Managerial Communication

Unit 2
Unit 2: (8 Hours)
Oral Communication: Meaning – Principles of successful oral communication – Barriers to
communication – Conversation control –Reflection and Empathy: two sides of effective oral
communication. Modes of Oral Communication – Listening as a Communication Skill, Non-
verbal communication

MEANING
Oral communication is also known as verbal communication, is the interchange of verbal
messages between sender and receiver. It is more immediate than written communication. It
more natural and informal in nature.

Oral communication is the process of expressing information or ideas by word of mouth

“The man who can think and does not know how to express what he thinks, is at the same
level who as the person cannot think”

A communication medium is simply "how" your message is sent to the receiver. It is often
referred to as the communication channel.

CHARACTERISTICS / FEATURES OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

• Two way process: oral communication is speedy two ways process. The messages in oral
communication travel forth and back without any loss of time, making it highly interactive.
• One off exercise: oral communication is one off exercise, as it is not repeated and there is no
written record to which any reference can be made.
• Day to day language: the use of common convectional, day to day conversational language
is considered to be the most effective in oral communication.
• Presence of sender and receiver: the presence of both sender and receiver is required at the
same time, for oral communication to take place.
• Principles: accuracy, clarity and brevity are the three principles of oral communication,
which can be achieved by usage of right language during communication.
• Effect of body language and modulation: high or low pitch voice or gestures made during
the speech greatly influence the quality of oral communication.
• It cannot be erased or mended: spoken words once communicated cannot be altered or
manipulated. Clarity of thought is an aspect important to be considered during oral
communication.

CHARACTERISTICS OF EFFECTIVE ORAL COMMUNICATION

• Pre-planning: the speaker preparation for the communication in terms of content and
timings. the speaker must have pre-plan to send the message properly to the audience or
receiver.
• Consider the objective: speaker should have a clear understanding about main intention of
the talk and what it is directed towards.
• Think about the interest level of receiver: communicator should understand requirement of
target audience, their intention behind attending the session. This helps the speaker to
effectively prepare communication content.
• Be sincere: communicator should be sincere in terms of content preparation in case of cross
questioning, where speaker should be able to clarify audience doubts.
• Use polite words and tone: speaker should make use of words which are persuading in
nature and which draw audience attention towards talk of speaker.
• Use simple language, familiar words: speaker should avoid using jargons, prepositions and
terminologies, specific to varied domain area, when not related to the talk.
• Be brief and precise: speaker should be brief in terms of elaborating the concept, he should
talk to the point and avoid wastage of time.
• Avoid vagueness and generalities: communicator should be particular in terms of goal,
towards which the content is directed. Concept than being generalized should be related
towards interest area of audience.
• Assume nothing: speaker should not give conclusion based on individual assumption, but
his data should be supported by proved facts.

ADVANTAGES / BENEFITS/ MERITS OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

• Immediate feedback: oral communication provides advantage of immediate feedback, as
both the parties can clarify their doubts during the process of conversation.
• Better relationship: oral communication builds a healthy climate in the organization, by
bringing superior and subordinate together and help them in building close informal relation.
• Time saving oral communication is time saving, as it reduces paperwork and ensures quick
delivery of message to receiver.
• Effective tool of persuasion: oral communication is effective tool of persuasion, as it lends a
personal touch to whole business. Oral communication plays important role in resolving
conflicts at workplace.
• Effective tool for group communication: oral communication is very effective in
interacting with groups. The speaker can immediately understand the groups reaction and
arrive at satisfactory conclusion by expressing his view and taking feedback from target
audience.
• Economical: oral communication is economical in nature, both in terms of money and time.
It saves money by avoiding paper usage and time by immediate communication of message.
• Allows to measure effectiveness immediately: oral communication allows measuring
effectiveness immediately and conveniently. The communicator can determine whether the
receiver is following him or not.

DISADVANTAGES / DEMERITS OF ORAL COMMUNICATION

• Lack of documentation: discussions in oral communication are not documented, so its
impact is temporary in nature.
• Distortion in passing the message: while oral communications are transmitted from one
person to another, or in chain, there is possibility of distortion of message, as the hearing
capability and perception level of different individuals vary.
• No legal validity: in the absence of a taped or written record, oral message does not have any
legal validity.
• Possibility of misunderstanding: oral communication may lead to misunderstanding due to
lack of proper usage of words, unorganized messages.
• Unsuitable for long messages: effectiveness of oral communication depends on length of
message to be communicated, as the listener may not have patience to concentrate on
message for duration of more than an hour.
• Difficulty in assigning responsibility: it is difficult to assign responsibility for mistakes
made during the conversation, as it depends on perception of sender and receiver of message.
• It is constrained by physical barriers: physical barriers like noise, environment, and
technical problems negatively affect the flow of oral communication.

