Chapter 6: Listening and Communication

Chapter 6

• Selective listening is when a listener deliberately chooses what to pay attention to
• Information overload happens when a listener is overwhelmed and must decide what to process and remember, a common cause of poor listening
• Online communication issues arise when messages are sent without review, leading to confusion/delays, lacking personalization/tone, and potentially causing misunderstandings
• Red flag words trigger immediate, usually negative, emotional responses due to strong beliefs

Timing of Messages

• Emotional timing relates to the listener's emotional readiness
• Situational timing relates to the listener's current circumstances
• Relevance timing means communication should align with discussed topics
• Filtering is when listeners only hear what they want, potentially missing important information

Prejudice

• Prejudice is prejudging someone, causing unwillingness to listen to perceived inferior groups.
• Prejudice including ethnic groups or women
• Prejudice can result in misunderstanding and/or not being aware of what is going on
• Prejudice can look bad

Functions of Non-Verbal Communication

• Showing the speaker's attitudes and emotions
• Conveying meaning
• Clarifying messages between people
• Displaying the speaker's reactions to the listener

Gestures

• Illustrators clarify points, like pointing for directions
• Regulators control communication flow; eye contact is a regulator
• Displays are nonverbal punctuation, like pounding a fist
• Emblems have specific, understood meanings between sender/receiver (e.g., the peace sign)

Proxemics

• Proxemics (or distancing) describes the physical space maintained between people
• Intimate distance: Close (0-6"), Far (6-18")
• Personal distance: Close (1 1/2-2'), Far (2-4')
• Social distance: Close (4-7'), Far (7-12')
• Public distance: 12-25' and beyond

Ebbinghaus Curve of Forgetting

• The Ebbinghaus curve of forgetting shows memory/forgetting over time
• Developed by Herman Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)
• Less than half is remembered after an hour; about 25% after two months

Chapter 7

• Team development has 5 stages

Team Development Stages

• Forming: Team members meet, share backgrounds, and form first impressions
• Storming: Members test responses to differences and conflict
• Norming: Team starts to "gel", becoming more comfortable in their roles
• Performing: Team members are satisfied, know each other, trust each other, and rely on each other
• Adjourning: Work is done, the team dissolves, and diverse emotions may arise

Groupthink

• A problematic thinking pattern due to pressure, stress, and low self-esteem where members overly agree with one another

Hidden Agendas

• Secret wishes/desires/assumptions are kept hidden
• People try to accomplish these while pretending to care about group goals

Leadership Styles

• Autocratic: Leaders make all decisions and use authority/rewards

• Consultative: Leaders delegate but make final decisions independently

• Participative: Leaders encourage group collaboration

• Persuasive: Leaders make the final decision but are open to outside persuasion

• Free-Rein: Leaders set standards, then allow creative freedom

Sources of Power:

• Legitimate: Based on position and follower belief in the organizational structure

• Reward: Controlling or influencing via something of value

• Coercive: Based on the threat of punishment

• Networking: Attained by making contacts and knowing the right people

• Expert: Based on skill/knowledge critical to the firm's success

• Charismatic: Based on the attractiveness a person has

• Organizational or corporate culture includes shared values/assumptions

Team Building

• Management supports team building to reduce the need for middle management, increase productivity and make better use of resources
• Meeting etiquette includes timeliness, attentiveness, homework, introductions, and meaningful agendas

Team Building Implementation

• Implementation involves questioning team goals, membership contributions, and member skills, empowering leaders to understand needs and concerns
• Trust is essential for team building
• Teams need to agree upon both individual and collective goals

Chapter 9

• Personal change has seven stages: emotional standstill, denial, anger, helplessness, bottoming out, experimenting, and completion

• Lewin change model includes unfreezing, changing, and refreezing

• Force Field Analysis sees the status quo as a battlefield between driving and restraining forces

• Logical Instrumentalism acknowledges change is time-consuming/complicated also simplifies the process

Resistance to Change

• Why employees resist change includes fear of job loss, bad timing or delivery, a reward and recognition structure that isn't rewarding and recognition, general fear, and poor timing and delivery.

Kaizen Approach

• Kaizen includes teamwork, personal discipline, improved morale, quality circles and suggestions for improvement
• Organization development is a planned, company-wide, systematic method

Kaizen

• Kaizen means "to become good through change"
• Kaizen restructures/organizes systems for optimal efficiency

Chapter 15

• Future favors are common in developing countries, exchanging favors over generations; also used in some industrialized nations
• Gift exchange is a strong tradition creating future obligations, also a rite of passage
• Types of Corporate Social Responsibility includes Traditional, Affirmative (Public), and stakeholder

Traditional Corporate Responsibility

• Traditional corporate social responsibility involves the company being responsible only to itself in order to make a profit
• Emerged with the Industrial Revolution in the late 1880s

Affirmative Corporate Responsibility

• Affirmative means companies are now also responsible for stakeholders and the greater public
• Affirmative Corporate Responsibility emerged amid social unrest in the 1960s

Stakeholder Corporate Responsibility

• Stakeholders include customers, competitors, unions, suppliers, consumer groups, and government
• Stakeholder Corporate Responsibility emerged during the Great Depression

Ethical Philosophies

• Utilitarianism: Decisions should create the greatest good for the most people

• Universalism: Human life has value, and ethical decisions should protect all

• Rights or legal principle: Legal rights determine ethical choices

• Justice: Decisions should be consistent, unbiased, and factual

• Virtue: Decisions should be wise, true, and promote one's best self

• Common good: Decisions prioritize the best choices for individuals and society

• Ethical relativism: Each person makes decisions based on self-interest, values, and culture

Rationalizing Unethical Behavior

• Rationalizing means making excuses for behavior that causes embarrassment, shame, anxiety, or pain
• Six basic rationalizations include rationalization error, obeying authority, conforming, time pressure, fatigue, and lack of transparency

Avoiding Unethical Behavior

• Boss massaging is currying favor with a manager to achieve goals
• Hacktivism is using technology to promote ethics, free speech, or human rights
• Whistleblowing means reporting unethical behavior

Groupthink Symptoms

• Illusion of invulnerability: Members ignore danger and take extreme risks
• Illusion of morality: Members believe their decisions are morally correct
• Illusion of unanimity: Members incorrectly believe everyone agrees
• Self-censorship: Members withhold dissenting views