Key Idea: A message is only useful if the right person gets it, understands it and acts on it. This topic is the ways a business communicates, how to choose one, and what gets in the way.
Methods
- Formal: through official channels, such as a notice, a report, a meeting, a memo.
- Informal: outside them, such as a chat by the ovens or the grapevine.
- Written, verbal, visual or electronic, each with its strengths.
Choosing one
- Is it urgent? Does it need a reply? Does it need a record? Is it personal?
- A safety rule needs writing down; bad news needs a face-to-face talk.
- The same message can need two methods to reach everyone.
Barriers
- Between people: jargon, language, feelings, noise, too much information.
- In the organization: too many levels, the wrong method, shifts that never meet.
- Working apart adds distance, time gaps and no tone or face.
The words to know
| Word | Means | Do not confuse with |
|---|---|---|
| Communication | passing information from a sender to a receiver, who understands it | sending a message nobody reads |
| Formal communication | communication through the business's official channels | written communication: a formal meeting is verbal |
| Informal communication | communication outside the official channels, such as the grapevine | unimportant communication: rumours can spread fastest |
| Barrier to communication | anything that stops a message being received or understood as meant | a message that is simply late |
| Jargon | specialist words that people outside a group do not understand | a different language |
| Information overload | so many messages that the important one is missed | a long message on its own |
Name the barrier or method, explain what it does to the message, then show it in the case: who sent what to whom, and what went wrong or right. For choosing a method, match it to the message: urgent, needing a record, or personal.
Exam-style question
Kofi, manager of Lena's Bakery Ltd's Market Square shop, emails his orders to Mill Lane at the end of a long day. The bakers start at 2 a.m. and read the emails on a phone by the ovens. Last Saturday an order for 40 extra loaves, near the bottom of a long email, was missed. Explain two barriers to communication between the shop and the bakehouse.
Model answer plan
See the mark-by-mark plan — for / against / judgement, with marking guidance — in study mode.
Important: 'There was noise' is a label. Say how the noise stopped the message: the baker did not hear the change to the order, so the wrong bread was baked. Every barrier needs its effect on this message, in this case.
Tap each card to check yourself.
Formal or informal: a notice on the staff board about a new safety rule? Formal. It goes through an official channel and leaves a record.
Why does a rumour spread faster than an official announcement? The grapevine is informal and person to person; it fills the gap when the business says nothing.
Name two barriers inside an organization. Any two: too many levels of hierarchy, the wrong method, shifts that never meet, unclear channels.
Best method to tell a baker her job is changing? Face to face, then in writing: personal news needs a conversation, and the change needs a record.
What does working from home take away from communication? The quick word in passing, tone and face, and what people overhear.
Explain one drawback of relying on verbal communication. There is no record, so the message can be forgotten or changed as it is passed on.
Exam tips
- Formal and informal are about the channel; written and verbal are about the method.
- Choose a method by the message: urgent, needing a record, or personal.
- Every barrier needs its effect on the message in the case.
- Two barriers means two different barriers, each developed.
- Working apart makes old barriers bigger: distance, time gaps, no tone or face.