questions

Chapter 14 – Managing communication

Learning outcomes

1 Explain the role that perception plays in communication and communication problems.

Communication can be defined as the process of transferring information or meaning from one individual or group to another. While some bosses sugar-coat bad news, smart managers understand that in the end, effective, straightforward communication between managers and employees is essential for success.

Basic perception process

perception is the process by which individuals attend to, organise, interpret and retain information from their environments. In addition, since communication is the process of transferring information or meaning from one individual or group to another, perception is obviously a key part of communication. But perception can also be a key obstacle to communication.

People experience stimuli through their own perceptual filters – the differences based on personality, psychology or experience which influence them to ignore or pay attention to particular stimuli. Because of filtering, people exposed to the same information will often disagree about what they saw or heard.

Perception problems

Perception creates communication problems for organisations because people exposed to the same communication and information can end up with completely different ideas and understandings. Two of the most common perception problems in organisations are selective perception and closure.

Perceptions of others

According to attribution theory, we use two general reasons or attributions to explain people’s behaviour: an internal attribution , in which behaviour is thought to be voluntary or under the control of the individual, and an external attribution , in which behaviour is thought to be involuntary and outside of the control of the individual. For example, have you ever seen someone changing a flat tyre on the side of the road and thought to yourself, ‘What rotten luck – somebody’s having a bad day’? If you did, you perceived the person through an external attribution known as the defensive bias.

fundamental attribution error, which is the tendency to ignore external causes of behaviour and to attribute other people’s actions to internal causes. In other words, when investigators examine the possible causes of an accident, they’re much more likely to assume that the accident is a function of the person and not the situation.

Self-perception

The self-serving bias is the tendency to overestimate our value by attributing successes to ourselves (internal causes) and attributing failures to others or the environment (external causes). The self-serving bias can make it especially difficult for managers to talk to employees about performance problems. In general, people have a need to maintain a positive self-image. This need is so strong that when people seek feedback at work, they typically want verification of their worth (rather than information about performance deficiencies) or assurance that mistakes or problems weren’t their fault.14 When managerial communication threatens people’s positive self-image, they can become defensive and emotional, they stop listening, and communication becomes ineffective. In the second half of the chapter, which focuses on improving communication, we’ll explain ways in which managers can minimise this self-serving bias and improve effective one- on-one communication with employees.

2 Describe the communication process and the various kinds of communication in organisations.

There are many kinds of communication – formal, informal, coaching and counselling, and non-verbal – but they all follow the same fundamental process.

The communication process

interpersonal communication process

The communication process begins when a sender thinks of a message he or she wants to convey to another person. The next step is to encode the message. Encoding means putting a message into a written, verbal or symbolic form that can be recognised and understood by the receiver. The sender then transmits the message via communication channels. With some communication channels such as the telephone and face-to-face communication, the sender receives immediate feedback, whereas with others such as email (text messages and file attachments), fax, beepers, voicemail, memos and letters, the sender must wait for the receiver to respond.

If the message is transmitted and received, however, the next step is for the receiver to decode it. Decoding is the process by which the receiver translates the written, verbal or symbolic form of the message into an understood message. The last step of the communication process occurs when the receiver gives the sender feedback. Feedback to sender is a return message to the sender that indicates the receiver’s understanding of the message (of what the receiver was supposed to know, do or not do). Feedback makes senders aware of possible miscommunications and enables them to continue communicating until the receiver understands the intended message.

Unfortunately, feedback doesn’t always occur in the communication process. Complacency and overconfidence about the ease and simplicity of communication can lead senders and receivers to simply assume that they share a common understanding of the message and to not use feedback to improve the effectiveness of their communication. This is a serious mistake, especially since messages and feedback are always transmitted with and against a background of noise. Noise is anything that interferes with the transmission of the intended message. Noise can occur in any of the following situations:

· the sender isn’t sure what message to communicate

· the message is not clearly encoded

· the wrong communication channel is chosen

· the message is not received or decoded properly

· the receiver doesn’t have the experience or time to understand the message.

Any idea what ‘rightsizing’, ‘de-layering’, ‘un-siloing’ and ‘knowledge acquisition’ mean? Rightsizing means laying off workers. De-layering means firing managers, or getting rid of layers of management. Un-siloing means getting workers in different parts of the company (i.e. different vertical silos) to work with others outside their own areas. Knowledge acquisition means teaching workers new knowledge or skills. There are all examples of jargon, which is vocabulary particular to a profession or group, and is another form of noise that interferes with communication in the workplace. Unfortunately, the business world is rife with jargon.

Formal communication channels

Informal communication channels

Coaching and counselling: one-on-one communication

Coaching and counselling are two kinds of one-on- one communication.

Non-verbal communication

Kinesics and paralanguage are two kinds of non-verbal communication.

3 Explain how managers can manage effective one-on-one communication.

Choosing the right communication medium

Sometimes messages are poorly communicated simply because they are delivered using the wrong communication medium, which is the method used to deliver a message. For example, the wrong communication medium is being used when an employee returns from lunch, picks up the note left on her office chair and learns she has been fired.

There are two general kinds of communication media: oral and written communication. Oral communication includes face-to-face and group meetings through telephone calls, videoconferencing or any other means of sending and receiving spoken messages. Oral communication is also a rich communication medium because it allows managers to receive and assess the non-verbal communication that accompanies spoken messages (i.e. body language, facial expressions and the voice characteristics associated with paralanguage).

Written communication includes letters, email and memos. Although most managers still like and use oral communication, email in particular is changing how they communicate with workers, customers and each other. Email is the fastest-growing form of communication in organisations primarily because of its convenience and speed. Written communication, such as email, is well suited to delivering straightforward messages and information. However, is not well suited to complex, ambiguous or emotionally laden messages, which are better delivered through oral communication.

Listening

Give feedback

4 Describe how managers can manage effective organisation-wide communication.

Although managing one-on-one communication is important, managers must also know how to communicate effectively with a larger number of people throughout an organisation.

Improving transmission: getting the message out

Several methods of electronic communication – email, online discussion forums, televised or filmed speeches and conferences, and broadcast voicemail – now make it easier for managers to communicate with people throughout the organisation and ‘get the message out’.

Figure 14.6 lists the steps companies need to take to establish successful online discussion forums. First, pinpoint your company’s top intellectual assets through a knowledge audit, then spread that knowledge throughout the organisation. Second, create an online directory detailing the expertise of individual workers and make it available to all employees. Third, set up discussion groups on the intranet so that managers and workers can collaborate on problem solving. Finally, reward information sharing by making the online sharing of knowledge a key part of performance ratings.

Improving reception: hearing what others feel and think

Withholding information about organisational problems or issues is called organisational silence.

Company hotlines, survey feedback, frequent informal meetings, surprise visits and blogs are ways of overcoming organisational silence.