LEC 5 - Organizational Communication Flashcards
Types of Organizational Communication
- UPWARD Communication
- DOWNWARD Communication
- BUSINESS Communication
- INFORMAL Communication
UPWARD Communication
- Serial Communication (Pass the message)
- Subordinates up to Superiors
- CONS: Content and tone of the message change, minimize unpleasant messages effect (MUM Effect), less effective the farther away
- Attitude Surveys (determines employee attitudes)
- Focus Groups + Exit Interviews
- Suggestion/ Complaint Boxes
- Third Party Facilitators (Liaison: Intermediary between parties; Ombudsperson: Investigates/solves the employee’s issues)
DOWNWARD Communication
- Superior to subordinate
- Bulletin Boards
- Policy Manuals + Employee Handbook
- Newsletters
- Intranets (Company SocMed; Ex. Canvas but for employees)
BUSINESS Communication
- Memos
- Telephone Calls
- Email/Voice mail
- Business Meeting (Online/F2F)
- Office design (Open/Landscaped)
Office Design
- Open/Landscape are cubicles
- 3 Types: (1) Freestanding design (Bullpen design), (2) Uniform Plans (Cubicles), (3) Free-form workstations
- CONS: While cheap, other studies have shown for it to actually lessen job productivity/satisfaction
INFORMAL Communication
- Grapevine (AKA: Single-strand grapevine, gossip grapevine, probability grape vine, cluster grapevine)
- Gossip (Insignificant to the employees)
- Rumor (Significant info but not enough data)
GRAPEVINE Patterns
- SINGLE-STRAND (Linear)
- GOSSIP (One source; multiple receivers)
- PROBABILITY (One source, receivers spread it to others)
- CLUSTER (Pass the message but spread out; Other receivers may receive all the data but don’t spread it out (Dead-enders + Isolates *don’t receive all the data))
INTERPERSONAL Communication
- Sender to Receiver
- 3 Problem areas: (1) INTENDED VS SENT, (2) SENT VS RECEIVED, (3) RECEIVED VS INTERPRETED
Problem Area 1: INTENDED message VS message SENT
Practice/Think about what to communicate
Problem Area 2: message SENT VS message RECEIVED
- How message is interpreted
- Word choice, communication channel, noise (mood or actual noise), nonverbal cues (body language), paralanguage (verbal subtext), artifacts (Clothes/accessories), amount of info
Communication Channels
- Oral (Outright nonverbal signals are known as EMBLEMS)
- Nonverbal
- Written
Use of Space
- 4 Major Spatial Distance Zones (Hall, 1963)
- INTIMACY Zone (0-18 inches)
- PERSONAL DISTANCE Zone (18 inches-4 feet)
- SOCIAL DISTANCE Zone (4-12 feet)
- PUBLIC DISTANCE Zone (12-25 feet)
Use of Time
- Early is on time, on time is late
- Implications of leaving early or arriving late
- Setting aside time for a meeting
- Multi-tasking (ex. working while talking)
Amount of Information
- LEVEL (unimportant info is omitted)
- SHARPEN (interesting/unusual data is kept)
- ASSIMILATE (info is modified to fit existing beliefs/knowledge)
Reaction to INFORMATION OVERLOAD
- OMISSION (consciously does not process certain info)
- ERROR (info was not recalled/understood properly; too much to process)
- QUEUING (one at a time)
- ESCAPE (absenteeism/resignation)
- USE OF A GATEKEEPER (secretary/receptionist)
- MULTIPLE CHANNELS (equally distributing information)
Problem Area 3: message RECEIVED VS message INTERPRETED
- How receiver interprets the message
- Factors affecting interpretation: (1) Listening Skills, (2), Listening Style, (3) Emotional State (may be too preoccupied to pay attention), (4) Cognitive Ability (Intelligence based), (5) Bias (feelings towards senders; hatred or appreciation?)
LISTENING STYLES (Geier & Downey, 1980)
L - EISURE (interesting)
I - NCLUSIVE (main idea)
S - TYLISTIC (speaking style)
T - ECHNICAL (facts/details)
E - MPATHIC (emotions)
N - ONCONFORMING (confirmation bias)
Written Communication Skills
- Improving Writer’s skill
- Making content easier to process
Readability Scales
- Fry Readability Graph (1977; ave. no. syllables per word + ave. length of sentences)
- Flesch Index (1948; ave. sentence length + no. syllables per 100 words)
- FOG Index (Gunning, 1964; no. words per sentence + no. of three-syllable words per 100)
- Dale-Chall Index (1948; no. of words not included in a list of words known by 80% of 4th graders)