Management communication: a case-analysis approach, 5th edition, o’rourke, pearson, 2013.

Management Communication

A CASE-ANALYSIS APPROACH

F I F T H E D I T I O N

Management Communication

A CASE-ANALYSIS APPROACH

James S. O’Rourke, IV Teaching Professor of Management

Arthur F. and Mary J. O’Neil Director The Eugene D. Fanning Center for Business Communication

Mendoza College of Business University of Notre Dame

Prentice Hall Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River

Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montreal Toronto Delhi Mexico Sao Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data O'Rourke, James S Management communication : a case-analysis approach / James S. O'Rourke. -- 5th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-267140-8 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-13-267140-9 (alk. paper) 1. Communication in management. 2. Communication in management--Case studies. I. Title. HD30.3.O766 2013 658.4'5--dc23 2011033216 Editorial Director: Sally Yagan Acquisitions Editor: James Heine Editorial Project Manager: Karin Williams Editorial Assistant: Ashlee Bradbury Director of Marketing: Maggie Moylan Senior Marketing Manager: Nikki Jones Marketing Assistant: Ian Gold Senior Managing Editor: Judy Leale Production Project Manager: Debbie Ryan Art Director: Jayne Conte Cover Designer: Suzanne Behnke Composition: Integra Software Services, Pvt.Ltd. Printer/Binder: Courier/Westford Cover Printer: Lehigh-Phoenix Color/Hagerstown Text Font: Times New Roman, Arial

Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on the appropriate page within text.

Copyright © 2013, 2010, 2007, 2004, 2001 by Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to 201-236-3290.

Many of the designations by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 10: 0-13-267140-9

ISBN 13: 978-0-13-267140-8

v

To: Pam, Colleen, Molly, and Kathleen. And to Jay, Cianan, and Ty. Your inspiration, patience, and support have been indispensable.

Thank you for making this possible. To my colleagues: Sandra, Sondra, and Liddy. You are among

many who have encouraged me, corrected me, kept me honest, and held me accountable for my ideas. And to Andrea and Judy:

Teaching and writing are so much easier with your help. And, of course, to my friends in MCA and the Arthur Page Society:

Thank you for the support, counsel, and good ideas. My life is richer for having shared your company.

vii

CONTENTS

Preface xv

Chapter 1 Management Communication in Transition 1 What Do Managers Do All Day? 2 The Roles Managers Play 3 Major Characteristics of the Manager’s Job 5 What Varies in a Manager’s Job? The Emphasis 6 Management Skills Required for the Twenty-First

Century 6 Talk Is the Work 7 The Major Channels of Management Communication

Are Talking and Listening 8 The Role of Writing 8 Communication Is Invention 9 Information Is Socially Constructed 10 Your Greatest Challenge 10 Your Task as a Professional 11 For Further Reading 11 Endnotes 11 CASE 1-1 Odwalla, Inc. (A) 13 CASE 1-2 Great West Casualty v. Estate

of G. Witherspoon (A) 17 CASE 1-3 Domino's "Special" Delivery:

Going Viral Through Social Media 19

Chapter 2 Communication and Strategy 26 Defining Communication 26 Elements of Communication 27 Principles of Communication 27 Levels of Communication 28 Barriers to Communication 29 Communicating Strategically 29 Successful Strategic Communication 30 Why Communicating as a Manager Is Different 32 Crisis Communication 33 For Further Reading 36

viii

Endnotes 37 CASE 2-1 Starbucks Coffee Company: Can Customers Breastfeed in a Coffee

Shop? 37 CASE 2-2 Taco Bell Corporation: Public Perception

and Brand Protection 43

Chapter 3 Communication Ethics 50 The Ethical Conduct of Employers 52 Defining Business Ethics 52 Three Levels of Inquiry 53 Three Views of Decision Making 54 An Integrated Approach 55 The Nature of Moral Judgments 55 Distinguishing Characteristics of Moral Principles 56 Four Resources for Decision Making 57 Making Moral Judgments 58 Applying Ethical Standards to Management

Communication 60 Statements of Ethical Principles 60 The “Front Page” Test 63 For Further Reading 64 Endnotes 64 CASE 3-1 Excel Industries (A) 66 CASE 3-2 A Collection Scandal at Sears, Roebuck &

Company 69 CASE 3-3 The Tiger Woods Foundation:

When Values and Behavior Collide 72 CASE 3-4 Google's New Strategy in China:

