Communication
Management and Processes
Communication and
Management
• Topics Covered
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The Importance of Good Communication
The Communication Process
The Role of Perception in Communication
The Dangers of Ineffective Communication
Information Richness and Communication Media
Face-to-Face Communication
Spoken Communication Electronically Communicated
Personally Addressed Written Communication
Communication and
Management
• Topics Covered (cont’d)
– Impersonal Written Communication
• Communication Networks
– Communication Networks in Groups and Teams
– Organizational Communication Networks
– External Networks
• Technological Advances in Communication
– The Internet
– Intranets
– Groupware
Communication and
Management
• Topics Covered
• Communication Skills for Managers
– Communication Skills for Managers as Senders
– Communication Skills for Managers as
Receivers
– Understanding Linguistic Styles
Communication
Communication - the evoking of a shared or common
meaning in another person
Interpersonal Communication - communication
between two or more people in an organization
Communicator - the person originating the message
Receiver - the person receiving a message
Perceptual Screen - a window through which we
interact with people that influences the quality,
accuracy, and clarity of the communication
Communication
Message - the thoughts and feelings that the
communicator is attempting to elicit in the
receiver
Feedback Loop - the pathway that
completes two-way communication
Language - the words, their pronunciation,
and the methods of combining them used &
understood by a group of people
Communication
Data - uninterpreted and unanalyzed facts
Information - data that have been interpreted,
analyzed, & and have meaning to some user
Richness - the ability of a medium or channel
to elicit or evoke meaning in the receiver
Communication and
Management
• Communication - Definition
– The sharing of information between two or
more individuals or groups to reach a common
understanding.
• Importance of Good Communication
– Increased efficiency in new technologies and
skills
• Learning, Implementing, Training
• Expands workers skills
Communication and
Management
• Importance of Good Communication
– Improved quality of products and services
Meaning and importance of quality
How to attain quality
– Subordinates communicate problems and
solutions for increasing quality to superiors
Communication and
Management
• Importance of Good Communication
– Increased responsiveness to customers
• Empowered workers lower response time to satisfy
customer wants and needs
Communication and
Management
• Importance of Good Communication
– More innovation through communication
• Cross-functional teams communicating effectively
produce higher quality products more efficiently
The Communication Process
• Phases of the Communication Process:
– Transmission phase in which information is
shared by two or more people.
– Feedback phase in which a common
understanding is assured.
The Communication Process
• Phases of the Communication Process:
– Transmission phase in which information is shared by
two or more people.
• The process starts with a sender (an individual or
group) who wants to share information.
– Senders must decide what information to share and puts
the message into symbols or language (encoding).
• Noise: anything harming the communication process
– Once encoded the message is sent through a medium to
a receiver
The Communication Process
• Phases of the Communication Process:
• The receiver interprets or decodes the
message
The Communication Process
• Phases of the Communication Process:
– Feedback phase in which a common
understanding is assured.
– The receiver decides what the message means
and communicates it back to the sender.
– The original sender decodes the message and
makes sure that a common understanding has
been reached.
The Communication Process
The Communication Process
(cont’d)
• Messages are transmitted over a medium to a
receiver.
– Medium: the pathway over which the message is
transmitted (e.g., telephone, written note, email).
– Receiver: the person getting the message.
• The receiver decodes (interprets) the message, allowing the
receiver to understand the message.
• This is a critical point: failure to properly decode the message
can lead to a misunderstanding.
– Feedback by receiver informs the sender that the
message is understood or that it must be re-sent.
Communication Issues
• 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.
The Role of Perception in
Communication
• Senders and receivers communicate based
on their subjective perceptions.
– Subjective perception can lead to biases and
stereotypes that can interfere with effective
communication.
– Effective managers avoid communications
based on biases and stereotypes.
The Role of Perception in
Communication
• Communication relates to senders and receivers
personality, perceptions, and motivations.
– Example: A recently promoted manager communicates
with a rival for the same promotion. The rival feels that
the assignment is beneath them and was given as a
power play by the newly promoted manager.
The newly promoted manager feels that the rival is the
only one capable of carrying out the project.
The Role of Perception in
Communication
What is sent
Motivation
Perception
What is sent
Communication
method/media
Motivation
Perception
The Dangers of Ineffective
Communication
• 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 (the amount of
information a medium can carry).
• A medium with high richness can carry much more
information to aid understanding.
– Is there a need for a paper path or electronic trail to
provide documentation of the communication?
Information Richness of Communication
Media
Communication Media
• Face-to-Face
– Has highest information richness.
– Can take advantage of verbal and nonverbal signals.
– Provides for instant feedback.
• Management by wandering around takes advantage of this with
informal talks to workers.
• Video conferences provide
much of this richness and
reduce travel costs and
meeting times.
