Communication and managerial control

1. Communication: meaning and process

Communication is the transfer of information and understanding from one person to another. Koontz and O’Donnell: “Communication is the transfer of information from the sender to the receiver with the information being understood by the receiver.” The test is understanding, not merely sending.

The communication process

1. Sender — has an idea to convey.
2. Encoding — puts it into words, figures, symbols or gestures.
3. Message — the encoded content.
4. Channel (medium) — face to face, telephone, letter, e-mail, notice board, meeting.
5. Receiver — the person for whom it is meant.
6. Decoding — the receiver interprets the message.
7. Feedback — the receiver’s response, which tells the sender whether the message was understood.

Noise is anything that disturbs the process at any stage. The model derives from Claude Shannon and Warren Weaver’s The Mathematical Theory of Communication (1949). Draw it as a loop from sender to receiver and back.

Importance (advantages)

Communication is the basis of planning and co-ordination; it makes leadership and motivation possible; it speeds up decisions; it builds understanding and good industrial relations; it is the means by which control information reaches managers; and it maintains the organisation’s relations with customers, government and the public. Chester Barnard called it the first function of the executive.

Features (principles) of good communication

The seven Cs: clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete and courteous. Also: consistent with policy, timely, through the right channel, with feedback, and backed by the sender’s action (Koontz’s principle of integrity).

2. Types of communication

• By relationship: formal (through the official chain of command) and informal (the grapevine, which is fast but carries rumours; Keith Davis described its patterns: single strand, gossip, probability and cluster chains).
• By direction: downward (orders, instructions, policies), upward (reports, suggestions, grievances), horizontal (between equals in different departments) and diagonal (across levels and departments).
• By method: oral (quick, personal, immediate feedback, no record), written (permanent record, precise, but slow and formal) and non-verbal (gestures, expression, tone, posture).

3. Barriers to communication

1. Semantic — words with several meanings, technical jargon, poor translation, badly expressed messages.
2. Physical — noise, distance, faulty equipment, information overload.
3. Psychological (emotional) — premature evaluation, inattention, distrust of the sender, fear, filtering (passing on only what the superior wants to hear).
4. Organisational — rigid rules and too many levels in the chain of command, status differences, lack of upward channels.
5. Personal — superiors unwilling to listen or to share information, subordinates unwilling to report bad news.
6. Cultural — differences of language, custom and values.

Steps to overcome the barriers

• Clarify ideas before communicating; know the purpose.
• Use simple language suited to the receiver.
• Choose the right channel and timing.
• Listen actively and with attention.
• Obtain feedback to check understanding.
• Reduce the number of levels; open upward channels (suggestion schemes, open-door policy).
• Follow up, and see that actions match words.
• Build trust, so that messages are believed.

4. Managerial control: need

Control is the process of checking whether performance conforms to plans and correcting any deviation. Koontz and O’Donnell: “Controlling is the measurement and correction of the performance of activities of subordinates in order to make sure that enterprise objectives and the plans devised to attain them are being accomplished.”

Need for control: it ensures that plans are achieved; it makes delegation safe; it improves efficiency and reduces waste; it maintains discipline and order; it helps the firm adapt to change; it co-ordinates activity; and it gives the information needed for future planning.

5. Steps in controlling

1. Establishing standards — quantitative (units, rupees, hours) or qualitative (goodwill, morale), drawn from the plans. Standards should be set at strategic (critical) points.
2. Measuring actual performance — by observation, reports, statistics and sample checks.
3. Comparing performance with standards — finding the extent of the deviation. Under the principle of exception only significant deviations go to the manager.
4. Taking corrective action — finding the cause and acting on it, or, if the standard was unrealistic, revising it.

Worked example

A unit’s monthly standard is 1,000 units at a cost of Rs. 50 each. Actual output is 920 units at Rs. 54 each. The tolerance set by management is 5%.

Total cost looks satisfactory, but that is because fewer units were made. Both output and unit cost are outside the 5% tolerance, so they go to the manager as exceptions. If the cause is machine breakdown, the corrective action lies with maintenance; if it is poor raw material, with purchase. This is why control compares the right measures, not only totals.

6. Essentials of an effective control system

1. Suitable to the nature and needs of the activity.
2. Timely — deviations reported quickly enough to act on.
3. Forward-looking — feedforward control anticipates deviations.
4. Objective — standards measurable and free from personal bias.
5. Flexible — adapts to changed plans.
6. Economical — the cost justified by the benefit.
7. Simple and understandable to those who use it.
8. Focused on strategic points and on exceptions.
9. Points to corrective action, not merely to the deviation.
10. Consistent with the organisation structure, so that the person responsible receives the information.
11. Acceptable to employees and seen as a help, not as spying.

Techniques

Traditional: personal observation, budgetary control, statistical reports, break-even analysis, standard costing. Modern: ratio analysis, return on investment, PERT and CPM for projects, management information systems, management audit and internal audit.

How this is examined

Control: “Briefly explain the essentials of an effective control system” (June 2025; April 2023), “various steps of controlling” (June 2025; January 2025). Communication: “Explain the communication process” (January 2025), “measures to overcome the barriers of communication” (April 2023), “barriers of communication” (August 2024), “types of communication” (April 2023) and “advantages of communication” (June 2025).

Where the question asks for measures to overcome barriers, still list the barriers briefly first; the measures make sense only against them.