Chapter 9

Organizational Barriers - Network Breakdowns

Breakdowns in the communication network frequently occur in large organizations because so much information flows through those networks - mail can be misplaced, messages may not be received by those targeted, and people can forget to relay pieces of information Larger organizations have more problems because messages must flow through more people, increasing the probability that a message will be transmitted inaccurately at some point or Technology failure

Barriers to Effective Communication - Individual Barriers -Consideration of Self-Interest

It is not uncommon for firms to request information from managers about their units' performance Data such as forecasts of future activity, performance standards, and recommendations on capital budgets are often used in determining the managers' compensation Research shows that where data accuracy cannot be independently verified, managers sometimes provide information that is in their own self-interest - selecting only information that is in their own best interests

Barriers to Effective Communication - Individual Barriers - Differing Perceptions

One of the most common communication problems occurs when the sender has one perception of a message and the receiver has another Our expectations or frames of reference can influence how we recall and interpret information

Organizational Barriers - Information Distortion

either intentionally or unintentionally Unintentional distortion - honest mistakes or time pressure Intentional distortion - competition between work units in an organization Research has suggested that some units may believe that they can compete more effectively by distorting or suppressing information, thus placing their competitors at a disadvantage by keeping accurate information from them Distortion or suppression of information can (and does) also occur when a subordinate has more information than his manager

Interpersonal Communication

involves a direct verbal or nonverbal interaction between two or more active participants

Organizational Communication

is to facilitate the achievement of the organization's goals

Barriers to Effective Communication - Individual Barriers - Poor Listening Skills

managers listen with only about 25 percent efficiency this can lead the speaker to become annoyed and discouraged, thus creating a bad impression of the listener Poor listening is not conducive to high-involvement management because it breaks down the communication process and limits information sharing

Barriers to Effective Communication - Individual Barriers - Personal Space

All of us have a personal space surrounding our bodies. When someone enters that space, we feel uncomfortable The size of the personal space differs somewhat among individuals; it also differs by gender and across cultures Personal space effects, for example, how close together people stand when conversing

Improve Communication Climates

Associates' perceptions regarding the quality of communication within the organization It influences the extent to which associates identify with their organization by establishing a communication climate where mutual trust exists between senders and receivers, communication credibility is present, and feedback is encouraged Managers also should encourage a free flow of downward, upward, and horizontal communication People must be comfortable in communicating their ideas openly and in asking questions when they do not understand or they want to know more. Information should be available and understandable

Organizational Communication - Direction of Organizational Communication - Upward Communication

Communication that flows from subordinate to superior Is necessary to provide feedback on downward communication and to provide ideas and information Common channels for upward communication include departmental meetings, "open-door" policies, suggestion boxes, attitude surveys, participation in decisions, grievance procedures, and exit interviews - costly Upward communication seems to be particularly difficult in larger organizations

Organizational Communication - Direction of Organizational Communication - Downward Communication

Communication that flows from superior to subordinate Is necessary to provide job instructions, information on organization policies, and performance feedback Inform those at lower levels about the organization's goals and about changes faced by the organization Downward communication, however, is frequently deficient - lower-level managers and associates often complain about the lack of information on goals and changes being made in the organization

Organizational Communication - Direction of Organizational Communication - Horizontal Communication

Communication that takes place between and among people at the same level Formal integrating positions may also be used to facilitate horizontal communications between units. These positions are often referred to as "boundary-spanning positions" because the position holders cross the boundaries that separate different units 360 -degree multirater feedback Such feedback includes performance appraisals from peers (horizontal communication), subordinates (upward communication), and superiors (downward communication) - retaliation -overrate or underrate

Organizational Barriers - Cross-Cultural Barriers

Effective cross-cultural communication is necessary for the financial success of international ventures Communication problems cause many expatriate managers to fail in their international assignments, leading to the removal of the manager or the failure of the international venture Communication - eye contact US - direct Elsewhere - In many Asian countries, extended eye contact is unacceptable Cross-cultural barriers involve lack of language fluency or a broader lack of cultural fluency whether English is used, one or more parties to a conversation might not speak the chosen language as well as others Because many products are sold internationally, language is a very important consideration in product names and slogans - translation Language fluency is one dimension of what is known as cultural fluency—the ability to identify, understand, and apply cultural differences that influence communication

