OVERVIEW

People are communicative creatures. One of our deepest needs as human beings is to be understood by someone. Communication is not just the spoken word. We are communicating constantly in what we say and what we don't say, in the way that we something or the way that we withdraw, and in our body language when we are in conversation and when we are not. We typically learn how to communicate from our parents. However, they may not be the best role models. We may also have learned a model about communication which focuses on information exchange. In organizations, communication is more about developing relationships than it is exchanging information. The basic building blocks of effective communication are appropriate self-disclosure, skilled or active listening, and adequate feedback.

Covey builds upon these basic blocks by noting that the process of communication should begin with understanding the other person. Most people focus on making themselves understood. Covey says that is backwards. If you "seek first to understand, then to be understood" you will be more effective at both understanding and being understood. Paradoxically, trying to understand also helps us be understood. If we don't genuinely and empathically listen to others we will not understand them, because we will simply project our paradigms onto their efforts at communication. The purpose of empathic listening is very practical. It seems to be the best way to receive accurate information from someone else.

One aspect of communication is negotiation. Block has developed a model which is based upon the level of trust and agreement between you and the other party. Block suggests that you should negotiate differently with people based on the levels of trust and agreement with them. Five different negotiation strategies are presented for Block's five categories of other parties - bedfellows, adversaries, allies, opponents, and fence sitters.

Perhaps the fastest growing communication mechanism in the world today is electronic communication or Email. Email supplements existing communication mechanisms, but does not supplant any of them. Email offers advantages such as cost-effective broadcast capability, 24-hour and remote accessibility, and egalitarianism. The disadvantages unique to Email are issue areas that seem to have just about half of the population on each side of questions concerning anonymity, privacy, and accessibility.

OBJECTIVES

After completing this unit, you should be able to:

Discuss the basic building blocks of communication - appropriate self-disclosure, skilled listening, and adequate feedback

Describe the importance to effective communication of understanding the other person's perspectives, needs, and concerns

Summarize the role of agreement and trust in determining an appropriate negotiating approach

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of electronic communication in organizations

DISCUSSION

BASIC COMMUNICATION BUILDING BLOCKS (1st header)

From the time we are born, each of us is learning how to communicate with other people. Most of this education comes from watching the example of others. As infants we are not conscious that this education is taking place. We simply mimic other people around us. Although our parents focus on the words we learn and our expanding vocabulary, we are also learning the cadence and tone of speech, the process of dialogue, and non-verbal communication. Unfortunately, our parents and other major figures in our young lives do not always present the best examples of communication. If parents engage in dysfunctional communication, ineffective communication patterns can be transmitted to the children.

Most people also have certain paradigms about communication that they acquired after infancy. For example, we view the process of communication as primarily one of information exchange. Communication models with this emphasis describe a listener and a sender, a coding of the sender's communication into words, the transmission of those words to the listener, and a decoding of the message by the listener. Such a model is depicted in Figure 10.1.

The focus of the information exchange communication models is for the coding and decoding processes to occur as accurately as possible. If done properly, the lightbulb that goes on in one person's head will be equally understood by another person. We all know how difficult accurate coding and decoding are. In organizations, the words change, leadership, quality, and performance, for example, can have very different meanings to different people.

Although we should strive to be as accurate as possible in our information exchanges, the focus of the most important communication in organizations is not on information exchange. The primary purposes of communication in organizations is to facilitate working relationships. Covey (1991) identifies relationship as the crucial dimension in communication. Think of the work you do with your most important customers, your coworkers, and your manager. In each case, you need to understand more clearly their perspectives, objectives, and concerns. You also need to be able to share your perspectives, objectives, and concerns with them. The whole process is actually one of developing intimacy. Intimacy is an unusual word to use in an organizational setting. Intimacy in this context does not mean sharing your deepest and darkest secrets with customers, for example. It does mean developing a clearer and deeper understanding of topics relevant to work.

