CH11 - Techniques For Managing Organisational Relationships Flashcards
What is importance of effective communication for chartered management accountants?
CMA’s integral part of any business, roles are varied and can include
Formulation of policy and setting Corporate objectives
Acquisition and use of finance
Generation,communication and interpretation financial and operating information.
Derivation of performance measures
Improvement of business systems
They Work in multi skilled teams to undertake this role. Dealing with different levels of employees, external parties.
Influencing, persuasion and negotiation skills particularly important.
Communication- speed and accuracy to maintain competitive edge.people with good communication skills tend to make better decisions. What are the main types of communication?
Formal communication- planned and intentional, professional tone, used in work setting.
Informal -casual, unplanned, less strict more relaxed tone. General used between family and friends
Define the process of communication
Process used to transmit message from a sender to a receiver in words, numbers, gestures or body language. The stages the message goes through are -
1-Sender -the entity that conveys or sends message
2-Encoding-process through which message is symbolised
3- Channel-medium through which message is sent(face to face, telephone etc)
4-Receiver -entity which receives the message
5-Decoding-process in which message is translated and meaning taken out of it.
6- feedback -process through which receiver sends their response
Why is feedback important step in the process of communication?
To let sender know that message has been received and understood as intended.
To allow sender to clarify message where it appears that receiver is confused.
Assuming that a message has been received and understood can be a dangerous assumption to make.
Noise is also part of communication process. It’s can be defined as anything which interferes with the communication process and stops the message being received and understood by the receiver as it was intended.
What are the types of noise?
Environmental/physical noise - phones ringing, chatting loudly, difficult to read fonts
Physiological noise - actual physical barriers to message getting through.
Hearing loss, poor eyesight, sender speech impairment
Semantic noise - send and receiver have a different understanding of words. Dialects, languages etc
Psychological noise - attitude of sender and receiver can make communication difficult. Eg anger or sadness
What are barriers to communication and how do you overcome?
Sender: Not being clear Omitting information Inappropriate medium Using technical jargon Too much info Sending mixed messages
Receiver:
Not wishing to receive message
Info overload
Filtering out elements they want to avoid
Ways to overcome: The sender should: Have a definite clear objective Plan the communication Think about receiver,anticipating reactions to message Seek feedback
Receiver should: Consider their contribution Listen attentively Check anything that’s vague Give feedback
Key points of Non verbal communication ?
7% of message is the actual words, rest is how they’re said and other non verbal elements
Body language Appearance Eye contact Facial expression Posture tone
These non verbal actions can vary from country to country eg eye contact is good in western countries not in japan.
How can you ensure meetings are effective?
Rule of thumb - 80% prep 20 % execution Adopt these steps 1 - determine the purpose of the meeting 2 - establish who needs to attend 3 - determine agenda 4 - make suitable arrangements for location and time 5 - facilitate discussion 6 - manage plan of action 7 - summarise 8 publish results, minutes
Roles: Chairperson set agenda, ensure meeting follows it Secretary or admin to take minutes Other members will be Protagonists - positive supporters Antagonists - challenging, disruptive
What are the problems of meetings, how can they resolved?
Inappropriate chair -
Selection should be based on someone with correct skills
Meeting objectives unclear-
Ensure Agenda circulated prior to meeting, chairperson should ensure meeting sticks to agenda.
Lack of enthusiasm for meeting-
Ensure only those with an interest in the meeting or whose input is required attend. Short breaks if necessary to reach conclusion
Attendees talk too much-
Chairperson must impose order
Attendees can’t reach agreement concerning issues on agenda-
Chairman needs negotiation skills to bring some kind of agreement. If not possible could agree to go away and obtain more info so agreement can be made at next meeting.
Action points from previous meeting not carried out-
Chairman should obtain reasons. Future action points should be assigned to people. Check minutes to ensure all action points included
Minutes too long or too brief-
Ensure minutes are not overloaded with info or they include the flavour of discussions but not the small details.
Briefly in one sentence define 1-influence, 2-persuasion,3-negotiation
1-influence. The ability to change others attitudes, opinions or behaviour.
2- persuasion. The attempt to deliberately get others to change attitudes, opinions or behaviour.
- Negotiation - the ability to discuss an issue with one or more other people in an attempt to establish ways to reach an agreement.
What is influence and what are Caldini’s six principles of influence?
Can be direct or indirect. Direct - person trying to change the attitude of another speaks directly to other person. Indirect - means get reaches target by a third party eg messages via public relations firm or analysts. Influence is used in all sorts of situations, not just limited to sales.
Caldini’s six principles
- Reciprocity - human nature can lead us to feel obliged to return favours.
- Commitment- humans desire consistency and don’t like to be seen changing our minds. We may be influenced to follow through with our support for something if we had shown initial interest in it.
- Social proof- humans tend to be influenced by peer pressure
- Liking - we are more likely to be influenced by people we like, are friendly to us or are similar to us.
- Authority- comes from a sense of trust and respect for higher positions.
- Scarcity- more likely to want something if availability is limited.
It is worth thinking about how you can use these principles to influence someone and recognise when someone is trying to influence you.
Describe persuasion.
Persuasion is a stronger form of influence. While influence can be direct or indirect, intentional or not, persuasion is always DIRECT and INTENTIONAL.
Aim of influence could be to inspire, while the aim of persuasion to change a person or groups attitude or behaviour towards something or someone.
The person using has a clear objective and is set on achieving it by getting others to support.
Persuasion falls short of telling or ordering someone to do something, but may use coercion as it attempts to get the other party to agree, albeit perhaps under duress.
6 principles of influence can be used here in a stronger form
What is aim of negotiation and name 3 defining characteristics
Aim - to settle differences between people/groups to allow them to come to a mutually acceptable agreement.
Defining characteristics
- conflict of interest between two or more parties
- no established rules for resolving conflict or parties prefer to work outside set rules to develop their own solution
- Parties prefer to search for an agreement rather than fight openly, to have one side break off contact or go to a higher authority.
What are the three main skills required by a negotiator?
Interpersonal skills- good communication techniques such as influence and persuasion.
Analytical skills - ability to analyse information, diagnose problems, plan and set objectives and good judgement interpretations results.
Technical skills - attention to detail and thorough case preparation
What are the four stages of negotiation?
Preparation - info gathering. Important to know background and likely constraints of participants
Opening - both side present starting positions. Good point at which to influence
Bargaining- purpose is to narrow the gap between 2 initial positions.persuade other party of strength of case. Use planned logical debate.
Closing - agreement is reached,hopefully mutually beneficial.
