MBA work 7
CHAPTER 9
Communication in the Digital Age
© 2021 McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom.
No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill.
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After reading this chapter you should be able to:
9.1 Describe how the communication process works.
9.2 Identify the key aspects of interpersonal communication.
9.3 Explain how gender and age affect the communication process.
9.4 Describe how using social media can increase your effectiveness at work.
9.5 Explain how communication skills can increase your effectiveness.
9.6 Describe the implications of chapter content for you and managers.
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Basic Dimensions of the Communication Process
Why is communication important?
Every managerial function and activity involves some form of direct or indirect communication.
Every person’s communication skills affect both personal and organizational effectiveness.
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Communication: the exchange of information between a sender and a receiver, and the inference (perception) of meaning between the individuals involved.
Communication is a circular and dynamic process in which people interpret and make sense of the information they exchange.
Effective communication helps individuals, groups, and organizations to achieve their goals.
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Figure 9.2 Communication Process in Action
Access the text alternate for slide image.
(left): Wolf/Fuse/Getty Images; (right): paffy/Shutterstock
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Researchers have begun to examine communication as a form of social information processing in which receivers interpret messages by cognitively processing information.
The perceptual model of communication presented in Figure 9.2 depicts communication as a process in which receivers create meaning in their own minds.
The sender is the person wanting to communicate information—the message.
Encoding translates mental thoughts into a code or language that can be understood by others.
The output of encoding is the message.
Managers can communicate through a variety of media including face-to-face conversations, phone calls, charts and graphs, and many digital forms.
Decoding is the process of interpreting and making sense of a message when received by a receiver.
Feedback occurs when the receiver expresses a reaction to the sender’s message.
Noise: anything that interferes with the transmission and understanding of the message.
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Sender, Message, Receiver 1
Communication begins when the sender encodes an idea or thought.
This involves translating thoughts into code or language others can understand.
Sender selects the medium for the message.
Examples include face-to-face, telephone, email, charts and graphs, social media.
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Sender, Message, Receiver 2
Receivers decode and create meaning:
After receiving a message.
Process of interpreting and making sense of a message.
Can be influenced by cultural norms and values.
Feedback.
The receiver’s reaction to the sender’s message.
Noise.
Anything that interferes with the transmission and understanding of a message.
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Selecting the Right Media
Media Richness.
The capacity of a given communication medium to convey information and promote understanding.
Four factors affect media richness:
Speed of feedback.
Channel.
Type.
Language source.
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Communication effectiveness is partly based on using the medium that is most appropriate for the situation at hand.
Media richness: capacity of a communication medium to convey information and promote understanding.
Media can vary from rich to lean.
Media richness is based on feedback, channel, type of communication, and language source.
Two-way face-to-face conversations are the richest form of communication, while static media such as newsletters, computer reports, and general e-mail blasts are the leanest.
Rich media should be used in situations that are complex or that are highly important to receivers, while newsletters, computer reports, and general e-mail blasts are lean media and best for less complex situations.
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Test Your OB Knowledge 1
George is the CEO of Big Sky Travel Corporation. He needs to convey bad news to his employees. The best medium to communicate the news is most likely:
e-mail.
text.
face-to-face.
memo.
telephone.
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The answer is C, face-to-face.
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Key Communication Competencies
Non-verbal.
For example, body movements, touch, facial expressions, and eye contact.
Active listening.
The process of actively decoding and interpreting verbal messages.
Requires cognitive attention and information processing unlike hearing.
Non-defensive listening.
Avoiding defensive language from either party, which can foster inaccurate and inefficient information.
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Communication competence: performance-based index of an individual’s abilities to effectively use communication behaviors in a given context.
Communication competence reflects your ability to effectively communicate with others.
Nonverbal communication, active listening, nondefensive communication, and empathy are communication skills that affect communication competence.
When people feel threatened or attacked, this will lead to defensive listening and destructive behaviors such as shutting down or being passive-aggressive, standing behind rules or policies, creating a diversion, or counterattacking.
Defensiveness from one person activates a similar response in the other party.
Defensiveness often is started by the poor choice of words we use and/or the nonverbal posture used during interactions.
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More on Active Listening
Listening styles.
Active:
I am fully invested.
Involved:
I am partially invested.
Passive:
Not my responsibility.
Detached:
I’m disinterested.
Tips for effective listening.
Show respect.
Listen from the first sentence.
Be mindful.
Keep quiet.
Ask questions.
Paraphrase and summarize.
Remember what was said.
Involve your body.
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Listening: actively decoding and interpreting verbal messages.
