Learning Unit 3: Communication in Organisations The purpose of this learning unit is to discuss the three (3) DIMENSIONS of communication within an organisation, namely: i.Interpersonal communication ii.Non-verbal communication iii.Intercultural communication

“Inter” means between; thus, Interpersonal means between people  Without individuals working well together, organisational systems will fail.  Interpersonal communication is linked to an employee’s well-being (lowers absenteeism and cases of employee turnover)  Each person within the communication dyad (between two people face-to-face) has to take responsibility for the effectiveness of the communication transaction (meaning is created collaboratively)

Roles: One of the variables in interpersonal communication is the roles we take on – e.g. role of manager We play different roles in an organisation; those roles influence the expectations people have of us – e.g. as a Financial Intern, I will have to be meticulous about figures; if a problem is discussed with a Human Resource Officer, you would not expect them to share that information Roles are linked to our age, gender, level of seniority, professional status & qualification, etc

Rules: Rules govern our behaviour within an organisation – i.e. it informs, guide and enforce how we should act (thus, acceptable and unacceptable behaviour) There are explicit (written down) and implicit (obvious) rules Example: Not arriving late to meetings (implicit); Dress code (explicit) Three (3) skills (Fielding 2014: 35-36*): 1) Differentiate between assertion & aggression 2) Expressing feelings, perceptions or interpretations of another’s actions 3) Stating facts, intentions & motives of your actions

Hearing is physiological and passive Listening is a psychological process which is active 1. We first HEAR a sound 2. We pay ATTENTION to that sound 3. We recognise the sounds we paid attention to and UNDERSTAND it based on our frame of reference 4. We REMEMBER information 5. We then RESPOND

(1) Listening carefully to enable us to follow directions, instructions & suggestions (2) Eye contact (3) Being attentive at all times (4) Paraphrase what was said (5) Listen holistically (empathetic listening)

Five (5) reasons why we need to be sensitive to non- verbal cues: 1. First impressions last & are hard to change 2. When meeting someone for the first time we judge them (often inaccurately) according to our beliefs 3. From superficial initial cues (e.g. hair, clothing, etc.) we form impressions of someone 4. People’s facial expressions, eye contact, voice, gesture, etc. help us to understand people 5. Non-verbal stereotypes are used to judge people – e.g. overweight people are friendly

VERBAL (i.e. use words) communications NON-VERBAL (i.e. no words used) communication i.Participants take turns to speak or write i.Communication is a continuous process that never ends ii. Verbal/ non-verbal communication contradict each other; easy to manipulate ii. Recipients tend to believe non- verbal more as it is difficult to fake iii. Verbal communication is contextual iii. Non-verbal communication is relational and is considered more effective (showing attitude & emotions)

1. Non-verbal communication is ambiguous (i.e. not always clear what it means) 2. One needs to understand the context before non-verbal messages can be understood 3. Non-verbal messages need to be viewed in clusters (i.e. together) and not separately

 Silence  Silence (communicating through our understanding of silence)  Paralanguage  Paralanguage (communicating over-and- above the things we say, e.g. tone, pitch, volume, etc.)  Kinesics  Kinesics (communicating through body movement/ body language, e.g. shaking your head; turning away from someone)  Facial expressionsoculesics  Facial expressions and oculesics (communicating through eye contact or eye aversion; e.g. frowning when you are angry)

 Haptics  Haptics (communicating though our touching behaviour)  Proxemics  Proxemics (communicating through space and distance)  Clothing, hairstyle & accessories  Clothing, hairstyle & accessories (communicating through the way we look)  Artefacts/ Objects environment  Artefacts/ Objects and the environment within which people work (communicating by way of our environment, e.g. looking at someone’s house can tell you a lot about them  Chronemics  Chronemics (communicating through reference to time e.g. being late is rude) Source:

i. Culture: A shared system of values, attitudes, beliefs, assumptions, expectations and symbols (1) that a group of people share (1). E.g. the Zulu culture (1). ii. Worldview: A worldview is central to any culture (1). It is any culture’s philosophical views of life (1). It is what is considered normal in a culture (1). E.g. Western cultures value individualism (1).

3. Cultural norms: Norms are rules of behaviour (1). Within a culture, it refers to the ‘right’ way to behave within that culture (1) and will differ from culture to culture (1). Examples of different cultural norms are: i) Individualism vs Collectivism (1) ii)High context vs Low context (1) iii) Masculinity vs Femininity (1) iv) High Uncertainty avoidance vs Low Uncertainty avoidance (1) v)Power distance (1) 4. Cultural mores: These are customs and habits that cultural groups accept as right (1) – e.g. in some cultures making eye contact is accepted, while in others eye contact is avoided to show respect (2).

What is INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION? Communication between two (2) or more cultures (1) where the difference between those cultures are so extreme (1) that it alters the communication paradigm (1). Intercultural communication often leads to misunderstandings (1) because of psychological- (1) and semantic barriers (1). In a globalised, multicultural working environment, intercultural communication proficiency has become extremely important (1). One of the ways an organisation can improve intercultural communication is to encourage staff to see one another as individuals and not as part of a group (2).

1. Cultural stereotyping 2. Ethnocentricity 3. Defensiveness 4. Differences in verbal- and non-verbal communication 5. Differences in directness 6. Different attitudes, values and beliefs 7. Prejudice (including racism and cultural relativity) 8. Assumptions 9. Different ways of thinking

 In an organisation people have to go through an acculturation process (learning about other cultures)  The organisation should foster a culture of ethnorelativism (which is the flip-side of ethnocentrism) – here people understand that culture isn’t threatening, static or inherent; rather, it is fluent, learned and something to be understood  Within an organisation, employees should avoid cultural arrogance and should try to be curious about diversity and different ways to problem solving.