Chapter 18: Effective Communication in Management môn Principles of Management | Trường Đại học Quốc tế, Đại học Quốc gia Thành phố Hồ Chí Minh

I. The Communication Process
Communication is an interpersonal process between sender and receiver trading
symbols with messages attached to them. It is a series of questions: “Who?”
(sender) “says what?” (message) “in what ways?” (channel) “to whom?” (receiver) “with what result?”
The communication process binds together the four functions of management:
-Planning is accomplished through the communication of information.
-Organizing identifies and structures communication links among people as in organizational structure.
-Leading uses communication to achieve positive influence over stakeholders.
-Controlling relies on communication to process information to measure performance. 1. Effective Communication
-Effective communication occurs when the sender’s message is fully understood by the receiver.
-Efficient communication occurs at minimum cost in terms of resources expended.
There are times where communication is effective but not efficient or vice versa.
2. Persuasion and Credibility in Communication
-Persuasive communication is when a recipient agreeing with or supporting the message being sent. -
Credibility is your credit presented in the eye of others whether they trust you.
Credible communication is based on trust, respect, and integrity. Credibility is
built through expertise with knowledgeable about the issue. 3. Communication Barriers
Noise is anything that interferes with the effectiveness of the communication
process. Common sources of noise include information filtering, poor choice of
channels, poor written or oral expression, failures to recognize nonverbal signals, and physical distractions.
3.1 Information filtering—the intentional distortion of information to make it appear
favorable to the recipient. People tells things to others what they think he or she wants to hear.
3.2 A communication channel is the pathway or medium through which a
message is conveyed from sender to receiver. It can be:
-Written channels—paper or electronic—are useful when it is important to
document that policies or directives have been conveyed.
-Spoken channels, such as face-to-face or virtual meetings, work best for complex
and difficult messages and where immediate feedback to the sender is valuable
3.3 Poor Written or Oral Expression
Communication will be effective when the sender expresses the message in a way
that is understood by the receiver.
3.4 Failure to Recognize Nonverbal Signals
Nonverbal communication takes place through gestures, facial expressions, body
posture, eye contact, and the use of interpersonal space.
Mixed message is when words communicate one message while actions and body
language communicate something else. 3.5 Physical Distractions
Any number of physical distractions can interfere with communication effectiveness:
telephone interruptions, drop-in visitors, and lack of privacy.
4. Cross-Cultural Communication
Communicating across cultures requires lots of sensitivity, awareness, and an ability
to quickly learn the rights and wrongs since there are different perceptions in
different cultures or when we don’t speak the same language.
Ethnocentrism is a major enemy of effective cross-cultural communication. It may
cause someone to not listen well to what others have to say and it may lead to
inappropriate stereotypes when dealing with persons from other cultures. II.
Improving Collaboration Through Communication 1. Transparency and Openness
Communication transparency involves being honest in sharing accurate and
complete information about the organization and workplace affairs.
The term open book management describes a form of communication
transparency where employees are provided with essential financial information about their companies. 2. Use of Electronic Media
The electronic grapevine is electronic messages travel with great speed around our world. 3. Active Listening
Active listening is helping others to say exactly what they mean. It involves trying
to find out the full meaning of what is being said, controlling emotions and
withholding premature evaluations or interpretations. 4. Constructive Feedback
The process of telling other people how you feel about something they did or said is
called feedback. It is a common give-and-take of working relationships or during performance reviews.
When poorly done, feedback can be threatening to the recipient and cause
resentment. When properly done, feedback can be accepted, and used by the receiver. -
Give feedback directly and with real feeling, based on trust. -
Make sure that feedback is specific rather than general; use clear, and
preferably recent examples to make your points. -
Give feedback when the receiver seems most willing or able to accept it. -
Make sure the feedback is valid; limit it to things the receiver can be expected to do something about. -
Give feedback in small doses; never give more than the receiver can handle. 5. Space Design
Proxemics is the study of how we use space. The distance between people
conveys intentions in terms of intimacy, openness, and status. III. Managing Conflict
Conflict is a disagreement between people on substantive or emotional issues.
