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READING FOR DETAIL.
A Understanding a printed text
The following passage introduces the topic of maintaining good communica-
tions and relationships between managers and the people they work with.
Look at the way the passage is constructed, paying attention to the headings.
Then read through the text carefully, looking up anything you do not
understand and answer the questions given below the text.
TEXT 1. How Information Travels
1. Managers do not work in isolation; once they acquire
Channeling information, they will often wish to pass it on. To be most
Information effective a message should be sent in the form most suited
to the receiver (and that is not necessarily the form easiest
to you, the sender). When you submit a recommendation to
your boss you will summarize the arguments as best you can
stressing the facts that support your case. When you were
originally collecting the information you may have received
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some items that later turn out to be irrelevant. You will not
wish to waste the time of senior management with these
items – it is your job to filter out the unnecessary.
2 In a similar vein, when decisions are passed down to
Management and you, from on high, you will wish to “translate” them into
Communication appropriate terms for your staff. This can sometimes
take the form of receiving orders and passing on detailed
instructions. The manager is thus the hub of a system of
communications – a one-man communication centre, as
well as being a powerhouse of ideas, an initiator of actions,
and a thinking man to boot. Information and questions
come up to him; answers, decisions, and instructions go
down from him. The junior manager is in the same relation
ship to his superior as are his staff to him. The good
manager is a good communicator – and usually, vice versa.
3 Communications of all kinds are what make an
The Formal Route organization work. Without adequate communications an
organization will soon grind to halt. And communications
are usually intended to follow the route of the established
management hierarchy.
4 Formal communications will pass up and down the
The Grapevine pyramid of management as intended. What is too often
forgotten is that there are other communication paths.
In any organization there are inevitably social links that
are unofficially and informally used to transmit “interesting’
information. (‘Interesting’ information can be defined as
that affecting people.) The ‘grapevine’ includes not only
the social links but also everything from office gossip to
post-room misinformation. Every office, every factory,
every organization has its grapevine.
The good communicator will be aware of the grapevine
and plug into it. Not all that he obtains from it will be
complementary, nor will it always be correct, but it will
always be interesting and often useful. At times the manager
can feed information into the grapevine himself. If he
is not to lose all credence though, his input must always be
correct.
5. Communication is a two-way process. It is not
Two-way complete until the message has been received and under-
Communication stood. The extend to which the message is understood
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is more important than the way or form in which it is sent.
This means that the transmission of messages should
always be in the form best understood by the person
receiving them. Some things are better said, some best
written down. The principle is repeated: think first, last
and all the time about the recipient or audience or reader.
Adjust the writing, the speaking and arithmetic to suit him.
And if pictures will help, give him a picture.
Clearly, the style and quality of communication will
depend not just on the sender and the receiver but also on
their relationship to each other. A small, informal organisation
will suggest a different style of communication to a
large rigidly-controlled, hierarchical one. In all cases it is
necessary to select the best mode for communication.
Methods of communication
6. Fundamentally, man communicates by sight or by
Communication sound, but within those categories, there are others. We
Modes can define a manager’s communication modes as:
verbal – the written word
oral – the spoken word
visual – the illustration, and
numerical – the written and interpreted number,
electronic – using a computer.
Further, within the above categories, there are the
receivers of the messages. For every writer there must
be a reader, for every speaker a listener, and for every
artist a viewer.
7. We have explained that a communication is not
When does made until it is received and understood. The prime
communication essential in any form of communication is therefore
take place? to know the audience. It is important to accept the
concept that people tend to receive – to hear, to read,
to see – very largely only what they want to receive.
They seek out what is expected and what is familiar
while trying to ignore or reject what is new. Every
communication should be made with that thought in
mind. The answer is to ensure that every message is
clear, simple and- as far as possible – unambiguous.
However, no matter how much the sender of the message
may try, the taking of that message depends on the past
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experience(the training) of the recipient. This characteristic
can be partially allowed for in the communication process –
by departing from the well known and moving in short,
simple steps towards the really new.
8. It is very important to know that for any
The Purpose of communication to be worth while, it must have a purpose-
Communication and that purpose is always persuasion. This is not to say
that there are no purposeless communications: there are
too many, but they are usually of little value to anyone.
Every genuine communication seeks to influence the
recipient. It may seek to persuade him to take some course
of action, to make a decision one way or another, or merely
to apply his mind to accepting more information.
If we think about persuasion it is clear that we are most
likely to succeed if acceptance of the persuasion is made
easy.
9. We have identified the fundamental principle of communi-
cation as: transmit all communications in the manner
best suited to the recipient’s understanding. This rather ponderous phrase could itself be better communicated as : write or speak clearly and simply so that the reader or listener can easily understand.
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