Principled Philosophy or Business Savvy? 79

Chapter 4 Speaking 88 Why Speak? 89 How to Prepare a Successful Management

Speech 90 Develop a Strategy 90 Get to Know Your Audience 90 Determine Your Reason for Speaking 92 Learn What You Can About the Occasion 93 Know What Makes People Listen 93

ix

Understand the Questions Listeners Bring to Any Listening Situation 94

Recognize Common Obstacles to Successful Communication 95

Support Your Ideas with Credible Evidence 96 Organize Your Thoughts 97 Keep Your Audience Interested 100 Select a Delivery Approach 102 Develop Your Visual Support 103 Rehearse Your Speech 104 Develop Confidence in Your Message and in

Yourself 105 Deliver Your Message 106 For Further Reading 107 Endnotes 107 CASE 4-1 A Last Minute Change at Old Dominion

Trust 108 CASE 4-2 Preparing to Speak at Staples, Inc. 110

Chapter 5 Writing 112 An Introduction to Good Business Writing 114 Fifteen Ways to Become a Better Business Writer 114 Writing a Business Memo 116 The Six Communication Strategies 116 Writing an Overview Paragraph 116 Sample Overviews 117 The Informative Memo 118 The Persuasive Memo 118 Standard Formats for Memos 119 Meeting and Conference Reports 120 Project Lists 120 Make Your Memos Inviting and Attractive 121 Editing Your Memos 121 Writing Good Business Letters 122 When You Are Required to Explain Something 123 When You Are Required to Apologize 124 A Few Words About Style 124 Make Your Writing Efficient 124 Speak When You Write 126

x

How to Make Passive Verbs Active 127 Make Your Bottom Line Your Top Line 128 How to Encourage and Develop Good Writers 128 For Further Reading 129 Endnotes 130 CASE 5-1 Cypress Semiconductor Corporation 130 CASE 5-2 Carnival Cruise Lines:

Fire Aboard a Stranded Cruise Ship 137 CASE 5-3 AntennaGate: Apple's Loss of Signal (A) 146

Chapter 6 Persuasion 154 The Human Belief System 155 Two Schools of Thought 155 The Objectives of Persuasion 158 Outcomes of the Attitudinal Formation Process 159 The Science of Persuasion 159 Successful Attempts at Persuasion 160 Should You Use a One- or Two-Sided Argument? 167 Managing Heads and Hearts to Change Behavioral Habits 169 Being Persuasive 170 Endnotes 171 CASE 6-1 The United States Olympic Committee:

Persuading Business to Participate in the Olympic Movement 172

CASE 6-2 An Invitation to Wellness at Whirlpool Corporation 175

CASE 6-3 Kraft Foods, Inc.: The Cost of Advertising on Children’s Waistlines 176

Chapter 7 Technology 182 Life in the Digital Age 182 Communicating Digitally 183 Electronic Mail 184 Privacy and Workplace Monitoring 188 The Internet and Online Behavior 193 Text Messaging 193 Social Media 194 Etiquette and Office Electronics 195 Working Virtually 197

xi

Teleconferencing 199 For Further Reading 202 Endnotes 202 CASE 7-1 Cerner Corporation: A Stinging Office Memo

Boomerangs 205 CASE 7-2 Johnson & Johnson's Strategy with Motrin:

The Growing Pains of Social Media 209 CASE 7-3 Facebook Beacon (A): Cool Feature or an Invasion

of Privacy? 215

Chapter 8 Listening and Feedback 221 An Essential Skill 221 Why Listen? 222 The Benefits of Better Listening 223 The Role of Ineffective Listening Habits 224 An Inventory of Poor Listening Habits 224 Developing Good Listening Habits 227 The Five Essential Skills of Active Listening 228 A System for Improving Your Listening Habits 229 Giving and Receiving Feedback 230 Guidelines for Constructive Feedback 230 Knowing When Not to Give Feedback 232 Knowing How to Give Effective Feedback 232 Knowing How to Receive Feedback 235 For Further Reading 236 Endnotes 236 CASE 8-1(A) Earl’s Family Restaurants: The Role of the Regional Sales

Manager 237 CASE 8-1(B) Earl’s Family Restaurants: The Role of the Chief

Buyer 239 CASE 8-1(C) Earl’s Family Restaurants: The Role of the

Observer 241 CASE 8-2(A) The Kroger Company: The Role of the Store

Manager 243 CASE 8-2(B) The Kroger Company: The Role of the Pepsi-Cola

Sales Manager 245 CASE 8-2(C) The Kroger Company: The Role of the Instructional

Facilitator 246 CASE 8-3 Three Feedback Exercises 248

xii

Chapter 9 Nonverbal Communication 250 A Few Basic Considerations 251 Nonverbal Categories 251 The Nonverbal Process 252 Reading and Misreading Nonverbal Cues 252 Functions of Nonverbal Communication 253 Principles of Nonverbal Communication 254 Dimensions of the Nonverbal Code 255 The Communication Environment 255 Body Movement 255 Eye Contact 256 A Communicator’s Physical Appearance 256 Artifacts 257 Touch 257 Paralanguage 258 Space 259 Time 261 Color 262 Smell 263 Taste 264 Sound 264 Silence 264 For Further Reading 267 Endnotes 267 CASE 9-1 Olive Garden Restaurants Division: General

