BUS603: Managing People

3a. Examine methods to successfully communicate with people in writing, orally, non-verbally, and digitally based on the communicator's role, the work situation, organizational culture, and organizational goal 

• How do the concepts of encoding, decoding, noise, and feedback affect our communication?
• What are the major influences on interpersonal communication?
• How does nonverbal communication affect our communication?

Powerful interpersonal communication influences our workforce, expresses our intentions to others, provides and exchanges important information, and uses formal communication to reinforce the goals of our organization. Errors in the communication process can affect our entire organization. Any message we give is first encoded through either verbal or written communication. Our message is then decoded by the recipient. Finally, the decoder provides feedback to the encoder; feedback can be non-evaluative, corrective, or reinforcing. When messages become distorted, noise has occurred. Noise can occur at any time in the communication process.

Because communication occurs between at least two people, many factors can affect the quality of communication. Social influences, such as status barriers, norms, and roles within an organization, can dictate who speaks to whom and when. Perception can also affect the quality of the communication; how the decoder perceives the encoder can affect the noise in that communication. How involved both parties are in the conversation is called interaction involvement. If either person is preoccupied, for instance, the effectiveness of the communication is diminished. Organizational design affects communication; if communication must go through many levels of managers (such as in a hierarchical design), noise can occur. A more flat organizational design can lead to more participative employees, leading to more effective communication.

Nonverbal communication is as important to communication as written or verbal communication – more important, perhaps. Nonverbal communication happens continually, and nonverbal communication is permanent. You cannot retract nonverbal cues like you can with written or verbal communication. Nonverbal communication consists of space, time, physical characteristics, body movements, touch, paralanguage, artifacts, and environment. Take time to analyze your own nonverbal communication to determine what you are silently conveying to others.

To review, see Types of Communication, Managerial Communication, and Nonverbal Communication.

 

3b. Explain practices in daily interactions, selection of communication channels, approaches to the direction of the communication, and levels of authority that build rapport with personnel to foster leadership in organizations 

• How can we use the direction of our communication for effective communication?
• How might our communication channel affect the type of communication we provide?
• How can we use communication to build rapport with our boss(es)?

Communication can be downward (to our subordinates, upward (to our superiors), or horizontal (peers at the same level in our organization). Downward communication is usually one-directional and is used to share information with lower-level employees. Examples of downward communication include policies and procedures, organization mission and vision, and handbooks. It's important in downward communication that you understand your audience – particularly their experience, knowledge, level of authority, and status. To ensure more effective downward communication, write or speak clearly and respectfully, using non-ambiguous language. Upward communication, which could include proposals, complaints, reports, and grievances, is an important source of information for managers. Communication within a team or between organizational divisions are examples of horizontal communication. While horizontal communication can be more timely, direct, and efficient than downward or upward communication, horizontal communication requires that peers are not territorial.

Channels of communication are the various ways in which we send information, which include face-to-face conversations, videoconferencing, telephone, written letters or memos, emails, or digitally. Knowing the appropriate channel to use in your communication can have an impact not only on your goal for the communication but on the relationship you have with the audience. Would you fire an employee through a text message? We usually use written communication to convey facts, to keep the information as a permanent record in the organization, when time is not urgent, when feedback is not urgent, and when the ideas are complicated. Verbal communication works well when we need to convey emotion and feelings, the message does not need to be a permanent record when there is time urgency, when you need immediate feedback, and when the ideas are relatively simple.

Managing your boss is not about getting your boss to accept a proposal or report, it is about building trust with your senior leadership to achieve the organizational mission. Keep these tips in mind when you are communicating with/managing your boss: (1) take solutions, not problems; (2) solve your boss's problems, not your problems; and (3) use the One Challenge Rule. Rather than disagreeing with, or arguing with your boss, show or tell your boss why your solution is good for the organization. If your boss disagrees again, move on and implement what the boss decides.

To review, see Communicating with Precision and Delivering Your Message.

 

3c. Use communication strategies and frameworks to affect business strategy 

• How can understanding models or frameworks of communication inform our communication strategies?
• In what ways do the models of communication – linear, interactive, and transaction- differ?
• How is the digital era affecting the relationship and communication between leader and follower?

Understanding communication models helps us see specific concepts and steps within the process of communication, define communication, and apply communication concepts. As we become aware of how communication functions, we can think more deliberately through our communication endeavors and prepare for effective communication. The first model of communication is the Linear Model. In the linear model, communication is handled in a one-way direction; that is, from the person communicating to the person being communicated to. The main focus of a linear model of communication is to ensure that the communication message is sent. The communicator assumes that if the message is sent – such as a radio or TV advertisement – the message is also received. This model of communication is focused solely on the message. Feedback between the person sending the message and the person receiving the message is not considered. Do you think that, in our modern organizations, written communication such as policies and procedures, handbooks, and meeting minutes use the linear model?

The second model of communication is the Interactive Model, which adds the element of feedback between the sender of the message and the receiver of the message. In this model, the sender can become the receiver and vice versa. This switching of roles often happens effortlessly. Another key difference between the linear model and the interactive model is how the physical and psychological contexts affect communication in the interactive model. Have you ever found yourself in a meeting in a warm office, struggling to remain alert? As you study for this course, perhaps in your bedroom, do you ever think of taking a quick nap? The physical space in which communication happens is important and must be considered in this communication model. In terms of psychological contexts, can your communication be affected by emotions, stress, tension, or happiness? So with the interactive model, we are adding elements of uncertainty to our communication – feedback, physical contexts, and psychological contexts.

