Part A: Communication
Introduction to communication
Key takeaways
- Communication transmits information, ideas, attitudes and feelings through a shared system of symbols so that the meaning received is the meaning intended; a message sent but not understood has only been transmitted.
- Its elements are the sender (encoder), the message, the medium or channel, the receiver (decoder), feedback, noise and context, and feedback is the sender's only evidence that the message was understood.
- The transactional view holds that both parties send and receive at the same time, unlike older one-way models from sender to receiver.
- Media richness theory says ambiguous messages need rich channels: face to face is the richest, an unaddressed printed notice the leanest.
- The 7Cs (clear, concise, concrete, correct, coherent, complete, courteous) are an editing checklist: name the C each fault breaches, then rewrite.
A quality professional spends more time communicating than measuring. An audit finding that nobody understands changes nothing, a corrective action that is not explained is not implemented, and a customer complaint that is mishandled costs more than the defect that caused it. This chapter establishes the vocabulary the rest of the paper uses.
What communication is
Communication is the process of transmitting information, ideas, attitudes and feelings from one person or group to another through a shared system of symbols, so that the meaning received is the meaning intended. The last clause is what distinguishes communication from mere transmission: a notice pinned on a board that nobody reads has been transmitted but not communicated.
Communication is transactional, not linear
Older models present a one-way line from sender to receiver. The transactional view holds that both parties send and receive simultaneously, since a listener's expression and posture are already communicating back while the speaker is still talking. Say so when asked to define communication and you will separate yourself from the textbook answer.
The purpose of communication
- To inform: transmitting facts, instructions, policies and results so that people can act on current knowledge
- To instruct and direct: telling people what to do, how and by when, which is the function of a work instruction or an audit plan
- To persuade and influence: securing agreement to a proposal, a corrective action or a price
- To coordinate: aligning the work of separate people and departments so that the handovers in a process work
- To motivate and build morale: recognition, encouragement and explanation of purpose
- To build and maintain relationships: with colleagues, customers, suppliers and regulators
- To create a record: written communication preserves evidence of what was agreed, which is why quality systems depend on documented information
- To seek information and feedback: questioning, surveying and listening, which is how customer requirements enter the organisation at all
Essentials of effective communication
- A clear purpose, known to the sender before the message is composed
- A message encoded in language the specific receiver shares, which means avoiding jargon with a lay audience and avoiding vagueness with a technical one
- A channel matched to the message: urgent and simple by telephone or SMS, complex and permanent in writing
- A receiver who is able and willing to receive: available, not overloaded, and with a reason to attend
- Feedback designed into the exchange, not merely hoped for
- Minimal noise: a quiet setting, a working connection, and enough time
- Credibility of the sender, since a message from an untrusted source is discounted regardless of its content
- Appropriate timing: correct information delivered too late has the value of no information
Technology and communication
Kenya's communication environment is mobile-first, which changes the practical answer to almost every channel question in this paper. Mobile penetration exceeds the population count in SIM terms, M-Pesa is the default payment channel, and WhatsApp is a routine business channel rather than a personal one.
Communication technology and its business use in the Kenyan context
| Technology | Business use in Kenya | Quality caution |
|---|---|---|
| SMS | Appointment reminders, delivery notification, bulk customer alerts | 160 characters, no formatting, no proof of reading |
| USSD | Balance enquiry, mobile money, service requests on feature phones | Session timeouts, menu depth limits complexity |
| WhatsApp and similar | Team coordination, supplier queries, customer support | Poor record control, informality invites unauthorised commitments |
| Formal correspondence, attachments, an evidentiary record | Read only in office hours, overload dilutes urgent items | |
| Video conferencing | Meetings across counties, remote audits, supplier reviews | Bandwidth and power dependent, weaker on non-verbal cues |
| Enterprise systems and intranets | Controlled documents, procedures, dashboards | Only works if access and training are universal |
| Social media | Public relations, customer complaints in public view | Complaints escalate publicly and permanently |
Technology is subject to the Data Protection Act, 2019, which is examinable in this paper because customer contact data is personal data. Consent, purpose limitation and data security apply to a bulk SMS list exactly as they apply to a database.