Mills Corporation 269 CASE 9-2 Waukegan Materials, Inc. 271

Chapter 10 Intercultural Communication 273 Intercultural Challenges at Home 273 Cultural Challenges Abroad 275 Business and Culture 277 Definitions of Culture 277 Some Principles of Culture 278 Functions of Culture 281 Ethnocentrism 281 Cross-Cultural Communication Skills 282 For Further Reading 282

xiii

Endnotes 283 CASE 10-1 Oak Brook Medical Systems, Inc. 284 CASE 10-2 LaJolla Software, Inc. 286

Chapter 11 Managing Conflict 289 A Definition of Conflict 291 Conflict in Organizations 291 Sources of Conflict in Organizations 292 Sensing Conflict 292 The Benefits of Dealing with Conflict 294 Styles of Conflict Management 295 So, What Should You Do? 296 What If You’re the Problem? 298 For Further Reading 299 Endnotes 300 CASE 11-1 Hayward Healthcare Systems, Inc. 301 CASE 11-2 Dixie Industries, Inc. 303 CASE 11-3 Hershey Foods: It's Time to Kiss and Make Up 307

Chapter 12 Business Meetings That Work 316 What’s the Motivation for Meeting? 317 So, Why Meet? 318 What Is a Business Meeting? 318 When Should I Call a Meeting? 319 When Should I Not Call a Meeting? 319 What Should I Consider as I Plan for a Meeting? 320 How Do I Prepare for a Successful Meeting? 321 What Form or Meeting Style Will Work Best? 323 How Do I Keep a Meeting on Track? 324 What Should I Listen for? 325 What Should I Look for? 325 What Should I Write Down? 326 How Can I Make My Meetings More Productive? 327 Can Business Meetings Ever Improve? 328 For Further Reading 328 Endnotes 329 CASE 12-1 Spartan Industries, Inc. 330 CASE 12-2 American Rubber Products Company (A) 332

xiv

Chapter 13 Dealing with the News Media 336 Introduction 336 Why Interviews Are Important 338 Should You or Shouldn’t You? 341 A Look at the News Media 343 Getting Ready 347 Making It Happen 350 Staying in Control of an Interview 351 Follow-Up 353 For Further Reading 353 Endnotes 354 CASE 13-1 L’Oreal USA: Do Looks Really Matter

in the Cosmetic Industry? 355 CASE 13-2 Taco Bell: How Do We Know It’s Safe to Eat? 359 Exercise 13-1 Buon Giorno Italian Foods, Inc. 368 Exercise 13-2 O’Brien Paint Company 369

Appendix A Analyzing a Case Study 371

Appendix B Writing a Case Study 378

Appendix C Sample Business Letter 385

Appendix D Sample Strategy Memo 387

Appendix E Documentation 390

Appendix F Media Relations for Business Professionals: How to Prepare for a Broadcast or Press Interview 399

Index 405

xv

NEW TO THE FIFTH EDITION

Six brand-new, current-issue case studies: Case 1-3: Domino’s “Special” Delivery: Going Viral through Social Media. Case 3-3: The Tiger Woods Foundation: When Values and Behavior Collide. Case 3-4: Google’s New Strategy in China: Principled Philosophy or Business Savvy? Case 5-2: Carnival Cruse Lines: Fire Aboard a Stranded Cruise Ship Case 5-3: AntennaGate: Apple’s Loss of Signal (A). Case 7-2: Johnson & Johnson’s Strategy with Motrin: The Growing Pains of Social

Media.

New writing assignments for several case studies, including: Case 6-3: Kraft Foods, Inc.: The Cost of Advertising on Children’s Waistlines. Case 7-3: Facebook Beacon (A): Cool Feature or an Invasion of Privacy? Case 11-1: Hayward Healthcare Systems, Inc. Case 11-3: Hershey Foods: It’s Time to Kiss and Make Up. Case 13-1: L’Oreal USA: Do Looks Really Matter in the Cosmetic Industry? Case 13-2: Taco Bell: How Do We Know it’s Safe to Eat?

Approximately 10% of new anecdotes and examples, including extensive new examples in the Managing Conflict chapter.

