WORKGROUP MEETING 1
COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS – CHAPTE R 1: REGULATING SKILLS
Purpose of regulating skills: protect the order and clarity of the conversation.
Opening the conversation & setting goals
When you take the initiative in a conversation, for efficient continuation it is usually important to supply your
conversational partner with your intentions fairly soon after beginning.
We can state that a clear conversational structure, upon which the conversational partners have agreed at the
beginning, promotes efficiency.
Goal evaluation
We assume that conversations are based on a goal. Often, the goal is the solving of problems. In order to check
that you are still busy with the goals that were originally set, it is useful to ask ‘goal evaluating questions’ from
time to time.
Closing the conversation
In order to keep a check on the time it is generally wiser to make known the time available at the beginning at
the conversation. Then a clear agreement has been made about the length of the conversation.
In many cases it is useful to close with a summary, where the concrete arrangements can be lined up.
COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS – CHAPTE R 2: LISTENING SKILLS
It is not only important to have a good structure in a conversation, but also let your conversational partner
know that he is being listened to. Overview of listening skills:
‘Non’-selective listening skills; attentive behavior Selective listening skills
Nonverbal behavior Asking questions
Minimal encouragers Paraphrasing of content
Reflection of feelings
Concreteness
Summarizing
‘Non’-selective listening skills: the listener has only little influence on the conversation. He gives other people
all the time to explain their story and only responds by giving attention.
These skills are necessary to stimulate the conversation partner into talking.
Selective listening skills: are used by the listener to find out and select certain aspects of the conversation that
he finds important.
‘Non’-selective listening skills
Nonverbal behavior
• Facial expressions: it can often be seen whether you are interested in what the other person is
saying or whether you are elsewhere with your thoughts.
• Eye contact: the speaker concentrates on what he wants to say and usually only look at the
listener at the end of a sentence or conversation fragment
• Body posture: the interest you have in the other person can also be shown by a relaxed and
friendly body posture.
• Encouraging gestures: by nodding and making supportive gestures with the hands and by
avoiding nervous and distracting movements, you can show your attention.
, Verbal following
• Minimal encouragers: short verbal reactions intended to stimulate the speaker to talk by showing
him that he is being listened to. For example: uh-uh, yes, yes…and the?
Selective listening skills
Asking questions
• Open-ended questions: these questions leave speakers much freedom in formulating answers to
them. They can respond in their own words in accordance with their wishes or opinions.
The ‘why’ question: often a suitable open-ended question: in particular because people
always have reasons for acting in a certain manner. These types of questions can be regarded
as threatening when placed at the beginning of a conversation.
• Closed (directing) questions: these types of questions can be answered by a single word, ‘yes’ or
‘no’. The speaker is restricted to answering and they are often suggestive.
Paraphrasing of content
This means: briefly stating in your own words what the speaker has said. The chief character of paraphrasing is
that is based on factual information. This skill severs several functions:
- Listeners can check whether they have understood everything correctly
- The speaker experiences understanding and it might be stimulating to hear their thoughts expressed
in other words.
Reflection of feelings
Reflections can be regarded as statements in the interviewer’s own words that encapsulate and re-present the
essence of the interviewee’s previous message (Hargie & Dickson, 2004). The goal of this skill is to show that
you are trying to understand how the speaker feels here and now in the conversation.
Concreteness
You let speakers tell their story as concretely and precisely as possible. This is a task that consists of several
skills. The skills already mentioned, such as listening, minimal encouragers, asking open and closed questions,
paraphrasing and reflecting all contribute to the concreteness of the conversation.
Summarizing
The goal of summarizing is to give structurer to the conversation by ordering the main points. A distinction can
be made between summarizing of contents and summarizing of emotions. Summarizing has the following
functions:
- You can check whether you have understood the speaker correctly;
- You can order the different subthemes and vocalize them.
COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS – CHAPTE R 3: SENDER SKILLS
Overview of sender skills:
Sender skills – initiative Sender skills – reactive
Giving information
Making requests and giving instructions Refusing
Giving criticism Reacting to criticism
Situation clarification
Sender skills: initiative
Giving information
• Structure: the clarity and orderliness of an amount of information within your conversation.
• Simplicity of style: the conversational partner is most likely to understand the information being
presented if you use short sentences, know words and clear wording, and speak in a calm tempo.
• Conciseness: a certain restriction in the amount of information given.
• Attractiveness: there are several methods to hold the attention of the conversational partners
and to stimulate them to think and to participate actively.
COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS – CHAPTE R 1: REGULATING SKILLS
Purpose of regulating skills: protect the order and clarity of the conversation.
Opening the conversation & setting goals
When you take the initiative in a conversation, for efficient continuation it is usually important to supply your
conversational partner with your intentions fairly soon after beginning.
We can state that a clear conversational structure, upon which the conversational partners have agreed at the
beginning, promotes efficiency.
Goal evaluation
We assume that conversations are based on a goal. Often, the goal is the solving of problems. In order to check
that you are still busy with the goals that were originally set, it is useful to ask ‘goal evaluating questions’ from
time to time.
Closing the conversation
In order to keep a check on the time it is generally wiser to make known the time available at the beginning at
the conversation. Then a clear agreement has been made about the length of the conversation.
In many cases it is useful to close with a summary, where the concrete arrangements can be lined up.
COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS – CHAPTE R 2: LISTENING SKILLS
It is not only important to have a good structure in a conversation, but also let your conversational partner
know that he is being listened to. Overview of listening skills:
‘Non’-selective listening skills; attentive behavior Selective listening skills
Nonverbal behavior Asking questions
Minimal encouragers Paraphrasing of content
Reflection of feelings
Concreteness
Summarizing
‘Non’-selective listening skills: the listener has only little influence on the conversation. He gives other people
all the time to explain their story and only responds by giving attention.
These skills are necessary to stimulate the conversation partner into talking.
Selective listening skills: are used by the listener to find out and select certain aspects of the conversation that
he finds important.
‘Non’-selective listening skills
Nonverbal behavior
• Facial expressions: it can often be seen whether you are interested in what the other person is
saying or whether you are elsewhere with your thoughts.
• Eye contact: the speaker concentrates on what he wants to say and usually only look at the
listener at the end of a sentence or conversation fragment
• Body posture: the interest you have in the other person can also be shown by a relaxed and
friendly body posture.
• Encouraging gestures: by nodding and making supportive gestures with the hands and by
avoiding nervous and distracting movements, you can show your attention.
, Verbal following
• Minimal encouragers: short verbal reactions intended to stimulate the speaker to talk by showing
him that he is being listened to. For example: uh-uh, yes, yes…and the?
Selective listening skills
Asking questions
• Open-ended questions: these questions leave speakers much freedom in formulating answers to
them. They can respond in their own words in accordance with their wishes or opinions.
The ‘why’ question: often a suitable open-ended question: in particular because people
always have reasons for acting in a certain manner. These types of questions can be regarded
as threatening when placed at the beginning of a conversation.
• Closed (directing) questions: these types of questions can be answered by a single word, ‘yes’ or
‘no’. The speaker is restricted to answering and they are often suggestive.
Paraphrasing of content
This means: briefly stating in your own words what the speaker has said. The chief character of paraphrasing is
that is based on factual information. This skill severs several functions:
- Listeners can check whether they have understood everything correctly
- The speaker experiences understanding and it might be stimulating to hear their thoughts expressed
in other words.
Reflection of feelings
Reflections can be regarded as statements in the interviewer’s own words that encapsulate and re-present the
essence of the interviewee’s previous message (Hargie & Dickson, 2004). The goal of this skill is to show that
you are trying to understand how the speaker feels here and now in the conversation.
Concreteness
You let speakers tell their story as concretely and precisely as possible. This is a task that consists of several
skills. The skills already mentioned, such as listening, minimal encouragers, asking open and closed questions,
paraphrasing and reflecting all contribute to the concreteness of the conversation.
Summarizing
The goal of summarizing is to give structurer to the conversation by ordering the main points. A distinction can
be made between summarizing of contents and summarizing of emotions. Summarizing has the following
functions:
- You can check whether you have understood the speaker correctly;
- You can order the different subthemes and vocalize them.
COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS – CHAPTE R 3: SENDER SKILLS
Overview of sender skills:
Sender skills – initiative Sender skills – reactive
Giving information
Making requests and giving instructions Refusing
Giving criticism Reacting to criticism
Situation clarification
Sender skills: initiative
Giving information
• Structure: the clarity and orderliness of an amount of information within your conversation.
• Simplicity of style: the conversational partner is most likely to understand the information being
presented if you use short sentences, know words and clear wording, and speak in a calm tempo.
• Conciseness: a certain restriction in the amount of information given.
• Attractiveness: there are several methods to hold the attention of the conversational partners
and to stimulate them to think and to participate actively.
