Communication Theory

Communication Theory Paper
Communication/310

Communication skills are important to any human endeavor. They way we communicate lets others know our true intentions, or does it? How many times have you communicated an important thought to someone, only to have it misunderstood? Most of the time this is a minor inconvenience and easily fixed by clarifying your intent. What if your communication competence meant the difference between life and death? Suddenly, every word that was uttered, or every word that was heard would be much more significant.   As I take these thoughts and think about what I am learning in this class, the three communication theories that really stick out to me is   organizational culture communication, Uncertainty reduction, and face- to face negotiation.

The first theory that I deal with everyday as I go out into the world is cultural communication.
Cultures can be made up of people from separate countries, different economic backgrounds, or age groups. Although cultures have to interact with each other each day, it may be from the high school student checking out a middle aged working woman at the grocery store to a man from India ordering food while an airplane layover in London. Each of these encounters may meet with a certain degree of uncertainty. The secret to make these meetings successful is to reduce the uncertainty felt by the communicators.
An example of cultural communication that I see daily is
I've been with my current employer since 2005. From 2005-Dec 2007, I was in the one branch before transferring to another branch. Company-wide the office hours are from 8:00am-5:30pm, M-F. In the first tax office , the only person required to be at the office at 8:00am was the receptionist. The motto was "the phone must be covered at all times". Also, company-wide, there was specific dress code policy - i.e. no capris, no tank-tops, no exposed midriffs, no cut off sleeves for men, no sandals, no flip-flops, and no sneakers. Each...