Effective communication in organizations consists primarily of three basic building blocks.

appropriate self-disclosure

skilled or active listening

adequate feedback

Relationships are two-way streets. People tend to get out of relationships what they are willing to put in. Consequently, both sides should have comparable levels of self-disclosure. If a coworker shares with you certain types of work that he prefers, at some point soon thereafter (not necessarily right away), you should reciprocate by sharing your preferences. If information only flows in one direction, mistrust will develop over time because of differing levels of self-disclosure. If mistrust is present, it is often difficult to accomplish even the simplest interdependent work tasks.

Skilled or active listening and feedback are usually difficult skills for people to develop. The main prescription of skilled listening and feedback is "to repeat back to the speaker words that are as close to the ones the speaker is using as possible, and to avoid declarations of advice, sympathy, evaluation, and so on" (White, 1990, p. 204). This idea seems contrary to what we expect communication to be. An implicit assumption of the information exchange models is that each interchange adds a piece to the total communication that needs to occur. An interchange that simply paraphrases the previous statement doesn't seem to add anything. If we hear someone discussing a problem, our tendency is to take the interchange a step further by offering alternative solutions to the problem. Solving other people's problems, however, is a symptom of the dependency element of the bureaucratic cycle. Or in another case, a coworker may be inviting you to agree that her budget is inadequate or her deadline too soon. Accepting that invitation is joining a game of spiraling self-pity.

Although skilled listening responses seem "insipid, vacuous, phony, unhelpful, and uninteresting" (White, 1990, p. 204), their best selling point is that they seem to work! If you help a coworker to organize her collective thoughts so that she can see more clearly, a solution will likely become apparent to her. Often times, even when people seem to be asking for advice, they are really thinking aloud more than they are sincerely requesting suggestions. Perhaps we have all had the experience of a friend who complements us on how valued our advice is, and then ignores what we offer.

Adequate feedback consists of repeating back to the speaker using as specific and descriptive language as possible. If the speaker is being vague and general, an appropriate response is to invite the speaker to be specific and descriptive. For example, if a coworker says, "Judith didn't like my report," invite him to be specific and descriptive in responses such as, "What didn't she seem to like about it?" "Are their certain ideas that she reacted to" or, "Were her comments focused on certain sections?" In general, adequate feedback consists of describing the event under discussion and describing the speaker's feelings and reactions to the event. Most people have difficulty going directly to the core of a situation. A typical exchange might be as follows.

"Judith didn't like my report."

"What didn't she seem to like about it?"

"I don't know, she seemed to hate the whole thing."

"So you submitted your report to Judith, she didn't seem to like it, and you feel really down because you worked very hard on it."

"Yeah, I did work hard on it. She did say she appreciated the section on the international perspective. She seemed to jump all over my forecasts though."

"Judith's feedback to you was positive on one hand, but negative on the other. She liked the international perspective but didn't like your forecasts."

"She said the forecasts themselves weren't so bad, but that I had used an unrealistic assessment of resources the company would provide. She said my forecasts probably were accurate, however, given the resources I had assumed."

You can see how this conversation could head toward positive action on the speaker's part once he gets everything off his chest, hones in on the issue, and determines what actions to take.

Imagine how the conversation could have gone if the listener had opened with any of the following responses.

"She does that to everyone. She's probably just checking to see if you really believe your report, or whether you will back down."

"Did you catch her on a bad day? I once caught her on a bad day."

"Oh what does Judith know anyway. You worked hard on that report."

"Well Judith is a rising star, so you'd better write it the way she wants."

"You had better get your act together. Isn't that the second report this year that management hasn't liked?"

"The same thing happened to me once with her. I ended up just changing a couple of words and then she was happy."

Notice that the concept of feedback in this context is very different from some common interpretations. Feedback is specific and descriptive, it avoids advice, sympathy, or evaluation, and it is non-judgmental or threatening. This use of feedback is very different from the scenario, "I just got some feedback from my manager. She said if I don't get my numbers up by 30 percent I will be out of a job." The manager has shared information, but has not provided feedback in the sense we have described.

