Download Communication skills for managers as receivers

1. DIRECTING
Directing፣said to be a process in which the managers instruct, guide and oversee the performance of the
workers to achieve predetermined goals. Directing is said to be the heart of management process. Planning,
organizing and staffing have no importance if directing function does not take place.
Directing initiates action and it is from here actual work starts. Directing is said to be consisting of human
factors. In simple words, it can be described as providing guidance to workers is doing work. In field of
management, directing is said to be all those activities, which are designed to encourage the subordinates to
work effectively and efficiently. Directing is said to consist of process or technique by which instruction can
be issued and operations can be carried out as originally planned. Therefore, Directing is the function of
guiding, inspiring, overseeing and instructing people towards accomplishment of organizational goals.
Directing Characteristics or functions
Directing has got following characteristics or functions:
• Pervasive Function; Directing is required at all levels of organization. Every manager provides guidance
and inspiration to his subordinates.
• Continuous Activity; Directing is a continuous activity as it continuous throughout the life of organization.
• Human Factor; Directing function is related to subordinates and therefore it is related to human factor.
Since human factor is complex and behavior is unpredictable, directing function becomes important.
• Creative Activity; Directing function helps in converting plans into performance. Without this function,
people become inactive and physical resources are meaningless.
• Executive Function; Directing function is carried out by all managers and an executive at all levels
throughout the working of an enterprise, a subordinate receives instructions from his superior only.
• Delegate Function; Directing is supposed to be a function dealing with human beings. Human behavior is
unpredictable by nature and conditioning the people’s behavior towards the goals of the enterprise is what
the executive does in this function. Therefore, it is termed as having delicacy in it to tackle human
behavior.
IMPORTANCE OF DIRECTING
Plans remain mere plans unless they are put into action. In the absence of directing, subordinates will have
no idea as to what to do. They will probably not be inspired to complete the job satisfactorily.
Implementation of plans is, thus, largely the concern of directing function. As a function of management,
directing is useful in many ways.
• It guides and helps the subordinates to complete the given task properly and as per schedule.
• It provides the necessary motivation to subordinates to complete the work satisfactorily and do it best.
• It helps in maintaining discipline and rewarding those who do well.
• Directing involves supervision, which is essential to make sure that work is performed according to the
orders and instructions.
• Different people perform different activities in the organization. All the activities are interrelated. In
order to co-ordinate the activities carried out in different parts and to ensure that they are performed well,
directing is important. It thus, helps to integrate the various activities and so also the individual goals
with organizational goals.
• Directing involves leadership that essentially helps in creating appropriate work environment and build
up team spirit.
2. Supervision
Supervision; is defined as guiding the activities of people who perform the work. It includes planning,
organizing, directing and controlling the work and the activities of subordinates or employees (the four
functions of management). Since supervisors; are defined as part of management, they must therefore
perform these broad functions.
Types of Supervision
Supervision types are perceived in two broad ways depending on whether it is being given or received i.e
from the managerial or subordinate's perspective. It is worth noting that mere reviewing work of another
employee does not constitute supervision and that Supervisory duties must be a continuous and recurring part
of the job. We therefore try to break it down bellow.
Supervision given (managerial perspective)
Direct Line – responsible for production and quality of subordinates; determines work assignments,
priorities and procedures; approves leave requests; and formally evaluates subordinates' performance.
Staff – formally advises and assists management.
Functional –Done only when subordinates are assigned to assist with the completion of a specific task.
Lead worker – performs same duties as subordinates, but sets pace of work unit and may give informal
direction to other workers.
Project Basis – To incumbents working on a specific project. Subordinates vary from project to project.
Regulatory Supervision – This is not considered true supervision but represents those jobs which exist to
provide direction, review judgments made by other sections or departments, set standards, policies and
procedures, override judgments made by supervisors or managers of functions under their control or exercise
similar controls. Such control is over other positions with a separate "boss" for leave approval, performance
evaluation and administrative review of work as well as some technical review.
