Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Chapter 9 – Communicating Effectively With Others
Slide 1 – Opening
Slide 2 – Chapter Objectives
•Identify the steps of the communication process
•Recognize barriers to communication
•Encourage supportive communication
Slide 3 – Defined
•In its classic formulation, communication appears to be quite straightforward. First, there is the
sender, or the one who initiates the communication by sending some type of message. That
message is transmitted through various channels or media—speech, body language, e-mail, and
so on. The message goes to the receiver, who then may or may not provide feedback. In this
formulation, communication is successful when the receiver understands what the sender
intended.
Slide 4 – Issues
•If we are to fully understand the communication process, we need to understand the enormous
complexity of what is involved in communicating human meaning. A more complete
understanding of the communication process recognizes that communication is not merely a
mechanical exercise in transmitting information but also an effort to establish shared meaning.
This raises a number of important issues for us to keep in mind as we explore the communication
process.
Slide 5 – Barriers
•Even though we all speak the same language—English—we often do not really speak the same
“language.” Our use of certain words varies, we filter what we say based on what we think others
want to hear, we use the wrong channels of communication, and we misinterpret the intent of
others (for a variety of reasons). Although we tend to assume that all of our communications are
clear and effective, this assumption is not always correct. But there are ways in which we can
improve the process of communication so that, as individuals and as members of public and
nonprofit organizations, we can be more effective and more responsible.
Slide 6 – Supportive Communication
•Effective communication in public organizations, as elsewhere, aims at transmitting information
accurately, honestly, and in such away that the receiver will understand, accept, and use that
information. But effective communication also must help to develop and maintain interpersonal
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 7 – Speaking
•Despite the recent dramatic increase in electronic communication, much of the public manager’s
communication time is spent in face-to-face oral communication, either one-on-one, in relatively
small groups, or in presentations to larger audiences.
Slide 8 – Persuasive Communication
Slide 9 – Active Listening
•Listening is the single most important communication skill, consuming more time than any other
aspect of communication. Indeed, as we saw earlier, managers spend as much as 30% to 40% of
their time listening. Moreover, listening clearly affects the success of managers. Not only are
managers who listen well able to pick up more and better information; they are also likely to
Slide 10 – Nonverbal Communication
•Nonverbal communication is becoming an especially important topic as people from different
cultures interact more frequently and have different culturally approved ways of expressing
themselves nonverbally.
Slide 11 – Electronic Communication
•Forms of electronic communication have dramatically affected communication in public
organizations (as elsewhere). Electronic mail (e-mail), voice mail, facsimile (fax), computer
conferencing, audio- and videoconferencing, management information systems, group decisions
Slide 12 – Impact of Technology
•O’Connell developed the following six hypotheses about the influence of electronic technology on
communication in organizations.
Slide 13 – Coaching
•“Counseling is the continuous process of monitoring employee performance and behavior and of
identifying and addressing problems by determining and implementing courses of action through
one-to-one communication with affected employees.”
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
Slide 14 – Helping
•Helping involves a relationship between people and that relationship must be understood for
effective helping to occur.
•There are three roles that the helper can choose: “1) An expert resource who provides
information or services, 2) A doctor who diagnoses and prescribes, and 3) A process consultant
who focuses on building an equitable relationship and clarifies what kind of help in needed.”
Slide 15 – Dialogue
•A great deal of attention has been given to the idea of dialogue as a special case of group and
intergroup communications. Dialogic processes have been tried in a variety of settings, from
Slide 16 – Effective Meetings
•Meetings have developed an awful reputation. People see most meetings as dragging on
endlessly and accomplishing little (if anything). Fortunately, meetings actually can be productive,
or even inspiring, although it takes a person with great skills to move a group successfully
through the many pitfalls of “meeting behavior.”
Slide 17 – Written Communication
•Writing memos or reports is different from giving oral communications for several reasons.
Obviously, in written communications, you cannot use gestures or a special tone of voice to
convey your intent, and the audience cannot ask questions of you (at least initially). For these
reasons, written communication may be more difficult. On the other hand, as we noted earlier,
Slide 18 – Diversity
•One of the clear trends in today’s public organizations is the increasing diversity of the workplace.
The emergence of a global society augments that trend, and the capacity for cross-cultural
communications is greater than ever.
Slide 19 – Diversity
•Learning about culture begins with cultural self-awareness.
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Instructor Resources
Denhardt, Managing Human Behavior in Public and Nonprofit Organizations 4th edition
SAGE Publications 2016
•In typical ethnocentric thinking, culturally different behavior is assessed in relation to one’s own
cultural standards. In ethnorelative thinking, “cultures can only be understood relative to one
another, and particular behavior can only be understood within a cultural context. Cultural
difference is neither good nor bad; it is just different.”
Slide 20 – Diversity
•Public managers increasingly are engaging with people from many different cultures, both in this
country and abroad. In so doing, these managers are coming to recognize that they need to make
important adjustments in their normal way of doing things so as to operate effectively in a
cross-cultural context. The capacity for doing so sometimes is called cultural competence, a “set
Slide 21 – Diversity
•Despite continuing efforts to bring women and minorities into the mainstream of American life,
there obviously remain many vestiges of previous discrimination in employment and promotion,
making communications more difficult. In addition, there are more subtle practices that
exacerbate the situation.
Slide 22 – Diversity
•The U.S. workforce is shaped like an hourglass, with the largest percentage of the population
being older baby boomers (born between the late 1940s and the 1960s) at the top, and the
millennial generation (born after the mid-1980s) at the bottom, with the generation Xers (born
Slide 23 – Ways of Acting
•Understanding communication skills and putting them into practice are two different things. It is
easy enough to learn the skills of effective communication intellectually, but under the pressures
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