Communication is a two-way process of exchanging messages between two persons or groups of persons.
The participants involved in communication assume the roles of senders and receivers. As senders, participants form messages and attempt to communicate them to others.
As receivers, they receive the messages and react to them. This sending and receiving of information are known as the process of communication. The process of communication takes place in different stages.
See Also: Importance of Business Communication
Stages in the Process of Communication
The Important stages in the process of communication are as under and let’s discuss them below one by one in detail.
- Context/Stimulus
- Ideation Stage
- Symbolizing or Encoding Stage
- Transmission Stage
- Decoding Stage
- Action/Reply Stage
Context / Stimulus
Context is the situation or circumstances in which communication occurs. Context may be any specific setting that works as a stimulus and rouses a person to action.
In other words what prompts a person to think about sending a message in a specific context is stimulus.
‘The stimulus may be internal or external. Internal stimulus includes sender’s urge, behavior, opinions, emotions, experience, preferences, etc.
External stimulus may be simply a telephonic call, a letter, message, etc that activates the sender to think about sending message,
Ideation Stage
Roused and activated by the stimulus the sender begins the process of communication. To be able to send his message he needs to develop ideas.
The ideation stage is, in fact, the creating stage, The sender thinks about and creates the ideas which he wants to communicate.
At this stage, he does not take any practical step. All that he does is a mental exercise concerned with thinking and planning the message.
Symbolizing Or Encoding Stage
Once the ideas are created the sender begins the process of transforming the ideas into symbols and organizing them into a message.
This is taken as the act of encoding the message. There are numerous symbols at the disposal of the sender.
He should, therefore, select the symbols that will best convey his message. In written communication, it is the words that are used as symbols to encode the message.
Transmission Stage
After the message is encoded; the next step is to transmit it. Transmission means the sending or conveying of the message to the receiver.
Here the sender selects the channel or ‘the path of communication. Like symbols channels of transmission are also numerous.
The sender chooses the channel that conforms to the ultimate end of the transmission of message.
Decoding Stage
With transmission of the message the first cycle of the process of communication ends. This is the cycle that describes the role of the communicator.
Now with the decoding stage the second cycle begins. In this cycle, the communicate receives the message and decodes the message to the best of his understanding.
To avoid failure of communication, it is important that the communicate decodes and understands the message in the same meaning and spirit in which it has been conveyed to him.
See Also: What is Business Communication
Action/Reply Stage
The action stage is the final step in the process of communication. In absence of any action or reply by the communicate, the process of communication remains incomplete and ineffective. A business process is the process of action and reaction.
It is, therefore, important that the receiver after he has received the message takes some action on it and responds to the communicator accordingly.