Supervision Received (subordinate's perspective)
•Close – frequent and detailed review of work. Here instructions, advice and assistance readily available.
•General – instruction, advice and assistance available as needed. Review of work may be frequent but not
usually detailed. Emphasis is placed on quality of completed assignments.
•Broad – instruction, advice and assistance available at request of employee. Review is under-detailed and
usually emphasizes accomplishment of broad work unit objectives rather than specific work assignments.
•Administrative direction – advice and assistance limited to accomplishment of broad agency goals.
Types of Employees Supervised
Inmates – Also seen to be equivalent to classified employees when it is documented that they perform the
same duties as classified employees. Counted on a one‐for‐one basis.
Students – Are not considered unless they perform duties, which equate to those of full time classified
employees. Normally counted on a two or three‐to‐one basis, depending on number of hours worked.
Contractual – Can be considered if these are used in place of classified employees, (e.g. health service
providers, etc.) and then only if the results of their work are reviewed.
Temporary – Are not considered subordinates.
Consultants – Should not be considered subordinates; however, if in a fiscal setting, credit may be given if
the supervisor has the responsibility for production, quality, results and scope of the consultants work.
Subordinates in a Lower Job Series -Supervision of all types of subordinates, long term basis.
Elements of supervision
Supervision has a number of elements involved but not all are necessary at a given point in time. For
effective supervision though, we look at the suggestions below.
Supervision must include the two (2) mandatory supervisory elements and at least four (4) or more of the
optional elements listed below:
Mandatory Elements
 Responsible for the productivity and quality of the subordinates work performance.
 Formally Evaluates subordinates performance (e.g. Service Ratings, recommends promotions, etc.)
 Determines work assignments, priorities, and procedures for subordinates
 Approving annual and sick leave
Optional Elements
 Resolving technical problems; entailing responsibility for counseling subordinates and finding solutions
to problems that the subordinates were unable to resolve.
 Interviewing, and recommending for selection, candidates who apply for vacant jobs or employees who
apply for promotions in the area supervised.
 Resolving complaints from subordinates
 Training of new employees
 Advising on problem resolutions through informal advice and assistance to subordinates
 Reporting on work quality and productivity of subordinates; however, without responsibility and
accountability for the production and quality of their work.
3. Motivation
Motivation is a psychological force determining the direction of person's behavior in an organization; it is
someone's level of effort or persistence when faced with a challenge.
Importance of Motivation
While performing a job two things are required, the ability to work and the willingness to work. Without
willingness to work, ability to work can't produce good results, therefore converting this ability to work into
willingness to work important. for Performance depends on ability as well as willingness; and willingness
depends on motivation, motivation is a key element therfore in directing people to do the job.
proper motivation maximumly utilize the factors of production (men, money, material etc), reducing
employee turnover and absenteeism, fostering a sense of belongingness among the employees towards the
organization, improveing employee morales, helping in reducing the number of complaints and grievances,
reduction in wastage and accident rate, and attracts competent and best quality employees amon others.
Sources of motivation
1. Intrinsic sources; behavior is performed for its own sake. The source is the work, performing the task
keeps workers motivated i.e. the sense of accomplishment.
2. Extrinsically motivated; Behavior performed to acquire material, social reward or avoid punishment.
Regardless of motivation source or type, people always work to obtain something or outcomes. Outcome is
anything a person gets from a job or an organization while Input is the contribution of an individual to an
organization, it could be time, effort, knowledge, skill, experience, work behavior, e.t.c.
Alignment of employee input with outcomes and organizational goals is the Motivation Equation.
How do you motivate people？
Having studied carefully the motivation theories, we realized that there existed many ways of motivating
employees. There is no one right way of doing this and we hold a view that the method used varies from
manager to manager and organization to organization depending on the job type and timeframe. The final
goal though is to have a motivated work force that achieves organizational targets. A manager may use;
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The Operant conditioning theory by B.F Skinner, which insists that people learn to perform
behavior leading to desired consequences and not to perform behaviors leading to undesired consequences.
