Chapter 6: Overcoming Obstacles to Communication in Organizations

Communicator Anxiety Examples of Communicator Anxiety Expressing Ideas to Colleague Giving instructions to your employees Participating in a group discussion Interviewing or being interviewed Giving an oral presentation

Types of Communication Anxiety Situational Anxiety Firing an employee Presenting a controversial idea Selling a product to a new client Approaching a banker for a loan Meeting new boss Trait Anxiety Personal Internal feeling Experienced regardless of the situation

Managing Situational Anxiety Prepare and Practice Warm Up Vocal exercises Stretching Use Deep Breathing Use an introduction that will relax you Concentrate on Communicating Your Meaning Use Visual Aids

Trait Anxiety Communication Apprehension Many people with trait anxiety feel that they 1) are different from other speakers 2) have a history of negative speaking experiences 3) consider themselves inferior to others. May be an inborn trait Communibiology Positive imagery and visualization, is a successful technique in managing trait anxiety. Law of Attraction Positive imagery exercise on page 155

Obstacles to Communication Inadequate preparation Vague Instructions 8 rules for giving instructions (page 157) Jumping to conclusions Inference-observation confusion, occurs when we fail to distinguish between what we observed firsthand and what we inferred Examples page 163 Bypassing we assume that a word has the same meaning for other people that it does for us See terms on page 165 Sexual Harassment Loss of human dignity and decreased productivity in the workplace Definition on page 166

Communication Technology Obstacles Figure 6.4 on page 169 E-mail, Instant Messages, Blogs Increases access and faster retrieval of information Electronic Meetings Telecommuters complete tasks offsite Videoconferencing Used by multiple location companies to communicate with employees