Chapter 11 Communication Flashcards
Communication, Media richness theory, Social presence, etc
What is communication?
The transfer of meaning or information from one person, or
several, to others
Functions: Control, Motivation, Emotional expression, Information
What are the Channels of Communication?
Oral - Spoken words, conversations, meetings, phone calls
Bodily - Gestures, facial expression, body language
Written - takes place through words on paper
Symbolic - Signs and symbols (E.g. road signs)
What are the Formal & Informal channels of communication?
Formal - Official communication within the workplace using formalised channels (E.G. memos, reports, commands
Informal - unauthorised communication that takes place within the workplace, where information about the workplace is shared (water cooler convo)
What is Synchronicity & Feedback?
Synchronicity - amount of delay between sending a message and that message being received
Feedback - The process of receiving a response to communication is feedback
What is the focus of communication?
One to one - Personal communication between two individuals (conversation
One to many - One person communicates to many (Speech)
Many to Many - Many people communicate with each other (Conference)
Many to one - Group of people communicate to just one person (Project)
What is the communication process?
Begins with source: has a meaning they want to communicate to other people
Source encodes information (Message/verbal etc)
Message is sent through either formal or informal means of communication
Recipient receives message and decodes message, perceiving message and creating their own meaning from it to provide feedback (Synchronous or asynchronous)
What is the Media richness theory (Daft, Lengel 1986)
suggests effectiveness of communication within an organisation depends on the “richness” of said communication.
Richness - amount of context provided within communication, that a message can be understood without Equivocality (Open to interpretation) and Uncertainty (Absence of info
Rich media - More personal communicative traits with higher social presence, immediate feedback
Leaner - less communicative traits, less personal, no immediate feedback, basic facts (emails, numerical documents)
Richer to Lean media
Face to face
Video conferencing
WhatsApp Messaging
Written, impersonal documents
Numerical Documents
What is the Social presence theory?
Questions the validity of certain communication methods such as videoconferencing as a substitute for face to face communication
- Acknowledges that videoconferencing doesn’t really provide the perception of communicating with a real person, a lack of physical presence
- Highest form is face to face: Includes non verbal comm gestures, facial expressions which can be studied by a person,
Mehrabian: 7% of the persons intended message is communicated when using other methods other than face to face, as its just words
E.G email doesn’t have an absent sender, so high context deriving from perception stimuli provided by physical presence is missing
- Attempts to add personal elements to digital communication (Emojis, microsoft teams, smiley face)
What is Noise and Miscommunication?
Noise - anything that intervenes in the communication process and alters the original intended meaning of a message
Miscommunication - When an intended message is disrupted and communicated improperly
physical noise - (Background, Poor connection)
psychological noise - (Attention, perception: People attaching different degrees of importance to a message)
socio cultural noise - (Mistranslations due to language barrier, different cultures interpreting messages differently, influence from stereotypes)
What are Information and Communication Technologies?
Electronic tech facilitating communication between people and sharing info (E.g Microphone, printer, email)
What is Social presence?
Social presence - Perceived immediacy of a person in communication
Do Post Bureaucratic organisations emphasize dialogue between people OR rely on formal organizational structure, roles process & procedures?
Is the Organization a conversation OR is Communication mapped by structure and a discrete feature?