In motivation terms, high performance behavior will give high outcome hence preferred by employees
compared to performing behavior that will lead to outcomes they don't desire. Managers therefore need to set
or link specific behavior to specific outcomes and let employees know, consequently leading to
organization's high goal attainment. skinner went on to suggest some approaches like:
•Positive re-enforcement- (getting desire outcomes upon performing organization's set functional behavior)
•Negative reinforcement- (managers remove undesired outcome on performs organizationally set behavior.)
•Identifying the right behavior for reinforcement then using it as a motivator
•Extinction (elimination or removal of what causes behavior that is detrimental to the organization)
•Punishment (administering undesired or negative consequence when dysfunctional behavior occurs)
Organizational behavior modification (techniques that encourage performance of organizationally
functional behavior and deter the performance of undesired behavior)
There are five steps which are followed to make skinner's theory and these are: identifying important
behavior, measuring frequency of its occurrence, determining awareness of people on the consequences,
developing and applying strategy (reinforcement, punishment, extinction, e.t.c), then a manager re-measures
frequency of behavior and if it is a success, he/she maintains behavior using strategy or re assesses the
process if otherwise till he/she ever gets to the perfect point.
• Satisfying employee needs. in as much as different people have different needs even those working in
the same place and doing the same job, there are certain common needs which are known to exist in most
cases as summarized in the table below.
High Self actualization Allows them creativity at high potential
Esteem
Promotion and recognition
Belongingness
Social interactions like picnics, parties e.t.c
Safety
Job security, medical benefits, safety of work environment e.t.c
Physiological
Level of pay that affords the person food, clothing, housing (basic needs)
Low
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs concept of motivation, once people have worked earned money
and satisfied needs on the low end of the table, people wish to satisfy higher category of needs.
It is important to remember that the needs and desires of people change and according to Alderfer, a person
can be motivated by more than one level needs at the same time. Once their basic needs are satisfied, other
needs arise but when a person experiences need frustration, then they focus on satisfying needs at lower level
the more. Managers have thus, to understand the needs of subordinates and decide how to motivate them.
• Equity theory: 1960s by J stay Adams
Motivation can also come from people's perceptions of fairness basing on the relationship between their input
into an organization and the outcomes they receive from it. Adams' Equity theory stressed that what is
important is the relative rather than the absolute levels of outcomes he/she receives and inputs he/she
contributes. Motivation is terefor influenced by comparison of one's outputs to inputs ratio to that of a
referent. Where a referent could be another person, group of people perceived as similar or even one's self in
a previous job, or even his / her expectations of output input ratio should be. Equity is perceived as
impartiality, justice, fairness to which all members are entitled and it is seen to exist when a person perceives
his or her outcome- input ratio to be equal to a referent's outcome-input ratio.
E.g. Maria and Claudia both working in large shoe store but Maria gets higher pay than Claudia but still
does more work of closing store, keeping books and banking cash hence Claudia thinks it fair.
Where equity exists, people tend to be motivated since they also know that when they need to increase their
outcomes, they need to increase inputs. Whereas when inequality is experienced in one way or another like
Underpayment inequality or overpayment inequality, people always seek to restore equity in different ways
like; Reducing effort at work, Coming in late, Seeking pay rise or changing jobs/organizations among others.
Hence, it is as important for managers to observe equality at the workplace for workers' motivation.
Pay and motivation
Pay scales always set by managers depend on many factors including government policies and organization's
competitiveness in the business but once set; the pay can be a motivator. Many theories have always eluded
the importance of pay and only suggest that it should be based on performance. In agreement with them, high
performance should yield or accrue to high pay and there exists a merit pay plan, which normally suggests or
bases pay on performance. When managers decide to use the merit pay plan, two (2) choices come along.
1. Whether to base the plan on individual, group or organizational performance
Where possible' it is based on the individual but sometimes it is on a group or organization as a whole when
an individual's effort can't easily be put apart from other members.
