Download Chapter 15

Chapter 15
Managing
Communication
© 2015 Cengage Learning
MGMT7
What Is Communication?
• The process of transmitting information
from one person or place to another.
• It is estimated that managers spend
over 80 percent of their day
communicating with others.
• Furthermore, poor communication skills
is the most important reason that people
do not advance in their careers.
• Communication is the key to success.
3
Perception and
Communication Problems
Basic Perception
Process
Perception
Problems
Perceptions
of Others
Self-Perception
1
4
Perception
• The process by which individuals attend to,
organize, interpret, and retain information
from their environments.
• Perception Filters
– The personality-, psychology-, or experiencedbased differences that influence people to
ignore or pay attention to particular stimuli.
– People exposed to the same information will
often disagree about what they saw or heard.
15-1
© 2015 Cengage Learning
Basic Perception Process
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-1
Basic Perception Process
• Attention-the process of noticing particular
stimuli.
• Organization-the process of incorporating
new information into your existing
knowledge.
• Interpretation-the process of attaching
meaning to new knowledge.
• Retention-the process of remembering
interpreted information.
Perceptual Challenges:
What Do You See?
Copyright © 2005 Prentice
Hall, Inc. All rights reserved.
Exhibit 8.5
8–8
Influences on Perception
• Personal characteristics • Target characteristics
– Attitudes
– Personality
– Motives
– Interests
– Past experiences
– Expectations
– Characteristics of the
target and its relationship
to its background.
– Contextual elements,
such as time, location,
light, or heat.
8–9
.
Perception Problems
• At work, we are constantly bombarded with
sensory stimuli—the phone ringing, people
talking in the background, the sounds of
our computers dinging as new e-mail
arrives, people calling our names, etc.
• We cannot possibly notice, receive, and
interpret all of this information.
• As a result, we attend to and accept some
stimuli but screen out and reject others.
Perception Problems
• Selective perception
• notice and accept stimuli which are consistent
with our values and beliefs
• ignore inconsistent stimuli
• Closure
• tendency to fill in the gaps when information is
missing
• we assume that what we don’t know is
consistent with what we do know
15-1
© 2015 Cengage Learning
Perception of Others
• Attribution Theory
– we have a need to understand and explain
the causes of other people’s behavior; we
need to know why people do what they do).
• General reasons to explain behavior
– Internal attribution
• the behavior was voluntary or under their control
– External attribution
• the behavior was involuntary and beyond their control
12
Attribution Bias and Error
Defensive
Bias
The tendency for people to
perceive themselves as personally and
situationally similar to someone who is
having difficulty. We tend to use external
attributions to explain behavior.
Fundamental
Attribution
Error
The tendency to ignore external causes
of behavior and to attribute other
people’s actions to internal causes.
Which attribution, the defensive bias or the fundamental attribution
error, are workers likely to make when something goes wrong?
13
Attribution Bias and Error
15
Self-Perception
Self-serving bias
• The tendency to overestimate our value
by attributing success to ourselves and
failures to others or the environment
• The self-serving bias can make it
especially difficult for managers to talk
to employees about performance
problems.
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-1
Kinds of Communication
Communication
Process
Formal
Communication
Channels
Nonverbal
Communication
Informal
Communication
Channels
Coaching and
Counseling
17
The Interpersonal Communication Process
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-2
Noise
Anything that interferes with the transmission
of the intended message.
•The sender isn’t sure what message to communicate.
•The message is not clearly encoded.
•The wrong communication channel is chosen.
•The message is not received or decoded properly.
•The receiver doesn’t have the experience or time to
understand the message.
15-2
© 2015 Cengage Learning
Formal Communication Channel
The system of official channels that carry
organizationally approved messages and
information.
Downward
communication
Upward
communication
© 2015 Cengage Learning
Horizontal
communication
15-2
Common Problems with Downward, Upward, and
Horizontal Communication
Downward
•
•
•
•
Sending too many messages
Issuing contradictory messages
Hurriedly communicating vague, unclear messages
Issuing messages indicating management’s low regard
for lower-level workers
Upward
• Risk of telling upper management about problems
• Managers acting angrily and defensively to problems
• Few opportunities for workers to contact upper levels of
management
Horizontal
• Management discouraging or punishing horizontal
communication
• Managers and workers not given time or opportunity for
horizontal communication
• Not enough opportunities or channels for lower-level
workers to engage in horizontal communication
21
Improving Formal Communication
1. Decrease reliance on downward
communication
2. Increase chances for upward communication
3. Encourage much greater use of horizontal
communication
4. Be aware of communication problems
22
Informal Communication Channel
The transmission of messages from
employee to employee outside of formal
communication channels.
The “Grapevine”
15-2
© 2015 Cengage Learning
The Grapevine
“The grapevine motto: Good
information passes among people
fairly rapidly—bad information,
even faster!”
