Chapter 1

Part A: Communication skills

Concepts of communication

Last updated November 20268 sectionsabout 10 min read

Key takeaways

Communication is sharing information, ideas, instructions or feelings so that the intended meaning is understood; a message sent but misunderstood has only been transmitted.
Every act of communication has five elements, sender, message, channel, receiver and feedback, with context and noise often added because they decide success in practice.
The process runs in five stages, source, encoding, channel, decoding and feedback, and a fault at any one of them breaks the whole process.
The seven Cs of effective communication are clarity, conciseness, completeness, correctness, courtesy, consideration and concreteness.
Formal communication follows the official structure and flows downward, upward, horizontally and diagonally; informal channels are fast and build relationships but are unverified and leave no record.

A systems administrator's technical work is only as effective as the incident report, change request or client explanation that communicates it, so this diploma pairs its networking papers with a full communication skills unit. This chapter lays out the model everything else in the paper builds on: what communication is, why it happens, what it is made of, and the forms and channels it travels through.

Meaning of communication

Communication is the process of sharing information, ideas, instructions or feelings between a sender and a receiver in such a way that the intended meaning is understood. The last clause is the test: a message that is sent but misunderstood has not communicated, only transmitted. A technician who tells a user 'the DNS is down' has transmitted; one who says 'the internet will be back in twenty minutes, your files are safe' has communicated.

Communication is a two-way process. It is complete only when the receiver responds in a way that shows the message was understood, which is why feedback is built into the model below rather than added as an afterthought.

Purpose of communication

To inform

Passing facts to people who need them: a maintenance notice, a status update, a password policy.

To instruct

Telling someone how to do something: a step-by-step guide to connecting to the Wi-Fi, a work order to a junior technician.

To persuade

Moving someone toward a decision or action: a proposal to management for a server upgrade, a request for budget.

To motivate

Encouraging effort and commitment: recognising a team that restored service overnight.

To build relationships

Maintaining trust and goodwill with colleagues, users and suppliers, so that the next difficult conversation is easier.

Elements of communication

Every act of communication has five elements:

Sender: who originates the message.
Message: the message itself (the content and its meaning).
Channel: through which it travels (speech, paper, email, a chat application).
Receiver: who takes it in.
Feedback: the receiver's response.

Two more elements are often added because they decide success in practice:

Context: the situation and relationship in which the exchange happens.
Noise: anything that distorts the message, from a bad phone line to jargon the receiver does not know.

Stages of the communication process

The elements above unfold in five stages. A fault at any stage breaks the whole process, and diagnosing a communication failure means asking at which stage it went wrong.

Source

The originator of the message decides what needs to be communicated and to whom. A vague purpose at the source produces a vague message; the sender must know what outcome they want before choosing words.

Encoding

Converting the intended meaning into words, symbols, numbers, gestures or images the receiver can understand. Encoding fails when the sender uses jargon, an unfamiliar language or an ambiguous phrase: 'reboot the box' encodes nothing for a receptionist.

Channel

The medium the encoded message travels through: face to face, telephone, email, memo, a ticketing system, a poster. Each channel carries some cues and loses others; a phone call carries tone but not facial expression, an email carries neither but leaves a record.

Decoding

The receiver interpreting the encoded message into meaning, filtered through their own knowledge, language, attention and expectations. Decoding fails when the receiver lacks the background to interpret the symbols, or when noise has corrupted them.

Feedback

The receiver's response, confirming whether the message was understood as intended: a reply, a nod, a question, an action taken. Feedback closes the loop and turns transmission into communication; without it the sender cannot know whether to re-encode and try again.

Tracing a service outage notice through the five stages
Source: the network administrator learns the core switch will be replaced on Saturday and decides all staff must know that the network will be unavailable from 8 am to noon.
Encoding: she writes a short notice in plain language, avoiding 'core switch' and 'VLAN': 'The office network and internet will be off on Saturday 14 September from 8 am to 12 noon for planned maintenance. Save your work on Friday.'
Channel: an all-staff email on Wednesday, a notice on the staff portal, and a reminder in the Friday team meeting, three channels chosen because email alone is often unread.
Decoding: staff read the notice; a field officer who is out on Saturday decides it does not affect him; the finance team realises month-end reports must be run on Friday.
Feedback: finance replies asking whether the accounting server will be reachable from home; the administrator answers no and adds that line to the portal notice. The question shows the original message was incomplete, and feedback repaired it before Saturday.

Principles of effective communication

The principles of effective communication are usually taught as the seven Cs, and each names a way a message can fail. They matter most when explaining technical detail to a non-technical audience, which is most of a technician's communication.

