Chapter13slidesmemos

Editor's Notes

• #3: Zappos Headquarters and Call Center, Las Vegas, Nevada “ Shoes? You sell shoes online? Who buys shoes online?” That was your reaction when the founder of Shoesite.com suggested you invest in his company. With $265 million from the sale of your first Internet business, you could invest in or start any company you wanted. And you did, starting 27 different businesses. But, something was missing. You weren’t having any fun. You were depressed. As you told your friends, “the easiest way to explain it was that going into the office started to feel like work.” The problem was that the people working in your first company weren’t committed to longterm success. “The Silicon Valley culture is, ‘I’m going to work hard for years and make millions of dollars and then retire.’” So you vowed that if you ever ran another Internet business, you would create a company where employees were happy, satisfied, and committed to providing great service to customers. You never realized that opportunity would come through Shoesite.com. Sure, selling shoes online sounded silly at first. But that was before you knew the U.S. shoe market was $40 billion a year and that $2 billion in sales came through mail order catalogs. If people bought shoes through mail order catalogs, they would buy via the Internet. So you not only bought a share of the company, which changed its name to ZAPPOS.COM (“Zappos” is derived from zapatos, the Spanish word for shoes), you helped run it. Six years after joining, the founder left, and you were Zappos’s CEO. Your first major challenge was how to get people to buy from you instead of your competitors. JCPenney took its mail order catalog shoe business and flipped it online. Then came new competitors, such as Piperlime.com, a division of Gap Inc., which carries 100 brands; Shoemall .com, which was started by a company with 100 years in the shoe business; Shoebuy.com, which, with 800 brands, bills itself as “The World’s Largest Site for Shoes”; and Endless.com, which was started by Amazon.com, to sell shoes and handbags. Figuring that there was no other way to get consumers to choose Zappos over your competition, you instituted free shipping and free returns. The allure of this policy was simple. Choose the wrong size or wrong style and you can send the shoes back at no cost. However, “free” shipping and “free” returns cost you $100 million a year. While that has helped you build market share, Shoebuy.com now offers the same thing, so free shipping and free returns may not be enough to sustain your competitive advantage. Your long-term goal is to combine free shipping and free returns with the best customer service in the business so that most of your profits come from repeat customers. What would that customer service look like? What would customers expect? How can you make sure that every new person hired in the company “gap it” as you build your corporate culture around great service? While you don’t intend to compete on price, competition will make you keep costs down. Given Zappos’s emphasis on culture and customer service, it doesn’t make sense, like many companies have done, to outsource the call center to India. So, to keep costs down, you need to find a way to improve the communication between headquarters, the call center, and the distribution warehouse, all of which are in different locations. Finally, market research indicates that new shoppers don’t see many differences between you and your competition. The websites are similar and your message of great customer service hasn’t sunk in yet. This isn’t a marketing issue. It’s a communication issue. What steps can you personally take as the CEO to effectively and frequently talk about Zappos so that employees and customers have a deeper, more meaningful connection to the company?
• #6: Perception is the process by which individuals attend to organize, interpret, interpret and retain information Perceptual filters are the personality-, psychology-, or experience-based differences that influence people to ignore or pay attention to particular stimuli
• #7: As shown in Exhibit 13.1, perceptual filters affect each part of the perception process : attention, organization, interpretation, and retention. Attention is the process of noticing, or becoming aware of, particular stimuli. Because of perceptual filters, we attend to some stimuli and not others. For instance, a study at the University of Illinois asked viewers to watch people in black shirts and white shirts toss a basketball back and forth and to count the number of times someone in a black shirt tossed the basketball. Because their perceptual filters had narrowed to track the activities of people in black shirts, half of the viewers did not notice when the experimenters had someone in a gorilla suit walk through the midst of the people tossing the basketball back and forth. Organization is the process of incorporating new information (from the stimuli that you notice) into your existing knowledge. Because of perceptual filters, we are more likely to incorporate new knowledge that is consistent with what we already know or believe. Interpretation is the process of attaching meaning to new knowledge. Because of perceptual filters, our preferences and beliefs strongly influence the meaning we attach to new information (e.g., “This decision must mean that top management supports our project.”). Finally, retention is the process of remembering interpreted information. Retention affects what we recall and commit to memory after we have perceived something. Of course, perceptual filters affect retention as much as they do organization and interpretation.
• #8: Selective perception is the tendency to notice and accept objects and information consistent with our values, beliefs, and expectations while ignoring or screening out inconsistent information. Once we have initial information about a person, event, or process, closure is the tendency to fi ll in the gaps where information is missing, that is, to assume that what we don’t know is consistent with what we already do know.
