SBenegaL

Category: Organizational Behavior

  • Communication – Defensive

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on defensive and non-defensive communication. In today’s byte, we look at defensive communication at work and try to identify patterns therein.

    Defensive Communication at work could be shown in 2 broad patterns of responses:

    1. Subordinate Defensiveness
    2. Dominant Defensiveness
    Subordinate Defensiveness: is characterized by passive, submissive, withdrawal. The underlying thought of the person in this state is – “You are right and I am wrong”.  This is most common in people with low self-esteem and is found mostly in people at lower organizational levels.
    This sort of a behavior could prevent sensitive and critical information from moving up the organization and therefore loose organizational performance! This subordinate defensiveness over time could manifest as dominant defensiveness.

    Dominant Defensiveness: is characterized by active, aggressive, attacking behavior. The underlying thought of the person in this state is “The best defense is a good offense”. They psychological attitude that underlies this is – “I am right, and you are wrong”.
    In this case, people with low self-esteem compensate by exhibiting this pattern of behavior. People at higher levels in the organization too could have such an attitude!

  • Communication – Defensive & Non-Defensive

    In the last byte, we looked at how gender difference and language could act as barriers to communication and how these could be overcome. In today’s byte, we begin our discussion exploring defensive and non-defensive communication.
    • Defensive Communication refers to the communication that can be aggressive, attacking, and angry, or passive and withdrawing.
    • Non-defensive Communication refers to that is assertive, direct and powerful.
    Of the two, it is pretty evident that defensive communication in organization can create barriers between people, whereas non-defensive communication help open up relationships. Simply put, aggressiveness and passiveness are both forms of defensive communication, assertiveness is non-defensive communication.

    Defensive communication in organization leads to a wide range of problems, including injured feelings, communication breakdowns, alienation in working relationships, etc. Counterattack or sheepish withdraw could derail communication.
    Non-defensive communication in contrast provides a basis for asserting and defending oneself when attacked – without getting non-defensive. Each of these defensive approaches could be aptly addressed.

  • Communication – Barriers 4

    In the last byte, we looked at cultural diversity as a barrier to communication. In today’s byte we look at gender difference and language as barriers to communication.

    Gender Differences:
    We just explained about cultural diversity in the last byte, and highlighted why it could be a potential barrier to communication. It has been said that even the conversation between men and women too is akin to the conversation between people from different cultures or ethnicities!

    A gateway to overcome this barrier is development of the awareness of gender specific differences is a key. Another gateway is to actively seek clarification from the speaker and not interpret it from one’s own frame of reference.

    Language:
    Language is another central element in communication and could be a barrier if its use obscures the meaning or distorts the intent. The same word could possess different meaning across countries too.

    Language barriers are also created across disciplines and professional boundaries by technical terminologies – acronyms could be understood by few while others outside the context wouldn’t be able to get any meaning out of this.

    It is always preferred to use a simple, direct, and declarative language – ensure also that sentences are short yet use words commonly used.

  • Communication – Barriers 3

    In the last byte, we looked at how status difference could act as a barrier to communication. In today’s byte, we look at cultural diversity as a barrier to communication.

    In the current world of globalization, where teams work across time-zones cultural diversity is a major barrier to communication that needs to be recognize and addressed. The difference in cultural values and patterns of behavior lead to a lot of confusion and act as barriers to communication. Given that there are also on-site projects that need to be executed, it so often happens that the outsider working in a foreign culture could find some of the habits extremely confusing and may be bizarre some times.

    Another important aspect that one needs to be aware of in the same context is the existence of cultural stereotypes (we shall discuss about stereotypes elsewhere, but discuss about this in the context of barrier to communication here). When one uses stereotypes to view people of other culture, many a times the individual differences within the other culture blurs out. This could mislead an individual to communicate inappropriately with people from other culture.

    The means to break this barrier – i.e. a gateway to communication is increasing the awareness of cultural diversity and being sensitive to the culture’s uniqueness. Another gateway could be to develop and acquire guide, map or a beacon to understand the interaction with people from other culture.

  • Communication – Barriers 2

    In the last byte, we looked at Physical Separation as a barrier to communication. In today’s byte, we look at how status difference acts as barriers to communication.

    Status Difference:
    Almost every organization has a hierarchy structure. Invariably an individual reports to someone above him and that individual supervisor id the one primary connection to the organization. This hierarchical arrangement creates a barrier to communication – the employee is more likely to distort up-ward communication compared to communication with their colleagues or their subordinates.

    As a supervisor, one would need to make use of the skills discussed in the earlier bytes on effective supervisory skills and become more approachable – this would act as the soothing factor in such status related issues. This would help ease the employee and make him/her more secure and would potentially lead to a straightforward upward communication.

    One would, through the above line of thought be likely to suggest a hierarchy free work environment – this practically would be extremely hard to achieve (refer to the discussion on transaction cost earlier); however the extensive use of information technology could drastically reduced the hierarchy.

  • Communication – Barriers

    In the last byte, we began our discussion on Barriers and Gateways to communication. In today’s byte, we look at 2 such barriers to communication – Physical Separation.

