ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL: AN ANALYSIS (part 8)

FUNCTIONS OF NONVERBAL MESSAGES

by

Charles Lamson

There are six primary functions of nonverbal messages. These functions are complementing, contradicting, accenting, repeating, regulating and substituting. some of these functions occur jointly, with the verbal, or are used in place of verbal communication.

Complementing.   Complementing is the nonverbal function of adding to, clarifying, enriching, emphasizing, or supplementing the verbal messages. For example, when a manager says to an employee, "this is one of the best proposals I have read," the words alone will probably be well received by the employee. However, if the words are emphasized by a pleasant and warm voice, and accompanied with a pat on the back, then the message is even stronger.

Contradicting.    Contradicting is the use of nonverbal messages, that are opposite of the verbal message. In other words, the nonverbal message disclaims, or does not support the verbal message. Consider, for example, employees who have been working together on a project for several months. The woman says, "You like my work, don't you?"  Another coworker says, "Sure, sure, I like your work." Again, the words should be enough to convey the true meaning, but they often are not. The woman needs to listen and watch the nonverbal behaviors of her coworker. The woman needs to hear the unsure, perhaps even questioning, tone in the co-worker's voice, and observe that, while the co-worker is expressing acceptance of her work. the co-worker is still thinking the work could be improved. Whenever the verbal message is contradicted by the nonverbal message, most people tend to believe the nonverbal message.

Accenting.    Nonverbal messages that highlight stress or enhance the verbal message serve the function of accenting. These messages can be vocalic behavior, touch, eye contact, body movement, posture, facial expression, and so on. For example, when an instructor says, "There will be five major points covered on the next exam," students tend to listen better. The word five is highlighted by the teacher by vocalic underlining. Usually, students will listen and retain more, when teachers use accenting as a means to keep attention. 

Repeating.    nonverbal messages that restate, reinforce, duplicate, or reiterate the verbal message, serve the function of repeating. Nonverbal messages performing this function can stand alone, and still represent a similar message, even if the verbal messages were not present. For example, a manager attempting to get loud employees to quiet down, might say, "Please be quiet," while putting a finger to her or his lips. An employee requesting help might say, "I need help with this project," while raising a hand for help, might communicate the`intended meaning, in absence of the verbal, but when both the verbal, and nonverbal, are present, the nonverbal gestures perform the repeating function.

Regulating.    Verbal communication is controlled, monitored, coordinated, and managed, through the nonverbal function of regulating. Such regulation is accomplished primarily by nonverbal messages. These nonverbal messages can involve most any part of the body, and regulate or control the back and forth flow of dialogue. Some of these regulators are as follows; pointing, direct eye contact, raising or lowering the voice, looking away, leaning forward, leaning back, smiling silently, pausing, touching on hand, and so on.

Often, politicians know how to regulate the back and forth flow or interaction. A politician will pause, and look at a newsperson, when the politician wants the newsperson to speak. When a politician wants to "keep the floor," or continue talking, he or she will not look directly at the newsperson, or pause, but keep a continuous stream of speech, and use nonverbal behaviors, which do not allow the newsperson to interrupt.

Substituting.    Substitution happens when the nonverbal message is delivered in place of a verbal message. Often, a person will replace a verbal message, with a nonverbal message, because the nonverbal will communicate as effectively, or better than, the verbal message. For example, in a crisis, giving another person a hug may be may be more reassuring than any words that could be used.

In conclusion, these nonverbal functions do not always occur independently. In fact, many of these nonverbal functions could occur simultaneously. It is possible to complement, repeat, and accent, virtually at the same time. Many times, nonverbal functions are necessary to do so, while some verbal messages may be able to stand alone, and stimulate, the desired meaning. The communication often is enhanced, by the interaction of verbal and nonverbal messages.

*SOURCE: ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL; MAKING WORK, WORK 3RD EDITION BY VIRGINIA P. RICHMOND, JAMES C. MCCROSKEY, LINDA L. MCCROSKEY; PGS. 35-37*

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ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL: AN ANALYSIS (part 7)

NONVERBAL BEHAVIOR AND COMMUNICATION
by
Charles Lamson

Nonverbal behaviors have a significant impact on human communication. In fact, it has been estimated that approximately two-thirds of the perceived meaning in any communication situation is likely to be stimulated by nonverbal messages. Mehrabian and Ferris (1967) estimate that on average, 93 percent of meaning in interpersonal communication comes from nonverbal messages. While this estimate may appear somewhat high, scholars and practitioners, agree that much of the meaning a person receives from a message, comes from the available nonverbal messages.