Communication Media (cont’d)
• 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.
Communication Media (cont’d)
• 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.
• Does not provide instant feedback to the sender although
sender may get feedback later.
• Excellent media for complex messages requesting follow-up
actions by receiver.
E-Mail Dos and Don’ts
• E-mail allows telecommuting employees to work
from home and keep in contact.
• The use of e-mail is growing rapidly and e-mail
etiquette is expected:
– Typing messages in all CAPITALS is seen as
“screaming” at the receiver.
– Punctuate your messages for easy reading and don’t
ramble on.
– Pay attention to spelling and treat the message like a
written letter.
Communication Media (cont’d)
• Impersonal Written Communication
– Has the lowest information richness.
• Good for messages to many receivers where little or
feedback is expected (e.g., newsletters, reports)
Ten Commandments of Email
• Don’t use your inbox as a catcall for everything
you need to work on. Read items once, answer
them immediately, delete them if possible or move
them to another folder.
• Set up a five weeks folder that deletes
automatically.
• Use common acronyms to identify important items
• Send group mail only when it is important to all
recipients
Ten Commandments of Email
• Ask to be removed from distribution lists you do
not need to be on.
• To cut down on pile up, use out of office
• Send messages that use only the subject line using
EOM to signify end of message
• Use graphics sparingly
• Attachments over 5mb to groups are better put on
company website
• Specify important parts of the attachment Pg 17
and 20
Communication Networks
• Communication Networks
– The pathways along which information flows in
groups and teams and throughout the
organization.
– Choice 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.
Communication Networks
• Communication Networks
Pathways
– Vertical
• Manager to upper level managers
• Manager to subordinates (direct reports)
– Lateral
• Manager to other managers
Communication Networks in
Groups and Teams
Type of Network
Wheel Network
Information flows to and from one central
member.
Chain Network
Members communicate only with the people next
to them in the sequence.
Wheel and chain networks provide little interaction.
Circle Network
Members communicate with others close to them
in terms of expertise, experience, and location.
All-Channel
Network
Networks found in teams with high levels of
communications between each member and all
others.
Communic
ation
Networks
in Groups
and Teams
Figure 15.3
Organization Communication
Networks
• Organization Chart
– A pictorial representation of 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.
• Horizontal communications flow between employees of the
same level.
• Informal communications can span levels and departments—
the grapevine is an informal network carrying unofficial
information throughout the firm.
Formal and Informal Communication
Networks in An Organization
Figure 0.4
Nonverbal Communication
Nonverbal Communication - all elements of
communication that do not involve words
Four basic types
– Proxemics - an individual’s perception & use of space
– Kinesics - study of body movements, including posture
– Facial & Eye Behavior - movements that add cues for the
receiver
– Paralanguage - variations in speech, such as pitch,
loudness, tempo, tone, duration, laughing, & crying
Proxemics: Territorial Space
Territorial Space - bands of space extending
outward from the body; territorial space differs
from culture to culture
a = intimate <1.5’
b = personal 1.5-4’
c = social 4-12’
d = public >12’
a
b
c
d
Proxemics: Seating Dynamics
Seating Dynamics - seating people in certain
positions according to the person’s purpose in
communication
X O
Cooperation
X
O Communication
X
O X O
Competition
NonCommunication
O
Examples of
Decoding Nonverbal Cues
He’s
unapproachable!
Boss fails to acknowledge
employee’s greeting
I wonder what
he’s hiding?
No eye contact
while
communicating
He’s angry! I’ll
stay out of
his way!
Boss breathes
heavily &
waves arms
My opinion
doesn’t count
Manager sighs deeply
New Technologies
for Communication
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•
•
•
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Informational databases
Electronic mail systems
Voice mail systems
Fax machine systems
Cellular phone systems
Technological Advances in
Communication
• Internet
– Global system of computer networks used by many
firms use it to communicate with their suppliers.
• World Wide Web (WWW)
– Provides multimedia access to the Internet.
• Intranets
– A company-wide system of computer networks for
information sharing by employees inside the firm.
Technological Advances in
Communication
• Groupware
– Computer software that enables members of
groups and teams to share information with
each other and improve communication.
• Best used to support team-oriented working
environments.
How Do New Technologies
Affect Behavior?
• Fast, immediate access to information
• Immediate access to people in power
• Instant information exchange across
distance
• Makes schedules & office hours irrelevant
• May equalize group power
• May equalize group participation
How Do New Technologies
Affect Behavior?