A new section on social media and its uses, as well as updated content on the Internet and online behavior.

Newly updated chapter on Technology and its applications in business.

Up-to-date census data in the chapter on Intercultural Communication.

xvi

PREFACE

Many years ago, as an Air Force officer assigned to a flight test group in the American Southwest, I had the opportunity to speak with an older (and obviously wiser) man who had been in the flying business for many years. Our conversation focused on what it would take for a young officer to succeed—to become a leader, a recognized influence among talented, trained, and well-educated peers. His words were prophetic: “I can think of no skill more essential to the survival of a young officer,” he said, “than effective self-expression.” That was it. Not physical courage or well-honed flying skills. Not advanced degrees or specialized training, but “effective self-expression.”

In the years since that conversation, I have personally been witness to what young managers call “career moments.” Those moments in time are when a carefully crafted proposal, a thorough report, or a deft response to criticism saved a career. I’ve seen young men and women offered a job as a result of an especially skillful speech introduction. I’ve seen others sputter and stall when they couldn’t answer a direct question—one that fell well within their area of expertise—during a briefing. I’ve watched in horror as others simply talked their way into disfavor, trouble, or oblivion.

Communication is, without question, the central skill any manager can possess. It is the link between ideas and action. It is the process that generates profit. It is the emotional glue that binds humans together in relationships, personal and professional. It is, as the poet William Blake put it, “the chariot of genius.” To be without the ability to communicate is to be isolated from others in an organization, an industry, or a society. To be skilled at it is to be at the heart of what makes enterprise, private and public, function successfully.

The fundamental premise on which this book is based is simple: Communication is a skill that can be learned, taught, and improved. You have the potential to be better at communicating with other people than you now are. It won’t be easy, but this book can certainly help. The fact that you’ve gotten this far is evidence that you’re determined to succeed, and what follows is a systematic yet readable review of those things you’ll need to pay closer attention to in order to experience success as a manager.

WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT This book will focus on the processes involved in management communication and concentrate on ways in which business students and entry-level managers can become more effective by becoming more knowledgeable and skilled as communicators.

The second premise on which this book is based is also simple: Writing, speaking, listening, and other communication behaviors are the end-products of a process that begins with critical thinking. It is this process that managers are called on to employ every day in the workplace to earn a living. The basic task of a manager, day in and day out, is to solve managerial problems. The basic tools at a manager’s disposal are mostly rhetorical.

Management Communication supports learning objectives that are strategic in nature, evolving as the workplace changes to meet the demands of a global economy that is changing at a ferocious pace. What you will find in these pages assumes certain basic competencies in communication, but encourages growth and development as you encounter the responsibilities and opportunities of mid-level and higher management, whether in your own business or in large and complex, publicly traded organizations.

xvii

WHAT’S DIFFERENT ABOUT THIS BOOK This book is aimed directly at the way most professors of management communication teach, yet in a number of important ways is different from other books in this field.

First, the process is entirely strategic. We begin with the somewhat nontraditional view that all communication processes in successful businesses in this century will be fully integrated. What happens in one part of the business affects all others. What is said to one audience has outcomes that influence others. Without an integrated, strategic perspective, managers in the twenty-first century economy will find themselves working at cross-purposes, often to the detriment of their businesses.

Second, the approach offered in Management Communication integrates ethics and the process of ethical decision making into each aspect of the discipline. Many instructors feel either helpless or at least slightly uncomfortable teaching ethics in a business classroom. Yet, day after day, business managers find themselves confronted with ethical dilemmas and decisions that have moral consequences for their employees, customers, shareholders, and other important stakeholders.

This text doesn’t moralize or preach. Instead, it offers a relatively simple framework for ethical decision making that students and faculty alike will find easy to grasp. Throughout the book, especially in case studies and role-playing exercises, you will learn to ask questions that focus on the issues that matter most to your classmates and colleagues. The answers won’t come easily, but the process of confronting the issues will make you a better manager.

Third, this text includes separate chapters on Technology (Chapter 7) and Listening and Feedback (Chapter 8), as well as Nonverbal Communication (Chapter 9), Intercultural Communication (Chapter 10), and Managing Conflict (Chapter 11). These are topics that are often either ignored or shortchanged in other texts. These kinds of interpersonal communication skills are clearly central to relationship building and the personal influence all managers tell us they find indispensable to their careers. And, you’ll find a newly revised chapter devoted to Persuasion (Chapter 6), which explores the science that underlies the process of influence.

