Lecture 8: Chapter 9: Communicating in Teams and Organizations Flashcards
What is communication?
The process by which information is transmitted and understood between people
What are the 5 functions of communication?
- Coordination
- Source of knowledge
- Decision making
- Changing behavior
- Supporting employee well-being
What is the communication process model?
It describes the flow of communication through one or more chnanels (media) between sender and receiver
Communication can be hampered by the presence of noise, which can distort or obscure the real message (see summary p. 18)
What are the 4 factors for effective communication?
- Sender/receiver have similar codebooks
- Sender has experience with encoding message
- Sender/receiver are motivated and able to use the selected channel
- Sender/receiver have shared mental models of communication context
What are the 2 main communication channels?
- Verbal (spoken/written)
- Nonverbal (no words)
Give 3 reasons why digital written communication (DWC) rapidly evolves?
- Changing generational preferences
- Emerging workplace communication platforms
- Covid-19
What is the most frequently channel of communication and what are the fastest growing channels?
Frequent: e-mail
Growing: online chatting (GenZ)
What are 7 benefits of digital written communication?
- Can happen very quickly
- Spread to many people
- Increases upward communication, better decision making
- Can reduce status differences between boss/employee
- Can reduce stereotyping due to less recognizable characteristics
- Better coordination between employees
- Efficient filing
What are 4 problems with DWC (digital written communication)?
- Poor communication of emotions
- Less politeness/respectfulness
- Inefficient for ambiguous, novel, complex situations
- Increases info overload
What is social media and how does it fit in the workplace?
Communication channel defined as a platform which helps individuals work together to generate content
Each type of social media has a unique combi of functions and many of these enable feedback, which can lead to employees expressing concerns more freely. It improves commitment by involving many people in a social media page
What is digital nonverbal communication? Name 2 benefits for digital communication
Digital messages with emoticons, emojis, GIFS etc.
They improve digital communication by transmitting an emotional meaning and clarifying the meaning of the written text.
Give examples of nonverbal communication and what does it influence?
Facial expressions, intonation, silence etc.
This channel is necessary in situations where communication barriers prevent verbal exchange
Influences meaning of verbal symbols
What is some evidence on the impact of emojis on communication?
Emoji faces generate similar emotional responses as in-person faces.
What is emotional contagion and what 3 influences does it have on social and work life?
Nonconscious process of sharing another person’s emotions by mimicking their nonverbal behavior
- Mimicry provides constant feedback to speaker which leads to better understanding
- Mimicry helps the individual to receive emotional meaning from the sender
- Fulfils our drive to bond
What are the 2 main differences between verbal and nonverbal communication?
Nonverbal is:
- Less rule bound
- Mostly automatic and nonconscious
Which 4 factors are important when choosing which communication channel is most appropriate for that situation?
- Synchronicity
- Social presence
- Social acceptance
- Media richness
What is synchronicity and on what 4 things does it depend?
The extent to which people engage in communication at the same time (same = synchonous, different = asynchronous)
- Time urgency (immediacy)
- Complexity of the topic
- Cost of synchronous communication
- Whether receiver should have time to reflect
What is social presence and on what 2 things does it depend?
Extent to which the channel creates psychological closeness to others, awareness of their humanness and appreciation of the interpersonal relationship
- Need to empathize with others
- Need to influence others
What is social acceptance and on which 3 things does it depend?
Extent to which others support the use of that communication channel for that purpose
- Organizational norms for using the channel
- Individual preferences communication partners
- Symbolic meaning of the channel
What is media richness? What are 4 features of high media richness?
The channel’s data-carrying capacity, so the volume and variety of information that can be transmitted during a specific time
High richness:
- Conveys multiple cues
- Timely feedback
- Customized messages
- Permits complex symbols
What are the overloaded and oversimplified zones in the media richness hierarchy model?
Overloaded = channel provides too much data (low channel richness, ambiguous environment)
Oversimplified = channel provides too little data (high channel richness, routine/clear environment)
See summary p.20
Why doesn’t the media richness theory apply well to digital channels? (3)
- Ability to multi-communicate through lean channels: engage in 2 types of communication
- More varied proficiency levels: the more proficient, the better the info flow
- Lean channels have less social distraction than media rich channels
Give an example of a lean and rich communication channel
Lean: text message, news letters
Rich: face to face
What is persuasion?
The use of facts and logical arguments to change the other party’s opinions, beliefs or decisions, usually in order to have an influence on their behavior
What are 5 barriers to communication?
- Imperfect perceptual process: overestimation how well a message is received by the other
- Language problems: obscure/ ambiguous
- Jargon: different code books
- Filtering: deleting negative info to make it sound more favorable
- Information overload: people aren’t able to process comms accordingly to their information processing capacity
How can you prevent filtering?
By culture of candor = this culture develops when leaders themselves communicate truthfully, seek out diverse sources of info and protect those who speak openly and truthfully
What is the consequence of information overload and what are the 2 solutions?
Result: information gets overlooked or is misinterpreted
Solutions:
- Increase processing capacity: read faster, time management, remove distractions
- Reduce information load: buffering, summarizing, hire an assistant
What are 4 difficulties in cross-cultural communication?
- language
- intonation
- meaning of silence and overlaps
- nonverbal differences
What are 5 important gender communication differences?
- Men: report talk
Women: rapport talk - Men: give direct advice
Women: give indirect advice - Men: dominant/power style
Women: deferential style - Men: apologize less
Women: apologize more - Men: less sensitive nonverbal cues
Women: more sensitive nonverbal cues
What are 4 important things in getting your message across?
- Empathize
- Repeat the message
- Use timing effectively
- Be descriptive (focus on problem)
What are the 3 components of active listening?
- Sensing: pay attention and don’t interrupt, postpone evaluation
- Evaluating: empathize, understand & organize info
- Responding: show interest, give feedback, clarify message
What is the importance of workspace design and how can you improve it (give example)?
It allows people to be in contact with each other. Changing the workplace design can support and improve communication processes
E.g. open-space improves face-to-face communication (but also more noise, distraction and less privacy)
What is the benefit of internet-based organizational communication?
Allows fast, efficient and media-rich communication (wikis, webspaces)
What is management by wandering around (MBWA)? What is the benefit of this?
Communication practice in which executives get out of their offices and learn from others in the organization through face-to-face dialogue and have casual conversations
It can minimize filtering between levels in the hierarchy and employees have more empathy for decisions
What is grapevine?
An unstructured and informal communication network founded on social relationships rather than organizational charts or job descriptions
A lot of employees use grapevine, but very few prefer this source of information
What are benefits (3) and limitations (3) of grapevine?
+: more info, interactions, social bonding
-: can escalate employee enxiety, more hostility toward organization if management is slower than grapevine, misinformation