Unlike hearing, which is merely a physical activity, listening requires cognitive attention and information processing.
Listening is a cornerstone skill of communication competence.
Many of us think we are good listeners when evidence suggests just the opposite, and we will not become better listeners unless we are motivated to do so.
Listening Styles
There are four typical listening styles: active, involved, passive, and detached.
These listening styles differ with respect to how invested the listener is, their level of participation, and the type of body language they display.
Effective listening is a learned skill that requires effort and motivation to practice.
We can improve our listening skills by showing respect, listening from the first sentence, being mindful, keeping quiet, asking questions, summarizing and paraphrasing, remembering what was said, and using nonverbal cues.
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Test Your OB Knowledge 2
Susan attended her company’s annual meeting where she was not very interested in the presentation and did not try to receive and decode the messages. What is Susan’s likely listening style?
Active.
Detached.
Involved.
Defensive.
Passive.
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The answer is E, passive.
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Gender, Generations, and Communication
What is linguistic style?
Characteristic speaking pattern where we:
Use culturally learned signals to communicate what we mean.
Interpret others’ meaning.
Evaluate one another as people.
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Linguistic style: a person’s characteristic speaking pattern.
Linguistic styles incorporate such elements as directness or indirectness, pacing and pausing, word choice, and the use of such elements as jokes, figures of speech, stories, questions, and apologies.
Linguistic style is a set of culturally learned signals by which we not only communicate what we mean but also interpret others’ meaning and evaluate one another as people.
Linguistic style helps explain communication differences between women and men and across generations.
Increased awareness of linguistic styles can enhance your communication competence.
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Gender Differences in Communication
Female perspective.
Focus on rapport and relationships.
Seek and give confirmation and support.
Male perspective.
Expected to communicate more aggressively.
Hide emotions.
Competing explanations for why men and women are thought to communicate differently.
Inherited biological differences (evolutionary psychology).
Social role theory.
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The Male Perspective
Males are expected to communicate more aggressively, interrupt others more than women, and hide their emotions because they have an inherent desire to possess features attractive to females.
Men also see conversations as negotiations in which people try to achieve and maintain the upper hand.
Evolutionary psychologists propose that men cannot turn off the biologically based determinants of their behavior.
The Female Perspective
According to social role theory, females and males learn ways of speaking while growing up.
Research shows that girls learn conversational skills and habits that focus on rapport and relationships, whereas boys learn skills and habits that focus on status and hierarchies.
Women come to view communication as a network of connections in which conversations are negotiations for closeness.
Research demonstrates that women and men communicate differently in a number of ways.
Women are more likely to share credit for success, to ask questions for clarification, to tactfully give feedback by mitigating criticism with praise, and to indirectly tell others what to do.
Men are more likely to boast about themselves, to bluntly give feedback, and to withhold compliments, and are less likely to ask questions and to admit fault or weaknesses.
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Generational Differences in Communication
Current workplace involves people from four generations.
Different generations favor different media.
Different generations hold different norms and expectations for communication.
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People from the four different generations currently in the workforce—traditionalists, baby boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials—have different views on communication styles and media.
When it comes to communication media, Millennials and Gen Xers are more likely to prefer instant messaging and texting rather than phone calls, letters, and reports than are boomers and traditionalists.
Younger employees are more likely to use the Internet and social media to accomplish their tasks.
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Improving Communication
Clarify communication expectations and norms.
Make sure people get credit for their ideas and not their gender.
Use a variety of communication tools.
Be aware of implicit bias.
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It is important to remember not to generalize any trends, preferences, or perceptions to all men, women, or members of a particular generation as there are always exceptions to the rule.
Some suggestions for improving communication include:
Clarify communication expectations and norms.
Use a variety of communication tools, regardless of your preferred mode of communication (e.g., face-to-face or texting).
Don’t assume, based on somebody’s gender or age, that he or she only likes one mode of communication.
Make sure people get credit for their ideas and not their gender.
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Test Your OB Knowledge 3
Brittany prefers to communicate via e-mail, IM, and text messaging, and tends to avoid telephone calls. What generation does Brittany most likely belong to?
Traditionalists.
Baby Boomers.
Gen Xers.
Millennials.
the Great Generation.
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The answer is D, Millennials.
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Social Media at Work
The driving force behind technology including social media is the desire to boost productivity.
Employee productivity.
Increased job satisfaction and better work-life balance.
Performance and retention.
More creativity and collaboration.
Employer productivity.
Connect in real time and over distances with stakeholders.
Connect sources of knowledge across the organization.
Expand and open traditional boundaries to involve outsiders in problem solving (crowdsourcing).
