Management Chapter 9 Homework Communication Process Which Information And Understanding Are

Unlock access to all the studying documents.

View Full Document

accurate and up-to-date information, and help people see a better tomorrow.

Discussion Question#9: How might leaders use social media to create a sense of community

among employees? What do you think are some advantages and disadvantages of a company

using social media to communicate with employees?

Notes_________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________

Discussion Questions

1. Why do you think storytelling is such a powerful means of communicating for a leader? How

is active listening related to storytelling?

Students’ answers will vary. Storytelling is a powerful means of communicating for a leader.

For instance, Native American tribes often made the best storytellers their tribal leaders.

2. What does it mean to say that leaders use communication to act as “sensegivers”? How do

you think this differs from conventional management communication?

Leadership communication shapes how people think about their work and the organization.

Leaders are sensegivers. Sensegiving refers to the process of influencing how others

3. Board members at some companies are opening the lines of communication so shareholders

can voice their concerns about executive compensation and corporate governance. Do you

think this is a good idea? What might be some risks associated with this type of open

communication?

Students’ answers may vary. Open communication means sharing all types of information

throughout the organization, especially across functional and hierarchical boundaries. Open

communication runs counter to the traditional flow of selective information downward from

4. A manager in a communication class remarked, “Listening seems like minimal intrusion of

oneself into the conversation, yet it also seems like more work.” Do you agree or disagree?

Discuss.

Students’ answers will vary. An open communication climate is not possible if leaders aren’t

listening. When leaders don’t listen, its sends the signal, “you don’t matter” to organization

members, thus decreasing their commitment and motivation. Listening is a requirement for

5. How does dialogue differ from discussion? Give an example of each from your experience.

A dialogue reveals feelings and builds common ground, with more emphasis on inquiry than

advocacy. A discussion explores opposition by individuals who advocate their positions and

convince others to adopt those positions. Discussion is resolved by logic or “beating down”

6. Some senior executives believe they should rely on written information and computer reports

because these yield more accurate data than face-to-face communications do. Do you

agree? Discuss.

Students’ answers may vary. However, channel selection depends on whether the message is

routine or nonroutine. Routine communications are simple and straightforward, such as a

product price change. Routine messages can be efficiently communicated through a channel

7. What communication channel would you choose to communicate an impending

companywide layoff? News about the company picnic? New corporate quality goals that will

require significant changes in how your subordinates perform their tasks? Explain your

choices.

News about layoffs should be communicated face-to-face. Face-to-face communication,

being the richest channel, should be used to communicate highly important, potentially

8. How do leaders use communication to influence and persuade others? Think of someone you

have known who is skilled in the art of persuasion. What makes this person an effective

communicator?

Students’ answers will vary. Leaders don’t communicate just to convey information. They

use communication skills to sell others on the vision and influence them to behave in ways

that achieve goals that help accomplish the vision. Leaders can follow four steps to practice

the art of persuasion:

9. How might leaders use social media to create a sense of community among employees?

What do you think are some advantages and disadvantages of a company using social media

to communicate with employees?

Students’ answers may vary. Social media refers to a variety of Internet-based applications,

including social networking, wikis, blogs, and so forth, that allow the creation and sharing of

user generated content. They have changed the way people carry on their social lives and are

also changing the way people interact in the office too. People are demanding closer

Teaching Tools and Exercises

1. Leader’s Bookshelf: Tell to Win: Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power

of Story by Peter Gruber.

Everybody in a leadership role shares the same problem, Peter Guber says in Tell to Win:

“To succeed, you have to persuade others to support your vision, dream, or cause.”

Whatever the purpose of a leader communication—motivating employees, engaging

customers, or organizing investors—leaders have to “get your listeners’ attention,

emotionalize your goal as theirs, and move them to act…. You have to reach their hearts as

well as their minds.” What’s the best way to do that? With a story. For leaders, telling

purposeful stories is an everyday requirement.

Guber gives some guidelines for what makes a successful leader story:

• It Has a Goal. Purposeful stories have a call to action. Leaders tell stories to achieve

something. They are clear in their minds what they want followers to feel, think, and

2. Reinforcement: Active Listening Skills.

For one week, practice active listening behaviors during your phone conversations. Keep a

3. Read and Discuss: Arnold Beekes, “Listening: The Forgotten Business Skill,” Fast

4. Leadership at Work: Listen Like a Professional

The fastest way to become a great listener is to act like a professional listener, such as a

clinical psychologist who uses listening to heal another person. Therapists drop their own

point of view to concentrate on the patient’s point of view. The therapist listens totally,

drawing out more information rather than thinking about a response.

