1. Communicating in Teams and Organizations
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e
Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. Social Networking Communication at IBM
Standing in front of Beijing’s Forbidden City, IBM chief executive Sam Palmisano communicates through his Second Life avatar to several thousand employees worldwide.
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3. Communication Defined
The process by which information is transmitted and understood between two or more people
Effective communication
Transmitting intended meaning (not just symbols)
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4. Importance of Communication
Coordinating work activities
Organizational learning and decision making
Employee well-being
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5. Communication Process Model
Sender
Receiver
Transmit
Message
Form
message
Encode
message
Decode
message
Receive
encoded
Noise
Form
feedback
Decode
feedback
Receive
Encode
feedback
Transmit
Feedback
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6. Improving Communication Coding/Decoding
Both parties have motivation and ability to communicate through the channel
Both parties carry the same “codebook”
Both parties share similar mental models of the communication context
Sender is experienced at communicating the message topic
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7. About Face on Workplace E-Mail
HiWired executives introduced “Home Week” each month, in which they must not travel. This initiative has helped them rediscover the benefits of face-to-face rather than communication.
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8. How E-Mail has Altered Communication
Now preferred medium for coordinating work
Tends to increase communication volume
Significantly alters communication flow
Reduces some selective attention biases
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9. Problems with E-Mail Communicates emotions poorly
Reduces politeness and respect
Inefficient for ambiguous, complex, novel situations
Increases information overload
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10. Social Networking Communication
Social network communication clusters people around interests/expertise
Several types of social network communication
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn
Online discussion forums
Avatar sites (e.g. Second Life)
Instant messaging
Wikis
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11. Nonverbal Communication
Actions, facial gestures, etc.
Influences meaning of verbal symbols
Less rule bound than verbal communication
Important part of emotional labor
Most is automatic and nonconscious
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12. Emotional Contagion
The automatic process of sharing another person’s emotions by mimicking their facial expressions and other nonverbal behavior
Serves three purposes:
Provides continuous feedback to speaker
Increases emotional understanding of the other person’s experience
Communicates a collective sentiment -- sharing the experience
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13. I Love Rewards Gets Media-Rich Quickly
Every day at 11:15 am, employees at I Love Rewards Inc. meet face-to-face for 10 minutes to communicate priorities and coordinate their efforts. These quick meetings provide a personal connection and highly interactive feedback.
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14. Choosing the Best Communication Channel: Social Acceptance
How well the communication channel is approved and supported by the organization, team, and individual:
Communication channel norms
Individual communication channel preferences
Symbolic meaning of the communication channel
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15. Choosing the Best Communication Channel: Media Richness
The channel’s data-carrying capacity needs to be aligned with the communication activity
High richness when channel:
conveys multiple cues
allows timely feedback
allows customized message
permits complex symbols
Use rich communication media when the situation is nonroutine and ambiguous
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16. Hierarchy of Media Richness
Overloaded
Zone
Media
Richness
Oversimplified
Zone
Lean
Nonroutine/
Ambiguous
Routine/clear
Situation
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17. Factors that Override Media Richness
Ability to multi-communicate with lean channels
More varied proficiency levels
Social distractions of rich channels
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18. Persuasive Communication
Changing another person’s beliefs and attitudes.
Spoken communication is more persuasive because:
accompanied by nonverbal communication, adding emotional punch to the message.
has high quality immediate feedback whether message is understood and accepted.
has high social presence, so receiver is more sensitive to message content and more motivated to accept the message.
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19. Communication Barriers
Perceptions
Filtering
Language
Jargon
Ambiguity
Information Overload
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20. Information Load Information Overload Time
Episodes of information overload
Information Load
Employee’s information processing capacity
Time
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21. Managing Information Overload
Solution 1: Increase info 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
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22. 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
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23. Cross-Cultural Communication
Verbal differences
Language
Voice intonation
Silence/conversational overlaps
Nonverbal differences
Interpreting nonverbal meaning
Importance of verbal versus nonverbal
©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis
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24. Gender Communication Differences
Men
Women
Report talk
Rapport talk
Gives advice quickly and directly
Gives advice indirectly and reluctantly
Conversations are negotiations of status
Conversations are bonding events
Less sensitive to nonverbal cues
More sensitive to nonverbal cues
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25. Getting Your Message Across
Empathize
Repeat the message
Use timing effectively
Be descriptive
Courtesy of Microsoft.
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26. Active Listening Process & Strategies
Sensing
• Postpone evaluation
• Avoid interruptions
• Maintain interest
Active
Listening
Responding
• Show interest
• Clarify the message
Evaluating
• Empathize
• Organize information
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27. Communicating in Hierarchies
Workspace design
Clustering people in teams
Open office arrangements
Web-based organizational communication
Wikis -- collaborative document creation
Blogs -- personal news/opinion for sharing
E-zines -- rapid distribution of company news
Direct communication with management
Management by walking around (MBWA)
Town hall meetings
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28. 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
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29. Grapevine Benefits/Limitations
Fills in missing information from formal sources
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
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30. Communicating in Teams and Organizations
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
McShane/Von Glinow OB 5e
Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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