1. Conversation (face-to-face)

Advantages: Talk with someone face-to-face when (1) you want to build your individual relationship, (2) the message is especially sensitive or negative, (3) you want a candid, low-risk, fast reply.

Disadvantages: The person must be located in the same place as you are, if you speak with more than one person, they will hear different information at different times, may be easily misunderstood with no permanent record, may make some people feel excluded.

2. Telephone

Advantages: Good for candid, low-risk, fast replies, better than face-to-face for reaching people in different places, saves time and travel costs.

Disadvantages: Harder to build a personal relationship because fewer nonverbal cues than face-to-face, if you telephone more than one person, they will hear different information at different times.

3. Voicemail

Advantages: Use voicemail when you want to handle small items quickly; faster distribution than with paper; more emotional content than email.

Disadvantages: When you use voicemail, you will have a delayed response, no control over if and when message is received, and no immediate interactivity; is usually effective for brief messages only; may carry less weight than a document: people may listen to the first part and delete or skip over it entirely.

Comprehension___________________________________________________________

1. Answer the following questions. Give extensive answers.

1. What does channel choice refer to?

2. What new chan­nels exist today?

3. What general questions do you need to think about before you choose a channel from among expanded set of alternatives?

4. How can you character writing channels of communication?

5. What does speaking to a group include?

6. When do you need to speak to an individual—not to a group?

7. What does speaking to an individual include?

2. Determine which of the following statements are true and which are false. Then put t or f in the blanks. Rewrite false statements to make them true.

1. __Choose writing when you want to use precise wording and grammar.

2. __Web page does not provide easy access to document at all times.

3. __ Choose meetings when you want to elicit ideas from others.

4. __Do not talk with someone face-to-face when the message is especially sensitive or negative.

5. __Telephone good for candid, low-risk, fast replies, better than face-to-face for reaching people in different places, saves time and travel costs.

Assignments______________________________________________________

Say what you have learned about:

1. writing channels; 2. speaking to a group; 3. speaking to an individual.

2. Write a summary of the text.

3. Discuss channels advantages and disadvantages.

Vocabulary_______________________________________________________

Below is a list of terms that you could find in the text. Use this as a working list and add other terms that you figured out in the unit.

1. to fairly reserve - сохранять объективно

2. to elicit - извлекать

3. precise - аккуратный

4. delayed - задержанный

5. cue - реплика

6. typos - опечатки

7. transition - перемещение

8. access - доступ

9. to assimilate - поглощать

10. to resolve - решать голосованием, выносить резолюцию

11. available – доступный, имеющийся в распоряжении

12. candid - откровенный, открытый, искренний, прямой

13. error - ошибка

14. to exclude - исключать

15. to handle - справляться с чем-л.

16. to skip over - перепрыгивать, перескакивать

17. entirely - вполне, всецело, полностью, совершенно, совсем

18. ____________________________________________________________

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20. ____________________________________________________________

21. ____________________________________________________________

22. ____________________________________________________________

23. ____________________________________________________________

24. ____________________________________________________________

25. ____________________________________________________________

PART II

COMMUNICATION TACTICS IN MANAGEMENT

UNIT I TEAM WORK

Reading_________________________________________________________

Write out any terms that you did not understand in the reading. Look at its context, and try to figure out the meaning. Discuss these terms with your classmates.

BUILDING TEAMS¹⁰

Groups and teams are not necessarily the same thing. A group is two or more individuals who interact primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each other perform within a given area of responsibility. Members of a group have no need to engage in collective work that requires joint efforts so their performance is merely the summation of each group member's individual contribution.

It could be worse. If a group is plagued by factors such as poor communication, antagonistic conflicts, and avoidance of responsibilities, the product of these problems produces negative synergy and a pseudoteam where the sum of the whole is less than the potential of the individual parts. Even though members might call themselves a team, they're not. Because it doesn't focus on collective performance and because members have no interest in shaping a common purpose, a pseudoteam underperforms a working group.

What differentiates a team from a group is that members are committed to a com­mon purpose, have a set of specific performance goals, and hold themselves mutually accountable for the team's results. Teams can produce outputs that are something greater than the sum of their parts. The primary force that moves a work group toward being a real, high-performing team is its emphasis on performance.

The best teams tend to be small. When teams have more than about 10 members, it becomes difficult for them to get much done. They have trouble interacting constructively and agreeing on much. Large numbers of people usually cannot develop the common purpose, goals, approach, and mutual accountability of a real team. If the natural working unit is larger and you want a team effort, break the group into subteams.

To perform effectively, a team requires three types of skills. First, it needs people with technical expertise. Second, it needs people with problem-solving and decision-making skills to identify problems, generate alternatives, evaluate those alternatives, and make competent choices. Finally, teams need people with good interpersonal skills.

Members of successful teams put a tremendous amount of time and effort into discussing, shaping, and agreeing upon a purpose that belongs to them collectively and individually. This common purpose provides direction and guidance under any and all conditions. This purpose is a vision. It's broader than any specific goals. Successful teams translate their common purpose into specific, measurable, and realistic performance goals. Specific goals facilitate clear communication and help teams maintain their focus on getting results.

Team members must contribute equally in sharing the workload and agree on who is to do what. Additionally, the team needs to determine how schedules will be set, what skills need to be developed, how conflicts will be resolved, and how decisions will be made and modified. Integrating individual skills to further the team's performance is the essence of shaping a common approach.

The final characteristic of high-performing teams is accountability at the individual and group level. Successful teams make members individually and jointly accountable for the team's purpose, goals, and approach. Members understand what they are individually responsible for and what they are jointly responsible for.

Studies have shown that when teams focus only on group-level performance targets and ignore individual contributions and responsibilities, team members often engage in social loafing. They reduce their efforts because their individual contributions can't be identified. The result is that the team's overall performance suffers. This reaffirms the importance of measuring individual contributions to the team, as well as the team's overall performance. Successful teams have members who collectively feel responsible for their team's performance.

Comprehension___________________________________________________