SCHOOLING
VOLUME 1, NUMBER1, 2010
Communication: The Process,
Barriers,
And Improving Effectiveness
Fred C. Lunenburg
Sam Houston State University
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ABSTRACT
Communication is the process of
transmitting information and common understanding from one person to another.
In this article, I discuss the communication process, barriers to communication,
and improving communication effectiveness.
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The study of communication is
important, because every administrative function and activity involves some
form of direct or indirect communication. Whether planning and organizing or
leading and monitoring, school administrators communicate with and through
other people. This implies that every person’s communication skills affect both
personal and organizational effectiveness (Brun, 2010; Summers, 2010). It seems
reasonable to conclude that one of the most inhibiting forces to organizational
effectiveness is a lack of effective communication (Lutgen-Sandvik, 2010).
Moreover, good communication skills are very important to ones success as a
school administrator. A recent study indicated that recruiters rated
communication skills as the most important characteristic of an ideal job
candidate (Yate, 2009).
In this article, I will help you to
better understand how school administrators can improve their communication
skills. To begin, I define what is meant by communication and then discuss the
process by which it occurs. Following this, I examine barriers to communication
and ways to improve communication effectiveness.
Defining Communication and
Describing the Process
Communication can be defined as the
process of transmitting information and common understanding from one person to
another (Keyton, 2011). The word communication is derived from the Latin word, communis,
which means common. The definition underscores the fact that unless a common
understanding results from the
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Sender
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Decode
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exchange of information, there is no
communication. Figure 1 reflects the definition and identifies the important
elements of the communication process (Cheney, 2011)
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Encode
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Medium
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Decode
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Sender
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Message
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Receiver
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Decode
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Noise
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Encode
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Feedback
Figure 1. The communication process.
Two common elements in every
communication exchange are the sender and the receiver. The sender initiates
the communication. In a school, the sender is a person who has a need or desire
to convey an idea or concept to others. The receiver is the individual to whom
the message is sent. The sender encodes the idea by selecting words, symbols,
or gestures with which to compose a message. The message is the outcome of the
encoding, which takes the form of verbal, nonverbal, or written language. The
message is sent through a medium or channel, which is the carrier of the
communication. The medium can be a face-to-face conversation, telephone call,
e-mail, or written report. The receiver decodes the received message into
meaningful information. Noise is anything that distorts the message. Different
perceptions of the message, language barriers, interruptions, emotions, and
attitudes are examples of noise. Finally, feedback occurs when the receiver
responds to the sender's message and returns the message to the sender.
Feedback allows the sender to determine whether the message has been received
and understood.
The elements in the communication
process determine the quality of communication. A problem in any one of these
elements can reduce communication effectiveness (Keyton, 2011). For example,
information must be encoded into a message that can be understood as the sender
intended. Selection of the particular medium for transmitting the message can
be critical, because there are many choices.
For written media, a school
administrator or other organization member may choose from memos, letters,
reports, bulletin boards, handbooks, newsletters, and the like. For verbal
media, choices include face-to-face conversations, telephone, computer, public
address systems, closed-circuit television, tape-recorded messages, sound/slide
shows, e-mail, and so on. Nonverbal gestures, facial expressions, body
position, and even clothing can transmit messages. People decode information
selectively. Individuals are more likely to perceive information favorably when
it conforms to their own beliefs,
FRED C. LUNENBURG
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values, and needs (Keyton, 2010).
When feedback does not occur, the communication process is referred to as
one-way communication. Two-way communication occurs with feedback and is more
desirable.
The key for being successful in the
contemporary school is the ability of the school administrator to work with
other school stakeholders (faculty, support staff, community members, parents,
central office); and develop a shared sense of what the school/school district
is attempting to accomplish – where it wants to go, a shared sense of
commitments that people have to make in order to advance the school/school
district toward a shared vision and clarity of goals. As school administrators
are able to build a shared mission, vision, values, and goals, the
school/school district will become more effective. Building a relationship
between school administrators and other school stakeholders requires effective
communication.
