Dynamics of OB: Communication & Decision Making discusses key topics in organizational behavior related to communication and decision making. It describes the rational model of decision making and Simon's bounded rationality model. It also discusses different types of communication in organizations, including downward, upward, and lateral communication. Knowledge management and techniques for improving group decision making like brainstorming and the nominal group technique are also summarized.

1. Dynamics of OB:
Communication & Decision Making
Sanjeeva Perera
B.Sc. (Eng.) Hons , MBA (Col.)
(OB) (577)
MSc/PGD in Information Systems & Information Management
Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology

2. Environmental Context
 InformationTech & Globalization
 Diversity & Ethics
Organizational Context
 Design & Culture
 Reward System
ORGANIZATIONAL
BEHAVIOR
Cognitive Processes
 Perception & Attribution
 Personality & Attitudes
 Motivational needs & Processes
 Positive Psychological Capacities
Social
Cognitive
Theory
Dynamics
 Communication
 Decision Making
 Stress & Conflict
 Power & Politics
 Groups &Teams
Managing & Leading
for High Performance
 Job Design & Goals
 Behavioral
Management
 Leadership
Processes
 Great Leaders
2

3. Dynamics of OB:
Communication

4. Communication
 Relate the perspective, historical background, and meaning
of the communication process in organizations
 Describe modern communication technology
 Identify the dimensions of nonverbal communication
 Discuss the specific downward, upward, and horizontal
(interactive) interpersonal communication processes
 Analyze communication across cultures
4

5. Def of communication
 Use of symbols to transfer the meaning of information.
The continuum (band, range) of communication in
organizational behavior.
5
Interpersonal
communication
Communication media
and technology
Nonverbal
communication
Interpersonal communication is communication between two
or more people in an organization.

6. 6
Information Richness For Different Media
Medium
Face-to-face
Telephone
Personal
written
Formal
written
Formal
numeric
Feedback
Immediate
Fast
Slow
Very slow
Very slow
Channel
Visual,
audio
Audio
Limited
visual
Limited
visual
Limited
visual
Type of
Communication
Personal
Personal
Personal
Impersonal
Impersonal
Language
Source
Body,
natural
Natural
Natural
Natural
Natural
Information
Richness
High
High/
Moderate
Moderate
Moderate/
Low
Low

7. 7
Episodes of
information
overload
Employee’s
information
processing
capacity
Time
Information Load

8. Management Information Systems (MIS)
With MIS group decision making is moving away from face to face
interaction and towards computer mediated communication.
Telecommunications
Telephone caller ID (pick up the name), e-mail, voice messaging,
electronic bulletin boards, chat rooms, skipe
Telecommuting
e.g. home page, browser, chat room and search engine
Telecommuting training systems
8

9.  Defined as “nonword human response (such
as gestures, facial expressions) and the
perceived characteristics of the environment
through which the human verbal and
nonverbal messages are transmitted”.
Nonverbal communication -Video
9

10. Body Language and Paralanguage
 Body Language
 Facial expressions
 Eyes
 Feet
 Hands
 Posture
E.g. Good salespeople, advertisers capitalized on
their knowledge of people’s eyes.
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11.  Paralanguage
 Voice quality
 Tone
 Volume
 Speech rate
 Pitch
 Nonfluencies (“ah”, “um”, or “uh”)
 Laughing
 Yawning
11

12. Transferring information from one person to
other.
Communication is looked on as a basic
method of effecting behavioral change, and it
incorporates the psychological processes
(perception, learning, and motivation) on the
one hand and language on the other.
12

13. Terms in Interpersonal Communication
Communicator
 The person originating the message.
Receiver
 The person receiving a message.
Perceptual Screen
 A window through which we interact with people that
influences the quality, accuracy, and clarity of the
communication.
Message
 The thoughts and feelings that the communicator is attempting
to elicit (extract) in the receiver.
13

14. Terms in Interpersonal Communication cont’d
Feedback
 Information fed back that completes two-way
communication.
Language
 The words, their pronunciation, and the methods of
combining them used and understood by a group of
people.
Data
 Uninterpreted and unanalyzed facts.
14

15. Terms in Interpersonal Communication cont’d
Information
 Data that have been interpreted, analyzed, and have
meaning to user.
Richness
 The ability of a medium or channel to elicit or evoke
meaning in the receiver.
15

16. 16
Effective Feedback Ineffective Feedback
1. Intended to help the employee
2. Specific
3. Descriptive
4. Useful
5. Timely
6. Considers employee readiness
for feedback
7. Clear
8. Valid
1. Intended to belittle the employee
2. General
3. Evaluative
4. Inappropriate
5. Untimely
6. Makes the employee defensive
7. Not understandable
8. Inaccurate

17. 17

18. 18

19.  Trust
 Expectations
 Values
 Status
 Compatibility
Generation gap can play havoc with
interpersonal communication (Status
differentials and incompatibilities)
19

20. 20
Downward
Upward
Lateral
(Horizontal)

21.  Downward communication.
 The flow of information follows the chain of command
from top to bottom.
 Downward communication informs lower level personnel
about the higher level managers’:
▪ Strategies.
▪ Objectives.
▪ Instructions.
▪ Policies.
▪ Feedback.
21