When using this approach to effective communication, make sure that your tactics are authentic. At first, you may be focused on accurately using the technique until it becomes second nature. Even in your early attempts at this approach, try to focus foremost on the speaker. If you come across more as employing a technique then actively engaging in communication, your tactics will appear manipulative.

THE PROCESS OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION (1st header)

Seek First to Understand... (2nd header)

Mastering the basic communication building blocks is critical to working effectively in organizations. In fact, Covey (1989) claims that "communication is the most important skill in life" (p. 237). He points out that of the four primary human communication mechanisms - reading, writing, speaking, and listening - we receive years of training in the first three, and little or no training in listening and determining how to respond. Covey characterizes his approach to empathic communication as "seek first to understand, then to be understood."

Other than jobs of manual labor, the nature of most work is influencing people. You have ideas you want to "sell" to your manager, you have approaches to tasks you want coworkers to consider, and you have suggestions for customers about how you can serve their needs. If you want to influence people, you first have to understand them. We noted in unit 2, for example, that determining an employee's intrinsic motivation is time-consuming. However, if you don't take the time, you may try to motivate people in ways that have no influence. Consider the example of offering an employee a challenging work assignment, which happens to involve more travel. If the employee is a single parent, perhaps the last thing he wants is more travel. The manager's attempt at influence would not work because she has not understood the other person.

This example highlights the problem that arises when we don't seek to understand. We tend to see everything from our own viewpoint. In the example above, the manager assumes that since she would like the challenging work assignment, her employee would prefer it too. Assumptions like this are risky, and in this case, completely wrong.

Covey suggests that if we don't engage in skilled listening as described above (Covey calls it empathic listening), we tend to respond in one of four ways. We either evaluate, probe, advise, or interpret. In each of the four cases, we are operating from our own paradigm. We evaluate according to our criteria, we probe to get information to fit our paradigm, we advise based on our experience, and we interpret based on our paradigm. If we respond in any of these ways, we are not seeking to understand the other person and will have difficulty engaging in effective communication. Barker (1985) expresses the same notion in different words.

So, when I get into a disagreement, I've learned to quiet down and listen. Almost always the person will sooner or later tell what his or her paradigm is, and, once I understand it, I can begin to understand what he or she is saying. I may still disagree, but at least I know why (p. 77).

An important step in understanding the communication of others is recognizing that the words they speak represent only a fraction of what they are communicating. In fact, research has shown that the words represent about 10 percent of the total communication, other sounds such as tone and inflection represent 30 percent, and body language represents 60 percent (Covey, 1989, p. 241). Each communication interaction conveys both content and intent. The words spoken will almost always focus on the content. The intent must be extracted from the sounds and body language. For this reason, brief telephone conversations tend to be poor methods of effective communication. The communication that is usually conveyed by body language must somehow be translated into words. This translation can occur, but it tends to make the telephone conversation significantly longer.

Although the verbal words may be the focus of communication, people trust the cues from sounds and body language to a greater extent. If your words say "I am not mad," but your sounds or body language "say" you are, people tend not to believe your words. In a similar way, the intent of our communication carries more weight than the content. Covey (1991) suggests that we should "listen primarily with our eyes and heart and secondarily with our ears" (p. 116). If you are authentic in your tactics you will tend to be congruent in content and intent, and in verbal, sound, and body language.

...Then to be Understood (2nd header)

Understanding is even important when you are trying to be understood. If you are trying to influence someone, you need to enter her world, and influence her on her terms, not yours. You can make presentations to others that to you make perfect sense and are very compelling. If others are not persuaded, it is probably because the presentation makes perfect sense and is compelling in your paradigm, but not in theirs. When you show people that you understand them, their needs and concerns, they relax and become less defensive. Your reason for influencing people is to make something happen differently. An effective strategy is to show decision makers that you thoroughly understand the reasons for the status quo, or for other alternatives. Covey suggests articulating other positions better than the advocates of those positions do! An honest effort to understand others has a powerful effect. Once you show people that you understand them, they are often much more receptive to your ideas.

