79

Communicating
in Teams and
Organizations

Copyright © 2015 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. No

reproduction or distribution without the prior written consent of
McGraw-Hill Education.
Communicating at Infosys
Infosys has adopted an
“adult–adult”
communication strategy by
introducing InfyBubble, an
in-house social media
platform similar to
Facebook.

9-2
Communication: Definition
and Importance
 Process by which information is
transmitted and understood
between people
 Transmitting intended meaning
(not just symbols)

 Importance of communication
 Coordinating work activities
 Organizational learning
 Better decision making
 Changing others’ behavior
 Employee well-being

9-3
Communication Process Model
Sender Receiver
Transmit
Message
Receive
Form Encode Decode
encoded
message message message
message

Noise

Decode Receive Encode Form

feedback feedback feedback feedback

Transmit
Feedback

9-4
Improving Communication
Coding/Decoding
 Sender/receiver have similar
codebooks
 Sender is experienced
encoding that message
 Sender/receiver are motivated
and able to use the selected
channel
 Sender/receiver have shared
mental models of the
communication context

9-5
Atos Origin Replaces Email with
Social Media Communication
European information
technology company Atos
Origin is replacing email
completely with other
Internet-based
communication tools within
the next couple of years.

9-6
How Email has Altered
Communication
 Preferred channel for
coordinating work

 Tends to increase
communication volume

 Significantly alters
communication flow

 Somewhat reduces status

differences and
stereotyping

9-7
Problems with Email
 Communicates emotions
poorly

 Reduces politeness and

respect (flaming)

 Inefficient for ambiguous,

complex, novel situations

 Increases information
overload

9-8
Communicating Through Social
Media
Internet/mobile-based channels with user-
generated, interactive content
 Blogs, wikis, tweets, personal sites (e.g. Facebook)
 More conversational and interactive
 Most can develop a public identity
 Encourage communities -- links, interactivity,
feedback

Serves diverse functions

 Presenting identity, enabling conversations, etc

9-9
Nonverbal Communication
 Influences meaning of verbal symbols
 Less rule bound than verbal communication
 Most is automatic and nonconscious

Courtesy of Microsoft.

9-10
Emotional Contagion
The automatic process of sharing another
person’s emotions by mimicking their facial
expressions and other nonverbal behavior

Serves three purposes:

1. Provides continuous feedback to speaker
2. Increases emotional understanding of the other
person’s experience
3. Communicates a collective sentiment -- sharing
the experience as part of drive to bond

9-11
Choosing Channels: Social
Acceptance
Do others support use of that communication
channel for that purpose?
Depends on:
1. Firm/team norms for using the channel

2. Individual preferences for using the channel

3. Symbolic meaning of the channel

9-12
Choosing Channels: Media
Richness
The channel’s data-carrying capacity needs to be
aligned with the communication activity

High richness when channel:

1. conveys multiple cues
2. allows timely feedback
3. allows customized message
4. permits complex symbols

Use rich communication media when the situation is

nonroutine and ambiguous

9-13
Hierarchy of Media Richness
Rich

Overloaded
Zone

Media
Richness

Oversimplified
Zone

Lean

Nonroutine/
Routine/clear Situation Ambiguous

9-14
Exceptions to Media Richness
Media richness theory doesn’t apply as well to
electronic channels because:

1. Able to multi-communicate through lean

channels
2. More varied proficiency levels
3. Lean channels have less social distraction
than do media rich channels

9-15
Persuasive Communication
Changing another person’s beliefs and
attitudes.

Spoken communication is more persuasive

because:
 accompanied by nonverbal communication
 has high quality immediate feedback
 has high social presence

9-16
Communication Barriers
 Perceptions
 Filtering
 Language
 Jargon
 Ambiguity

 Information Overload

9-17
Information Overload
 Job’s information load
exceeds person’s capacity
to process it
 Information gets overlooked
or misinterpreted

 Two sets of solutions:

 Increase information
processing capacity
 Examples: Learn to read faster,
remove distractions
 Reduce information load
 Examples: Buffering, omitting,
summarizing

9-18
Cross-Cultural Communication
Verbal differences
 Language
 Voice intonation
 Silence/conversational overlaps

Nonverbal differences
 Some nonverbal gestures are universal, but others
vary across cultures

9-19
Gender Communication
Differences
Men view conversations more as power,
status, functionality
 Report talk
 Give advice quickly
 Dominate conversation

Women consider more interpersonal relations

 Rapport talk
 Indirect advice/requests
 Sensitive to nonverbal cues

9-20
Getting Your Message Across
 Empathize
 Repeat the message
 Use timing effectively
 Focus on the problem, not
the person

9-21
Active Listening Process
& Strategies
Sensing
• Postpone evaluation
• Avoid interruptions
• Maintain interest

Active
Listening
Responding Evaluating
• Show interest • Empathize
• Clarify the message • Organize information

9-22
Communicating in Hierarchies
Workspace design
 Open offices – consider noise, distractions
 Clustering people in teams
Internet-based organizational
communication
 Wikis -- collaborative document creation
 E-zines -- rapid distribution of company news
Direct communication with management
 Management by walking around (MBWA)
 Town hall meetings

9-23
Organizational Grapevine
Early research findings
 Transmits information rapidly in all directions
 Follows a cluster chain pattern
 More active in homogeneous groups
 Transmits some degree of truth

Changes due to internet

 Emerging grapevines channels: Email, tweets, etc
 Social networks are now global, extends grapevine

9-24
Grapevine Benefits/Limitations
Benefits
 Fills in missing information from formal sources
 Strengthens corporate culture
 Relieves anxiety
 Associated with the drive to bond

Limitations
 Distortions might escalate anxiety
 Perceived lack of concern for employees when
company info is slower than grapevine

9-25