MGMT2002

Week 7: Intercultural Comms

Cultural Evolution (Darwinism): Human species evolved from lower life forms to Homo Sapiens - cultures
also evolve, some cultures may be considered advanced-others primitive.
Cultural Relativism: All cultures are different, no culture is superior, does not imply all practices are
equal, does not imply we have to accept all practices.
Race: way people look, Ethnicity: linguistic/behavioural/physical characteristics, Culture: share
values/beliefs, Nationality: nation people identify as their origin
Culture refers to relatively specialised elements of the lifestyle of a group of people that are passed on
from one generation to the next through communication, language, thinking, religion, values
How culture affects org: influences choices of technologies, negotiation policies, guidance, employee
motivation, equity and how people structure their thoughts/ideas and communication.
Culture in business: communication, decision making, interacting, perceptions
Surface culture: behavior/words/traditions Deep Culture: beliefs, values, assumptions
Things that define culture: enculturation/ethnocentrism, stereotyping, political, prejudice, culture shock

Major cultural distinctions:

Individualistic: power/achievement, needs rights, autonomy/independence, heterogenous (U.S, U.K, AU)
Collective: traditions, conformity, people belong in groups, relationships, homogenous (China, Indo)
High PD: concentrated in few hands, people accept authority/orders, status hierarchy, limited comm
with employees when making decisions (Malaysia, latin America, Philippines)
Low PD: power distributed evenly, people question authority, more equality/less hierarchy, employees
involved in decision making (Israel, Denmark, N.Z, Aus)
Masculine: values aggressiveness, materialistic, success, assertive, ambitious, conflict, strategies to win,
define gender roles (Japan, Austria, U.K, Germany)
Feminine: Values modesty, relationships, modest, compromise, negotiation, accept equality/overlapping
roles (Sweden, Denmark, Finland)
High AT: Not threatened by uncertainty, minimize rules governing comms/relo, tolerate rule
breakers/risk takers (Singapore, Denmark, Sweden)
Low AT: Avoid uncertainty/anxious situations, formal rules established, risk averse (Greece, Portugal,
Japan)
Long term: Future rewards, save for future, values persistence/thirft, sense of shame/status rules,
marriage is practical arrangement (South Korea, Japan, China)
Short Term: Immediate rewards, look to past, spend resources for present, humility is only for women,
marriage is moral arrangement (Puerto Rico, Ghana, Egypt)
Indulgence: focus on fun, enjoy life, more positive/optimistic, internal locus (Mexico, Sweden, Puerto)
Restraint: social norms, value on thrift, pessimistic/cynistic, external locus, no leisure (Pak, Egypt, Latvia)
High Context: through assumptions/share exp, not explicitly stated in verbal, face saving, reluctance to
say no, collectivist (Japan, Latin America, Arabic)
Low Context: Explicitly stated in verbal, emphasis on message, direct, individualistic (Germany, U.S, AUS)
Asian values: Hard work, respect, honesty, openness, American Values: freedom of expression, freedom,
individual rights, hard work, personal achievements
Monochronic: one convo at a time, on time, schedules/plan, time is limited finite (Sweden, U.K, Germ)
Polychronic: conduct many convos, arrive late, complete human transactions, time unlimited (Japan,
Latin America)
Stages of Intercultural Competence: Unconscious incomp other cultures are similar
Conscious incomp realise they are not comm well, unsure how to improve
Conscious comp learn about others culture, try to comm differently
Unconscious comp able to comm in relaxed way, understood difference in culture
Third space : develop a middle ground,
Culture shock: adjustment between going back and forth (climate, food, housing, customs, traditions)
When learning other cultures: Prepare/research, reduce uncertainty, recognize diff, adjust comm style!

Week 9: Comms in Teams

Team: Human communication system composed of three or more individuals, interacting for the
achievement of the same purpose/common goals, who influence and are influenced by one another.
Excellence: clear goal, results driven structure, interpersonal/core competencies to do the job, unified
commitment, collaborative climate, group norms/standards of excellence, external support, leader.
Ads synergy, participation, morale, democracy, opinions/perceptions
Disads loafing, free-rider, conformity, dominate, slow decision making, relationship conflicts.

