Deck 17: Managing Communication

Question 1

Lana Lowery, a regional manager for a 100-person inside sales staff, notices that the team's best performer is struggling. Her sales are down 20 percent from a year ago, and she frequently arrives late for work, looking upset. Lowery needs to find out why her performance is suffering. What advice would you give Lowery for communicating with this employee? Which communication channel should she use? What would be the relative importance of candor, listening, and asking questions? Explain.

Answer 1

L needs to communicate directly with the best Sales Performer and keep the Communication channel Centralized and of course formal.
The meeting should be conducted with specific goals in mind which may include the following:
1. Goals. The best also make some mistakes at times which let them get off the goal. L needs to make sure they discuss the goals of the organization and also the ones that the individual needs to focus on.
2. Strategies. The strategy to get back to the goals needs to be discussed and thus communicated clearly by L.
3. Performance Feedback. This is the most important part of the meeting in which L needs to tell the person where he/she is going and needs to buckle up to reinstate his/her position as the Best Sales Performer. The feedback needs to be constructive and should allow better performance and motivation.

Question 2

One small business owner said that he had to teach his young employees what a "dial tone" was. Do you have phone aversion? Do you think it is possible to build a solid business relationship with customers using only text messaging, e-mail, and social media?

Answer 2

A phone aversion can get in the way of communicating with customers and partners in today's world where mobile phones are gaining increasing importance as a means of doing business. While e-mail and social media offer a quick way to connect with a large customer pool, telephonic and in-person conversations can add a personal touch and are important particularly for high-value, personal selling.
Text messaging, e-mail and social media help companies reach out to a wide audience in a fast, cost-effective way. They also help customers provide feedback quickly and enable greater transparency. For example, if a company launches a new product such as a health drink and wants to gauge customer feedback, social media can be very effective. An online marketing campaign targeting net-savvy young adults can help in building the market and encouraging trials. Customers can also provide feedback through Twitter, Facebook and the company website, virtually negating the need for in-person interaction. However, consider a B2B business such as a company that sells high value gym equipment to health clubs. This business is driven by personal relationships, where customers value the time and efforts put in by the salespeople in educating them about the products, helping them set it up and checking on maintenance needs. Personalized service and attention are valued highly in this situation. Hence, telephonic conversations and in-person interaction cannot be done away with. Depending on the type of business, it may be possible to some extent to build a relationship between the company's brand and customers using only social media, text messaging and e-mail. However, personal selling and relationship-building are unlikely to lose their relevance anytime soon.

Question 3

Some senior managers believe they should rely on written information and computer reports because these yield more accurate data than do face-to-face communications. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Answer 3

An effective senior manager needs to gather information through multiple channels, to obtain the most complete picture of what is happening in their department and in the company as a whole.
Written reports and information are an important part of the picture, since they contain hard data and facts that can be analyzed. However verbal information through face to face conversations is also important, as the feelings and opinions of staff members have an impact on the effectiveness of company programs and the tasks that can be accomplished.
An effective manager will need to incorporate information received on staff concerns and motivation into their operational plans, along wi th the hard data.

Question 4

During times of significant organizational change, such as downsizing and layoffs, the grapevine becomes more active as anxious employees share organizational news and rumors. As a manager, what communication strategies would you employ during a time of uncertainty in the workplace? What are the advantages and disadvantages of gossip during a time of uncertainty?

Question 5

Assume that you manage a small online business that sells herbal supplements. Without your knowledge, a disgruntled employee has posted damaging information about your company in the company's blog, including false information about dangerous ingredients in your best-selling supplement. What specific steps would you take to minimize the impact of this crisis?

Question 6

If you were asked to design a training program to help managers become better communicators, what would you include in the program?

Question 7

Suppose that you manage an employee who is spending too much time using social media at work. The result is that he has missed three important deadlines in one week. You are planning a face-to-face conversation to address this performance problem and your goal is to communicate with candor. Using "I statements" as described in this chapter, how would you begin this conversation?