•Grapevine
– An unofficial channel of
communication that is
neither authorized nor
supported
by the organization.
• Highly accurate
– information is timely
– senders seek feedback
–
. accuracy can be verified
The Grapevine
Copyright © 2005
Prentice Hall, Inc.
12–25
Exhibit 12.2
Informal Communication Channels
Gossip
Chain
Cluster
Chain
“Highly-connected” worker shares
information with coworkers
Numerous people tell a friend.
26
Managing Grapevines
• Worst thing to do is withhold
information
• Keep employees informed about
possible changes and strategies
• Do not overlook the grapevine as a
tremendous source of information and
feedback
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-2
Coaching
Communicating with someone for the
direct purpose of improving the person’s
on-the-job performance.
Mistakes managers make
•Waiting for a problem before coaching
•Waiting too long before talking to employee
about problem
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-2
Counseling
Communicating with someone about
non-job-related issues.
•Managers should not be clinicians
•Discuss specific performance problems
•Listen if the employee shares personal
issues
•Recommend that employees call the
company’s Employee Assistance Program
(EAP)
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-2
Employee Assistance Programs
Counseling
Financial
Services
Child Care
Employee
Assistance
Programs
Pet Care
Health
Lifestyles
Senior Care
Legal
Services
30
Nonverbal Communication
Any communication that doesn’t involve words;
almost always accompanies verbal
communication and may either support or
contradict it.
•Kinesics
–movements of the body and face
•Paralanguage
–the pitch, tone, rate, volume, and speaking pattern
of a person’s voice
15-2
© 2015 Cengage Learning
How to Improve Communication
Choosing the Right Communication Medium
Being a good listener
Giving effective feedback
32
Communication Medium
The method used to deliver a message.
•Oral communication
•Written communication
15-3
© 2015 Cengage Learning
Oral Communication
• Managers generally prefer oral
communication over written because it
provides opportunity to ask questions.
• A rich communication medium
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-3
Written Communication
• Well suited for delivering
straightforward messages and
information
• Email is fastest growing
communication form in
organizations because of
convenience and speed.
15-3
© 2015 Cengage Learning
Listening
• About 45 percent of the total time you
spend communicating with others is
spent listening.
• Yet, most people retain only about 25%
of what they hear.
• How to improve, understand the
difference between hearing and
listeneing.
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-3
Listening
• hearing is the "act or process of
perceiving sounds,"
• listening is "making a conscious effort to
hear."
Active Listening
• Assuming half the responsibility for successful
communication by actively giving the speaker
nonjudgmental feedback that shows you’ve accurately
heard what he or she said.
• Clarify responses
• ask questions to clear up ambiguities
• Paraphrase
•
restate the speaker’s comments
in your own words
• Summarize
• review the speaker’s main points
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-3
Clarifying, Paraphrasing, and Summarizing
Responses for Active Listeners
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-3
Empathetic Listening
Understanding the speaker’s perspective
and personal frame of reference and giving
feedback that conveys that understanding
to the speaker.
•Show desire to understand
listen first
talk about what’s important to the other
•Reflect the speaker’s emotions
focus on the emotional part of the message
more than just restating words
15-3
© 2015 Cengage Learning
Giving Feedback
• Destructive feedback
• Constructive feedback
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-3
Characteristics of Feedback
• Positive feedback
– Is more readily and accurately perceived than
negative feedback.
– Is almost always accepted, whereas negative
feedback often meets resistance.
• Negative feedback
– Is most likely to be accepted when it comes
from a credible source or if it is objective.
– Carries weight only when it comes from a
person with high status and credibility.
Copyright © 2005 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights
reserved.
12–42
Making Feedback Constructive
• Give immediate feedback
– don’t delay feedback
– discuss performance while the memory is vivid
• Make feedback specific
– focus on definite behavior and time-frame
– make sure behavior was controllable
• Make feedback problem-oriented
– focus on behavior not personality
43
Suggestions for Effective Feedback
• Focus on specific behavior
• Keep feedback impersonal
• Keep feedback goal oriented
• Make feedback well-timed
• Ensure understanding
• Direct negative feedback towards behavior
that the receiver can control
Exhibit 12.6
12–44
Copyright © 2005 Prentice Hall, Inc. All rights
reserved.
Improving Transmission
• Email
• Online discussion forums
• Televised/videotaped speeches and
meetings
• Voice messaging
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-4
Establishing Collaborative Discussion Sites
© 2015 Cengage Learning
15-4
Organizational Silence
Withholding information about
organizational problems or issues.
Occurs when employees believe that
telling management about problems
won’t make a difference, or that they’ll
be punished.
15-4
© 2015 Cengage Learning
Improving Reception
• Company hotlines
• Survey feedback
• Frequent informal meetings
• Surprise visits
• Blogs
15-4
© 2015 Cengage Learning