COMMUNICATION AS NEGOTIATION (1st header)

One aspect of communication is negotiation. Peter Block employs the technique of "seek first to understand, then to be understood" and suggests that based on our understanding of people we may need to negotiate with them differently. In negotiation, the two important assessments to make are how much you trust the other side, and how much they agree with you.

Based on low or high levels of trust and low or high levels of agreement, Block (1987, p. 139) constructs a two by two matrix. He then identifies five types of people in negotiation.

bedfellows - high agreement, low trust

adversaries - low agreement, low trust

allies - high agreement, high trust

opponents - low agreement, high trust

fence sitters - medium agreement, low trust

Block's general model for negotiation is to share your objective, affirm or negotiate agreement, and affirm or negotiate trust. With each of the five types above there are variations or special circumstances. These anomalies will be briefly described below.

Bedfellows (2nd header)

Bedfellows are often people with whom we strongly share one particular view point, but they hold the view point for very different reasons than we do. One concept of a bedfellow is captured in the expression, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." In other words, having a common enemy can give rise to a bedfellow relationship. Since we can assume that bedfellows will keep their strong agreement on the issue in question, our tendency may be to use that agreement to our advantage and employ manipulative tactics to get what we want in this situation. In earlier units, our discussions of competition and cooperation warn us that if we are manipulative in this case, we may win the battle, but lose the war. We will have undermined future negotiations certainly with these bedfellows, and probably with future bedfellows. Block suggests that the preferred strategy is to be candid about the low trust that exists and to frame the negotiations in terms of the difficulty in the relationship rather than the difficulty in people.

Adversaries (2nd header)

Adversaries are the people in organizations that cause us the most trouble. They don't agree with us, and we don't trust or respect them. Perhaps we have been burned by them in the past. Block suggests a high-road strategy with adversaries. Even though they may have taken advantage of us in the past, he believes that the best strategy is to be candid with adversaries. Many adversarial relationships have come about because of one side or both trying to manipulate the other. When one side refuses to engage in manipulative tactics, the frequent source of the mistrust is removed. The adversaries can then be negotiated with as opponents.

Allies (2nd header)

Allies are on our side and we trust them, so they will help us achieve our objectives. We should not take them for granted, but reaffirm the positive relationship that we have with each other. Allies are excellent people to share our concerns about our objectives. They can help fine tune presentations or offer constructive criticism. Allies may also be able to help deal better with adversaries or fence sitters than we can.

Opponents (2nd header)

Opponents do not have to be as negative as the term implies. They are at least people that we can trust. Block even suggests that it is an advantage to have some opponents. They bring out the best in us by forcing us not to be sloppy. They will effectively find holes in our presentations or other problems with our position if we are not careful. With opponents, reiterate their position so that we are certain where the differences are. Also, point out as many other areas of agreement as possible. This agreement will help to maintain the trusting relationship and perhaps serve as a starting point for the negotiation.

Fence sitters

The objective with fence sitters is to get them to commit to a position so that we can negotiate with them using one of the strategies above. They may simply be people who wait until the last possible minute to take a position. Usually their motives will have little to do with the negotiation at hand. Therefore, it is useful to make an attempt to elicit their support, but if their support is not forthcoming, it is better to wait to approach them again until after they have made a commitment. Negotiating with fence sitters before they are ready to commit usually wastes time and energy.