Question 8

e-mail Adventure
The toy industry is highly competitive and can be as cutthroat as any pirate adventure. Yo-ho-ho! Snooping, corporate espionage, and efforts to keep emerging ideas under wraps are all part of life in the toy industry. A certain level of managerial paranoia is expected. But when the private e-mail of an industry CEO was discovered and began making the rounds, it unleashed a firestorm and brought disastrous results on company morale, unwanted media attention, and public embarrassment.
Howard Tannenbaum is the long-time CEO of a major toy company. Over the past few years, his company worked to develop a new product line, called Brainchild, that all concerned believed would be a blockbuster. The passion of Tannenbaum, the new line of toys was so top-secret that portions of the line were created and produced, piecemeal, among the various divisions. In the beginning, it was all very hush-hush. But as the line moved closer to completion and the expected Christmas season launch date more than a year away, press and industry rumors gained momentum.
At 8:00 a.m. on a June morning, Barry Paine, Tannenbaum's attorney and longtime friend and confidante, arrived at his office, opened his e-mail and saw a flagged message from Howard:
Barry:
We have a disaster in the making here. Looks like I'm going to have to come down hard on all of my managers. Somebody will go-perhaps several people before this situation is over. They're obviously getting EXTREMELY slack on design security. I won't say now how I discovered the breach or what was stolen with regard to the new product designs, but suffice it to say that at this point, EVERYONE is suspect. Needless to say, I am FURIOUS! When I find out who it is-and it could be anyone-believe me, heads will roll!!! I'll call you later this morning. WE NEED TO MEET. Thanks for letting me vent. Now, I can compose the REAL e-mail to managers.
Howard
Later that same morning, managers throughout the company received the following:
TO ALL MANAGERS:
We have a situation here in which product design information on the new line, information that should have been under the HIGHEST SECURITY, has been breached. Let me make it clear that each of you is responsible for investigating your division and finding the source of the leak. Please be thorough in your investigation and be TOTALLY HONEST with me in presenting your findings in this matter. Someone will pay for this. THIS IS TOP PRIORITY!
Howard Tannenbaum, CEO
Many recipients of the e-mail felt personally attacked and threatened. Before day's end, e-mail, phone calls, and rumors were flying. By the following day, Tannenbaum felt pressured into trying to defuse the anger by issuing a second, apologetic, e-mail. However, events were already spiraling out of hand, as somehow the contents of the original e-mail to Barry Paine began circulating throughout management and beyond-to employees and at least one member of the press, who dubbed the debacle Toy-Gate. The perception of a CEO and a company out of control increased and the stock price took a minor hit.
"The first e-mail left me stunned," one long-time manager said. "But when I saw the e-mail to Paine about how Howard really felt and the level of contempt he showed for all of us, making us all appear incompetent and dishonest-that, for me, is the last straw. Even if I stay, it has destroyed the relationship with Howard forever."
Now Tannenbaum sat, head in hands, in Paine's office.
"Barry, I was simply trying to find the truth."
Paine walked over to a bookshelf and pulled an old, well-used volume. "Do you remember your Sophocles from school, Howard? In one Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King and his persistent search for truth in the murder of his predecessor, King Laius, followed a path that abandoned reason and led to his own undoing. My friend, in your case, it's not the search for truth, but it's the path you take-what you say, how you say it, and to whom you say it-that is important."
"OK-what do you think I should do next?"
What is the underlying communication mistake in this case? Why do you think Howard Tannenbaum sent those e-mails?

Question 9

Describe specific ways that an organization might use social media to communicate with customers. How about with employees?

Question 10

What are the characteristics of an open communication climate? Describe the organizational benefits of managers cultivating an open communication climate.

