Communication in Organizational Behavior

Importance of Communication

• When we can't understand another person's perspective, we tend to judge their motives for not communicating in our preferred style. This can lead to stereotypes and shortcuts in thinking.
• Communication breakdowns can have disastrous organizational consequences, leading to lost clients, missed opportunities, and misperceived engagement levels.
• Many communication issues arise when we misinterpret another person's unresponsiveness or silence.
• Our perception of others' responses depends on our preferred communication style (high-context vs. low-context cultures).
• Communication is more than just imparting meaning; the meaning must be understood (encoding and decoding).

Main Concepts of Communication

• Communication is defined as the transfer and understanding of meaning.
• Modes of communication include:
  • Oral
  • Written
  • Non-verbal
• Perfect communication, where a thought is transmitted and understood exactly as intended, is practically impossible to achieve.
• Examples such as using Spanish as a communication language illustrate the specificity of content in communication.

Functions of Communication

• Management: Communication manages member behavior through authority hierarchies and formal guidelines (job descriptions, company policies). Informal communication also plays a role (praising employees).
• Feedback: Communication clarifies what employees must do, how well they are doing, and how they can improve. This includes goal formation, feedback, and rewards, which are part of motivation.
• Emotion Sharing: Group members express satisfaction or frustration through social media and informal communication channels like the grapevine.
• Persuasion: Communication can be used to persuade, which can benefit or harm an organization (e.g., following quarantine laws or downplaying the severity of a virus).
• Information Exchange: Communication facilitates decision-making by transmitting data needed to identify and evaluate choices.

Key Communication Concepts

• Say what you mean, and then repeat.
• Listening to the air: a Japanese concept (KY = kuuki yomenai) referring to someone who cannot read the air.
• Silence, 'no no,' and 'mianzi' (face) concepts are also important in understanding communication.

Elements of the Communication Process

• Sender: Initiates the process by sending a thought (encoding it).
• Message: The actual content conveyed through speaking, writing, or non-verbal signs via formal and informal channels.
• Receiver: The person or people to whom the message is directed, who translate (decode) the symbols into an understandable form.
• Noise: Communication barriers that distort the clarity of the message, including perceptual problems, information overload, semantic difficulties, and cultural differences.
• Feedback Loop: Checks the success of transferring messages as intended and determines whether understanding has been achieved.

Directions of Communication

• Downward Communication: Communication that flows from a higher level to a lower level in a group or organization.
  • Managers use it to assign goals, provide job instructions, and offer feedback.
  • Managers must explain the reasons behind decisions to increase employee commitment and support.
  • Downward communication is often one-way, with managers rarely soliciting employee advice. Many employees report that their bosses rarely or never ask for their input.
  • Delivery mode matters: Automated performance reviews can be efficient but miss opportunities for growth, motivation, and relationship building.
• Upward Communication: Communication that flows to a higher level in the group or organization.
  • Used to provide feedback to higher-ups, inform them of progress towards goals, and relay current problems.
  • Keeps managers aware of how employees feel about their work (honest, authentic feedback).
  • Managers can be overwhelmed with information, so summaries and actionable items are important. Preparing agendas helps.
  • What you say and how you say it matters.
• Lateral Communication: Communication among members of the same work group, members of work groups at the same level, or any other horizontally equivalent workers.
  • Saves time and facilitates coordination, formally sanctioned or informally created.
  • Can be good or bad from management's perspective.
  • Dysfunctional conflict occurs when formal vertical channels are breached.

Organizational Communication: Grapevine

• Grapevine: An organization’s informal communication network (e.g., rumors and gossip).
• Serves employees’ needs: small talk-inclusiveness, sense of friendship.
• Gives managers a feel for organizational morale, identifies issues, taps into employee anxieties, and helps identify influencers.
• Rumors emerge in response to important, ambiguous, and anxiety-inducing situations. They persist until the uncertainty is resolved or the anxiety is reduced.
• Some forms of gossip provide prosocial motivation for employees to help each other achieve organizational goals.

Reducing Negative Consequences of Rumors

• Share: Provide information you have and you don’t have. Good formal communication reduces the need for rumors.
• Explain: Explain actions and decisions, including why decisions were made and future plans.
• Respond: Respond to rumors noncommittally and verify the truth for yourself, gathering all sides of the story.
• Invite: Employees to discuss their concerns, ideas, suggestions, thoughts, and feelings about organizational matters.

Choice of Communication Channels

• Channels differ in their capacity to convey messages.
• Rich channels can handle multiple cues simultaneously, facilitate rapid feedback, and be very personal.
• Face-to-face conversation is the highest in richness.
• Rich channels give us the chance to observe.
• The unconscious aspects of communication help us understand the full meaning of a message.

Information Richness of Communication Channels:

• Low Channel Richness: Formal reports, bulletins, prerecorded speeches.
• Medium Channel Richness: Memos, letters, electronic mail, voice mail, telephone conversations, online discussion groups, groupware.
• High Channel Richness: Face-to-face conversations, videoconferences, live speeches.

Persuasive Communication

• Two ways we process information:

  • Automatic Processing: Superficial consideration of evidence using heuristics; takes little time and effort; used for topics we don't care about much (e.g., buying soda).
  • Controlled Processing: Detailed consideration of evidence relying on facts, figures, and logic (e.g., buying a house).

