Listening From Confusion to Clarity

Yael CohenHebrew University Jerusalem

Listening creates the opportunity of an inner dialog

That inner dialog first allows suppressed voices to come out, and second, enables the different voices to be integrated in harmony

Confusion is a loss of orientation regarding time, space-place, person, or situation

Lack of orderly thought, and inability to act or choose decisively in performing daily activities

Self-clarity is the extent to which self-beliefs are internally consistent and stable (Campbell et al, 1996)

Role clarity defined as the sufficiency of given information regarding the expectations associated with one’s role at work

Mentoring in Organizations Senior employee/manger acting as a mentor to

a “young adult” in order to assist in better employee development (Allen at el., 2004; Eby et al., 2008)

Career Development

Psycho-Social

support

Mentor listening

Situational clarity Role clarity

+ +

-Role

confusion

Research Procedure

• Filed study - High tech organization

• 16 dyads, engaged in formal mentoring relations

• The mentees filled out weekly questionnaire, up to 13 times

• The questionnaires containing the scales for measuring responses to specific meetings of: Mentor listening, mentee situational/role clarity vs. confusion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13

N = 128

Situational Clarity Role Clarity

-4.84 -2.52 -0.19 2.13 4.463.79

6.32

8.85

11.39

13.92

LISTEN1

SCLA

RIT

Y

-4.84 -2.52 -0.19 2.13 4.466.18

7.01

7.83

8.66

9.49

LISTEN1

CLA

RIT

Y

( Level 1: β=.64, p<.002)( Level 2: β=.76, p<.001)

( Level 1: β=.22, p<.02)( Level 2: β=.29, p<.004)

Mentor listening is positively associated

with mentee clarity

Role Confusion

-4.84 -2.52 -0.19 2.13 4.460.29

1.87

3.44

5.02

6.60

LISTEN1

CO

NFU

SIO

( Level 1: β=-.32, p<.073)( Level 2: β=-.43, p<.082)

Mentor listening is negatively associated with mentee confusion

Conclusions

• Listening has strong short-term effects on situational clarity

• And weak, slowly accumulating effects on the more general role clarity

• Therefore, Listening should be sustained across time to impact role clarity

The beneficial impact of listening

appears to aggregate across

meetings

The powerful effect of Listening on the short term of situational clarity

The strength effect of aggregate listening on long

term of role clarityListening

Listening

Listening

Thank you For Listening!

Yael CohenHebrew University Jerusalem

Thank you For Listening!

Yael CohenHebrew University Jerusalem