Communication

- Exchange of information and understanding

Communication process starts with the sender who has an idea or a message, which is then
transmitted through a selected channel to the receiver, who in turn must be ready for the
reception of the message, so that it could be decoded into thoughts.

Types of Communication

1. Verbal communication - oral and written communication

2. Non-verbal communication - communication through body movements
3. Formal communication - communication takes place within prescribed
4. Informal communication - not defined by an organization's hierarchical structure

Direction and flow of communication

- Communication flows in different directions within an organization
Vertical communication
- Involves communication flow between people belonging to different organizational
levels
Upward communication
- Flow of info from an employee who belongs to a lower hierarchical level to the boss
who belongs to a higher hierarchical level
Downward communication
- Flow of info from the manager, who belongs to a higher hierarchical level
Horizontal/Lateral communication
- Takes place among employees belonging to the same hierarchical level
Diagonal communication
- Entails communicating with someone or others who belong to different
departments/units and different hierarchical levels

Types of Communication network

1. Chain network – communication flows according to the usual formal chain of command
2. Wheel network – between a leader and other members of their group/team
3. All channel network – flows freely among all members of a team

Other communication networks

Grapevine – informal communication network in an organization
Information technology – has made it possible for managers to communicate with each other
and with subordinates and for employees to communicate with each other anytime

Barriers to communication
a. Organization members may encounter various types of barrier that can alter the
meaning of communications that they receive
 b. Barriers include: filtering, emotions, information overload, defensiveness, language and
national culture
c. FILTERING – the shaping of information communicated in order to make it look good or
advantageous to the receiver.
d. EMOTIONS – interpretation of communications that may be influenced by extreme
emotions felt by the receiver
e. INFORMATION OVERLOAD – another barrier to good communication since there are
too many pieces of information received by an individual may have a negative effect on
person’s processing capacity
f. DEFENSIVENESS – act of self-protection when people are threatened by something or
someone.
g. LANGUAGE – hamper good communications because words used may have different
meanings to different people belonging to different age, educational background or
cultural group
h. NATIONAL CULTURE –
i. FEEDBACK
j. SIMPLE LANGUAGE
k. ACTIVE LISTENING
l. CONTROLLING EMOTIONS
m. BODY LANGUAGE

Decision making
- Process which begins with problem identification and ends with the evaluation of
implemented solutions

Decision-making process

1. Identify the problem

2. Identify the decision criteria
3. Allocate weights to the criteria
4. Develop alternatives
5. Analyze the alternatives
6. Select an alternative
7. Implement the chosen alternative
8. Evaluate decision effectiveness

Structured or programmed decision

- Decision that is repetitive and can be handled using a routine approach

Unstructured or nonprogrammed decision

- Applied to the resolution of problems that are new or unusual and for which
information is complete

Certainty conditions
 - Ideal conditions in deciding problems; are these situations in which a manager can make
precise decisions because the results of the alternatives are known.

Risk or uncertainty conditions

- A more common condition in deciding on problems

RISK
- For some, there is never enough information to reach a comfortable level of risk, leading
to what some call “analysis paralysis”

Psychological traps:

a. Anchoring trap – placing disproportionate weight on first or more superficial

information found during information gathering

b. Status quo trap – bias toward doing what you’ve always done despite better
alternatives

c. Sunk cost trap – tendency to perpetuate mistakes of the past

d. Confirming evidence trap – bias toward information and judgment that supports an
existing predilection

e. Prudence trap – being overcautious about the degree of risk

f. Recallability trap – placing undue weight on recent experiences