PRINCIPLES OF EFFECTIVE ORAL COMMUNICATION

Brevity
Clarity
Choosing precise words
Clichés
Sequences
Avoid jargon
Grammer
Free from Errors
Fluency

❖ Brevity: Message should be brief in nature. It should not be time consuming and content
delivery by the speaker should be to the point.
❖ Clarity: it is important for the speaker to have clarity, in terms of concept and content of the
talk. Clarity can be achieved by simple and common words.
❖ Choosing precise words: using precise words means, speaking about the exact details, using
the right words at right place to context, which will convey the meaning intended by the
speaker.
❖ Clichés: means a phrase which is used often and has no meaning. An effective
communicator avoids clichés during communication. E.g. fine, ok, oh etc.
❖ Sequences: speaker should not skip points or change the sequence of consistency, continuity
and logical development of the subject. Speaker should be clear about beginning and end of
the talk.
❖ Avoid jargon: speaker should avoid irrelevant jargons during the talk. Jargon refers to usage
of word relating to domain areas. Terminology relating to science, technology etc.
❖ Grammar: unnecessary prepositions should be avoided to make content of talk simple. E.g.
He will be on leave today for certain period of time. He will be on leave today up to 6
o’clock. We jumped in the lake, I heard the sound of loud music
Adjectives and adverbs: should be used where necessary. They emphasize the meaning with
degree of importance. E.g. Active consideration, positive decision will be taken,
comparatively.
❖ Fluency: means ease as condition of speaking. Fluent speaker is one who is heard with ease.
Listener does not have to strain his mind to receive, register and interpret message heard.
❖ Free from Errors: If the information in oral communication contains any error then it makes
the audience confused. Moreover, the audience will lose their confidence in the speaker. So,
information must be free from errors in oral communication.

BARRIERS TO EFFECTIVE ORAL COMMUNICATION

Status ❖ Status: in
organization refers to
Halo effect
formal and informal
Complexes-Inferior or Superiority relation among
employees in company.
Closed and all-knowing mind A lower level employee
Poor retention may hesitate to express
his hassles in front of his
Premature evaluation and hurried conclusions superior in organization.
❖ Halo effect: audience
Abstracting
interest in speaker
Slant depends on the trust
worthiness of audience.
Cognitive dissonance If the speaker is greatly
Language barriers trusted and held in high
esteem as an honest
person, his statement is readily taken as true.
❖ Complexes: lack of confidence or sense of superiority may prevent proper oral interaction
between persons differently positioned. Individuals due to inferiority complex may hesitate
to express their opinion.
❖ Closed and all-knowing mind: some individuals believe that they know everything about
the subject. Due to this attitude of audience they may not concentrate on content of speaker
irrespective of whether its effective or not.
❖ Poor retention: to deliver effective speech, the speaker should be organized in terms of
sequence and methodology to be adopted. If the speaker is not clear about the same, it leads
to vagueness in the minds of audience. As per the research, employees retain only 50% of
Information communicated to them.
❖ Premature evaluation and hurried conclusions: audience are required to listen patiently
for understanding speakers’ content. Incomplete attention and pre-judgement does not
provide clarity to audience in terms of talk delivered to them.
❖ Abstracting: when audience focus on few contents of the talk, in which they are interested
they tend to get superficial picture of the whole session. Audience may tend to arrive at pre-
mature conclusion, which may not be accurate. An abstract is a condensation of
something. focusing on some detail and omitting others is called Abstracting.
❖ Slant: is usually attributed to the biased presentation by the speaker. Instead of a straight
talk, one speaks in an indirect manner that could be almost like telling lie. But omitting too
much detail might change the context of the message. This might end up in a bias-oriented
message creating a barrier in communication and thus is known as slanting.
❖ Cognitive dissonance: the listener fails to accept or respond to assumptions underlying the
new information communicated, as he or she is not prepared to change.
❖ Language barriers: refers to lack of understanding on the part of listener, as he is not able
to follow the language used by the speaker.