Interpersonal Communication : Formal versus Informal Communication

Formal communication - follows the formal structure of the organization (e.g., superior to subordinate) and entails organizationally sanctioned information (slow process) Informal communication involves spontaneous interaction between two or more people outside the formal organization structure In addition, managers may find that the informal system enables them to reach more members than the formal one. Another benefit of informal communication is that it can help build solidarity and friendship among associates RUMORS ( entail unsubstantiated information of universal interest or uncertainty) AND GOSSIP ( is information that is presumed to be factual and is communicated in private or intimate settings) People are thought to engage in gossip in order to gain power or friendships or to enhance their own egos Sometimes used for improvement in performance or exit Disadvantages: reduces the focus on work, ruins reputations create stress and sometimes leads to legal problems Ways to Avoid: managers are advised to provide honest, open, and clear information in times of uncertainty should be addressed by those in a position to establish the truth placing restrictions on idle chatter 360-degree evaluations- require inputs from bosses, peers, and any direct reports

Overcoming Communication Barriers - Interpersonal

Know your audience - "me to me to me" -assumes that others share your frame of reference and, in the absence of feedback, that people interpret the message as you intend it To communicate effectively, an individual must know her audience, including the audience's experience, frames of references, and motivations Select an Appropriate Communication Medium - When messages are complex and/or important, use of rich media, such as face-to-face communication, should be considered and use several media Regulate Information Flow and Timing - Regulating flow involves discarding information of marginal importance and conveying only significant information People are more likely to be receptive to a message and to perceive it accurately at certain times and not at other times Encourage Feedback Related to Understanding - To ensure that the received message is interpreted as intended, feedback from the recipient is necessary •Ask recipients to repeat what they have heard •Promote and cultivate feedback, but don't try to force it. •Reward those who provide feedback and use the feedback received. For example, thank people for providing feedback •Respond to feedback, indicating whether it is correct. In other words, obtain feedback, use it, and then feed it back to recipients. Listen Actively - People must actively and consciously listen to others in order to be effective communicators - Stop talking, Pay attention, Listen empathetically, Hear before evaluating, Listen to the whole message, Send feedback

Communication Technology

Modern technology allows organizations and their members to communicate quickly, across any distance, and to collaborate more effectively than ever before For organizations to remain competitive, they need to constantly keep up to date on modern communication technologies In many cases, organizations have been creating blogs to provide information related to advertising and corporate decisions and to seek information related to consumer thinking in the general marketplace Virtual social worlds have also been added to the technology arsenals of a number of companies virtual worlds offer real-time interactions where people exist in a three-dimensional setting as self-generated representations of themselves (i.e., avatars) sophisticated interactive systems that are being used by companies such as IBM for conferences, team meetings, and training new communication technologies can also create issues for organizations and individuals - misuse of new technology ( technology make it easier to leak private or secret information to an unintended audience, often with unintended consequences) technology failure - technology fails and redundant systems are not in place information overload personal privacy

Communication Styles

Six Dimensions: 1. Expressiveness - the amount and vividness of a person's communication. Descriptors include verboseness, conversational dominance, humor, and unpretentiousness 2. Preciseness - the care that is put into communication. Descriptors include thoughtfulness, substantiveness, structuredness, and conciseness 3. Verbal aggressiveness - the degree to which personal opinions and positions are advocated. Descriptors include authoritarianism, derogatoriness, angriness, and unsupportiveness 4. Questioning orientation - the degree to which curiosity is emphasized. Descriptors include inquisitiveness, unconventionality, argumentativeness, and philosophicalness 5. Emotionality - the reflection of stress or sadness in communication. Descriptors include worrisomeness, tension, sentimentality, and defensiveness 6. Impression management - the degree to which calculated guardedness dominates a person's communication. Descriptors include charm, inscrutableness, ingratiation, and concealment An individual's style should be appropriate to the type of work that he or she is doing

Organizational Barriers - Specialty Area Jargon

Specialists are highly knowledgeable within their own fields but often have a limited understanding of other fields - they often have their own "language," or jargon Each must understand the other's terminology if the two are to communicate

Barriers to Effective Communication - Individual Barriers - Status Differences

differences can result from dissimilarities in titles, offices, support resources, and even informal power can lead to problems of source credibility and can create problems that block upward communication - subordinates are reluctant to express an opinion that is different from their managers', and managers—because of either time pressures or arrogance—may strengthen status barriers by not being open to feedback or other forms of upward communication Research suggests that status differences often harm learning by reducing shared goals, thoughtful experimentation, and/or knowledge sharing

Nonverbal Communication

facial expressions, tone of voice, personal appearance (dress), contact or touch, and various mannerisms Three Categories: Body Language - kinesics - facial expressions, the use of hands, arms, and legs, posture Paralanguage - how something is said, such as how tone of voice, pitch of voice, and silence are used Gestures - convey specific meanings (such as making a circle with your fingers to indicate "okay" or shrugging your shoulders to indicate "I don't know") leaky behavior- those that we cannot control - people may be more likely to express their true feelings through nonverbal means rather than through verbal means, which are easy to control it provides information about the person's attitudes and emotional or mental state, useful form of feedback, whether a person is lying, cultural differences ( different norms), but facial expressions mean the same

