2020 IAAP CAP Exam Domain 1 - Organizational Communication (PO1)
Filter
Comprises biases, personal beliefs and outside influences.
Four conclusions of Hawthorne Studies
1) Aptitudes of individuals are imperfect predictors of job performance. 2) Informal organization affects productivity. 3) Work-group norms affect productivity. 4) The workplace is a social system.
Scalar Chain (line of authority)
A hierarchy necessary for unity of direction.
One Quarter
Amount of claims filed by workers that are related to age-based discrimination.
Psychological Noise
Anything that makes it harder to understand a message (poor vocabulary, someone who is more interested in defending themselves than to listen)
Leader Tells
Autocratic style of leadership. Team is new, inexperienced.
Inductive Reasoning
Bottom-up approach; takes a specific observation and creates a broad generalization.
Poor Listening
Can cost companies millions of dollars a year due to lost opportunities, wasted time caused by misunderstandings, legal issues and other errors.
Situational Approach
Centers on the concept of a developmental continuum on which all employees move forward and backward. Leaders must adapt their leadership style to match the needs of the individual follower. The most popular leadership approach due to it's practicality;
Social Effect
Created by being separated from the rest of group and being given special treatment; employees developed bonds and camaraderie.
Bank Wiring Room
Designed to further study the social effects within a workplace. Aimed to understand the power of an informal group. Provided insight into informal social relations.
Physical Noise
Environmental conditions such as noise level or temperature.
Communication Accommodation Theory
Examines the underlying motivations and consequences of what happens when two speakers shift their communication style; accommodating each other by shifting their style of speaking.
Skills Approach
Focuses on problem-solving, social judgement skills, knowledge competencies, and environmental influences.
Trait Approach
Focuses only on the individual looking at a one-way process rather than an interaction.
Examples of Filter
Frame of reference, gender stereotypes, workplace stress, generational assumptions, self-esteem, morale, listening skills, priorities, semantics, motivation and intention, cultural differences
Organization
Group of people who, through coordinated activities, work to achieve both individual and collective goals.
Coaching Leadership
High Supportive and High Directive; leader focuses both on achieving goals and emotional needs of team members; allows for input but decision belongs to leader. (for individuals who are developing their knowledge base and committed to the task)
Supporting Leadership
High supportive and low directive; Leader focuses on goals and also hones the skills of followers by praising success, listening to criticism, allowing input, providing feedback and recognizing achievement. (provides motivation during stressful situations)
Informal Communication
Includes conversations, written or spoken, people have with each others. Sometimes based on speculation, rumors, or overheard conversations. When passed from person to person, it is said to have "traveled through the grapevine".
Technical Skill
Knowledge about and proficiency in a specific type of work or activity.
Taylor and Ford
Laid the groundwork for efficiency by applying scientific methods to how work was performed.
Leader Tests
Leader explains the problem and comes up with an idea but tests it out on the team to determine their level of expertise, commitment and responsiveness.
Leader Abdicates
Leader gives full responsibility for identifying, analyzing and resolving problems although accountability still rests on the leader.
Leader Delegates
Leader gives the team the green light to find answers.
Leader Sells
Leader maintains control while convincing members of a decision and the need to take a particular action.
Effective Listening
Listening that strengthens organizational relationships, alerts the organization to opportunities for innovation, prevents wasted time dealing with misunderstandings and allows organization to manage growing diversity.
Directing Leadership
Low supportive and high directive; focuses on goal achievement, giving followers instructions about what to do, then supervising them closely. (for followers at the lowest level of development)
Developing Leadership
Low supportive and low directive; hands-off leadership; task completion is the responsibility of the follower with little intervention from leader. (for the most seasoned follower)
Active Listening
Making a conscious effort to turn off their own filters and biases to truly hear and understand what the speaker is saying.
Subordination of individual interest to general interest
Management must see the goals of the firm are always paramount.
Maslow: Self-Actualization in Workplace
Meaningful achievement such as being assigned challenging work.
Formal Communication
Messages spread through the organization's communications methods, which can be downward, upward or horizontal.
Symbolic Interaction Theory
People are motivated to act based on the meanings they assign to people, objects, and events.
Unity of Direction
People engaged in the same kind of activities must have the same objectives in a single plan.
Maslow: Esteem Needs in Workplace
Positive self-image such as being rewarded with a nicer workspace.
Communication Model Step 3
Receiver decodes the message.
Communication Model Step 4
Receiver returns feedback to sender.
Mutual Understanding
Sender and receiver comprehend the other's position, opinion, or POV
Communication Model Step 2
Sender encodes a message into symbols (spoken, written, visual and/or physical) via a channel.
Communication Model Step 1
Sender has an idea to share
Communication
Sharing of meaning between two or more people.
Maslow: Social Needs in Workplace
Social acceptance such as recognition for good work.
Maslow: Safety Needs in Workplace
Stable environment such as fair workplace practices
Uncertainty Reduction Theory
Suggests when strangers meet, their primary focus is on reducing their levels of uncertainty in the situation.
Maslow: Physiological Needs in Workplace
Survival such as a good salary or job security
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
The experience of dissonance (beliefs and actions that are incongruent) is aversive, so people are highly motivated to avoid it; people avoid hearing views that oppose their own; will change beliefs to match their actions.
Leader Consults
The leader no longer feels the need to have an answer ready, effectively inviting the team to solve problems together.
Leader Joins
The leader no longer solely owns the problem or situation, asking the team to consider the problem as well as a solution; nudging team to ownership.
Frame of Reference
The values, experiences, customs, education, and beliefs which someone uses to evaluate data, communicate ideas, and guide behavior.
Interpersonal Communication
The way you exchange information with others - not just with what you say, but how you say it.
Hersey-Blanchard Situational Leadership Model
There is no single best style of leadership.
Content Listening
To understand and retain information being said.
Deductive Reasoning
Top-down reasoning; taking a general conclusion or fact and working to a specific condition.
Leadership Style & Maturity Level
Two fundamental concepts of the Hersey-Blanchard model.
Critical Listening
Understand and evaluate the meaning of the speaker's message.
Empathetic Listening
Understand the speaker's feelings, needs, and wants and in turn appreciate their point of view.
Filter is turned on
When this happens, the only information absorbed will be what is believed to be right or wrong about the other person's message.
Experimenter Effect
Workers interpreted changes as a sign management cared.
Intrapersonal Communications
Your internal use of language and thought.
Unity of Command
a management principle that workers should report to just one boss
Remuneration
payment for work done