• Factors determining processing type:

  • Interest Level: Impact of a decision on one's personal life.
  • Prior Knowledge: Informed people use controlled processing.
  • Personality: Need for cognition leads to persuasion by evidence and facts.
  • Message Characteristics and Channels: Lean channels encourage automatic processing.

Barriers to Effective Communication

• Filtering: A sender’s manipulation of information to be seen favorably by the receiver.
• Selective Perception: Receivers selectively see and hear based on their needs, motivations, experience, background, and other personal characteristics.
• Information Overload: Information inflow exceeds an individual’s processing capacity.
• Emotions: Interpretations vary with emotional state.
• Language: Words mean different things to different people.
• Silence: Can be interpreted differently based on status, culture, etc. (noninterest or inability).
• Communication Apprehension: Anxiety about oral or written communication.
• Lying: Misrepresentation of information.

Barrier Descriptions

• Filtering: The deliberate manipulation of information to make it appear more favorable to the receiver.
• Selective Perception: Receiving communications on the basis of what one selectively sees and hears depending on his or her needs, motivation, experience, background, and other personal characteristics.
• Information Overload: When the amount of information one has to work with exceeds one's processing capacity.
• Emotions: How the receiver feels when a message is received.
• Language: Words have different meanings to different people. Receivers will use their definition of words being communicated.
• Gender: How males and females react to communication may be different, and they each have a different communication style.
• National Culture: Communication differences arising from the different languages that individuals use to communicate and the national culture of which they are a part.

Verbal Communication: Language Variations

• Accents: Variations in pronunciation (e.g., ‘Queens English’).
• Dialects: Differences in vocabulary, grammar, and punctuation (e.g., Cantonese, Mandarin, Sicilian).
• Argot: Private vocabulary unique to a co-culture, group, organization, or profession (e.g., prisoners, doctors).
• Slang: Non-standard terms.
• Taboos: Sensitive topics (e.g., weather in England vs. occupation and salary in America).

Global Implications for Communication

• Cultural barriers (textbook focus on language)
  • Barriers caused by semantics: Words mean different things to different people, particularly from different national cultures.
  • Barriers caused by word connotations: Words imply different things in different languages (e.g., Japanese ‘hai’).
  • Barriers caused by tone differences: Tonal languages, tone changes based on context (formal and informal).
  • Differences in tolerance for conflict and methods of resolving conflicts: Individualist cultures tend to be more comfortable with direct conflicts.

High- and Low-Context Cultures

High-Context Cultures:

• Relies on implicit communication.
• Emphasizes non-verbal communication.
• Subordinates tasks to relationships.
• Emphasizes collective initiative and decision-making.
• Views employee/employer relationships as humanistic.
• Relies on intuition and trust.
• Uses indirect style in writing and speaking.
• Prefers circular or indirect reasoning.
• Adheres to the spirit of law.

Low-Context Cultures:

• Relies on explicit communication.
• Emphasizes verbal communication.
• Separates tasks from relationships.
• Emphasizes individual initiative and decision-making.
• Views employer/employee relationship as mechanic.
• Relies on facts and statistics.
• Uses direct style in writing and speaking.
• Prefers linear reasoning.
• Adheres to the letter of law.

High Context-Low Context Continuum Examples

• Higher Context: Asian, Arab, African, Southern European, South American.
• Lower Context: Other Northern European, American, Australian, German, Scandinavian, Swiss.

Cultural Differences in Persuading

Concept-First:

• Individuals have been trained to first develop the theory or complex concept before presenting a fact, statement, or opinion.

Application-First:

• Individuals are trained to begin with a fact, statement, or opinion and later add concepts to back up or explain the conclusion as necessary.
  • Australians, UK, Canada, US

Cultural Differences in Disagreeing

Confrontational:

• Disagreement and debate is positive for the team or organization.
• Open confrontation is appropriate and will not negatively impact the relationship.
• Examples: Israel, Germany, Denmark, Australia, US, France.

Avoids Confrontation:

• Disagreement and debate is negative for the team or organization.
• Open confrontation is inappropriate and will break group harmony or negatively impact the relationship.
• Examples: Sweden, India, China, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Kenya, Ghana, Japan.

Implications for Managers

• Your communication mode, channel, and style will partly determine your communication effectiveness!
• Obtain feedback to make certain your messages are understood!
• Written communication creates more misunderstanding than oral communication!
• Communicate with employees with in-person meetings if possible!
• Use communication strategies appropriate to your audience and the type of message you are sending!
• Keep in mind the communication barriers!

Overcoming Barriers to Effective Communication

• Use Feedback: Check the accuracy of what has been communicated--or what you think you heard.
• Simplify Language: Use words that the intended audience understands.
• Listen Actively: Listen for the full meaning of the message without making premature judgment or interpretation—or thinking about what you are going to say in response.
• Constrain Emotions: Recognize when your emotions are running high. When they are, don't communicate until you have calmed down.
• Watch Nonverbal Cues: Be aware that your actions speak louder than your words. Keep the two consistent.

Letting Employees Know Their Input Matters

• Hold town-hall meetings where information is shared and input solicited.
• Provide information about what's going on, good and bad.
• Invest in training so that employees see how they impact the customer experience.
• Analyze problems together-managers and employees.
• Make it easy for employees to give input by setting up different ways for them to do so (online, suggestion box, preprinted cards, and so forth).

Reducing Cultural Barriers

• Know yourself!
• Foster a climate of mutual respect, fairness, and democracy!
• State facts, not your interpretations!
• Consider the other person’s viewpoint!