For example, research indicates that
principals spend 70 to 80% of their time in interpersonal communication with
various stakeholders (Green, 2010; Lunenburg & Irby, 2006; Matthews &
Crow, 2010; Sergiovanni, 2009; Tareilo, 2011; Ubben, Hughes, & Norris,
2011). Effective principals know how to communicate, and they understand the
importance of ongoing communication, both formal and informal: faculty and
department meetings; individual conversations with parents, teachers, and
students; and telephone calls and e-mail messages with various stakeholder
groups.
The one constant in the life of a
principal is a lot of interruptions – they happen daily, with a number of one-
and three-minute conversations in the course of the day. This type of
communication in the work of the principal has to be done one on one - one
phone call to one person at a time, one parent at a time, one teacher at a
time, one student at a time; and a principal needs to make time for these
conversations. For example, a principal may be talking with a parent with a
very serious problem. She may be talking with a community member. She may be
talking with the police about something that went on during the school day. The
principal must be able to turn herself on and off in many different roles in
any given day.
Barriers to Effective Communication
A school administrator has no
greater responsibility than to develop effective communication (Pauley, 2010).
Why then does communication break down? On the surface, the answer is
relatively simple. I have identified the elements of communication as the
sender, the encoding, the message, the medium, the decoding, the receiver, and
the feedback. If noise exists in these elements in any way, complete clarity of
meaning and understanding does not occur. The author, George Bernard Shaw
wrote, ‖The greatest problem with communication is the illusion that it has
been accomplished‖ (Shaw, 2011). Four types of barriers (called ―noise,‖ see
Figure 1) are process barriers, physical barriers, semantic barriers, and
psychosocial barriers (Eisenberg, 2010).
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Process Barriers
Every step in the communication
process is necessary for effective and good communication.. Blocked steps
become barriers. Consider the following situations:
•Sender barrier. A new administrator
with an innovative idea fails to speak up at a meeting, chaired by the
superintendent, for fear of criticism.
•Encoding barrier. A
Spanish-speaking staff member cannot get an English- speaking administrator to
understand a grievance about working conditions.
•Medium barrier. A very upset staff
member sends an emotionally charged letter to the leader instead of
transmitting her feelings face-to-face.
•Decoding barrier. An older
principal is not sure what a young department head means when he refers to a
teacher as "spaced out."
•Receiver barrier. A school
administrator who is preoccupied with the preparation of the annual budget asks
a staff member to repeat a statement, because she was not listening attentively
to the conversation.
•Feedback barrier. During a meeting,
the failure of school administrators to ask any questions causes the superintendent
to wonder if any real understanding has taken place.
Because communication is a complex,
give-and-take process, breakdowns anywhere in the cycle can block the transfer
of understanding.
Physical Barriers
Any number of physical distractions
can interfere with the effectiveness of communication, including a telephone
call, drop-in visitors, distances between people, walls, and static on the
radio. People often take physical barriers for granted, but sometimes they can
be removed. For example, an inconveniently positioned wall can be removed.
Interruptions such as telephone calls and drop-in visitors can be removed by
issuing instructions to a secretary. An appropriate choice of media can
overcome distance barriers between people.
Semantic Barriers
The words we choose, how we use
them, and the meaning we attach to them cause many communication barriers. The
problem is semantic, or the meaning of the words we use. The same word may mean
different things to different people. Words and phrases such as efficiency,
increased productivity, management prerogatives, and just cause may mean one
thing to a school administrator, and something entirely different to a staff
member.
Technology also plays a part in
semantic barriers to communication. Today's complex school systems are highly
specialized. Schools have staff and technical experts developing and using
specialized terminology—jargon that only other similar staff and
FRED C. LUNENBURG
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technical experts can understand.
And if people don't understand the words, they cannot understand the message.
Psychosocial Barriers
Three important concepts are
associated with psychological and social barriers: fields of experience, filtering,
and psychological distance (Antos, 2011)). Fields of experience include
people's backgrounds, perceptions, values, biases, needs, and expectations.
