Communicating
in
Teams and Organizations
9-1
SUB TOPICS- Communication
Communicating in Teams
The Importance of Communication
A Model of Communication
Communication Channels
Verbal Communication
E-mail & other computer Mediated Communication
Non Verbal Communication
Choosing the Best Channels
Media Richness
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Communication Barriers
Perceptions
Filtering
Language
Information Overload
Cross Cultural & Gender Communication
Non Verbal Differences
Gender Differences
Improving Interpersonal Communication
Getting Your Message Across
Active Listening
Communication Thru’ Grapevine
9-3
Social Networking Communication
at IBM
Standing in front of Beijing’s
Forbidden City, IBM chief
executive Sam Palmisano
communicates through his
Second Life avatar to several
thousand employees
worldwide.
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Communication Defined
The process by which
information is transmitted
and understood between
two or more people
Effective communication
Transmitting intended
meaning (not just symbols)
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Importance of Communication
1. Coordinating work
activities
2. Organizational learning
and decision making
3. Employee well-being
9-6
Communication Process Model
Sender Receiver
Transmit
Message
Receive
Form Encode Decode
encoded
message message message
message
Noise
Decode Receive Encode Form
feedback feedback feedback feedback
Transmit
Feedback
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Improving Communication
Coding/Decoding
1. Both parties have motivation and ability to
communicate through the channel
2. Both parties carry the same “codebook”
3. Both parties share similar mental models of the
communication context
4. Sender is experienced at communicating the message
topic
9-8
About Face on Workplace E-Mail
HiWired executives introduced “Home Week” each
month, in which they must not travel. This initiative
has helped them rediscover the benefits of face-to-
face rather than e-mail communication.
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How E-Mail has Altered
Communication
Now preferred medium for coordinating work
Tends to increase communication volume
Significantly alters communication flow
Reduces some selective attention biases
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Problems with E-Mail
Communicates emotions poorly
Reduces politeness and respect
Inefficient for ambiguous, complex, novel
situations
Increases information overload
9-11
Social Networking
Communication
Social network communication clusters people around
interests/expertise
Several types of social network communication
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn
Online discussion forums
Avatar sites (e.g. Second Life)
Instant messaging
Wikis
9-12
Nonverbal Communication
Actions, facial gestures, etc.
Influences meaning of verbal symbols
Less rule bound than verbal communication
Important part of emotional labor
Most is automatic and nonconscious
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Emotional Contagion
The automatic process of sharing another
person’s emotions by mimicking their
facial expressions and other nonverbal
behavior
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
9-14
I Love Rewards Gets Media-
Rich Quickly
Every day at 11:15 am,
employees at I Love
Rewards Inc. meet face-to-
face for 10 minutes to
communicate priorities and
coordinate their efforts.
These quick meetings
provide a personal
connection and highly
interactive feedback.
9-15
Choosing the Best
Communication Channel: Social
Acceptance
How well the communication
channel is approved and
supported by the
organization, team, and
individual:
1. Communication channel
norms
2. Individual communication
channel preferences
3. Symbolic meaning of the
communication channel
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Choosing the Best
Communication Channel: Media
Richness
The channel’s data-carrying
capacity needs to be aligned with
the communication activity
High richness when channel:
1. conveys multiple cues
2. allows timely feedback
3. allows customized message
4. permits complex symbols
Use rich communication media
when the situation is nonroutine
and ambiguous
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Hierarchy of Media Richness
Rich
Overloaded
Zone
Media
Richness
Oversimplified
Zone
Lean
Nonroutine/
Routine/clear Situation Ambiguous
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Factors that Override Media
Richness
Ability to multi-communicate with lean channels
More varied proficiency levels
Social distractions of rich channels
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Persuasive Communication
Changing another person’s beliefs and
attitudes.
Spoken communication is more persuasive
because:
1. accompanied by nonverbal communication, adding emotional
punch to the message.
2. has high quality immediate feedback whether message is
understood and accepted.
3. has high social presence, so receiver is more sensitive to
message content and more motivated to accept the message.
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Communication Barriers
Perceptions
Filtering
Language
Jargon
Ambiguity
Information Overload
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Information Overload
Episodes of
information
overload
Employee’s
information
processing
capacity
Information Load
Time 9-22
Managing Information Overload
Solution 1: Increase info 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
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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
9-24
Cross-Cultural Communication
Verbal differences
Language
Voice intonation
Silence/conversational
overlaps
Nonverbal differences
Interpreting nonverbal
meaning
Importance of verbal versus
©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis
nonverbal
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Gender Communication
Differences
Men Women
Report talk Rapport talk
Gives advice Gives advice indirectly
quickly and directly and reluctantly
Conversations are Conversations are
negotiations of status bonding events
Less sensitive to More sensitive to
nonverbal cues nonverbal cues
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Getting Your Message Across
1. Empathize
2. Repeat the message
3. Use timing
effectively
4. Be descriptive
Courtesy of Microsoft.
9-27
Active Listening Process &
Strategies Sensing
• Postpone
evaluation
• Avoid
interruptions
• Maintain interest
Active
Listening
Responding Evaluating
• Show interest • Empathize
• Clarify the • Organize
message information
9-28
Communicating in Hierarchies
Workspace design
Clustering people in teams
Open office arrangements
Web-based organizational communication
Wikis -- collaborative document creation
Blogs -- personal news/opinion for sharing
E-zines -- rapid distribution of company news
Direct communication with management
Management by walking around (MBWA)
Town hall meetings
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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
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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
9-31
Communicating
in Teams and
Organizations
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2010 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. 9-32
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