    Physical Separation:
    In the current era of multinational companies, we often find teams working across time-zones and collaborating on work with people whom one would not have met in the real world. This sort of a collaborative environment at work relies heavily on communication and modern technology like telephone, e-mail etc have played a phenomenal role in making this possible.

    While these medium of communication have definitely been helpful, they aren’t as rich as face-to-face communication. Periodic face-to-face interaction acts like an antidote to the problems of physical separation. This is primarily due to the non-verbal cues that the receiver derives during such interactions.

    In short, the richer a medium, lesser the potential for confusion and misunderstanding.

    Another gateway to overcome this barrier of communication is the use of periodic/regular scheduled meeting for the people who collaborate in the workplace. A simple meeting which is attended by all the members of the team helps not just build the confidence but also reduces the mental misconceptions created through physical separation.

  • Communication – Barriers & Gateways

    In the last byte, we looked at the need to be sensitive to employees and the way information is to be managed by a supervisor. In today’s byte, we begin discussion about barriers and gateways to communication which would be the subject matter of the bytes which would follow.

    To begin with defining these terms and understanding them would be the best approach [definitions as per the reference book]:
    Barriers to communication – refers to the aspects of communication content and context that can impair effective communication in a workplace.

    Gateway to communication – refers to the pathways through barriers to communication and antidotes to communication problems

    To solve the problem of barrier to communication, it would be important to first be aware and recognize them. Following is a list of such barriers to communication:

    1. Physical Separation
    2. Status Differences
    3. Gender Differences
    4. Cultural Diversity
    5. Language

  • Communication – Supervisory 4

    In the last byte, we looked when and where persuasive communication could help supervisors. In today’s byte, we look at the requirement of being sensitivity to the employee’s feelings and the need of being informed about activities that would stand the supervisor in good stead.

    Sensitivity to Feelings:
    Employees come in with their own self-image which is built over time; they also create numerous psychological defenses. A supervisor would need to be sensitive to these and also the feelings that the employee would possess.

    A general observation one could find a sensible supervisor would be – praise in the public, but criticize in private. This care helps the supervisor remain sensitive to the self-esteem of others. These supervisors work to ensure that the self-esteem of an employee is enhanced as appropriate to the individual’s real talents, abilities and achievement.

    Informative Managers:
    A supervisor in addition to having the responsibility of organizational work completed also acts as a mentor to his/her team.

    A supervisor generally receives large volumes of information in varied forms – written or verbal; in case all of this information is transferred to the employee – this could lead to information overload; while on the other hand, limiting the information could lead to lack of sufficient information to ensure good performance and task accomplishment.

    Better supervisors would need to spend time balancing the information distribution appropriately. They would also need to plan their communication to ensure that they build consensus in their team to execute without hazels.

    It would be apt to conclude the supervisory communication aspect by saying that interpersonal communication is a key foundation to the human relationships at work place and be effective at it.

  • Communication – Supervisory 3

    In the last byte, we looked at the requirements of supervisors being expressive and also empathetic. In today’s byte, we look at the persuasive and sensitive dimension of the supervisors.

    Supervisor’s ways of communication could generally be classified to be into one of the three forms:

    1. Directive
    2. Autocratic
    3. Persuasive
    A supervisory position generally comes with power and influence in an organization, this is generally to ensure that the work allocated to their employees is done well and the expected performance and results are achieved.

    If a supervisor chooses to be autocratic or directive most of the times, then (s)he would be rubbing the employee on the rough side many a times. A manager could instead use persuasive communication where the supervisor (manager) would encourage others to achieve results intend of telling them what to do! The supervisor would need to necessarily have to be patient if (s)he is to use the persuasive means of communication to get the work done.

    The above argument doesn’t mean to say that directive or autocratic communication is never to be used. It is the situation that would define the application of these means – emergency and high-risk situations (exceptional situation) are one where the directive and assertive nature of the supervisor would be most useful.

  • Communication – Supervisory 2

    In the last byte, we listed the 5 essentials that a supervisory communications should possess. In today’s byte, we look at how an expressive supervisor and how empathetic listening could help supervisory communication,

    Expressive Supervisor:
    Just imagining working with a supervisor who is completely and introvert and doesn’t talk to his/her subordinate about what his/her thought are; how would it feel? The subordinate would definitely be left wanting to know what their supervisors are thinking or feeling!
    Given this scenario, it would definitely be useful to have a supervisor who is expressing about their thoughts, ideas and feeling – they have to speak out their mind in meetings and outside. This requirement would translate to saying that the supervisor would have to tend towards extroversion and an extremely introvert supervisor would find it hard to be effective at getting the work done through their employees.

    Empathetic Listening:
    We have discussed in depth of about reflective listening over the last few bytes. Being empathetic listener is just another of the components of reflective listening. Supervisors would need to be willing to listen with patience and be responsive to the problem that the employee or peers bring to them in the context of a work setting. Responding and engaging with the concerns of other people help them be empathetic to the employee or peer with whom they are working.

    Empathetic listeners should thereby be willing to listen to the feelings and emotional dimension of the message people provide them and simultaneously look at the content of the ideas and issues. This enables the supervisors be more approachable and better at listening to suggestions and complaints.