Even if a person is not visible to another (for example, using the phone - the person's voice will send nonverbal cues as to what the person is thinking or feeling). People have had the experience of calling an organization for information, and getting a person with a voice that is monotone, harsh, and/or unpleasant sounding. Usually, these types of vocal tones result in a negative reaction, and do not encourage a person to carry on a conversation, or to call back for more information. Our negative reactions (to the person on the phone, and the organization he/she represents) can be entirely produced by the nonverbal messages we receive.

Nonverbal communication is the process of a person - or persons - (such as a manager) stimulating meaning in the mind of another person, or persons, In talking to people in organizations, using words mandates that we use at least one set of nonverbal messages - vocalic cues, for it is through vocalic cues that words are conveyed to others.

SIGNIFICANCE OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS

There are six reasons why we believe nonverbal communication is extremely important in organisations. Each is a sufficient reason to try to better understand nonverbal communicative messages

1. The first form of human communication was nonverbal communication. Before the development of formal oral languages, and many additional millennia before such recent developments; as writing, sign language, and e-mail, the human species used nonverbal messages as their only form of communication. Gestures, facial expressions, and vocalic noises were used to convey meanings. We see such communication continuing today in our nearest relatives, other primates. Nonverbal communication is a core behavior in humans (as with other primates) that surrounds our verbal communication. Organizations are made up of human beings (regardless of what we might think some of them descend from). And humans are first and foremost nonverbal communicators - the receptionist who smiles at us when we enter the door often counts for far more in determining how we feel about the organization than all the lofty slogans the bureaucrats bleat in its name. 
2. Many people fail at communication because they are non-verbally illiterate. It is amazing the number of people who disregard the impact of nonverbal communication on relationships in organizations. Quite simply, many managers and employees fail to become effective communicators because they do not understand that nonverbal communication is an integral and critical part of the total communication process. While people work to perfect their verbal communication, they disregard the impact of the nonverbal. But we can't help but be hesitant to place blame on individuals in this regard. Our educational system puts almost a totally exclusive emphasis on verbal communication, and 99 percent of that on written communication, While every student in primary school and secondary school has been inundated with information about verbal communication (often in multiple languages). It is no wonder that the most common, and destructive, mistakes in communication, which are made in organizations, are nonverbal ones.
3. Nonverbal messages are always present. Many communication scholars (and practitioners) realize that nonverbal communication continues, even when the verbal communication has ended. People can communicate with each other non-verbally, even when they are not speaking. For example, a severe look or an overwhelming gesture, may say more than words. And may do so in the complete absence of words.
4. Verbal and nonverbal messages work together. It is virtually impossible to find a verbal message that does not have a nonverbal component. Even computer language, e-mail and other non-human technologies, carry a non-verbal component (the symbols used, size of words and so on) are all non-verbal components of a verbal language, for the most part. Verbal, and non-verbal, messages function together, rather than separately.
5. Nonverbal messages often are more important than the verbal ones. In some organizational situations, the verbal messages can be more important than the verbal. Verbal messages have their biggest impact on the way people feel about their interaction, and the people with whom they interact.
6. Nonverbal communication is believed. In meetings, both managers and employees, look for the true meaning behind the words. Research indicates that humans are terribly bad lie detectors, actually being wrong more often than they would be by flipping a coin. However, if a person feels like another person is not telling them the truth, a feeling which usually comes from nonverbal messages, that person will believe the other is not telling the truth - even if they are. 

*ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL: MAKING WORK, WORK BY VIRGINIA P. RICHMOND, JAMES C. MCCROSKEY AND LINDA L. MCROSKEY; PGS. 33-35*

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ORGANIZATIONaL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVI VAL: AN ANALYSIS (part 6)

Organizational Communication

by

Charles Lamson

Organizational communication is a sub-field of the larger discipline of communication studies. Organizational communication, as a field, is the consideration, analysis, and criticism of the role of communication in organizational contexts. Its main function is to inform, persuade and promote goodwill. The flow of communication could be either formal or informal. Communication flowing through formal channels are downward, horizontal and upward whereas communication through informal channels.

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History 

The field traces its lineage through business information, business communication, and early mass communication studies published in the 1930s through the 1950s. Until then, organizational communication, as a discipline, consisted of a few professors within speech departments, who had a particular interest in speaking and writing in business settings. The current field is well established with its own theories and empirical concerns, distinct from other fields. 

