Communicating in Teams and Organisations

Question 1

What is the primary means in which employees and work units effectively synchronise their work?

Answer 1

Frequent, timely and accurate communication

Question 2

What are the functions of communication?

Answer 2

coordination, organizational learning, decision making, changing behaviour and support employee well-being.

Question 3

What does the communication process model state?

Answer 3

messages are formed and encoded and decoded and feedback is formed and encoded before being sent back and being decoded.

Question 4

According to the communication processing model what does effective communication rely on? (4)

Answer 4

According to this model, effective communication depends on the sender’s and receiver’s ability, motivation, role clarity and situational support to efficiently and accurately encode and decode information

Question 5

What are the four main factors influence the effectiveness of this encoding-decoding process?

Answer 5

There are four main factors that influence the effectiveness of this encoding-decoding process. A codebook makes effective communication easier (1), experience makes the process easier (2), the process is easier if the sender and receiver are skilled and motivated (3) and the process depends on the sender’s and receiver’s shared mental models of the communication context (4).

Question 6

What is meant by the medium?

Answer 6

The medium is the channel through which information is transmitted.

Question 7

What types of channels are there?

Answer 7

verbal and nonverbal channels

Question 8

What is the effect of utilising email in an organisation?

Answer 8

The use of e-mail in an organization reduces social and organizational status differences between sender and receiver. Written digital communication (e.g: e-mail) can potentially reduce stereotyping and prejudice because age, race and other features are unknown or less noticeable. The lack of face-to-face contact may also increase reliance on stereotypes.

Question 9

Name four problems with email and digital message channels

Answer 9

is difficult to communicate emotions using digital message channels (1), there is less politeness and respectfulness (2), it is inefficient in ambiguous, complex and novel situations (3) and it contributes to information overload

Question 10

What is meant by flaming?

Answer 10

Flaming describes digital messages that convey strong negative emotions.

Question 11

What does nonverbal communication include?

Answer 11

Nonverbal communication includes facial gestures, voice intonation, physical distance and silence.

Question 12

How do non verbal cues differ from verbal in interpretation?

Answer 12

Nonverbal cues are generally more ambiguous and susceptible to misinterpretation.

Question 13

What is meant by emotional contagion?

Answer 13

Emotional contagion is the automatic process of catching or sharing another person’s emotions by mimicking that person’s facial expressions and other nonverbal behaviours.

Question 14

Name three ways emotional contagion can influence communication and behaviour

Answer 14

Mimicry provides feedback, mimicking seems to be a way of receiving emotional feedback from people and mimicry helps us fulfil the drive to bond

Question 15

Describe the four important factors when deciding which communication channel to use

Answer 15

Synchronicity (the extent to which the channel requires or allows both sender and receiver to be actively involved in the conversation at the same time or at different times) , social presence (the extent to which a communication channel creates psychological closeness to others, awareness of their humanness and appreciation of the interpersonal relationship), social acceptance, media richness (medium’s data-carrying capacity)

Question 16

What factors decide whether synchronicity is important? (4)

Answer 16

time urgency, the complexity of the topic, cost of both parties communication at the same time and whether the receiver should have time to reflect before responding.

Question 17

What factors decide whether social presence is important?

Answer 17

The need to empathise with and influence others

Question 18

What factors decide whether social acceptance is important?

Answer 18

Organisational and team norms, each party’s preference and skill with the channel and the symbolic meaning of the channel

Question 19

What factors decide whether media richness is important?

Answer 19

Whether the situation is non routine or ambiguous

Question 20

What does the media richness theory state?

Answer 20

The media richness theory states that rich media are better than lean media when the communication situation is nonroutine and ambiguous.

Question 21

What three factors explain why digital channels may have more media richness than the media richness theory predicts?

Answer 21

Ability to multi-communicate
It is possible to multi-communicate using digital channels, which is difficult to do while communicating face-to-face with someone.
Communication proficiency
People with higher proficiency can push more information through the channel, thereby increasing the channel’s information flow.
Social presence effects
Channels with high media richness tend to have more social presence. High social presence can distort or divert attention away from the message.

Question 22

What is meant by persuasion?

Answer 22

Persuasion is the deliberate attempt to change someone’s attitude or behaviour using communication

Question 23

Why is face to face interaction more persuasive than other forms of written communication? (3)

Answer 23

spoken communication is typically accompanied by nonverbal communication (1), spoken communication offers the sender high-quality, immediate feedback about the message and because people have more motivation in face to face conversations

Question 24

What name is given to barriers of communication?

Answer 24

Noise

Question 25

Why may noise exist? (3)

Answer 25

Because people use jargon, may have a different codebook or the tendency to filter messages

Question 26

What is meant by informational overload?

Answer 26

nformation overload is a condition in which the volume of information received exceeds the person’s capacity to process it

Question 27

What can informational overload lead to?

Answer 27

Information overload can lead to poorer quality decisions as well as higher stress.

Question 28

How can one minimise informational overload problems?

Answer 28

increasing our information processing capacity (1), reducing the job’s information load (2) or through a combination of both (3).

Question 29

Name five cross cultural communication issues

Answer 29

voice intonations (1), language (2), the usage of silence in a conversation (3) and conversational overlaps (4) (e.g: being interrupted). There are also non-verbal differences across cultures.

Question 30

Name some differences in communication in genders (5)

Answer 30

Men use report language (giving advice, asserting power) women use rapport language (relationships.) Men apologise less, are less sensitive to non verbal cues, have a more dominant conversation style rather than a flexible one and give advice more directly.

Question 31

What is meant by active listening?

Answer 31

Active listening is a process of mindfully sensing the sender’s signals, evaluating them accurately and responding appropriately

Question 32

What is meant by sensing?

Answer 32

Sensing is the process of receiving signals from the sender and paying attention to them.

Question 33

What is meant by evaluating?

Answer 33

Evaluating includes understanding the message meaning, evaluating the message and remembering the message.

Question 34

What is the effect of responding?

Answer 34

Responding includes providing feedback to the sender, which motivates and directs the speaker’s communication.

Question 35

What are the three organisation-wide communication strategies?

Answer 35

Workspace design (The location and design of the workspace shape to whom we speak as well as the frequency of that communication) , internet-based organizational communication , Direct communication with top management (Effective organization includes regular interaction directly between senior executives and employees further down the hierarchy.)

Question 36

Name one challenge of workspace design

Answer 36

One challenge is to increase social interaction without raising noise and distraction levels.

Question 37

What is meant by management by walking around? (MBWA)

Answer 37

Management by walking around (MBWA) is a communication practice in which executives get out of their offices and learn from others in the organization through face-to-face dialogue.

Question 38

What is the effect of direct communication on high level people

Answer 38

Direct communication can lead to more empathy for executive decisions.

Question 39

What is meant by the corporate grapevine

Answer 39

The corporate grapevine refers to an unstructured and informal communication network founded on social relationships rather than organisational charts and job descriptions. The grapevine distorts information by deleting fine details and exaggerating key points of the story.

Question 40

What is a benefit of the grapevine

Answer 40

A benefit of the grapevine is that employees rely on it when there is no available information from formal channels.