Chapter 11
Communication
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
After studying this chapter, students should be able to:
11-1. Describe the functions and process of communication.
11-2. Contrast downward, upward, and lateral communication through small-group
networks and the grapevine.
11-3. Contrast oral, written, and nonverbal communication.
11-4. Describe how channel richness underlies the choice of communication method.
11-5. Differentiate between automatic and controlled processing of persuasive messages.
11-6. Identify common barriers to effective communication.
11-7. Discuss how to overcome the potential problems of cross-cultural communication.
INSTRUCTOR’S RESOURCES
Instructors may wish to use the following resources when presenting this chapter.
Text Exercises
Career OBjectives: Isn’t This Disability Too Much To Accommodate?
Myth or Science?: “Today, Writing Skills Are More Important than Speaking Skills”
Personal Inventory Assessments: Communication Styles
An Ethical Choice: Using Employees in Organizational Social Media Strategy
Point/Counterpoint: We Should Use Employees’ Social Media Presence
Questions for Review
Experiential Exercise: An Absence of Nonverbal Communication
Ethical Dilemma: BYOD
Text Cases
Case Incident 1: Organizational Leveraging of Social Media
Case Incident 2: PowerPoint Purgatory
Instructor’s Choice
This section presents an exercise that is NOT found in the student’s textbook. Instructor’s Choice
reinforces the text’s emphasis through various activities. Some Instructor’s Choice activities are
centered on debates, group exercises, Internet research, and student experiences. Some can be
used in class in their entirety, while others require some additional work on the student’s part.
The course instructor may choose to use these at any time throughout the class—some may be
more effective as icebreakers, while some may be used to pull together various concepts covered
in the chapter.
Web Exercises
At the end of each chapter of this Instructor’s Manual, you will find suggested exercises and
ideas for researching OB topics on the Internet. The exercises “Exploring OB Topics on the
Web” are set up so that you can simply photocopy the pages, distribute them to your class, and
make assignments accordingly. You may want to assign the exercises as an out-of-class activity
or as lab activities with your class.
Summary and Implications for Managers
You’ve probably discovered the link between communication and employee satisfaction in this
chapter: the less uncertainty, the greater the satisfaction. Distortions, ambiguities, and
incongruities between verbal and nonverbal messages all increase uncertainty and reduce
satisfaction. Careful attention to the methods and modes for each communication better ensures
that the message is properly interpreted by the receiver. Specific implications for managers are
below:
Remember that your communication mode will partly determine your communication
effectiveness.
Obtain feedback from your employees to make certain your messages—however they are
communicated—are understood.
Remember that written communication creates more misunderstandings than oral
communication; communicate with employees through in-person meetings when
possible.
Make sure you use communication strategies appropriate to your audience and the type of
message you’re sending.
Keep in mind communication barriers such as gender and culture.
This chapter begins with a discussion of communication according to Brian Grazer, co-founder of Imagine
Entertainment. As Brian Grazer found, good communication makes organizations successful. Communication is
powerful: no group or organization can exist without sharing meaning among its members. In this chapter, we’ll
analyze communication and ways we can make it more effective.
Communication must include both the transfer and the understanding of meaning. Communicating is more than
merely imparting meaning; that meaning must also be understood. It is only thus that we can convey information
and ideas. In perfect communication, if it existed, a thought would be transmitted so the receiver understood the
same mental picture the sender intended. Though it sounds elementary, perfect communication is never achieved in
practice, for reasons we shall see.
BRIEF CHAPTER OUTLINE
I. Functions of Communication
A. Communication serves five major functions within a group or organization:
1. Management
2. Feedback
3. Emotional sharing
4. Persuasion
5. Information exchange
II. The Communication Process (Exhibit 11-1)
A. Before communication can take place, a purpose expressed as a message to be conveyed
is needed.
B. The message is encoded (converted to symbolic form) and is passed by way of some
medium (channel) to the receiver, who retranslates (decodes) the message initiated by the
sender.
C. The result is transference of meaning from one person to another.
D. The communication process is made up of eight parts: the sender, encoding, the
message, the channel, decoding, the receiver, noise, and feedback.
