MGMT2100 Study Guide - Final Guide: Critical Thinking, Intrapersonal Communication, Paralanguage
Communication
• Communication is the transfer and understanding of meaning.
• Transaction Model of Communication
Nonverbal Communication
• Kinesics - using the body to communicate.
• Proxemics - spatial relationships (Western culture 0.5-1m).
• Haptics - touch communicates emotions and trust.
• Artefacts - those things that adorn our bodies or our environments.
• Paralanguage - linguistic features other than words, eg: rate, pitch, intonations.
• Chromics - time associated with communication, eg: length of a response, pause.
Factors Affecting Nonverbal Communication
• Universal - all humans smile, frown, cry.
• Cultural and sub cultural - such as nationality, gender, religion, professional, organisational.
• Personal - unique to the individual.
Relationship between Verbal and Nonverbal Communication
• Repeating verbal messages - eg: pointing for directions, using hands to show left/right directions.
• Contradicting - eg: avoiding eye contact while saying "I'm telling the truth".
• Substituting - eg: signalling someone to sit down instead of saying it.
• Complementing - eg: hugging someone and smiling while saying "welcome back".
• Accentuating to emphasise a point - eg: raising your voice.
• Graphical - represents ideas, relationships or connections visually with shapes, diagrams and lines.
Types of Communication
• Intrapersonal - communication with oneself through the process of thinking and feeling.
• Interpersonal - interaction between two people on a one-to-one basis or in small groups.
• Public - communication with a number of receivers at the same time, eg: staff newsletter.
• Mass - transferring or transmitting a message to a larger group of people, eg: social media.
Context of Communication
The situation within which communication takes place:
• Physical - tangible or concrete items in the environment.
• Social-psychological - role and norms of society, emotional climate.
• Temporal - time in history as well as the position in the sequence of events.
Spiral of Silence Theory (Noelle-Neumann, 1974)
• Ability to express opinions is fundamental to a democratic and egalitarian workplace.
• Yet, there are employees that rarely speak up.
• The spiral of silence theory:
o Individuals that believe their opinion is shared by the majority will speak up.
o Individuals that believe their opinion is not shared by many are likely to remain quiet.
• Silence can reduce creativity in problem solving.
• Managers need to encourage all employees to speak up.
• Note: not because you fear what your manager is going to do.
Critical Thinking and Evidence Based Management
• Critical thinking considers:
o Possible viewpoints and results in interpretation.
o Analysis and evaluation of evidence.
o The conclusions inferred from that evidence.
• A critical thinker is skilled at:
o Articulating and evaluating arguments.
o Understanding how evidence supports or opposes a claim.
When to Apply Critical Thinking?
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