Senders can encode and receivers decode messages only in the context of their
fields of experience. When the sender's field of experience overlaps very
little with the receiver's, communication becomes difficult. Filtering means
that more often than not we see and hear what we are emotionally tuned in to
see and hear. Filtering is caused by our own needs and interests, which guide
our listening. Psychosocial barriers often involve a psychological distance between
people that is similar to actual physical distance. For example, the school
administrator talks down to a staff member, who resents this attitude, and this
resentment separates them, thereby blocking opportunity for effective
communication.
Successful communication by school
administrators is the essence of a productive school organization. However, as
discussed previously, communications do break down. Several communication
theorists (Abrell, 2004; Auer, 2011; Larson, 2011; Shettleworth, 2010; Weiss,
2011) have focused on the major areas where failures in communication most
frequently occur. The following are the major areas where communication breakdowns
most frequently occur in schools:
•Sincerity. Nearly all communication
theorists assert that sincerity is the foundation on which all true
communication rests. Without sincerity—honesty, straightforwardness, and
authenticity—all attempts at communication are destined to fail.
•Empathy. Research shows that lack
of empathy is one of the major obstacles to effective communication. Empathy is
the ability to put one's self into another's shoes. The empathetic person is
able to see the world through the eyes of the other person.
•Self-perception. How we see
ourselves affects our ability to communicate effectively. A healthy but
realistic self-perception is a necessary ingredient in communicating with
others.
•Role perception. Unless people know
what their role is, the importance of their role, and what is expected of them,
they will not know what to communicate, when to communicate, or to whom to
communicate.
•Efforts to distort the message. Pitfalls
in communication often occur in our efforts—both consciously and
unconsciously—to distort messages.
•Images. Another obstacle to
successful communication is the sender's image of the receiver and vice versa.
For example, on the one hand, school administrators are sometimes viewed as not
too well informed about teaching, seen as out of touch with the classroom, and
looked on as paper shufflers. On the other hand, some school administrators
view teachers as lazy, inconsiderate of administrative problems, and
unrealistic about the strengths and weaknesses of their students. Such views
lead to a
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"we-they" attitude.
•Vehicle for message. The vehicle by
which we choose to send messages is important in successful communication. In
most cases, the vehicle to be used is defined by the situation.
•Ability to communicate. Some of the
ways we communicate raise barriers by inhibiting discussion or causing others
to feel inferior, angry, hostile, dependent, compliant, or subservient.
•Listening ability. Frequently,
people fail to appreciate the importance of listening, do not care enough to
become actively involved with what others are saying, and are not sufficiently
motivated to develop the skills necessary to acquire the art of listening.
•Culture. Our cultural heritage,
biases, and prejudices often serve as barriers to communication. The fact that
we are African-American or white, young or old, male or female have all proved
to be obstacles in communicating effectively.
•Tradition. Past practice in a
school helps determine how, when, and what we send and receive. For example, a
school administrator who has an authoritative style may find that his staff
will not share information readily. If a new administrator with a collaborative
style replaces the authoritarian one, the new administrator may find that it
takes a while for his colleagues to speak out on important issues.
•Conditioning. The manner in which
communication is conditioned by the environment influences the accuracy of
messages sent and received. If we work for administrators who set a climate in
which we are encouraged to share information, we soon become conditioned to
communicate accordingly.
•Noise. A major barrier to
communication is what communication experts call noise. Noise consists of the
external factors in the channels and the internal perceptions and experiences
within the source and the receiver that affect communication.
•Feedback. Faculty and staff tell
their leaders that they want feedback. However, feedback improperly given can
impede communication rather than improve it. Administrators and followers both
need more training in how to use feedback more productively.
Improving Communication
Effectiveness
Effective communication is a two-way
process that requires effort and skill by both sender and receiver.
Administrators will at times assume each of these roles in the communication
process. In this section, I discuss guidelines for improving communication
effectiveness, including senders’ and receivers’ responsibilities, and
listening.
Sender's Responsibilities
Several communication theorists
(Cheney, 2011; Keyton, 2011; Tourish, 2010) have gleaned ten commandments of
good communication, which are particularly applicable to the sender. These
commandments, together with a basic understanding of the communication process
itself, should provide a good foundation for developing and maintaining an
effective set of interpersonal communication skills, which school
FRED C. LUNENBURG
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administrators can use when
communicating with various school stakeholders.