• Communication can become more impersonal-interaction with a machine
• Interpersonal skills may diminish--less tact, less
graciousness
• Non-verbal cues lacking
• Alters social context
• Easy to become overwhelmed with information
• Encourages polyphasic activity
Communication Skills for
Managers
• Barriers to Effective Communication
– Perceptual and attribution biases
– Conflicting assumptions
– Inadequate information
– Semantics
– Emotional Blocks
– Nonverbal communication barriers
– Cultural barriers
– Inadequate communication media
– Technological barriers
Communication Skills for
Managers
• Barriers to Effective Communication
– Perceptual and attribution biases
Experience is different and causes wrong interpretation –
Common experiences gives common meaning
– Conflicting assumptions
Sender assumes receiver will use the same code to decode
as intended
Receiver decodes based on wrong assumptions due to
inadequate background information and creates a
misunderstanding
Communication Skills for
Managers
• Barriers to Effective Communication
– Codes of past experience
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Facts
Knowledge
Beliefs
Attitudes
Social Roles
Values
Language
Memories
All blended with
feelings and emotions
How many of these
should overlap to
decode the message
Communication Skills for
Managers
• Barriers to Effective Communication
– Inadequate information
• Managers do not provide enough info to decode
Communication Skills for
Managers
• Barriers to Effective Communication
– Semantics – Word usage
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•
•
You charge someone a fee for service.
You charge something you purchase to pay later.
You charge a battery.
You charge an official with duties to perform.
You charge a horse into battle.
You get a charge out of something funny.
You charge a criminal for crimes committed.
The navy uses a depth charge.
Communication Skills for
Managers
• Barriers to Effective Communication
Emotional Blocks
– Experiences have an emotional / feeling
component.
• A concert
• Wedding Day
• Movie
Barriers to Communication
Communication
Barriers factors that block
or significantly
distort successful
communication
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•
•
•
•
Physical separation
Status differences
Gender differences
Cultural diversity
Language
Communication Skills for Managers
• Barriers to Effective Communication
Nonverbal communication barriers
– Body motion – gestures, facial expressions, eye behavior,
touching, and so forth
• Physical characteristics – body shape, physique, posture,
height,weight,hair, and skin color
• Paralanguage – voice quality, volume, speech rate, pitch,
nonfluencies such as yaa, ah or um, laughing.
– Proxemics – ways people use and perceive space
Environment – building and room design, furniture,
decorations
Time – being late or early, keeping others waiting, time v.
status
Communication Skills for
Managers
• Barriers to Effective Communication
– Cultural barriers
• Language, native customs, religious customs
– Inadequate communication media
• Use of wrong media to convey message completely
– Technological barriers
• Receiver does not have the ability or technological
capability to decode message
Communication Skills for
Managers
• 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
– Messages that are misunderstood
– Messages delivered through automated systems
that lack the human element
Communication Skills for Managers
• Managers as Senders
– Send clear and complete messages.
– Encode messages in symbols the receiver
understands.
– Select a medium appropriate for the message and,
importantly, one that is monitored by the receiver.
– Avoid filtering (holding back information) and
distortion as the message passes through other
workers.
– Ensure a feedback mechanism is included in the
message.
– Provide accurate information to avoid rumors.
Communication Skills For
Managers
• Managers as Receivers
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Pay attention to what is sent as a message.
Be a good listener: don’t interrupt.
Ask questions to clarify your understanding.
Be empathetic: try to understand what the sender feels.
Understand linguistic styles: different people speak
differently.
– Speed, tone, pausing all impact communication.
• This is particularly true across cultures and managers should
expect and plan for this.
Basic Interpersonal
Communication Model
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Communicator
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Perceptual screens
Message
• Context
• Affect
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Receiver
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Perceptual screens
Influence message quality, accuracy, clarity
Include age, gender, values, beliefs, culture,
experiences, needs
Event
X
Reflective Listening
Reflective Listening - the skill of listening
carefully to another person and repeating back
to the speaker the heard message to correct
any inaccuracies or misunderstandings
This complex
process needs
to be divided to
be understood
What I heard you
say was we will
understand the
process better if we
break it into steps
Reflective Listening
• Emphasizes receiver’s role
• Helps the receiver & communicator
clearly & fully understand the message
sent
• Useful in problem solving
Reflective Listening
Reflective listening emphasizes
• the personal elements of the communication
process
• the feelings communicated in the message
• responding to the communicator, not leading the
communicator
• the role or receiver or audience
• understanding people by reducing perceptual
distortions and interpersonal barriers
Reflective Listening:
4 Levels of Verbal Response
Affirm contact
Paraphrase the expressed
Clarify the implicit
Reflect “core” feelings
One-way vs. Two-way Communications
One-Way
Communication - a
person sends a message
to another person and no
questions, feedback, or
interaction follow
 Good for giving
simple directions
 Fast but often less
accurate than 2-way
communication
Two-Way
Communication - the
communicator & receiver
interact
 Good for problem
solving
Five Keys to Effective
Supervisory Communication
• Expressive speaking
• Empathetic listening
• Persuasive leadership
• Sensitivity to feelings
• Informative management
Defensive Communication
Defensive Communication - communication that
can be aggressive, attacking & angry, or passive
& withdrawing
Leads to
–
–
–
–
–
–
injured feelings
communication breakdowns
alienation
retaliatory behaviors
nonproductive efforts
problem solving failures
Non-defensive Communication
Non-defensive Communication communication that is assertive, direct,
& powerful
Provides
– basis for defense when attacked
– restores order, balance, and effectiveness
Two Defensiveness Patterns
Subordinate Defensiveness characterized by passive,
submissive, withdrawing
behavior
Dominant Defensiveness characterized by active,
aggressive, attacking behavior
Defensive Tactics
Defensive Tactic
Speaker
Example
Power Play
Boss
“Finish this report by month’s end or
lose your promotion.”