Question 11

On trial 92
When Werner and Thompson, a Los Angeles business and financial management firm, offered Iranian-born Firoz Bahmania a position as an accountant assistant one spring day in 2007, Bahmani felt a sense of genuine relief, but his relief was short-lived.
With his degree in accounting from a top-notch American university, he knew he was more than a little overqualified for the job. But time after time, he'd been rejected for suitable positions. His language difficulties were the reason most often given for his unsuccessful candidacy. Although the young man had grown up speaking both Farsi and French in his native land, he'd begun to pick up English only shortly before his arrival in the United States a few years ago. Impressed by his educational credentials and his quiet, courtly manner, managing partner Beatrice Werner overlooked his heavy accent and actively recruited him for the position, the only one available at the time. During his interview, she assured him that he would advance in time.
It was clear to Beatrice that Firoz was committed to succeeding at all costs. But it soon also became apparent that Firoz and his immediate supervisor, Cathy Putnam, were at odds. Cathy was a seasoned account manager who had just transferred to Los Angeles from the New York office. Saddled with an enormous workload, she let Firoz know right from the start, speaking in her rapid-fire Brooklyn accent, that he'd need to get up to speed as quickly as possible.
Shortly before Cathy was to give Firoz his three-month probationary review, she came to Beatrice, expressed her frustration with Firoz's performance, and suggested that he be let go. "His bank reconciliations and financial report preparations are first-rate," Cathy admitted, "but his communication skills leave a lot to be desired. In the first place, I simply don't have the time to keep repeating the same directions over and over again when I'm trying to teach him his responsibilities. Then there's the fact that public contact is part of his written job description. Typically, he puts off making phone calls to dispute credit card charges or ask a client's staff for the information he needs. When he does finally pick up the phone... well, let's just say I've had more than one client mention how hard it is to understand what he's trying to say. Some of them are getting pretty exasperated."
"You know, some firms feel it's their corporate responsibility to help foreign-born employees learn English," Beatrice began. "Maybe we should help him find an English-as-a-second-language course and pay for it."
"With all due respect, I don't think that's our job," Cathy replied, with barely concealed irritation. "If you come to the United States, you should learn our language. That's what my mom's parents did when they came over from Italy. They certainly didn't expect anyone to hold their hands. Besides," she added, almost inaudibly, "Firoz's lucky we let him into this country."
Beatrice had mixed feelings. On one hand, she recognized that Werner and Thompson had every right to expect someone in Firoz's position to be capable of carrying out his public contact duties. Perhaps she had made a mistake in hiring him. But as the daughter of German immigrants herself, she knew firsthand both how daunting language and cultural barriers could be and that they could be overcome in time. Perhaps in part because of her family background, she had a passionate commitment to the firm's stated goals of creating a diverse workforce and a caring, supportive culture. Besides, she felt a personal sense of obligation to help a hard-working, promising employee realize his potential. What will she advise Cathy to do now that Firoz's probationary period is drawing to a close?
What Would You Do?
1. Agree with Cathy Putnam. Despite your personal feelings, accept that Firoz Bahmani is not capable of carrying out the accountant assistant's responsibilities. Make the break now, and give him his notice on the grounds that he cannot carry out one of the key stated job requirements. Advise him that a position that primarily involves paperwork would be a better fit for him.
2. Place Firoz with a more sympathetic account manager who is open to finding ways to help him improve his English and has the time to help him develop his assertiveness and telephone skills. Send Cathy Putnam to diversity awareness training.
3. Create a new position at the firm that will allow Firoz to do the reports and reconciliations for several account managers, freeing the account assistants to concentrate on public contact work. Make it clear that he will have little chance of future promotion unless his English improves markedly.

