Download Communication

Chapter 7:
Communication
Organizational
Behaviour
5th Canadian Edition
Langton / Robbins / Judge
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education
Canada
7-1
Chapter Outline
• The Communication Process
• Barriers to Effective Communication
• Organizational Communication
• Other Issues in Communication
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
7-2
Communication
1. How does communication work?
2. What are the barriers to communication?
3. How does communication flow in
organizations?
4. What are other issues in communication?
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
7-3
The Communication Process
• People spend nearly 70 percent of their waking hours
communicating—writing, reading, speaking, listening
• Work Canada survey of 2039 Canadians in six industrial
and service categories found:
– 61 percent of senior executives believed that they did a good job of
communicating with employees.
– Only 33 percent of managers and department heads believed that
senior executives were effective communicators.
– Only 22 percent of hourly workers, 27% of clerical employees, and
22% of professional staff reported that senior executives did a
good job of communicating with them.
• Canadians reported less favourable perceptions about their
company’s communications than did Americans.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Communication Terms
• Communication
– The transfer and understanding of a message between
two or more people.
• Sender
– Establishes a message, encodes the message, and
chooses the channel to send it.
• Receiver
– Decodes the message and provides feedback to the
sender.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Communication Terms
• Encoding
– Converting a message to symbolic form.
• Decoding
– Interpreting a sender’s message.
• Message
– What is communicated.
• Channel
– The medium through which a message travels.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Exhibit 7-1 The Communication
Process Model
Chooses
Encodes the
a message
Chooses the
message
channel
Considers the receiver
Sender
Receiver
Considers the sender
Provides
feedback
Decodes the
message
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Choosing Channels
• Channels differ in their capacity to convey
information.
• Rich channels have the ability to:
– Handle multiple cues simultaneously.
– Facilitate rapid feedback.
– Be very personal.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Exhibit 7-2 – Information Richness
of Communication Channels
Source: Based on R. H. Lengel and R. L. Daft, “The Selection of Communication Media as an Executive Skill,” Academy of Management Executive, August 1988, pp.
225-232; and R. L. Daft and R. H. Lengel, “Organizational Information Requirements, Media Richness, and Structural Design,” Managerial Science, May 1996, pp. 554572. Reproduced from R. L. Daft and R. A. Noe, Organizational Behavior (Forth Worth, TX: Harcourt, 2001), p. 311.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Barriers to Effective Communication
• Filtering
– The sender manipulates information so that it will be
seen more favourably by the receiver.
• Selective Perception
– The receivers selectively sees and hears based on their
needs, motivations, experience, background, and other
personal characteristics.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Barriers to Effective Communication
• Defensiveness
– When individuals interpret a message as threatening,
they often respond in ways that retard effective
communication.
• Information Overload
– Occurs when the information we have to work with
exceeds our processing capacity.
• Language
– Words mean different things to different people.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Communicating Under Stress
•
Speak clearly.
•
Be aware of the nonverbal part of
communicating.
•
Think carefully about how you state
things.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Organizational Communication –
Direction of Communication
• Downward
– Communication that flows from one level of a group to
a lower level.
• Managers to employees
• Upward
– Communication that flows to a higher level of a group.
• Employees to manager
• Becoming increasingly difficult
• Lateral
– Communication among members of the same work
group, or individuals at the same level.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Networks
• Connections by which information flow.
– Formal Networks.
• Task-related communications that follow the
authority chain
– The Grapevine – Informal Networks.
• Communications that flow along social and
relational lines
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Exhibit 7-4 Networks and Their
Effectiveness
Speed
Accuracy
Emergence of a leader
Member satisfaction
Chain
Wheel
All-Channel
Moderate
High
Moderate
Moderate
Fast
High
High
Low
Fast
Moderate
None
High
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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The Grapevine
• 75 percent of employees hear about matters first
through rumours on the grapevine.
• The grapevine has three main characteristics:
– Not controlled by management.
– Most employees perceive it as being more believable
and reliable than formal communication.
