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Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATIONCommunication as a transactional process
– Communication: can be defined as the process by which individuals create and transmit messages that are simultaneously received and interpreted by group members, who then create and transmit messages in response to the sender.
– Communication as a transactional process: emphasizes the reciprocal, multidirectional interaction in the communication environment and the responsiveness of communicative members.
– Complex and dynamic: transactions are contextual and therefore irreversible, unique, and unrepeatable.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CHARACTERISTICS OF HUMAN COMMUNICATIONCommunication as shared meaning
– Symbolic reality: is the interpretation of physical reality. Language is the way we share meanings and interpretations .
– Symbolic universe: we do not deal with an actual object, we deal with our perception of it.
– Concepts: are shared meanings amongst communicators.– Conception: our private or personal understanding of a concept.– Communication theorist David Berlo and the nature of meaning.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
VERBAL COMMUNICATION- Denotative meaning, also known as referential meaning, refers to the
literal meaning of a word, the “dictionary definition.” - Connotative meaning refers to the associations that are connected to a certain word or the emotional suggestions related to that word.- Berlo’s five verbal communication skills:
encoding: speaking and writing decoding: listening and readingreasoning
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and TeamsNONVERBAL COMMUNICATION
- Nonverbal communication defined: as any instance in which a stimulus other than words creates meaning in either a sender’s or a
receiver’s mind. - Facial displays: express our emotions and our thoughts. - Eye behavior: have a tendency to reflect our thoughts and responses. - Eye brows: reflect intentional and unintentional thought & behavior- Paralanguage: is how we say something.-Body language: consists of body movements such as gestures, posture,
head, trunk, and limb movements.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
VERBAL AND NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION INTERCONNECTEDNESS
Communication as a regulatory function- Language allows us to express and control emotion.- Language can reveal or camouflage our thoughts and motives. - Language permits us to make and avoid contact. - Language enables us to assert individual and social identity. - Language may be used to give or seek information. - Language allows us to control and be controlled. It is power. - Language can be used to monitor the process of communication.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
INTERPERSONAL COMMUNICATION COMPETENCE - Interpersonal communication: is also known as dyadic communication,
communication between two people, generally in face-to-face interaction.
- Competence: means having the know-how, ability, skill, capability, or expertise to be able to accomplish something well
- Interpersonal communication competence: controlling your verbal and nonverbal messages to create messages that best represent your thoughts.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
DIALECTIC vs. DIALOGUE- Plato’s dialectics: was a way to search for significant issues, identify alternatives, generate standards or criteria for selection, all to be used to test proposals. - Contemporary dialectics: is often referred to as a social dialogue in which people seek to come to understanding by opening themselves to the thinking of others with an interest in learning and changing. - Dialectics: a way to understand the relationship of propositions (an idea, offer, or plan put forward for consideration or discussion) to one another. - Dialogue process: a conversation or discussion between group members
in which they exchange ideas and opinions.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONCultural Differences
- Culture defined: as the dominant set of learned behaviors, values, beliefs, and thinking patterns we learn as we grow and develop in our social groups.- Cultural effectiveness: the ability to recognize cultural attributes and use
related information to effectively interact with members of a given culture. - Cultural norms: refer to the collective expectations of what constitutes
proper or improper behavior in a given interaction situation.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONWhat influences thinking in cultures?
- Cognitive style: refers to thought patterns, or the way we process information.- Cognitive process: is the relationship between thinking and language. - Open-mindedness: is the extent to which the person can receive, evaluate, and act on relevant information received from the outside on its own intrinsic merits, unencumbered by irrelevant factors in the situation, within the person, or from the outside.- Close-mindedness: the extent to which people see only a narrow range
of data and ignore everything else when they make decisions. Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONWhat influences thinking in cultures?
- Associative information process: a person who filters new data, or sensory input, through the screen of personal experience. - Abstract information process: a person who is able to extrapolate data
and consider hypothetical situations.- Particular thinker: feels that a personal relationship is more important
than obeying rules or laws. - Universal thinker: tends to abide by rules and laws, while relationships
are less important than one’s duty to the company, society, and authority in general.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONWhat influences behavior in cultures?
- Value systems: are the basis for behavior. - Values: are our central, core ideals about how to live or conduct our lives.- Terminal values: are values that we try to live life by and the ones we
pass on from generation to generation. - Instrumental values: are the values we try to live life by on a daily basis.- Values play an integral part in small group communication.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURE AND COMMUNICATIONOvercoming language barriers
- Use concrete language: words that best describe or are most specific to tangible objects—people, places, and things.
- Use abstract words: which refer to general ideas, attributes or qualities.- Self-monitoring: thinking about what we will say and how we will say it,
and considering how our behavior will be perceived. - Nonverbal cues: the meanings assigned to body language and eye contact.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURAL PROPOSITIONSConflict management differences
- Cultural assumptions: are a cluster of beliefs that govern behavior and are viewed as fundamental by those who hold them. - Collectivist cultures:
Members use a greater degree of avoidance-oriented conflict style.Members tend to use more obliging or smoothing strategies to
manage conflict.Members tend to use a greater degree of approval-seeking strategies
in managing conflict.
Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURAL PROPOSITIONSConflict management differences
- Individualist cultures: Members use a greater degree of solution-oriented conflict style.Members tend to use more dominating or controlling strategies
to manage conflict.Members tend to use more autonomy- preserving strategies in
managing conflict.
Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURAL PROPOSITIONSConflict management differences
- Independent-self conflict lens: a person often views conflict from a content conflict goal lens, which emphasizes tangible conflict
issues above and beyond relationship issues.a clear win-lose conflict approach, in which one person comes
out as a winner and the other person comes out as a loser.a “doing’ angle, in which something tangible in the conflict is
broken and needs fixing.an outcome-driven mode, in which a clear action plan or
resolution is needed. Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
CULTURAL PROPOSITIONSConflict management differences
- Interdependent-self conflict lens: a person often perceives conflict from a relational process lens, which emphasizes relationship and
feeling issues.a win-win relational approach, in which feelings and “faces” can
both be saved.a “being” angle, in which relational trust needs to be repaired
and loyalty needs amended to preserve relational harmony.a long-term compromising negotiation mode that has n clear
winner or loser in the ongoing conflict.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
ELEMENTS OF COMPETENCECommunication knowledge
- Spoken language – consists of cultural dialects, words with special meaning and definition to the culture, often with blends of the native language with the dominant language.- Tone/inflection of voice – both the denotative and connotative meanings of words change by raising or lowering the pitch of the voice on various key syllables or words in a sentence.- Eye contact/facial expression – make a mental note about the duration
of eye contact, how emotions are expressed, and feelings that are displayed through the face.
Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
ELEMENTS OF COMPETENCECommunication knowledge
- Body language/gestures : observe the person’s general body posture, his or her proximity to others, use of arms and hands to emphasize or illustrate the meaning of the words being spoken.- Touch: frequency, force, and location of touching between individuals.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
ELEMENTS OF COMPETENCESkills for bridging barriers
- Listen effectively: • Being more concerned with what we want to say than what is
being said.• Hearing only what we want to hear.
• Preconceived notions about what the others are saying or are going to say.
• Assumptions and values that alter the meaning of the words between you and the speaker.
Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
ELEMENTS OF COMPETENCESkills for bridging barriers
- Resisting judgmental reactions:• We should listen without subjecting the information to our own cultural biases.• When we communicate a value judgment, the speaker is put on the
defensive.- Monitoring perception:
• Our perceptions are shaped by our cultural assumptions and values. We tend to filter communication and behavior through these lenses. You should be aware of this.
• We should suspend our own assumptions and values we normally attach to what we see or hear.
• To do this we should make a conscious effort to minimize cultural bias.
Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
ELEMENTS OF COMPETENCESkills for bridging barriers
- Seek feedback:• Ask those with who you are speaking if you are being
understood.• Clarify meanings that might be otherwise altered by cultural
differences.- Cultivate self-awareness:
• Monitoring perceptions requires self-awareness.• Be especially aware of your behavior patterns, communication
style, and thinking patterns.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
ELEMENTS OF COMPETENCESkills for bridging barriers
- Take risks:• Be the first to open channels of communication• Make yourself open to establishing initial trust.• Sufficient trust must be developed to permit some level of
mutual exposure before communication can occur.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
Gender and Communication- Gender differences in communication: when we use the terms feminine
and masculine, we are referring to gender, a type of personality orientation.
- Differences between feminine and masculine communication: we refer to gender differences as feminine talk and masculine talk.
- Gendered standpoints: promote differences in feminine and masculine styles of creating and expressing intimacy.
- From a feminine standpoint : relationships are ongoing processes that are always evolving in ways that need to be talked through.
- From a masculine standpoint: the emphasis on outcomes inclines men to see commitment as an event that is fixed at one time and
doesn’t require constant attention.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
ETHICS- Ethics defined: is a code of conduct based on moral philosophy.- A culture’s code of ethics defines that culture: The ethical guidelines that an individual or group holds are closely linked to their culture.
A culture can be defined by its ethical code of conduct.- Normative ethics: involves arriving at moral standards that regulate right
and wrong conduct. It is the yardstick for determining proper behavior.
- Applied ethics: involves examining specific controversial issues.
Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
ETHICSNormative principles in applied ethics
- Personal benefit: acknowledge the extent to which an action produces beneficial consequences for the individual in question.
- Principle of harm: do not harm others.- Principle of honesty: do not deceive others. - Principle of autonomy: acknowledge a person’s freedom over his/her
actions or physical body.
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
GUIDELINES FOR GROUP DISCUSSION- Effective discussion is goal-directed: individuals come together as a group to problem-solve, make decisions, declare policy, evaluate programs, gather facts, and so forth. - Effective discussion is regulated by an agenda: In order for group discussion to be effective, there must exist some method or procedure that all members can follow; there must be in place rules of order that are meant to prevent or resolve conflict. - Effective discussion requires that every member be responsible for the group’s effectiveness: All members must be committed to listen, to think through, to reason, and to share results of their reasoning with the group.
Continued:
Chapter 1: Role of Communication in Groups and Teams
GUIDELINES FOR GROUP DISCUSSION- Effective discussion presumes cooperative efforts and attitudes: discussion is an inherently cooperative endeavor in which the success or failure of the entire group depends on the labors and attitudes of each individual. - Effective discussion requires leadership: Group discussion is more effective with a discussion leader than without one.