Download Chapter 17: Communication and Interpersonal Skills

Management, 7e
Schermerhorn
Prepared by
Michael K. McCuddy
Valparaiso University
John Wiley & Sons, Inc
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Chapter 17
Communication and Interpersonal Skills
 Planning ahead—study questions
– What is the communication process?
– How can communication be improved?
– How does perception influence
communication?
– How can we deal positively with conflict?
– How can we negotiate successful agreements?
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What is the communication process?
 Communication is essential for …
– Establishing and maintaining interpersonal
relationships.
– Listening to others.
– Gaining the information needed to create an
inspirational workplace.
– Handling conflict.
– Negotiating successfully.
– Leading successfully.
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What is the communication process?
 Communication
– An interpersonal process of sending and receiving
symbols with messages attached to them.
 Key elements of the communication process:
– Sender
– Message
– Channel
– Receiver
– Interpreted meaning
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What is the communication process?
 Effective and efficient communication
– Effective communication
• Occurs when the intended meaning of the sender is
identical to the interpreted meaning of the receiver.
– Efficient communication
• Occurs at a minimum resource cost.
– Potential trade-offs between effectiveness and
efficiency must be recognized.
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What is the communication process?
 Sources of noise in communication:
– Poor choice of channels
– Poor written or oral expression
– Failure to recognize nonverbal signals
– Physical distractions
– Status effects
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What is the communication process?
 Poor choice of channels …
– Choose the channel that works best.
– Written channels work for messages that:
• Are simple and easy to convey.
• Require extensive dissemination quickly.
• Convey formal policy or authoritative directives.
– Oral channels work best for messages that:
• Are complex or difficult to convey where immediate feedback
is needed.
• Attempt to create a supportive, even inspirational, climate.
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What is the communication process?
 Poor written or oral expression …
– Semantic barriers occur as:
• Encoding errors
• Decoding errors
• Mixed messages
– Managers need to speak and write clearly.
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What is the communication process?
 Guidelines for making oral presentations:
– Be prepared
– Set the right tone
– Sequence points
– Support your points
– Accent the presentation
– Add the right amount of polish
– Check your technology
– Don’t bet on the Internet
– Be professional
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What is the communication process?
 Failure to recognize nonverbal signals …
– Mixed messages occur when a person’s words
communicate one message while his/her
nonverbal signals communicate something else.
– The growing use of communication
technologies causes important nonverbal
communication to be lost.
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What is the communication process?
 Physical distractions …
– Include interruptions from telephone calls and
drop-in visitors.
– Can interfere with the effectiveness of a
communication attempt.
– Can be avoided or at least minimized through
proper planning.
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What is the communication process?
 Status effects …
– Occur when an organization’s hierarchy of
authority creates a barrier to effective
communication.
– Status effects include:
• Filtering—the intentional distortion of information
to make it appear favorable to the recipient.
• Subordinates acting as “yes men.”
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How can communication be improved?
 Active listening
– The process of taking action to help the source of a
message say what he or she really means.
 Rules for active listening:
– Listen for message content.
– Listen for feelings.
– Respond to feelings.
– Note all cues, verbal and nonverbal.
– Paraphrase and restate.
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How can communication be improved?
 Ten steps for good listening …
– Stop talking.
– Put the other person at ease.
– Show that you want to listen.
– Remove any potential distractions.
– Empathize with the other person.
– Don’t respond too quickly; be patient.
– Don’t get mad; hold your temper.
– Go easy on argument and criticism.
– Ask questions.
– Stop talking.
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How can communication be improved?
 Feedback
– The process of telling others how you feel about
something they did or said, or about the situation in
general.
 Constructive feedback guidelines:
– Give it directly.
– Make it specific.
– Give it when the receiver is willing/able to accept it.
– Make sure it is valid.
– Give it in small doses.
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How can communication be improved?
 Ways to keep communication channels open …
– Management by wandering around (MBWA)
– Open office hours
– Formal employee group meetings
– Employee advisory councils
– Suggestion boxes
– Communication consultants
– 360-degree feedback
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How can communication be improved?
 Proxemics and space design …
– Proxemics is the use of interpersonal space.
– Interpersonal space is an important nonverbal
cue.
– Workspace layout is often overlooked as a form
of nonverbal communication but is being
increasingly recognized for its impact on
communication and behavior.
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How can communication be improved?
 Technology utilization …
– New information technologies facilitate communication
and are growing in importance in organizations.
– Computers and computer technology can:
• Empower lower-level workers with more and better
information.
• Enable managers to achieve improved control and
accountability.
• Undermine the personal side of group decision making.
– Managers must be able to use information technology
while maintaining good interpersonal relations.
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How can communication be improved?
 Valuing culture and diversity …
– Ethnocentrism is the tendency to consider one’s
culture superior to any and all others.
– Ethnocentrism can cause people to:
• Not listen to others.
• Address or speak to others in ways that alienate
them.
• Use inappropriate stereotypes in dealing with
someone from another culture.
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How does perception influence
communication?
 Perception …
– The process through which people receive and
interpret information from the environment.
– People can perceive the same things or
situations differently.
– People behave on the basis of their
perceptions.
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How does perception influence
communication?
 Perception and attribution
– Attribution
• The process of developing explanations for events.
