Corporate Communication: Communication Theories

Communication is the sharing of information and related activities that helps in better understanding of one party by another party. Communication is a necessary process of life itself for individuals, communities, countries, economies etc. Our focus is on organizational communication with external environments and within the organization.

In general communication takes three settings:

Interpersonal
Machine-assisted
Mass

Importance of communication model:

Communication models offer a convenient way to think
Provides better understanding through graphical representation
Can be changed to better suite organizational requirements

Some prominent communication theorists from the past and their theories are as follows:

Harold Lasswell Model (1948)

“Who says what to whom in what channel with what effect”

Wilbur Schramm Third Model (1954)

Communication process is circular and linear
Provided the additional notion of a “field of experience,”
Included feedback
Included culture
Included context

Claude Shannon Weaver’s Model (1949)

Most commonly used communication model in the lower level
Taken as an approximation of the process of human communication
Significant heuristic value
The concepts of this model became staples in communication research

Bruce Westley & Malcolm McLean

Accounts for Feedback
Accounts for a sensory field or, in Newcomb’s (1953) words, “objects of co-orientation.”
Accounts for non-binary interactions—more than just two people communicating directly.
Accounts for different modes. E.g. interpersonal vs. mass mediated communication.

Lawrence Kincaid’s Convergence Model (1979)