WORKPLACE

COMMUNICATION
CHAPTER 5
 CHAPTER OBJECTIVES
 After learning this chapter, student will be able to:
 Define workplace communication
 Differentiate different types of organizations
 Understand about communication networks
 Create and communicate your personal brands in
preparing for a job search (conducting a self-
inventory, creating personal network, searching for a
job, preparing cover letters, preparing resumes and
other credentials).
 Understand various strategies in preparing for the
Interview.
 Understand communications skills needed on the job.
 Understand about ethical dimension in the workplace.
Defining Workplace Communication

 Organizations
 Social collectives, or groups of people, in which
activities are coordinated to achieve both individual
and collective goals.
 Eg. student clubs, hotel, community service org.

 Organizational/Workplace Communication
 The ways in which groups of people both maintain
structure and order through their symbolic
interactions and allow individual actors the freedom
to accomplish their goals.
Defining Workplace Communication

 From the definition of workplace

communication, you should be aware of
the following points,
 We use verbal and nonverbal
communication to create structure.
 We use communication to create order.
 We use organizational communication to
accomplish personal goals.
 Defining Workplace Communication

Types of Organizations
•• Organizations
Organizations that
that manufacture
manufacture products
products and/or
and/or offer
offer services
services for
for consumers.
consumers.
Economic
Economic Eg.
Orientation
•• Eg. Large corporation, telecommunication company, banks, media organizations
Large corporation, telecommunication company, banks, media organizations
Orientation

•• Organizations
Organizations that
that generate
generate and
and distribute
distribute power
power and
and control
control within
within society.
society.
Political
Political •• Eg. Elected local, state, and federal officials, police and military forces
Eg. Elected local, state, and federal officials, police and military forces
Orientation
Orientation

•• Organizations
Organizations that
that help
help mediate
mediate and
and resolve
resolve discord
discord among
among members
members of of society.
society.
Integration
Integration •• Eg. Court system, public interest groups, counseling
Eg. Court system, public interest groups, counseling services,
services, conflict mgt centers
conflict mgt centers
Orientation
Orientation

•• Organizations
Organizations that
that promote
promote cultural
cultural and
and educational
educational regularity
regularity (quality)
(quality) and
and
development within society.
development within society.
Pattern-
Pattern- •• Eg.
Eg. School,
School, private/public
private/public universities/colleges,
universities/colleges, tuition
tuition institution,
institution, tourism
tourism
Maintenance
Maintenance company
company
Orientation
Orientation
Defining Workplace Communication

 Communication Networks
 Patterns of relationships through which
information flows in an organization.
 Two classifications/forms of communications
networks are formal communication &
informal communication.
Defining Workplace Communication

 Formal Communication
 Messages that follow prescribed (arranged)
channels of communication throughout the
organization.
 The most common way to describing formal
communication networks is with org. charts
– provide guidelines, who is responsible for
a given task and who is responsible for
others’ performance.
 Defining Workplace Communication

 Three ways how information flows in formal networks:

 Downward communication
 Occurs whenever superiors initiate messages to subordinates (top-to-
bottom).
 should include job instructions, job rationale, policy & procedures,
performance feedbacks, etc.
 Upward communication
 Occurs when messages flow from subordinates to superiors (bottom-to-
top).
 Effective decision making depends on timely, accurate, & complete info.
given by subordinates to superiors.
 Horizontal communication
 flows between people who are at the same level of the organization
hierarchy (side-by-side).
 It influences organizational success by allowing members to coordinate
tasks, solve problems, share info. & resolve conflicts.
Defining Workplace Communication

 Informal communication
 Consists of interactions that do not follow the
formal upward and downward structures of
the organization but emerge out of less
formal interactions among organizational
members.
 Eg. Co-workers who work from home might
use private e-mail accounts, facebook,
WhatsApp to have informal discussions about
other employees, their boss, or other issues
about their jobs.
Defining Workplace Communication

 Organizational communities
 Communication networks that are established
when several organizations – similar businesses,
clubs, or community service organizations have
related interests and become networked together
to provide mutual support and resources.
 Eg. Group of organic farms might act together to
make connections with local restaurants and
grocery stores to sell their goods.
 Eg. TESCO collaborate with LAZADA to promote
product online.
Preparing for the Job Market

