Oral Communication

Definition
Oral Communication also known as Verbal Communication Interchange of verbal messages between sender and receiver More immediate than written communication It is more natural and informal

 The study of human behaviors shows that 70% of our waking life is spent communicating Out of the total spent in communicating, normally, 45% relates to listening, 30% to speaking, 16% to reading, and 9% to writing. Thus, 75% of our time, we spend in listening and speaking

Need
To help problem solving To resolve conflict To influence people to work together To persuade others to be involved in organizational goals To be assertive without being aggressive To develop listening skills To be an effective negotiator

It is said that it does not matter what you say, what matters is how you say it

Objectives
Managers maximum time is devoted to oral Communication He is engaged in one of the following tasks:
Meetings Discussions Negotiations Seminars Presentations Interviews Peer conversation Subordinate instructions Telephonic Conversations

Choice of Form of Communication

Depends on the purpose and nature of the subject of communication - one may choose oral or written communication

Comparative Advantages of Oral and Written Communications

Oral Communication More personal and informal Makes immediate impact Written Communication Better for complex and difficult subjects, facts and opinions Better for keeping messages exchanged records of

Provides opportunity for interaction Provides opportunity to refer back and feedback Helps us to correct ourselves (our Can be read at receivers convenience messages according to the feedback or pleasure and non-verbal cues received from the listener)

Better for conveying feelings and Can be revised before transmitting emotions
Can be circulated

Limitations of Oral and Written Communications

Oral Communication Written Communication

Demands ability to think coherently as Never know if the message is ever you speak read A word once uttered cannot be taken Impersonal and remote back Hard to control voice pitch and tone Reader is not helped by non-verbal especially under stress, excitement or cues that contribute to the total anger message Very difficult to be conscious of our Many people do not like reading body language especially if it an official or business message

Time consuming

Principles of Successful Oral Communication

The purpose of effective talking is to be heard and understood by the audience Our communication should have the rhythm and tone of a living voice Our language should have the ease of commonly used words, and short and simple sentences The pitch of our voice should take into consideration the distance between the listener and you The tone should be marked by the accent of sincerity and confidence

 Albert Mehrabiams research reveals the contribution of different factors to oral communication
Verbal 7 % Tone of Voice - 35% Visual 55%

Nature of the spoken word

Unlike the printed word, the spoken word is ephemeral The listener cannot turn back to the spoken word as the reader can, in case he misses its meaning, while reading it To overcome this limitation, the listener has to listen closely and attentively The speaker has to converse slowly with proper semantic pauses to enable the listener receive and register in the mind whatever is heard

Research has established that an individual speaks 125 words a minute, and the brain of the listener processes nearly 4-5 times more rapidly
Hence an important principle of oral communication is to speak fluently, without long pauses or non-stop rushing through words

Characteristics of effective Oral Communication

According to Francis J Bergin Oral Communication is Characterized by Seven Cs
Candidness Clarity Completeness Conciseness Concreteness Correctness Courtesy

 The following needs to be considered by the communicator

Consider the objective Think about the interest level of the listener Be sincere Use simple language, familiar words Be brief and precise Avoid vagueness and generalities Give full facts Assume nothing Use polite words and tone Cut out insulting message Say something interesting and pleasing to the recipient Allow time to respond

Barriers to effective Oral Communication

Managers have to communicate individually with people at different levels The oral mode of communication is easy, time saving and of functionally helpful in resolving issues It demands great control and communicative competence to be successful Like written communication, Oral Communication also has a number of barriers

Poor listening
Foremost barrier to oral communication is poor listening Listening is a psychological act affected by several factors such as : The impressions of the
Status Halo effect Complexes Closed mind and all-knowing mind Poor retention Abstracting Slant Premature evaluation and Hurried conclusions Cognitive dissonance
listener and not the intrinsic worth of the message determine the validity of communication

In poor retention, the listener fails to relate what he hears, with what he had heard before

Cognitive Dissonance interferes with the acceptance of new information as it is

Language Barrier
The language of communication should be the medium shared by both speaker and listener The listener should be familiar with the accent of the language in use

Case Study
Outsourcing backlash gets Abusive, Ugly

I dont want to speak to you. Connect me to your boss in the US, hissed the American on the phone. The young girl at a Bangalore call centre tried to be polite as she could be. At another call centre, another day, another young girl had a Londoner unleashing himself on her, Young lady do you know that because of you Indians we are losing jobs. The outsourcing backlash is getting ugly. Handling irate callers is the new brief for the young men and women taking calls at these outsourced job centres. Supervisors tell them to be cool.

Case Study
Outsourcing backlash gets Abusive, Ugly

Avinash Vashistha, Managing partner of NEOIT, a leading UD-based consultancy firm says, companies involved in outsourcing both in the US and India are already getting a lot of hate mail against outsourcing and it is hardly surprising that some people should behave like this on the telephone. Vashistha says Indian call centres should train their operators how to handle such calls. Indeed, the furor raised by the western media over job losses because of outsourcing has made ordinary citizens there sensitive to the fact that their calls are being taken not from their midst but in countries, such as India and Philippines

Case Study
Outsourcing backlash gets Abusive, Ugly

The angry outbursts the operators face border on the racist and sexist, says the manager of a call centre in Hyderabad. But operators and senior executives of call centres refuse to go on record for fear of kicking up a controversy that might result in their companies losing clients overseas. Its happening often enough and so lets face it, says a senior executive of a Gurgaon call centre, adding, This doesn't have any impact on business.
(HT Dec 21, 2003, New Delhi)

Questions to Answer
1. Assume you are working as an operator at call centre in India and are receiving irate calls from Americans and Londoners. How would you handle such calls? Imagine a situation and state your response

2. Keep you cool. What does this mean in terms of conversation control?

3. Do you agree with the view that such abusive happenings on the telephone do not have any impact on Business? Give reasons for your answer.