Oral communication is most popular and common in personal communication as well as in business communication. Undoubtedly it is essential for communication but it has some disadvantages. There are some advantages and disadvantages of oral communication when we use such kind of communication for business purposes.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Oral Communication
Advantages of Oral Communication
Organizations are using oral communication for their own interests and advantages. For this reason, oral communication can serve the purpose of communication in the best way Oral communication enjoys many merits or advantages. Some important merits are presented below to create a meaningful idea:
Organizations use oral communication or its interest and advantages for this reason oral communication can serve the purpose of communication in the best way.
Time-saving
Where rapid action is necessary, in that case, it is the best way to send a message orally. On the other handwritten communication takes a long time to reach the sender. But oral communication through telephone calls or conversations with subordinates makes savings time which is so important in the business world.
Reduction of cost
Oral communication doesn’t require any expenditure on the collection and maintenance of pens, papers, typewriters, or computers or any other materials as are needed for written communication. So, it is time and money savings.
Easiness
It is an easy means of communication because it needs little preparation for transmitting a message. Like written communication, it does not require any pen, pencil, and other writing equipment.
Effective for illiterate persons
Illiterate people cannot read but they can hear and understand any information or message. So, this is the most appropriate means of communication for illiterate people.
Quick feedback
Another primary advantage is that it provides quick feedback in the form of oral messages or information. Thus sender or speaker can take further decisions. Let’s see the advantages of feedback.
Maintaining secrecy
In oral communication, the speaker and listener can maintain secrecy because there may not be any additional person involved. It is the willingness of the speaker and listener to keep their communication out of reach from others.
Reliability
It is true that employees feel more secure when they communicate through oral communication. Oral communication can provide immediate feedback and clarification.
Coordination
An Organization to attain its goal requires full coordination of all departments or divisions. Such coordination is possible through oral communication because it can quickly instruct advice or motivate the employees as required by the situation.
Motivation
In oral communication, superiors and subordinates can sit face to face and exchange their views directly; such an arrangement motivates and inspires the employees to work with great care.
Avoidance of slowcoach
The speaker should not be formal when he sends a message in oral communication. So, he can talk to anybody at any time without any formalities required for written communication.
Flexibility
Oral communication enjoys the benefits of flexibility. Any communication if written cannot be changed quickly and if the message is already sent then it is out of the control of the sender.
Special application
In the case of the seminar, conversation, meeting, group discussion, assemblies, and telephonic conversation, the apple of these kinds of communication bears significant appeal.
Besides the above merits, oral communication is also found to be helpful in developing human relations, creating understanding, settlement of disputes, correcting information, and others.
Disadvantages of Oral Communication
As we said before there are lots of advantages and disadvantages of oral communication. Though we mention lots of advantages of oral communication in many situations people do not prefer oral communication for its limitations. Oral communication suffers from various drawbacks or limitations which are listed below:
In any situation, people do not prefer oral communication for their limitations. Here are the disadvantages of oral communication.
No record
Most of the time oral communication uses for informal communication. In oral communication, messages are not preserved and hence they are not found in the record book. These messages cannot be retrieved in the future.
Misunderstanding
Due to the limitations of human memory, oral messages cannot be kept in mind in full context. Because of inattentiveness in hearing oral messages, communication will be barred.
Distorted meaning
As oral messages are not filed, their meanings may easily be distorted. Such distortion may lead to a rumor which will move faster than wind.
Lack of accuracy
There is every possibility of an inaccurate message to reach the destination. It may be because of noise or the receiver forgetting part or whole message.
Limited use
If oral messages are lengthy then they are not suitable for transmission because of the probability of missing some important; messages.
Confused speech
If a receiver of the message has a hearing problem, then the purpose of oral communication becomes difficult to be achieved. The partial hearing will obviously produce partial communication. As a result, there will be confusion among all parties involved in the communication.
No legal validity
Do oral messages have any legal validity? As oral messages are not kept in record, so it can be denied easily by the speaker if the situation goes against him.
Leakage of secret information
When a speaker speaks he may not be careful about the speech. So, secret information can be leaked out.
More importance is given to presenting the speech
In oral communication, a speaker always tries to be a good speaker. So, naturally, the communicator gives more importance to presenting the messages with style. As a result, important messages can be ignored.
Emotion
While delivering any speech, the speaker may become emotional. This may make the message difficult and complex for the receiver of communication.
Less effective
Usually, an oral message carries less weight than written messages. In certain cases like programs, policies, and instructions, oral communication is less effective.
Expensive
To transmit oral messages to a distant place, we need to use the telephone, radio, television, etc. Such things are costly mechanical devices. So, the receiver needs to spend money on such devices for participating in oral communication.
Late decision
Here, Speaker requires spending much time on discussion and explanation. As a result, decision-making is delayed.
Not easy to fix responsibility
In oral communication, if any mistake occurs, then it is very difficult to make someone responsible for the mistake as there is no evidence for such communication.
Possibility of conspiracy
Oral communication has no evidence, so there may be interested persons to take the advantage of such a thing to fulfill their ill motive. Therefore, oral communication may lead to conspiracy sometimes.
Hope you find all advantages and disadvantages of oral communication otherwise, leave a comment below.
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