E. The sender initiates a message by encoding a thought.
F. The message is the actual physical product of the sender’s encoding.
G. When we speak, the speech is the message. When we write, the writing is the message.
When we gesture, the movements of our arms and the expressions on our faces are the
message.
H. The channel is the medium through which the message travels.
1. Formal channels are established by the organization and transmit messages related
to the professional activities of members.
2. Other forms of messages, such as personal or social, follow informal channels,
which are spontaneous and subject to individual choice.
I. The receiver is the person(s) to whom the message is directed, who must first translate
the symbols into understandable form. This step is the decoding of the message.
J. Noise represents communication barriers that distort the clarity of the message, such as
perceptual problems, information overload, semantic difficulties, or cultural differences.
K. The final link in the communication process is feedback. Feedback is the check on how
successful we have been in transferring our messages as originally intended. It
determines whether understanding has been achieved.
III. Direction of Communication
A. Downward Communication
1. Communication that flows from one level of a group organization to a lower level is
downward communication.
2. Its purpose is to assign goals, provide instructions, communicate policies and
procedures, provide feedback, etc.
3. When engaging in downward communication, managers must explain the reasons
why a decision was made.
a. Evidence indicates that explanations increase employee commitment and support
of decisions.
4. Another problem in downward communication is its one-way nature; generally,
managers inform employees but rarely solicit their advice or opinions.
5. The best communicators explain the reasons behind their downward communications
but also solicit communication from the employees they supervise.
B. Upward Communication
1. Upward communication flows to a higher level in the group or organization.
2. It is used to provide feedback to higher-ups, inform them of progress, and relay
current problems.
3. Managers also rely on upward communication for ideas on how conditions can be
improved.
4. To engage in effective upward communication, try to communicate in headlines not
paragraphs, support your headlines with actionable items, and prepare an agenda to
make sure you use your boss’s attention well.
C. Lateral Communication
1. When communication takes place among members of the same work group, among
members of work groups at the same level, among managers at the same level, or
among any horizontally equivalent personnel, it is called lateral communication.
2. Lateral communications save time and facilitate coordination.
3. In some cases, these lateral relationships are formally sanctioned.
4. Often, they are informally created to short-circuit the vertical hierarchy and expedite
action.
5. They can create dysfunctional conflicts when the formal vertical channels are
breached, when members go above or around their superiors to get things done, or
when bosses find out that actions have been taken or decisions made without their
knowledge.
IV. Organizational Communication
A. Formal Small-Group Networks (Exhibit 11-2)
1. Formal organizational networks can be complicated, including hundreds of people
and a half-dozen or more hierarchical levels.
2. To simplify, we’ve condensed these networks into three common small groups of five
people each: chain, wheel, and all-channel. (Exhibit 11-2)
a. The chain rigidly follows the formal chain of command; this network
approximates the communication channels you might find in a rigid three-level
organization.
b. The wheel relies on a central figure to act as the conduit for all group
communication; it simulates the communication network you would find on a
team with a strong leader.
c. The all-channel network permits group members to actively communicate with
each other; it’s most often characterized in practice by self-managed teams, in
which group members are free to contribute and no one person takes on a
leadership role.
3. As Exhibit 11-3 demonstrates, the effectiveness of each network depends on the
dependent variable that concerns you.
4. The structure of the wheel facilitates the emergence of a leader, the all-channel
network is best if you desire high member satisfaction, and the chain is best if
accuracy is most important.
5. Exhibit 11-3 leads us to the conclusion that no single network will be best for all
occasions.
B. The Grapevine
1. The informal communication network in a group or organization is called the
grapevine.
2. Rumors emerge as a response to situations that are important to us, when there is
ambiguity, and under conditions that arouse anxiety.
a. The fact that work situations frequently contain these three elements explains why
rumors flourish in organizations.
3. The grapevine is an important part of any group or organization communication
network.
a. It gives managers a feel for the morale of their organization, identifies issues
employees consider important, and helps tap into employee anxieties.
4. The grapevine also serves employees’ needs: small talk creates a sense of closeness
and friendship among those who share information, although research suggests it
often does so at the expense of those in the “out” group.
5. There is also evidence that gossip is driven largely by employee social networks that
managers can study to learn more about how positive and negative information is
flowing through their organization.
