Management Communication Skills

Course Description

This course focuses on identifying and developing the communications skills necessary to manage individuals and groups successfully within business and work organizations. Students will identify their management communication styles and will assess and improve their effectiveness in the areas of interpersonal communications, group dynamics, diversity, motivation, team building, and conflict resolution.

Topics and Objectives

The Communications Process

• Identify the elements of the model of communications.
• Explain the five levels and functions of the hierarchy of organizational communications.
• Relate the functioning of the model of communications to the flow of information in organizations.
• Develop an awareness of the various styles of communications styles and their relationship to organizational communications.
• Distinguish the characteristics of effective and ineffective organizational communication.

Interpersonal Communications

• Examine the scope and application of nonverbal communications in a business environment.
• Discern the differences between the denotative and connotative meaning of words.
• Isolate effective listening techniques and describe their benefits from a managerial perspective.
• Formulate effective methods of feedback adapted to specific communications situations.

Group Dynamics

• Describe the stages of the formation of a group.
• Analyze changes in group member roles across the process of the development of a group.
• Categorize different group leadership roles and their associated styles of communication.
• Appraise the effectiveness of varying techniques of communication in conflict resolution.
• Explain the elements of "Groupthink" and methods for preventing this behavior.

Medium and the Message

• Explore the technology of organizational communications and recommend appropriate media for specific types of messages.
• Analyze the differences and similarities between synchronous and asynchronous channels of communication.
• Examine the function and importance of communication in virtual teams.

Managerial Communications and Organizational Climate

• Analyze the role of prejudgment, stereotyping, and diversity in communications.
• Examine managerial responsibility in determining organizational values.
• Explore the manager's role in creating a climate of ethical communication.
• Develop an appreciation of the managerial skills needed to communicate in a multicultural organization.