ELECTRONIC COMMUNICATION (1st header)

We mentioned above that in telephone conversations, 60 percent of the communication, body language, is absent. In electronic communication, the sounds, which represent 30 percent of total communication are also absent. Only the words remain. This result might suggest that electronic communication (Email) is a very inefficient way to communicate. This point is debatable. It is not debatable, however, that the use of Email is growing at a tremendous rate. Estimated Email use in the year 2000 ranges as high as 60 million users sending 60 billion messages per year. The Internet, a network of computers tieing together computer users around the world, is experiencing exponential growth at this writing. Some futurists suggest that by the year 2000, Email will be the primary business communication vehicle for white collar employees.

Email clearly represents an opportunity, because at the least, it is an additional communications mechanism. People do not, for example, have to choose between Email and the telephone; both are available. Following is a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of Email.

Advantages of Email (2nd header)

Email provides all of the advantages of computers and information. Email messages can be quickly searched by keyword. All correspondence from a single person or on a single topic can be filed together. A single message can be broadcast relatively inexpensively from the CEO, for example, to every employee in the company instantaneously. Email provides for near real-time response. In other words, if someone you are sending a message to happens to be within the Email software when your message arrives, they can respond at that time. This process can be much faster than exchanging paper memos, for example.

The above advantages seem obvious when you put together computers and information. Other advantages include using the computer to perform tasks that previously were performed manually. For example, if all employees keep their calendars on-line, some Email software has the capability of determining and scheduling the first available time when people can get together for a meeting of a certain length. The user simply inputs the Email addresses of the attendees and the length of time for the meeting; the computer does the rest! Another example is data collection. If an organization conducts an annual employee opinion survey, the survey could be broadcast to every employee in the company. The completed surveys could be returned electronically and software could be written to tabulate the results automatically. The time and cost savings are substantial. One possible drawback to this approach is the question of anonymity which is discussed in the Disadvantages section below.

Email offers other advantages which are perhaps less obvious. For example, employees can typically access the Email system 24 hours/day and from anywhere in the world that has a telephone. Consequently employees can stay in the information loop by receiving messages and sending messages from remote locations and outside of usual business hours. Another advantage is that users have found that some people who are reticent to communicate verbally become articulate and outspoken through the written word. Handling conflicts over Email, for example, can also be advantageous because the written word tends to force people to organize their thoughts, prevents some thoughtless comments, and diffuses some dynamics that are, in person, explosive.

A final advantage we will mention is that Email offers a more egalitarian communication mechanism. Some corporate CEOs, for example, invite any employee to submit suggestions or other comments directly to them through Email. Moreover, no one can be interrupted in the middle of delivering a message sent electronically. Once sent, it arrives intact! Linguists Susan Herring and Laurel Sutton have discovered that with Email "women don't have to worry about getting the floor" (Tannen, 1994, p. 53) but, as in meetings, they do have the problems of having their messages ignored or attacked.

Disadvantages of Email (2nd header)

Email suffers from all of the disadvantages of other forms of communication that do not have what we take for granted in an in-person conversation: face-to-face contact and real-time interaction. We noted, for example, the lack of sound and body language. The other disadvantages we will discuss will be specific to electronic communication.

Perhaps the biggest disadvantage surrounds the issue of anonymity, which "more than any other e-mail issue ... provokes the most heated debate" (Schrage, 1994, p. F2). Advantages and disadvantages are apparent within the question of anonymity. For example, no one wants people to anonymously be able to send messages that are racist. However, anonymity would prevent people from unreasonably ignoring or attacking messages from women, as mentioned above. Anonymity also tends to allow people to be freer in their comments and ideas. Most people would probably be happy with anonymity that is used responsibly, but by definition, irresponsible anonymity cannot be stopped. Most organizations (including the Internet) are implementing the easier solution, no anonymity.

A related issue is Email privacy. The central question is, what ownership rights does the organization have over an employees' Email messages? Should an employee's manager be able to read every Email message she writes? Already more than 7 million Americans have their work on computers monitored, sometimes without the employees' knowledge. (DesJardins and McCall, 1990, p. 208). Most of this monitoring is not of Email messages. Thus far, the monitoring is primarily of keystroke rates and other performance measures of employees who use the computer almost in an assembly line fashion.

