Contemporary Business

18th Edition
Louis E. Boone; David L. Kurtz; Susan Berston

Chapter 9
Performance through Empowerment,
Teamwork, and Communication
Learning Objectives
1. Discuss empowering employees.
2. Distinguish the five types of teams.
3. Identify team characteristics.
4. Evaluate team cohesiveness and norms.
5. Describe team conflict.
6. Explain the importance of effective communication.
7. Compare the basic forms of communication.
8. Explain external communication and crisis
management.
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Empowering Employees
• Empowerment – giving employees authority and responsibility
to make decisions about their work.
• Managers empower employees by :
• Sharing information and decision-making authority
• Gives workers a sense of ownership
• Keeping them informed about the company’s financial
performance
• Giving them broad authority to make workplace decisions that
implement a firm’s vision and competitive strategies
• Lingking rewards to company performance
• Employee stock ownership plans
• Stock options

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Teams
• A team is a group of employees who are committed to
a common purpose, approach, and set of performance
goals.
• Members are mutually responsible and accountable for
accomplishing objectives.
• Five basic types of team : work teams, problem solving
teams, self-managed teams, cross-functional teams,
virtual teams.

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Five Types of Teams

Figure 9.1 Five Types of Teams

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Five Types of Teams
1. Work teams are groups of people with complementary skills
who are committed to a common purpose. Perform the
day-to day work. Relatively permanent.

2. Problem solving team is a temporary combination or

workers who gather to solve a specific problem and then
disband.

3. Self-managed team is a work team empowered with the

authority to decide how its members complete their daily
tasks.

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Five Types of Teams
4. Cross-functional team is a team made up or members from
different functions. Work on specific problems or projects, but
can also serve as permanent work team arrangements.

5. Virtual teams are groups of geographically or organizationally

dispersed co-workers, rarely meet in person, stay in touch
through technologies such as videoconferencing. In today’s
global marketplace, the flexibility of virtual teams is a distinct
advantage.

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Team Characteristics
• Team Size
• Can range widely, but most have fewer than 12 members.
• Ideal size is often six or seven members
• Small teams of two to four members often show desire to
get along with each other. They tend to favor informal
interactions marked by discussions of personal topics
• Large teams with more than 12 members may work slowly
on decision making and less committed. Tend to foster
disagreements, absenteism, and membership turnover

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Team Characteristics
• Team Level and Team Diversity
• Team level – average level of ability, experience,
personality, or any other factor on a team. Businesses
consider team level when they need teams with a
particular set of skills or capabilities to do their jobs
well

• Team diversity - variances or differences in ability,

experience, personality, or any other factor on a team.

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Stages of Team Development

Figure 9.2 Stages of Team Development

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Team Cohesiveness and Norms
• Team cohesiveness is the extent to which team members
feel attracted to the team and motivated to remain part of
it.
• Increases when members interact frequently, share
common attitudes and goals, and enjoy being together.
• Cohesive teams quickly achieve high levels of performance
and consistently perform better.
• Team norms are the informal standards of conduct shared
by team members that guide their behavior.
• Can be positive or negative

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Team Conflict
• Conflict – when one person or group’s needs do not match those
of another, and attempts may be made to block the opposing
side’s intentions or goals.
• Cognitive conflict focuses on problem-related differences of
opinion.
• Reconciling these differences strongly improves team performance
• Affective conflict refers to the emotional reactions that can
occur when disagreements become personal rather than
professional.
• Team leaders should facilitate good communication so that
teammates respect each other and work cooperatively.

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Importance of Effective Communication
• Communication is the meaningful exchange of
information through messages.
• Managers spend 80 percent of their time in direct
communication with others.
• Company recruiters rate effective communication as
the most important skill they’re looking for in hiring
new college graduates.

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The Communication Process

Figure 9.3 The Communication Process

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The Communication Process
Six elements of communication: sender, message, channel,
audience, feedback, and context.

The sender composes the message and sends it through a

communication carrier, or channel.

Encoding a message means that the sender translates its meaning

into understandable terms and a form that allows transmission
through a chosen channel.

The sender can communicate a particular message through many

different channels, including face-to-face conversations, phone
calls, and e-mail or texting.

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The Communication Process
In decoding, the receiver interprets the meaning of the message.

Feedback helps the sender determine whether the receiver has

correctly interpreted the intended meaning of the message

Noise is any interference that influences the transmission of

messages and feedback.

The context can exert a powerful influence on how well the process
works. A conversation between two people in a quiet office, for
example, may be a very different experience from the same
conversation held at a noisy party.

