Communication is a two-way process of reaching mutual understanding, in which participants not only exchange (encode-decode) information, news, ideas and feelings but also create and share meaning. In general, communication is a means of connecting people or places. In business, it is a key function of management–an organization cannot operate without communication between levels, departments and employees.
Communication is simply the act of transferring information from one place to another. Although this is a simple definition, when we think about how we may communicate the subject becomes a lot more complex. There are various categories of communication and more than one may occur at any time. The different categories of communication include:
- Spoken or Verbal Communication: face-to-face, telephone, radio or television and other media.
- Non-Verbal Communication: body language, gestures, how we dress or act – even our scent.
- Written Communication: letters, e-mails, books, magazines, the Internet or via other media.
- Visualizations: graphs and charts, maps, logos and other visualizations can communicate messages.
Importance of communication in health care delivery system
Effective Communication is significant for health care delivery system so as to perform the basic functions of management, i.e., Planning, Organizing, Leading and Controlling.
The importance of communication in healthcare delivery system can be summarized as follows:
- Communication promotes motivation by informing and clarifying the employees about the task to be done, the manner they are performing the task, and how to improve their performance if it is not up to the mark.
- Communication is a source of information to the organizational members for decision-making process as it helps identifying and assessing alternative course of actions.
- Communication also plays a crucial role in altering individual’s attitudes, i.e., a well informed individual will have better attitude than a less-informed individual. Organizational magazines, journals, meetings and various other forms of oral and written communication help in moulding employee’s attitudes.
- Communication also helps in socializing. In today’s world, the only presence of another individual fosters communication. It is also said that one cannot survive without communication.
- Communication also assists in controlling process. It helps controlling organizational member’s behaviour in various ways. There are various levels of hierarchy and certain principles and guidelines that employees must follow in an organization. They must comply with organizational policies, perform their job role efficiently and communicate any work problem and grievance to their superiors. Thus, communication helps in controlling function of management.
An effective and efficient communication system in health care delivery system requires managerial proficiency in delivering and receiving messages. A manager must discover various barriers to communication, analyze the reasons for their occurrence and take preventive steps to avoid those barriers. Thus, the primary responsibility of a manager is to develop and maintain an effective communication system in the organization.