1.School administrators need to
clarify their ideas before communicating. The more systematically administrators
analyze the problem or idea to be communicated, the clearer it becomes. This is
the first step toward effective communication. Many communications fail because
of inadequate planning. Good planning must consider the goals, attitudes, and
needs of those who will receive the communication and those who will be
affected by it.
2.Administrators need to examine the
true purpose of each communication. Before administrators communicate, they
must ask themselves what they really want to accomplish with their message—obtain
information, initiate action, or change another person's attitude?
Administrators need to identify their most important goal and then adapt their
language, tone, and total approach to serve that specific objective.
Administrators should not try to accomplish too much with each communication.
The sharper the focus of their message, the greater its chances of success.
3.Administrators need to consider
the total physical and human setting. Meaning and intent are conveyed by more
than words alone. Many other factors influence the overall impact of a
communication, and administrators must be sensitive to the total setting in
which they communicate: the circumstances under which an announcement or decision
is made; the physical setting—whether the communication is made in private or
otherwise; the social climate that pervades work relationships within the
school or department and sets the tone of its communications; custom and
practice—the degree to which the communication conforms to, or departs from,
the expectations of the audience. Be constantly aware of the total setting in
which you communicate. Like all living things, communication must be capable of
adapting to its environment.
4.Administrators need to consult
with others, when appropriate, in planning communications. Frequently, it is
desirable or necessary to seek the participation of others in planning a
communication or in developing the facts on which to base the communication.
Such consultation often lends additional insight and objectivity to the
message. Moreover, those who have helped plan the communication will give it
their active support.
5.Administrators need to be mindful,
while communicating, of the overtones as well as the basic content of the
message. The administrator’s tone of voice, expression, and apparent
receptiveness to the responses of others all have tremendous impact on those the
administrator wishes to reach. Frequently overlooked, these subtleties of
communication often affect a listener's reaction to a message even more than
its basic content. Similarly, the administrator’s choice of
language—particularly her awareness of the fine shades of meaning and emotion
in the words used—predetermine in large part the reactions of the listeners.
6.Administrators need to take the
opportunity, when it arises, to convey something of help or value to the
receiver. Consideration of the other person's interests and needs— trying to
look at things from the other person's point of view—frequently points up
opportunities to convey something of immediate benefit or long-range value to
the other person. Staff members are most responsive to administrators whose
messages take staff interests into account.
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7.Administrators need to follow up
their communication. An administrator’s best efforts at communication may be
wasted, and she may never know whether she has succeeded in expressing her true
meaning and intent if she does not follow up to see how well she has put her
message across. An administrator can do this by asking questions, by
encouraging the receiver to express his or her reactions, by follow-up
contacts, and by subsequent review of performance. An administrator needs to
make certain that every important communication has feedback so that complete
understanding and appropriate action result.
8.Administrators need to communicate
for tomorrow as well as today. Although communications may be aimed primarily
at meeting the demands of an immediate situation, they must be planned with the
past in mind if they are to maintain consistency in the receiver's view. Most
important, however, communications must be consistent with long-range interests
and goals. For example, it is not easy to communicate frankly on such matters
as poor performance or the shortcomings of a loyal staff member, but postponing
disagreeable communications makes these matters more difficult in the long run
and is actually unfair to your staff and your school organization.
9.Administrators need to be sure
that their actions support their communications.
In the final analysis, the most persuasive
kind of communication is not what administrators say, but what they do. When
leaders’ actions or attitudes contradict their words, others tend to discount
what they have said. For every administrator, this means that good supervisory
practices—such as clear assignment of responsibility and authority, fair
rewards for effort, and sound policy enforcement—serve to communicate more than
all the gifts of oratory.