6. Managers should minimize the negative consequences of rumors by limiting their
range and impact. (Exhibit 11-4)
V. Modes of Communication
A. Oral Communication
1. Oral communication is the primary means of conveying messages. Speeches, formal
one-on-one and group discussions, and the informal rumor mill or grapevine are
popular forms of oral communication.
a. Advantages are speed and feedback.
b. A major disadvantage arises when the message must be passed through a number
of people: the more people, the more the potential for distortion.
2. Meetings – can be formal or informal, include two or more people, and take place in
almost any venue.
3. Videoconferencing – permits employees and clients to conduct real-time meetings
with people at different locations.
4. Telephone – offers many of the benefits of meetings (formal and informal), and can
prompt immediate response.
B. Written Communication
1. Written communications include memos, letters, e-mail, instant messaging,
periodicals, and any other method that conveys written words or symbols.
2. Letters – the oldest and most enduring form of written communication.
3. PowerPoint – can be an excellent mode of communication because it combines
words with visual elements to engage the reader and help explain complex ideas.
4. E-mail – has become so persuasive it’s hard to imagine life without it.
a. Many managers report that they spend too much time on e-mail. (Exhibit 11-5)
5. Instant Messaging – a synchronous technology, meaning that you need to be there to
receive the message.
6. Text Messaging – usually done via cell phone and often as a real-time alternative to
phone calls.
7. Social Media – transformed communication.
a. Many organizations have their own in-house social networking applications.
8. Blogs – short for web log – a website about a single person or company.
9. Others – Flickr, Pinterest, Google+, and so on.
C. Nonverbal Communication
1. Every time we deliver a verbal message, we also impart a nonverbal message.
Sometimes the nonverbal component may stand alone.
2. No discussion of communication would thus be complete without consideration of
nonverbal communication—which includes body movements, the intonations or
emphasis we give to words, facial expressions, and the physical distance between the
sender and receiver. (Exhibit 11-6)
3. We could argue that every body movement has meaning, and no movement is
accidental (though some are unconscious).
4. Physical distance also has meaning.
5. It’s important to be alert to these nonverbal aspects of communication and look for
nonverbal cues as well as the literal meaning of a sender’s words.
VI. Choice of Communication Channel
A. People choose one channel of communication over another for several reasons. A model
of media richness has been developed to explain channel selection among managers.
B. Channel Richness
1. Channels differ in their capacity to convey information.
2. Some are rich in that they have the ability to:
a. Handle multiple cues simultaneously.
b. Facilitate rapid feedback.
c. Be very personal.
3. As Exhibit 11-7 illustrates, face-to-face conversation scores highest in channel
richness because it transmits the most information per communication episode—
multiple information cues (words, postures, facial expressions, gestures, intonations),
immediate feedback (both verbal and nonverbal), and the personal touch of being
present.
4. Others are lean in that they score low on these factors.
C. Choosing Communication Methods
1. The choice of one channel over another depends on whether the message is routine.
2. Routine messages tend to be straightforward and have a minimum of ambiguity.
a. When tough times hit Manpower Business Solutions during the recent economic
contraction, the company elected to communicate with employees daily in a
variety of media to ensure that everyone remained informed.
3. Whenever you need to gauge the receiver’s receptivity, oral communication is usually
the better choice.
4. Written communication is generally the most reliable more for complex and lengthy
communications, and can be the most efficient for short messages as well.
5. Choose written communication when you want the information to be tangible and
verifiable.
a. People are usually forced to think more thoroughly about what they want to
convey in a written message than in a spoken one, so your written communication
can also be well thought out, logical, and clear.
6. Letters are used in business primarily for networking purposes and when signatures
need to be authentic.
7. Some issues to consider when using e-mail:
a. Risk of misinterpreting the message.
b. Fallout from negative messages.
c. Time-consuming nature.
d. Limited expression of emotions.
e. Privacy concerns.
f. Professionalism.
8. In general, respond to instant messages only when they are professional, and initiate
them only when you know they will be welcome.