The next time you are in a conversation in which the other person talks about some problem

or concern, practice professional listening by doing the following:

• Hold a steady gaze on the person’s left eye (not the nose or face, but the left eye)—use a

In Class: The instructor can divide students into pairs—listener and speaker—in class to practice

this exercise. The “speaking” students can be asked to talk about some small problem or

annoyance they encountered in the previous day or two. The “listening” students can be given

instructions to not speak during the first trial and instead just maintain a soft gaze into the

speaker’s left eye and respond only with body language (facial expressions and nods). The

It works well to have the students choose a second pairing and redo the exercise with a new

problem. The only difference the second time is that the “listener” role is given fewer

restrictions, so the listener can make brief comments such as to paraphrase or ask a short

question. The listeners, however, should keep spoken comments to a minimum and definitely

should not offer their own ideas or point of view. After the students finish, the instructor can

Leadership Development: Cases For Analysis

I. The Superintendent’s Directive

Synopsis

Educational administrators are bombarded by requests for innovation at all educational levels.

Programs to upgrade math, science, and social science education, state accountability plans, new

approaches to administration, and other ideas are initiated by teachers, administrators, interest

groups, reformers, and state regulators. In a school district, the superintendent is the key leader;

in an individual school, the principal is the key leader. In the Carville City School District,

After receiving this e-mail, several teachers at the elementary school responded with a flurry of

hastily written e-mail responses. One well-respected and talented teacher wrote the following e-

mail, accidentally sending it to Mr. Weigand instead of her colleagues:

“This is nonsense! I should be spending my time focused on the lesson plan for the new advanced

English class the board of education approved. Porter is clueless and has no idea the demands

Case questions and answers

1. Evaluate the e-mail communications of Mr. Porter and Mr. Weigand. To what extent are

they communicating effectively about the new performance objectives? Explain. If you

were a teacher, how would you have felt after receiving the e-mail? Why?

Students’ answers will vary. Leadership means communicating with others in such a way

that they are influenced and motivated to perform actions that further common goals and

lead toward desired outcomes. Communication is a process by which information and

2. If you were Mr. Weigand, how would you respond to the angry teacher? Be specific about

how you would communicate with her and what you would say. How could he have

communicated differently about the performance objectives to influence the teachers more

positively?

Students’ answers will vary. Effective communication involves both the transference and the

mutual understanding of information. Mr. Weigand should have built a shared vision about

the performance objectives. Use of rich communication method such as face-to-face

communication would have been more appropriate in this situation. Employees don’t just

3. Identify the mistakes that the teacher made when composing and sending her e-mail

message.

Students’ answers will vary. Following are some of the mistakes that the teacher made while

composing and sending the e-mail:

• Use e-mail to discuss something with a colleague who sits across the aisle or down the

hall from you. Take the old-fashioned approach of speaking to each other.

• Say anything negative about a boss, friend, or colleague via e-mail. And don’t forward

the negative comments of others.

II. Hunter Worth

Synopsis

Christmas was fast approaching. Just a short while ago, Chuck Moore, national sales manager for

Hunter-Worth, a New York–based multinational toy manufacturer, was confident the coming

holiday was going to be one of the company’s best in years. At a recent toy expo, Hunter-Worth

unveiled a new interactive plush toy that was cuddly, high-tech, and tied into a major holiday

motion picture expected to be a smash hit. Chuck had thought the toy would do well, but frankly,

the level of interest took him by surprise. The buyers at the toy fair raved, and the subsequent

The reply appeared within the hour, but to his utter astonishment, it was a short message from

Vicente’s secretary. She acknowledged the receipt of his e-mail and assured him the Mexican

plant would be shipping the order, already a week late, in the next 10 days.

“That’s it,” Chuck fumed. “Time to take this to Sato.” In the message to his boss, he prefaced his

original e-mail and the secretary’s reply with a terse note expressing his growing concern over

Case questions and answers

1. Based on Vicente Ruiz’s actions and his conversation with Chuck Moore, what differences

do you detect in cultural attitudes toward communications in Mexico as compared with the

United States? Is understanding these differences important? Explain.

Students’ answers will vary. Understanding cultural differences is extremely critical in order

to bridge the gap between leaders and followers based at different locations. It is obvious

there are difference in cultural attitude toward communication channels between Mexico and

2. What was the main purpose of Chuck’s communication to Vicente? To Michael Sato? What

factors should he have considered when choosing a channel for his communication to

Vicente? Are they the same factors he should have considered when communicating with

Michael Sato?

Students’ answers will vary. Studies have found that channels differ in their capacity to

convey information. Channel richness is the amount of information that can be transmitted

during a communication episode. The channels available to leaders can be classified into a

hierarchy based on information richness. Considering the fact that the main purpose of

Chuck’s communication to Vicente was about an important issue which needed immediate

3. If you were Chuck, what would you have done differently? What steps would you take at this

point to make sure the supply of the popular new toy is sufficient to meet the anticipated

demand?

Students’ answers will vary. Leaders don’t communicate just to convey information. They

use communication skills to sell others on the vision and influence them to behave in ways

that achieve goals and help accomplish the vision. The ability to persuade others is more

Communication is a key part of a leader’s job, but at no time is it more crucial than during

times of rapid change, uncertainty, or crisis.

To be prepared for communicating in a crisis, leaders can develop the following four skills:

• Stay calm.

Digital Homework Grid

Case Assessment Questions

Topic