Finally, Management Communication examines the often tenuous but unavoidable relationship that business organizations and their managers have with the news media. A step-by-step approach is presented to help you develop strategies and manage relationships, in both good news and bad news situations. Surviving a close encounter with a reporter while telling your company’s story—fairly, accurately, and completely—may mean the difference between a career that advances and one that does not.

THE ADDED VALUE OF A CASE STUDY APPROACH The fifth edition of this book contains nearly three dozen original, classroom-tested case studies that will challenge you to discuss and apply the principles outlined in the chapters. Two of the chapters (8 and 13) include role-playing exercises. Appendix A, “Analyzing a Case Study,” will introduce you to the reasons business students find such value in cases and will show you how to get the most from the cases included in this book. A rich, interesting case study is always an opportunity to show what you know about business and communication, to learn from your professors and classmates, and to examine the intricate processes at work when humans go into business together. Reading and analyzing a case are always useful, but the more profound insights inevitably come from listening carefully as others discuss and defend their views. Appendix B, “Writing a Case Study,” will provide enough information for you and a small group of classmates to begin researching and writing an original business case on your own.

xviii

THE REST IS UP TO YOU What you take from this book and how you use it to become shrewder and more adept at the skills a manager needs most is really up to you. Simply reading the principles, looking through the examples, or talking about the case studies with your friends and classmates won’t be enough. You’ll need to look for ways to apply what you have learned, to put into practice the precepts articulated by successful executives and discussed at length in this book. The joy of developing and using those skills, however, comes in the relationships you will develop and the success you will experience throughout your business career and beyond. They aren’t simply essential skills for learning how to earn a living; they’re strategies for learning how to live.

—James S. O’Rourke, IV

1

Chapter 1

Management Communication in Transition

This book will argue that management communication is the central skill in the global workplace of the twenty-first century. An understanding of language and its inherent powers, combined with the skill to speak, write, listen, and form interpersonal relationships, will determine whether you will succeed as a manager.

At the midpoint of the twentieth century, management philosopher Peter Drucker wrote, “Managers have to learn to know language, to understand what words are and what they mean. Perhaps most important, they have to acquire respect for language as [our] most precious gift and heritage. The manager must understand the meaning of the old definition of rhetoric as ‘the art which draws men’s hearts to the love of true knowledge.’ ”1

Later in the twentieth century, Harvard Business School professors Robert Eccles and Nitin Nohria reframed Drucker’s view to offer a perspective of management that few others have seen. “To see management in its proper light,” they write, “managers need first to take language seriously.”2 In particular, they argue, a coherent view of management must focus on three issues: the use of rhetoric to achieve a manager’s goals, the shaping of a managerial identity, and taking action to achieve the goals of the organizations that employ us. Above all, they say, “the essence of what management is all about [is] the effective use of language to get things done.”3

The job of becoming a competent, effective manager thus becomes one of understanding language and action. It also involves finding ways to shape how others see and think of you in your role as a manager. A number of noted researchers have examined the important relationship between communication and action within large and complex organizations and conclude that the two are inseparable. Without the right words, used in the right way, it is unlikely that the right actions will ever occur. “Words do matter,” write Eccles and Nohria, “they matter very much. Without words we have no way of expressing strategic concepts, structural forms, or designs for performance measurement systems.” Language, they conclude, “is too important to managers to be taken for granted or, even worse, abused.”4

So, if language is a manager’s key to effective action, the next question is obvious: How good are you at using your language? Your ability to take action—to hire people, to restructure an organization, to launch a new product line—depends entirely on how effectively you use rhetoric, both as a speaker and as a listener. Your effectiveness as a speaker and writer will determine how well you are able to get others to do what you want. And your effectiveness as a listener will determine how well you understand others and can do things for them.

2 Chapter 1 • Management Communication in Transition

This book will examine the role language plays in the life of a manager and the central position occupied by rhetoric in the life of business organizations. In particular, though, this book will help you examine your own skills, abilities, and competencies as you use language, attempt to influence others, and respond to the requirements of your superiors and the organization in which you work. If you think that landing your first really big job is mostly about the grades on your transcript, think again. Communication skills are most often cited as the primary personal attribute employers seek in college graduates, followed by a strong work ethic, teamwork skills, initiative, relating well to others, problem-solving skills, and analytic abilities.5

Management Communication is about the movement of information and the skills that facilitate it—speaking, writing, listening, and processes of critical thinking—but it’s more than just skill, really. It’s also about understanding who you are, who others think you are, and the contributions you as an individual can make to the success of your business. It’s about confidence— the knowledge that you can speak and write well, that you can listen with great skill as others speak, and that you can both seek out and provide the feedback essential to your survival as a manager and a leader.

