Organizational Behavior
Managing Effective
Communication Processes
Chapter 16
Effective communication is a critical skill.
Transmitting information and understanding
(up, down, across, and diagonal) , using
verbal and/or nonverbal symbols
Organizational Behavior
The Communication Process
Communicator
Message
Medium
Feedback
Receiver
Organizational Behavior
Contemporary Model
• Research by Shannon and Weaver, and
Schramm.
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Communicator
Encoding
Message
Medium
Decoding / Receiver
Feedback
Noise
Organizational Behavior
Nonverbal Messages
• Messages sent with body posture, facial
expressions, and hand and eye movements. It
has important impact on communication.
Organizational Behavior
Organizational Communication
• Directions of communication
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Downward communication
Upward communication
Horizontal communication
Diagonal communication
• Grapevines
– Rumors: Pipe Dreams, Bogie rumor, Wedge drivers,
Home-stretchers
Organizational Behavior
Interpersonal Communication
• Interpersonal style – how an individual prefers
to relate to others.
• Johari Window – four combinations of
information known and unknown by the self
and others
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Arena
Blind Spot
Façade
Unknown
Organizational Behavior
Interpersonal Strategies
• Johari Window:
– Exposure – increasing the Arena by reducing the
façade area requires that the individual be open and
honest in sharing information with others. “Telling
it like it is” often involves risk.
– Feedback – When the self doesn’t know or
understand, more effective communications can be
developed through feedback from those who do
know. Depends on the person’s willingness to hear
feedback and on others willingness to give it
Organizational Behavior
Managerial Styles
• Managers provide information (which must be understood), they
give commands and instructions (which must be obeyed and
learned), and they make efforts to influence and persuade (which
must be accepted and acted on).
– Type A: autocratic leaders; aloof and cold; poor
interpersonal communicators
– Type B: Seek good relations with subs but are unable to
openly express feelings; often ineffective interpersonal
communicators
– Type C: Interested in only their own ideas; usually not
effective communicators
– Type D: Feel free to express feelings and have others express
feelings; most effective interpersonal communicators
Organizational Behavior
Barriers to Communication
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Figure 16.4 & 16.5
Frame of reference
Selective listening
Value Judgments
Source Credibility
Semantic problems
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Filtering
Ingroup Language
Status Differences
Proxemic Behavior
Time Pressures
Communication
Overload
Organizational Behavior
Improving Communication in
Organizations
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Following Up
Regulating information flow
Utilizing feedback
Empathy
Repetition
Encouraging mutual trust
Effective timing
Simplifying language
Effective listening
Figure 16.6