Virtual teams collaborate (Share info, develop relationships) communicate (support, honesty)
Issues/Challenges: Isolation, nonverbal cues not seen, making decisions, express opinions, time zones

Group development Theories: Equilibrium, Punctuated Equilibrium (evolution, long periods of standstill,
punctuated by episodes of fast development) Decision Emergence (intereactions change over time)
Periodic Phases of group development (groups go through specific phases which occur in sequence)
TUCKMAN AND FISHER: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Adjourning
Stages of trust development: Calculus: neither party is family with one another (forming)
Knowledge: Information flow increases, behavior becomes more predictable (storming)
Identification: trust/empathy developed, shared values/full understanding of others wants (norming)

Team norms: Explicit formal: flexible working hours, staff observe policies, meal fixed times
Implicit Informal: names staff call each other, racist/sexist jokes tolerated or not, performance standards

Group effort role structure: 1) Task roles (get job done-output)

2) Socio-emotional/Maintenance (task, values, opinions) 3) Defensive (scapegoats, tension relieves)
4) Dysfunctional (Consciously/unconsciously sabotage group work)
Maintenance harmonizer/encourage, tension reliever, Dysfunctional aggressor, blocker, dominator
Things that affect team comms: Group structure, size, age, gender, culture, timeframe
Five Cs of Team competencies: Cooperating, Coordinating, Communicating, Comforting and Conflict
Resolving
Cohesion: A dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together & remain
united in the pursuit of its goals & objectives Task (belief), Attracted based and Status (rewards)
Climate: The atmosphere created by cohesiveness of the team, varies during stage of group develops
High cohesion = positive climate, desirable to achieve team goals, undesireable if works against goal.

Impediments to Group Decision Making: Groupthink Hypothesis Excessive cohesion, concurrence

Captaintis syndrome role of status and decision making authority, autocratic/directive leader
Group polarization diffusion of responsibility, make extreme decisions
Egocentric influence adopting a win/lose orientation, highly defensive members

Eight Symptons of Groupthing:

1) Illusion of invulnerability excessive optimisim/risk taking
2) Rationalistion rationalize away threats/warnings
3) Stereotyping opponents stereotyped as stupid/evil
4) Direct pressure to conform
5) Self-Censorship preserve illusion of consensus
6) Illusion of unanimity through silence
7) Mind guards censors/comm gatekeepers
8) Belief in inherent morality of group ethical consequences of decision ignored
Strategies to prevent Groupthink open supportive comms, alert of symptoms, dissenters not
regarded badly, develop norms to encourage constructive conflict/criticism, second-chance meetings
Cooperation vs Competition: improvement/diminishment of achievement, improves/diminishes
cohesion/collaboration

Week 10: Emotional Intelligence & Perception

Perception: the way in which we become aware of events, objects and people through senses. It is
active and influences the way we see/understand the world, our comms choices.
Influencing factors: Demographic (location, gender, culture, age, education..) Psychographic (beliefs,
attitude, bias, prejudice, preferences..)
Stages of Perception: 1) Stimulation (selective attention and exposure) 2) Organisation by rules(
proximity, similarity and contrast) and creating schemata (mental templates, own experiences)
3) Interpretation/Evaluation (subjective/organization based) 4) Memory (stored, labelled)
5) Recall (not reproductive, a reconstruction)

Role of attention focus on certain stimuli & filtering out other incoming information
- inattentional blindess (failure of unattended stimuli to register consciousness/shadowing)
- stimulus characteristics that affect attention (intensity, movement, contrast, repetition)
- personal factors (motives, interest, threats to well-being)
Cultivation theory media uses portions of reality to construct what we see
Impression formation we develop evaluations of others from limited, external info, in seconds
Processes include: 1) self-fulfilling prophecy (Pygmalion effect- higher expectation, higher performance)
2) Implicit Personality theory (halo/horns effect) 3) Primacy-Recency (first impressions confirmed by
later info) 4) Fundamental Attribution error (over value internal, undervalue external factors)
5) Consistency (you expect certain things to go together)
Impression mgmt strategies images you project of yourself, people we associate with, affinity-seeking,
politeness strategies, self-monitoring, image confirming
Gardners multiple intelligences: linguistic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, naturalistic