10.Administrators need to seek, not
only to be understood, but to understand—be a good listener. When an
administrator starts talking, he often ceases to listen, at least in that
larger sense of being attuned to the other person's unspoken reactions and
attitudes. Even more serious is the occasional inattentiveness a leader may be
guilty of when others are attempting to communicate with him. Listening is one
of the most important, most difficult, and most neglected skills in
communication. It demands that the administrator concentrate not only on the
explicit meanings another person is expressing, but also on the implicit
meanings, unspoken words, and undertones that may be far more significant.
Thus, an administrator must learn to listen with the inner ear if he is to know
the inner person.
Receiver's Responsibilities
Communication depends on the ability
not only to send but also to receive messages. So the ability to listen
effectively greatly enhances the communication process. But many of us are not
good listeners. Effective listening skills can be developed, however.
Summarized following are ten rules for good listening (Kneen, 2011)):
1.Stop talking. You cannot listen if
you are talking. For example, Polonius in Hamlet said: "Give every man
thine ear, but few thy voice."
2.Put the talker at ease. Help a
person feel free to talk. This is often called a permissive environment.
FRED C. LUNENBURG
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3.Show a talker that you want to
listen. Look and act interested. Do not read your mail while someone talks.
Listen to understand rather than to oppose.
4.Remove distractions. Don't doodle,
tap, or shuffle papers. Will it be quieter if you shut the door?
5.Empathize with talkers. Try to
help yourself see the other person's point of view.
6.Be patient. Allow plenty of time.
Do not interrupt a talker. Don't start for the door or walk away.
7.Hold your temper. An angry person
takes the wrong meaning from words.
8.Go easy on argument and criticism.
These put people on the defensive, and they may clam up or become angry. Do not
argue: Even if you win, you lose.
9.Ask questions. This encourages a
talker and shows that you are listening. It helps to develop points further.
10.Stop talking. This is first and
last, because all other guides depend on it. You cannot do an effective listening
job while you are talking.
Nature gave people two ears but only
one tongue, which is a gentle hint that they should listen more than they talk.
Listening requires two ears, one for meaning and one for feeling. Leaders who
do not listen have less information for making sound decisions.
Active Listening
Active listening is a term
popularized by the work of Carl Rogers and Richard Farson (n.d.) and advocated
by counselors and therapists (Brownell, 2009; Burstein, 2010). The concept
recognizes that a sender's message contains both verbal and nonverbal content
as well as a feeling component. The receiver should be aware of both components
in order to comprehend the total meaning of the message. For instance, when a
staff member says to her supervisor, "Next time you ask me to prepare a
report, please give me some advance notice." The content conveys that the
staff member needs time, but the feeling component may indicate resentment for
being pressured to meet a deadline with such short notice. The supervisor,
therefore, must recognize this feeling to understand the staff member's
message. There are five guidelines that can help school administrators to
become more active listeners (Rogers & Farson, n.d.).
1.Listen for message content. The
receiver must try to hear exactly what the sender is saying in the message.
2.Listen for feelings. The receiver
must try to identify how the sender feels in terms of the message content. This
can be done by asking: "What is he trying to say?"
3.Respond to feelings. The receiver
must let the sender know that her feelings, as well as the message content are
recognized.
4.Note all cues, verbal and
nonverbal. The receiver must be sensitive to the nonverbal messages as well as
the verbal ones. If the receiver identifies mixed messages, he may ask for
clarification.
5.Rephrase the sender's message. The
receiver may restate or paraphrase the verbal and nonverbal messages as
feedback to the sender. The receiver can do this by allowing the sender to
respond with further information.
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The last guideline is one of the
most powerful of the active listening techniques and is used regularly by
counselors and therapists. It helps the receiver avoid passing judgment or
giving advice, and encourages the sender to provide more information about what
is really the problem.
Conclusion
Communication is the process of
transmitting information and common understanding from one person to another.
The elements of the communication process are the sender, encoding the message,
transmitting the message through a medium, receiving the message, decoding the
message, feedback, and noise.
A number of barriers retard
effective communication. These can be divided into four categories: process
barriers, physical barriers, semantic barriers, and psychosocial barriers. To
improve the effectiveness of communications, schools must develop an awareness
of the importance of sender's and receiver's responsibilities and adhere to
active listening skills.
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Mtani
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