AA 4306 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Chronemics, Independent Clause, Kinesics
COMM 212- Final Exam (First Half) 2013
Chapter 1- Getting the Message Across
Business Communication as a Path to Success
-How to write, speak, and listen on the job reflects who you are professionally, how you treat
others, and how you do business. We now have flatter organizations; therefore, team work
environments require advanced communication.
-Soft Skill: A social, interpersonal, or language skill that complements a person’s technical
skills. The ability to communicate effectively.
-Hard Skill: A technical skill (like tools) a person require for a job.
-Ability to communicate has benefits like: enhanced problem-solving, decision making,
increased efficiency, workflow, productivity, improved professional image, group dynamics.
Communicating for a Changing World
-The Knowledge Economy: The knowledge worker makes and sells idea-based products:
software, consulting, financial services, music, designs, etc. Knowledge products have an
advantage as their value increases on a global scale. Challenge in a knowledge economy is to
ensure continued funding for R&D, continue to draw on an educated workforce and to fight brain
drain. The need to explore new and emerging markets, negotiate buy and sell overseas, market
products and enter into joint ventures is anchored in effective communications with people from
around the world of different ages, races, genders, etc.
-Things we need to consider today: the knowledge economy, flatter/decentralized organizations,
business on a global scale, diverse employee base, team work environments, advanced
communication technologies (social media).
-Communication: Transactional and relational process involving the meaningful exchange of
information.
-Communication Theory: A system of ideas for explaining communication. Theoretical
frameworks mentioned below.
-Rhetoric: The use of language to persuade an audience
-Semantics: The study of the words and symbols we choose.
-Semiotics: the study of how meaning is assigned and understood
-Cybernetics: the study of how information is processed and how communication systems
function.
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The Communication Process
-Communication can be understood in terms of being situated (embedded in a particular
environment or subculture context), relational (involves the ability to interact effectively and
ethically, according to what is needed in a given moment), and transactional (a cooperative
activity in which people adapt to one another).
Transactional Communication Model
-Message: Any type of oral, written, or non-verbal communication that is transmitted by a
sender to an audience.
-Sender: The participant in the transaction who has an idea and communicates it by encoding it
in a message.
-Encoding: The act of converting ideas into code in order to convey a written, oral, or non-
verbal message.
-Channel: A communication pathway or medium over which a message travels (email, face-to-
face, etc.)
-Receiver: The person for whom a message is intended, who decodes the message by extracting
meaning from it.
-Decoding: The act of extracting meaning from spoken, written and non-verbal communication.
-Feedback: The receiver’s response to a message that confirms if the original message was
received and understood
Barriers to Effective Communication
-Noise: Anything that could distort the meaning of the message
-Communication Barriers: Problems that can affect the transaction leading to
confusion/misunderstanding.
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-Channel Overload: The inability of a channel to carry all transmitted messages (inbox is full)
-Information Overload: A condition where a receiver cannot process all transmitted messages
-Emotional Interference: A psychological factors (joy, anger, hostility) that creates problems
with the communication transaction
-Semantic Interference: Interference caused by ambiguity, jargon, etc. One word may mean
different things to different people (bypassing)
-Physical and Technical Interference: Caused by something external to the sender or receiver
(computer crashes, failed cellphone connection)
-Mixed Messages: Conflicting perceptions of a message that may result in miscommunication
-Channel Barriers: Inappropriate choices of channels that impede communication
-Environmental Interference: Age and cultural gaps can create differences in perception that
influence how a message is interpreted
Overcoming These Barriers: Be timely and time-sensitive, purposeful, good listener, careful
reader, context-sensitive and proactive
Communication Contexts
-Interpersonal communication (between two people aka dyadic, face-to-face), small group
communication (between three or more, common goal), organized communication (happens in a
hierarchical social system, memo, meetings, common goals), intercultural communication
(people of different cultures), mass communication (small group sends a message usually in
email form to a large audience).
-Non-Verbal Communication: Communication that does not use words but takes place through
gestures, eye contact, and facial expressions. Communicates emotions, attitudes, greetings and
cues of status…
-Non-Verbal communication cues can play 5 roles in relation to verbal communication:
1. Repetition (A computer technician says “I’m fixing this computer” as he points to it)
2. Contradiction (Job candidate says she’s confident in CV but doesn’t make eye contact in
interview)
3. Regulation (tapping a person’s shoulder to regulate a conversation)
4. Substitution (actions speak louder than words)
5. Accenting and Complementing (Pounding the table while exclaiming “we have to cut our
budget now!”
-Non-Verbal skills and abilities fall into 3 general domains: Encoding, Decoding and Regulation
Components of Non-Verbal Communication
-Use of space-> proxemics (study of use of space): how much space a person maintains in a
conversation…
-Use of time-> chronemics (study of time in communication): How punctual someone is, how
long they are willing to listen…
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