“Chloe arrives a few minutes early for the shift so that she can have a chat with Janet, a colleague and friend, before the shift begins. They chat about the holiday that they are planning to that in Jamaica this summer. As other colleagues arrive, and crowd into ICU office, they greet each other and the conversation changes to work-related matters.”
The quotation above is an example of a group communication. A group communication is composed by two or more people. This usually happens in hospitals meetings, school/college/university meetings.
Formal Communication
Formal communication is used during interviews and meetings. This is used with a person that you don’t know or someone that is a manager or supervisor. The language used in within this interaction is more controlled than informal communication. This only shows how professional you might be.
According to in , Chandler, D. & Munday, R., 2011 “The process by which verbal and non-verbal messages are exchanged between a limited number of people, usually from 3 to about 20.”
“Chloe arrives a few minutes early for the shift so that she can have a chat with Janet, a colleague and friend, before the shift begins. They chat about the holiday that they are planning to that in Jamaica this summer. As other colleagues arrive, and crowd into ICU office, they greet each other and the conversation changes to work-related matters.”
The quotation above is an example of a group communication. Chloe started talking to Janet about planning to go to Jamaica for summer. This is an informal communication because Chloe and Janet are colleagues and friends. As the other staff came to the ICU office, the conversation turns to work-related matters which is a formal communication because this is a professional matter and they may be talking to someone higher than them for example, their manager.
Informal Communication
Informal Communication is used when talking to someone you know such as family and friends. Language is more loosen up than the formal communication.
Example:
“Chloe arrives a few minutes early for the shift so that she can have a chat with Janet, a colleague and friend, before the shift begins. They chat about the holiday that they are planning to that in Jamaica this summer.” - This quotation from the case study is an example of an informal communication. This is because their conversation is between friends and not a work related matter.
Another example of informal communication is the following:
“Hey, what’s up?”
“Hey man, what are you up to?”
These two sentences show how loose the language is. These are commonly used by friends who know each other for a long time.
Interpersonal Interaction
Interpersonal interaction comprehends all types of contact between people and not just talking. The interaction between individuals may involve gestures, sounds, drawings, and touch.
Non-verbal
Non-verbal interaction is a process of communication where people sends and receives information without talking.
For example:
“Emma is asked to observe Chloe and the ICU doctor doing this so that she will be able to help in future” - in this situation, Emma is asked to observe Chloe on what she is doing. Even is Chloe is not talking to Emma, the actions that Chloe makes can give Emma some ideas on what to do in the future to help.
Another situation for non-verbal communication is:
If you were in an interview and you were slouching on your seat, this could give an impression that you are not interested on what the other person is talking about. - In this situation, the slouching is the example of non-verbal communication. This sends a message to the other person and this act may give the other person a number of reasons on why he is slouching.
Verbal
Verbal interaction is a way of communicating through talking. Sound and language is needed to send information.
For example:
A student wants to go to the toilet.
“Miss, can I go to the toilet, please?” - In this situation, the student talked and asked for a permission to go to the toilet. The student interacted to the teacher through talking.
Variations
Cultures
Culture is about history and how people behave. There are some variations when it comes to cultures. This is because different countries behave or grew up in different ways. Communication is influenced by cultural system. This includes the way they interact with people.
For example:
Someone is crying and you come near her to sympathise and you gave her pat on the shoulder and she suddenly pushed your hands away. - This may be because the girl came from a country where giving a pat on the shoulder by a stranger has a different meaning in their country.
Listening
Listening can be hard when someone has different accent, dialect, or from another country. Communication barriers may come in when this happen and may prevent effective communication.
For example:
An American visitor visits London and asks someone about a famous landmark. The person he was talking to turned out to be Scottish. There's a difference about their accents and so, the American might find it hard to understand the Scottish man. - In this situation, accent used to show the variation in listening
Reflecting back
To be able to reflect back effectively, the listener should be able to listen and analyse what the speaker is talking about. By reflecting back, you are demonstrating that you fully understand what your client have said and repeating what they told you and giving appropriate feedback to effectively reflect back.
Language
Language is used to create effective communication. Without this, we will struggle to communicate verbally. In some countries, there are some words that might mean something different from another country.
For example:
In Britain, when we say NHS this means National Health Service. But in the United States, NHS means National Historic Site. - This shows how one word can be different from one country to another. This means that we cannot just assume that an individual knew what we are talking about.
Conclusion
I would say that communication is imperative, to understand everyone around you. It would be difficult to a person who works in a health or care environment if your communication skills are poor. This is why people who work in health and social care settings study on how to communicate in different ways to communicate effectively.
Reference
Chandler, D. & Munday, R., in , 2011. Oxford University Press 2011.,
Hine, R,Martin, E., 2008, A Dictionary of Biology., Clays Ltd, St. Ives plc., Great Britain
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?entry=t326.e1150&srn=1&ssid=939978907#FIRSTHIT
http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html entry=t326.e1915&srn=1&ssid=1254344249#FIRSTHIT
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pmarcelo0706 (student)