Clarity: one idea at a time, in words the receiver knows; say 'the shared drive' not 'the SMB share'
Conciseness: only what the receiver needs, without padding; a two-line email is read, a two-page one is skimmed
Completeness: every fact the receiver needs to act, including who, what, when, where and what to do next
Correctness: accurate facts, correct names and dates, and correct grammar and spelling, because errors destroy credibility
Courtesy: a respectful tone even under pressure; the user who broke the printer still deserves politeness
Consideration: the message written from the receiver's point of view, anticipating their questions and concerns
Concreteness: specific facts and figures rather than vague claims; 'back by 2 pm' rather than 'soon'

Formal and informal communication channels

Formal channels

Follow the organisation's official structure and procedures: memos, reports, official emails, scheduled meetings, the ticketing system. Formal communication is recorded, authoritative and slower, and it is what an audit or a dispute will rely on.

Informal channels

Occur outside official structures: corridor conversations, chat groups, the grapevine. Informal communication is fast and builds relationships, but it is unverified, easily distorted and leaves no record. A good manager listens to it and corrects it through formal channels rather than trying to suppress it.

Flow of formal communication

Formal communication flows along the organisation's hierarchy in four directions, and each direction has its own typical content and its own typical failure.

Downward

From management to staff: instructions, policies, decisions, feedback on performance. Fails when it is one-way and nobody checks understanding.

Upward

From staff to management: incident and status reports, suggestions, grievances, requests. Fails when staff fear the messenger will be blamed, so bad news arrives late.

Horizontal (lateral)

Between peers or teams at the same level: coordination between the network team and the applications team. Fails when teams protect their own turf.

Diagonal

Across levels and departments at once: a technician briefing the finance director directly about a payment-system outage. Fast and useful, but must not bypass the people who need to know.

Forms of communication

Oral communication

Spoken exchange: face to face, by phone, in a meeting or a presentation. Immediate, allows instant feedback and carries tone, but leaves no record and can be misremembered. Best for discussion, persuasion and sensitive matters.

Non-verbal communication

Meaning conveyed without words: facial expression, eye contact, posture, gesture, tone of voice, distance, and even punctuality and dress. It accompanies oral communication and often carries more of the real message than the words; a user who says 'fine' with folded arms is not fine.

Written communication

Letters, reports, memos, emails, tickets and documentation. A permanent, referable record that can reach many people accurately, essential for change and incident documentation, but slower, without immediate feedback, and easily misread in tone.

Form	Speed of feedback	Record kept	Carries tone	Best for
Oral	Immediate	No	Yes	Discussion, persuasion, urgent instructions
Non-verbal	Immediate	No	Strongly	Reinforcing or contradicting spoken words
Written	Delayed	Yes	Weakly	Instructions, reports, anything that must be referred to later

Self-check

(a) Define communication and explain why transmission alone is not communication. (3 marks)

(b) State five purposes of communication in an organisation. (5 marks)

(c) Name the five stages of the communication process and identify the stage at which each of the following fails: a memo full of jargon; a phone line so bad the words cannot be heard; a manager who never asks whether staff understood. (6 marks)

(d) Distinguish formal from informal communication channels and state one strength of each. (4 marks)

(e) Give an example of downward, upward, horizontal and diagonal communication in an ICT department. (4 marks)

(f) Compare oral and written communication on feedback, record and suitability. (3 marks)

Show worked answer

(a) Communication is the process of sharing information, ideas or feelings between a sender and a receiver so that the intended meaning is understood. Transmission only sends the message; until the receiver decodes it correctly and feedback confirms understanding, nothing has been communicated.

(b) To inform, to instruct, to persuade, to motivate and to build relationships (also to coordinate and to control).

(c) Source, encoding, channel, decoding, feedback. Jargon-filled memo: encoding. Bad phone line: channel (noise). Manager who never checks understanding: feedback.

(d) Formal channels follow the official structure (memos, reports, meetings, tickets); informal channels operate outside it (conversations, chat groups, the grapevine). Formal communication is recorded and authoritative; informal communication is fast and builds relationships.

(e) Downward: the ICT manager issues the new password policy to technicians. Upward: a technician reports a recurring server fault to the manager. Horizontal: the network team and the applications team agree a maintenance window. Diagonal: a technician briefs the finance director directly on a payment-system outage.

(f) Oral gives immediate feedback and carries tone but leaves no record, suiting discussion and persuasion. Written gives delayed feedback and carries tone weakly but leaves a permanent record, suiting instructions, reports and anything referred to later.

Exam tip

The five-stage communication process (source, encoding, channel, decoding, feedback) is the model every later chapter in this paper assumes; keep it in order, since it is regularly tested as a straight recall question and, at higher marks, by asking at which stage a described failure occurred.