Interpersonal

Communication
Course: Business Communication I
IIM Jammu

Barnali Chaudhary
 • An exchange of information between two or more people

• How humans adjust and adapt their verbal and nonverbal

communication for different communication scenarios

What? • How uncertainty influences behavior and information-

management strategies

• Interpersonal deception in communication

 • Social Exchange theory

Effective • Describes, explains, and predicts when and why people reveal
certain information about themselves to others
Communication
• Relationships grow, develop, deteriorate, and dissolve as a result
of unfolding social-exchange process
 • Team
• A unit of two or more people who share a mission and the the
responsibility to achieve a common goal

Effective • Advantages of teams • Disadvantages of teams

• Access to more • Groupthink
Communication information and • Scope for hidden
knowledge agendas
in teams • Diversity of views • Not economic
• Better acceptance of • Overloaded individuals
solution
• Better performance
 • Self-oriented
• Purpose to fulfil personal needs
• Less productive than others
Effective
Communication • Team maintenance
• Contribute to team goals
• Help everyone work well together
Team roles
• Task oriented
• Help the team reach its goal
 Effective
Communication

Team roles
 • Intercultural Communication
• A process of sending and receiving messages between people
Communication whose cultural backgrounds could lead to interpret verbal and
in a diverse nonverbal signs differently

world • To communicate successfully a basic understanding of cultural

differences are essential

• Efforts need to be made to recognize and bridge cultural differences

 • A shared system of symbols, beliefs, attitudes, values,
expectations and norms of behavior

• Members of same culture have similar assumptions about

how people should think, behave, communicate, etc.

• Culture is acquired and learnt directly as well as indirectly

Culture
• We belong to several cultures
• Country, we live in
• Ethnic group we belong to
• Religious
• Professional
 • People have difficulty with uncertainty
• To help predict behavior, we are motivated to seek information
about others
Intercultural • Uncertainty reduction mechanism:
Communication
• Passive strategies: observing the person
• Active strategies: asking others about the person or looking up
Uncertainty Reduction information
Theory • Interactive strategies: asking questions and self-disclosure
 Intercultural • When two individuals engaging in an interaction, each
construct their own interpretation and perception of what a
Communication conversation means
Coordinated
Management of • Then negotiate a common meaning by coordinating with each
Meaning Theory other
 • Humans are consistency seekers and attempt to reduce
Intercultural their dissonance, or cognitive discomfort
Communication
Cognitive Dissonance • When individuals encounter new information or new
Theory experiences, they categorize the information based on
their preexisting attitudes, thoughts, and beliefs
 • Helps to understand how individuals make inferences
Intercultural about observed behavior
Communication
• Assumes that we make attributions, or social judgments, as
Attribution Theory a means to clarify or predict behavior
 Intercultural • Ethnocentrism
Communication
• Stereotyping

Challenges
 • Different communication styles
Intercultural • Different attitudes towards conflict
• Different decision-making styles
Communication • Different attitudes towards disclosure
• Different attitudes toward hierarchy and authority
Challenges • Concept of time
 • Nonverbal

• Greetings
Intercultural • Personal space
Communication • Touch
• Facial expressions
• Posture
Challenges • Eye contact
• Formality
 • Gender based
Intercultural
• Gender roles in business
Communication • Ratio
• Communication styles
Challenges • Gender and sexual orientation
 • Avoid assumptions
Intercultural
Communication • Withhold judgement

• Acknowledge distinctions
Culture

Elizabeth A Tuleja, 2017

 Immigrant population survey

Importance
of
Cross Cultural
Communication

(Source: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs: Population Division, 2013.)
 Successful
Intercultural
Communication
Components
 Intercultural • Be aware of your own biases
• Use of the “Golden Rule” with caution
Communication • Exercise tolerance, flexibility and respect
• Practice patience
Adaptation strategies • Sense of humor
 Intercultural • Study other cultures
• Understand social customs
Communication • Clothing and food preferences
• Learn about religious and social beliefs
Adaptation strategies
• Learn other languages
 • Learn how the source culture best receives
Diverse communications
workplace • Train international employees early and often
• Train the non-foreign-born, too
• Assign mentors and take care of the spouses too
Ways to communicate • Practice open-door communication—carefully
better • In company-wide communications, avoid jargon and slang
• Play by the rules and stick to business

"Seven Ways to Better Communicate in Today's Diverse Workplace," Harvard Management

Communication Letter, November 2002
 • Can helping others to adapt to your culture help you
Give it a
understand it better? How?
thought!