9. There are significant gains and challenges from the introduction of text messaging in
business settings.
a. Texts are cheap to send and receive, and the willingness to be available for quick
communications from clients and managers is conducive to good business.
b. However, some users view text messaging as intrusive and distracting.
c. Many organizations are also concerned about the security of texting.
d. It is best to severely limit personal text messages during work hours and be
cautious about using texting for business purposes.
10. On the corporate level, the returns on using social media are mixed.
a. If you want to use social media for business purposes as a manager, make certain
you are connected with all levels of management engaged in the effort.
b. Use discretion about which social media platforms are acceptable for business
communications.
c. Make sure you know your company’s social media policies about corporate
confidentiality and your company’s view on your privacy.
11. As an individual, you may choose to post a blog to your own blog page, or you may
choose to comment on another person’s blog.
a. If someone in the company happens to read a critical or negative blog entry or
post, there is nothing to keep him or her from sharing that information with
others.
12. It’s important to be alert to nonverbal aspects of communication and look for
nonverbal cues as well as the literal meaning of a sender’s words.
D. Information Security
1. Security is a huge concern for nearly all organizations with private or proprietary
information about clients, customers, and employees.
2. Organizations worry about the security of the electronic information they seek to
protect, such as hospital patient data, the physical information they still keep in file
cabinets, and the security of the information they entrust their employees with
knowing, such as Apple’s need-to-know-only information sharing.
a. The recent adoption of cloud-based electronic data storage has brought a new
level of worry; 51 percent of managers in a recent survey were considering
cloud-based human resources software.
3. Most companies actively monitor employee Internet use and e-mail records, and some
even use video surveillance and record phone conversations.
4. Necessary though they may be, such practices can seem invasive to employees.
5. An organization can relieve employee concerns by engaging them in the creation of
information-security policies and giving them some control over how their personal
information is used.
VII. Persuasive Communications
A. Automatic and Controlled Processing
1. To understand the process of communication, it is useful to consider two relatively
different ways that we process information.
2. We often rely on automatic processing, a relatively superficial consideration of
evidence and information making use of heuristics, like those we discussed in
Chapter 6.
a. Automatic processing takes little time and low effort, so it makes sense to use it
for processing persuasive messages related to topics you don’t care much about.
b. The disadvantage is that it lets us be easily fooled by a variety of tricks, like a cute
jingle or glamorous photo.
3. Now consider the last time you chose a place to live. You probably did some
independent research among experts who know something about the area, gathered
information about prices from a variety of sources, and considered the costs and
benefits of renting versus buying.
4. This is called controlled processing, a detailed consideration of evidence and
information relying on facts, figures, and logic.
a. Controlled processing requires effort and energy, but it’s harder to fool someone
who has taken the time and effort to engage in it.
5. There are a few rules of thumb for determining what types of processing an audience
will use.
B. Interest Level
1. One of the best predictors of whether people will use an automatic or controlled
process for reacting to a persuasive message is their level of interest in it.
2. Interest levels reflect the impact a decision is going to have on your life.
a. When people are very interested in the outcome of a decision, they’re more likely
to process information carefully.
C. Prior Knowledge
1. People who are very well informed about a subject area are also more likely to use
controlled processing strategies.
2. On the other hand, people who are poorly informed about a topic can change their
minds more readily, even in the face of fairly superficial arguments presented without
a great deal of evidence.
D. Personality
1. Are you the type of person who always likes to read at least five reviews of a movie
before deciding whether to see it?
2. If so, you are probably high in need for cognition, a personality trait of individuals
who are most likely to be persuaded by evidence and facts.
E. Message Characteristics
1. Another factor that influences whether people use an automatic or controlled
processing strategy is the characteristics of the message itself.
a. Messages provided through relatively lean communication channels, with little
opportunity for users to interact with the content of the message, tend to
encourage automatic processing.
b. Conversely, messages provided through richer communication channels, like a
long magazine article, tend to encourage more deliberative processing.
2. The most important implication of all this research is to match your persuasive
message to the type of processing your audience is likely to use.
a. When the audience is not especially interested in a persuasive message topic,
when they are poorly informed, when they are low in need for cognition, and
when information is transmitted through relatively lean channels, they’ll be more
likely to use automatic processing.
b. In these cases, use messages that are more emotion-laden and associate positive
images with your preferred outcome.
c. On the other hand, when the audience is interested in a topic, when they are high
in need for cognition, or when the information is transmitted through rich
channels, then it is a better idea to focus on rational arguments and evidence to
make your case.