 Personal brand
 is a set of attributes and values that can be
used to consistently represent yourself to
others (uniqueness of yourself).
 There have several ways to present your
personal brand throughout the job search
process which includes:
 Conducting a self-inventory
 Creating a personal network
 Searching for a job
 Preparing cover letters
 Preparing resumes an other credentials
Preparing for the Job Market

 Conducting a Self-Inventory
 Asking questions such as “what do you know about yourself” and
analyze the answers to this questions will help you discover the
attributes and values that define your personal brand.
 Qualities of self inventory that define your personal brand are:
 Your work and educational experiences
 Your motivations and goals
 Your strengths and weaknesses
 Your likes or dislikes
 Your skills
 Your roles in campus extracurricular activities
 Your professional experiences
 Your interest and hobbies
 Your talents, aptitudes, and achievements
 What is important to you in a position and an organization.
Preparing for the Job Market

 Creating a Personal network

 Personal network – a web of contacts and
relationships that can help you gain job
leads and can provide referrals.
 People in your network, include family,
friends, people we met at social functions,
your friend with whom you have worked
and studied can assists in identifying job
opportunities & introduce to others who can
become a part of your network.
 Preparing for the Job Market

 Strategies to develop personal network:

 Create an inventory of your network.
 Phone list, e-mail list, set of Facebook friends, etc. can help in your job search.
 Contact the career services office on your campus.
 Most campuses offer several job fairs throughout the academic year or provide
other networking opportunities (academic visits).
 Contact and join student chapters of professional organizations on your
campus.
 Students often join clubs such as National Communication Association,
Association for Women in Communication that provide useful networking
opportunities for members.
 Consider an internship.
 In your academic journey in universities or colleges, and internship can provide
valuable networking opportunities.
 Volunteer .
 Simply taking the time to volunteer in your community can give many
opportunities. Besides, helping others your hard work and dedication will be
noticed by others (employers). Eg. CSR done by largest corporation such as
TESCO, GIANT, AEON, etc.
Preparing for the Job Market

 Searching for the Job

 Instead of using traditional methods of searching for the job
are meeting with career-services center on campus, reading
job advertisements, contacting your personal network &
attending career and job fairs, you can use a variety of online
tools (online website: JOBSTREET, JOBSMALAYSIA, etc.)
 One key success online job searching is to use regional job
sites – allows to focus efforts by geographic location.
 If individuals have held previous job, one search strategy is
to identify similar related career fields, which available in My
Skills My Future website (www.myskillsmyfuture.org) Eg. If
you had experiences work as retail salesperson, you can
specify area of work that you interested to apply in the
website such as work in marketing areas.
 Choose cost effective online websites (some are free).
 Preparing for the Job Market

 Preparing cover letter

 Cover letter – is a short letter to an interviewers persuasively
introducing you and your credentials (qualifications) in
relationship to the job description, and it accompanies your
resume.
 Typically include 4 main sections:
 Attention-should gain attention of the reader (should specify the
position for which you are applying, indicate how you heard about it &
provide general overview of your qualifications).
 Interest-need to stimulate the reader’s interest & demonstrate your
desire for the job (describe major experiences and strengths as they
relate to the job).
 Desire-restate desire to learn more about the organization.
 Action-having face-to-face meeting, which is the action you are
hoping for.
Preparing for the Job Market

 Preparing resumes and other credentials

 The foundational source of information. A
good resume is your starting point in any
job search.
 To create a successful resume, you must
consider:
 Style
 Content
 Format
Preparing for the Job Market

 Style
 refers to the way you use language and grammar to construct your
written materials. It can range from very informal to very formal in
tone.
 The tips of style that should be applied in creating resume are:
 Complete sentences and avoid the pronoun “I”. Use present tense
verbs for present employment and activities & use past tense verbs
for past jobs.
 Be consistent. Use consistent format such as bullet, spacing, font
size, etc.
 Be concise. Should be simple and easy to be understand (don’t put
too much details in the resume)
 Be neat. Be aware with physical appearance of your resume. Create
resume that can impress the employers who have limited time.
Preparing for the Job Market

 Content
 Typically includes contact info. as well as
your objectives, education, experience,
skills, and campus activities or community
involvement.
 Objective statement – an articulation of
your goals, 1st info. on the resume, allow
you to fit your credentials and goals to the
needs of the organization and job
description.
Preparing for the Job Market

