Transcript communication for managers

INTRODUCTION:
COMMUNICATION FOR MANAGERS
Meeting 1/Session 1
Saturday, 20 February 2010
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SUBORDINATE
CLIENT
THIRD
PARTY
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Overview

Survey on 1000 personnel managers in
the US
Top 3 skills for job performance as involving
communication
 Other important attributes—technical
competence, work experience, academic
b/ground & recommendations (all lagged
behind).
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
Other surveys support the importance of
comm.

Related skills include working on teams,
teaching others, serving customers, leading,
negotiating, working with cultural diversity,
interviewing, listening, conducting meetings
and resolving conflicts.
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
Subscribers of Harvard Business Review
rated “the ability to communicate” as the
most important factor in making an
executive “promotable” more important
than ambition, education and capacity for
hard work.
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Why Studying Comm. is Important?
Globalization?
 How does the two—communication and
globalization relate?
 How do the changes in the business world
affect employees? What is the primary
effect?

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
Kanter (1989) notes that the work of a
manager was particularly affected by the
changes in the business environment.

Instead of an emphasis on planning,
organizing and coordinating, the focus move
to communication
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Understanding
Communication
Proposition 1: Communication Can Best
Be Described in Terms of Possibilities
- Communication and languages
inherently ambiguous.
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Understanding
Communication
Proposition 2: Context Shapes the
Probabilities by Creating Default
Assumptions
- The context either freezes or
predisposes certain probable
interpretations
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Understanding
Communication
Proposition 3: Context Building is a
Dynamic Process
- A unique context emerges as people
interact, regardless of the culture
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Understanding
Communication
Proposition 4: The Context May Act Like
Black Hole
- Context can exert such a strong force
that the probable interpretations can
become severely warped.
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Understanding
Communication
Proposition 5: Context Construction is
Uniquely Sensitive to Time Sequencing
- Each message forms the context for the
next message
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Understanding
Communication
Proposition 6: There are Multiple
Messages in Each Communication Event
- For any primary message, there are
countless other messages that can be
alter the context and change the
interpretations.
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Understanding
Communication
Proposition 7: Content and Context
Interact to Produce Meaning
Content consists of the actual words,
gestures, or behaviors of senders.
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Implications for Managers
Explore the employee’s context
Carefully manage employee expectation
Carefully frame messages
Sculpt the proper context
Anticipate possible interpretations and misinterpretations of
messages, events and symbols
Beware of the Law of Large Numbers
Use the Blackout tactic to clarify potentially ambiguous
messages
Pay attention to secondary messages
Recognize the utility of credible sources
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Examining Communication
Approaches
If managers can communicate perfectly,
how would organizations change?
Would the organization be more
productive? Would employees be
more satisfied?
Managers know their success is largely a
function of their communication skills.
However, they are unclear about what
constitutes perfect communication?
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Facts
60% of employees are satisfied with
communication from their supervisor
55% of managers are unfit for their job
33% of highly effective companies give
employees the opportunity to provide
meaningful input to decisions
45% of employees have confidence in the job
done by senior management
70% of communication metaphors describe the
communication process as a conduit
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The Arrow Approach
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1.
Judging Effectiveness
Meaning of effective communication?
Focus accurately encoding their thoughts in to
language
Select, aim and firing a target
One-way activity
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Communication
Effectiveness
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Underlying Assumptions
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Being able to clearly and
precisely put thoughts into
words
Speaking with credibility
and authority
Getting the results desired
by talking to employees
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What is clear and precise
to one person is clear and
precise to another
Credibility is something
speaker possesses and not
something given to the
speaker by the audience
Communication is a
primarily one-way activity
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2. Explaining Communication
Breakdowns
Communication breakdowns are always the
fault of the sender or receiver
Responsibility should be mutual
Manager fail to recognize that effective
communication is a shared commitment
between sender and receivers
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3. Origins
Most of the time communication in workplace is not the
result of a conscious decision
Based on experiences and unconscious pattern
Three major factors:
Technical training reinforce a stimulus/response
orientation
Speech teacher – implies a one-way communication
People may have personality predispositions to
communicate this way.
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4. Evaluation
Effective expression = Effective communication
Managers assumes that:
Receivers are passive information processors
Words are containers of meaning
Encourage clear thinking, lucid expression and
organized speaking
Link communication behavior and actions
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The Circuit Approach
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1.
Judging Effectiveness
Actively listening
Showing sensitivity
Making employees feel included
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2. Explaining Communication
Breakdowns
People don’t connect
People are poor listeners
Fail develop communication climate
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3. Origins
Human Relations School of Management –
Hawthorne studies
People have natural affinity
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4. Evaluation
Understanding = Effective Communication
Problems is with understanding
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Why Communication is Important to
Managers?
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To delegate task/job
To inform
To persuade
To increased satisfaction
To increased productivity
To get feedback
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Conclusion

What have you made up from this topic?
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