Chapter 13

• Communication


  Central to work and how work is organized to produce results
• Rosario-Braid: 'Communication is essential to productivity improvement'
• Organizational Communication and Internal Communication


  A branch of communication studies that is interested in the convergence between communication processes and organizational behavior
• Branches of Organizational Communication


  • Internal communication
  • External communication
  • Marketing communication
• Laswell's Model of Communication


  Presents the basic elements of the communication process: Who? Says what? Through which channel? To whom? With what effect?
• Types of message content in the workplace

  • Task-related
  • Innovation-related
  • Maintenance-related
• Task-related content


  Content and information on anything that achieves the organization's goals and functions
• Innovation-related content


  Communication about new ideas
• Maintenance-related content


  Information used for the development and maintenance of human relationships
• For Filipino workers, the convergence of task-related (work and career) and maintenance-related (personal relationships) has always been blurred
• Collectivist cultures


  Manifest "emotional dependence" on the company they work for, find it more socially acceptable or comfortable to consider other people's thoughts or ideas when making decisions
• The personal usually invades the professional sphere in collectivist cultures
• Effective leaders in the Philippines

  Those who are less impersonal and allow for opportunities for non-professional interaction
• Directions of communication in organizations

  • Vertical (downward and upward)
  • Horizontal
• The Philippines ranks very high in power distance
• Filipinos are generally more comfortable in communicating with their subordinates and co-workers compared to their boss
• Younger workers in the Philippines tend to favor greater participation and decision-making in the workplace
• Consensus-seeking in the Philippines

  Pagsasang-guni, paghihikayat, pagkakasundo
• Communication channels

  • Face-to-face
  • Mediated (technology-assisted)
• Filipinos are more comfortable engaging in face-to-face communication
• Mediated communication


  Involves technology-assisted communication, often an attempt to approximate the characteristics of face-to-face interaction and provide immediate responses
• There has been a rapid increase in the use of audio-video teleconferencing, MIS, the Internet, and mobile communications in Philippine organizations
• The use of Intranet systems and support systems via MIS had been crucial in communicating organizational vision among its members in Philippine organizations
• Benefits of ICT use in organizations

  • Increased efficiency of communication of work-related matters
  • Facilitated search and dissemination of information
  • Increased productivity and efficiency
  • Improvements in organizational learning, innovation, decision-making, and coordination
  • Less stressful customer relations communication
• Challenges and pitfalls of ICT use in organizations


  • Difficulties in getting points across, especially in teleconferencing
  • Challenges in variations in pronunciation and cultural differences
  • Delays in the delivery of information
  • Distraction from performing organizational tasks
  • Privacy concerns over monitoring and control
  • The digital divide and imbalance in technological progress
  • Distractions from social media
• Modes of communication in organizations

  • Written (memoranda, internal correspondence, minutes of meetings, press releases, business letters, job advertisements)
  • Oral (public speeches, presentations, telephone conversations, informal office chats)
• Filipinos are comfortable giving public speeches or presentations in formal circles, and consider voice calls more appropriate for business or work communication
• Communication styles

  • Formal
  • Informal
  • Direct
  • Indirect
• Filipinos are more comfortable using an informal style of written communication compared to formal email or letters
• Filipinos utilize the formal style when having meetings and giving presentations, but prefer the informal style for communication with peers
• Bulung-bulungan


  Grapevine or the rumor mill
• Tsismis


  The act of rumor mongering
• Maintaining a transparent and "open communication policy" in the workplace is a good way of preventing the practice of rumor mongering
• Pahiwatig


  When what you see is not exactly what you get, used for social maintenance, social calibration, and the exercise of power
• The indirect style of communication generally guides the persuasive approach in communicating wants and needs in the Philippines
• Media Richness Theory


  Organizational members are encouraged to use the most appropriate medium based on the level of complexity of their messages
• Adaptive Structuration Theory


  Focuses on the generation of communication rules and resources that shape the group and its decisions
• Cultural Approach to Organizations Theory


  Organizational members continue to engage in developing shared meanings of various aspects of organizational life, and managers must understand the distinct cultural nuances of the organizations they represent
• Groupthink Theory


  A mode of thinking where people in a cohesive in-group strive for unanimity, overriding their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action
• Network Theory


  Helpful to managers interested in how messages are communicated outside the official channels, and the critical issue of privacy