 Traditional Formats
 Used for mass interviews, job fairs, and other face-to-
face meetings.
 Traditional resumes normally can be divided into
Chronological and Functional resume.
 Chronological resume – which organizes your
credentials (qualifications) over time, is what most
people predict when they think of a resume.
 Functional resume – organizes your experience by
type of function performed.
 Eg. If you have held variety of jobs (doctor, lecturer and
speaker), this resume allows you to group them by the skills
you developed and duties you performed.
Preparing for the Job Market

 Electronic Resumes
 Preferable methods in applying for the job.
 Attached in e-mail, uploaded to a website,
etc.
 It is popular since they are searchable. One
efficient way evaluate candidates is to
search for similarities in wording between
job description and resumes submitted for
the job.
Preparing for the Job Market

 Portfolios
 Some fields including technical writing, web
design, graphic arts, public relations,
require development of a professional
portfolio provides examples of your
knowledge, skills, abilities to perform
specific tasks.
Preparing for Interview
 Like any formal communication – including
speeches and presentation – job interviews
start with careful planning and practice.
 There have various strategies for interview
preparation:
 Gather Information
 General Interviewing Strategies
 Answering Questions Effectively and Ethically
 Asking Questions Effectively and Ethically
 Preparing for Illegal Questions
 The PostInterview Stage
 Preparing for Interview
 Gather Information
 Three general goals in gathering information:
1) Understand the job.
 First, job description defines the position in terms of its content and scope. It has
different format that may include info. on the job duties and responsibilities,
knowledge, skills, abilities; working conditions; relationship with coworkers,
supervisors, etc.
 Info. about job description can be retrieved from company website, job search
database (internet).
2) Understand the organization.
 Second, have important knowledge about organization. Job applicants and
interviewees lose credibility (ability to convince) when they cannot demonstrate even
superficial (basic) knowledge about organization.
 Info. can be retrieved from company’s website, such as company’s finances status,
executive officers (organization chart), vision, mission, company objectives, etc.
3) Understand the field.
 Third, show your knowledge of your chosen field by demonstrating awareness of new
trends, market forces, and other matters. Increase general knowledge about related
field.
 Eg. Understand and aware about the current issues related with education in your
country if you apply for teacher’s position.
 Preparing for Interview
 General Interviewing Strategies
 General interviewing strategies to present yourself as a potential asset
to the organization are:
1) Create a good first impression.
 Dress appropriately. General rule is to match the style of dress of the interviewer.
 For professional positions, use conservative dress (dark suits, blazer, coat, white
shirts, blouses, standard ties for men, dark socks or neutral hose (skin sock for
women), dark shoes, etc.
 Wear clothes fit with your body and comfortable, but not too casual.
 Don’t use too much jewelry (accessories) and too strong perfume.
 Arrive on time and know how to present yourself in an honest and positive way.
 Use the right grammar can deeply impress the interviewer. Need to pause before
responding, organize answers, avoid slurring words (talk unclearly), avoid offensive
language. Besides, avoid unclear messages because of vocalized pauses (“uh”, “Um”),
verbal fillers (“you know”), and repetitive phrases (thing like that, besides that).
2) Speak with clarity.
 You need to speak clearly and accurately and make sure the interviewer understand
clearly what the messages and information you try to convey to them. Use both
verbal and nonverbal communication skills that you learn in your learning institution
(universities, school, college, etc).
 Preparing for Interview
3) Demonstrate interest
 One of the ways to demonstrate interest is by
maintaining strong eye contact with the interviewer.
 Although you need to focus on responding to questions
from interviewers, listening can improve your
responses.
 Use appropriate body language to show interest (smile,
nod, reduce gap with interviewer, etc)
 Preparing for Interview
 Answering Questions Effectively and Ethically
 4 guidelines to answering questions effectively and
ethically are:
 Offer relevant answers
 Your answers should be relevant to the question asked and to the job
description. You should not avoid questions.
 Substantiate your claims with evidence (proof your claims eg.
previous working experiences)
 Whatever claims you make about your experience, always provide
support.
 Provide accurate answers
 All employers are searching for honest employees, so always provide
accurate information.
 Be positive
 Avoid being overly critical of others and yourself. You can highlight
your strengths and downplay your weaknesses, but always be honest
and positive.
 Preparing for Interview
 Asking Question Effectively and Ethically
 After answering the interviewer’s questions, you should be
prepared to ask questions.
 This give you the insight you need to decide if you want this
particular job, shows your interest in the job, and
demonstrates communication skills.
 The questions make indirect statements about your priorities,
ambitions, and level of commitment.
 Avoid overreliance on questions that focus on financial issues
such as salary, vacation time, and benefits.
 General types of questions relevant in most interview situations are:
 “Do you assign mentors to help new employees fit in with the culture of the
company while learning their new job roles”
 “What is the average length of time that an employee works for the
company”
 “Does the company offer financial support for continuing education”
 Preparing for Interview
 Preparing for Illegal Questions
 There have several laws to ensure that individuals are