As with Email anonymity, Email privacy is not a definite disadvantage. There are pluses and minuses to privacy and employer-reading-over-the-shoulder. Email privacy and anonymity are listed as disadvantages, because in both cases there is no clear answer and no matter what decision organizations make, sizeable percentages of their employees will be unhappy. In most states, the law is clearly on the side of the employer owning and having full access to Email messages. In practice, however, many employees cringe at the notion of "Big Brother" exercising its lawful right. Performance could be hampered by the ill will and suspicion that such oversight would cause.

The final disadvantage we will discuss has to do with access to the system. The ability to dial into Email with a modem means that any person with a telephone has an opening to the system. The system is vulnerable to industrial espionage or sabotage by disgruntled employees, for example. Computer experts are constantly improving the security of computer systems, but the hackers seem to be advancing their trade just as quickly.

REFERENCES

Barker, J. A. (1985). Discovering the future: the business of paradigms. St. Paul: ILI Press.

Block, P. (1987). The empowered manager. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Covey, S. R. (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Covey, S. R. (1991). Principle-centered leadership. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc.

DesJardins, J. R. and J. J. McCall (1990). Contemporary issues in business ethics. 2nd edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Schrage, M. (1994, April 1). "Does the mail animal need electronic anonymity?" The Washington Post. p. F2.

Tannen, D. (1994, May 16). "Gender gap in cyberspace." Newsweek. pp. 52-53.

White, O. F. (1990). "Reframing the authority/participation debate" Chapter 6 in Refounding Public Administration by G. L. Wamsley et al. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications. pp. 182-245.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

1. Why does paraphrasing and repeating back a speaker's comment to you often lead to effective communication?

Skilled listening is respectful and allows the speaker to communicate at her own pace. It avoids dependency, projection, and judgment. If you help a coworker to organize her collective thoughts so that she can see more clearly, a solution will likely become apparent to her.

2. On page 10-XX, several responses which lack understanding are listed for an employee who submitted a report to Judith. Classify each of the responses as evaluation, probing, advice, or interpretation.

"She does that to everyone. She's probably just checking to see if you really believe your report, or whether you will back down." interpretation

"Did you catch her on a bad day? I once caught her on a bad day." probing

"Oh what does Judith know anyway. You worked hard on that report." evaluation

"Well Judith is a rising star, so you'd better write it the way she wants." advice

"You had better get your act together. Isn't that the second report this year that management hasn't liked?" advice

"The same thing happened to me once with her. I ended up just changing a couple of words and then she was happy." interpretation

3. Why is the presence of opponents (as Block defines them) in organizations a mixed blessing?

Although opponents disagree with us, they are at least people that we can trust. They are useful because they bring out the best in us by forcing us not to be sloppy. They will effectively find holes in our presentations or other problems with our position if we are not careful.

4. Would you rather work out a conflict with a colleague in person or over Email? Explain why.

Your answer may include, but need not be limited to the following.

I would prefer Email. In person, people sometimes say hurtful things that they later regret. When in conflict, they also have a tendency to raise all sorts of peripheral issues instead of dealing with the core conflict at hand. Constructing an Email message tends to force people to organize their thoughts, prevents some thoughtless comments, and diffuses some dynamics that are, in person, explosive.

INTEGRATING QUESTIONS

1. Develop the policy for Email anonymity for your organization. Check your policy against each of the items in the ethical checklist of Table 8.1.

Your answer may include, but need not be limited to the following.

I would require that Email messages contain a code which designates an individual's work group, but not the specific individual in that work group. This practice isolates the message to a small group. Group dynamics such as peer pressure could then be useful in pinpointing the specific individual.

