INTRODUCTION TO

COMMUNICATION
SKILLS

What is Communication?
Communication - A process of transmitting
information from one person or place to another.
Therefore, PERCEPTION is a key part of
communication.
Perception A process by which individuals attend
to, organize, interpret & retain information from
their environment.
However, perception can be a key obstacle to
communication too.

Perception
Because of filtering, people exposed to the
same information will often disagree about
what they saw or heard.

Perception
Attention
The process of noticing the particular stimuli.

Organization
The process of incorporating new information into
your existence knowledge.

Interpretation
The process of attaching meaning to new
knowledge.

Retention
The process of remembering interpreted
information.

What do you see?

Perception Problems
Why?
Because people exposed to the same communication
& information can end up with completely different
ideas & understandings.

2 types of common perception problems:

Selective perception
Tendency to notice & accept objects & information
consistent with our values, beliefs & expectations,
while ignoring or screening out or not accepting
inconsistent information.
Closure
Tendency to fill in the gaps where information is
missing, that is, to assume that what we dont know
is consistent with what we already know

Perception of Others
Attribution Theory
Basic need to understand & explain the causes of
other peoples behavior
2 types which are:
Internal attribution
External attribution

Defensive bias
Tendency to perceive themselves as personally &
situational similar to someone who is having difficulty
or trouble

Fundamental attribution error

Tendency to ignore external causes of behavior & to
attribute other peoples actions to internal causes

Self Perception
Self serving bias
Overestimate our value by attributing successes to
ourselves (internal cause) & attributing failures to
others or environment (external causes)

The Communication Skills

The communication process:

Communication Process
Sender
Source of information

Encoding
Putting a message into a written, oral or symbolic form that can be recognized
and understood by the receiver

Decoding
The process which the receiver translates the written, oral or symbolic form of a
message into an understood message

Message
Information in the form of verbal symbols, written or movement

Feedback
A return message that indicates the receiver understand the message

Noise
Anything that interferes with the transmission of the intended message

Kinds of Communication
Formal Communication
Official channels that carry organizationally approved
message & information
3 formal communication channels:
Downward communication
Flows for higher to lower levels in an organization
Upward communication
Flows from lower to higher levels in an
organization
Horizontal communication
Flows among the managers & workers who are at
the same organizational level

Kinds of Communication
Informal Communication
Also known as grapevine is transmission of
messages from employee to employee outside formal
communication channels
2 informal communication channels:
Gossip Chain
One highly connected individual shares
information with many other managers &
workers
Cluster Chain
Numerous people simply tell a few of their
friends

Gossip Chain & Cluster

Chain

F
E

A
Gossi
p
Chain

Cluster
Chain

A
B

C
D

E
F
G

Kinds of Communication
Nonverbal Communication
Does not involve words
2 types of nonverbal communication:
Kinesics
Movements of the body & face
Paralanguage
Includes the pitch, rate, tome, volume & speaking
pattern