Introduction to Managerial Communication

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Introduction to Managerial Communication
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The Communication Process

• Your success in business will depend upon your
  ability to communicate
• Conflict management, hiring practices, message
  efficacy, representing your firm internally and
  externally
• The purpose of this course is to help you develop
  two of the most important communication skills
  writing and speaking

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The Role of Communication in Contemporary
Organizations

• Leo Rosten, U.S. author and political scientists
  writes, Extremists think communication means
  agreeing with them
• Does communication equate agreement?
• The workplace is much more diverse and complex
  than it was just a few decades ago, and it
  requires more sophisticated management
  communication skills.

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Listening Important Workplace Skill

• Active Listening
• Passive Listening

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Improving Your Listening

• Choose to find the subject useful.
• Poor listeners dismiss most business meetings as
  dull and irrelevant. They turn off quickly.
• Effective listeners separate the wheat from the
  chaff. They choose to listen to discover new
  knowledge.
• Concentrate on the words and message, not on your
  bosss looks, clothes or delivery.
• Poor listeners notice faults in a speakers
  appearance or delivery.
• Effective listeners strive to learn new content.
• When you hear something you're not sure you agree
  with, react slowly and thoughtfully.
• Poor listeners stop listening to the speaker and
  start listening to themselves. They either
  passively reject what is being said or they
  launch into impassioned rebuttals (to
  themselves).
• Effective listeners don't jump to conclusions and
  then disengage. They keep conclusions tentative
  while getting more information.
• Identify the "big ideas," those fundamental
  concepts to which everything else in the lecture
  is related.
• Poor listeners say, "I listen only for facts."
  They may retain a few of those facts, but the
  information is usually garbled.
• Effective listeners look for foundational
  concepts. They grab key ideas and use them as
  anchor points for the entire lecture.

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Improving Your Listening

• Adjust your note taking system to the speakers
  pattern.
• Some poor listeners attempt to outline
  everything, believing an outline and notes are
  the same thing. They get frustrated when they
  cannot see "points A, B and C."
• Effective listeners adjust their note-taking to
  the organizational pattern used by the speaker.
• Stay attentive.
• Poor listeners let their minds wander.
• Effective listeners remain focused and actively
  try to absorb material.
• Aggressively tackle difficult material.
• When poor listeners encounter a tough topic, they
  stop absorbing and let things start bouncing off
  them.
• Effective listeners condition themselves to be
  interested in challenging matters. They find a
  challenge in grasping the meaning of what is
  being said -- no matter how difficult the
  subject.
• Don't get derailed by emotionally charged "buzz"
  words that trigger negative responses.
• Poor listeners tune people out on the basis of a
  few words.
• Effective listeners don't let the emotional
  baggage of a word hinder them from getting at the
  substance of a lecture.

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Improving Your Listening

• Get to know the speaker personally.
• Poor listeners see speakers as talking heads.
• Effective listeners like to pick up interesting
  facts about speakers (personal history, family
  life, hobbies, etc.).
• Understand and use the differential between the
  speed of speaking and the speed of thinking. We
  think at about 400 words per minute. That's four
  times faster than most speakers can talk.
• Poor listeners drift back and forth between a
  lecture and thoughts about other things.
• Effective listeners use the thinking/speaking
  differential in three ways
• Riding the crest of the wave by trying to
  anticipate the next point of the lecture.
• Evaluating what the lecturer is using for
  supporting evidence.
• Periodically summarizing the lecture to
  themselves.

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Communication Challenges

• Advances in technology have increased our
  communication capabilities, but we must learn how
  to best use these capabilities
• Because of improved communication systems, we
  have greater abilities to interact with multiple
  cultures, which requires that we become better
  intercultural communicators (Geraldine Hynes)

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Contemporary Dynamics Affecting Managerial
Communication

• Diversity managers not only must be able to
  communicate with a greater variety of audiences,
  but also must help their employees see diversity
  as a corporate asset rather than a liability.
• The contemporary manager should be particularly
  aware of four types of diversity that are
  becoming more predominant gender, culture, age,
  and education

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Gender Diversity

• During the past two decades, much has been
  written about how men and women communicate
  differently
• Are men more assertive than women? Do women show
  more social support and sympathy to colleagues?
  Do men and women provide different types of
  feedback? Do leadership styles of men and women
  differ? Do women convey a different nonverbal
  message with the same gesture? Do men use space
  differently with other men than with women? Do
  men and women use different persuasive strategies

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Gender Diversity

• Deborah Tannens discussion of genderlect

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Cultural Diversity

• Managers must be able to communicate with other
  managers and employees of all cultural
  backgrounds.
• Minorities accounted for over 30 of the new
  entrants in the U.S. work force between 2000 and
  2005
• The concentration of minorities varies by
  geographic area. For example, the populations of
  Mississippi, South Carolina, and Louisiana are
  more than 30 black, while approximately 32 of
  all Asians living in the United States resides in
  California or Texas.

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Age Diversity

• Americas population is living longer, and the
  average employee is getting older.
• According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics,
  about half of all employees in the U.S. more
  than 70 million people are over 40
• What communication difficulties can be
  experienced as result of age differences?

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Education Diversity

• According to the U.S. Census Bureaus 2002
  survey, 84 of U.S. residents 25 and older are
  high school graduates
• Approximately 30 of the civilian labor force has
  a college degree
• Higher educational attainment means employees
  will readily question managers, and you need to
  be able to anticipate and answer these questions
  competently

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When you communicate, you engage in three basic
processes

• Sending messages, receiving messages,
  establishing relationships

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Sending Messages

• Use of symbols in communication
• How is business communication symbolic?
• What symbols do we use to communicate our
  intended message?

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To achieve mutual understanding in business.

• Use symbols familiar to your audience every
  organization and profession tends to use
  technical terms and acronyms that can increase
  the accuracy or speed of communication. However,
  recognize that not everyone understands
  specialized language, so choose laymans
  language for those who many not understand.

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To achieve mutual understanding in business.

• Define symbols Recognize that other people may
  not use symbols the same way you do. When you
  use unfamiliar symbols or common symbols that for
  you have special meaning, describe the meaning
  for the other person.
• Use multiple kinds of symbols The more
  different kinds of symbols you use to represent
  the message, the more likely it will be that the
  receiver will pay attention and understand your
  meaning. Combine writing, speaking, and visuals.

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When a message is critical

• Meet face-to-face
• Be an expressive speaker
• Use visual aids
• Provide a hard copy
• Repeat your message

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Receiving Messages

• For effective communication to occur, another
  person must accurately interpret the messages you
  display
• Misunderstandings and miscommunications are
  inevitable, but how can we minimize them?

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• Limit distractions
• Seek specifics
• Paraphrase
• Familiarize yourself with others and their
  situations
• Find ways to make the message meaningful

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Establishing Relationships

• We establish relationships along two primary
  dimensions dominant-subordinate and cold-warm
• Dominating is an attempt to control
  communication subordinating is yielding control
  pg. 7

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• Relational communication is a very important part
  of communication. It is as important to clearly
  indicate your relational intent as it is to
  clearly communicate message content pg. 9

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Preparing for the Employment Interview Assignment

• Ask your instructor to provide you with the
  requirements of the assignment
• Show You Are Qualified
• No matter how good your contact credibility, you
  must also be qualified. Many qualified
  individuals arent hired because they dont
  clearly demonstrate their qualifications.
• To demonstrate that you are qualified, you must
  (1) know the qualifications the employer wants,
  and (2) demonstrate that you have them