Free Essay On Exemplification Essay: Communication

Establishment

This essay deals with communications as the process into which everyone is involved on a daily basis. It is impossible to overstate the importance of communications in the everyday life. It is necessary in each society to facilitate the achievement of the objectives and requires effective exchange of information. If people will not be able to share information, it is clear that they are not able to work together, formulate goals and achieve them. However, communication is a complex process consisting of difficult steps. Each of them is obligatory to make our thoughts understandable to another person.
Communication is a mutual exchange of information, that involves both parts of the process (Littlejohn, 1983, p. 9). The essence of communication, as follows from the definition, is to transfer the message containing the information from one person to another, one country to another. The act of transfer of the content in the course of communication is called signal. So, during the communication people create signals and transfer them to the addressee. Communications includes business correspondence, negotiation, interpersonal, cross-group communication, public, mass and political communication. Interpersonal communication is always characterized by verbal and non-verbal communication, emphasizing the importance of the last one. Non-verbal communication is much ancient than verbal. It includes gestures and facial expressions, dance, music, visual arts, sculpture and architecture. In fact, left over from the past centuries civil engineering constructions, temples, palaces, sculptures, paintings communicate without words about people’s life, feelings and relationships in the past. Transmission of information in the communicative process requires certain media-symbols and signs, as the communication is the process with a symbolic nature. The characters and symbols are objects in it, revealing the meaning which they contain, and due to the fact that the meaning is given to them by society. Such a meaning is the value of the character. So, communication is the process of transcribing characters and reading their social values. For example, in social communication, language is a vital sign system, institutionalized by society which gives it a historical meaning. The individual is born and formed in a specific social context, which already has a specific structure of the language. So the language of any society indirectly reflects the structure of society itself and sets the specificity of social communication.
With the development of globalization the crosscultural communication became the most important part of the communication as a sociologic science. The formation of global organizations and international structures requires a good methods of understanding. For example, Mescon and Albert presented in their book dedicated to Management the situation, which happened in 1982 in the company Johnson and Johnson when they found that some of the capsules of Tilenol were poisonous (Mescon & Albert, 1981, p.123). It was a catastrophy for the company’s immage and existence in general, but the management of the company established an effective communications with the most important social groups as media and consumers and line managers, who stood at the head of the laboratories and factories around the world (Mescon & Albert, 1981, p.123). These managers, in turn, contacted officials at lower levels and supervisors accountable to them. Finally, management of the company alerted about their problems all employees. The combination of these means of communication like meetings, phone conversations, formal reports, videotapes and conversations face to face had assured many of employees to stay. The example shows that the main element of the communication are communication skills. In the majority they define the effectiveness of communication. These usually include eye contact, maintaining the conversation, the ability to negotiate and to insist on the legal rights.
In general, society creates its own taboos and values, teaching people to distinguish them by the imposed standards (Samovar, 1994, p. 56). Culture influences and is influenced by any manifestations of human activity. People grow up and are brought up in a society guided by its common sense. For example, a gesture of a raised upwards thumb can be taken very controvertialy in different countries. In the UK or the United States, such gesture would be understood correctly and would significate that everything is fine. But in Greece and Iran it means an insult. The Greeks understood it as ‘shut up’, while for the Iranians it means something like ‘sit on it’. The same problem exists with the popular gesture ‘OK’ made with a thumb and forefinger in the form of a circle. This international character is widely used by divers under water to announce that everything is fine. In the United States it is often consumed in the normal daily interactions. But if a person shows it to someone in Brazil or Turkey, it will significate a real insult. People should be also careful in choosing a gift or treat. All people have very different cultural values. For example, it is important to remember communication with a Muslim that because of his religion, he does not eat pork and drink alcohol. While in Russia, for example, a bottle of good alcohol is the most spread present at work.

References

Mescon, M., & Albert, M. (1981). Chapter 6. In Management: Individual and organizational effectiveness. New York, N.Y.: Harper & Row.
Littlejohn, S. (1983). Theories of human communication (2nd ed.). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub.
Samovar, L. (1994). Intercultural communication: A reader (7th ed.). Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth.