Read Me First - University of Phoenix



Weekly Overview

Week One

Overview

Effective communication is key to healthy relationships, whether personal or professional. Clear and effective communication is essential for success in any career or industry, but even more so for health care, where people’s lives are at stake. This week, you will be introduced to the elements involved in the communication process. One of these elements is perception. Perception is how we become aware of objects, events, people, and their behaviors. Our perception can be shaped by our background and personal experiences, which may lead to issues in how we perceive certain things. Although perception is often overlooked in everyday conversations with others, it is a fundamental process in all communication. We must examine effective ways to perceive situations more accurately to improve our interpersonal and work relationships.

Although cross-cultural communication is not new, global communication has become much easier and much more accessible due to the Internet and other new technologies. Effective intercultural communication helps avoid conflict, prevent misunderstandings, and foster respect in the workplace. Communication between individuals of different cultures is successful when we learn to create cultural bridges. This requires an understanding of other cultures and our personal values. There are many cultural barriers in a typical diverse workplace. Besides differences in language, other factors challenge people who are trying to work with others of a different background. We must learn how to move beyond stereotypes and understand the differences in people.

What you will cover

1. Introduction to communication in the workplace

a. Explain the major components of communication in the workplace.

1) The process model describes the following elements of communication:

a) Sender and receiver: You are the transceiver.

b) Encoding: changing thoughts and feelings into symbols

c) Decoding: assigning meaning to the symbols

d) Message: the idea, thought, opinion, or feeling being communicated

e) Channel: the medium through which the message travels

f) Feedback: the receiver’s response to the sender’s message

2) Communication occurs at different levels.

a) Small talk: You establish contact and build a rapport.

b) Information talk: Coworkers use this to get their job done.

c) Opinion talk: You share your thoughts with others. You must be careful when employing this in the workplace.

d) Feelings talk: You expose your innermost thoughts and are more vulnerable to hurt, criticism, and ridicule, but taking this risk often has benefits.

3) Communication barriers

a) Internal noise: can occur inside the receiver and the sender

1) Beliefs

2) Assumptions

3) Values

4) Defensiveness

b) External noise: distractions outside the sender and receiver

c) Semantic noise: occurs when a receiver of a message does not understand a sender’s gesture or word or interprets it differently

4) Diverse cultures: Gaps occur because people are different.

a) Gender

b) Age-generation gap

c) Ethnicity

d) Race

e) Status

f) Sexual orientation

b. Explain the role perception plays in communication.

1) You communicate your perceptions by the language you use.

a) You interpret others’ words and body language through perceptual filters.

b) Definition of perception: the way in which an individual gives meaning to reality

1) Objective reality: the actual message, object, or event

2) Subjective reality: the result after applying filters

2) Perception as a model: This is how we translate objective reality into subjective reality.

a) Prior knowledge

b) Prior experiences

c) Psychological state

1) Identity

2) Personality traits

3) Values and worldview

4) Self-concept

5) Emotional state

6) Physical condition

3) Perception processes and concepts: how you shape your perceptions

a) Selective attention: focusing on certain messages, certain stimuli, things that interest you, and denial

b) Self-fulfilling prophecy: You see what you want or expect to see.

4) Stereotype threat: Negative cultural stereotypes about a group can create for its members’ belief in the stereotype.

a) Halo effect: assumptions based on limited information

b) Attribution error: attributing causes of events to personalities or external situations

c) Projection: seeing your faults or strengths in others; calling others’ attention to these traits

5) How to minimize communication breakdown resulting from perceptual differences

a) Recognize the difference between objective reality and subjective reality.

b) Differences in perception are rooted in individual differences.

c) How you look at differences matters.

d) Communication is central in the perception process.

6) Sharpening your perceptions

a) Distinguishing fact from opinion

b) Checking perception: impression checks

c) Learning conversations: learning about others’ perceptions

c. Identify the principles of cross-cultural communication.

1) Factors to consider

a) Race

b) Language

c) Gender

d) Ethnicity

e) Religion

f) Culture

2) Intercultural communication: What are the different perspectives?

a) Person sending the message

b) Person receiving the message

c) Nonverbal message and cue

3) Cross-cultural communication principles

a) The greater the linguistic cultural difference, the greater the likelihood of communication breakdown is.

b) When communication breaks down with cross-cultural encounters, it is usually attributed to cultural differences.

c) When communicating cross-culturally, most people are more conscious about their communication.

d) Cultures vary with respect to the number and kind of taboos required of its members.

e) Learning about the norms and variations in a particular cultural group’s communication styles helps increase your understanding of that group.

f) If you see others as friendly, cooperative, and trustworthy, barriers will be more easily overcome.

4) Cross-cultural communication differences and barriers

a) Cross-cultural communication differences: value differences

1) Task-oriented versus relationship-oriented

2) Individualism versus collectivism

3) High- versus low-power difference in relationships

4) Masculinity versus femininity

5) High versus low uncertainty avoidance

b) Cross-cultural communication barriers

1) Certain topics create tension for people who have been historically oppressed.

2) Hot buttons: words that evoke an emotional response in another person

3) Stereotyping: when you apply what you have learned about a group and apply that learning to all members of that group without considering any variations within that group

4) Language, vernacular, or accent bias

5) Cross-cultural communication tools

a) Overcome personal biases: racism, stereotypes, discrimination, sexism, homophobia, ethnocentrism, scapegoating, and institutional racism.

b) Relate culture to communication.

c) Empathize with those for whom English is not their first language.

d) Recognize your privileges.

e) Develop cross-cultural competence: Often, health care institutions have diversity training for their staff.

................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download