Business Communications

Portfolio 2
Section: 2
Nauryzbek Mukhanov
ID: 20090801

Review: Making and Communicating Meaning

This article describes different communication channels, theme of communications

theory and study of semantics. The problems and cases covered in this article underline that even

a simple model of communication process is influenced by many variables and therefore

knowledge of key points and features of each part of communication process will allow person to

communicate effectively and build strong communications channels.

There are different communication channels and each of them has its own strengths and

weaknesses. Therefore in a particular company managers should decide which type of

communication channel they will prefer for different situations. In my opinion the choice of the

right channel for communication in different cases is very important and it can seriously

influence the company’s performance. For example in IT companies like Microsoft the e-mail is

one of the frequently used channels because people who work in this sphere are familiar with

technology and this type of communication is comfortable for them. In opposite if we will

consider a small service company, for example laundry services then the e-mail channel won’t be

so appropriate because it will take a lot of time for manager to use the e-mail every time he or

she needs to communicate to the staff. In this case most likely this manager will prefer direct

channels and use shorter communication channels to avoid channel overloading, noise and

misunderstanding. We can notice there are many factors which affect choice of channels for

communication and there is no unique channel which will suit to all organizations and therefore

while making choice managers should take into account structural and behavioral characteristics

of the company to develop an effective communication channels.

Communication theory allows us to determine what happens when people communicate.

In my opinion the study of semantics which emphasizes on how our behavior is affected by the
words and different symbols we usually use for communications together with communication

theory create a very powerful foundation to study and improve knowledge in this sphere. I was

very interested while reading the principles of semantics and in my opinion they show us how

many barriers and misunderstanding can appear while interpretation, encoding and decoding the

message and how we can avoid these problems. Basically principles of semantics include 4

stages: perception, interpretation, choice, encoding and decoding. Each of these stages is

presented in a very detailed way. As I’ve noticed at each step of preparing a message there are

many features and components which influence the entire process of communication but if they

won’t be taken into account that can dramatically influence communication. Different perception

due to the cultural and historical features, wrong interpretation of observations and inferences,

stereotyping, frozen evaluation and polarization – all of these factors very negatively affect

communication process. On my own experience I know that stereotyping can be very dangerous.

When you talk to the person first time your conclusions are simultaneous, you just put this

person into a one category with similar people you’ve already know but consequently you

understand that this perception was wrong and actually there are significant difference between

this person and the group of people with which you had associated this person. I’m sure that if

we will percept information without any stereotypes, without blindering and bypassing then our

communication will become far more successful and reliable.

Concluding I want to underline that these concepts of communication and semantic

principles can be very useful for all people involved in business. Nowadays the need in

information exchange and communications is growing rapidly. Therefore people need to

communicate more and more and if they will able to build communication channels and provide

effective communication that will obviously increases there opportunities and bid their chances

for success.