Promoting Effective Communication

1. Promoting Effective Communication chapter sixteen

2. Learning Objectives • Explain why effective communication helps an organization gain a competitive advantage. • Describe the communication process, and explain the role of perception in communication. • Define information richness, and describe the information richness of communication media available to managers.

3. Learning Objectives (cont.) Describe the communication networks that exist in groups and teams. Explain how advances in technology have given managers new options for managing communications. Describe important communication skills that managers need as senders and receivers of messages and why it is important to understand differences in linguistic styles

4. Communication and Management • Communication • The sharing of information between two or more individuals or groups to reach a common understanding.

5. The Importance of Good Communication Increased efficiency in new technologies and skills Improved quality of products and services Increased responsiveness to customers More innovation through communication

6. The Communication Process Figure 16.1

7. The Communication Process Sender – person wishing to share information with some other person Message – what information to communicate Encoding – sender translates the message into symbols or language Noise – refers to anything that hampers any stage of the communication process

8. The Communication Process Receiver – person or group for which the message is intended Medium – pathway through which an encoded message is transmitted to a receiver Decoding - critical point where the receiver interprets and tries to make sense of the message

9. The Communication Process • Verbal Communication • The encoding of messages into words, either written or spoken • Nonverbal • The encoding of messages by means of facial expressions, body language, and styles of dress.

10. The Role of Perception in Communication • Perception • process through which people select, organize, and interpret sensory input to give meaning and order to the world around them • Influenced by people’s personalities, values, attitudes and moods as well as their experience and knowledge

11. The Role of Perception in Communication • Biases • systematic tendencies to use information about others in ways that can result in inaccurate perceptions

12. The Role of Perception in Communication • Stereotypes • simplified and often inaccurate beliefs about the characteristics of particular groups of people • can interfere with the encoding and decoding of messages

13. Information Richness and Communication Media Managers and their subordinates can become effective communicators by: • Selecting an appropriate medium for each message—there is no one “best” medium. • Considering information richness • A medium with high richness can carry much more information to aid understanding.

14. Information Richness • Information richness • The amount of information that a communication medium can carry • The extent to which the medium enables the sender and receiver to reach a common understanding

15. Information Richness of Communication Media Figure 16.2

16. Face-to-Face Communication • Face-to-Face • Has highest information richness. • Can take advantage of verbal and nonverbal signals.

17. Face-to-Face Communication • Management by wandering around • face-to-face communication technique in which a manager walks around a work area and talks informally with employees about issues and concerns.

18. Spoken Communication Electronically Transmitted • Spoken Communication Electronically Transmitted • Has the second highest information richness. • Telephone conversations are information rich with tone of voice, sender’s emphasis, and quick feedback, but provide no visual nonverbal cues.

19. Personally Addressed WrittenCommunication • Personally Addressed Written Communication • Has a lower richness than the verbal forms of communication, but still is directed at a given person. • Personal addressing helps ensure receiver actually reads the message—personal letters and e-mail are common forms.

20. Impersonal Written Communication • Impersonal Written Communication • Has the lowest information richness. • Good for messages to many receivers where little or feedback is expected (e.g., newsletters, reports)

21. Impersonal Written Communication • Information overload • The potential for important information to be ignored or overlooked while tangential information receives attention.

22. Impersonal Written Communication • Blog • A Web site on which an individual, group, or organization posts information, commentary, and opinions and to which readers can often respond with their own commentary and opinions. • Social networking site • A Web site that enables people to communicate with others with whom they have some common interest or connection.

23. Communication Networks • Communication Networks • The pathways along which information flows in groups and teams and throughout the organization.

24. Communication Networks • Type of communication network depends on: • The nature of the group’s tasks • The extent to which group members need to communicate with each other to achieve group goals.

25. Communication Networks in Groups and Teams Figure 16.3

26. Organization Communication Networks • Organization Chart • Summarizes the formal reporting channels in an organization. • Communication in an organization flows through formal and informal pathways • Vertical communications flow up and down the corporate hierarchy.

27. Organization Communication Networks • Organization Chart • Horizontal communications flow between employees of the same level. • Informal communications can span levels and departments • Grapevine - an informal network carrying unofficial information throughout the firm.

28. Formal and Informal Communication Networks in an Organization Figure 16.4

29. Information Technology andCommunication • Intranets • A company-wide system of computer networks for information sharing by employees inside the firm. • Advantages of intranets • Lies in their versatility as a communication medium • Can be used for a number of different purposes by people who may have little expertise in computer software and programming

30. Groupware and Collaboration Software • Groupware • Computer software that enables members of groups and teams to share information with each other to improve communication and performance

31. How to Be Successful Using Groupware • Work is team-based and members are rewarded for group performance • Groupware has full support of top management • Culture of the organization stresses flexibility • Groupware is being used for a specific purpose • Employees receive adequate training

32. Groupware • Employees are likely to resist using groupware when: • people are working primarily on their own • people are rewarded for their own individual performances • people are reluctant to share information

33. Groupware • Collaboration software • Groupware that promotes and facilitates collaborative, highly interdependent interactions and provides an electronic meeting site for communication among team members.

34. Barriers to Effective Communication Messages that are unclear, incomplete, difficult to understand Messages sent over the an inappropriate medium Messages with no provision for feedback Messages that are received but ignored

35. Communication Skills for Managers as Senders Table 16.2

36. Communication Skills for Managers as Senders • Jargon • specialized language that members of an occupation, group, or organization develop to facilitate communication among themselves • should never be used when communicating with people outside the occupation, group, or organization

37. Example – Formula 1 Jargon Unless you follow Formula 1, you may not be familiar with words like baulking, boonies, carambolage, gorilla, marbles, miniskirts, and wishbone.

38. Communication Skills for Managers as Senders • Filtering • Withholding part of a message because of the mistaken belief that the receiver does not need or will not want the information. • Information distortion • Changes in the meaning of a message as the message passes through a series of senders and receivers.

39. Communication Skills For Managers as Receivers Pay attention Be a good listener Be empathetic

40. Video case: Better Manners = Better Communication Why does Susan Fitter emphasize the receiver’s role in face-to-face communication? Why does a communication expert like Susan Fitter instruct people in how to shake hands?