2. Whether to use Salary increase or bonus;
These tend to be uniform but have a better effect on motivation.
Note: other ways of motivation have been discussed in class before.
4. Leadership
It is a process by which a person exerts influence over others and inspires, motivates and directs their
activities to help achieve organizational goals.
Effective leadership gives a company competitive advantage, fostering ethical behavior and managing
diverse workforce fairly and equitably hence attributing to success.
Distinction between a manager and a leader
As much as leading is one of the four major tasks of managing, there is always a redline drawn between
managing and leading.
Managers; are thought of as company members who establish and implement procedure and processes
ensuring smooth functioning and accountable for goal accomplishment.
Leaders are seen as forecasters of the feature, map out company course, attract, retain, motivate, inspire and
develop relationship with employees based on trust and mutual respect. Leaders provide meaning and
purpose, seek innovation rather than stability, encourage employees to work together to achieve the leaders
vision.
Nature of leadership
The nature of leadership looks at the leadership styles and their effects on managerial tasks, The influence of
culture on the leadership styles, The key to leadership (power) and the source of the power and the dynamism
of empowerment.
Personal leadership style and how it influences managerial tasks
A manager's specific way of how he influences or approaches others has a huge impact on how he/she plans,
organizes or controls and organizes the organization. Some managers are Hands on others are Exemplary,
Dictators or Passionate managers. Developing a personal style is always one of the biggest challenges for
managers.
Leadership styles across cultures
Some evidence has shown that leadership styles are not only variant among individuals but also among
culture, counties and systems. As an Example, many managers of European origin have been found to be
more individualistic compared to Japans' group prospective and more humanistic as compared to America's
goal oriented or organizational achievement first managerial style. Hence, Europeans managers find it hard to
lay off a worker as compared to a manager in U.S.A and when it is necessary, they always try to reduce the
pain. Japanese tend to always focus on the long run compared to the American short run goals orientation,
and the Ethiopians seem to be leaning to the American style of leadership lately.
Power
Regardless of leadership style, the key component to effective leadership is found in the power the leader has
to affect other people's behavior. There are five types of power discussed:
1. Legitimate power; it is the authority arising from the position, hierarchy or rank in the company.
2. Reward power; this comes from the ability of the manager to control rewards like tips, pay rise or deduction.
3. Coercive power; the one that arises from the ability of the manager to punish others (negative reward power)
4. Expert power; respect the manager gets due to extra ordinary knowledge, skill or experience in the field.
5. Referent power; the one that comes from subordinates' admiration, respect and royalty
The more power the leader enjoys, the better it is for him/ her.
Some good behavior in leadership
•
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•
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Direct behavior; hands on which include setting tasks or goals and assigning them
Supportive behavior; expresses concern and seeks to know subordinates interests.
Participatory behavior; giving subordinates say in matters affecting them.
Achievement oriented; motivating subordinates to perform at highest possible level, e.g setting very
challenging goals and believing in subordinates capacity to accomplish them.
• Good observers; situations that exerts their influence like skill, ability, experience, motivation, reward
and enjoyable work may not require leaders. good Managers always see such situation.
• Being a charismatic; having a vision of how good things can get in contrast with the existing situation
• Transformational; makes subordinates aware of their importance to the company and aware of their
own need for personal growth hence motivates them to work for the good of the organization.
Transformational and transactional leadership
There is always a debate between transformational and transactional leadership. Whereas transactional
leadership is about reward power, it concentrates on both negative and positive reward depending on
accomplishment scale. However, transactional leaders tend to mostly lean on the positive side of the
accomplishment and reward power paying less attention to the negative side.
Gender and leadership
Looking at women in top leadership positions, research shows that the number has increased over the last 20
years. Though still low, vast campaigns are always run and special advantages awarded to them to bring the
numbers high enough.
Female vs. male managers
As much as there is no proven research, many people have a tendency of viewing women as
relationship/behavior oriented managers compared to men as task- oriented. To the contrary, research has
shown that women are more participative as leaders than men are. Women always tend to involve
subordinates in decision-making compared to men who want to do things their own way, plus men also
tending to be harsher in punishing subordinates as compared to women.
