Chapter 12: Managing Communication and Information

Question 1

Why if effective communication so important?

Answer 1

Because everything a manager does involves communicating.

Therefore, managers need effective communication skills.

Question 2

What is communication?

Answer 2

A transfer of understanding and meaning from one person to another.

Question 3

What is the communication process?

Answer 3

The process in which understanding and meaning are transferred from one person to another.

To is triggered by the communicator (or sender) releasing there is a need to communicate with someone. That need creates purpose, which is expressed as a message to be conveyed. Etc.

Question 4

Summarise the communication process.

Answer 4

SENDER ➡️(purpose)➡️ 
ENCODING ➡️(message)➡️
CHANNEL ➡️(message) ➡️
DECODING ➡️(message)➡️
RECEIVER ➡️ (message transferred successfully?)➡️

FEEDBACK ➡️ SENDER

This whole process is surrounded by noise.

Question 5

What is encoding?

Answer 5

Converting a message into symbolic form.

Four conditions affect the encoded message:
. Skills
. Attitudes 
. Knowledge and 
. Social cultural system

Question 6

What is the message?

Answer 6

A purpose for communicating that’s to be conveyed.

Question 7

What is a channel?

Answer 7

The medium by which a message travels.

Question 8

What is the channel?

Answer 8

The medium by which a message travels.

It’s selected by the sources, who must determine whether to use s formal or informal channel.

Formal - established by the organisation and transmit message that pertain the job-related activities of members.
Informal - other forms of messages, such as personal or social.

Question 9

What is media richness?

Answer 9

The capacity of different communication media to facilitate shared meaning.

Question 10

What is decoding?

Answer 10

The receiver is the person to whom the message is directed. However, before the message can be received, the symbols in it must be translated into a form that can be understood by the receiver - the decoding of the messaged.

Decoding - translating a received message.

Question 11

What is feedback?

Answer 11

The final link in the communication process I the feedback loop. This is how the source finds out what the receiver thought their message actually meant.

Feedback is the check on how successful a message has been transferred. It determines whether understanding has been achieved.

Question 12

What is noise?

Answer 12

Any factor that interferes with or disrupts the communication process.

Eg. Calling someone and the phone signal drops out.

Question 13

What are the advantages of written communication?

Answer 13

. They’re tangible, verifiable and more permanent than the oral variety.
. Both the sender and receiver have a record of the communication.
. The message can be stored for an indefinite period of time.
. If questions arise about the content of the message, it’s physically available for later reference.
. More care is taken with the written word than with the spoken word because putting something in writing forces a person to the more carefully about what he or she wants to convey (an exception is formal speeches).
. Thus, written communications are more likely to be well thought out, logical and clear.

Question 14

What are the drawbacks of written communication?

Answer 14

. It may be more precise, but it consumes a great deal of time.
. More can be conveyed in an hour of non-written communication than in an hour of written communication.
. Lack of feedback - oral communications allow receivers to respond rapidly to what they think they hear, whilst written communications don’t have a built-in feedback mechanism.
. No assurance that a message will be received and no guarantee that the recipient will interpret it as the sender meant.

Question 15

What is the grapevine?

Answer 15

An unofficial channel of communication.

It’s neither authorised nor supported by the organisation.

Good information passes through rapidly, but bad information travels even faster.

Question 16

How do nonverbal cues affect communication?

Answer 16

Some of the most meaningful communications are neither spoken nor written. They are nonverbal communications. The best-known areas of nonverbal communication are body language and verbal intonation.

The nonverbal component of communication is likely to carry the greatest impact.

Question 17

What is body language?

Answer 17

Nonverbal communication cues such as facial expressions, gestures and other body movements.

Question 18

What is verbal intonation?

Answer 18

An emphasis given to words or phrases that conveys meaning.

Question 19

What barriers keep communication from being effective?

Answer 19

A number of interpersonal and intrapersonal barriers affect why the message decoded by a receiver is often different from what the sender intended. The more prominent barriers are below: 
. Filtering 
. Selective perception 
. Information overload
. Emotions
. Language 
. Gender 
. National culture

Question 20

Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Filtering.

Answer 20

The deliberate manipulation of information to make it appear more favourable to the receiver.

Eg. When a managers tells his boss what he feels that the boss wants to hear, he is filtering information.

More vertical levels in an organisation mean more opportunities for filtering.

Solution:
. Become less dependant on strict hierarchical arrangements and instead used more collaborative and cooperative work arrangements.
. Use of emails to communicate = more direct communication as intermediaries are bypassed.
. No emphasis on style and appearance, as this motivates managers to filter communications in their favour (change organisation culture)

Question 21

Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Selective perception.

Answer 21

Receiving communications on the basis of what one selectively sees and hears depending on his or her needs, motivation, experience, background and other personal characteristics.

We can counter selective perception by being aware of its influence and actively checking how accurate our perceptions actually are.

Question 22

Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Information overload.

Answer 22

When the amount of information one has to work with exceeds one’s processing capability.

When people experience information overload they’re likely to select out, ignore, pass over of forget information. Or they may put off further processing until the overload situation is over.

The result is lost information and less effective communication.

