CHAPTER 16

Promoting Effective
Communication

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 Learning Objectives (1 of 2)

1. Explain why effective communication

helps an organization gain a competitive
advantage.
2. Describe the communication process,
and explain the role of perception in
communication.
3. Define information richness, and
describe the information richness of
communication media available to
managers.
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 Learning Objectives (2 of 2)

4. Describe the communication networks

that exist in groups and teams.
5. Explain how advances in technology
have given managers new options for
managing communications.
6. Describe important communication skills
that managers need as senders and as
receivers of messages and why it is
important to understand differences in
linguistic styles.
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 Communication and Management

Communication
• The sharing of
information
between two or
more individuals
or groups to
reach a common
understanding

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 The Importance of Good
Communication
Increased efficiency in new technologies
and skills
Improved quality of products and services
Increased responsiveness to customers
More innovation through communication

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 The Communication Process (1 of 4)

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 The Communication Process (2 of 4)

Sender – person wishing to share

information with some other person
Message – the information to communicate
Encoding – sender translates the message
into symbols or language
Noise – refers to anything that hampers any
stage of the communication process

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 The Communication Process (3 of 4)

Receiver – person or group for which the

message is intended
Medium – pathway through which an
encoded message is transmitted to a
receiver
Decoding – critical point where the receiver
interprets and tries to make sense of the
message

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 The Communication Process (4 of 4)

Verbal communication
• The encoding of messages into words, either
written or spoken
Nonverbal communication
• The encoding of messages by means of facial
expressions, body language, and styles of
dress

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 The Role of Perception in
Communication (1 of 3)
Perception
• Process through which people select,
organize, and interpret sensory input to give
meaning and order to the world around them
• Influenced by people’s personalities, values,
attitudes and moods as well as their
experience and knowledge

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 The Role of Perception in
Communication (2 of 3)
Biases
• Systematic tendencies to use
information about others in ways that
can result in inaccurate perceptions
• For example, stereotypes

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 The Role of Perception in
Communication (3 of 3)
Stereotypes
• Simplified and often inaccurate beliefs about
the characteristics of particular groups of
people
• Can interfere with the encoding and decoding
of messages

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 Information Richness and
Communication Media
Managers and their subordinates can
become effective communicators by:
Selecting an appropriate medium for each
message—there is no one “best” medium
Considering information richness
• A medium with high richness can carry much
more information to aid understandings.

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 Information Richness

Information richness
• The amount of information that a
communication medium can carry
• The extent to which the medium enables the
sender and receiver to reach a common
understanding

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 Information Richness of
Communication Media

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 Face-to-Face Communication (1 of 2)

Face-to-face
• Has highest information richness
• Can take advantage of verbal and nonverbal
signals
• Example: ProQuest, although mainly
electronic communication, every four
months, face-to-face.

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 Face-to-Face Communication (2 of 2)

Management by wandering around

• Face-to-face communication technique in
which a manager walks around a work area
and talks informally with employees about
issues and concerns

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 Spoken Communication
Electronically Transmitted
Spoken communication electronically
transmitted
• Has the second highest information richness
• Telephone conversations are information rich
with tone of voice, sender’s emphasis, and
quick feedback, but provide no visual
nonverbal cues

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 Personally Addressed Written
Communication
Personally addressed written
communication
• Has a lower richness than the verbal forms of
communication, but still is directed at a given
person
• Personal addressing helps ensure receiver
actually reads the message
• Personal letters and e-mail common forms

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 Impersonal Written Communication
(1 of 4)

Impersonal written communication

• Has the lowest information richness
• Good for messages to many receivers where little or
feedback is expected (e.g., newsletters, reports)

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 Impersonal Written Communication
(2 of 4)

Information overload
• The potential for important information to be
ignored or overlooked while tangential
information receives attention

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 Impersonal Written Communication
(3 of 4)

Blog
• A website on which an individual, a group, or
an organization posts information,
commentary, and opinions and to which
readers can often respond with their own
commentary and opinions

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 Impersonal Written Communication
(4 of 4)

Social networking site

• A website that enables people to
communicate with others with whom they
have some common interest or connection

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 Communication Networks (1 of 2)

Communication networks
• The pathways along which information flows
in groups and teams and throughout the
organization

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 Communication Networks (2 of 2)

Type of communication network depends

on:
• The nature of the group’s tasks
• The extent to which group members need to
communicate with each other to achieve
group goals

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 Communication Networks in
Groups and Teams

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s.
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 Organizational Communication
Networks (1 of 2)
Organization chart
• The chart summarizes the formal reporting
channels in an organization.
• Communication in organization flows through
formal and informal pathways.
• Vertical communications flow up and down
corporate hierarchy.

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 Organization Communication
Networks (2 of 2)
Organization chart
• Horizontal communications flow between
employees of the same level.
• Informal communications can span levels and
departments.
• Grapevine
• An informal network carrying unofficial information
throughout the firm

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 Formal and Informal Communication

Networks in an Organization

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 Information Technology and
Communication
Intranets
• A company-wide system of computer
networks
Advantages of intranets
• Versatility as a communication medium
• Can be used for several different purposes by
people who may have little expertise in
computer software and programming

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 Groupware and Collaboration
Software
Groupware
• Computer software that enables members of
groups and teams to share information with
each other to improve their communication
and performance

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 How to Be Successful Using
Groupware
1. Work is team-based and members are
rewarded for group performance.
2. Groupware has full support of top
management.
3. Culture of the organization stresses flexibility.
4. Groupware is being used for a specific
purpose.
5. Employees receive adequate training.

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 Groupware (1 of 2)

Employees are likely to resist using

groupware when:
• People are working primarily on their own.
• People are rewarded for their own individual
performances.
• People are reluctant to share information.

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 Groupware (2 of 2)

Collaboration software
• Groupware that promotes and facilitates
collaborative, highly interdependent
interactions, and provides an electronic
meeting site for communication among team
members

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 Barriers to Effective Communication

Messages that are unclear, incomplete,

difficult to understand
Messages sent over the inappropriate
medium
Messages with no provision for feedback
Messages that are received but ignored

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 Communication Skills for Managers
as Senders (1 of 3)
Table 16.2

Seven Communication Skills for Managers as Senders of

Messages
Send messages that are clear and complete.
Encode messages in symbols that the receive understands.
Select a medium that is appropriate for the message.
Select a medium that the receiver monitors.
Avoid filtering and information distortion.
Ensure that a feedback mechanism is built into messages.
Provide accurate information to ensure that misleading rumors
are not spread.

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 Communication Skills for Managers
as Senders (2 of 3)
Jargon
• Specialized language that members of an
occupation, group, or organization develop to
facilitate communication among themselves
• Should never be used when communicating
with people outside the occupation, group, or
organization

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 Example – Photography Jargon

Unless you’re a serious photographer you

may not understand the terms f-stop, bokeh,
white balance, backlight and full-frame.

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 Communication Skills for Managers
as Senders (3 of 3)
Filtering
• Withholding part of a message because of the
mistaken belief that the receiver does not
need or will not want the information
Information distortion
• Changes in the meaning of a message as the
message passes through a series of senders
and receivers

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 Communication Skills for
Managers as Receivers

Pay attention

Be empathetic
Be a good listener

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 Video: Information Overload

How can managers use brevity to ensure

that employees can process and retain
information and direction?

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