The Human Communication Process

According to Shockley-Zalabak, human communication is the process through which people attempt to create shared realities. In other words, it is the means by which we invite others to understand the world as we do. Mutual understanding is important for organizations because it enables organizational members to take part in coordinated action.

Organizational communication can be conceptualized as a process that includes the same elements as the human communication process. For this reason, she reviews the communication model, which synthesizes a complex understanding of the process of human communication. The model proposes that all communication takes place within a context or environment that influences people's expectations and behavior. For example, we might expect to talk about different topics at a party than we do at a religious service. The key ideas of the model are as follows:

1. When we communicate with others, we act as both a sender and receiver of messages. A person who wishes to communicate with another individual seeks to share some central ideas (i.e., meanings). In order to do so, the sender must first encode his/her ideas into symbols (consciously chosen words and gestures) that can be sent to the other person. The process of encoding involves selecting the symbols that will best represent one's meanings.
    
2. Once meanings are encoded, they form a message. Messages are transmitted via a communication channel from a source to a receiver. Types of channels include air and light (as in face-to-face communication), telephone, e-mail, and other communications technologies.


3. Once the other person receives the message, he/she must decode it by attributing meaning to the symbols and signs that comprise the sender's message. Senders choose symbols consciously. Signs are unconscious nonverbal behaviors that indicate a sender's emotional meanings (e.g., a person who selects words to describe a car accident might also unconsciously communicate that the event was scary by speaking quickly, fidgeting, and sweating). The receiver uses his/her own experiences to make sense of (i.e., to decode) the sender's message. The receiver has then ascribed meaning to the sender's symbols and signs. These meanings may or may not match those of the sender.


4. The receiver can now offer feedback to the sender through a response to the message. By providing feedback, the receiver becomes a sender. The receiver must encode his/her meanings into a message that can be transmitted to a receiver via a channel. The process of communication thus repeats.

The human communication process contains multiple sources of potential error. For example:

• When encoding a message, a person may have difficulty finding the right words to represent his/her cognitive meanings (e.g., "I can't find the right words to say this, but . . . ").
• When decoding a message, a person may ascribe meanings to the sender's symbols and signs that the sender did not intend (e.g., "He said my dance moves looked 'sick.' My dance moves aren't tasteless. I am outraged.").
• Transmission through the channel can be disrupted by distortions called "noise." Noise can occur both internally (e.g., inattention, a wandering mind, etc.) and externally (e.g., loud music, poor lighting, etc.).

The communication model thus highlights the difficulty of communication. When we interact with others, we can never be perfectly understood. Our job as communicators is to consider how our audience will react to our messages and do our best to overcome sources of error. A significant point is that misunderstanding also can be created by willful deception. A sender can deliberately attempt to deceive someone by distorting or misusing the communication process. For example, an employee who has not accomplished much work on a project may purposely misrepresent his progress to his boss in order to avoid criticism or appear more productive than he actually is.