Page 423 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

422 Part 4 • Leading
to put her family ahead of her career is likely to see that tendency in female applicants,
regardless of whether the applicants would do so or not. As we said in Chapter 9, we don’t
see reality; rather, we interpret what we see and call it reality.

How Does inFormATion overloAD AFFecT communicATion? Individuals have a
finite capacity for processing data. For instance, consider an international sales representative
who returns home to find that she has more than 600 e-mails waiting for her. It’s not possible
to fully read and respond to each one of those messages without facing information overload.
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Today’s typical executive frequently complains of information overload. The demands
of keeping up with e-mail, phone calls, faxes, meetings, and professional reading create an
onslaught of data that is nearly impossible to process and assimilate. What happens when you
have more information than you can sort out and use? You’re likely to select out, ignore, pass
over, or forget information. Or you may put off further processing until the overload situation
is over. In any case, the result is lost information and less effective communication.

How Do emoTions AFFecT communicATion? How a receiver feels when a message
is received influences how he or she interprets it. You’ll often interpret the same message
differently, depending on whether you’re happy or distressed. Extreme emotions are most
likely to hinder effective communications. In such instances, we often disregard our ratio-
nal and objective thinking processes and substitute emotional judgments. It’s best to avoid
reacting to a message when you’re upset because you’re not likely to be thinking clearly.

How Does lAnGuAGe AFFecT communicATion? Words mean different things
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to different people. “The meanings of words are not in the words; they are in us.” Age,
education, and cultural background are three of the more obvious variables that influence
the language a person uses and the definitions he or she applies to words. Columnist
George F. Will and rapper Iggy Azalea both speak English. But the language one uses is
vastly different from how the other speaks.

Forty percent of employees say that buzzwords are very
prevalent in normal conversations at work. 15

In an organization, employees usually come from diverse backgrounds and, therefore,
have different patterns of speech. Additionally, the grouping of employees into departments
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creates specialists who develop their own jargon or technical language. In large organiza-
tions, members are also frequently widely dispersed geographically—even operating in dif-
ferent countries—and individuals in each locale will use terms and phrases that are unique to
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their area. And the existence of vertical levels can also cause language problems. The lan-
guage of senior executives, for instance, can be mystifying to regular employees not familiar
with management jargon. Keep in mind that while we may speak the same language, our use
of that language is far from uniform. Senders tend to assume that the words and phrases they
use mean the same to the receiver as they do to them. This assumption, of course, is incorrect
and creates communication barriers. Knowing how each of us modifies the language would
help minimize those barriers.

How Does GenDer AFFecT communicATion? Effective communication between the
sexes is important in all organizations if they are to meet organizational goals. But how can we
manage the various differences in communication styles? To keep gender differences from be-
coming persistent barriers to effective communication, individuals must strive for acceptance,
information overload understanding, and a commitment to communicate adaptively with each other. Both men and
What results when information exceeds processing women need to acknowledge differences are present in communication styles, that one style
capacity isn’t better than the other, and that it takes real effort to talk successfully with each other. 18
jargon
Technical language specific to a discipline or How Does nATionAl culTure AFFecT communicATion? Finally, communi-
industry
cation differences can also arise from the different languages that individuals use to