Some reasons for female managers being participative
• Opposition from some subordinates who resist the female leader forces the leader to adapt
participatory roles to win trust and respect.
• Many a time, women have better interpersonal skill compared to men.
Emotional intelligence and leadership
Preliminary research has shown that the moods and emotions leaders experience at work or on the job
influence their behavior and effectiveness as leaders. It is therefore very important for leaders to create a
good mood or master their emotions for them to be effective leaders.
Note:
We have only discussed the positive side of leadership because it goes unsaid that an ineffective leader or
manager will lead to the eventual loss of competitive advantage of the organization and its downfall.
5. Communication
•
Communication is the sharing of information between two or more individuals or groups to reach a
common understanding.
• Communication is the transmission of mutual understanding through the use of symbols.
It is important to note that all the above insist that where there is no mutual understanding is not reached, and
then there is no communication.
Figure showing the framework of a good communication
The management course emphasizes how organizations can gain a competitive advantage when managers
strive to increase efficiency, quality, responsiveness to customers and innovation. Good communication is
however the essential for attaining all the above goals hence gaining competitive advantage.
Advantages of good communication in an organization
• Increases efficiency by updating production process technology and training workers
• Improving quality of products
• Increases responsiveness to customers (empowering workers closest to customers to communicate with
them and report any abnormal-lies to management)
• Increased cross-function teams innovation
The general communication process
This process consists of two phases, Transmission and Feedback.
Communication starts at transmission with sender, person wishing to share information with others decides
on the message what information to share. The message is then transformed into symbols or language,
encoding. The message is sent through the medium like mobile phone, email, letter, memo, face-to-face e.t.c
goes on to the next stage where the receiver then tries to make sense of the message through decoding.
The receiver who now becomes sender then initiates the feedback stage and the whole process repeated.
Along the way though, there comes noise, which is any unwanted sound within the communication process.
The process is expressed through the image bellow:
Categories of communication
• Verbal communication; it is the encoding of a message either written or spoken
• Non-verbal communication; this is encoding of message by means of facial expression, body
language and style of dress. This kind of communication is very important since sometimes it is used to
express or send message that the sender might not be able to communicate verbally e.g. smile after words of
appreciation, a concerned facial expression backing up sympathy words.
The role of perception in communication
Perception; is defined as the process through which people select, organize and interpret sensory input to give
meaning and order to the world around them. Perception is subjective and subsequently influenced by
personality, values, attitudes and moods as well as experience and knowledge.
It is important to understand that therefore when a sender and receiver communicate, they are doing so based
on their own subjective perceptions. Hence, it affects all the process, (encoding, decoding and even the
medium used). An accurate perception therefore will in turn contribute to an effective communication.
Information richness and communication media
To have an effective communication in an organization, managers need to always select an appropriate
communication medium for each message they send. Eg should a congratulatory message about a major
accomplishment be communicated in a letter, in a memo, in a phone call or over lunch?
There has not been any one best communication medium for managers to use or rely on but there have been
some three (3) factors to consider in choosing a medium.
1. Information richness; This is the amount of information a given communication medium can carry and
the extent to which it enables the sender and receiver reach common understanding. (Fig 16.2
contemporary management p.639)
2. Time needed for communication; Time is a very variable commodity hence a time saving medium is
always preferred.
3. Need for paper or electronic trail/ proof; the necessity of having the message documented or backed up
in one form or another will naturally dictate using a medium that will make that happen.
When Some four types of communication Medias were tested along the three dimensions of richness, time
and trail. See chart bellow
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
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The higher you go, the more feedback is easily gotten
It is seen that the higher you go on the chart, the more time is needed and the richer the information is but
the less paper trail is found.
The lower you go, the more information might come in case feedback is needed hence an information
overload and important information may be ignored.
