1

Reflection 5

Karina Durand

School of Business, University of the Cumberlands

BADM 532–A03 Organizational Behavior

Dr. Johnny Chavez III

February 3rd, 2022

 2

Reflection 5

The book Essentials of Organizational Behavior by Robbins & Judge (2021) explains that

communication has more parts to it than people usually think about. Encoding and decoding

messages are as important as speaking and hearing. There are different types of communication.

Communication can be downward, from a supervisor or authority to someone under them in a

hierarchy, or upward, which is the reverse. Communication can also be lateral, meaning between

people at the same "level”. Rumors can be more accurate than downward communication in

certain companies, specifically, companies that are not as transparent (Robbins & Judge, 2021).

Depending on what you want to communicate, you should choose which channel to use.

For more important communications and communications that are more serious and emotionally

charged, you need channel richness, which is going to be ideally face-to-face, or possibly, in our

current times, video communication. However, if you just need to give someone a reminder or

share information that is not very emotionally charged, then something as simple as a memo or

maybe a text message or a note might do the trick (Robbins & Judge, 2021).

Nonverbal communication is extremely important and regarding all communication,

cultural implications are also important. What is acceptable and even respectful in one culture

can be unacceptable and disrespectful in another (Robbins & Judge, 2021). There is a common

example of eye contact that in western cultures it is respectful for someone to make eye contact

with whomever is speaking to them, but in many eastern cultures, it is disrespectful for someone

in a lower part of the hierarchy to make eye contact with someone in a higher part of a hierarchy.

I actually just had a similar experience at work when I was speaking with a manager. I come

from a culture where we say a lot of things that are implied and are not necessarily as direct as

mainstream American culture, and when I explained that that is probably why she thought that I
 3

had not told her something that I believed I had. She said that that is not a cultural difference and

that I just was not being transparent. She obviously has no understanding of the concept of

cultural differences even though she thinks she does.

Leaders play a very important role in all organizations. A leader and a manager are not

the same thing, even though the terms oftentimes, unfortunately, are used interchangeably.

However, many leaders have to be managers and managers have to be leaders. Managers

specifically deal with tasks whereas leaders deal with people. You cannot manage people the

same way that you manage tasks, so it is important to ensure that you are being inspirational and

building trust with the people you are meant to lead (Robbins & Judge, 2021).

If I had been promoted to a district manager at a large restaurant chain and was expected

to increase sales of appetizers by 20% at 15 locations, I would have to ensure to use the proper

communication channels so that the employees of each of those restaurants become inspired to

help me accomplish that goal. I would personally visit each of the restaurants and plan out with

the manager of that location to put on some sort of event for the employees and to produce

incentives. It would have to be face-to-face for me to really get that emotion across and be able

to inspire the team members.

 4

References

Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2021). Essentials of organizational behavior (15th ed.). Pearson.