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Cultural Context
• Communication in low-context cultures tends to rely
on explicit written and verbal messages.
• Switzerland, Austria, Germany and the U.S.
• Communication in high-context cultures depends not
only on the message itself but also on the conditions
that surround it, including nonverbal cues, past and
present experiences, and personal relationships
between the parties.
• Japan, Latin America, and India

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Basic Forms of Communication
Table 9.2 Forms of Communication
Form Description
Oral communication Communication transmitted through speech
Written communication Communication transmitted through writing
Formal communication Communication transmitted to members within
an organization through the chain of command,
or to people outside the organization
Informal communication Communication transmitted outside formal
channels without regard for the organization’s
hierarchy of authority
Nonverbal communication Communication transmitted through actions
and behaviors rather than through words
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Examples
Personal conversations, speeches,
meetings, voice mail, telephone
conversations, video or web
conferences
e-mails, letters, memos, formal reports,
news releases, online discussion
groups, text messages
Internal—memos, reports,
meetings, written proposals, oral
presentations, meeting minutes;
external—letters, written proposals,
oral presentations, speeches, news
releases, press conferences
Rumors spread informally among
employees via the grapevine
Gestures, facial expressions,
posture, body language, dress, makeup
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Listening
• Cynical Listening: Receiver of a message feels that the
sender is trying to gain some advantage from the
communication.
• Offensive listening: Receiver tries to catch the speaker
in a mistake or contradiction.
• Polite Listening: Receiver listens mechanically to be
polite rather than to communicate.
• Active Listening: Requires involvement with the
information and empathy with the speaker’s situation;
the basis for effective communication.

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Listening (2 of 2)
Listening may seem easy,
because the listener appears
to make no effort. But the
average person talks much
slower than the amount of
information the brain can
handle at any given time.
This gap may lead to
boredom, inattention, and
misinterpretation on the
part of the listener.
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Written Communication
• Channels include reports, letters, memos, online
discussion boards and social media, emails, and text
messages
• Delayed feedback
• Provides a record of the message
• Importance to consider audience, the channel carrying
the message, and the appropriate degree of formality
• Email is ubiquitous in nature

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Formal Communication
• Carries messages that flow within the chain of
command structure defined by an organization.
• Downward communication
• carries messages from someone who holds a senior
position in the organization to subordinates
• Upward communication
• communication from employees to supervisors and
upward to top management levels
• Open and honest communication is key in formal
communication

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Open Communication
• With open communication, employees feel free to express
opinions, offer suggestions, and even voice complaints.
• 7 Characteristics of Open Communication:
• Employees are value
• High level of trust exists
• Conflict is invited and resolved politely
• Creative dissent is welcome
• Employee input is solicited
• Employees are well-informed
• Feedback is ongoing
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Formal and Informal Channels of Communication

Figure 9.4 Formal and Informal Channels of Communication

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Informal Communication
• Informal communication channels carry messages
outside formally authorized channels within an
organization’s hierarchy
• The grapevine is an internal channel that passes
information from unofficial sources
• Company communications should be managed so that
the grapevine is not the main source
• When managed well, managers can get a feel for
company morale
• Gossip is a main drawback of this channel of
communication.
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Nonverbal Communication
• Nonverbal communication transmits messages through
actions and behaviors.
• Gestures, posture, eye contact, tone and volume of
voice, and even clothing choices are all nonverbal
actions that become communication cues.
• Can have a greater impact on communications than
many people realize.
• It is estimated that 70 percent of interpersonal
communication is conveyed through nonverbal cues.

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Personal Space in Nonverbal
Communication
• Personal space can convey powerful messages.
• There are four zones of personal space:
• Intimate
• Social
• Personal
• Public

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Personal Space in Nonverbal
Communication (2 of 2)

Figure 9.5 Influence of Personal Space in Nonverbal Communication

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External Communication and Crisis Management
• External communication is a meaningful exchange of information
through messages transmitted
• Messages are transmitted between an organization and its major
audiences: customers, suppliers, firms, general public, and
government officials
• Communicating during a public relations crisis:
• Respond to crisis quickly
• Put top company management in front of the press.
• Stick to the facts
• When you don’t know, offer to find out.
• Never say “no comment.”
• Speak to your audience
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External Communication
Businesses use external
communication to keep
their operations
functioning, to
maintain their positions
in the marketplace, and
to build customer
relationships.

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Bahan Diskusi teamwork
• Bacalah ketiga artikel berikut :
• https://www.theladders.com/career-advice/teamwork-
the-meaning-and-why-its-so-important-at-work
• https://hbr.org/2020/05/dont-let-teamwork-get-in-the-
way-of-agility
https://hrexecutive.com/hres-number-of-the-day-tea
mwork/
• Diskusikan dalam kelompok :
Teamwork seperti apa yang dibutuhkan saat ini dimana
perusahaan menghadapi berbagai tantangan bisnis dan
kendala dalam berinteraksi dan berkomunikasi?
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Bahan Diskusi communication
Pada masa sekarang ini kita menghadapi keterbatasan dalam
berinteraksi dan berkomunikasi. Di sisi yang lain dalam masa
yang penuh ketidakpastian seperti sekarang ini komunikasi
sangat penting. Interaksi dan komunikasi virtual menjadi salah
satu solusi.

Komunikasi dua arah yang efektif melibatkan sender, message,

channel, audience, feedback, and context. Kendala-kendala apa
yang perlu dicermati dari keenam elemen tersebut dalam
komunikasi virtual?

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