Conduct Communication Audits

An analysis of an organization's internal and external communication designed to assess communication practices and capabilities and to determine needs 1. Hold a planning meeting with all major parties to determine a specific approach and gain commitment to it 2. Conduct interviews with top management 3. Collect, inventory, and analyze communication material. 4. Conduct associate interviews 5 Prepare and administer a questionnaire to measure attitudes toward communication 6. Communicate survey results

Organizational Barriers - Time Pressures

Deadlines = constrain an individual's ability to communicate They sometimes do not carefully develop a message before sending it Deadline often does not allow time to receive feedback, so the sender might not know whether the receiver accurately perceived the message

Communication

involves the sharing of information between two or more people to achieve a common understanding about an object or situation Successful communication occurs when the person receiving the message understands it in the way that the sender intended communication does not end with the message sent Process: Step 1: Sender - the person who wishes to communicate a message. To convey information, the sender must first encode it Step 2: Encoding - involves translating information into a message or a signal. The encoded message is then sent through a communication medium, or communication channel, to the intended receiver. Communication media are numerous and include writing in hard copy, texting, face-to-face verbal exchanges, verbal exchanges without face-to-face contact and e-mail. Step 3: Once the message has been received, the receiver must decode it. In decoding, the receiver perceives the message and interprets its meaning. Step 4: To ensure that the meaning the receiver attaches to the message is the same as the one intended by the sender, feedback is necessary. Feedback is the process through which the receiver encodes the message received and sends it or a response to it back to the original sender. feedback - two-way communication no feedback - one-way communication - may have an entirely different interpretation

Organizational Barriers - Information Overload

managers and associates are frequently burdened with more information than they can process Organizations face higher levels of uncertainty because of escalating change and turbulence in the external environment, so they obtain more information to reduce the uncertainty The increasing complexity of tasks and organizational structures creates a need for more information (specialists) Ongoing developments in technology increase the amount of information available to associates and managers In order to focus on a specific conversation, you need to tune out everything else. Selecting only a portion of the available information for use, however, can result in inaccurate or incomplete communication in the organizational context In recent years, the development and widespread use of cell phones, e-mail, and instant messaging have further increased the information overload problem—anyone can contact anyone anywhere- facing two overload problems that were not so common only a few years ago: forwarding frenzies and spamming Forwarding frenzies occur because electronic communication makes it very easy to pass on information to everyone. One common behavior is to forward messages to anyone who might have even the remotest interest Spam is unsolicited electronic junk mail Deal: by adopting newer, web-based interactive technologies for internal communications. These include blogs, wiki sites, and social networking sites. With this technology, messages are all posted in one place, avoiding redundancy

Barriers to Effective Communication - Individual Barriers - Semantic Differences

refers to the meaning people attach to symbols, such as words and gestures the same words may have different meanings to different people One reason for semantic differences inside organizations relates to the proliferation of specialists, as we mentioned earlier. Specialists tend to develop their own jargon; such terminology may have little meaning or a different set of meanings to a person outside the specialist's field A second reason for semantic differences relates to variance in cultural background.

Organizational Communication - Communication Networks

represent patterns of communication (who communicates with whom) they correspond to the structure of communication flows in the organization and they affect coordination, innovation, and performance Sparse networks - there are few connections among members Dense networks - there are many connections Centralized networks - all communications pass through a central point or points, so that one or a few members of the network control most of the information exchanges (Traditional organizational hierarchies, where subordinates communicate mostly or only with their bosses, who in turn communicate with their bosses, represent centralized networks. Companies in which units do not communicate with one other but only with a central headquarters, which then simultaneously coordinates all the unit) Decentralized networks - no single member of the network dominates information exchanges To some degree, the effectiveness of a network depends on situational factors such as type of work and goals of the unit or organization, network structure affects individual outcomes

Communication Media

richness describes the amount of information a medium can convey Richness depends on (1) the potential for immediate feedback (2) the use of multiple cues (3) the use of natural language (as opposed to numbers) (4) the extent to which the communication has a personal focus Face-to-face verbal communication is the richest medium If your friend does not understand the message or interprets it inaccurately, she can let you know either verbally or nonverbally In the interaction, you use multiple cues, including tone of voice, semantics (the words that are used), facial expressions, and body language it is easy to create a personal focus in the message Communication Media: (most rich to least rich) 1. Face-to-face communication 2. Video conferencing (such as Skyping) 3. Phone or radio communication 4. Electronic messaging (such as e-mail and instant messaging) 5. Personally written text (such as letters, notes, and memos) 6. Formal written text (such as reports, documents, bulletins, and notices) 7. Formal numerical text (such as statistical reports, graphs, and computer printouts) Tradeoff between cost and richness equivocal vs unequivocal important and when they feel the need to present a positive self-image extraverted vs introverted deceive organizational norms