selected for employment without bias which include:

 Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
 Equal Pay Act
 Pregnancy Discrimination Act
 Age Discrimination Act
 The Americans with Disabilities Act
 To comply with these laws, employers should
 Describe the qualities and skills needed for the position
they hope to fill
 Construct questions that relate to those attributes
 Ask the same questions of all candidates for the position
 Preparing for Interview
 Preparing for Illegal Questions
 Strategies to respond to the illegal questions include:
 Weigh the severity of the violation against your desire for the job.
 If you really want the job and the violation was minor, you have an option
to provide a short answer or tactfully (considerately) try to rephrase the
question to avoid being forced to provide irrelevant answers.
 Ask for clarification
 If you suspect that the illegal question, you can clarify what skills,
knowledge, or attitudes the interviewer is attempting to asses.
 Be assertive
 You can tell the interviewer that the question is not related to the
attributes specified in the job description or that the question, as phrased,
asks for information you do not have to provide.
 Report the violation
 If the interviewer continues to ask illegal questions or is otherwise
offensive, you might consider reporting the violation to a superior and to
the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or similar state
agency.
Preparing for Interview
 The Postinterview Stage
 A letter of appreciation is appropriate after an
interview and should be sent within one or two days
following the interview.
 If the company has been corresponding with you
using email, then you should send an email thank
you letter.
 Several tips for conducting negotiations with
potential employer and making final decision:
 Wait for the appropriate time
 Know what you want in advance
 Understand the implications of taking the job
 Get it in writing
 Be tactful in your response
Communication Skills Needed on the Job

 Workplace Communication Competence

 Communication competence is the extent to
which you are able to be effective at a broad
range of verbal and nonverbal communication
skills in particular settings.
 Four general categories of workplace
communication competence are (refer table 3,
textbook page 210):
 Information sharing
 Relationship maintenance
 Avoiding negative emotion
 Organizing
Communication Skills Needed on the Job

 Specific Workplace Communication Skills

 Specific behaviors that will help to improve
workplace communication in a variety of
settings:
 Immediacy
 Supportiveness
 Strategic Ambiguity
 Interaction Management
 Cross-cultural skills
 Conflict Management
 Customer Service
 Communication Skills Needed on the Job

 Immediacy
 Communication behaviors intended to create
perceptions of psychological closeness with others
 Can be both verbal and nonverbal.
 Nonverbal - Smiling, reducing physical distance,
and using animated gestures and facial expressions.
 Verbal – calling people by their first names, using
“we” language, and telling stories.
 Using immediacy can help to improve the
relationship between supervisors and subordinates
& encourage people to engage in higher levels of
self-disclosure
Communication Skills Needed on the Job

 Supportiveness
 Listening with empathy, acknowledging others’
feeling, and engaging in dialogue to help
others maintain a sense of personal control.
 Strategies to enhance supportive
communication skills are:
 Listening without judging
 Validate feelings
 Provide both informational and relational messages
 Be confidential
Communication Skills Needed on the Job

 Strategic Ambiguity
 The purposeful use of symbols to allow multiple
interpretations of messages.

