How is Formal Communication different from Informal Communication

 Communication is the process of transmitting some meaningful information from one person to the other or to a group of people. For effective communication to take place, the sender’s intended message must reach the receiver in the same form with the same meaning. Be it an informal environment or a business environment, effective communication is very important. But communication is not only about just speaking and the other person hearing. It’s way more complicated than that.

The process of communication involves a sender (person who sends the message), a message, the medium through which the message is spread, the receiver (the person or group of persons to whom the message is sent) and response in the form of feedback from the receiver. 

Communication can thus be of two types: formal and informal. Formal communication happens in a business or any such official environment. Here specific, sophisticated words are used. In fact research paper writing and your homework answers, all form a part of formal communication and we will discuss later as why this happens

The author of a popular novel, Colleen Hoover, once said, Sometimes not speaking says more than all the words in the world. Communication plays the same important role in our lives. Both formal and informal communication have their respective importance in the field of communication. 

1. Formal Communication usually happens form the top leadership to various employees and departments. For example, your boss communicating some message to you or your professors sending some information to the students. In fact, the principal sending some message either to the teachers or to the students form a part of this formal communication. However, there is no predetermined structure for informal communication. It can happen either in an official environment or outside it. In the case in your office you start having some conversation with your peers, about your personal life or anything else that does not require a formal approval or something then you are having informal communication in a formal environment. Similar happens when you chit chat with your friends in school or college. Also, you might have seen certain ladies or men gathering outside their houses or in parks and having conversations. This is informal communication outside the formal environment. 

2. Formal communication often follows a particular structure or channel such as emails, whereas informal communication is a free-flowing one. For example: When some important information has to be circulated among employees, by the boss he will either mail the information or send a circular to different departments. He is not going to personally reach out to each and every employee to convey the information. Similarly, when customers have to address any issue of a company, they formally have to write a mail to the company. Even letters and notifications form a part of this formal communication. Informal Communication does not require any such thing. You can directly address the issue to the person without following any set path. As you do when talking with friends and family. 

3. Most formal communications require secrecy and hence are confidential ones while informal communications are gossips that keep spreading like wildfire. For example, Most of the time plan of action of a particular company is kept secret and communicated only to a few employees so that it may not spread and reach other companies. Whereas nothing of this sort happens in informal communication. You talk to a bunch of people and they talk to another bunch and thus the message keeps on spreading, thus depriving itself of any confidentiality.

4. Formal communications are time-consuming while informal ones are not since they form chains and spread from person to person. When you write a mail or send a circular, time is taken for putting them in the proper format while no such thing happens in informal communication. You just speak out in front of your desired audience, whatever you want to.

5. Formal communication is more reliable since most of them are in black and white while informal communication takes their own course and are less reliable. Of course, words spoken cannot be said to be reliable until recorded.

6. Formal Communication has three types: 

A. Vertical – This type of conversation happens between different levels of the organization, that is, either from seniors to juniors or vice versa. 

B. Horizontal or Lateral- This can happen between peers from different departments. 

C. Crosswise or Diagonal- This conversation is much more complicated, happens between employees working at different levels from different departments.

7. Informal Communication too has three types: 

A. Single Strand Chain- Here the communication starts from a person then goes to another and in the same way is spread to others one by one. B. Cluster Chain- If you know the social media tag procedure then you know this type too. At a go, one person communicates information to several people. 

C. Gossip Chain- Here one person shares information to a group, the people, in turn, spread to their respective groups and in this way information is spread. 

8. Formal communication uses sophisticated language while informal one does not. You may communicate with your peers in whatever language you want to until and unless it offends your audience.

So now that we have discussed certain points of differences between the formal and informal communication, it may have become clear to you. Also, you would have understood why your homework answers or research paper writing form a part of formal communication.