VIII. Barriers to Effective Communication
A. Filtering
1. Filtering refers to a sender’s purposely manipulating information so it will be seen as
more favorable by the receiver. For example, telling the boss what he/she wants to
hear.
2. The more levels in an organization’s structure, the more opportunities there are for
filtering. Being reluctant to give bad news, or trying to please one’s boss distorts
upward communications.
B. Selective Perception
1. Receivers in their communication process selectively see and hear based on their
needs, motivations, experience, background, and other personal characteristics.
2. Receivers project their interests and expectations into communications as they decode
them.
C. Information Overload
1. When the information we have to work with exceeds our processing capacity, the
result is information overload.
2. The result is they tend to select out, ignore, pass over, or forget information. Or they
may put it aside until the overload situation is over. The result is lost information and
less effective communication.
3. Employees must balance the need for constant communication with their own
personal need for breaks from work, or they risk burnout from being on call 24 hours
a day.
D. Emotions
1. How a receiver feels at the time a message is received will influence how he or she
interprets it. Extreme emotions are likely to hinder effective communication.
2. During those times, we are most likely to disregard objective thinking and substitute
emotions for judgments.
E. Language
1. Words mean different things to different people.
2. Age and context are two of the biggest factors that influence such differences.
a. Senders tend to incorrectly assume the words and terms they use mean the same
to the receiver as to them.
F. Silence
1. It’s easy to ignore silence or lack of communication, precisely because it is defined by
the absence of information.
2. Research suggests silence and withholding communication are both common and
problematic.
G. Communication Apprehension
1. An estimated 5 to 20 percent of the population suffers from communication
apprehension, or social anxiety.
2. Oral-communication apprehensives avoid situations, such as teaching, for which oral
communication is a dominant requirement.
H. Lying
1. The final barrier to effective communication is outright misrepresentation of
information, or lying.
2. People differ in their definition of what constitutes a lie.
3. Evidence also shows that people are more comfortable lying over the phone than
face-to-face and more comfortable lying in e-mails than when they have to write with
pen and paper.
4. Research generally suggests most people are not very good at detecting deception in
others.
IX. Cultural Factors
A. Introduction
1. Effective communication is difficult under the best of conditions.
a. Cross-cultural factors clearly create the potential for increased communication
problems.
b. A gesture that is well-understood and acceptable in one culture can be
meaningless or lewd in another.
2. Only 18 percent of companies have documented strategies for communicating with
employees across cultures, and only 31 percent require that corporate messages be
customized for consumption in other cultures.
B. Cultural Barriers:
1. First, there are barriers caused by semantics. Words mean different things to different
people. Some words do not translate between cultures.
2. Second, there are barriers caused by word connotations. Words imply different things
in different languages.
3. Third, there are barriers caused by tone differences. In some cultures, language is
formal; in others, it is informal. The tone changes depending on the context.
4. Fourth, there are differences in tolerance for conflict and methods for resolving
conflicts.
C. Cultural Context (Exhibit 11-8)
1. Cultures tend to differ in the importance to which context influences meaning.
2. In high-context cultures such as China, Korea, Japan, and Vietnam, people rely
heavily on nonverbal and subtle situational cues in communicating with others.
3. People from Europe and North America reflect their low-context cultures.
4. Communication in high-context cultures implies considerably more trust by both
parties.
5. Oral agreements imply strong commitments in high-text cultures.
6. Who you are—your age, seniority, rank in the organization—are highly valued and
heavily influence your credibility.
7. In low-context cultures, enforceable contracts will tend to be in writing, precisely
worded, and highly legalistic. Similarly, low-context cultures value directness.
D. A Cultural Guide
1. Know yourself.
2. Foster a climate of mutual respect, fairness, and democracy.
3. State facts, not your interpretation.
4. Consider the other person’s viewpoint.
5. Proactively maintain the identity of the group.
X. Summary and Implications for Managers
A. You’ve probably discovered the link between communication and employee satisfaction
in this chapter: the less uncertainty, the greater the satisfaction.