Question 12

Personal Assessment of Communication Apprehension103
The following questions are about your feelings toward communication with other people. Indicate the degree to which each statement applies to you by marking (5) Agree Strongly, (4) Agree, (3) Undecided, (2) Disagree, or (1) Disagree Strongly. There are no right or wrong answers. Many of the statements are similar to other statements. Do not be concerned about their similarities. Work quickly, recording just your first impressions.
Disagree Strongly 1 2 3 4 5 Agree Strongly
1. When talking in a small group of acquaintances, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
2. When presenting a talk to a group of strangers, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
3. When conversing with a friend or colleague, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
4. When talking in a large meeting of acquaintances, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
5. When presenting a talk to a group of friends or colleagues, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
6. When conversing with an acquaintance or colleague, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
7. When talking in a large meeting of strangers, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
8. When talking in a small group of strangers, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
9. When talking in a small group of friends and colleagues, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
10. When presenting a talk to a group of acquaintances, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
11. When I am conversing with a stranger, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
12. When talking in a large meeting of friends, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
13. When presenting a talk to a group of strangers, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
14. When conversing with a friend or colleague, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
15. When talking in a large meeting of acquaintances, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
16. When talking in a small group of acquaintances, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
17. When talking in a small group of strangers, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
18. When presenting a talk to a group of friends, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
19. When conversing with an acquaintance or colleague, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
20. When talking in a large meeting of strangers, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
21. When presenting a talk to a group of acquaintances, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
22. When conversing with a stranger, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
23. When talking in a large meeting of friends or colleagues, I am calm and relaxed.
1 2 3 4 5
24. When talking in a small group of friends or colleagues, I am tense and nervous.
1 2 3 4 5
Scoring and Interpretation
This questionnaire includes the computation of four subscores and one total score. Subscores relate to communication apprehension in four common situations-public speaking, meetings, group discussions, and interpersonal conversations. To compute your scores, add or subtract your scores for each item as indicated next.
Subscore/Scoring Formula
For each subscore, start with 18 points, and then add the scores for the plus (+) items and subtract the scores for the minus (-) items.
Public Speaking
18 + scores for items 2, 5, and 21; - scores for items 10, 13, and 18. Score = ______
Meetings
18 + scores for items 7, 12, and 15; - scores for items 4, 20, and 23. Score = ______
Group Discussions
18 + scores for items 1, 8, and 24; - scores for items 9, 16, and 17. Score = ______
Interpersonal Conversations
18 + scores for items 14, 19, and 22; - scores for items 3, 6, and 11. Score = ______
Total Score
Sum the four subscores to get the Total Score ______
This personal assessment provides an indication of how much apprehension (fear or anxiety) you feel in a variety of communication settings. Total scores may range from 24 to 120. Scores above 72 indicate that you are more apprehensive about communication than the average person. Scores above 85 indicate a high level of communication apprehension. Scores below 59 indicate a low level of apprehension. These extreme scores (below 59 and above 85) are generally outside the norm. They suggest that the degree of apprehension that you may experience in any given communication situation may not be associated with a realistic response to that situation.
Scores on the subscales can range from a low of 6 to a high of 30. Any score above 18 indicates some degree of apprehension. If you score above 18 for the public speaking context, you are like the overwhelming majority of people.
To be an effective communication champion, you should work to overcome your communication anxiety.
Interpersonal conversations create the least apprehension for most people, followed by group discussions, larger meetings, and finally public speaking. Compare your scores with another student's. What aspect of communication creates the most apprehension for you? How do you plan to improve it?

Question 13

Listen Like A Pro
The fastest way to become a great listener is to act like a professional listener, such as a clinical psychologist. Therapists abandon the need to interrupt or to express their own point of view in order to concentrate on the client's point of view. The therapist focuses intently and listens totally, drawing out information rather than thinking about a response.
Step 1. Divide into groups of four students. Within this group, each student selects one partner. Sit face to face with your partner, at a comfortable distance, and hold a steady gaze into your partner's left eye (not the nose or face, but the left eye)-use a soft gaze, not a hard stare.
Step 2. After you are comfortable with the eye contact, one partner should tell of an annoying experience over the last few days. The listener should maintain eye contact and can use facial expression, but should say nothing-just gaze into the pupil of the left eye. When the talker has finished, the partners should trade roles, with the previous listener now telling about an annoying experience and the new listener maintaining eye contact but not speaking.
Step 3. Discuss in your group how it felt to maintain eye contact and to not make any verbal response to what your partner was saying.
Step 4. Select a new partner in your group, and follow the same procedure, with the speaker talking about the same annoyance. The only change is that the listener is to paraphrase what the speaker said after the speaker is finished. If the paraphrase is incorrect, the speaker can repeat the statement, and the listener can paraphrase a second time to be more accurate.
Step 5. Discuss in your group how it felt to maintain eye contact and to paraphrase what was said. How did paraphrasing affect your ability to concentrate on what the speaker was saying?
Step 6. Select another partner in your group, and follow the same procedure; only this time, instead of paraphrasing at the end, the listener is to ask five questions during the speaker's story. Each partner takes a turn as speaker and listener.
Step 7. Discuss in your group how it felt to ask questions. How did the questions affect your concentration on what the speaker was saying? In addition, discuss in your group the relative importance of each technique (eye contact, paraphrasing, and asking questions) for helping you maintain focus and listen like a professional. Your instructor may facilitate a class discussion about which listening techniques are more effective in various listening situations.