Communication theories
Principles of effective communication
- Principle of clarity: the message must carry one unambiguous meaning
- Principle of attention: the message must be framed so the receiver attends to it
- Principle of feedback: provision for response must be built in
- Principle of informality: the informal network exists and can be used deliberately alongside formal channels
- Principle of consistency: the message must not contradict earlier messages, policy or organisational objectives
- Principle of timeliness: information must arrive while it can still be acted on
- Principle of adequacy: enough information to act, without overload
- Principle of integrity: communication must be honest, since one discovered untruth devalues every subsequent message
The 7Cs of communication
The 7Cs, each with a failing and a corrected example
| C | Requirement | Failing version | Corrected version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Clear | One meaning only, purpose evident | Kindly action the matter urgently | Please send the calibration certificate for scale S-14 by Friday 3 p.m. |
| Concise | No word that adds nothing | At this moment in time we are of the view that | We think |
| Concrete | Specific facts and figures | Rejects have gone up a lot | Rejects rose from 1.2% to 3.8% between March and May |
| Correct | Accurate facts, grammar and names | Dear Mr Wanjiku (a woman's name misused) | Dear Ms Wanjiku |
| Coherent | Logical order, one idea per paragraph | Price, then delivery, then price again | All pricing in one paragraph, all delivery in the next |
| Complete | The receiver can act without asking again | Meeting moved to Thursday | Meeting moved to Thursday 12 June, 10 a.m., Boardroom 2, agenda attached |
| Courteous | Respectful and considerate of the reader | You failed to attach the report | The report does not appear to have attached; could you resend it? |
The 7Cs are an editing checklist, not a memory list
Questions usually supply a badly written memo or email and ask you to identify the faults and rewrite it. Work the seven Cs in order over the given text, name the C each fault breaches, then present the rewrite. Marks are given per fault identified and per correction, so naming the C explicitly is worth doing.
Classifying communication
Communication is classified several ways at once, and later chapters return to types in the communication process and to forms in a chapter of their own. The primary split is by the code used.
- Verbal communication: using words, whether spoken (oral) or written
- Non-verbal communication: without words, through body language, appearance, space, time, touch and paralanguage
- Visual communication: through images, charts, symbols and colour, for example a control chart or a safety pictogram
- Audio-visual communication: combining sound and image, for example a training video or a video conference
Self-check
Define communication and explain, with reference to a communication model of your choice, why a technically correct audit report may still fail to communicate. (8 marks)
The following memo was issued by a production manager: 'All staff are hereby informed that owing to prevailing circumstances certain adjustments will be effected shortly. Kindly cooperate.' Identify the faults against the 7Cs and rewrite the memo. (10 marks)
Show worked answer
Definition and model (8 marks: 3 for the definition, 5 for the model applied).
Communication is the process of transmitting information, ideas, attitudes and feelings between parties through a shared system of symbols, such that the meaning received corresponds to the meaning intended. It comprises a sender who encodes, a message, a channel, a receiver who decodes, feedback, and noise acting throughout, all within a context.
Applying Schramm's field-of-experience model: communication succeeds only in the overlap between the sender's and the receiver's fields of experience. An audit report written by a quality specialist uses clause references, terms such as nonconformity, correction, corrective action and root cause, and a formal grading of findings. A production supervisor whose field of experience does not include the standard receives symbols they cannot decode, so the report transmits without communicating. The technical correctness of the report is irrelevant, because correctness is a property of the message and communication is a property of the overlap.
Media richness theory adds a second reason: a written report is a lean channel with no immediate feedback, so a misunderstanding is not detected at the time. Delivering the findings face to face at a closing meeting, with the report as the record, uses a rich channel for the ambiguous part and a lean one for the permanent part.
Memo faults and rewrite (10 marks: 6 for the faults, 4 for the rewrite).
Faults:
Clear: fails. 'Certain adjustments' and 'prevailing circumstances' carry no determinate meaning, so no reader knows what is happening.
Concrete: fails. No fact, figure, date or named change appears anywhere in the memo.
Complete: fails. The reader cannot act, because what changes, when, and for whom are all absent.
Concise: fails, in the sense that the words present do no work; 'are hereby informed that' is four words for none.
Courteous: fails in effect. 'Kindly cooperate' pre-empts objection to a change that has not been disclosed, which reads as dismissive rather than polite.
Coherent: weak, because with no content there is no logical order to assess.
Correct is the only C not clearly breached, since the grammar is sound.
Rewrite:
'MEMORANDUM. To: All Production Staff. From: Production Manager. Date: 4 June. Subject: Change of shift pattern from 1 July.
From Monday 1 July the plant will move from two 12-hour shifts to three 8-hour shifts, to reduce fatigue-related errors on the packing line. Shift A will run 6 a.m. to 2 p.m., Shift B 2 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Shift C 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Your supervisor will confirm your shift allocation by Friday 21 June. Basic pay is unchanged; the night-shift allowance is unchanged.
If the new pattern creates a difficulty for you, please speak to your supervisor or to Human Resources before 21 June so that we can consider it. A briefing will be held in the canteen on Tuesday 11 June at 3 p.m.'