Download COMMUNICATION

COMMUNICATION
Introduction
• Research indicates that poor communication is
probably the most frequently cited source of
interpersonal conflict.
• Individuals spend nearly 70 percent of their
waking hours communicating—writing, reading,
speaking, listening—which means that they have
many opportunities in which to engage in poor
communication.
• A Work Canada survey of 2039 Canadians in six
industrial and service categories explored the
state of communication in Canadian businesses.
Introduction
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The survey found that 61 percent of senior executives believed
they did a good job of communicating with employees.
However, those who worked below the senior executives did not
share this feeling—only 33 percent of the managers and
department heads believed that senior executives were effective
communicators.
Lower-level employees reported that communication was even
worse:
Only 22 percent of hourly workers, 27 percent of clerical
employees, and 22 percent of professional staff reported that
senior executives did a good job of communicating with them.
Moreover, a recent study found that Canadians reported less
favourable perceptions about their companies’ communications
than did Americans.
Definition
• Communication, is the transfer and
understanding of a message between two or
more people.
• Communication can be thought of as a
process, or flow.
• Communication is both an interactive and
iterative process.
Communication Process
• Communication can be thought of as a process, or
flow.
• The sender has to keep in mind the receiver (or
audience) and in finalizing the communication, may
decide to revisit decisions about the message, the
encoding, and/or the feedback.
• For instance, a manager may want to convey a message
face to face, and then may not be able to do so for
some reason.
• The message sent by email or voice mail may need to
be framed differently than the message that would
have been delivered face to face.
Communication Process Model
Encoding and Decoding
• Messages are encoded (converting a message to symbolic
form) by a sender and decoded (interpreting a sender’s
message) by a receiver.
• Four factors have been described that affect message
encoding and decoding: skill, attitudes, knowledge, and the
socio-cultural system.
• Interactions with others are affected by our attitudes,
values, and beliefs.
• Thus, the attitudes of the sender and receiver toward each
other will affect how the message is transmitted.
• Clearly, the amount of knowledge the source and receiver
hold about a subject will affect the clarity of the message
that is transferred.
The Message
• The message is the actual physical product from the source
encoding. “When we speak, the speech is the message.
• When we write, the writing is the message.
• When we paint, the picture is the message.
• When we gesture, the movements of our arms, the
expressions on our face are the message.”
• Our message is affected by the code, or group of symbols,
that we use to transfer meaning; the content of the
message itself; and the decisions that we make in selecting
and arranging both codes and content.
• A poor choice of symbols, and confusion in the content of
the message, can cause problems.
The Channel
• The channel is the medium through which a message travels.
• It is selected by the source, who must determine which channel is
formal and which one is informal.
• Formal channels are established by organizations to transmit
messages about the job-related activities of members.
• Traditionally, they follow the authority network within the
organization.
• Other forms of messages, such as personal or social messages,
follow the informal channels in the organization.
• Examples of channels include formal memos, voice mail, email, and
meetings.
• Choosing a poor channel, or one with a high noise level, can distort
Communication.
The Channel
Communication Apprehension
• An estimated 5 to 20 percent of the population suffers
from debilitating communication apprehension, or
anxiety, which is undue tension and anxiety about oral
communication, written communication, or both.
• We all know people who dread speaking in front of a
group, but some people may find it extremely difficult
to talk with others face to face or become extremely
anxious when they have to use the telephone.
• As a result, they may rely on memos, letters, or email
to convey messages when a phone call would not only
be faster but also more appropriate.
The Channel
Channel Richness
• Research has found that channels differ in their
capacity to convey information.
• Some are rich in that they have the ability to..
(1)Handle multiple cues at the same time,
(2)Allow rapid feedback, and
(3)Be very personal.
• Others are lean in that they score low on these
three factors.
The Channel
Channel Richness
The Channel
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Channel Richness
The choice of one channel over another depends on whether the message
is routine or non routine.
Routine messages tend to be straightforward and have a minimum of
ambiguity.
Non routine messages are likely to be complicated and have the potential
for misunderstanding.
Individuals can communicate routine messages efficiently through
channels that are lower in richness.
However, they can communicate non routine messages more effectively
by selecting rich channels.