 Interaction Management
 Establishing a smooth pattern of interaction that
allows a clear flow between topics and ideas.
 Using pauses, changing pitch, carefully listening
to the topics being discussed, and responding
appropriately are skills related to interaction
management.
 Communication Skills Needed on the Job

 Learning other language, develop cross-cultural skills to

aid your transition to the workplace.
 Ask questions are the most effective strategy when you
learn new language and a new set of technical terms.
 Ask questions as needed to clarify instructions or
expectations, and pay careful attention to other co-
workers.
 If you are a native speaker who works with a second-
language speaker, you can help ease your co-worker’s
transition (change) through several steps:
 Provide important directions, policies and procedures in
writing
 Take time to explain
 Be patient
 Communication Skills Needed on the Job

 Conflict Management Skills

 Workplace conflict can occur because of mundane (routine)
issues, such as one person playing a radio too loud in her
cubicle, or serious issues, such as office politics pitting one
faction of employees against another.
 Variety of techniques to manage conflict productively are:
 Avoidance – Deny the existence of conflict.
 Competition – View conflict as a battle and advance your own
interests over those of others.
 Compromise – Willing to negotiate away some of your position as
long as the other party in the conflict is willing to do the same.
 Accommodation – Set aside your views and accept those of others.
Accommodation can help to maintain harmony in relationships.
 Collaboration – Relies on thoughtful negotiation and reasoned
compromise whereby both parties agree that the negotiated outcome
is the best possible alternative under the circumstances (situation).
 Communication Skills Needed on the Job

 Customer Service Skills

 Customer Service Encounter
 The moment of interaction between customer and the firm (organization).
 Compliance-Gaining Strategies Used by Customer Service Representatives
are:
1. Promise – Promising a reward for compliance (“If you buy this car, you will get
free-gifts in return”)
2. Threat – Threatening to punish for noncompliance (“Our promotion will be end this
week, if you buy this car next week, I cannot guarantee the 1% interest rate”)
3. Pre-giving – Rewarding the customer before requesting compliance (“I will give
you RM50 just for test-driving this new car”)
4. Moral appeal – Implying that it is immoral not to comply (“Since you have small
children, you should buy the car seat for safety purposes”)
5. Liking – Being friendly and helpful to get the customer in a good frame of mind to
ensure compliance (“Good afternoon, How can I help you?)
 Emotional Labor
 Jobs in which employees are expected to display certain feelings in order to
satisfy organizational role expectations. For e.g. Flight attendants, bill
collectors, customer service, telemarketer.
 Ethical Dimensions in the Workplace

 Aggressive Communication
 Verbal aggressiveness is communication that attacks the self-
concepts (individual’s belief about himself/herself) of other
people in order to inflict (cause someone to experience
something unpleasant) psychological pain.
 Several types of workplace aggression (aggressive communication) are:
 Abusive supervision – occurs when a supervisor engages in sustained
(continuous) behaviors via verbal and nonverbal messages but does not rise to
the level of physical aggression. (e.g. scold employees in public place)
 Bullying – occurs when one person is subjected to ridicule, offensive
statements, teasing, social isolation, or other abuse by one or more individuals
over an extended period of time. (e.g. give impossible deadlines to worker,
mocking others)
 Incivility – frequent rude behaviour that may or may not have the intent of
being harmful. (e.g. checking message during meeting, not expressing thanks,
showing up late)
 Social undermining – socially isolate another person from a larger group.
Negative evaluation about other that can prevent them from achieving his/her
goals. (e.g. do not invite specific worker during discussion or meeting)
Ethical Dimensions in the Workplace

 Honesty
 When you speak to others, whether for
personal or professional reasons, they rely
on you to be honest.
 Honesty is at the heart of personal ethics
and must begin with open communication
and trust.
 Ethical Dimensions in the Workplace

 Sexual Harassment
 Unwelcome, unsolicited, repeated behaviour of a sexual
nature.
 Sexual harassment includes a set of behaviors that
constitute workplace aggression.
 Two types of sexual harassment are:
 Quid Pro Quo Sexual Harassment
 Occurs when an employee is offered a reward or is threatened with
punishment based on his or her participation in a sexual activity.
(E.g. “If you allow me touch you, I will increase your salary”)
 Work Environment Sexual Harassment
 Conditions in the workplace that are sexually offensive, intimidating,
or hostile and that affect an individual’s ability to perform his or her
job. (E.g. “The male workers talk clearly about physical features
(body curve) of their female colleague in her presence, sexual
harassment has occurred)