© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill Ryerson 11 C H A P T E R: E L E V E N Communicating in Teams and Organizations

2 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Ian Smith/Vancouver Sun Blogging as Org Communication “[Blogging] is a fantastically effective listening device,” says Tim Bray, the Vancouver-based director of Web technologies at Sun Microsystems. “There's an immediacy of interaction you can get with your audience through blogging that's hard to get any other way, except by face-to-face communication.”

3 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Ian Smith/Vancouver Sun Definition of Communication The process by which information is transmitted and understood between two or more people Transmitting the sender’s intended meaning (not just symbols) is the essence of good communication

4 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Ian Smith/Vancouver Sun Four Functions of Communication  Coordinating work activities  Fulfilling drive to bond  Knowledge management  Decision making

5 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Receiver Decodemessage Encodefeedback Formfeedback Sender Formmessage Encodemessage Decodefeedback Transmit Message Transmit Feedback Noise Communication Process Model Receiveencodedmessage Receivefeedback

6 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e City of Liverpool Bans Civic leaders at Liverpool City Council have banned one day each week because they fear that the electronic medium is undermining face-to-face communication among employees. ©UK Out Epa-Photo/PA Files/Phil Nobl.

7 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Benefits of 1.Preferred medium for coordinating work 2.Tends to increase communication volume 3.Significantly alters communication flow  Less face-to-face/telephone  More upward communication 4.Reduces some selective attention biases ©UK Out Epa-Photo/PA Files/Phil Nobl.

8 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e ©UK Out Epa-Photo/PA Files/Phil Nobl. Problems with 1.Communicates emotions poorly 2.Impersonal medium  reduces politeness and respect (flaming) 3.Inefficient for ambiguous, complex, novel situations 4.Increases information overload

9 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Other Electronic Communication Instant messaging  More efficient than  Allows simultaneous communication events  Real-time communities through clustered communication Blogging (web logs)  Seem more personal than large meetings  Empower employees to share information  Ability to archive information

10 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Nonverbal Communication  Actions, facial gestures, voice intonation, silence, etc.  Transmits most info in face-to-face meetings  Influences meaning of verbal and written symbols  Less rule bound than verbal communication  Important part of emotional labour  Automatic and unconscious

11 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Emotional Contagion The automatic process of “catching” or sharing another person’s emotions by mimicking their facial expressions and other nonverbal behaviour Emotional contagion serves three purposes:  Provides continuous feedback to speaker  Increases emotional understanding of the other person’s experience  Communicates a collective sentiment -- sharing the experience

12 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Oversimplified Zone Overloaded Zone Nonroutine/ Ambiguous Rich Media Richness Situation Hierarchy of Media Richness Lean Routine/clear

13 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Contingencies of Media Richness For electronic media, richness is also influenced by communicator’s previous experience: With the medium  Experience enables user to “push” amount of message through that medium With the receiver  With experience, both parties have similar “codebooks”

14 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Communication Barriers Perceptions Filtering Language  Jargon  Ambiguity Information Overload

15 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Information Overload Episodes of information overload Employee’s information processing capacity Time Information Load

16 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Managing Information Overload Solution 1: Increase information processing capacity  Learn to read faster  Scan through documents more efficiently  Remove distractions  Time management  Temporarily work longer hours Solution 2: Reduce information load  Buffering  Omitting  Summarizing

17 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Thumbs Up to the Boss! In Australia, a co-worker asked Patricia Oliveira why she laughed when he gave the thumbs up that everything is OK. She explained that this gesture “means something not very nice” in her home country of Brazil. After hearing this, several co- workers gave the boss a lot more thumbs up signs! ©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis

18 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Cross-Cultural Communication Verbal differences  Language Nonverbal differences  Voice intonation  Interpreting nonverbal meaning  Importance of verbal versus nonverbal  Silence and conversational overlaps ©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis

19 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e MenWomen Gives advice quickly and directly Gives advice indirectly and reluctantly Report talk Rapport talk Conversations are negotiations of status Conversations are bonding events Less sensitive to nonverbal cues More sensitive to nonverbal cues Gender Communication Differences

20 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Getting Your Message Across Empathize Repeat the message Use timing effectively Be descriptive © Photodisc. With permission.

21 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e ActiveListening Sensing Postpone evaluation Postpone evaluation Avoid interruptions Avoid interruptions Maintain interest Maintain interest Evaluation Empathize Empathize Organize information Organize informationResponding Show interest Show interest Clarify the message Clarify the message Active Listening Process & Strategies

22 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e MBWA at Hiram Walker Ian Gourlay, CEO of Hiram Walker, values management by walking around (MBWA) because face-to-face communication helps him to understand what is really happening in the company. Windsor Star Group

23 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Communicating in Hierarchies 1.Work space design 2.E-zines, blogs, wikis 3.Employee surveys 4.Direct communication with management Windsor Star Group

24 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Organizational Grapevine Early Research Findings  Transmits information rapidly in all directions  Follows a cluster chain pattern  More active in homogeneous groups  Transmits some degree of truth Changes Due to Internet  becoming the main grapevine medium  Social networks are now global  Public blogs and forums extends gossip to everyone

25 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e Grapevine Benefits/Limitations Benefits  Supplements information  Strengthens corporate culture  Relieves anxiety  Signals that problems exist Limitations  Distortions might escalate anxiety  Perceived lack of concern for employees when company info is slower than grapevine

© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill Ryerson 11 C H A P T E R: E L E V E N Communicating in Teams and Organizations

© 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McGraw-Hill Ryerson 11 C H A P T E R: E L E V E N Chapter Eleven Extras

28 © 2006 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. McShane/ Canadian OB 6e :-) :-} <:-) :-X :-j {} Guessing Emoticons Happy Smirk Dumb question OOPS! Tongue in cheek Hug