What is Communication Process? Definition and 7 Steps [Explained]

What is Communication Process?

The communication process is the series of steps a sender follows to effectively and efficiently send messages, information, or ideas to the receiver. It includes a successful execution of all the steps or components involved in the process of communication.

Communication is the process of exchanging messages or information between two or more people to come to an understanding. The process of communication starts when one person (sender) desires to communicate a fact, idea, opinion, and other knowledge to someone else (receiver).

For effective communication, there must be a sender, message, and receiver.

7 Steps of Communication Process: Defining

Communication can be said effective when the receiver receives the message in the way the sender has intended to send it.

For effective communication, it is essential to complete some common steps from both the sender and receiver. There are 7 essential steps to complete the communication process, which are sender or source, encoding, message, medium or channel, decoding, receiver, feedback, and noise.

Related: Decision-Making Process

Sender

In the communication process, the sender is the first person. The sender is a source of information. The sender is the person who delivers messages.

A sender may be a person, a manager, a non-manager, a department, or an organization itself. A manager may communicate with other managers, subordinates, supervisors, clients, customers, and outsiders.

Basically, a sender is the initiator of the process of communication. He formulates a message through his idea, needs, intention, and source, which he wants to communicate with his receivers. For this, the sender must conceptualize the message before it is encoded.

Encoding

The second step of the communication process is encoding the message. Encoding is the process of giving form and meaning to the message. It means selecting the means through which to deliver the intended message.

When the sender expresses a message in terms of words, symbols, gestures, drawings, or other means is a form of encoding.

Its foremost purpose is to translate thoughts and feelings into a code that others are capable to get. It makes the message meaningful and understandable to the receiver.

Message

The output of the encoding process is the message. The message is the subject material that the sender wants to communicate to the receiver.

The message is also known as the heart of communication because without a message there is nothing to exchange.

A message may consist of facts, opinions, ideas, requests, suggestions, etc of the sender. The sender expresses his views, ideas, and facts in terms of messages either in writing or verbally to the receiver.

Related: What is Communication Network?

Medium or Channel

It refers to the selection of channels of communication through which a sender conveys his encoded message to the receiver. It bridges the gap between the sender and the receiver in communicating messages of common interest.

To communicate messages different mediums can be used on the basis of their effectiveness. For example, oral communication can be done through telephone, meditation, group discussion, etc.

Whereas written communication can be made through the means of letters, memos, reports, newspapers, etc. However, the choice of a suitable medium of communication depends upon the sort and quality of the message.

Receiver

The receiver is the 2nd person in the communication process. He is the person, who receives messages, understands the same, and takes the necessary steps for a response.

From the technical point of view, communication becomes complete only when the message is received and understood by the receiver.

Thus an effective message must be receiver-oriented, not sender-oriented. A recipient does not acknowledge a message till he gets the exact meaning of the message.

Decoding

Decoding refers to the process by which the receiver translates the message into terms meaningful to them. It is the means of understanding messages by the receiver. In other words, decoding is termed the transmission of understanding between the sender and receiver.

It is essential to get knowledge or meaning of the message as per the intention of the sender. If words in letters, reports, circulars, newspapers, etc. are decoded not in accordance with the sender’s intention, they will be misinterpreted, which may create a misunderstanding between the sender and the receiver.

Such events create problems in the organizations. The effectiveness of communication can be realized only when the receiver is able to decode the message in accordance with the sender’s intention.

Feedback

Feedback is the last step in the communication process. It decides whether the message is surely understood and whether the necessary effort is practiced by the receiver as meant by the sender.

When the receiver is able to decode messages received from the sender, he provides the response on time. Therefore, the sender should send information in simple and clear orders by thinking about the receiver’s views.

The success of the communication process can be measured only when the sender is able to receive a positive response from the receiver. The feedback to the sender completes the process of communication.

Noise

It may or may not come in the process of communication. Noise is any of the elements that disrupt the effectiveness of communication. It disturbs the free flow of information from one person to another. It is part of the communication process. It should be minimized in order to make communication effective.

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