This chapter will first look at the nature of managerial work, examining the roles managers play and the characteristics of the jobs they hold. We’ll also look at what varies in a manager’s position, what is different from one manager’s job to another. And we’ll look at the management skills you will need to succeed in the years ahead. At the heart of this chapter, though, is the notion that communication, in many ways, is the work of managers, day in and day out. This book goes on to examine the roles of writing and speaking in your life as a manager, as well as other specific applications and challenges you will face as you grow and advance on the job.

WHAT DO MANAGERS DO ALL DAY? If you were to consult a number of management textbooks for advice on the nature of managerial work, many—if not most—would say that managers spend their time engaged in planning, organizing, staffing, directing, coordinating, reporting, and controlling. These activities, as Jane Hannaway found in her study of managers at work, “do not, in fact, describe what managers do.”6 At best they seem to describe vague objectives that managers are continually trying to accomplish. The real world, however, is far from being that simple. The world in which most managers work is a “messy and hectic stream of ongoing activity.”7

Managers are in constant action. Virtually every study of managers in action has found that they “switch frequently from task to task, changing their focus of attention to respond to issues as they arise, and engaging in a large volume of tasks of short duration.”8 Professor Harvey Mintzberg of McGill University observed CEOs on the job to get some idea of what they do and how they spend their time. He found, for instance, that they averaged 36 written and 16 verbal contacts per day, almost every one of them dealing with a distinct or different issue. Most of these activities were brief, lasting less than nine minutes.9

Harvard Business School professor John Kotter studied a number of successful general managers over a five-year period and found that they spend most of their time with others, including subordinates, their bosses, and numerous people from outside the organization. Kotter’s study found that the average manager spent just 25 percent of his or her time working alone, and that time was spent largely at home, on airplanes, or commuting. Few of them spend less than 70 percent of their time with others, and some spend up to 90 percent of their working time this way.10

Kotter also found that the breadth of topics in their discussions with others was extremely wide, with unimportant issues taking time alongside important business matters. His study revealed

Chapter 1 • Management Communication in Transition 33

that managers rarely make “big decisions” during these conversations and rarely give orders in a traditional sense. They often react to others’ initiatives and spend substantial amounts of time in unplanned activities that aren’t on their calendars. He found that managers will spend most of their time with others in short, disjointed conversations. “Discussions of a single question or issue rarely last more than ten minutes,” he notes. “It is not at all unusual for a general manager to cover ten unrelated topics in a five-minute conversation.”11 More recently, managers studied by Lee Sproull showed similar patterns. During the course of a day, they engaged in 58 different activities with an average duration of just nine minutes.12

Interruptions also appear to be a natural part of the job. Rosemary Stewart found that the managers she studied could work uninterrupted for half an hour only nine times during the four weeks she studied them.13 Managers, in fact, spend very little time by themselves. Contrary to the image offered by management textbooks, they are rarely alone drawing up plans or worrying about important decisions. Instead, they spend most of their time interacting with others—both inside and outside the organization. If you include casual interactions in hallways, phone conversations, one- on-one meetings, and larger group meetings, managers spend about two-thirds of their time with other people.14 As Mintzberg has pointed out, “Unlike other workers, the manager does not leave the telephone or the meeting to get back to work. Rather, these contacts are his work.”15

The interactive nature of management means that most management work is conversational.16 When managers are in action, they are talking and listening. Studies on the nature of managerial work indicate that managers spend about two-thirds to three-quarters of their time in verbal activity.17 These verbal conversations, according to Eccles and Nohria, are the means by which managers gather information, stay on top of things, identify problems, negotiate shared meanings, develop plans, put things in motion, give orders, assert authority, develop relationships, and spread gossip. In short, they are what the manager’s daily practice is all about. “Through other forms of talk, such as speeches and presentations,” they write, “managers establish definitions and meanings for their own actions and give others a sense of what the organization is about, where it is at, and what it is up to.”18

THE ROLES MANAGERS PLAY In Professor Mintzberg’s seminal study of managers and their jobs, he found the majority of them clustered around three core management roles.