Affect: wide rang of feelings people experience

Emotions: intense feelings directed at someone or something
Moods: Feeling less intense, last longer than emotions
Universal emotions: Anger, fear, sadness, happiness, disgust

Emotional intelligence: The ability to detect & to manage emotional cues & information
Rational brain and limbic brain defines emotional intelligence:
1) Self-awareness: understand your emotions
2) Self-mgmt: ability to use awareness to stay flexibile and direct your behavior positively
3) Relationship mgmt: use awareness of own emotions and of others to manage interactions
4) Empathy: ability to walk in others shoes
Emotional Hijacking: situation in which emotions control our behavior causing us to react without
thinking
Emotional labour: mgmt. of feelings to create a publicly observable facial and bodily display to keep up
with job requirements emotional dissonance, deep activing, AET, felt emotion vs displayed
Emotional Work: expecting people to show positive team behaviours with their colleagues.
emotionally intelligent people deep act more, perceive what people feel, dont maintain neutral
expressions

Develop EQ: reduce negative emotions, stay cool and manage stress, be assertive and express difficult
emotions, stay proactive, bounce back from adversity and express intimate emotions
Week 11: Language & Meaning
Language and semantics: words do not have meaning, people do
Denotative meaning: literal or dictionary meaning of words
Connotative meaning: Emotional, subjective meaning assigned to words formed from personal exp
Language is evolutionary new words new meanings
Language, comms and culture are all interrelated concepts that inform and interact with eachother
speech community: is a group of people who share a common set of rules on the usage and
interpretation of language.
Language Game: 1) Rules: speech rules, grammar rules 2) Norms: specified procedures expected of
people 3) Principles: winning the language game, bending the rules, creating norms,
The grammatical and semantic structures of a language shape and determine how speakers think and
see the world language shapes how we think and act, no two languages are sufficiently similar to be
considered rep the same social reality language is not a reality but a representation of reality
language and discourse: complete spoken/written text for social/ cultural contexts

Symbolic features of language: 1) Arbitrary: may not be connected to what they represent (mouse,
apple, chatroom), some words seem right because we set them, it changes and evolves.
2) Ambiguity: communication breakdowns, may not have clear cut meanings, different connotations
3) Abstraction: words may not be concrete, may stand for those phenonoma,

Jargon/Technical terminology: leads to obscurity and miscomms, slang is different taken less seriously
Textspeak: most widely used data application in the world, abbrieviated form of language,
Euphemisms: loses its literal meaning, using non-offensive words to cover embarrassing or brutal
actions, EG: lie relayed misinfo, Death passed away
Doublespeak: type of euphemism designed to cover up horrendous crimes, hiding atrocities, obscuring
meaning
Jargon-business/Corporate Speak: different jargon but for professional/business world
Metaphors: Figures of speech, Discriminatory/Racist language: isolate, ridicule minorities,
Racial discrimination act (race, colour national, ethnic)
Political correctness:
Week 12: Organisational Communication

Organisations provide EMPLOYMENT, as organisations grow, they become more COMPLEX. They can
exert major INFLUENCE on public policy & communities They are organised with varying structures
with individuals & groups, working together to achieve individual & organisational goals.
Characteristics of ORG: 1) Rules & Regulations (norms, rules, policies, types of leave, salaries/benefits)
2) Division of labour (specialists are responsible for specific areas of the company)
3) Organisational culture (unique to the orgs rituals, norms, rules for comms)

Mechanistic Structure: static, rigid, uses rules/policies, decision made at top of hierarchy, authority
based position, control system and rigid comm channels
use when goals are known, long-lasting, technology is simple, stable and simple environment
Organic Structure: fluid, dynamic, ever-changing, collaboration, decision making at all levels, authority
based on expertise, communication flows based on current needs
use when tasks are uncertain, environment is complex and changing, technology changing, creative
workforce and innovation