CONVERSATION CONTROL
The art of conversation consists in our ability to listen with concentration and reply well.
Conversation control involves skills of listening and talking in a positive and meaningful
way at an appropriate time. It includes:
1. Techniques of changing the direction of conversation smoothly.
2. The ability to allow a discussion to develop along key issues in an uninterrupted way
towards the desired end.
1. Reflecting Listening is the process of paraphrasing and restating both the feelings and
words of the speaker.
• Mirroring: Mirroring is a simple form of reflecting and involves repeating almost
exactly what the speaker says.
• Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing involves using other words to reflect what the speaker has
said.
2. Empathetic Listening: is a way of listening and responding to another person that improves
mutual understanding and trust.
• Cognitive Empathy: Cognition is thinking or knowing. It is the process of evaluating a
situation and knowing what another person is going through because you can grasp the
situation via your own knowledge.
• Emotional Empathy, includes not only knowledge about what is happening to someone
else, but being able to feel what they feel.
• Compassionate Empathy, With this kind of empathy we not only understand a person’s
difficulty and feel with them, but are spontaneously moved to help, if needed.
Barriers to Empathy:
• “Stranger danger” It’s not surprising that it’s easier to empathize with people we
already know. But position of interacting with strangers—who are often frustrated or
 upset. If that sounds stressful, it’s because it is. Biologically-speaking, interactions with
strangers can elicit a stress response, releasing hormones that disrupt our ability to
empathize.
• Making snap decisions
Making quick decisions also makes us less likely to accurately assess a situation, and to
project our own emotions.
• Feeling the pressure
under pressure, the brain has a hard time distinguishing between its own emotional state
and the emotional state of others.
• Poor Communication Skills: The inability of other person to share his
emotions/feelings. This makes to misunderstand the feeling of others.
• Time Constraints: lack of time to understand others is another barrier for showing
empathy.
• Lack of Listening ability: Inability of the person to listen and respond to others feelings
or emotions.

Conversation control does not mean that you can control someone’s conversation. “What it does
mean is that with practice you can control your own conversation, and in time be able to
influence others, and encourage them to respond in a positive and relevant way”
The benefits of conversation control can be felt from observing the results of personal
interactions that involves discussions and meetings conducted in an orderly manner.
Conversation control helps us carry on and conclude our conversation effectively on a note of
satisfaction as a result of mutual understanding and agreement.
Following situations require application of conversation control skills
• How to sell or buy • How to protest without offending
• How to Negotiate • How to Compliment /Praise
• How to Interview • How to respond to Personal
• How to participate in a Meeting Criticism
• How to disagree without being rude

SKILLS REQUIRED FOR CONVERSATIONAL CONTROL

• Interacting with people in meetings in a convincing way.
• Ability to handle objections to a proposal made by you.
• Ability to handle criticism.

TECHNIQUES FOR CONVERSATION CONTROL

• Recognizing cues and clues: cues are what speaker gives to listener to understand gist of
talk, clues refers to hints what listener gives to speaker in form of doubts about speakers talk.
o Cues: what we give to others
o Clues: what we receive from others.
• Interpreting signs and signals: Understand and analyze those cues and clues, visual
indicators refer to body language exhibited both by speaker and listener such as movements
 of hands, legs, head which provides hint about comfort level of speaker and understanding of
content on part of listener.
• Avoiding Parallel conversation: it basically refers to when two or more persons have one
on one conversation with each other, where listener seeks for further information from
speaker.
• Sequential conversation: statements used by speaker during speech should be in sequential
order, there should be interlink or relationship between the various statement of content.
• Reflection and empathy:
• Reflecting is the process of paraphrasing and restating both the feelings and words of
the speaker.
• Mirroring: Mirroring is a simple form of reflecting and involves repeating almost exactly
what the speaker says.
• Paraphrasing: Paraphrasing involves using other words to reflect what the speaker has
said.
➢ Reflection basically refers to identify and reacting to key words in speaker’s statement. E.g.
Mr A to Mr B - Do I have to attend meeting. B should understand that A is trying to
understand his importance in meeting. Empathy refers to understanding feeling or
requirement of another person and act accordingly.
• Sense of time as skill: time management must be considered for conversation control; the
speaker should always keep in mind the time taken to communicate. The time limits
announced in formal oral activities should be strictly observed.
• Summary: speaker should summarize the content of talk to provide brief gist of talk at the
end and ask for listener feedback.