Question 23

Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Emotions.

Answer 23

How the recover feels when a message is received.

Extreme emotions are most likely to hinder effective communications. A manager who’s upset over an issue is more likely to misconstrue incoming messages and fail to communicate his or her outgoing messages clearly and accurately.

In such instances, we often disregard our rational and objective thinking processes and substitute emotional judgements.

The simplest answer is to calm down and get emotions under control before communicating.

Question 24

Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Language.

Answer 24

Words have different meanings to different people. Receivers will use their definition of words being communicated.

This is bad, especially because the grouping of employees into departments creates specialists who develop their own jargon or technical language.

Because language can be a barrier, managers should consider the audience to whom the message is directed and tailor the language to them. Remember, effective communication is achieved when a message is both received and understood.

Solution:
. Communicate in clear, easily understood terms and use language tailored to the message audience.

Question 25

What is jargon?

Answer 25

Technical language, specific to a discipline or industry.

Question 26

Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: Gender.

Answer 26

How males and females react to communication may be different, and they each have a different communication style.

Preventing gender differences from becoming communication barriers requires acceptance, understanding and a commitment to communicate adaptively with each other.

Question 27

Explain the following barrier which keeps communication from being effective and how it can be overcome: National culture.

Answer 27

Communication differences arising from the different languages that individuals use to communicate and the national culture of which they are a part.

Cultural differences can affect the way a manager chooses to communicate. These differences undoubtably can be a barrier to effective communication if not recognised and taken into consideration.

Question 28

How can managers overcome communication barriers?

Answer 28

. Listen actively
. Use feedback
. Simplify language

Question 29

Explain the following way managers overcome communication barriers: Listen actively.

Answer 29

Active listening - listens to full meaning without making premature judgements or interpretations.

Hearing is passive whereas listening is an active search for meaning in which we out effort into the communication.

Active listening requires four essential elements.

Question 30

What are the four essential elements of active listening?

Answer 30

Intensity - concentrate intensely to what the speaker is saying and tune out the thousands of miscellaneous thoughts that creat distractions.

Empathy - put themselves in the other person shoes to understand what the speaking wants to communicate.

Acceptance - listen objectively without judging content.

Willingness to take responsibly for completeness - does whatever is necessary to get full intended meaning from the speaker’s communication.

Question 31

Explain the following way managers overcome communication barriers: Use feedback.

Answer 31

Misunderstanding and inaccuracies are less likely to occur if the manger gets verbal and non-verbal feedback.

A manager can ask questions about a message to determine whether it was received and understood as intended.

Question 32

Explain the following way managers overcome communication barriers: Simplify language.

Answer 32

Because language can be a barrier, managers should consider the audience to whom the message is directed and tailor the language to them.

Question 33

How is technology affecting managerial communication?

Answer 33

It has radically changed the way organisational members communicate.

Wireless communication technologies have spawned a whole new way for managers to ‘keep in touch’.

These developments have:
. significantly improved a manager’s ability to monitor individual and team performance
. allowed employees to have more complete information to make faster decisions provided employees with more opportunities collaborate and share information.
. Created some managerial challenges (information overload, requires employees it filter out irrelevant communications, distracts attention and undermines communication).

Employees can lose an average of two hours per week processing unnecessary emails.

Question 34

What communication issues do managers face today?

Answer 34

. Managing communication in an Internet world
. Managing the organisation’s knowledge resources
. Communicating with customers
. Getting employee input
. Communicating when negotiating and
. Communicating ethically.

Question 35

Explain the following communication issue managers face today: Managing communication in an Internet world.

Answer 35

All this new technology is creating special communication challenges, the two main ones being:
. Legal and security issues
. Lack of personal interaction.

Question 36

Legal and security issues.

Answer 36

Although forms of online communication are quick and easy ways to communicate - managers needs to be aware of potential legal problems from inappropriate usage.

Managers need to ensure that confidential information is kept confidential:
. Employees shouldn’t communicate (inadvertently or purposely) proprietary information
. Corporate computer systems should be protected against hackers and spam.

Question 37

Personal interaction.

Answer 37

Understanding is hard to achieve in face-to-face communication and even more challenging in a virtual environment.

In response some companies have:
. Banned email on certain days
. Encouraged employees to collaborate more in-person.

Question 38

Explain the following communication issue managers face today: knowledge management.

Answer 38

Knowledge management involves cultivating a learning culture in which organisational members systematically gather knowledge and share it with others.

Question 39

Explain the following communication issue managers face today: Managing the organisation’s knowledge resources.

Answer 39

Page 345

Question 40

Explain the following communication issue managers face today: Communicating with customers.

Answer 40

Page 346.

Question 41

Explain the following communication issue managers face today: Employee input.

Answer 41

Page 347.

Question 42

Explain the following communication issue managers face today: Communicating when negotiating.

Answer 42

Page 347.

Negotiation - a process in which two or more parties who make different preferences must make a join decision and come to an agreement.

Question 43

Explain the following communication issue managers face today: Communicating ethically.

Answer 43

Ethical communication - presented material that contains all relevant information, is true in every sense and is not deceptive in any way.