Question 14

On the Job: Intermountain Healthcare: Managing Communication
Questions
1. Intermountain Healthcare is a very large organization with thousands of employees. List at least four methods it uses to communicate with employees. Why do you think this organization feels the need to use so many different methods to communicate?
2. In the video, Fritz Grohn says that communicating with patients as they are being released from the hospital is not always successful at first. Use this situation (a nurse discharging a patient from the hospital after a surgery or illness) to describe the communication model, and explain where the communication breaks down and why. How do Intermountain's employees overcome this problem to successfully complete the communication process with patients?
3. How is Intermountain using technology to improve internal communication? Include at least two examples described in the video in your answer.

Question 15

e-mail Adventure
The toy industry is highly competitive and can be as cutthroat as any pirate adventure. Yo-ho-ho! Snooping, corporate espionage, and efforts to keep emerging ideas under wraps are all part of life in the toy industry. A certain level of managerial paranoia is expected. But when the private e-mail of an industry CEO was discovered and began making the rounds, it unleashed a firestorm and brought disastrous results on company morale, unwanted media attention, and public embarrassment.
Howard Tannenbaum is the long-time CEO of a major toy company. Over the past few years, his company worked to develop a new product line, called Brainchild, that all concerned believed would be a blockbuster. The passion of Tannenbaum, the new line of toys was so top-secret that portions of the line were created and produced, piecemeal, among the various divisions. In the beginning, it was all very hush-hush. But as the line moved closer to completion and the expected Christmas season launch date more than a year away, press and industry rumors gained momentum.
At 8:00 a.m. on a June morning, Barry Paine, Tannenbaum's attorney and longtime friend and confidante, arrived at his office, opened his e-mail and saw a flagged message from Howard:
Barry:
We have a disaster in the making here. Looks like I'm going to have to come down hard on all of my managers. Somebody will go-perhaps several people before this situation is over. They're obviously getting EXTREMELY slack on design security. I won't say now how I discovered the breach or what was stolen with regard to the new product designs, but suffice it to say that at this point, EVERYONE is suspect. Needless to say, I am FURIOUS! When I find out who it is-and it could be anyone-believe me, heads will roll!!! I'll call you later this morning. WE NEED TO MEET. Thanks for letting me vent. Now, I can compose the REAL e-mail to managers.
Howard
Later that same morning, managers throughout the company received the following:
TO ALL MANAGERS:
We have a situation here in which product design information on the new line, information that should have been under the HIGHEST SECURITY, has been breached. Let me make it clear that each of you is responsible for investigating your division and finding the source of the leak. Please be thorough in your investigation and be TOTALLY HONEST with me in presenting your findings in this matter. Someone will pay for this. THIS IS TOP PRIORITY!
Howard Tannenbaum, CEO
Many recipients of the e-mail felt personally attacked and threatened. Before day's end, e-mail, phone calls, and rumors were flying. By the following day, Tannenbaum felt pressured into trying to defuse the anger by issuing a second, apologetic, e-mail. However, events were already spiraling out of hand, as somehow the contents of the original e-mail to Barry Paine began circulating throughout management and beyond-to employees and at least one member of the press, who dubbed the debacle Toy-Gate. The perception of a CEO and a company out of control increased and the stock price took a minor hit.
"The first e-mail left me stunned," one long-time manager said. "But when I saw the e-mail to Paine about how Howard really felt and the level of contempt he showed for all of us, making us all appear incompetent and dishonest-that, for me, is the last straw. Even if I stay, it has destroyed the relationship with Howard forever."
Now Tannenbaum sat, head in hands, in Paine's office.
"Barry, I was simply trying to find the truth."
Paine walked over to a bookshelf and pulled an old, well-used volume. "Do you remember your Sophocles from school, Howard? In one Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King and his persistent search for truth in the murder of his predecessor, King Laius, followed a path that abandoned reason and led to his own undoing. My friend, in your case, it's not the search for truth, but it's the path you take-what you say, how you say it, and to whom you say it-that is important."
"OK-what do you think I should do next?"
How do you think Tannenbaum should have communicated his concerns about the information link? Why?