INTERPERSONAL ROLES Managers are required to interact with a substantial number of people in the course of a workweek. They host receptions; take clients and customers to dinner; meet with business prospects and partners; conduct hiring and performance interviews; and form alliances, friendships, and personal relationships with many others. Numerous studies have shown that such relationships are the richest source of information for managers because of their immediate and personal nature.19

Three of a manager’s roles arise directly from formal authority and involve basic interpersonal relationships. First is the figurehead role. As the head of an organizational unit, every manager must perform some ceremonial duties. In Mintzberg’s study, chief executives spent 12 percent of their contact time on ceremonial duties; 17 percent of their incoming mail dealt with acknowledgments and requests related to their status. One example is a company president who requested free merchandise for a handicapped schoolchild.20

Managers are also responsible for the work of the people in their unit, and their actions in this regard are directly related to their role as a leader. The influence of managers is most clearly seen,

4 Chapter 1 • Management Communication in Transition

according to Mintzberg, in the leader role. Formal authority vests them with great potential power. Leadership determines, in large part, how much power they will realize.21

Does the leader’s role matter? Ask the employees of Chrysler Corporation (now DaimlerChrysler). When Lee Iacocca took over the company in the 1980s, the once-great auto manufacturer was in bankruptcy, teetering on the verge of extinction. He formed new relationships with the United Auto Workers, reorganized the senior management of the company, and—perhaps, most importantly—convinced the U.S. federal government to guarantee a series of bank loans that would make the company solvent again. The loan guarantees, the union response, and the reaction of the marketplace were due in large measure to Iacocca’s leadership style and personal charisma. More recent examples include the return of Starbucks founder Howard Schultz to re-energize and steer his company, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and his ability to innovate during a downturn in the economy.22

Popular management literature has had little to say about the liaison role until recently. This role, in which managers establish and maintain contacts outside the vertical chain of command, becomes especially important in view of the finding of virtually every study of managerial work that managers spend as much time with peers and other people outside of their units as they do with their own subordinates. Surprisingly, they spend little time with their own superiors. In Rosemary Stewart’s study, 160 British middle and top managers spent 47 percent of their time with peers, 41 percent of their time with people inside their unit, and only 12 percent of their time with superiors.23 Robert H. Guest’s study of U.S. manufacturing supervisors revealed similar findings.24

INFORMATIONAL ROLES Managers are required to gather, collate, analyze, store, and disseminate many kinds of information. In doing so, they become information resource centers, often storing huge amounts of information in their own heads, moving quickly from the role of gatherer to the role of disseminator in minutes. Although many business organizations install large, expensive information technology systems to perform many of those functions, nothing can match the speed and intuitive power of a well-trained manager’s brain for information processing. Not surprisingly, most managers prefer it that way.25

As monitors, managers are constantly scanning the environment for information, talking with liaison contacts and subordinates, and receiving unsolicited information, much of it as a result of their network of personal contacts. A good portion of this information arrives in oral form, often as gossip, hearsay, and speculation.26

In the disseminator role, managers pass privileged information directly to subordinates, who might otherwise have no access to it. Managers must not only decide who should receive such information, but how much of it, how often, and in what form. Increasingly, managers are being asked to decide whether subordinates, peers, customers, business partners, and others should have direct access to information 24 hours a day without having to contact the manager directly.

In the spokesperson role, managers send information to people outside of their organizations: An executive makes a speech to lobby for an organizational cause, or a supervisor suggests a product modification to a supplier. Increasingly, managers are also being asked to deal with representatives of the news media, providing both factual and opinion-based responses that will be printed, broadcast, or posted to vast unseen audiences, often directly or with little editing. The risks in such circumstances are enormous, but so too are the potential rewards in terms of brand recognition, public image, and organizational visibility.

DECISIONAL ROLES Ultimately, managers are charged with the responsibility of making decisions on behalf of both the organization and the stakeholders with an interest in it. Such decisions are often

Chapter 1 • Management Communication in Transition 55

made under circumstances of high ambiguity and with inadequate information. Often, the other two managerial roles—interpersonal and informational—will assist a manager in making difficult decisions in which outcomes are not clear and interests are often conflicting.

In the role of entrepreneur, managers seek to improve their businesses, adapt to changing market conditions, and react to opportunities as they present themselves. Managers who take a longer-term view of their responsibilities are among the first to realize that they will need to reinvent themselves, their product and service lines, their marketing strategies, and their ways of doing business as older methods become obsolete and competitors gain advantage.

While the entrepreneur role describes managers who initiate change, the disturbance or crisis handler role depicts managers who must involuntarily react to conditions. Crises can arise because bad managers let circumstances deteriorate or spin out of control, but just as often good managers find themselves in the midst of a crisis that they could not have anticipated but must react to just the same.

The third decisional role of resource allocator involves managers making decisions about who gets what, how much, when, and why. Resources, including funding, equipment, human labor, office or production space, and even the boss’s time are all limited, and demand inevitably outstrips supply. Managers must make sensible decisions about such matters while still retaining, motivating, and developing the best of their employees.