Organizational Communication how they represent, present and form their org climate, culture and
goals that distinguish themselves and its members. Intrapersonal, interpersonal, intercultural, Team org
Upward lower to upper, feedback to managers, boost morale to employees,
Downward upper to lower, orders, procedures, goals and changes
Lateral equals on same level, facilitates sharing of insights, methods and problems.
Purpose of comm: control, motivation, balance need and goals, manage knowledge,
Channels of internal Comms: face to face, meetings, conferences, wikis, blogs, skype conferencing,
Facebook, twitter, podcasts, discussion forums,
Comm strategy: 1) match channel to message and audience 2) Repeat and vary message via diff channel
3) Step outside comfort zone and use different channels 4) Beware each channel influences the message

Communication Audits: 1) independence (transparency, confidentiality, objectivity)

2) Professionalism (expert opinion and consultation)
3) Diagnostic thoroughness (systematic observations of all areas of comms)
4) Skilled evaluation (comparing what is to what ought to be)
5) Tailored Design (tailor audit to unique features of organization)
6) Current time frame
Phases of audits: 1)initiation 2) Planning 3) Diagnosis 4) analysis
Problems info overload think before passing messages, organize, dispose,

Organizational Culture: A system of shared values, principles, beliefs & norms of behavior that unite its
members & give the organization a distinctive character
artefacts, espoused values/enacted values, underlying assumptions,
Collectivist: Great deference is shown to managers, show modesty, teamwork
Individualistic: Emphasize your qualities & abilities, Too much deference could indicate lack of
confidence & abilities, minimize any negative characteristics
Supportive Org Comm Climate: people feel valued, comfortable, high trust, creative thinking,
democratic and laissez-faire
Defensive Org Comm Climate: intimidated, fear, low trust, threatened, low moral,
authoritative/dictatorial

Stages of Assimilation to the culture: Pre-employment (outsider, gathering info, forming)

Encounter (newcomer, induction, testing expectations, forming again)
Role mgmt. (become insider, change roles/behaviour, resolve conflict)
Bullying and Sexual harassment
WHAT TO DO IN ORG:
1) MENTOR 2) SUPPORTIVE 3) DISCLOSE APPROPRIATELY 4) CAUTIOUS 5) KNOW THE RULES
6) STRESS THE POSITIVE 7) RELATE TO OTHERS

Week 13: Managing Communication in a Crisis

Org extern comm objectives employer of choice, good image, reputation, branding, CSR, climate of
goodwill
Phases of crisis mgmt.:
1) Proactive: Processes that can prevent a crisis,
- Environmental Scanning define, recognize, analyse, respond, SWOT
- Issues Management identify issues/influence, predict problems, anticipate threats:
1) issue identification 2) issue analysis 3) strat options 4) action plan 5) evaluation of results

2) Strategic: Issue is identified as conflict/crisis,

- implement risk communication crises prevention, reduce risk for affected public, risks may be
naturally occurring, being early and initiate dialogue, solicit and identify peoples problems, address
concerns, anticipate and prepare for hostility
- conflict position strats
- public perception of risk perception of risk increases when message of experts conflict, severity
- crisis mgmt. mismgmt causes 50% of crises, natural disasters, workplace accidents, product fail,
scandal: GOOD EGs: nuclear, chemical, pharamaceuticals, mining, energy related industries
- ethical crisis comms under close scrutiny, must protect health, persuasive, use evidence, improve
the orgs image, do not attempt to diminish, LT strategies
3) Reactive: Commence crisis comm and crisis mgmt. plan, implement conflict resolution strats
4) Recovery: when crisis subsides,
- implement reputation mgmt. economic performance, CSR, ability to deliver to stakeholders
assess damage,
- image reputation/restoration strats 1) denial (shift the blame, simple denial),
2) evade responsibility (provocation, defeasibility, accident, good intentions),
3) reducing offensiveness (minimize magnitude, bolster by referring to good behaviour/reputation),
4) corrective action (vow to restore the situation, make good),
5) Mortification (admit responsibility, apologize and ask forgiveness)