Question 16

Describe the elements of the communication model in Exhibit 17.2. Give an example of each part of the model as it exists in the classroom during communication between teacher and students.
Exhibit 17.2:

Question 17

e-mail Adventure
The toy industry is highly competitive and can be as cutthroat as any pirate adventure. Yo-ho-ho! Snooping, corporate espionage, and efforts to keep emerging ideas under wraps are all part of life in the toy industry. A certain level of managerial paranoia is expected. But when the private e-mail of an industry CEO was discovered and began making the rounds, it unleashed a firestorm and brought disastrous results on company morale, unwanted media attention, and public embarrassment.
Howard Tannenbaum is the long-time CEO of a major toy company. Over the past few years, his company worked to develop a new product line, called Brainchild, that all concerned believed would be a blockbuster. The passion of Tannenbaum, the new line of toys was so top-secret that portions of the line were created and produced, piecemeal, among the various divisions. In the beginning, it was all very hush-hush. But as the line moved closer to completion and the expected Christmas season launch date more than a year away, press and industry rumors gained momentum.
At 8:00 a.m. on a June morning, Barry Paine, Tannenbaum's attorney and longtime friend and confidante, arrived at his office, opened his e-mail and saw a flagged message from Howard:
Barry:
We have a disaster in the making here. Looks like I'm going to have to come down hard on all of my managers. Somebody will go-perhaps several people before this situation is over. They're obviously getting EXTREMELY slack on design security. I won't say now how I discovered the breach or what was stolen with regard to the new product designs, but suffice it to say that at this point, EVERYONE is suspect. Needless to say, I am FURIOUS! When I find out who it is-and it could be anyone-believe me, heads will roll!!! I'll call you later this morning. WE NEED TO MEET. Thanks for letting me vent. Now, I can compose the REAL e-mail to managers.
Howard
Later that same morning, managers throughout the company received the following:
TO ALL MANAGERS:
We have a situation here in which product design information on the new line, information that should have been under the HIGHEST SECURITY, has been breached. Let me make it clear that each of you is responsible for investigating your division and finding the source of the leak. Please be thorough in your investigation and be TOTALLY HONEST with me in presenting your findings in this matter. Someone will pay for this. THIS IS TOP PRIORITY!
Howard Tannenbaum, CEO
Many recipients of the e-mail felt personally attacked and threatened. Before day's end, e-mail, phone calls, and rumors were flying. By the following day, Tannenbaum felt pressured into trying to defuse the anger by issuing a second, apologetic, e-mail. However, events were already spiraling out of hand, as somehow the contents of the original e-mail to Barry Paine began circulating throughout management and beyond-to employees and at least one member of the press, who dubbed the debacle Toy-Gate. The perception of a CEO and a company out of control increased and the stock price took a minor hit.
"The first e-mail left me stunned," one long-time manager said. "But when I saw the e-mail to Paine about how Howard really felt and the level of contempt he showed for all of us, making us all appear incompetent and dishonest-that, for me, is the last straw. Even if I stay, it has destroyed the relationship with Howard forever."
Now Tannenbaum sat, head in hands, in Paine's office.
"Barry, I was simply trying to find the truth."
Paine walked over to a bookshelf and pulled an old, well-used volume. "Do you remember your Sophocles from school, Howard? In one Greek tragedy, Oedipus the King and his persistent search for truth in the murder of his predecessor, King Laius, followed a path that abandoned reason and led to his own undoing. My friend, in your case, it's not the search for truth, but it's the path you take-what you say, how you say it, and to whom you say it-that is important."
"OK-what do you think I should do next?"
What should Tannenbaum do now to try to recover from the negative impact of his e-mails? Suggest specific steps.