Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
CHAPTER 15
Communication
Listening is the Key to Understanding
Chapter 15 Overview
Each Chapter contains several inset features designed to assist the student reader in applying the
concepts to relevant examples. Management Live illustrates how experiences and activities relate
to work performance. Choices provides students with an opportunity to evaluate various sides of
an issue in order to make an informed decision. Hot Topic explores samples of debated topics in
business and strategy. Facts to Consider introduces research or trends that may be used for class
Chapter 15 Takeaways:
Takeaway 15.1 Understand the nature of communication and when it is effective.
Takeaway 15.2 Identify the major barriers to effective communication.
Takeaway 15.3 Discuss ways to improve communication with people at work.
Chapter 15 Lecture Outline:
Takeaway 15.1 What Is Communication, and When Is It Effective?
• Communication helps people build social capital.
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Takeaway 15.2 What Are the Major Barriers to Effective Communication?
• Poor use of channels makes it hard to communicate effectively.
Takeaway 15.3 How Can We Improve Communication with People at Work?
• Active listening helps people say what they really mean.
• Constructive feedback is specific, timely, and relevant.
Chapter 15 Supporting Materials:
Figures
Figure 15.1 What Are the Major Elements in the Process of Interpersonal Communication?
Figure 15.2 How Does Noise Interfere with the Communication Process?
What’s Inside
• Management Live: Organizations push weekly happiness surveys
• Choices: Embrace Open Information and Remove Doubts
Applications
• TestPrep 15 Multiple-Choice Questions
• Skill Building Portfolio
o Self-Assessment 15: Feedback and Assertiveness
• Case Snapshot: Snapchat—The Moments (Snaps) Create the Story of the Moment
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Chapter Outline: Takeaway 15.1: What Is Communication, and When Is It
Effective?
• Communication helps people build social capital
✓ Social capital is the capacity to attract support and help from others to get things
• Communication is a process of sending and receiving messages with meanings
attached
✓ Communication is the interpersonal process of sending and receiving symbols with
messages attached to them
✓ See Figure 15.1 for a depiction of the communication process
➢ The communication process begins when a sender encodes an intended
• Communication is effective when the receiver understands the sender’s message
✓ Messages aren’t always interpreted by the receiver in the way the sender intended.
✓ Effective communication takes place when the receiver fully understands the
message in the way the sender intended.
DISCUSSION TOPIC
One way to enhance the discussion of the communication process is to focus on the lecture mode
of teaching. As the teacher/lecturer, you are occupying the role of sender, whereas the students
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
• Communication is efficient when it is delivered at low cost to the sender
✓ Efficient communication is when communication occurs at minimum cost in terms of
resources expended
• Communication is persuasive when the receiver acts as the sender intends
✓ Persuasive communication is getting someone else to accept, support, and act
consistent with the sender’s message
15.1 Questions for discussion with suggested answers
1) Why do recruiters place so much emphasis on the communications skills of job
candidates?
2) Can you describe a work situation where it’s okay to accept less communication
effectiveness to gain communication efficiency?
3) What can a manager do to gain the credibility needed for truly persuasive
communication?
15.1 Career Situation: What Would You Do?
Your boss just sent a text message that he wants you at a meeting starting at 3 p.m. Your
daughter is performing a music program at her elementary school at 2:45 p.m., and she wants
you to attend. You’re out of the office making sales calls and have scheduled appointments to
put you close to the school in the early afternoon. The office is a long way across town. Do you
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
call the boss, text him, or send him an email? What exactly will you say in your response to his
message?
Takeaway 15.2: What Are the Major Barriers to Effective Communication?
• Figure 15.2 illustrates the concept of how different types of noise interfere with the
communication process:
✓ Among the types of noise that can interfere with the effectiveness of
communication, the following are well worth noting: Semantic problems in the
DISCUSSION TOPIC
You can demonstrate the impact of noise on the communication process by having 5 or 6
students play a round of “telephone” in class. The first student reads a selected written
paragraph, whispering it to the second student. The second student repeats the message from
memory, as accurately as possible, whispering to the third student, and so on. Compare the
message, as recited by the last student, to the original paragraph.
• Poor use of channels makes it hard to communicate effectively.
✓ Noise is anything that interferes with the communication process
✓ Learning activity – Ask students to make a list of “noise” that interferes with the
communication process in your classroom. Their list will may include: environmental
• Poor written or oral expression makes it hard to communicate effectively
✓ Communication needs to be clear to be understood.
✓ Most managers need to practice written communication and presentation skills
• “Essential Ingredients of Successful Presentations”:
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
✓ Be prepared—Know what you want to say; know how you want to say it;
rehearse saying it.