-Substantive conflicts involve disagreements over things as goals and tasks,
allocation of resources, distribution of rewards, policies and procedures, and job assignments.
-Emotional conflicts involve feelings of anger, distrust, dislike, fear, and
resentment, as well as relationship problems.
1. Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict
1.1 Functional conflict, or constructive conflict, moves people toward greater
work efforts, cooperation, and creativity.
1.2 Dysfunctional conflict, or destructive conflict, harms performance,
relationships, and even individual well-being. 2. Causes of Conflict
-Role ambiguities in the form of unclear job expectations and other task
uncertainties increase the likelihood of overlapping.
-Resource scarcities cause conflict when people have to share or compete for them.
-Task interdependencies cause conflict when people depend on others to perform
well in order to perform well themselves.
-Competing objectives cause conflict when goals are poorly set or reward systems are poorly designed.
-Structural differentiation causes conflict because of incompatible approaches toward work.
-Unresolved prior conflicts tend to erupt in later conflicts.
Conflict resolution eliminates the underlying causes of conflict and reduces the
potential for similar conflicts in the future. 3. Conflict Management Styles
People tend to respond to interpersonal conflict through different combinations of
cooperative and assertive behaviors.
-Cooperativeness is the desire to satisfy another’s needs and concerns.
-Assertiveness is the desire to satisfy one’s own needs and concerns.
Those 2 behaviors create 4 dimensions making 5 styles of conflict management
-Avoidance or withdrawal—being uncooperative and unassertive, downplaying
disagreement, withdrawing from the situation, and/or staying neutral at all costs.
-Accommodation or smoothing—being cooperative but unassertive, letting the
wishes of others rule, smoothing over or overlooking differences to maintain harmony.
-Competition or authoritative command—being uncooperative but assertive,
working against the wishes of others, engaging in win-lose competition, and/or
forcing through the exercise of authority.
-Compromise—being moderately cooperative and assertive, bargaining for “ac-
ceptable” solutions in which each party wins a bit and loses a bit.
-Collaboration or problem solving—being cooperative and assertive, trying to
fully satisfy everyone’s concerns by working through differences, finding and
solving problems so that everyone gains. IV. VI. Managing Negotiation
Negotiation is the process of making joint decisions when the parties involved
have different preferences. It is a way of reaching agreement.
1. Negotiation Goals and Approaches
Two goals should be considered in any negotiation are:
-Substance goals: being concerned with negotiation outcomes. They are tied to content issues.
-Relationship goals being concerned with negotiation processes. They are tied
to the way people work together while negotiating.
Effective negotiation occurs when issues are resolved and working relationships among parties are maintained.
The three criteria of effective negotiation are:
1. Quality—negotiating a “wise” agreement that is truly satisfactory to all sides.
2. Cost—negotiating efficiently, using a minimum of resources and time.
3. Harmony—negotiating in a way that fosters, rather than inhibits, good relationships. 2. Types of Negotiation:
-Distributive negotiation each party makes claims for certain preferred
outcomes. This emphasis on substance can become self-centered and
competitive, with each party thinking the only way for him or her to gain is for the other to lose. -
Principled negotiation or integrative negotiation is to achieve a final
agreement based on the merits of each party’s claims. No one should lose in a
principled negotiation, and positive relationships should be maintained in the process.
The bargaining zone in a negotiation is defined as the space between one party’s
minimum reservation point and the other party’s maximum reservation point. It is a
“positive” zone since the reservation points of the two parties overlap. A key task
for any negotiator is to discover the other party’s reservation point. It is difficult to
negotiate effectively until this is known and each party realizes that a positive bargaining zone exists. 3. Negotiation Ethics
It is also important to avoid the trap of ethical misconduct. The reasons why
people being unethical in negotiation are:
Being unethical in negotiating may get short-run gains will be offset by long- run losses.