The transaction model of communication adds more complexity to our communication process. In this model, we communicate to create relationships, form alliances, shape our self-concepts, and create communities. Unlike the interactive model, where the sender and receiver can reverse roles, in the transaction model, the sender and receiver are both simultaneously. Have you ever been typing a text message to a friend when you get a text from that friend adding new information? Did you change the content of your message before sending it back? If so, you were simultaneously a sender and a receiver. More importantly, to understand, you are now adapting your communication to real-time, based on new information. The transaction communication model also goes beyond physical and psychological contexts to include social, relational, and cultural contexts. These additional contexts make effective communication even more difficult.

As you think about these different communication models, also think about how modern organizations are now operating – fewer levels of management, more blurring of leadership roles, how millennials pTo review, see work, and the digitization of the workplace. How you communicate in your organization is going to have a profound effect both on your organization and your workforce.

The digital era has fundamentally changed the relationship between the leader and the follower. Where once organizations were based on formal hierarchies, with bosses and subordinates, followers today behave as leaders in the virtual organization. This change in the role of leader/follower is the result of several contextual factors: (1) physical reality is now virtual reality – physical attributes of leaders are no longer necessary; (2) human interactions have moved from face-to-face communication to electronic communication; (3) digitization and automation have eliminated numerous management positions; (4) employees today must develop new technical and soft skills, almost on a daily basis, to remain competitive in the job market; (5) digital communication has lead to feelings of isolation, language barriers, cultural differences, and technological breakdowns; (6) the roles of leader and followers has changed – followers have the opportunity to lead in this digital era; and (7) employees who have grown up in the digital era speak a different language and represent a different culture than those employees how had to learn the skills of the digital era – leading to generational tensions and challenges in communication.

To review, see Communication Models and Digital Leadership.

 

3d. Classify audience traits such as beliefs, ethnicity, language, values, psychological attributes, and demographics to ensure effective message delivery 

• How can analyzing our audience help us communicate effectively?
• How might I conduct an audience analysis?

Communication professionals often segment audiences by demographic, geographic, and psychographic characteristics. Knowing who your audience is should lead to more successful communications. Demographic characteristics to know about your audience can include age, gender, nationality, religion, income, sexual orientation, education, and income. Communicating to a group of people over 60 would require a different message than to a group of teenagers, for example. Geographic characteristics can also help define our message. People in different parts of the world communicate differently; knowing and applying those differences to your communication will more likely lead to successful communication. A person's values, desires, goals, interests, and lifestyle choices make up psychographic characteristics. All three of these characteristics help us to define and better identify our audience's needs when it concerns communication.

In an audience analysis, we gather information to better understand the audiences' wants, needs, desires, expectations, beliefs, values, attitudes, and opinions. Sometimes an audience analysis can be done quickly; you probably know at least some of this information about your co-workers and can easily tailor your message to this audience. In some cases, particularly if your communication goes beyond people in your organization, an audience analysis can take time. Organizations exist that can provide you with demographic, geographic, and psychographic information that will help you understand this broader audience.

To review, see Audience Analysis and Audience Segments: Psychographics.

 

3e. Determine how the audience and the communicator are affected by perception, interpretation, and the organization of communications 

• How does perception occur?
• What influences our perception?
• What are some common tendencies of perceptions?

Perception involves selection, organization, interpretation, and negotiation – as it relates to business communication. In selection, we decide what we are going to pay attention to. We are constantly exposed to sights, sounds, smells, and other stimuli; with all of these stimuli, what will we focus on? In organization, we broadly categorize items into groups we understand. In interpretation, we begin thinking about how we feel about what we are seeing. If we categorized an animal as a dog, how do we feel about dogs? If you have good memories of dogs as you were growing up, you might have positive feelings; if you were bitten by a dog, you might have negative feelings. In negotiation, we begin working with, or influencing others, on their interpretations.

Perception can be influenced by many factors: access to information; physiological influences like our five senses, age, health, hunger, mood, and self-concept; social influences such as gender roles, occupational roles, and relational roles. Can you see that presenting a high-level business process to an audience that is tired or hungry might influence their perception of your topic?

While our perception helps us understand the world around us better, our perceptions can also be detrimental. Snap judgments of how we organize and interpret information can harm others; likewise, first impressions can be harmful. The idea that we are more charitable toward ourselves – we are smart, but the professor just asked stupid questions – is very common. We also use perception to stereotype others, particularly in terms of gender roles and occupation roles.

To review, see Overview of Perception and Process of Perception.

 

Unit 3 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

• artifacts
• audience analysis
• body movements
• decoded
• demographic characteristics
• downward communication
• encoded
• environment
• feedback
• geographic characteristics
• horizontal communication
• interaction involvement
• interactive model of communication
• interpretation
• linear model of communication
• negotiation
• noise
• organization
• organizational design
• paralanguage
• perception
• physical characteristics
• psychographic characteristics
• selection
• social influences
• space
• time
• touch
• transaction model of communication
• upward communication