Effective Communication for Collaboration

1. Chapter 18 Communication and Collaboration

2. Planning Ahead — Chapter 18 Study Questions • What is the communication process? • How can we improve our communications? • How can we deal positively with conflict? • How can we negotiate successful agreements?

3. Chapter 18 Learning Dashboard • The Communication Process • Effective communication • Persuasion and credibility in communication • Communication barriers • Cross-cultural communication • Improving Collaboration Through Communication • Transparency and openness • Use of electronic media • Active listening • Constructive feedback • Space design

4. Chapter 18 Learning Dashboard • Managing Conflict • Functional and dysfunctional conflict • Causes of conflict • Conflict resolution • Conflict management styles • Structural approaches to conflict management • Managing Negotiation • Negotiation goals and approaches • Gaining agreements • Negotiation pitfalls • Third-party dispute resolution

5. Takeaway 1: 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 • Communication channel • Receiver • Interpreted meaning • Feedback

6. Figure 18.1The interactive two-way process of interpersonal communication

7. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Effective and efficient communication: • Effective communication • Occurs when the intended meaning of the sender is fully understood by the receiver • Efficient communication • Occurs at a minimum resource cost • Potential trade-offs between effectiveness and efficiency must be recognized

8. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Persuasion and credibility in communication • Communication is used for sharing information and influencing other people • Persuasion is getting someone else to support the message being presented • Horizontal structures and empowerment are important contexts for persuasion

9. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Persuasion and credibility in communication • Expert power and referent power are essential for persuasion • Credibility involves trust, respect, and integrity in the eyes of others • Credibility can be built through expertise and relationships

10. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Communication Barrier: • Information filtering • Poor choice of channels • Poor written or oral expression • Failure to recognize nonverbal signals • Physical distractions

11. Figure 18.2 Downsides of noise, shown as anything that interferes with the effectiveness of the communication process

12. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Information filtering • Intentional distortion to make it more favorable to the recipient • Subordinates may hide unfavorable news from the manager or make it sound better than it really is

13. Takeaway 1: 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 • Spoken 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

14. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Poor written or oral expression • Communication only effective when the sender expresses the message in a way understood by receiver • Chose words wisely

15. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Failure to recognize nonverbal signals • Nonverbal communication takes place through gestures, facial expressions, body posture, eye contact, and use of interpersonal space • Mixed messages occur when a person’s words and nonverbal signals communicate different things • The growing use of communication technologies causes important nonverbal communication to be lost

16. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Physical distractions • Include interruptions from telephone calls, drop-in visitors, a lack of privacy, etc. • Can interfere with the effectiveness of a communication attempt • Can be avoided or at least minimized through proper planning

17. Takeaway 1: The Communication Process Cross-cultural communication • Global economy frequently creates the need to communicate with colleagues in other countries with different cultures • Ethnocentrism • Tendency to consider one’s culture superior to any and all others

18. Takeaway 2: Improving Collaboration Through Communication Effective communication is necessary for successful collaboration • Transparency and openness • Use of electronic media • Active listening • Constructive feedback • Space design • Active listening • Feedback

19. Takeaway 2: Improving Collaboration Through Communication Transparency and openness • Communication transparency involves sharing honest and complete information about the organization and workplace • Open book management • Managers provide employees with important financial information about their companies

20. Takeaway 2: Improving Collaboration Through Communication Using electronic media • Information technologies facilitate communication • The electronic grapevine speeds messages and information from person to person • Functional if information is accurate and useful • Dysfunctional if information is false, distorted, or based on rumor • E-mail privacy • Employer’s policy on personal e-mail • Don’t assume that e-mail privacy exists at work • Electronic grapevines exist

21. Takeaway 2: Improving Collaboration Through Communication • Active listening • The process of taking action to help someone say exactly 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

22. Takeaway 2: Improving Collaboration Through Communication • Feedback • The process of telling others how you feel about something they did or said, or about the situation in general (evaluative, interpretive, descriptive) • 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

23. Takeaway 2: Improving Collaboration Through Communication 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

24. Takeaway 3: Managing Conflict Conflict • A disagreement between people on: • Substantive issues regarding goals and tasks, 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 creativity and high performance

25. Takeaway 3: Managing 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

26. Figure 18.3 The relationship between conflict and performance

27. Takeaway 3: Managing Conflict

28. Takeaway 3: Managing Conflict • Conflict resolution is the removal of the substantial and emotional reasons for a conflict • People’s conflict management styles are different • Cooperativeness is the desire to satisfy the other party’s needs and concerns • Assertiveness is the desire to satisfy one’s own needs and concerns

29. Takeaway 3: Managing Conflict Conflict management styles: • Avoidance (withdrawal) • 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

30. Figure 18.4 Alternative conflict management styles

31. Takeaway 3: Managing Conflict Conflict management styles:

32. Takeaway 3: Managing Conflict Structural approaches for resolving conflicts: • Appealing to higher level goals • Making more resources available • Changing the people • Altering the physical environment • Use integrating devices • Provide training • Change reward systems

33. Takeaway 3: Managing Conflict Integrative devices for resolving conflicts: • Using liaison personnel, special task forces, cross-functional teams, or a matrix organization

34. Takeaway 4: Managing Negotiation Negotiation • The process of making joint decisions when the parties involved have different preferences • All negotiation situations are susceptible to conflict and require exceptional communication and interpersonal skills

35. Takeaway 4: Managing Negotiation 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

36. Takeaway 4: Managing Negotiation 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

37. Takeaway 4: Managing Negotiation? 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

38. Takeaway 4: Managing Negotiation 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

39. Figure 18.5 The bargaining zone in classic two-party negotiation

40. Takeaway 4: Managing Negotiation • Bargaining zone • 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 ” • Premature cultural comfort • Trap of ethical misconduct

41. Takeaway 4: Managing Negotiation 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

42. Takeaway 4: Managing Negotiation Third-party dispute resolution • Mediation • Involves a neutral third party who tries to improve communication between 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 • Ombudsperson is a neutral third party who listens to complaints in an attempt to resolve disputes