APPLICATION OF CONVERSATIONAL CONTROL

• Meeting: List of points to be discussed and do not deviate from the topics
• Advance circulation of agenda papers: to enable the members of the meeting, understand
the issues and prepare them to present their viewpoint.
• Chairperson: a meeting is chaired by person; whose role is to direct and conduct the
proceedings in an orderly manner. During the meeting the ruling of the chair is to be taken as
final words to be followed and respected by all the meeting members.
• The procedure: the rules, schedule, rights, discussion need to be organized. chairperson
should have control during meeting focusing on important issues and creating conditions for
sequential, linked and meaningful discussions for solutions.
• To be assertive without being aggressive: being assertive about one’s objective without
being rude or hurting others. Skills of avoiding parallel conversation, ensuring linkage in
every member talk
• Conversational attack and controlled response: verbal exercise for exchanging
information to reach a winning end is skill fully managed by conversational control. The
main purpose is to carry on and conclude discussion effectively.
TWO SIDES OF EFFECTIVE ORAL COMMUNICATION: Listening and Presenting

1. Listening: is an important component of conversation control. For listener to appreciate

speaker, he should be allowed to give his feedback and speaker should have patience in
terms of criticism from listener end.
CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD LISTENER
• Do not interrupt
• Remain patient
• Make eye contact
• Show interest
• Look attentive
• Concentrate ask open questions
2. Be effective presenter: oral communication is speaker’s ability to present his viewpoint.
In order to be effective presenter speaker should try to present facts, not opinion. Content
should be directed according to the interest level of listener.

MODES OF ORAL COMMUNICATION:

INDIVIDUAL COMMUNICATION
• Face to face communication refers to when individual is communicating to another person,
with intention of creating understanding in mind of person.
• Interview: is meeting where one person or panel of persons put forward questions to
interviewee. These are formal conversation conducted in organization with objective to select
suitable person for job.
• Telephone conversation: refers to conversation between two or more persons through
network communication.
• Grapevine: discussion among employees in an informal manner, on various aspects and
matters concerning the organization and its affairs.

GROUP COMMUNICATION
❖ Negotiations: refers to resolving issue by creating mutual understanding between aggrieved
parties.
❖ Meetings: is a formal gathering to resolve and discuss various issues or development aspects
to be implemented in company.
❖ Lecture / speech is a formal conversation, in which speaker communicates intended
information and audience listen to the same. Audience doubts will be clarified through
question and answer session.
❖ Presentation: has face to face setting, in which speaker delivers lecture on pre-planned topic
to audience interested in subject.
❖ Conference/ seminar/ workshops: a group deliberation on various topics and issues are held
in conference, seminars and workshop.

NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION
Nonverbal communication is the process of communication through sending and receiving
wordless (mostly visual) cues and clues between people. Messages are transmitted by non-verbal
signals and signs
• Process of sending and receiving messages through gesture, facial expression,
appearance, and body posture.
Nonverbal Communication has been defined as communication without words. It includes
apparent behaviors such as facial expressions, eyes, touching, and tone of voice, as well as less
obvious messages such as dress, posture and distance between two or more people.

Characteristics of Non-verbal Communication:

➢ Instinctive/Innate: non-verbal communication is instinctive in nature, it indicates the
attitude, instincts, and feelings of speaker.
➢ Less conscious: non-verbal communication is less deliberate in nature as most of
expressions and gestures are unconsciously expressed.
➢ Subtle: non-verbal communication is subtle and needs skill to be understood and
expressed.
➢ Complimentary to verbal communication: non-verbal communication is complements
verbal communication and makes it more effective.

Arms folded across chest: Something they don’t like, defensive/negative feeling towards others
Leaning over someone: telling them you are engaged. This works especially well if you are in a
group of people and you are interested in one person in the group
Pointing: placing blame on others/rude behavior
Wiping hands across face: Fear/threatening

