Introduction
In a business context, the significance of such communicative skill as listening might be largely underestimated. The latter can be specifically outlined in a subordinated relationship, where the example of the relationship between LeMessurier and his students, listening to which resulted in finding a problem that could have led to a catastrophic failure of the structure of the Citigroup Centre Tower in New York (Hamilton, 2008, p. 101). Accordingly, an example such as the aforementioned implies that listening is not only acceptance of the spoken words, where effective listening requires skills just as much as any other forms of communication. The significance of the latter is specifically in organizational context, where effective exchange of information can prove to be critical, where it is a fact that listening skills “top the list of effective managerial communication skills” (Tesone & Pizam, 2009, p. 149).
For managers, such significance can be fairly easily explained through the fact that employees in senior positions spend as much as 85% of their communication time listening” (149). Despite the latter, listening can be considered as the least taught skill. In that regard, this paper analyzed listening as managers’ essential communication skill, stating that due to the fact that the responsibility for communicating effectively in all directions lies with supervisors (154), managers should be sensitive to their listening responsibility.
Discussion
The listening relationship between managers and employees can be paralleled to that of the relationship between large departments and smaller departments. The similarly can be seen in that in both cases the higher sides might assume the superiority of their opinions and outlooks in covering the critical issues. In that regard, as large departments need to resist the temptation of assuming their outlook already integrates all the salient and critical insights, they have a special responsibility to listen to the perspectives of smaller departments” (Hopkins, Couture, & Moore, 2001, p. 11). Similarly, “[m]anagers must be willing to listen to employees and provide support without removing responsibility” (Barry, 1997). The rationale for taking such listening responsibility by managers can be seen related to the issue of motivation. The findings of a study in Brownell (1990) investigating the relationships between the perceptions of managers’ listening by their subordinates and by the mangers themselves, indicated the age of the managers as an influential factor in being ranked as a poor or good listener (Brownell, 1990, p. 411). A possible suggested explanation was based on that fact that “motivation is one of the key factors in listening effectiveness” (p.411). Accordingly, being sensitive to such listening responsibility can be interpreted as demonstration of the managers’ harder efforts to be advanced in management positions, which is directly related to the current position held by the manager.
The latter can be expanded further based on the relation between communication and the company’s performance. Although in this relation the implication is largely related to group communication, it nevertheless, can be interpreted in managerial context. Definitely, the correlation between financial results and communication is taking an indirect form, where the group listening effectiveness as well as expression effectiveness enhances the internal processes within the group, and accordingly impacting performance, e.g. sales people who are happy with the communication environment being highly committed to the organization. Accordingly, with managers rarely supervising individually, mostly working with groups, it can be stated that listening is not only about reception of information, but also about encouraging expression, which in turn leads to effective group processes (Johnston, Reed, Lawrence, & Onken, 2007). The latter, in that regard, can be seen among the priorities of the managers, outlining the factor indicated previously, which is motivation.
Sensitivity to a responsibility might imply the existence of many factors, which are dependent on such responsibility. In the case of the listening responsibility of managers, the dependent factors can be listed as follows:
- The satisfaction of the employees and their productiveness. With listening being one part of a two way communication process, maintaining a dialogue between managers and their subordinates can be seen as an element of trust (Hopkins, et al., 2001).
- The leadership skills and qualities of the manager. “The central task of leadership is to facilitate a deeper exchange of views and ideas on (sometimes controversial) subjects crucial to the success of a horizontal initiative” (p.14).
- Favourable view of subordinates toward their managers. The latter can be explained through the effect the managers’ listening might have on subordinate employees, including “feeling involved, respected, reassured and getting a lot of discretion” (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2003).
Thus, it can be seen that with all the aforementioned factors being connected to the mangers’ listening responsibility, the significance of such responsibility cannot be overestimated. Accordingly, as an emphasis on the sensitivity of listening responsibility, the example mentioned in the introduction can outline the greatest aspect of such responsibility, which the being responsible for the received information. It can be seen that listening is not only about hearing, but also about understanding, evaluating and responding (Brownell, 1985, p. 142). The failure to respond, specifically, when the information is critical will lay the responsibility for the outcome on the managers, and thus, put the managers’ effectiveness in doubt.
Summary and Conclusion
This paper presented arguments that the listening responsibility is significant to the mangers. The paper first argued that the listening perception of the managers can be related to issues of motivation and work position, presenting listening as an effort, the harder it is, the higher the mangers’ motivation. Then, the paper linked the listening responsibility of the managers to the company’s performance, specifically in the context of working and supervising groups, where the encouragement of expression, enhances the processes related to the performance. The sensitivity factor in listening responsibility was explained as a matter of listening being attached to several outcomes that was listed in the paper. Finally, the paper concluded the emphasis on responsibility as managers’ personal responsibility for the outcome of the information not being responded accordingly.
In that regard, with communication being an essential part of the organizational process, it can be concluded that managers should be sensitive to their listening responsibility. Accordingly, with such importance attached to the listening responsibility of the managers, such skills should be actively trained, learned and promoted. Unsatisfactory state of organisational communication can lead to bad consequences, the responsibility for which will be largely put on the managers, who are responsible for communicating the objectives and commanding the actions of others.
References
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Hamilton, C. (2008). Communicating for results : a guide for business and the professions (8th ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
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