The communication network
Despite the use of various Medias, organizational communication tends to flow in given patterns. These
patterns or pathways along which information flows like groups, teams, individuals e.t.c is what we call the
communication network. The types of networks however depend on the nature of the group, task and extent
to which communication is needed among members to achieve group goals. We look at four (4) major
networks that can develop in groups and teams.
The wheel network (group)
Here information flows to and from one central member of the group to accomplish the task. Communication
between other members of the group is unnecessary. E.g. delivery truck drivers or home deliveries from
restaurants
Chain network (group)
Here members communicate with one another in predetermined sequence or order. This type is effective if
the tasks performed are inter-dependent in a given order or sequence.
Circle network (group)
In this type, members communicate with one another depending on experience, belief, area of expertise,
background, location or any other factor that may ease communication and task accomplishment.
All channel network (team)
This is found in teams and all members communicate with any one on the team to accomplish tasks.
Organizational communication network
Many organizations have charts. These charts may be a good summary of an organization's communication
network and structure however, not always.
This chart normally summarizes the formal reporting relationship and formal pathways for communication to
happen. Many a time however, communication in organizations is informal and takes different pathways and
forms. There are some special networks in organizational communication and they include:
• Vertical communication; it happens up and down the corporate hierarchy
• Horizontal communication; this happens sideways or along the same levels
• Grapevine; this is the informal organizational communication network along which unofficial
information flows quickly and many a time accurately. These networks are all important in the
organizational competitive advantage.
External network
Many people working in organizations are not limited to communications amongst themselves but to their
competitors, contributors or even the general public. These communications are some times more important
than internal communications since it can sometimes even determine the organization's direction. E.g.
scientists in different organizations and countries may have to make a research and communicate their
developments amongst themselves.
Some companies even put public relations office to communicate to the general public and get feedback.
IT and communication
With the ever-growing technological advancements, managers' ability to communicate with others, quickly
access information and decision-making has improved too. Three major advances have brought tremendous
impact lately and they include;
1.
Internet; this is the global system of computer network that is easy to join and has been used by
employees of organizations around the world to communicate both internally and externally. The internet has
allowed managers to get solutions inform of case studies and similar examples of situations and how they
have been handled.
2.
Intranet; these are local organizational computer networks that enable both managers and
subordinates to easily access information, communicate and finally decide.
3.
Group wares and collaboration software; this is a simple computer application that enables members
of a given group or team to share information with one another. This kind always depends on the internet or
intranet and lately includes phone apps.
Dangers of ineffective communication
• Organizational performance suffers
• Company may lose competitive advantage
• It can sometimes lead to loss of lie.( imagine what could happen if the person in an airport tower
control room fails to communicate with pilots of a taking off and landing planes using the same run way in
close time intervals)
Communication skills for managers
Some of the barriers of effective communication in an organization originate with the sender while others
originate with the receiver. A sender might send an unclear, incomplete, difficult message or even good
message over an inappropriate medium. On the other hand the message may be very clear from the sender but
the receiver may pay no / less attention or make no effort to understand hence gives an inappropriate
feedback.
Due to the above and some more factors, managers and other organizational members are always advised to
improve their communication skills.
Communication skills for managers as senders
Managers as senders need to be able to;
• Send clear and complete messages
• Encored words in symbols that the receiver will understand
• Select the medium appropriate for the message
• Select a medium that the receiver monitors
• Avoid filtering and information distortion
• Ensure that there is a feedback mechanism built into the message
• Provide accurate message to avoid spread of misleading roomer
Communication skills for managers as receivers
Managers as receivers need to be able to;
• Pay attention
• Be empathetic
• Be a good listener (the 10 commandments for effective listening)
Hindrances to effective communication
• Difference in linguistic styles; The linguistic styles of people can be influenced by someone's
personality, experiences, training or even cultural background. Managers are not expected to change people's
style but to try to understand and have a way to deal with it for the sake of organizational growth
• Person's characteristic way of talking; This includes the tone of voice, speed, volume, use of poses,
directness, individual's choice of words, credit taking, questions, jokes and other manners of speech.