Several seminal publications stand out as works broadening the scope and recognizing the importance of communication in the organizing process, and in using the term "organizational communication." Nobel Laureate Herbert A. Simon wrote in 1947 about "organization communications systems", saying communication is "absolutely essential to organizations."  W. Charles Redding played a prominent role in the establishment of organizational communication as a discipline.

In the 1950s, organizational communication focused largely on the role of communication in improving organizational life and organizational output. In the 1980s, the field turned away from a business-oriented approach to communication and became concerned more with the constitutive role of communication in organizing. In the 1990s, critical theory influence on the field was felt, as organizational communication scholars focused more on communication's possibilities to oppress - and liberate - organizational members.

Early Underlying Assumptions

Some of the main assumptions underlying much of the early organizational communication research were:

• Humans act rationally. Some people do not behave in rational ways, they generally have no access to all of the information needed to make rational decisions they could articulate, and therefore will make unrational decisions, unless there is some breakdown in the communication process—which is common. Irrational people rationalize how they will rationalize their communication measures whether or not it is rational.
• Formal logic and empirically verifiable data ought to be the foundation upon which any theory should rest. All we really need to understand communication in organizations is (a) observable and replicable behaviors that can be transformed into variables by some form of measurement, and (b) formally replicable syllogisms that can extend theory from observed data to other groups and settings
• Communication is primarily a mechanical process, in which a message is constructed and encoded by a sender, transmitted through some channel, then received and decoded by a receiver. Distortion, represented as any differences between the original and the received messages, can and ought to be identified and reduced or eliminated.
• Organizations are mechanical things, in which the parts (including employees functioning in defined roles) are interchangeable. What works in one organization will work in another similar organization. Individual differences can be minimized or even eliminated with careful management techniques.
• Organizations function as a container within which communication takes place. Any differences in form or function of communication between that occurring in an organization and in another setting can be identified and studied as factors affecting the communicative activity.

Herbert A. Simon introduced the concept of bounded rationality which challenged assumptions about the perfect rationality of communication participants. He maintained that people making decisions in organizations seldom had complete information, and that even if more information was available, they tended to pick the first acceptable option, rather than exploring further to pick the optimal solution.

In the early 1990s Peter Senge developed new theories on Organizational Communication. These theories were learning organization and systems thinking. These have been well received and are now a mainstay in current beliefs toward organizational communications.

Communication networks

Networks are another aspect of direction and flow of communication. Bavelas has shown that communication patterns, or networks, influence groups in several important ways. Communication networks may affect the group's completion of the assigned task on time, the position of the de-facto leader in the group, or they may affect the group members' satisfaction from occupying certain positions in the network. Although these findings are based on laboratory experiments, they have important implications for the dynamics of communication in formal organizations.

Flow Nomenclature

There is an emerging informal use of abbreviations to indicate the flow of information, in addition to other transactions. These share a common pattern of source and destination separated by the numeral "2" in place of the word "to." This doesn't assume that the communication only flows in one direction with these terms. duplex point-to-point communication systems, computer networks, non-electronic telecommunications, and meetings in person are all possible with the use of these terms. Example of terms:

Interpersonal Communication

Another fact of communication in the organization is the process of one-to-one or interpersonal communication, between individuals. Such communication may take several forms. Messages may be verbal (that is, expressed in words), or they may not involve words at all but consist of gestures, facial expressions, and certain postures ("body language"). Nonverbal messages may even stem from silence.

Managers do not need answers to operate a successful business; they need questions. Answers can come from anyone, anytime, anywhere in the world thanks to the benefits of all the electronic communication tools at our disposal. This has turned the real job of management into determining what it is the business needs to know, along with the who/what/where/when and how of learning it. To effectively solve problems, seize opportunities, and achieve objectives, questions need to be asked by managers—these are the people responsible for the operation of the enterprise as a whole.

Ideally, the meanings sent are the meanings received. This is most often the case when the messages concern something that can be verified objectively. For example, "This piece of pipe fits the threads on the coupling." In this case, the receiver of the message can check the sender's words by actual trial, if necessary. However, when the sender's words describe a feeling or an opinion about something that cannot be checked objectively, meanings can be very unclear. "This work is too hard" or "Watergate was politically justified" are examples of opinions or feelings that cannot be verified. Thus they are subject to interpretation and hence to distorted meanings. The receiver's background of experience and learning may differ enough from that of the sender to cause significantly different perceptions and evaluations of the topic under discussion. As we shall see later, such differences form a basic barrier to communication.

