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Chapter Nineteen
Communication
Objectives:
To develop an understanding of:
The Importance of Communication
The elements of communication
The Communication Process Model
Types of Channels
Channel Richness
Communicating Within Organizations
Communicating Externally
Barriers to Effective Communication
Improving Communication in Organizations
The Importance of Communication
Communications is defined as "the transmission of information and understanding through the use of common symbols."
Communication assists organizational members to accomplish both individual and organizational goals, implement and respond to organizational change, coordinate organizational activities and engage in virtually all organizationally relevant behavior.Organizational effectiveness is linked to communications. Serious problems arise when breakdowns occur and a pertinent question for managers is whether they will communicate well or poorly.
The Communication Process -The steps between a source and a receiver that result in the transference and understanding of meaning
The elements of communication:
1. Communicator —an employee with ideas, intentions, and a purpose for communicating.
2. Encoding —translating the communicator's ideas into a systematic set of symbols and language that expresses the communicator's purpose. 3. Message —the result of the encoding process (in a verbal or nonverbal form). The message can be intended or unintended. 4. Medium —the message carrier (e.g., telephone, group meeting, memos, reward systems). 5. Decoding —the receiver's thought processes that interpret the message in terms understandable to the receiver. 6. Receiver —recipient of the message. 7. Feedback —response from the receiver to the communicator that lets the communicator determine whether the message was received and produced the intended effect. It is provided in two- way, but not in one-way communication. It is provided in many forms (e.g., directly via verbal exchanges; indirectly via productivity declines, absenteeism increases). 8. Noise —factors that distort the intended message. May occur in each element of communication.
The Communication Process Model ( Please see the exhibit from Organizational Behaviour, Stephen P.Robbins, Timothi A.Judge and Seema Sanghi, 12th^ ed, Pearson Education, pp 406)
Channel
The medium selected by the sender through which the message travels to the receiver
Types of Channels
Formal Channels
Are established by the organization and transmit messages that are related to the professional activities of members
Informal Channels
Used to transmit personal or social messages in the organization. These informal channels are spontaneous and emerge as a response to individual choices.
Choice of Communication Channel
Channel Richness
The amount of information that can be transmitted during a communication episode
Characteristics of Rich Channels
Group level
Organizational level
Interpersonal level - Communication that flows from individual to individual in face-to-face and group settings. It varies, from direct orders to casual expressions and influences how people feel about the organization.
Types of interpersonal Communication are:
Oral Communication
o Advantages: Speed and feedback
o Disadvantage: Distortion of the message
Written Communication
o Advantages: Tangible and verifiable
o Disadvantages: Time-consuming and lacks feedback
Nonverbal Communication-Nonverbal messages : information sent by a communicator that is or may be unrelated to the verbal communication. It is sent via physical cues such as face and eye movements, posture, distance, voice tone, and gestures. Nonverbal message may differ from other forms of communication behavior in that they are difficult to suppress, more apparent to others than to the people who produce them and susceptible to multiple interpretations. Emotion type conveyed by nonverbal message is indicated by facial expressions, eye contact and eye movements and emotion intensity is indicated by physical cues such as distance, posture and gestures.
o Advantages: Supports other communications and provides observable expression of emotions and feelings
o Disadvantage: Misperception of body language or gestures can influence receiver’s interpretation of message
Problems in communication with other people can arise from:
- Perceptual differences.
- Interpersonal style differences.
Group level
Three Common Formal Small-Group Networks and patterns of communication in it:
Small-Group Networks and Effectiveness Criteria
criteria chain wheel All channel
speed moderate fast fast
accuracy high high moderate
Emergence of leader moderate high none
Member satisfaction moderate low high
Informal network
Grapevine
Chain
Wheel
All channel
The Internet and the Intranet.
Electronic mail or e-mail
Voice mail.
Video conferencing and teleconferencing.
