*Chapter 8

Communication Basics, I

  • Efficiency

    • Transmitting your message accurately in the least amount of time

  • Effectiveness

    • Your intended message is accurately understood by the recipient

  • Encoding

    • Translating a message into understandable symbols or language

  • Decoding

    • Interpreting and trying to make sense of the message

 

Communication Basics, II

  • Feedback

    • The receiver's reaction to the sender's message

  • Noise

    • The psychological, social, and structural barriers that distort/obscure a sender's intended message

 

Communication and information technology, I

  • Examples (own slides)

  • Pros and cons (own slides)

 

Communication and information technology, II

  • Examples

    • Email, instant messaging

    • Presentation technology (e.g., PowerPoint)

    • Videoconferencing technology (e.g., Zoom)

 

Communication and information technology, III

  • Pros

    • Faster and easier communication

    • Supervisors are more accessible to subordinates

    • Distance not a barrier to communicating

 

Communication and information technology, IV

  • Cons

    • Lack of "human touch"

      • More difficult to personally connect with or motivate employees

    • Productivity/multi-tasking issues

      • Constant distraction

    • Multi-tasking issues

      • Lower quality of critical thinking

    • Pressure to always be accessible

 

 

Nonverbal communication

  • Overview

  • Some factors to consider (own slides)

 

Some factors to consider:

  • Environment

  • Body placement

  • Posture

  • Facial expressions

  • Physical appearance

  • But you've been so out of Touch(ing)

 

Communication Channels, I

  • Formal: follows the chain of command; regarded as official

  • Informal: develop outside the formal structure and does not follow the chain of command (ex. The grapevine)

 

Communication Channels, II

  • Vertical: flows up or down the chain of command

    • Upward: from subordinates to managers

    • Downward: from managers to subordinates

  • Horizontal: flows within or between work units; its main purpose is coordination

 

Communication Channels, III

  • Diagonal: communication between a subordinate and a manager in a different department

  • External: flows between people inside and outside the organization

 

Barriers to communication, I

  • Filtering of negative info

  • Lack of credibility of the sender

  • Information overload

 

Barriers to communication, II

  • Dissimilar "codebooks"

    • Frames of reference

    • Non-verbal communication that misleads (own slides)

    • Semantics (own slides)

    • Gender differences (own slides)

    • Cultural differences (own slides)

 

Barriers to communication, III

  • Nonverbal communication that misleads

    • Eye contact, facial expressions, body movements/gestures, touch, etc.