Chapter 12: Managing Communication and Information Flashcards
Why if effective communication so important?
Because everything a manager does involves communicating.
Therefore, managers need effective communication skills.
What is communication?
A transfer of understanding and meaning from one person to another.
What is the communication process?
The process in which understanding and meaning are transferred from one person to another.
To is triggered by the communicator (or sender) releasing there is a need to communicate with someone. That need creates purpose, which is expressed as a message to be conveyed. Etc.
Summarise the communication process.
SENDER ➡️(purpose)➡️ ENCODING ➡️(message)➡️ CHANNEL ➡️(message) ➡️ DECODING ➡️(message)➡️ RECEIVER ➡️ (message transferred successfully?)➡️
FEEDBACK ➡️ SENDER
This whole process is surrounded by noise.
What is encoding?
Converting a message into symbolic form.
Four conditions affect the encoded message: . Skills . Attitudes . Knowledge and . Social cultural system
What is the message?
A purpose for communicating that’s to be conveyed.
What is a channel?
The medium by which a message travels.
What is the channel?
The medium by which a message travels.
It’s selected by the sources, who must determine whether to use s formal or informal channel.
Formal - established by the organisation and transmit message that pertain the job-related activities of members.
Informal - other forms of messages, such as personal or social.
What is media richness?
The capacity of different communication media to facilitate shared meaning.
What is decoding?
The receiver is the person to whom the message is directed. However, before the message can be received, the symbols in it must be translated into a form that can be understood by the receiver - the decoding of the messaged.
Decoding - translating a received message.
What is feedback?
The final link in the communication process I the feedback loop. This is how the source finds out what the receiver thought their message actually meant.
Feedback is the check on how successful a message has been transferred. It determines whether understanding has been achieved.
What is noise?
Any factor that interferes with or disrupts the communication process.
Eg. Calling someone and the phone signal drops out.
What are the advantages of written communication?
. They’re tangible, verifiable and more permanent than the oral variety.
. Both the sender and receiver have a record of the communication.
. The message can be stored for an indefinite period of time.
. If questions arise about the content of the message, it’s physically available for later reference.
. More care is taken with the written word than with the spoken word because putting something in writing forces a person to the more carefully about what he or she wants to convey (an exception is formal speeches).
. Thus, written communications are more likely to be well thought out, logical and clear.
What are the drawbacks of written communication?
. It may be more precise, but it consumes a great deal of time.
. More can be conveyed in an hour of non-written communication than in an hour of written communication.
. Lack of feedback - oral communications allow receivers to respond rapidly to what they think they hear, whilst written communications don’t have a built-in feedback mechanism.
. No assurance that a message will be received and no guarantee that the recipient will interpret it as the sender meant.
What is the grapevine?
An unofficial channel of communication.
It’s neither authorised nor supported by the organisation.
Good information passes through rapidly, but bad information travels even faster.
How do nonverbal cues affect communication?
Some of the most meaningful communications are neither spoken nor written. They are nonverbal communications. The best-known areas of nonverbal communication are body language and verbal intonation.
The nonverbal component of communication is likely to carry the greatest impact.
What is body language?
Nonverbal communication cues such as facial expressions, gestures and other body movements.
What is verbal intonation?
An emphasis given to words or phrases that conveys meaning.
What barriers keep communication from being effective?
A number of interpersonal and intrapersonal barriers affect why the message decoded by a receiver is often different from what the sender intended. The more prominent barriers are below: . Filtering . Selective perception . Information overload . Emotions . Language . Gender . National culture
Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Filtering.
The deliberate manipulation of information to make it appear more favourable to the receiver.
Eg. When a managers tells his boss what he feels that the boss wants to hear, he is filtering information.
More vertical levels in an organisation mean more opportunities for filtering.
Solution:
. Become less dependant on strict hierarchical arrangements and instead used more collaborative and cooperative work arrangements.
. Use of emails to communicate = more direct communication as intermediaries are bypassed.
. No emphasis on style and appearance, as this motivates managers to filter communications in their favour (change organisation culture)
Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: 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.
We can counter selective perception by being aware of its influence and actively checking how accurate our perceptions actually are.
Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Information overload.
When the amount of information one has to work with exceeds one’s processing capability.
When people experience information overload they’re likely to select out, ignore, pass over of forget information. Or they may put off further processing until the overload situation is over.
The result is lost information and less effective communication.
Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Emotions.
How the recover feels when a message is received.
Extreme emotions are most likely to hinder effective communications. A manager who’s upset over an issue is more likely to misconstrue incoming messages and fail to communicate his or her outgoing messages clearly and accurately.
In such instances, we often disregard our rational and objective thinking processes and substitute emotional judgements.
The simplest answer is to calm down and get emotions under control before communicating.
Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Language.
Words have different meanings to different people. Receivers will use their definition of words being communicated.
This is bad, especially because the grouping of employees into departments creates specialists who develop their own jargon or technical language.
Because language can be a barrier, managers should consider the audience to whom the message is directed and tailor the language to them. Remember, effective communication is achieved when a message is both received and understood.
Solution:
. Communicate in clear, easily understood terms and use language tailored to the message audience.
