11
Communicating in
Teams and Organizations
McGraw-Hill/Irwin
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Blogging as Org Communication
Sun Microsystems
president Jonathan
Schwartz says that blogs
have a lot to offer as a
communication medium in
organizations
Courtesy of Sun Microsystems
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-2
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Slide 11-3
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Four Functions of Communication
Coordinating work
activities
Fulfilling the drive
to bond
Knowledge
management
Decision making
Courtesy of Sun Microsystems
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-4
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Communication Process Model
Sender
Form
message
Transmit
Message
Encode
message
Receiver
Receive
encoded
message
Decode
message
Encode
feedback
Form
feedback
Noise
Decode
feedback
Receive
feedback
Transmit
Feedback
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-5
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Admiral Warns Staff of E-mail Faults
Courtesy of Admiral Insurance
Executives at Admiral Insurance are concerned that e-mail is
making staff at the Welsh company less polite. Along with
reminding employees of e-mail’s limitations, Admiral holds 'no
email days’, encouraging employees to increase face-to-face
communication.
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-6
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Benefits of Email
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
Slide 11-7
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Problems with Email
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
Slide 11-8
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Other Electronic Communication
• Instant messaging
– More efficient than email
– 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
Slide 11-9
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Slide 11-10
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Slide 11-11
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Hierarchy of Media Richness
Rich
Overloaded
Zone
Media
Richness
Oversimplified
Zone
Lean
Routine/clear
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Situation
Slide 11-12
Nonroutine/
Ambiguous
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Slide 11-13
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Communication Barriers
• Perceptions
• Filtering
• Language
– Jargon
– Ambiguity
• Information Overload
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-14
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Information Overload
Episodes of
information
overload
Employee’s
information
processing
capacity
Information Load
Time
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-15
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Slide 11-16
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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 coworkers gave the boss a lot
more thumbs up signs!
©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-17
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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
Slide 11-18
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Gender Communication Differences
Men
Women
Report talk
Rapport talk
Gives advice
quickly and
directly
Gives advice indirectly
and reluctantly
Conversations are
negotiations of status
Conversations are
bonding events
Less sensitive to
nonverbal cues
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
More sensitive to
nonverbal cues
Slide 11-19
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Getting Your Message Across
• Empathize
• Repeat the message
• Use timing effectively
• Be descriptive
© Photodisc. With permission.
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-20
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Active Listening Process & Strategies
Sensing
• Postpone evaluation
• Avoid interruptions
• Maintain interest
Active
Listening
Responding
Evaluation
• Show interest
• Clarify the message
• Empathize
• Organize information
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-21
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Communicating in Hierarchies
1. Work space design
2. E-zines, blogs, wikis
3. Employee surveys
4. Direct communication with management
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-22
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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
– Email becoming the main grapevine medium
– Social networks are now global
– Public blogs and forums extends gossip to everyone
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-23
© 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e
Slide 11-24
© 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.