The final decisional role is that of negotiator. Managers spend considerable amounts of time in negotiations: over budget allocations, labor and collective bargaining agreements, and other formal dispute resolutions. In the course of a week, managers will often make dozens of decisions that are the result of brief but important negotiations between and among employees, customers and clients, suppliers, and others with whom managers must deal.27

MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF THE MANAGER’S JOB

TIME IS FRAGMENTED Managers have acknowledged from antiquity that they never seem to have enough time to get all those things done that need to be done. In the early years of the twenty-first century, however, a new phenomenon arose: Demand for time from those in leadership roles increased, while the number of hours in a day remained constant. Increased work hours was one reaction to such demand, but managers quickly discovered that the day had just 24 hours and that working more of them produced diminishing marginal returns. According to one researcher, “Managers are overburdened with obligations yet cannot easily delegate their tasks. As a result, they are driven to overwork and forced to do many tasks superficially. Brevity, fragmentation, and verbal communication characterize their work.”28

VALUES COMPETE AND THE VARIOUS ROLES ARE IN TENSION Managers clearly cannot satisfy everyone. Employees want more time to do their jobs; customers want products and services delivered quickly and at high-quality levels. Supervisors want more money to spend on equipment, training, and product development; shareholders want returns on investment maximized. A manager caught in the middle cannot deliver to each of these people what each most wants; decisions are often based on the urgency of the need and the proximity of the problem.

THE JOB IS OVERLOADED In recent years, many North American and global businesses were reorganized to make them more efficient, nimble, and competitive. For the most part, this reorganization meant decentralizing many processes along with the wholesale elimination of middle management layers. Many managers who survived such downsizing found that their number of

6 Chapter 1 • Management Communication in Transition

direct reports had doubled. Classical management theory suggests that seven is the maximum number of direct reports a manager can reasonably handle. Today, high-speed information technology and remarkably efficient telecommunication systems mean that many managers have as many as 20 or 30 people reporting to them directly.

EFFICIENCY IS A CORE SKILL With less time than they need, with time fragmented into increasingly smaller units during the workday, with the workplace following many managers out the door and even on vacation, and with many more responsibilities loaded onto managers in downsized, flatter organizations, efficiency has become the core management skill of the twenty-first century.

WHAT VARIES IN A MANAGER’S JOB? THE EMPHASIS

THE ENTREPRENEUR ROLE IS GAINING IMPORTANCE Managers must increasingly be aware of threats and opportunities in their environment. Threats include technological breakthroughs on the part of competitors, obsolescence in a manager’s organization, and dramatically shortened product cycles. Opportunities might include product or service niches that are underserved, out-of-cycle hiring opportunities, mergers, purchases, or upgrades in equipment, space, or other assets. Managers who are carefully attuned to the marketplace and competitive environment will look for opportunities to gain an advantage.

SO IS THE LEADER ROLE Managers must be more sophisticated as strategists and mentors. A manager’s job involves much more than simple caretaking in a division of a large organization. Unless you are able to attract, train, motivate, retain, and promote good people, your organization cannot possibly hope to gain advantage over the competition. Thus, as leaders, managers must constantly act as mentors to those in the organization with promise and potential. When you lose a highly capable worker, all else in your world will come to a halt until you can replace that worker. Even if you should find someone ideally suited and superbly qualified for a vacant position, you must still train, motivate, and inspire that new recruit, and you must live with the knowledge that productivity levels will be lower for a while than they were with your previous employee.

MANAGERS MUST CREATE A LOCAL VISION AS THEY HELP PEOPLE GROW The company’s Web site, annual report and those slick-paper brochures your sales force hands to customers may articulate the vision, values, and beliefs of the company. But what do those concepts really mean to workers at your location? What does a competitive global strategy mean to your staff at 8:00 A.M. on Monday? Somehow, you must create a local version of that strategy, explaining in practical and understandable terms what your organization or unit is all about and how the work of your employees fits into the larger picture.

MANAGEMENT SKILLS REQUIRED FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY The twenty-first century workplace requires three types of skills, each of which will be useful at different points in your career.

TECHNICAL SKILLS These are most valuable at the entry level, but less valuable at more senior levels. Organizations hire people for their technical expertise: Can you assess the market value of a commercial office building? Can you calculate a set of net present values? Are you experienced in the use of C++ or SAP/R3 software? These skill sets, however, constantly change and can become

Chapter 1 • Management Communication in Transition 77

quickly outdated. What gets you in the door of a large organization won’t necessarily get you promoted.

RELATING SKILLS These are valuable across the managerial career span and are more likely to help you progress and be promoted to higher levels of responsibility. These skills, which help you to form relationships, are at the heart of what management communication is about: reading, writing, speaking, listening, and thinking about how you can help others and how they can help you as the demands of your job shift and increase at the same time.