FRAMING, COGNITIVE BIAS AND
EMOTIONS
How you frame an issue is very much
a process of communication- both
sending and receiving
Factors affecting how a message is
encoded or decoded
1. Skill= your writing, speaking, reading and
listening skills.
2. Knowledge= the amount of knowledge the
sender and receiver have about the subject.
3. Attitudes= the feelings of the sender and receiver
towards each other. ( perceptual distortion)
4. Culture=1. Your position in the social culture
system, status and hierarchy and 2. Actual
differences in culture and/or language both
effect the way people interpret communication
Perceptual Distortion
• Stereotyping
• Halo effects-generalization about a variety of
attributes based on knowledge of one attribute
• Selective perception i.e. you hear what you ‘want’ to
hear. ‘Is it a smile or, a smirk?’
• Projection- you project how you might feel in a
similar position on to the opponent who may not feel
that way at all!
CHANNELS
• The medium through which a message travels
Marshall McLuhan: “The medium is the
message”
• It is selected by the source who must
determine which channel is formal and which
informal.
• Messages can be distorted if the selected
channel has a high ‘noise’ level
• Communication apprehension, 5%-20%
CHANNELS VARY IN THEIR RICHNESS
• Channel richness is the amount of information that
can be transmitted during a communication
episode.
• Richness is a channel’s ability to;
– 1. handle multiple cues simultaneously
– 2. facilitate rapid feedback
– 3. be very personal
• Face to face is the richest
THE PHYSICAL ESSENTIALS OF MANAGEMENT
COMMUNICATION
1.
2.
3.
4.
A well functioning brain
Expertise and know how
Keen eyes and ears
A voice well connected to 1 and 3
Barriers to effective communication
1. Filtering-the sender manipulates the
information so the receiver will view it more
favorably. Tell someone what they want to
hear.
• The major determinants of filtering are; the
number of levels in the organization’s
structure. The more levels, the more potential
for filtering.
Barriers to effective communication
•
2. Selective perception– Receivers see and hear based on their needs,
motivation, experience and other personal
characteristics.
• 3. Defensiveness- when people are
threatened they put up barriers to
understanding. This means in anxiety
producing situations you should use
multiple communication channels.
Barriers to effective communication
• 4. Language. The same word may mean
different things to different people. This is a
function of age, experience and cultural
background. Specialization of the work force
is also a factor.
Framing
• “ A frame is the subjective mechanism through
which people evaluate and make sense out of
situations leading them to pursue or avoid
subsequent actions.”
• “ Framing is about focusing, shaping and organizing
the world around us.”
• “ Frames are important in negotiation because
disputes are often nebulous and open to different
interpretations.”
» Lewicki, Saunders, Barry. Pg. 135
Frames
• “ Frames are critical...because how parties
frame and define a negotiating issue or problem
is a clear and strong reflection of what they
define as central and critical to negotiating
objectives, what their expectations and
preferences are for certain possible outcomes,
what information they seek and use to argue
their case...and the manner in which they
evaluate the outcomes actually achieved.”
»Lewicki et al. Pg. 136
Frames are controllable
• If negotiators understand what frame they are using
and what frame the other party is using, they may be
able to shift the conversation toward the frame they
would like the other to adopt.
• Certain frames are more likely than others to lead to
certain types of processes and outcomes. For
example, parties who are competitive are likely to
have positive identity frames of themselves, negative
characterization frames of each other and a
preference for more win- lose processes of resolving
disputes
– Lewicki et al. Pg. 143
Emotions
• Frequently, emotion in conflict management is a self
fulfilling prophesy. A negotiator’s own emotions can
‘determine’ the emotions of the other party and the
nature of conflict resolution. i.e. angry negotiators are
much less willing to work with each other and more
likely to over-retaliate.
• Remember, it is much more difficult to not respond
‘in kind’ when confronted with negative emotions.
The challenge remains trying to change or reframe
the issue into one with integrative possibilities