22.  Upward communication.
 The flow of information from lower to higher levels of the
organization.
 Upward communication informs higher level personnel
about lower level workers’:
▪ Problems.
▪ Results.
▪ Suggestions.
▪ Questions.
▪ Needs.
22

23. Lateral communication.
 The flow of information across persons or work
units at the same hierarchical level.
 Lateral communication enables persons and work
units to coordinate:
▪ Problems.
▪ Needs.
▪ Advice.
▪ Feedback.
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24. Lateral communication cont’d.
 Very important in high performance
organizations.
▪ Serving external customers.
▪ Serving internal customers.
 Organizational ecology.
▪ The study of how building design may influence
communication and productivity by improving lateral
communication.
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25.  Cultural differences leads to
Communication Breakdown across cultures.
 Ethnocentric Problems.
▪ The tendency to believe that one’s culture and it values
are superiors to those of others.
▪ Often linked to an unwillingness to understand
alternative points of view.
 Stereotyping Problems
▪ E.g. Ask people from US which country is famous for its
auto engineering and the most common answer is
Germany.
 Perceptual Problems
25

26. Dynamics of OB:
Decision Making

27. Decision making
 Compare the rational model of decision making with Simon’s
normative model.
 Discuss knowledge management and ways that companies
increase knowledge sharing.
 Explain the model of decision-making styles and the stages
of the creative process.
 Explain how participative management affects performance.
 Describe techniques used to improve the quality of group
decisions
27

28. 28
 Decision making
 identifying and choosing solutions that lead to a
desired result

29.  The Rational Model
 logical four-step approach to decision making.
1. Identifying the problem
2. Generating alternative solutions
3. Selecting a solution
4. Implementing and evaluating the solution
(Continued)
29

30.  Identifying the Problem
 Problem – exists when the actual situation and
the desired situation differ
 Generating Solutions
 For routine decisions alternatives are readily
available through decision rules
(Continued)
30

31.  Selecting a Solution
 Want to maximize the expected utility of an outcome
 People vary in their preferences for safety or risk
 Ethics should be considered
 Evaluating alternatives assume they can be judged
according to some criteria
 Assumes valid criteria exists
 Each alternative can be compared to these criteria
 Decision maker actually uses the criteria
(Continued)
31

32.  Implementing and Evaluating the Solution
 After solution is implemented, the evaluation
phase is used to evaluate its effectiveness
 Optimizing – choosing the best possible solution
(Continued)
32

33. Decision making is characterized by:
1. Limited information processing
2. Use of judgmental heuristics
3. Satisficing
(Continued)
33

34. Bounded rationality
 constraints that restrict decision making. Rationality
of individuals is limited by the information they have,
the cognitive limitations of their minds, and the finite
amount of time they have to make decisions.
 Limited Information Processing
 Tendency to acquire manageable rather
than optimal amounts of information
 Difficult for managers to identify all
possible alternative solutions
(Continued)
34

35.  Judgmental heuristics
 rules of thumb or shortcuts that people use to
reduce information processing demands.
 Availability heuristic
 tendency to base decisions on information readily
available in memory.
 Representativeness heuristic
 tendency to assess the likelihood of an event
occurring based on impressions about similar
occurrences.
(Continued)
35

36.  Satisficing
 choosing a solution that meets a minimum
standard rather than to identify an optimal
solution
(Continued)
36

37.  Knowledge management
 implementing systems and practices that increase
the sharing of knowledge and information
throughout an organization
37

38.  Tacit (unspoken) knowledge
 information gained through experience that is
difficult to express and formalize.
 Explicit knowledge
 information that can be easily put into words and
shared with others.
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39.  Decision making styles
 combination of how individuals perceive and
respond to information
Value orientation
reflects the extent to which an individual focuses on either
task and technical concerns or people and social concerns
when making decisions
Tolerance for ambiguity
extent to which a person has a high need for structure or
control in his life
39

40. 40

41.  Participative Management
 involving employees in various forms of decision
making
• Setting goals
• Making decisions
• Solving problems
• Making changes in the organization
41

42.  Creativity
 process of using intelligence, imagination, and
skill to develop a new or novel product, object,
process, or thought
42

43.  Minority dissent (disagree)
 extent to which group members feel comfortable
disagreeing with other group members, and the
extent to which group
members participate
in decision making
(Continued)
43
Agree to Disagree

44.  Consensus
 presenting opinions and gaining agreement to
support a decision
 Brainstorming
 process to generate a quantity of ideas
(Continued)
44

45. Rules for Brainstorming
1. Defer judgment
2. Build on the ideas of others
3. Encourage wild ideas
4. Go for quantity over quality
5. Be visual
6. Stay focused on the topic
7. One conversation at a time
(Continued)
45

46.  Nominal GroupTechnique
 process to generate ideas and evaluate solutions.
 Delphi technique
 process to generate ideas from physically
dispersed experts
(Continued)
46
Computer-aided decision making
reduces consensus roadblocks
while collecting more information
in a shorter period of time

47. Questions
47