MGMT 2110:

Organizational Behavior

Communication

Jaee Cho
Assistant Professor
Department of Management
 Topics

Leadership,
Personality & Power, &
Values Influence Teams
People

Emotion, OB
Attitude,& Stress

Team
Motivation
Dynamics
Decision
Making

Organizations
 Agenda

• Basic concepts
• Communication process model
• Communication barriers
• Nonverbal communication
• Cross-cultural communication
 Communication

• The process by which information is transmitted and understood

between two or more people

• Transmitting the sender’s intended meaning is the essence of good

communication
 Functions of Communication

• Coordinating work activities

• Fulfilling drive to bond
• Knowledge management
• Provide a release for emotional expression
• Provide information needed to make decisions
 Agenda

• Basic concepts
• Communication process model
• Communication barriers
• Nonverbal communication
• Cross-cultural communication
 Communication process model

Sender Channel Receiver

Transmit
Message Receive
Form Encode Decode
encoded
message message message
message

Noise

Decode Receive Encode Form

feedback feedback feedback feedback
Transmit
Feedback
 Basic components
in a communication process

• Sender

• who has a message to send to the receiver

encode the message &

• must _______
select a communication channel
Information that can be objectively measured
or described; Word & Number

Employee’s emotional responses to the decisions

made or actions taken by managers or other
employees; Body language / Tone of voice
 Basic components
in a communication process

• Receiver

• Decode the message and understand its true meaning

from sender

• Effective communication depends on :

Whether the receiver can ______
decode the message
 Basic components
in a communication process

• Decoding

Re-translating a sender’s communication message

E.g., “Jim will give a book to Peter this afternoon.

He will then give the book to me tomorrow. “
 Basic components
in a communication process

• Feedback

• Information sent from receiver back to the sender

• as a check against misunderstanding

• Noise

• Any obstruction
• Any irrelevant information
• Bad telephone connection
• Inattentive receiver
 Improving Communication
Coding/Decoding

• Carry the same “_________”

codebook

• More accurate and more efficient communication

• Less need for redundancy
• Similar mental models of the communication context
• Requires less communication
• Familiarity with the message topic
• Learn best symbols to communicate that topic
• Speakers must take into account what that audience does and does
not know.
• Proficiency with the communication channel
 Communication principle
(Grice’s maxim)

• Speakers are assumed to

• Produce a message that is as informative as required
• But to avoid making them more informative than is needed
• Receivers’ knowledge
• Varies from person to person
• Same utterance can be informative to one person but
uninformative to another person
• Depending on the person’s expertise in the topic of
discussion
When there’s a conflict or bad news

Gavett (2015), The essential guide to crafting a work email, Harvard Business Review,
https://hbr.org/2015/07/the-essential-guide-to-crafting-a-work-email
15
 Communication Barriers

Perception Language

Information
Filtering
Overload
 Perception: Our perceptual process are
imperfect

Selective
Attitudes attention
Interests

Needs
Expectations

Backgrounds
 Filtering

• Willful distortion of information.

• In organizations, usually arise in upward

communication.
• Employees tend to pass only those messages that
create positive impression about them.
 Language

• Ambiguity
• Actual language spoken (e.g., English vs.
Cantonese)
Jargon
• _______
Information Overload
Episodes of
information
overload

People’s
information
processing
capacity

Information Load

Time
 Agenda

• Basic concepts
• Communication process model
• Communication barriers
• Nonverbal communication
• Cross-cultural communication
 Communications 101

• A message is delivered using….

• Words
• Non-Verbal
• tone and inflection
• Body Language

• Words = 7%
• All the rest = 93%

Actions DO speak louder than words.

 Non-verbal Communication

• Nonverbal Communication Channel

• Actions, facial expressions, gestures, voice intonation, physical distance, silence

• Nonverbal behavior expresses

• Like and dislike
• Dominance or submissiveness (status)
• Amount of reaction (interest)

• Expressed through
• Voice intonation
• Eye contact
• Etc.
 What to do / not to do…?

• Make audience comfortable • No hands in pocket

• Maintain eye contacts • No ‘hiding’ behind podium
• Pause, check for • No reading off cheat sheet
understanding
• Be confident (You are the
• Tie ending back to the expert!)
beginning
• Visual aid (Don’t be
wordy!)

But of course, everyone has different styles, find the

one that is most suitable for you…
 Agenda

• Basic concepts
• Communication process model
• Communication barriers

• Nonverbal communication
• Cross-cultural communication
 Cultural context

• High-context cultures
• Cultures that rely heavily on nonverbal & subtle situational cues in
communication

• Low-context cultures
• Cultures that rely heavily on word to convey meaning in communication
 Four rules enhance cross-cultural
communication

1. Assuming differences until similarity is proven

2. Emphasizing description (factual)

rather than interpretation / evaluation (subjective)

3. Practicing empathy
- Try to imagine yourself in the recipient’s shoes

4. Testing your interpretations

 Presentation!

• Practice beforehand
• “Practicing with someone not in your field will help you focus on being clear”
(Kehoe, 2005)

• Show your enthusiasm about your research and ideas

• Don’t read. Just talk : Avoid the obvious reading on
notes
• Provide signposts
• What you’re doing in your talk, and where you are in it right now

• Use humor and performance but only make them

relevant not irritating

Edwards (2014); Kehoe, (2005)

Some Rules of Thumb (Edwards, 2014)