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Social media: uses web-based and mobile technologies to generate interactive dialogue with members of a network.
Social media is used by a significant proportion of people across all age groups, and employers and managers are wise to utilize social media tools with employees across all generations.
A fundamental driving force behind technology at work, including social media, is to boost productivity.
Social media has been shown to increase job satisfaction, performance, and retention, and it has also been shown to improve work–life balance and foster creativity and collaboration.
If deployed effectively, social media enables businesses to:
Connect in real time and over distances with many key stakeholders.
Connect sources of knowledge inside and outside an organization.
Expand and open the traditional boundaries to involve outsiders in problem solving.
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Costs of Social Media
Lost productivity due to cyberloafing (using the Internet at work for personal use) is a primary concern for employers in their adoption of social media.
How do employees waste time on social media?
50% talking on the phone or texting.
39% surfing the Internet.
38% on social media.
23% are sending personal email.
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Lost productivity due to cyberloafing, which is using the Internet at work for personal use, is a primary concern for employers in their adoption of social media.
Employees waste time talking on cell phones or texting, surfing the Internet, on social media, sending personal e-mail, and online shopping.
Perhaps the biggest problem with such productivity losses is that employees rarely think about them.
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Social Media Policy Concerns: Blocking Access
Given concerns over cyberloafing and lost productivity some organizations are turning to blocking access.
Downside to restricting access:
Alienate employees.
Fairness.
Perceptions of lack of trust .
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Social Media Policy Concerns
Effective policies should:
Create safe channels for employees to air their concerns.
Clarify what is confidential.
Outline consequences for violations.
Identify spokesperson.
Discuss appropriate ways to engage others.
Explain what is illegal.
Align social policy with organizational culture.
Educate employees.
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Be Careful about Blocking Access
Approximately 36 percent of employers block access to social media sites at work to help combat waste and loss of productivity.
The evidence is growing that restricting or completely blocking the use of social media by employees at the office can backfire because it can alienate these employees and suggest a lack of trust.
Small breaks during the workday help boost productivity, and checking personal e-mail, looking at Facebook, or checking/sending Tweets could provide a “re-energizing” break.
Blocking access could be off-putting to employees and not really save time if employees just use their personal devices to access the sites.
If you expect employees to respond to work-related e-mails on their personal time away from work, you should allow them to attend to personal interests during work hours.
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Privacy Concerns – What Can Employers Do?
Employers and their employees have reputations which are built over time and can be extremely consequential professionally.
What can employers do?
Communicate what personal information from mobile devices is accessed by the employer.
Ensure employees understand what is accessible depending on the operating system used.
Create and communicate clear and sensible policies regarding potential employer actions regarding information on employees’ mobile devices.
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Employees are especially concerned about employers having access to personal e-mails and attachments, voicemail, text and instant messages, lists of apps on their devices, information in their mobile apps, and their location.
Along with other recommendations, organizations should communicate what personal information from mobile devices they will access, and they should communicate clear and sensible policies regarding potential actions regarding information on employees’ mobile devices.
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Test Your OB Knowledge 4
Sally is the CIO of Picture Perfect Corporation. She would like to maximize the benefits of using social media for PPC. Sally should do which of the following?
Do not let employees know what is illegal and then prosecute them if they commit an illegal act.
Tell employees they are entitled to privacy when using social media.
Use social media for identifying and engaging potential employees.
Do not have a separate strategic social media policy.
Block employee access to social media.
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The answer is C. Use social media for identifying and engaging potential employees.
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Boosting Your Communication Effectiveness: The Ted Five-Step Protocol
Step 1: Frame your story.
Step 2: Plan your delivery.
Step 3: Develop your stage presence.
Step 4: Plan your multimedia.
Step 5: Put it together.
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Step 1—Frame Your Story.
Think of your presentation as a journey and decide where you want to start and end.
Include only the most relevant details or points and try to bring them to life with examples.
Try to plan your journey to end with a solution or conclude with a question to spur audience engagement or give them something to think about afterwards.
The 3-Step Problem-Solving Approach can be used as a framework for structuring your presentation.
Step 2—Plan Your Delivery.
Presenters can deliver a talk by reading it from a script, using bullet lists that outline what will be covered in each section, or memorizing what they want to say.
Reading and memorizing are often ineffective.
If you use the bullet list approach, be sure you know not only the content for each point, but also how you want to transition from one to the next.
Step 3—Develop Your Stage Presence.
Beware of how much you move—not too much or too little.
An important element of stage presence is eye contact.
Self-efficacy is an important part of overcoming nervousness, as is realizing that people expect you to be nervous.