• #9: The defensive bias is the tendency for people to perceive themselves as personally and situationally similar to someone who is having difficulty or trouble. The fundamental attribution error , which is the tendency to ignore external causes of behavior and to attribute other people’s actions to internal causes. In other words, when investigators examine the possible causes of an accident, they’re much more likely to assume that the accident is a function of the person and not the situation.
• #10: Workers and managers in most workplaces can be expected to take opposite views when things go wrong. Therefore, the defensive bias, which is typically used by workers, and the fundamental attribution error, which is typically made by managers, together present a significant challenge to effective communication and understanding in organizations.
• #11: The self-serving bias can make it especially difficult for managers to talk to employees about performance problems. In general, people have a need to maintain a positive self-image. This need is so strong that when people seek feedback at work, they typically want verification of their worth (rather than information about performance deficiencies) or assurance that mistakes or problems weren’t their fault. People can become defensive and emotional when managerial communication threatens their positive self-image. They quit listening, and communication becomes ineffective. In the second half of the chapter, which focuses on improving communication, we’ll explain ways in which managers can minimize this self-serving bias and improve effective one-on-one communication with employees.
• #14: The communication process begins when a sender thinks of a message he or she wants to convey to another person. The next step is to encode the message. Encoding means putting a message into a verbal (written or spoken) or symbolic form that can be recognized and understood by the receiver. The sender then transmits the message via communication channels . After the message is transmitted and received, the next step is for the receiver to decode it. Decoding is the process by which the receiver translates the written, verbal, or symbolic form of the message into an understood message. However, the message as understood by the receiver isn’t always the same message that was intended by the sender. The last step of the communication process occurs when the receiver gives the sender feedback. Feedback to sender is a return message to the sender that indicates the receiver’s understanding of the message (of what the receiver was supposed to know, to do, or not to do). Feedback makes senders aware of possible miscommunications and enables them to continue communicating until the receiver understands the intended message. Unfortunately, feedback doesn’t always occur in the communication process.
• #17: Downward communication flows from higher to lower levels in an organization. Downward communication is used to issue orders down the organizational hierarchy, to give organizational members job-related information, to give managers and workers performance reviews from upper managers, and to clarify organizational objectives and goals. Upward communication flows from lower levels to higher levels in an organization. Upward communication is used to give higher-level managers feedback about operations, issues, and problems; to help higher-level managers assess organizational performance and effectiveness; to encourage lower-level managers and employees to participate in organizational decision making; and to give those at lower levels the chance to share their concerns with higher-level authorities. Horizontal communication flows among managers and workers who are at the same organizational level, such as when a day shift nurse comes in at 7:30 am for a half-hour discussion with the midnight nurse supervisor who leaves at 8:00 am. Horizontal communication helps facilitate coordination and cooperation between different parts of a company and allows coworkers to share relevant information. It also helps people at the same level resolve conflicts and solve problems without involving high levels of management.
• #20: Grapevines arise out of informal communication networks such as the gossip or cluster chains shown in Exhibit 13.3. In a gossip chain , one highly connected individual shares information with many other managers and workers. By contrast, in a cluster chain , numerous people simply tell a few of their friends. The result in both cases is that information flows freely and quickly through the organization.
• #24: Nonverbal communication is any communication that doesn’t involve words. Nonverbal communication almost always accompanies verbal communication and may either support and reinforce the verbal message or contradict it. Kinesics (from the Greek word kinesis , meaning “movement”) are movements of the body and face. These movements include arm and hand gestures, facial expressions, eye contact, folding arms, crossing legs, and leaning toward or away from another person. Paralanguage includes the pitch, rate, tone, volume, and speaking pattern (use of silences, pauses, or hesitations) of one’s voice.
• #28: Oral communication includes face-to-face and group meetings through telephone calls, videoconferencing, or any other means of sending and receiving spoken messages. Studies show that managers generally prefer oral communication over written because it provides the opportunity to ask questions about parts of the message that they don’t understand. Written communication includes letters, e-mail, and memos. Although most managers still like and use oral communication, e-mail in particular is changing how they communicate with workers, customers, and each other. E-mail is the fastest-growing form of communication in organizations primarily because of its convenience and speed.
• #30: According to Webster’s New World Dictionary , hearing is the “act or process of perceiving sounds,” whereas listening is “making a conscious effort to hear.” In other words, we react to sounds, such as bottles breaking or music being played too loud, because hearing is an involuntary physiological process. By contrast, listening is a voluntary behavior. So, if you want to be a good listener, you have to choose to be a good listener. Typically, that means choosing to be an active, empathetic listener.
