1. Communication

What is communication and why is it important in
the context of groups and OB?

One of the factors with high impact on group
effectiveness is the presence and/or absence of
effective communication

Communication must include transferring and
understanding of meaning

Plays four equally important roles and should be
recognised as such by managers
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2. Communication – 4 functions

Control – Informal and formal control of behavior
of members in a group

Motivation – job clarity, expectations, feedback

Emotional expression – groups a source for social
interaction and therefore communication plays a
role for release of emotions

Information – facilitating decision making by
providing information by transmitting data to
identify and evaluate alternative choices
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3. Communication – Process
The most important factor – the ‘purpose’ of
communication

Sender, encoding - The sender has a thought
which he/she wants to let someone else know.
This thought is encoded in the form of a
message.

Message - The thought thus acquires a body,
a shape and a structure.

Channel - The message is transmitted using
some channel to reach the receiver; could be
formal and informal channels
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4. Communication – Process

Receiver, Decoding - The receiver „decodes‟ the
message to understand its meaning.

Noise - The process of decoding may not generate
the same „thought‟ that the sender wanted to
transmit. The distortions are the „noise‟.

Feedback – Check on how successfully the
original intended message has reached the
receiver.
Direction of communication can be downward,
upward and lateral
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5. Communication Types Interpersonal

Oral – speed and feedback; opportunities for
messages to become distorted

Written – Usually more carefully done,
therefore more likely to be well thought out,
logical and clear

Non-verbal – body movements, tone and
emphasis given to words, facial expressions,
distance between sender and receiver
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6. Change your tone and you change your meaning:
Placement of the emphasis
What it means
Why don’t I take you to dinner tonight?
I was going to take someone else.
Why don’t I take you to dinner tonight?
Instead of the guy you were going with.
Why don’t I take you to dinner tonight?
I’m trying to find a reason why I
shouldn’t take you.
Why don’t I take you to dinner tonight?
Do you have a problem with me?
Why don’t I take you to dinner tonight?
Instead of going on your own.
Why don’t I take you to dinner tonight? Instead of lunch tomorrow.
Why don’t I take you to dinner tonight? Not tomorrow night.
Source: Based on M. Kiely, “When „No‟ Means „Yes,‟ ” Marketing, October 1993, pp. 7–9. Reproduced in A. Huczynski
and D. Buchanan, Organizational Behaviour, 4th ed. (Essex, England: Pearson Education, 2001), p. 194.
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7. Communication Types - Organizational

Formal, small-group networks – chain, wheel,
all-channel
The chain rigidly
follows the formal
chain of command
The all-channel network
permits all group members to
actively communicate with each
other.
The wheel relies on the leader
to act as the central conduit
for all the group’s
communication
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8. Communication Types - Organizational

Grapevine
 75% of employees hear of matters first through
rumors
 Rumors emerge as a response to situations that are
important, when there is ambiguity, under conditions
that arouse anxiety

Computer aided
 E-mail – nearly 1 trillion e-mails sent daily worldwide.
Upto 70% e-mail comes in the form of spam or
phishing e-mails
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9. Communication Types - Organizational




Internet messaging (IM) – Many organizations
are concerned about security
Intranet and extranet links
Video conferencing – this will be seen as an
alternative to travel
So?
 In the electronic age, employees can theoretically be
„on call‟ 24/7
 Boundaries between organizations becoming blurred
– possible clouding of employment distinction
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10. Communication Types – Organizational

Knowledge Management – Process of organizing and
distributing an organization’s collective wisdom so that
right information gets to the right people at the right
time

Why important?
 Intellectual assets as important as physical or financial
assets
 Baby boomers leaving work places – taking away their
experience and learning
 Reduce redundancy and make organization more
efficient

How?
 Creating databases that can be readily accessed
 Creating culture of sharing
 Creating mechanisms for people to share insights
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11. Communication Types – Organizational
Low channel richness
High channel richness
Source: Based on R.H. Lengel and D.L. Daft, “The Selection of Communication Media as an Executive Skill,”
Academy of Management Executive, August 1988, pp. 225–32; and R.L. Daft and R.H. Lengel, “Organizational
Information Requirements, Media Richness, and Structural Design,” Managerial Science, May 1996, pp. 554–72.
Reproduced from R.L. Daft and R.A. Noe, Organizational Behavior (Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt, 2001), p. 311.
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12. Communication – Barriers

Filtering – purposefully manipulating
information so it will be seen more favorably
by the receiver

Selective perception – Receiver projecting
their interests and expectations into the
communication while decoding messages

Information overload – Individuals having
more information than they can sort out and
use
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13. Communication – Barriers

Emotions – how receiver is „feeling‟ impacts
interpretation of message

Language – Same words mean different things
to different people

Communication apprehension – 5% to 20%
suffer from communication apprehension

High oral communication apprehensives
distort communication demands of their jobs
in order to minimize need for communication
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14. Communication – Current
Issues barriers between men and
Communication

women
Men talk to:

Women talk to:

Emphasize status, power,
and independence.

Establish connection and
intimacy.

Complain that women
talk on and on.

Criticize men for not
listening.

Offer solutions.


To boast about their
accomplishments.
Speak of problems to
promote closeness.

Express regret and
restore balance to a
conversation.
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15. Communication – Current
Issues

“Silence” as Communication
 Is a critical element of groupthink
 Way for employees and/or managers to express
dissatisfaction
 Sign that someone is upset
 Crucial element of group decision making

“Politically correct” communication
 Handicapped, blind, elderly – physically challenged,
visually impaired, senior
 Garbage, quotas, women – post consumer waste
materials, educational equity, people of gender
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16. Communication – Current
Issues

Cross cultural communication
 Gestures having different meanings across cultures
 Barriers – semantics, word connotations, tone
differences, perception differences
 High context cultures
○ What is not said may be more important than what is
said
○ Implies more trust
○ Oral agreements imply strong commitment
 Low context cultures
○ Rely essentially on words to convey meaning
○ Agreements will tend to be in writing, precisely worded,
highly legalistic
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17. Communication – Current
Issues

Cultural guide
 Assume differences until similarity proven
 Emphasize description rather than interpretation or
evaluation
 Practice empathy
 Treat your interpretation as a working hypothesis
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18. Managerial Implications

Employee satisfaction – less uncertainty,
ambiguity - more satisfaction

Group performance – use of vertical, lateral
information channels will reduce uncertainty,
increase flow, improve group performance and
satisfaction

Motivation – Expectancy theory – clarity of goals,
rewards, performance and links between the same

Turnover – Almost 29% higher turnover where
either there are no job previews or only positive
job information is presented. Conveying honest
and accurate information during recruiting and
selection process.
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19. Think…
Consider the way in which this man is
communicating. What channel is he using? How
rich is it? For what kinds of message would it be
appropriate? Not appropriate?
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