– Largely used to serve the self-interests of those people
within it.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Purpose of Rumours
1. To structure and reduce anxiety
2. To make sense of limited or fragmented
information
3. To serve as a vehicle to organize group
members, and possibly outsiders, into coalitions
4. To signal a sender’s status or power
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Exhibit 7-5
Grapevine Patterns
E
Y
C
I
J
H
D
B
K
I
G
C
G
X
E
D
C
Single Strand
Each tells
one another
B
F
H
F
B
A
I
J
A
Gossip
One tells all
B
D
D
J
K
F
C
A
Probability
Each randomly
tells others
A
Cluster
Some tell
selected others
Source: K. Davis and J. W. Newstrom, Human Behavior at Work: Organizational Behavior, 7th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1985), p. 317. Reprinted by permission.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Exhibit 7-6 Emoticons: Showing
Emotions in Emails
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Electronic Communications:
Significant Limitations of E-mail
• Misinterpreting the message.
• Communicating negative messages.
• Overuse of e-mail.
• E-mail emotions.
• Privacy concerns
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Instant Messaging (IM) and Text
Messaging (TM)
• Instant Messaging (IM) and Text Messaging (TM)
– Rapidly gaining popularity in business.
– Fast and inexpensive way for managers to stay in touch with
employees and peers with each other.
– IM is better for short messages that will be quickly deleted.
• Despite exponential growth in usage, IM and TM are not
likely to replace email.
– Email is better for long messages that need to be saved.
– There are additional security fears in using IM/TM
• More easily intercepted
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Nonverbal Communication
• Messages conveyed through body movements,
facial expressions, and the physical distance
between the sender and the receiver.
– Kinesics
• The study of body motions, such as gestures, facial
configurations, and other movements of the body.
– Proxemics
• The study of physical space in interpersonal
relationships.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Silence as Communication
•
Defined as an absence of speech or noise.
•
Not necessarily inaction—can convey:
•
–
–
Thinking or contemplating a response to a question.
Anxiety about speaking.
–
Agreement, dissent, frustration, or anger.
Individuals should be aware of what silence
might mean in any communication.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Communication Barriers Between
Women and Men
• Men use talk to emphasize status, women use it to create
connection.
• Women and men tend to approach points of conflict
differently.
• Men and women view directness and indirectness
differently.
– Women interpret male directness as an assertion of status and oneupmanship.
– Men interpret female indirectness as covert, sneaky, and weak.
• Men criticize women for apologizing, but women say “I’m
sorry” to express empathy.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Cross-Cultural Communication
Difficulties
• Sources of barriers:
– Semantics
– Word connotations
– Tonal differences
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Culture Contexts
• Cultures differ in how much the context makes a
difference in communication.
– High-context cultures
• Cultures that rely heavily on nonverbal and subtle situational
cues in communication.
– Low-context cultures
• Cultures that rely heavily on words to convey meaning in
communication.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Exhibit 7-7
High- vs. Low-Context Cultures
Source: Based on the work of E. T. Hall. From R. E. Duleck, J. S. Fielden, and J. S. Hill, “International Communication: An Executive Primer,” Business Horizons, January-February 1991, p.
21.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Cross-Cultural Communications:
Helpful Rules
• Assume differences until similarity is proven.
• Emphasize description rather than interpretation or
evaluation.
• Practise empathy.
• Treat your interpretations as a working hypothesis.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
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Summary and Implications
1.
How does communication work?
•
2.
Communication works through choosing the correct channel,
being an effective listener, and using feedback.
What are the barriers to communication?
•
3.
Errors arise from filtering, selective perception, defensiveness,
information overload, and language.
How does communication flow in organizations?
•
4.
Communication can flow vertically and laterally, and by formal
and informal channels in organizations.
What are the other issues in communication?
•
The big topics in communication are the importance of
nonverbal communication and silence, gender, and cross-cultural
differences in communication.
Langton, Robbins and Judge, Organizational Behaviour, Fifth Cdn. Ed.
Copyright © 2010 Pearson Education Canada
7-29