MGMT 3000 1st Edition Lecture 27 Outline of Last Lecture I II III IV Path and Goals Theory Situational Leadership Normative Decision Theory Strategic leadership Outline of Current Lecture I Basic Perception Process II Communication Process III Formal Communication Current Notes Basic Perception Process Perception processes by which individuals attend to organize interpret and retain information Perceptual Filters personality psychology or experience based differences that influence people to ignore or pay attention to particular stimuli Problems with perception 1 Selective perception is the tendency to notice and accept objects and information consistent with our values beliefs and expectations while ignoring or screening out inconsistent information 2 Closure is the tendency to fill in the gaps where information is missing that is to assume that what we don t know is consistent with what we already do know Perception of Others Attribution Process of inferring attributing causes of people s behavior including one s own behavior Explanation given for a particular behavior Internal behavior is thought to be voluntary or under control of individual External behavior is thought to be involuntary and outside of the control of the individual Defensive Basis tendency for people to perceive themselves as personally and situational similar to someone who is having difficulty or trouble Fundamental Attribution Error the tendency to ignore external causes of behavior and to attribute other people s actions to internal causes In other words when investigators examine the possible causes of an accident they re much more likely to assume that the accident is a function of the person and not the situation Self serving Bias Tendency to attribute our own successful outcomes to internal causes and unsuccessful outcomes to external causes Makes it difficult for managers to talk to employees about performance problems These notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor s lecture GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes not as a substitute Attribution in the workplace Employees and coworkers are likely to attribute problems to external causes The Communication Process 1 The communication process begins when a sender thinks of a message he or she wants to convey to another person 2 The next step is to encode the message Encoding means putting a message into a verbal written or spoken or symbolic form that can be recognized and understood by the receiver 3 The sender then transmits the message via communication channels 4 The next step is for the receiver to decode it Decoding is the process by which the receiver translates the written verbal or symbolic form of the message into an understood message 5 The last step of the communication process occurs when the receiver gives the sender feedback Feedback to sender is a return message to the sender that indicates the receiver s understanding of the message of what the receiver was supposed to know to do or not to do Noise anything that interferes with transmission of intended message The sender isn t sure what message to communicate The message is not clearly encoded The wrong communication channel is chosen The message is not received or decoded properly The receiver doesn t have the experience or time to understand the message Conduit Metaphor mistaken assumption that senders can pipe their intended messages directly into the heads of receivers with perfect clarity and without interfering with perception of message Informal Communication channel transmission of messages from employee to employee outside of formal channels Formal Communication Channel 1 Downward communication flows from higher to lower levels in an organization a Used to issue orders down the organizational hierarchy to give organizational members job related information to give managers and workers performance reviews from upper managers and to clarify organizational objectives and goals 2 Upward communication flows from lower levels to higher levels in an organization a Used to give higher level managers feedback about operations issues and problems to help higher level managers assess organizational performance and effectiveness to encourage lower level managers and employees to participate in organizational decision making and to give those at lower levels the chance to share their concerns with higher level authorities 3 Horizontal communication flows among managers and workers who are at the same organizational level a Such as when a day shift nurse comes in at 7 30 am for a half hour discussion with the midnight nurse supervisor who leaves at 8 00 am b Helps facilitate coordination and cooperation between different parts of a company and allows coworkers to share relevant information c Also helps people at the same level resolve conflicts and solve problems without involving high levels of management Ways to improve communication Decrease reliance on downward communication Increase chances for upward communication Encourage better use of horizontal communication Grapevine Communication Channels Grapevines arise out of informal communication networks such as the gossip or cluster chains Gossip chain one highly connected individual shares information with many other managers and workers Cluster Chain numerous people simply tell a few of their friends The result in both cases is that information flows freely and quickly through the organization Managing Grapevines Don t withhold information o Keep employees informed o Don t overlook them Coaching Communicating with someone for the direct purpose of improving the person s on the job performance Managers should not wait for problems to arise or wait too long before coaching Counseling communicating with someone about non job related issues Should not be clinicians Discuss specific performance problems Listen if employee shares personal issues