• #34: To start, managers need to recognize that feedback can be constructive or destructive. Destructive feedback is disapproving without any intention of being helpful and almost always causes a negative or defensive reaction in the recipient. In fact, one study found that 98 percent of employees responded to destructive feedback from their bosses with either verbal aggression (two-thirds) or physical aggression (one-third).48 By contrast, constructive feedback is intended to be helpful, corrective, and/or encouraging. It is aimed at correcting performance deficiencies and motivating employees.
• #35: For feedback to be constructive rather than destructive, it must be immediate, focused on specific behaviors, and problem-oriented. Immediate feedback is much more effective than delayed feedback because manager and worker can recall the mistake or incident more accurately and discuss it in detail. Specific feedback focuses on particular acts or incidents that are clearly under the control of the employee. problem-oriented feedback focuses on the problems or incidents associated with the poor performance rather than on the worker or the worker’s personality.
• #38: People in affective cultures tend to display their emotions and feelings openly when communicating, whereas people in neutral cultures do not. The mistake most managers make is misunderstanding the differences between affective and neutral cultures. People from neutral cultures aren’t by definition cold and unfeeling. They just don’t show their emotions in the same way or with the same intensity as people from affective cultures. The key is to recognize the differences and then make sure your judgments are not based on the lack or presence of emotional reactions.
• #40: In monochronic cultures , people tend to do one thing at a time and view time as linear, meaning that time is the passage of sequential events. You may have heard the saying, “There are three stages in people’s lives: when they believe in Santa Claus, when they don’t believe in Santa Claus, and when they are Santa Claus.” The progression from childhood, to young adulthood, to parenthood (when they are Santa Claus) reflects a linear view of time. Schedules are important in monochronic cultures because you schedule time to get a particular thing done. By contrast, in polychronic cultures , people tend to do more than one thing at a time and view time as circular, meaning that it is a combination of the past, present, and future.
• #41: Appointment time refers to how punctual you must be when showing up for scheduled appointments or meetings. Schedule time is the time by which scheduled projects or jobs should actually be completed. Discussion time concerns how much time should be spent in discussion with others. Acquaintance time is how much time you must spend getting to know someone before the person is prepared to do business with you.
• #43: Although we normally think of e-mail , the transmission of messages via computers, as a means of one-on-one communication, it also plays an important role in organization-wide communication. With the click of a button, managers can send e-mail to everyone in the company via distribution lists. Collaborative websites are another means of electronically promoting organization-wide communication. Online discussion forums use web- or software-based discussion tools to allow employees across the company to easily ask questions and share knowledge with each other. The point is to share expertise and not duplicate solutions already discovered by others in the company. Televised/videotaped speeches and meetings are simply speeches and meetings originally made to a small audience that are either simultaneously broadcast to other locations in the company or videotaped for subsequent distribution and viewing by a broader audience. Voice messaging , or voice mail, is a telephone answering system that records audio messages.
• #45: Company hotlines are phone numbers that anyone in the company can call anonymously to leave information for upper management. Survey feedback is information that is collected by survey from organization members and then compiled, disseminated, and used to develop action plans for improvement. Many organizations make use of survey feedback by surveying their managers and employees several times a year. Frequent informal meetings between top managers and lower-level employees are one of the best ways for top managers to hear what others think and feel. One of the ways to get an accurate picture is to pay surprise visits to various parts of the organization. These visits should not just be surprise inspections, but should also be used as an opportunity to encourage meaningful upward communication from those who normally don’t get a chance to communicate with upper management. A blog is a personal website that provides personal opinions or recommendations, news summaries, and reader comments.
• #46: In the small town of Odessa, Texas, everyone lives for Friday nights when the high school football team, the Permian Panthers, takes the field. The town is proud of their Panthers, led by quarterback Mike Winchell (Lucas Black) and superstar tailback Boobie Miles (Derek Luke), and they’re used to winning. They expect a state championship, and nothing less. When Boobie suffers a career- ending injury in the first game of the season, the team isn’t sure they can win without him. But Coach Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) isn’t ready to give up yet. In this clip from the film, Coach Gaines gathers the team around during the half-time break to talk about what success really means and how he wants them to achieve it.
• #47: Greensburg superintendent Darrin Headrick was driving home the night the tornado hit town. He stopped at a friend’s house to take cover. After the storm passed, he discovered that the entire school system was wiped out. Every building was gone. Textbooks were scattered all over town, and the computers had been destroyed. Only the bleachers behind the football field remained. Headrick had some tough decisions to make. If families were going to feel like it was worth coming back to Greensburg, then he had to reassure them school would be back in session by fall. In this video, he states that the biggest challenge in the days after the tornado was probably communication and he explains why. He also talks about why communication in the town is actually better now than it was before the disaster.