– Fundamental attribution error
• Occurs when observers blame another’s performance failures
or problems on internal factors rather than external factors.
– Self-serving bias
• Occurs because individuals blame their personal performance
failures or problems on external factors and attribute their
successes to internal factors.
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How does perception influence
communication?
 Perceptual tendencies and distortions …
– Stereotypes
• Occur when someone is identified with a group or
category, and then oversimplified attributes
associated with the group or category are linked
back to the individual.
– Halo effects
• Occur when one attribute is used to develop an
overall impression of a person or situation.
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How does perception influence
communication?
 Perceptual tendencies and distortions …
– Selectivity
• The tendency to single out for attention those
aspects of a situation or attributes of a person that
reinforce or appear consistent with one’s existing
beliefs, values, or needs.
– Projection
• The assignment of personal attributes to other
individuals.
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How can we deal positively with
conflict?
 Conflict
– A disagreement between people on:
• Substantive issues regarding goals, allocation of
resources, distribution of rewards, policies and
procedures, and job assignments.
• Emotional issues arising from feelings of anger,
distrust, dislike, fear, and resentment, as well as
personality clashes.
– Conflict that is well managed can help promote
high performance, creativity, and innovation.
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How can we deal positively with
conflict?
 Functional conflict …
– Moderately intense conflict.
– Constructive and stimulates people toward
greater work efforts, cooperation, and
creativity.
 Dysfunctional conflict …
– Low-intensity and very high-intensity conflict.
– Destructive and hurts task performance.
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How can we deal positively with
conflict?
 Causes of conflict:
– Role ambiguities
– Resource scarcities
– Task interdependencies
– Competing objectives
– Structural differentiation
– Unresolved prior conflicts
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How can we deal positively with
conflict?
 Structural approaches for resolving
conflicts:
– Appealing to superordinate goals.
– Making more resources available to everyone.
– Replacing or transferring one or more of the
conflicting parties.
– Altering the physical environment.
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How can we deal positively with
conflict?
 Integrative devices for resolving conflicts:
– Using liaison personnel, special task forces,
cross-functional teams, or a matrix organization
to change interaction patterns.
– Changing reward systems.
– Using policies and procedures to direct
behavior.
– Training people in interpersonal skills.
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How can we deal positively with
conflict?
 Conflict management styles
– People’s conflict management styles reflect
different combinations of assertive and
cooperative behavior.
• Assertiveness is the desire to satisfy your own needs
and concerns.
• Cooperativeness is the desire to satisfy the other
party’s needs and concerns.
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How can we deal positively with
conflict?
 Conflict management styles:
– Avoidance
• Uncooperative and unassertive
– Accommodation (smoothing)
• Cooperative and assertive
– Competition (authoritative command)
• Uncooperative and assertive
– Compromise
• Moderately cooperative and assertive
– Collaboration (problem solving)
• Cooperative and assertive
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How can we deal positively with
conflict?
 Conflict management styles:
– Lose-lose conflict
• Management by avoidance or accommodation
– Win-lose conflict
• Management by competition and compromise
– Win-win conflict
• Management by collaboration
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Negotiation is the process of making joint
decisions when the parties involved have
different preferences.
 All negotiation situations are susceptible to
conflict and require exceptional
communication skills.
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Negotiation goals and approaches
– Substance goals
• Concerned with outcomes
• Tied to the “content” issues of negotiation
– Relationship goals
• Concerned with processes
• Tied to the way people work together
– Effective negotiations occur when …
• Issues of substance are resolved.
• Working relationships are maintained or improved.
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Criteria for effective negotiation:
– Quality
• Negotiating a “wise” agreement that is truly
satisfactory to all sides.
– Cost
• Negotiating efficiently, using minimum resources
and time.
– Harmony
• Negotiating in a way that fosters interpersonal
relationships.
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Types of negotiation:
– Distributive negotiation …
• Focuses on claims made by each party.
• Leads to win-lose outcomes.
– Principled (or integrative) negotiation …
• Goal is to base the outcome on the merits of
individual claims.
• Leads to win-win outcomes.
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Gaining integrative agreements:
– Separate the people from the problem.
– Focus on interests, not on positions.
– Generate many alternatives before
deciding what to do.
– Insist that results are based on some
objective standard.
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Common negotiation pitfalls:
– Falling prey to the myth of the “fixed
pie.”
– Nonrational escalation of conflict.
– Overconfidence and ignoring other’s
needs.
– Too much “telling” and too little
“hearing.”
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Approaches to avoiding negotiation pitfalls:
– Mediation
• Involves a neutral third party who tries to
improve communication among negotiating
parties and keep them focused on relevant
issues.
– Arbitration
• Involves a neutral third party who acts as a
judge and issues a binding decision.
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Approaches to avoiding negotiation pitfalls:
– Alternative dispute resolution
• Utilizes mediation and/or arbitration but only
after direct attempts to negotiate agreements
among conflicting parties have failed.
• Often uses an ombudsperson as a neutral
third party.
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How can we negotiate successful
agreements?
 Ethical issues in negotiation …
– High ethical standards should be
maintained.
– Profit motive and the competitive desire
to win sometimes lead to unethical
behavior.
– Unethical negotiating behavior can lead
to short-term gains but long-term losses.
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