Communication: A Critical Management Skill

Communication: A Critical Management Skill

Introduction

Effective communication is an integral part of management. It is like a road map which will guide you to your destination, but we have to be careful with the dead ends and the wrong turns that can lead to delays in reaching our destination. If communication is handled carefully, it can help a lot in the management processes. To understand and to get the correct meaning out of a communication is in real terms an effective communication. Communication basically is more of a mental exercise. Communicating in the best manner and creating an effective communication will eventually benefit the sender and the receiver involved in the communication process.

Discussion

Effectiveness of Communication- A critical factor for law enforcement agencies

Oral or written mode of communications, both are equally essential and critical for the law enforcement agencies. The mission of any police department or any other law enforcement agency is to apprehend and punish the ones who violate the law. The communication process holds a lot of importance for the enforcement agencies. When a criminal is arrested, it is followed up by a series of investigations starting from the suspect getting arrested, then submission of arrest information to the state government then justifying all the accusations in the court about the arrest of the suspect (Wallace and Roberson, 2009).

Communication Process

Communication is a process in which there is transfer of information from the sender to the receiver. The two elements that are the basis to start up with a communication are the sender and the receiver. The sender initiates the conversations and the receiver gets the final message. Now, the medium through which the sender sends the message to the receiver can be either a face to face communication, or a phone call or internet based or even the form of a report. The main elements, the medium basically determine the effectiveness of a communication.

Feedback is the final step to give an end to the communication and the most important step as well. Without the feedback of the receiver, the communication will simply be a one-way communication and the sender will never know if the receiver had got the message which he intended to convey (Lunenburg, 2010).

Barriers to Communication

Following are a few barriers to effective communication:-

Different Interpretations

Many things that we want to convey through a communication are not conveyed and interpreted in the same meaning as we intend to. For example, if we ask somebody to bring the reports soon, that “Soon” can be interpreted as an hour for some people and may be a month for another.

Language Barrier

People belonging to different cultures, different nations and having different languages creates language barrier that cannot be understood by everybody easily. This creates a diverse environment. These language barriers then pose limitations in a communication process.

Distractions

Distractions can occur both internally as well as externally. The most common external distraction that can hinder the effectiveness of a communication is noise. Noise can be in the form ...