into every interaction with distinct perspectives, interests, experiences, culture, cognitive abilities, etc. As a result, the attention they place on different communications, their attitude and emotional state, their assumptions, and their ability to process information varies significantly. This can lead to a mismatch between what the sender intended and what the receiver interprets.

Check Your Understanding

❓ Take this quiz to see how well you understand the key features of the communication process.

References

eCampus Ontario (2018). Communication for Business Professionals. eCampus Ontario

Heller, D. (2020). Building a Career in Software - A Comprehensive Guide ot Success in the Software Industry. Springer Science+Business Media.

Smith, Jordan. Communication @ Work. eCampus Ontario

Talbot, Fiona. (2019) How to write effective business English. 3rd Edition. Kogan Page Ltd

Thomas, P., Paul, D., Cadle, J. (2012). The Human Touch: Personal Skills for Professional Success. BCS.

University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. (2016). Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing