Merits And Demerits of Oral Communication.

 Merits Of Oral Communication :

1. Quick & Simple: Once you makes contact with your audience, there is no time lag between the transmission and reception of message. Considerable amount of time is saved in verbal communication. There is no need to sit down and write the message where immediately action is required. It is better to transmit to message orally. Moreover, by saving time it increases productivity and profitability .

2. Speaker is able to get personal attention of the listener: Oral communication is lesser formal compared with written communication as a result the concerned party can be seen sharing their views, ideas and opinions frankly and fearlessly. Speech has us spontaneity and intimacy that can not matched by writing

 3. Easy understanding: The advantage of easy understanding can be achieved in oral communication. The speaker can convey real meaning by the various expression and gestures and variation in tone, pitch. This is not possible in written communication. Doubts and verifications can be solved and the correct idea and meaning of the speaker can be understood.

4. Emergency needs: Since oral communication is most speedily method of communication so it is best media for sending the message during an emergency or extra-ordinary circumstance with this instantaneous feedback is received that eliminates the chances of misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the message.

5. To Measure effective communication: In oral communication it is easier to understand the listener whether he is understanding or not the speakers message. Doubts can be cleared on the support to the mutual satisfaction of both the parties i. e., the listener as well as the speaker. The recipients attitude as the acceptance or rejection of communication can be studied.

6 Flexibility : Oral communication is characterised with high level of flexibility. The speaker can adjust his message and tone according to impression he is creating on the listener. He is free to modify or withdraw his comments.

7.Economical: In oral communication nothing is reduced to writing. There

is no work to put in black and white. There is no need to have qualified and technical, personnel like stenographers and typist.

8.Confidentiality: It is easier to keep oral messages secret because no record of communication is generally maintained.

9. Group Communication: Oral communication is extremely useful fo communicating the groups. Therefore this type of communication is most used in conferences, meetings and seminars where different persons can interact with each other.

10. Supplemented by non-verbal cues: The listener of can combine it with the expressions, gestures and other non-verbal cues around the speaker, the message can be better understood.

To sum up, the Fayol said, "Whenever possible, contacts should be oral, there is gain in speed, clarity and harmony".

Oral communication is one of the most effective way of communication h everything has got it is pros and cons. Therefore oral communication take characterised with some disadvantages also which are as follows:

Demerits of Oral Communication :

1. Expensive and Time Consuming: Oral communication is very much tim consuming and expensive way of communication. Executives are often ven much busy, therefore, face to face communication with their subordinates is no possible because of heavy time consumption.

2. No Evidence : In verbal communication there is no work of black and white. Everything is oral and there is no record for future reference. Oral communication does not provide a permanent record for future use, unless is taped and transcribed. Due to lack of records, it becomes difficult to hold persons responsible for mistakes or accuracy in oral communication.

3.Physical Distance: When there is a long physical distance between sender and receiver, in such cases oral communication is not an easy task. No mechanical devices like telephone, voice mail etc. may be available in some cases.

4.Poor Retention Power: In fact, human memory cannot retain everything which is said orally. It, therefore, becomes necessary to give oral orders. and instruction in writing. 

5. Speakers Ineffectiveness: Speakers inability and ineffectiveness adversely effect the creation and retention of the listeners interest. Usually less care is taken while speaking than while writing. Therefore spoken words tends to be less precise than the written word so often enact point the speaker is trying to make is lost in mass of words.

6.Not Suitable in Lengthy Message: When message to be delivered is too lengthy, oral communication is not suitable because the chances of its misunderstanding and forgetting are very high. Lengthy message fail to retain listeners attention so the oral communication fails.

7.Lack of Responsibility: Since oral messages have no documentary proof so it becomes difficult to hold persons responsible for mistaken inaccuracy untruth in oral communication.

8.Misunderstanding: Due to noise and poor expression oral communication is likely to be misunderstood. The reasons for misunderstanding can be due to inattentative behaviour of the listener or inability on the speakers part while clarify or justifying the point. It is mostly in those cases when two individuals are not on good terms with each other.

9.More to Physical Noise: In oral communications, misunderstanding and misinterpretations of the message usually occurs because of the distorted meaning by the receiver. The main thing of the message is lost due to these distortions. In fact, oral message has more chances of getting  distorted because of physical noise like disturbance on telephone, inaudibility of speech and likewise.

10. Not possible for scattered receivers: If, the message is meant for number of persons who are scattered at different places then oral communication is  not possible.

Therefore the above mentioned points prove that sometimes oral communication breaks down due to over confidence, unclear thinking, Poo presentation, lack of checking and verification and poor listener.