Step 4—Plan Your Multimedia.
Keep your technology simple and don’t let it distract the audience.
People respond differently to pictures and videos than they do to words, as they convey emotion better than words.
Table 9.8 provides suggestions for avoiding bad PowerPoint.
Step 5—Put It Together.
Be prepared far enough in advance to practice in front of others so they can give you effective feedback.
Use these steps as a guide, but you still need to be yourself and not directly copy someone else.
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Crucial Conversations
Typical crucial conversations.
Occur when:
The stakes are high.
Opinions vary.
Emotions run strong.
For example, when:
Ending a relationship.
Addressing offensive behavior.
Giving negative feedback.
Critiquing others’ work.
How to be effective during crucial conversations
Share your facts.
Tell your story.
Ask for other’s facts and stories.
Talk tentatively.
Encourage testing.
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Crucial conversations: discussions between two or more people where (1) the stakes are high, (2) opinions vary, and (3) emotions run strong.
Examples of work-related crucial conversations are talking to a coworker who behaves offensively; critiquing a colleague’s work; talking to a team member who isn’t keeping commitments; or giving an unfavorable performance review.
Handling difficult communications effectively can prevent problems, motivate team members, increase collaboration, and improve bottom-line results.
When faced with critical conversations, people may avoid them, face them and handle them poorly, or face them and handle them well.
With critical conversations, often our negative emotions kick in, and the fight or flight response takes over.
Crucial conversations often happen unexpectedly, which means people typically are unprepared.
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Managing Your Boss
Managing up.
Gauge receptiveness to coaching.
If your boss is receptive, do the following:
Prepare your message.
Plan your delivery and tactics.
Deliver.
Follow up.
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Even though many organizations now claim that they believe in the merits of upward employee involvement and feedback, translating these espoused values into enacted values requires skill.
Because you can’t coach a boss that doesn’t want to be coached, you’re wise to put your efforts elsewhere if your manager is not receptive to feedback.
To gauge your boss’ receptiveness, it is recommended that you:
Learn your manager’s view of coaching.
Explain what’s in it for him or her.
Ask for permission to provide coaching or feedback.
Find how best to deliver criticism.
Ask for agreement and commitment.
If your boss is receptive to upward feedback, Table 9.9 provides recommendations for managing up.
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Test Your OB Knowledge 5
George is planning to give a presentation at a conference. Which of the following should he NOT do?
Put multiple ideas on each slide to be efficient.
Decide where he should start and end the story he will be telling.
Plan on not reading a script to his audience.
Realize that people expect him to be nervous.
Keep any technology used simple so as not to distract the audience.
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The answer is A. Put multiple ideas on each slide to be efficient.
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Communication: Putting It All in Context
Figure 9.6 Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB ©2021 Angelo Kinicki and Mel Fugate. All rights reserved. Reproduction prohibited without permission of the authors.
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End of Main Content.
© 2021 McGraw Hill. All rights reserved. Authorized only for instructor use in the classroom.
No reproduction or further distribution permitted without the prior written consent of McGraw Hill.
Because learning changes everything.®
www.mheducation.com
Figure 9.2 Communication Process in Action Text Alternate
The communication process.
Sender encodes message, selects medium, such as a cell phone: “Let’s meet at Starbucks to study.”
Message is transmitted through a medium, such as a text message.
Receiver decodes message and decides that feedback is needed: “Which Starbucks? We have two classes together; which one are you thinking about?”
Receiver sends feedback through a medium, for example text messages.
There may be interference between the message sent and the receiver’s response.
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Communication: Putting It All in Context Text Alternate
The Organizing Framework for Understanding and Applying OB shows the relationship between the three categories Inputs, Process, and Outcomes.
Inputs:
Person factors: nonverbal communication, active listening, non-defensive communication, empathy, ethical behavior, social media behaviors (an individual employee), and communication skills.
Situation factors: choice of medium, human resources policies (hiring and firing), social media practices (managers and coworkers).
Leads to Processes:
Individual Level: communication.
Group, Team Level: communication.
Organizational Level: communication, human resource policies (social media policies).
Leads to Outcomes:
Individual Level: Task performance, work attitudes, and turnover.
Group, Team Level: group and or team performance, and group satisfaction.
Organizational Level: Accounting and or financial performance, customer satisfaction, innovation, reputation, and legal liability.
In return, Outcomes relates to both Inputs and Processes.
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Angelo Kinicki
Behavior Organizational
A Practical, Problem-Solving Approach
3e
Angelo Kinicki
Behavior
Organizational
A Practical, Problem-Solving Approach
3e