Put-Down
Boss
“A capable manager would already be
done with this report.”
Labeling
Boss
“You must be a slow learner. Your report
is still not done?”
Raising Doubts
Boss
“How can I trust you, Chris, if you can’t
finish an easy report?”
Defensive Tactics
Defensive Tactic
Speaker
Example
Misleading
Information
Employee
“Morgan has not gone over with me
the information I need for the report.”
[Morgan left Chris with a copy of the
report.]
Scapegoating
Employee
“Morgan did not give me input until
just today.”
Hostile Jokes
Employee
“You can’t be serious! The report isn’t
that important.”
Deception
Employee
“I gave it to the secretary. Did she lose
it?”
Non-defensive Communication:
A Powerful Tool
• Speaker seen as centered, assertive, controlled,
informative, realistic, and honest
• Speaker exhibits self-control & self possession
• Listener feels accepted rather than rejected
• Catherine Crier’s rules to nondefensive
communication
1.
2.
3.
4.
Define the situation
Clarify the person’s position
Acknowledge the person’s feelings
Bring the focus back to the facts
Tips for Effective Communication
Provide
social
interaction
opportunities
Is the
message
really
necessary?
Regularly
disconnect
from the
technology
Strive for
Build in
message
feedback
completeness opportunities
Provide
Don’t
assume
social
immediate
interaction
opportunities
response
Communication Techniques
Effective Communication Techniques
Do this more and develop trust:
Ineffective Communication Techniques
Do this less to avoid conflict and fear:
♦ Active listening, focus on their issues and
how you can better understand them
◊ Interrupting them, focus on your own issues and
prerogatives
♦ Clarifying mutual goals, objectives and
outcomes, allowing different approaches
◊ Being vague about desired outcomes; prescribing what
others should do
♦ Making agreements for mutual advantage;
keeping the agreements or changing them
when necessary; not breaking agreements
◊ Demanding compliance from others; using excuses for
own failures
♦ Releasing energy of people to perform at
◊ Controlling energy of people to get them to do exactly
their best using all of their talents and skills in what you want them to do the way you want them to do it
the ways they think best
Communication Techniques
Effective Communication Techniques
Do this more and develop trust:
Ineffective Communication Techniques
Do this less to avoid conflict and fear:
♦ Describing desired outcomes and
developing agreement and support
◊ Telling people what to do and demanding compliance
♦ Sharing as much information as possible
with everyone and let them decide if they
need it or not (except for confidential
information)
◊ Withholding information from everyone unless there is a
“need to know;” determining for others whether or not
they need information
♦ Accepting and valuing people as they are,
with all the differences they bring to the
organization
◊ Judging people for how they should be and expecting
them to all be the same (e.g. more like you)
♦ Person-centered, sharing of self so that
people see the humanity of all
◊ Authority-centered, impersonal so that people only see
rank and status
Communication Techniques
Effective Communication Techniques
Do this more and develop trust:
Ineffective Communication Techniques
Do this less to avoid conflict and fear:
♦ Attitude of problem-avoidance through
◊ Attitude of letting things go until something goes wrong
planning; fixing problems as soon as they
then focusing on fixing the blame rather than the problem
occur and learning from them without regard
to blame
♦ Shared planning and decision-making
◊ Unilateral planning and decision-making
♦ Problem-centered, focusing on what will
work best
◊ Control-centered, focus on showing who is in charge
Communication Techniques
Effective Communication Techniques
Do this more and develop trust:
Ineffective Communication Techniques
Do this less to avoid conflict and fear:
♦ Rewarding, recognizing, and actively
appreciating excellence
◊ Punishing and blaming for errors, ignoring even
exemplary performance
♦ Emphasis on responsibility and developing
individual initiative
◊ Emphasis on accountability and assigning blame for
errors or failures
End