Evidence indicates that high-performing managers tend to be more
media-sensitive than low-performing managers.
In other words, they are better able to match appropriate media richness
with the ambiguity involved in the communication.
Feedback Loop
• The final link in the communication process is the
feedback loop.
• Feedback lets us know whether understanding
has been achieved.
• If the feedback loop is to succeed in preventing
miscommunication, the receiver needs to give
feedback and the sender needs to check for it.
• One of the greatest difficulties managers have is
providing performance feedback.
The Context
• All communication takes place within a context, and violations
of that context may create additional problems in sending and
receiving messages.
• For instance, the context of a workplace presents different
expectations about how to interact with people than does the
context of a bus stop.
• The workplace may demand more formal interaction, while
communication at a bus stop is generally expected to be
informal.
• Thus, it is important to consider context in both encoding the
message and choosing the channel.
BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION
A number of factors have been identified as
barriers to communication.
The more prominent ones are:
• Filtering
• Selective perception
• Defensiveness
• Information overload
• Language.
Filtering
• Filtering occurs when a sender manipulates
information so that the receiver will view it more
favourably.
• For example, when a manager tells a senior executive
what the manager thinks the executive wants to hear,
the manager is filtering information.
• The major determinant of filtering is the number of
levels in an organization’s structure.
• The more levels in an organization’s hierarchy, the
more opportunities there are for filtering information.
Selective Perception
• Receivers in the communication process
selectively see and hear based on their needs,
motivations, experience, background, and
other personal characteristics.
• Receivers also project their interests and
expectations into communications as they
decode them.
Defensiveness
• When people feel that they are being threatened,
they tend to react in ways that reduce their
ability to achieve mutual understanding.
• That is, they become defensive—engaging in
behaviours such as:
1. Verbally attacking others
2. Making sarcastic remarks
3. Being overly judgmental
4. Questioning others’ motives
Information Overload
• Individuals have a finite capacity for processing
data.
• When the information we have to work with
exceeds our ability to process it, the result is
information overload.
• With emails, phone calls, faxes, meetings, and the
need to keep current in one’s field, more and
more managers and professionals are
complaining that they are suffering from too
much information.
Language
• Words mean different things to different
people.
• “The meanings of words are not in the words;
they are in us.”
• Age, education, and cultural background are
three of the more obvious variables that
influence the language a person uses and the
definition he or she gives to words.
Current Issues In Communication
These include:
• Electronic Communications
• Non Verbal Communication
• Silence as Communication
• Communication barriers between men and
women
• Cross-Cultural Communication
Current Issues in Communication
Electronic Communications
• Since the early 1980s, we have been subjected to
an onslaught of new electronic ways to
communicate.
• Electronic communications (including pagers, fax
machines, videoconferencing, electronic
meetings, email, cell phones, voice mail, and
BlackBerrys) make it possible for you to work
even if you are away from your workstation.
• These technologies are largely reshaping the way
we communicate in organizations.
Current Issues in Communication
Non Verbal Communication
• This includes body movements, facial expressions, and
the physical distance between the sender and the receiver.
• The academic study of body motions has been labelled
kinesics.
• It refers to gestures, facial configurations, and other
movements of the body.
• Because it is a relatively new field, there is not complete
agreement on findings.
• Still, body movement is an important segment of the study
of communication
Current Issues in Communication
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Silence as Communication
In terms of organizational behaviour, we can see
several links between silence and work-related
behaviour.
For instance, silence is a critical element of
groupthink because it implies agreement with the
majority.
It can be a way for employees to express
dissatisfaction, as when they “suffer in silence.”
It can be a sign that someone is upset, as when a
typically talkative person suddenly says nothing
Current Issues in Communication
Communication Barriers between Men and Women
• According to Tannen, women speak and hear a
language of connection and intimacy, while men speak
and hear a language of status and independence.
• So, for many men, conversations are primarily a way to
preserve independence, and maintain status in a
hierarchical social order.
• For many women, however, conversations are
negotiations for closeness in which people try to seek
and give confirmation and support.
Current Issues in Communication
Cross-Cultural Communication
• Cross-cultural factors clearly create the potential
for increased communication problems.
• These problems include:
1. Semantics
2. Word Connotations
3. Tone Differences
4. Perceptions
The End