McGraw-Hill/Irwin© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 Communicating in Teams and Organizations

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11-2 Courtesy of Sun Microsystems Blogging as Org Communication Sun Microsystems president Jonathan Schwartz says that blogs have a lot to offer as a communication medium in organizations

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11-3 Definition of Communication The process by which information is transmitted and understood between two or more people Transmitting the sender’s intended meaning (not just symbols) is the essence of good communication Courtesy of Sun Microsystems

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11-4 Four Functions of Communication  Coordinating work activities  Fulfilling the drive to bond  Knowledge management  Decision making Courtesy of Sun Microsystems

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11-5 Receiver Decodemessage Encodefeedback Formfeedback Sender Formmessage Encodemessage Decodefeedback Transmit Message Transmit Feedback Noise Communication Process Model Receiveencodedmessage Receivefeedback

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11-6 Admiral Warns Staff of Faults Executives at Admiral Insurance are concerned that is making staff at the Welsh company less polite. Along with reminding employees of ’s limitations, Admiral holds 'no days’, encouraging employees to increase face-to-face communication. Courtesy of Admiral Insurance

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11-7 Benefits of 1.Preferred medium for coordinating work 2.Tends to increase communication volume 3.Significantly alters communication flow –Less face-to-face/telephone –More upward communication 4.Reduces some selective attention biases Courtesy of Admiral Insurance

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11-8 Problems with 1.Communicates emotions poorly 2.Impersonal medium –reduces politeness and respect (flaming) 3.Inefficient for ambiguous, complex, novel situations 4.Increases information overload Courtesy of Admiral Insurance

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide 11-9 Other Electronic Communication Instant messaging –More efficient than –Allows simultaneous communication events –Real-time communities through clustered communication Blogging (web logs) –Seem more personal than large meetings –Empower employees to share information –Ability to archive information

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Nonverbal Communication  Actions, facial gestures, voice intonation, silence, etc.  Transmits most info in face-to-face meetings  Influences meaning of verbal and written symbols  Less rule bound than verbal communication  Important part of emotional labor  Automatic and unconscious

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Emotional Contagion The automatic process of sharing another person’s emotions by mimicking their facial expressions and other nonverbal behavior Emotional contagion serves three purposes: 1.Provides continuous feedback to speaker 2.Increases emotional understanding of the other person’s experience 3.Communicates a collective sentiment -- sharing the experience

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Oversimplified Zone Overloaded Zone Nonroutine/ Ambiguous Rich Media Richness Situation Hierarchy of Media Richness Lean Routine/clear

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Experience Affects Media Richness For electronic media, the communicator’s experience with the medium and receiver increases media richness: Experience with the medium –Enables user to “push” amount of message through that medium Experience with the receiver –Both parties have similar “codebooks” when familiar with each other

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Communication Barriers Perceptions Filtering Language –Jargon –Ambiguity Information Overload

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Information Overload Episodes of information overload Employee’s information processing capacity Time Information Load

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Managing Information Overload Solution 1: Increase information processing capacity –Learn to read faster –Scan through documents more efficiently –Remove distractions –Time management –Temporarily work longer hours Solution 2: Reduce information load –Buffering –Omitting –Summarizing

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Thumbs Up to the Boss! In Australia, a co-worker asked Patricia Oliveira why she laughed when he gave the thumbs up that everything is OK. She explained that this gesture “means something not very nice” in her home country of Brazil. After hearing this, several co- workers gave the boss a lot more thumbs up signs! ©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Cross-Cultural Communication Verbal differences –Language Nonverbal differences –Voice intonation –Interpreting nonverbal meaning –Importance of verbal versus nonverbal –Silence and conversational overlaps ©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide MenWomen Gives advice quickly and directly Gives advice indirectly and reluctantly Report talk Rapport talk Conversations are negotiations of status Conversations are bonding events Less sensitive to nonverbal cues More sensitive to nonverbal cues Gender Communication Differences

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Getting Your Message Across Empathize Repeat the message Use timing effectively Be descriptive © Photodisc. With permission.

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide ActiveListening Sensing Postpone evaluation Postpone evaluation Avoid interruptions Avoid interruptions Maintain interest Maintain interest Evaluation Empathize Empathize Organize information Organize informationResponding Show interest Show interest Clarify the message Clarify the message Active Listening Process & Strategies

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Communicating in Hierarchies 1.Work space design 2.E-zines, blogs, wikis 3.Employee surveys 4.Direct communication with management

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Organizational Grapevine Early research findings –Transmits information rapidly in all directions –Follows a cluster chain pattern –More active in homogeneous groups –Transmits some degree of truth Changes due to internet – becoming the main grapevine medium –Social networks are now global –Public blogs and forums extends gossip to everyone

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide Grapevine Benefits/Limitations Benefits –Fills in missing information from formal sources –Strengthens corporate culture –Relieves anxiety –Signals that problems exist Limitations –Distortions might escalate anxiety –Perceived lack of concern for employees when company info is slower than grapevine

McGraw-Hill/Irwin© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 Communicating in Teams and Organizations

McGraw-Hill/Irwin© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 11 Chapter Eleven Extras

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Slide :-) :-} <:-) :-X :-j {} Guessing Emoticons Happy Smirk Dumb question OOPS! Tongue in cheek Hug