Communication

Communication in Organisations

Communication is the medium through which leadership, planning, decision making, and every other management activity happens in a school. This chapter sets out the foundations: what communication is, its components and models, its types and styles, the barriers that disrupt it, and the structures within groups that shape who communicates with whom.

What It Is and Its Forms

The working definition, John Dewey and Aristotle, and the four forms: verbal, non-verbal, written, visual

Components and Models

The nine components (context, sender, message, encoding, medium, receiver, decoding, feedback, noise) and the three communication models

Types and Styles

Internal vs external; formal vs informal. The four combinations and when each one fits

Barriers

Six categories (language, psychological, physiological, physical, systematic, attitudinal) and the common specific barriers in everyday school communication

Communication Structures

Wheel, completely connected, line, Y, circle: the five patterns of who communicates with whom in a group