Nonverbal content always accompanies the verbal content of messages. This is reasonably clear in the case of face-to-face communication. As Virginia Satir has pointed out, people cannot help but communicate symbolically (for example, through their clothing or possessions) or through some form of body language. In messages that are conveyed by the telephone, a messenger, or a letter, the situation or context in which the message is sent becomes part of its non-verbal content. For example, if the company has been losing money, and in a letter to the production division, the front office orders a reorganization of the shipping and receiving departments, this could be construed to mean that some people were going to lose their jobs — unless it were made explicitly clear that this would not occur.

A number of variables influence the effectiveness of communication. Some are found in the environment in which communication takes place, some in the personalities of the sender and the receiver, and some in the relationship that exists between sender and receiver. These different variables suggest some of the difficulties of communicating with understanding between two people. The sender wants to formulate an idea and communicate it to the receiver. This desire to communicate may arise from his thoughts or feelings or it may have been triggered by something in the environment. The communication may also be influenced by the relationship between the sender and the receiver, such as status differences, a staff-line relationship, or a learner-teacher relationship.

Whatever its origin, information travels through a series of filters, both in the sender and in the receiver, and is affected by different channels, before the idea can be transmitted and re-created in the receiver's mind. Physical capacities to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch vary between people, so that the image of reality may be distorted even before the mind goes to work. In addition to physical or sense filters, cognitive filters, or the way in which an individual's mind interprets the world around him, will influence his assumptions and feelings. These filters will determine what the sender of a message says, how he says it, and with what purpose. Filters are present also in the receiver, creating a double complexity that once led Robert Louis Stevenson to say that human communication is "doubly relative". It takes one person to say something and another to decide what he said.

Physical and cognitive, including semantic filters (which decide the meaning of words) combine to form a part of our memory system that helps us respond to reality. In this sense, March and Simon compare a person to a data processing system. Behavior results from an interaction between a person's internal state and environmental stimuli. What we have learned through past experience becomes an inventory, or data bank, consisting of values or goals, sets of expectations and preconceptions about the consequences of acting one way or another, and a variety of possible ways of responding to the situation. This memory system determines what things we will notice and respond to in the environment. At the same time, stimuli in the environment help to determine what parts of the memory system will be activated. Hence, the memory and the environment form an interactive system that causes our behavior. As this interactive system responds to new experiences, new learnings occur which feed back into memory and gradually change its content. This process is how people adapt to a changing world.

Approaches

Informal and formal communication are used in an organization.

Informal communication, generally associated with interpersonal, horizontal communication, was primarily seen as a potential hindrance to effective organizational performance. This is no longer the case. Informal communication has become more important to ensuring the effective conduct of work in modern organizations.

Top-down approach: This is also known as downward communication. This approach is used by the Top Level Management to communicate to the lower levels. This is used to implement policies, guidelines, etc. In this type of organizational communication, distortion of the actual information occurs. This could be made effective by feedbacks.

Additionally, McPhee and Zaug (1995) take a more nuanced view of communication as constitutive of organizations (also referred to as CCO). They identify four constitutive flows of communication, formal and informal, which become interrelated in order to constitute organizing and an organization:

• organizational self-structuring
• membership negotiation
• activity coordination
• institutional positioning.

Research methodologies

Historically, organizational communication was driven primarily by quantitative research methodologies. Included in functional organizational communication research are statistical analyses (such as surveys, text indexing, network mapping and behavior modeling). In the early 1980s, the interpretive revolution took place in organizational communication. In Putnam and Pacanowsky's 1983 text Communication and Organizations: An Interpretive Approach. they argued for opening up methodological space for qualitative approaches such as narrative analyses, participant-observation, interviewing, rhetoric and textual approaches readings) and philosophic inquiries.

During the 1980s and 1990s critical organizational scholarship began to gain prominence with a focus on issues of gender, race, class, and power/knowledge. In its current state, the study of organizational communication is open methodologically, with research from post-positive, interpretive, critical, postmodern, and discursive paradigms being published regularly.

Organizational communication scholarship appears in a number of communication journals including but not limited to 

Organizations seek to influence their reputation through a variety of self-presentation activities, which collectively express the organization’s identity and promote a particular image

Current Research Topics

In some circles, the field of organizational communication has moved from acceptance of mechanistic models (e.g., information moving from a sender to a receiver) to a study of the persistent, hegemonic and taken-for-granted ways in which we not only use communication to accomplish certain tasks within organizational settings (e.g., public speaking) but also how the organizations in which we participate affect us.

