Communications

Our last class

Why is communication important?• It’s what we humans do.

• Communications makes us human• In the process of management, we

communicate when:• We plan• We organize• We control• We lead

OK, so what is it?

What is Communication

• A process of acting on Information• An action process

• Information is transferred

• Interactive • Includes feedback within a context• Noise

• Transactive• Simultaneous interaction

• Complex process • Verbal and Non Verbal interaction

Communication

Sender Receiver channel

Noise

Noise

Filter Filter

Listening

Listening is a complex activity that is learned

Myths about Listening

• Related to Intelligence• Cannot be learned• Listening is the same as hearing• Speaker is responsible for

communication• Means agreeing

Listening on Three Levels• Hearing

• Involves receiving, translating and understanding the message

• Involves translating non verbal cues to comprehend the message as intended

• Analyzing• Hearing is included• Inferring the intent of the speaker-what did he really mean-

and the context in which communication is taking place.• Confirming responses and asking questions helps with this

Empathizing

• Includes hearing and analyzing• Gets at the emotional content of the

message• Seeing the world through the eyes of the

other person• Emotional Relationships breed trust

Barriers to Effective Listening

• Anything at all that distracts• Prejudging - I know what he’s

going to say-mind goes on vacation

• Rehearsing - As soon as he stops talking this is what I’ll say.

Active Listening Involves

• Stop what you are doing• Look for the non verbal cues that identify

feelings• Match verbal and non verbal cues to decipher

content and emotion• Ask confirming questions• Paraphrase content to insure you understand• Paraphrase feelings to understand what is

being felt

Language and Words

• One of the things that make us human• Ability to create our world • Tools by which people make sense of

other people’s world• Act as boundaries to group

communications - double filters• Affecting group climate• Make people defensive• Shift attention towards personal goal of

protection and away from the group goal, reducing productivity

Non Verbal Communications

Importance of non verbal communications

• We communicate non verbally --- like it or not!

• Emotions and feeling generally are communicated non verbally.

• Non verbal communication is more believable.

Frequency of Non Verbal Communication

• 7% of the emotional meaning of a message is verbal

• People use non-verbal communication far more than verbal

• Exercise on Page 157

Functional

• Emphasizes meaning• Communicated in a context

Structural

• Dealing with the management of space to facilitate communications

Non Verbal Communication

• Kinesic Behavior-Functional• Body Postures, movements, eye

contact, facial expressions

• Paralinguistic Qualities-Functional• Vocal tone e.g. pitch, volume,rate,

intonation, use of silence

• Proxemic Behavior-Structural• Spatial and distance orientations

Kinesic Behavior-Functional• Emblems – gestures that replace spoken messages

• Shhh• Hitch hikers thumb• Check your watch

• Illustrators – add meaning to verbal communication• Pound the desk for emphasis

• Affect Display – demonstrates feelings• Slouch means bored

• Regulators• Eye contact, facial expression, raised hand that regulates

the flow of the conversation. Can I talk now?• Self Adapters

• Nervous habits that help adapt to environment.-holding a pencil

Communicating with your eyes• Performs four functions in

communications• Cognitive – look away to clear

thoughts, or keep from being distracted• Monitoring – allows modifying message

based on reactions• Regulatory – open or close

communication gate• Expressive – helps express emotions

Proximic Behavior

• The way we use space• Communications are facilitated

when distance is comfortable

Proximic Behavior• Territoriality and Personal Space

• Resident advantage-• space you own-home court advantage-• perform better in your space• Mark our territory

• Personal Space – • Psychological outline around you• Expands and contracts to meet social needs• Four categories that have implications for group behavior

− Intimate Distance(0 to 8 inches) Body contact and intimate relationship. − Personal distance (1 ½ to 4 feet) typical interaction for friends, − Social distance (4 to 12 feet) out of touch range – used for casual contact

with strangers and business functions− Public distance (12 feet and beyond) formal encounters, speeches,

platform presentations, classrooms

Personal Space varies culturally and ethnically

• Saudi Arabia for example, you might find yourself almost nose to nose with a business associate because their social space equates to our intimate space.

• If, on the other hand, you were visiting a friend in the Netherlands, you would find the roles reversed, you would be doing the chasing because their personal space equates to our social space.

• We Americans tend to pull in our elbows and knees and try not to touch or even look at one another while riding the bus. In Japan, a country with a population half the size of the United States cramed into an area half the size of California, subway passengers are literally pushed into the cars until not even one more person will fit. You cannot help but be pressed against someone else's sweaty body.

Proximic Behavior

• Group Spatial Ecology• Sociopetal-encourages contact• Sociofugal-discourages discourse and

communication• The way people arrange themselves in

small groups− Leaders and dominent people sit at the ends

of rectangular tables− Potential leaders are in positions with the

most eye contact

Spatial Ecology

• Who you have eye contact with determines who you talk to

• People who are more centrally located receive more messages

• You speak to people across from you

• People who sit at the corners of a table contribute less

Informal communications

• MBWA• No formal agenda• Make friends• Observe what is going on

• Grapevine• Links all employees in all directions• 70-90% of information is accurate

Workplace Communications

Information Model

• Reduces time to solve problems by making information universally available and ubiquitous.

• Allows teams to work at a distance• Eastman and Mallach

• Mode 0=no sharing of computers• Mode 1= Stand alone systems, some hardware

sharing• Mode 2= Management puts information where it

deems it will be needed• Mode 3= anybody puts anything in the system for

anyone to read and use.

Barriers to Communication

• Individual Barriers• Prejudging and Rehearsing• Selecting the wrong channel• Semantics• Inconsistent cues – verbal /non verbal

Barriers to Communication

• Organizational • Status and power differences• Organizational Structure

Overcoming Barriers

• Active listening• Developing appropriate

organizations• Create appropriate climate

That’s the class!! I hope you have enjoyed it and that you will go out and change the world. Good luck on the final!