11

Communicating in
Teams and Organizations
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Blogging as Org Communication

Sun Microsystems
president Jonathan
Schwartz says that blogs
have a lot to offer as a
communication medium in
organizations

Courtesy of Sun Microsystems

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-2 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Definition of Communication

• The process by which

information is transmitted
and understood between
two or more people
• Transmitting the sender’s
intended meaning (not
just symbols) is the
essence of good
communication

Courtesy of Sun Microsystems

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-3 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Four Functions of Communication

 Coordinating work
activities

 Fulfilling the drive

to bond

 Knowledge
management

 Decision making
Courtesy of Sun Microsystems

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-4 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Communication Process Model

Sender Receiver
Transmit
Message
Receive
Form Encode Decode
encoded
message message message
message

Noise

Decode Receive Encode Form

feedback feedback feedback feedback
Transmit
Feedback

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-5 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Admiral Warns Staff of E-mail Faults

Courtesy of Admiral Insurance

Executives at Admiral Insurance are concerned that e-mail is

making staff at the Welsh company less polite. Along with
reminding employees of e-mail’s limitations, Admiral holds 'no
email days’, encouraging employees to increase face-to-face
communication.

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-6 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Benefits of Email

1.Preferred medium for

coordinating work
2.Tends to increase
communication volume
3.Significantly alters
communication flow
– Less face-to-face/telephone
– More upward
communication
4.Reduces some selective
attention biases
Courtesy of Admiral Insurance

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-7 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Problems with Email

1.Communicates
emotions poorly
2.Impersonal medium
– reduces politeness and
respect (flaming)
3.Inefficient for
ambiguous, complex,
novel situations
4.Increases information
overload

Courtesy of Admiral Insurance

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-8 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Other Electronic Communication

• Instant messaging
– More efficient than email
– Allows simultaneous communication events
– Real-time communities through clustered
communication
• Blogging (web logs)
– Seem more personal than large meetings
– Empower employees to share information
– Ability to archive information

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-9 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Nonverbal Communication
 Actions, facial gestures, voice intonation,
silence, etc.
 Transmits most info in face-to-face meetings
 Influences meaning of verbal and written
symbols
 Less rule bound than verbal communication
 Important part of emotional labor
 Automatic and unconscious

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-10 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Emotional Contagion

• The automatic process of sharing another

person’s emotions by mimicking their facial
expressions and other nonverbal behavior
• Emotional contagion serves three purposes:
1. Provides continuous feedback to speaker
2. Increases emotional understanding of the other
person’s experience
3. Communicates a collective sentiment -- sharing
the experience

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-11 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Hierarchy of Media Richness
Rich

Overloaded
Zone

Media
Richness

Oversimplified
Zone

Lean

Nonroutine/
Routine/clear Situation Ambiguous

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-12 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Experience Affects Media Richness

• For electronic media, the communicator’s

experience with the medium and receiver
increases media richness:
• Experience with the medium
– Enables user to “push” amount of message through
that medium
• Experience with the receiver
– Both parties have similar “codebooks” when familiar
with each other

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-13 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Communication Barriers

• Perceptions

• Filtering

• Language
– Jargon
– Ambiguity

• Information Overload

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-14 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Information Overload
Episodes of
information
overload

Employee’s
information
processing
capacity

Information Load

Time
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-15 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Managing Information Overload

• Solution 1: Increase information processing capacity

– Learn to read faster
– Scan through documents more efficiently
– Remove distractions
– Time management
– Temporarily work longer hours

• Solution 2: Reduce information load

– Buffering
– Omitting
– Summarizing

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-16 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Thumbs Up to the Boss!
In Australia, a co-worker asked
Patricia Oliveira why she
laughed when he gave the
thumbs up that everything is OK.
She explained that this gesture
“means something not very nice”
in her home country of Brazil.
After hearing this, several co-
workers gave the boss a lot
more thumbs up signs!
©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-17 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Cross-Cultural Communication

• Verbal differences
– Language
• Nonverbal differences
– Voice intonation
– Interpreting nonverbal
meaning
– Importance of verbal versus
nonverbal
– Silence and conversational
overlaps
©Mark M. Lawrence/Corbis

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-18 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Gender Communication Differences

Men Women
Report talk Rapport talk

Gives advice Gives advice indirectly

quickly and and reluctantly
directly
Conversations are Conversations are
negotiations of status bonding events

Less sensitive to More sensitive to

nonverbal cues nonverbal cues

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-19 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Getting Your Message Across

• Empathize

• Repeat the message

• Use timing effectively

• Be descriptive

© Photodisc. With permission.

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-20 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Active Listening Process & Strategies
Sensing
• Postpone evaluation
• Avoid interruptions
• Maintain interest

Active
Listening

Responding Evaluation
• Show interest • Empathize
• Clarify the message • Organize information

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-21 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Communicating in Hierarchies

1. Work space design

2. E-zines, blogs, wikis

3. Employee surveys

4. Direct communication with management

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-22 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Organizational Grapevine

• Early research findings

– Transmits information rapidly in all directions
– Follows a cluster chain pattern
– More active in homogeneous groups
– Transmits some degree of truth

• Changes due to internet

– Email becoming the main grapevine medium
– Social networks are now global
– Public blogs and forums extends gossip to everyone

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-23 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Grapevine Benefits/Limitations

• Benefits
– Fills in missing information from formal sources
– Strengthens corporate culture
– Relieves anxiety
– Signals that problems exist
• Limitations
– Distortions might escalate anxiety
– Perceived lack of concern for employees when
company info is slower than grapevine

McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-24 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 11

Communicating in
Teams and Organizations
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 11

Chapter Eleven
Extras
McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
 Guessing E-Mail Emoticons

:-) Happy

:-} Smirk

<:-) Dumb question

:-X OOPS!

:-j Tongue in cheek

{} Hug
McShane/Von Glinow OB4e Slide 11-27 © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.