These approaches include "postmodern", "critical", "participatory", "feminist", "power/political", "organic", etc. and adds to disciplines as wide-ranging as sociology, philosophy, theology, psychology, business, business administration, institutional management, medicine (health communication), neurology (neural nets), semiotics, anthropology, international relations, and music.

*SOURCE: WIKIPEDIA*

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ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL: AN ANALYSIS (part 5)

FORMAL COMMUNICATION FLOW AND IMPACT
by
Charles Lamson

In this blog we review the types of communication flow in organizations, and the impact of each type. Communication flows in two directions in the organization,  vertically and horizontally. Vertical communication is concerned with communication between employees at different hierarchical levels in the organization. It focuses on downward and upward communication between managers and employees. Horizontal communication is concerned with communication between employees at the same level in the organization. It focuses on communication between managers and employees. Horizontal communication is concerned with communication between employees at the same level in the organization. It it is communication that goes across the organization. Let us look at what types of communication flow downward in the organization.

Downward Communication.  The first type of vertical communication is downward communication, that which flows from upper-management down to the employees at lower ranks. Downward communication generally is effective when upper levels of management are highly motivated to make it work. There are five different elements that generally flow downward in all organizations. they are job instruction, rationale, ideology, information and feedback

Job instruction is the conveying of information to subordinates about what they are expected to do. It can be carried out by a variety of means,  such as direct orders written memos workshops on how to do the job and so on. the key here is that job instructions should be precise and applied directly to one's job.

Rationale is the rationalization or explanation of a duty or assignment, and how it is compatible with what the personnel are already doing. Again, this can be carried out by various oral or written methods

Ideology is an extension of rationale. This type of downward communication seeks to obtain the loyalty of the employees. Ideology is the philosophy of the organization. Managers want employees to buy into the organizational philosophy. When everyone has the same, or similar, ideals and goals, communication becomes easier. Many organizations have a written ideology they give to new employees, when they walk through the door.

Information is concerned with acquainting employees with general bits of knowledge, that they need to know (such as; regulations, changes in benefits and general policies). It usually is of an informative nature, and does not require a response from the employee. It is simply to give employees needed information.

Feedback is the manager's way of giving employees information about how they are doing. Feedback can take many forms (such as salary increase or decrease, a pat on the back, a termination notice, a smile or a frown). Feedback also needs to be clear appropriately, and with instructions on how to make any needed changes.

People at the lower levels of the organization are dependent in many ways on the downward communication of management for their own success. However, management controls most of the means by which downward communication occurs. If that control does not permit needed information flow to you, you must actively prompt the system to get it. It may be management's fault that the downward system is not working, but the person who receives the blame normally will be at the other end of the line. Does this sound familiar?

Upward communication.    Although upward communication is initiated by those at the lowest levels of the organization, it can be successful only if those at the higher levels are willing to allow the communication to be effective. There are five factors that are most likely to influence upper levels of the organization to allow the upward communication to be effective. Upward communication should be; positive, timely, support current policy, be sent directly to the person who can act on it, and have intuitive appeal - in order to go up the system without being stopped, ignored, or sent back down.

Positive communication is more likely to go up the system than negative. Many times, employees think the negative will go through the system faster than the positive. However, this is not the case. Supervisors try to prevent negative information from reaching their managers, but forward the positive right up to them. If too much negative reaches a person's immediate supervisor, it looks as if the person is not doing his or her job. Managers try to keep the noise level down in their respective units. They do not want negatives going up so they filter out the negative information. They send positive information to their bosses, so they are seen as doing their jobs. Hence, if you want something to go up the system, couch it in positive terms.

Horizontal Communication.   This is communication that flows across the organization from peer to peer. There is much more horizontal communication in organizations on a daily basis than there is vertical. This is a function of two things: (1) There are more employees than managers; and (2) Employees at the same level feel more comfortable talking with each other than with people at different authority levels.

Horizontal communication is where you usually can talk openly and freely about your feelings about the system, and can discuss your feelings about the system, and can discuss your problems with others who can identify with them. In addition, this is also the channel at which most social interaction takes place - within the formal organization. It is through the horizontal channels that you are likely to increase your knowledge, communication skills, and socialization skills. This often is where you can establish long-lasting interpersonal relationships, that can assist you in becoming a better employee, with a better chance of survival in the organization.

END