✓ Set the right tone—Focus on your audience; make eye contact; “speak” don’t
“read”; and act pleasant and confident.
✓ Sequence your points—State your purpose, make important points, follow with
details, and then summarize.
• Failure to spot nonverbal signals makes it hard to communicate effectively
✓ Nonverbal communication takes place through gestures, expressions, posture and
use of interpersonal space.
✓ Mixed messages result when words communicate one message and actions, body
language
DISCUSSION TOPIC
A fun way to illustrate the power of nonverbal communication is to call on volunteers to “act
out” various emotions without speaking verbally. Specifically, you may whisper to one volunteer
• Information filtering makes it hard to communicate effectively
✓ Information filtering is intentional distortion of information to make it more
• Overloads and distractions make it hard to communicate effectively
• Overloads and distractions are common causes of communication problems in our
personal and work lives.
15.2 Questions for discussion with suggested answers
1) When is texting not an appropriate way to convey a message in a work situation?
Text is a low context medium, but it is very inexpensive. That means that it is not very
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
DISCUSSION TOPIC
Divide the class into groups of four or five students. Using the guidelines for providing
constructive feedback, have each group devise a plan for how they would go about providing
feedback to a fellow team member who is not carrying his/her fair share of the team’s work load.
Select two or three of the teams to share their feedback plans with the entire class.
• Tips to Remember: How To Give Constructive Feedback
✓ Choose the right time—Give feedback at a time when the receiver seems most
willing or able to accept it.
• Office spaces can be designed to encourage interaction and communication
✓ Proxemics is the study of the way we use space
• Transparency and openness build trust in communication
✓ Communication transparency involves being honest and openly sharing accurate
• Appropriate online behavior is a communication essential
✓ E-mail, text, and social networking communication may or may not be appropriate
• Sensitivity and etiquette can improve cross-cultural communication
✓ Ethnocentrism is a major source of intercultural difficulties
✓ Ethnocentrism is the tendency to consider one’s culture superior to any and all
others
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
surveys” they are online versions of the traditional morale survey. Questions are asked,
answered, and analyzed in real time. It’s a chance for employers to listen and learn, but some
worry that “it can get a little bit like homework.”
Choices: Embrace Open Information and Remove Doubts
Transparency is in and secrecy is falling by the wayside in more organizations. In many ways it’s
a cornerstone of collaborative organizations. But is there a limit to how much co-workers should
know about each other?
Ethics Check: Blogging is Easy, But Bloggers Beware
Catherine Sanderson is one of the growing number of employees that have lost their jobs because
they discussed work in their blogs. The questions in You Decide ask readers to compare blogs to
other situations that question the ethics of sharing work experiences with the general public.
How does the situation differ when viewed from the perspective of employer versus the
employee perspective?
Facts to Consider: Open office designs have positive impact on behavior
A survey by the Ethisphere Institute, a think tank devoted to ethics and social responsibility
practices, finds that open offices can have a positive impact on ethical behavior and
communication. Respondents in a sample of 200 companies reported the following.
Ask students what is your experience with open versus closed office designs? Would it support
Ethisphere’s findings? How about the downsides to increased staff visibility? Might a lack of
privacy at work contribute to lower morale and even outright dissatisfaction?
Schermerhorn & Bachrach Exploring Management 6th edition Instructor’s Manual
Hot Topic: Master the Science of persuasion and gain influence
Two scenes are presented. The first has to do with hoteliers wanting to wash fewer towels. The
second has to do with restaurant servers wanting to maximize tips. Each offers a lesson to do so.
Can these lessons be turned into advice for leaders? Leadership is complicated in any setting.
Insight: Collaboration begins with communication and networking
Recruiters give communication and networking skills high priority when screening candidates
for college internships and first jobs. They’re looking for candidates who can communicate well
both orally and in writing. Recruiters also want people who network well with others for
collaboration and teamwork and who gain social capital through communication and networking
so they can handle conflicts and negotiate successfully. If you’re like most people, there’s work
to be done to master these challenges.
Quick Case: I just got a mediocre performance review
A good friend just called and wants to meet for a heart-to-heart chat after work. She was really
frantic over a performance review that was a lot lower than what she had been expecting. The
review was compounded by the fact that it was her first in a new job and with a new manager.
She worried not only that her efforts weren’t being appreciated, but also that the mediocre review
would hurt her chances for future promotion at the company.’
How do you prepare for this meeting? What should you be ready to say, and not say? She views
you as a trusted friend and counselor. How can you play these roles and really help her deal with
the situation in the best possible ways?