Electronic meetings
Knowledge Management (KM)
Knowledge Management is a process of organizing and distributing an organization’s collective wisdom so the right information gets to the right people at the right time
Knowledge management is important because Intellectual assets are as important as physical assets. When individuals leave, their knowledge and experience goes with them. A KM system reduces redundancy and makes the organization more efficient.
Communicating Externally
Typical external communication program includes four distinct programs: public relations, advertising, promotion, and customer/client/patient surveys.
Multicultural Communication -While the average European speaks several languages, the typical American speaks only English. The vast majority of the world’s population does not speak nor understand English. International business requires foreign language training. Other barriers to effective international communication: a.Ethnocentrism—tendency to consider the values, norms, and customs of one's own country as superior. It may be implicit or explicit. b. Cultural Insensitivity: By not being sensitive to cultural differences we contribute to misunderstandings. Words and phrases, behaviors and other nonverbal expressions may mean different things across cultures.
Intercultural communications succeeds when communicators:
a. Familiarize themselves with significant cultural differences.
b. Try to abandon ethnocentric tendencies.
c. Maintain a posture of "knowing they do not know."
Barriers to Effective Communication- Barriers exist either within individuals (e.g., frames of reference, value judgments) or within organizations (e.g., in-group language, filtering).
1. Frame of reference: People can encode/decode messages differently because of different frames of reference. It results from different individual backgrounds and experiences. It produces distorted communication and occurs even at different organizational levels. 2. Selective listening : A form of selective perception where individuals perceive only information that affirms beliefs and blocks out new and disconfirming information. 3. Value judgments: The receiver assigns as overall worth to the message based on his/her evaluation of the message's anticipated meaning, the communicator or previous experiences with the communicator. 4. Source credibility: Trust, confidence, and faith that the receiver has in the communicator's words/actions. Directly impacts message reception and reaction by the receiver. 5. Filtering: The communicator manipulates the information so the receiver hears it as positive ("telling the boss what she wants to hear"). It frequently occurs in upward communication. It occurs because the direction (upward) carries control information to management that may affect merit evaluations, etc. 6. In-group language : Language (jargon) developed by a particular group (e.g., researchers, engineers) that is meaningful/understandable only to the members; produces communication breakdowns when outsiders are involved. 7. Status differences: Can be perceived as threats by those lower in the organizational hierarchy and channel of communication who normally would be included. 8. Time pressures: Can produce short-circuiting wherein someone has been left out of the formal channel of communication who normally would be included. 9. Communication overload: People feel buried by information and data that they cannot adequately absorb. It occurs because of the deluge of information with which managers must contend.Overloaded, the manager cannot absorb/adequately respond to all messages which results in "screening out" (never decoding) many messages.
Communication Barriers Between Men and Women
Men talk to:
- Emphasize status, power, and independence
- Complain that women talk on and on
- Offer solutions
- To boast about their accomplishments
Women talk to:
9. Effective listening : Entails listening with understanding—removing distractions, putting the speaker at ease, showing that you want to listen, and asking questions. 10. Using the grapevine ;Managers should know how to use it and increase its accuracy, as distortions traveling through the grapevine can be devastating. 11. Promoting Ethical Communications: Krep's principles guiding effective internal communications suggest that organization members: i. Should not intentionally deceive one another. ii. Should not purposely harm any other member. iii. Should be treated justly .Management in many instances says it has the right to gather intelligence on its employees, even spying if it is not illegal. There are any numbers of tools available for such monitoring of behavior. Competitive intelligence, a system for gathering information (all forms of communication) that affects a firm, analyzing the data, and taking action is becoming an accepted practice.
Questions:
- What is the Importance of Communication in organization? Justify with examples
- What are the elements of communication? Discuss the Communication Process Model
- What are the types of Channels? Establish the relationship of Channel Richness with Communication effectiveness.
- Discuss with suitable examples the different directions and levels of Communicating Within Organizations. Discuss the issues related with Communicating Externally.
- What are the Barriers to Effective Communication. Discuss the ways of Improving Communication in Organizations. How can the organization promote ethical communication?
