1. 3.4.3 Communication Chinese Whispers
Your teacher will write down a short note. This will be shown to a student at one end of the class. That student will need to whisper the note to the next person who whispers it to the next person and so on. No hesitation or asking for the message to be repeated is allowed. The last student needs to write it down and pass it back to the teacher.
Has the message stayed the same?
Did anyone deliberately change the message?
What problems did the group have?
Do you think large organisations have problems with communication?
3.4.3 Communication
3.4.3 Communication

2. 3.4.3 Communication

3. 3.4.3 Communication
Communication
Communication is the exchange of ideas from one person to another. Effective and efficient communication is essential if a business is to be successful.
Communication requires a sender and a receiver. In a business this flows up and down the chain of command and across levels on the hierarchy. A medium or channel of communication is required in order to send a message. This may take a variety of forms, including:
Oral – this allows for immediate communication between two parties and can take the form of face-to-face, telephone, video conferencing etc.
Written – increasingly done through , texting and Twitter rather than letters. This allows the sender and receiver to have a record of the communication
Visual or non-verbal – this is likely to be combined with oral and written communication to emphasise a point or to provide graphics and data e.g. on a PowerPoint presentation

4. 3.4.3 Communication

5. Communication
Insufficient communication can lead to serious problems within a business.
If staff have not had appropriate communication a number of problems may arise:
Misunderstanding between employees meaning that jobs might not be completed correctly
Unhappy customers as orders are not delivered on time
Supplies not being ordered on time delaying the process of orders or the production of goods or services
Poorly motivated workforce as employees do not know what is happening within the business
English philosopher Sir Francis Bacon stated ‘Knowledge is power’. How might this be applied in the workplace?
3.4.3 Communication

6. Communication
Excessive communication can lead to information overload when employees have too much information to process.
Staff might miss out on important information leading to a problem in the production of the good or service
Too much time might be spent on trivial matters detracting from the core role of the employee
This might be demotivating for employees who feel swamped in paperwork and s
Computers thwart, contort, and befuddle us. We mess around with fonts, change screen backgrounds, slow down or increase mouse speed. We tweak and we piddle. We spend countless hours preparing PowerPoint slides that most people forget in seconds. We generate reports in duplicate and triplicate, and then some, that end up serving only one function for most of the recipients - to collect dust.
Jeff Davidson
3.4.3 Communication

7. Communication at school
How does school communicate important information with:
Students
Parents/guardians
Teachers
Community?
How effective are each of these methods?
Is communication insufficient, excessive or about right?
3.4.3 Communication

8. Motivation
Poor communication can seriously affect the motivation of staff in the workplace:
Not knowing what is going on at work
Hearing about issues through unofficial channels (the ‘grapevine’)
Being inundated with work issues outside of work time
Not being able to operate efficiently due to lack of information
How many different methods of communication do you use in a day?
How many of these are of electronic form?
Apart from when you are asleep what is the longest period of time that you go without using electronic information e.g. Twitter, , text, Facebook etc.
3.4.3 Communication

9. Barriers to effective communication
There are a number of barriers stopping effective communication. These include:
Physical barriers – larger organisations operate in different locations, impacting on face to face discussions
Cultural barriers – a clash of cultures might occur with different interpretations of messages
Language barriers – misunderstanding of words and instructions in a cosmopolitan workplace
Perception – people often interpret the same message in different ways
3.4.3 Communication

10. Question time Identify three channels of communication. (3 marks)
Explain one reason why effective communication is important to a business (4 marks)
Discuss how a business might overcome barriers to communication within the workplace. (8 marks)
3.4.3 Communication