1. How would people who oppose the decision or solution define the problem?

People would oppose this decision on both sides. Those who see it as a restriction would argue that it is stifling to creativity. Those who see it as too loose will argue that it still allows people to operate as loose cannons.

2. What are my motives in making this choice? Am I treating myself as someone special, as an exception to an accepted rule or convention in the organization?

My motive is to strike a balance between the competing interests listed in #2. I am not treating myself as someone special.

3. Would I be embarrassed to read about my action in the newspaper?

No.

4. Can I truthfully and comfortably explain this decision to customers, my boss, my family, and community members?

Yes.

5. Will my decision be as valid over time as it seems now, in the short term?

Yes, I hope so.

6. Am I willing to accept the full consequences of this decision?

Yes. I recognize that some unacceptable messages could still be sent. However, since they could be traced to a given work group, the responsible party should be identified relatively easily.

7. Does my decision divide the constituencies of the organization?

Yes, it probably does. It doesn't however create winners and losers because both parties will have achieved some, but not all of their objectives.

8. Did I avoid any of the above questions by telling myself that I could get away with it?

No.

SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

Try out the communication building blocks with one or more colleagues at work. See whether the skilled listening and feedback improve your communication.

ON-LINE CONFERENCE ASSIGNMENT

Submit for discussion an idea for including sound and body language in Email communication. For example, some people use capital lowers for inflection and a sideways smile :) to denote humor or tongue-in-cheek. Once the ideas have been submitted move a class on-line discussion toward an agreed upon class protocol for sound and body language substitutes in Email exchanges.

INSERT A

In this unit we will explore several different dimensions of communication. We will discuss what we've learned in school and from our parents that we may have to unlearn! Then we will discuss basic communication building blocks and an effective communication process in organizations. Since one of the most frequent types of communication in business is negotiation, we will examine a model for negotiation. Finally, we will explore perhaps the fastest growing communication mechanism, electronic mail

INSERT B

Negotiating with opponents does not have to be as negative a situation as the term implies. Opponents are at least people that you can trust. Block even suggests that it is an advantage to have some opponents. They bring out the best in you by forcing you not to be sloppy. They will effectively find holes in your presentations or other problems with your position if you are not careful. With opponents, reiterate their position so that we are certain where the differences are. Also, point out as many other areas of agreement as possible. This agreement will help to maintain the trusting relationship and perhaps serve as a starting point for the negotiation.

INSERT C

As with Email anonymity, Email privacy is only listed here as a disadvantage because the available solutions tried so far seem to disappoint nearly half of the user population. Both privacy and employer-reading-over-the-shoulder have pluses and minuses. In most states, the law is clearly on the side of the employer owning and having full access to Email messages. In practice, however, many employees cringe at the notion of "Big Brother" exercising its lawful right. Performance could be hampered by the ill will and suspicion that such oversight would cause.

INSERT D

Skilled listening is respectful and allows the speaker to communicate at her own pace. It avoids dependency, projection, and judgment. Repeating the speaker's comments is one of the best ways to practice skilled listening and provide feedback. A basic need of people is to feel understood. Whey they feel understood, people can establish working relationships, which is the purpose of organizational communication. Also, using the most specific and descriptive language possible can help a coworker to organize her collective thoughts so that she can see the situation more clearly, and a solution is more likely to become apparent to her.

INSERT E

Interpretation does not often add to communication because the interpretation is done from the receiver's paradigm, not the senders. Likewise with evaluation, probing, and advising. In each case the vantage point is the receiver's, not the sender's.

INSERT F

RQ - Catholics have traditionally been liberal and the religious right (evangelicals and fundamentalists) have traditionally been conservative. In terms of Block's model, how would you characterize their relationship on the issue of abortion? Why?

Bedfellows. Bedfellows are often people who strongly share one particular view point, but disagree on many other issues. Catholics and the religious right are both strongly opposed to abortion. However, they traditionally disagree on issues of foreign policy, individual responsibility, tax policy, and many others.