CLASSIFICATION OF NON-VERBAL COMMUNICATION

Kinesics Communication is communicating by body movement and is perhaps the most well-
known non-verbal form of communication
Body posture
The way that the body is held can communicate many different messages. It can be sitting,
standing, walking postures which will be interpreted in many ways.
Gesture: Gesture is communicating through the movement of body especially head or hand.
Positive gestures: are body signals, which make you looked relaxed, confident and polite.
Positive listening gestures include leaning a little towards the speaker, tilting the head, eye
contact and gently nodding the head as the sign of agreement.
➢ Good speaking gestures include keeping one’s hands open. Avoid clutching them or
folding them across the chest. Hands should not be put in one’s pocket. One pocket in
hand shows arrogance and both hands in pocket shows nervousness.
➢ Impressive moving gestures include walking with your head upright. Hands should swing
freely on your sides. Eyes should look straight in front. Steps should be well measured
and steady.
Negative Gesture: Negative gesture involves body movements, posture such as shaking,
tapping, looking at the watch.
➢ Signs of Nervousness: Hands in the pocket, biting nails, scratching, covering the mouth
with your hand, drumming fingers, clearing your throat, wringing hands, rocking legs,
tapping your foot, touching tie etc.
➢ Gesture showing rudeness/aggressiveness: staring, shake hands too hard, give a limp
handshake
1. Emblems: when movement of body parts represents ideas as icon or images that
communicate is emblematic. It pictures the meaning non- verbally through physical
image. E.g. Thumb sign in Japan means boss and in India it means ok.
2. Illustrators: are movements of hands and arms for representing size, shape,
frequency or speed of something. Widespread arms directed towards person for hug
indicates interest of one person towards another.
3. Body manipulators: these acts of touching one’s own body or an object for no
reason. It involves fidgeting with jewellery or touching one’s own button. These are
unintentional in nature.
4. Facial expression: Is the most expressive part of individual’s body. Face reflects
individual’s thoughts and feelings. Smile, frown, blush, paleness reveals positive and
negative feelings.
5. Regulators eye movement such as squinting, winking, staring is called as regulators.
Eye contact, a smile or a frown are strong messages of an interest, involvement,
acceptance, rejection or annoyance. They communicate visual messages about our
subconscious thoughts.
Dress: look impressive not gorgeous, never be over dressed for the occasion, wear neither too
loose nor tight clothes.

Haptics: = touch = connection

Touch is primary/core personal experience, which is more proficient, capable of getting a
stimulus.
Touch: relieve pain, Create Bond, Feel Comfortable. In corporate, employee should understand
the concept of good touch and bad touch.
E. G: Tickling

Chronemics: Time
It is a study of Time in Communication; Chronemics is the study of how time affects
communication. It is used to understand the use of time in differing cultures, its effect on
technology and time management.

Oculesics: It is technical term of Eye Contact.

Oculesics, a subcategory of kinesics, is the study of eye movement, eye behavior, gaze, and eye-
related nonverbal communication. Direction of Eye, Intensity in having eye contact and eye
behaviour such as squinting, rolling, winking etc.

Proxemics/Proximities: Personal space: space between two interacting persons indicating the
level of formality, informality, intimacy
➢ Demarcation of zones: according to the nature of relationship, there are 4 distinct zones:
o Public zones: A public zone is the widest territory between the speaker and
audience.
o A public speaker addresses a large gathering of person
o Speaker needs to speak from a raised platform at a distance of 10 to 15 feet from
the audience
o Social Zones: is the space maintained between people who are known to each
other in a formal way. An executive keeps a distance of 4 to 10 feet between you
and audience
o Friendly Zones: is the distance we observe at business parties, other informal
business gathering. The gap between us is nearly 1.5 to 4 feet, we are able to
comfortably chat, laugh and joke with each other.
o Intimate zone: is the closest zone between you and the other person. The gap is
nearly equal to 6 to 18 inches.
o Near Intimate zone: up to 6 inches - lover, partner, children, family
o Distant intimate zone: 6 to 18 inches’ close friends, colleagues, relatives.

ADVANTAGES OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION

➢ Ability to act as a victim of power posturing makes its victim feel shattered and
completely nervous. Appropriate body language helps individual to express confident
facial expression in such situation.
➢ Avoid double cross: individual should not express multiple gestures in single situation,
which makes it difficult for speaker to predict gesture of a person. E.g. Leaning forward
and scratching one’s head or folding your hands.
➢ Use comfort gesture skilfully: there are comforting body gestures such as touching
earlobes or back of the neck or stroking hair. These acts restore confidence but should be
performed skilfully without notice of speaker.
➢ Reassuring standing position: if you are invaded by power posturing, when you are
standing try and avoid being nervousness by standing up in an easy form, with your arms
and your feet apart by 9 to 10 inches. This posture will give you firm balanced posturing.
**********THANK YOU**********