Page 47 - DENG102_COMMUNICATION_SKILLS_II

Communication Skills-II

notes 3. Other connections between the people (e.g., friends, enemies, professional similarities or
differences, personal similarities or differences, age similarities or differences, philosophical
similarities or differences, attitudes, expectations).
In other words, WHAT you say is not nearly as important as HOW you say it!

Example: A dull message delivered by a charismatic person, filled with energy and
enthusiasm will be accepted as brilliant.

An excellent message delivered by someone who is not interested in the topic, will not engage the
enthusiasm of its intended audience.

3.1.1 advantages and Disadvantages

Like everything else in this world, formal conversation too has its own advantages and
disadvantages. Let us go through the following discussion to understand the same.

advantages
1. The official channels facilitate the habitual and identical information to communicate
without claiming much of managerial attention. Thus formal communications are easier to
enforce, to monitor and to improve.
2. The institutionalisation of communications, by the implementation of formal communication
channels, may contribute to assign a positive value to the communications within the
enterprise culture, thereby encouraging people to communicate.
3. Formal communications are better suited to formal and stable business processes.
4. Formal communications per se usually increase reliability and traceability. They may also
better justify investments which contribute to the improvement of communications in
terms of efficiency, reliability, and security.
5. A strong vertical division of work requires formal communications up and down
hierarchical levels of management.
6. Face-to-face conversation develops empathy between the speaker and the audience.

Disadvantages

1. In informal, or unstable processes, formal communications may introduce a lack of
flexibility in the processes and prevent the organisation from adapting them or treating
special cases.
2. Formal communications may hit some psychological barriers, and may be not used. Actor
capabilities to use formal communications must then be assessed and possibly improved.

3. Formal communications may put constraints on actors which decrease their efficiency;
therefore the actors would have a negative attitude towards using them.
4. Communication through channel of command greatly obstructs free and uninterrupted
flow of communication.
5. Formal communication is generally time consuming, cumbersome and leads to a good deal
of distortion.

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