Listening, Speaking, or Indulging in Other Forms of Communication - Literature review Example

A Critical Review Listening Name of Student: Student No: Date: Name of Supervisor: Introduction One of the most important skills an individual can cultivate is communication. A large portion of time is spent indulging in one or more of the four basic modes of communication; speaking, writing, reading or listening. The ability to articulate these skills is critical in the lives of everyone including managers and leaders. Covey (1989) tells us that we spend most of our waking hours in communication. It is a fact that we dedicate a large part of our formative years toward learning the art of reading and writing as well as effective speaking. One part of the education in communication skills that is largely neglected is that which enables us to empathise with another person from their point of reference. When studied by Axley (1996) over a fifteen-year period, a large number of managers had a similar response to the question of what percentage of their work schedule involved communication in some form. Most averred that it was the bulk of their scheduled activities. This illustrates the significance of communication to leaders and managers. Communication involves not just speaking and writing but the most neglected aspect of it, which is listening. It has been seen through studies that many people are less effective listeners than they think, and a lot of them are poor at listening (Axley, 1996). Atwater (1992) reported that individuals who were asked to self-report on their skill as listeners returned results that showed 85% giving themselves an average or worse rating and only 5% rating themselves as good listeners. In order to develop interpersonal communication, many organisations have organised for trainings in reading, writing, and speaking. However, development of listening habits tends to get left by the wayside. Many people wrongly assume that listening and hearing are synonymous according to Hunsaker and Alessandra (1986). Yet a person may be able to hear perfectly without really listening therefore they may not necessarily understand what is said to them. There are other reasons why people fail to effectively listen such as talking too much, preoccupation with other matters, or being too distracted to listen. Other times, people are too tired to listen or are not sufficiently motivated to do so. This is because listening takes effort and concentration, and research shows that one of the major reasons that people don’t listen is faulty listening habits (Hartwell-Walker, 2010). Discussion Many contentions have been made about listening behaviour, the processes of listening and the barriers to listening in the corporate world (Steil, Barker and Watson, 1983) academic circles (Wolvin, Halone & Coakley, 1999) as well as popular press (Pease and Pease, 2001). It is also common for listening ‘truths’ to be championed over a range of disciplines including human resource management, sales, counselling, and business among others. Experimental data usually supports these claims but there are also a number of myths intermingled with the facts. It is however simple to separate the two using the criteria of supporting evidence. This is illustrated by the fact that many writings tout the existence of different types of listening such as discriminative listening or empathic listening associated with certain skills (Wolvin and Coakley, 1993). However informative these texts might be, it is difficult to find follow-up literature to support these classifications (Ford, Wolvin and Chung, 2000). This therefore means that it is currently impossible to tell whether in fact, there is a set of skills unique to each type of listening; certain skills are actually essential in order to effectively listen in a particular way; or whether these various types of listening result in varying outcomes in different situations. it is rare to find a study that will methodically manipulate listening skills in order to find out what their influence will be on various outcomes (Hutchby, 2005). Obstructions to listening are well documented yet not many texts have attempted to experimentally confirm these obstructions. The significance of illustrating the influence of these obstructions to listening cannot be gainsaid especially if people are to be taught ways to overcome these barriers (Imhof, 2001). One way to do this according to a study by Stanford University is through music. Invaluable insight was acquired by studying the brain images of people listening to short 18th century symphonies by an obscure composer. The research demonstrated that music connects with the area of the brain concerned with enabling focus, making forecasts and bringing up to date the experience in recollection. The activity in the brain peaked in the silences between musical scores when seemingly there was a lull. This work not only helps to understand how music is listened to but also enables scientists to comprehend how the brain sorts out general events. The images of the brain were caught using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that is able to capture the functioning of the specific parts of the brain during specified activities. The discovery of how the brain listens to music was incidentally helpful in giving information on how the brain organises received information. When people are listening in concert to a composer, the attention spans vary widely but in the space between musical movements, the collective attention is arrested according to the senior author of the paper Vinod Menon. It may have been an unintended effect from the composers, but the study showed that there are times when the brain responds in a closely coordinated way. The process used by the study group to demonstrate the manner in which the brain attempts to process the continuous stimuli produced by the outside world is called event segmentation. This involves dividing information into sections by extracting it in segments of start, conclusion, and the space between. The transitions that occurred in these particular symphonies by William Boyce (1711-1779) were an ideal way to study how the brain processes this segmentation and how it changes with the shifting musical movements. This study is a pioneer in event segmentation while listening, and particularly to music. It suggests that music may have an evolutionary purpose according to Jonathan Berger, another author of the study, and associate professor of music. This is because music connects with the brain over a long period and the way that the brain listens to music might enable it to hone its ability to predict events and enhance concentration (Menon et al, 2007). According to the Learning Seed (2007) there are seven laws to be followed in order to be a better listener. The first of these laws is to spend more time listening. This involves allowing others to finish speaking without interruption or attempting to anticipate what they will say. The mark of a poor listener is one who talks too much and very often people attempt to demonstrate their ability to understand what the other is saying by cutting the speaker short or attempting to finish their thought. This comes off as arrogant rather than understanding and in order to listen better, it is necessary to do so quietly. The second law is to find interest in the other person. This is because one of the most fundamental obstructions to listening is disinterest in the other person or topic. It is necessary to find what is interesting in the topic or person. Furthermore, rehearsal of one’s reply while the other person is talking is the sign of a poor listener. The third law involves staying out of the way of the conversation. This could be through giving feedback and asking open-ended questions. Advice giving is a barrier to listening, and silence is not necessarily a bad thing. Often, it is a prelude to revelation. The fourth law involves reading between the lines. When people impart information, it has two elements; content and feelings. In order to completely get the message, it is important to pay attention to both these elements and what they mean. The fifth law involves taking notes. Our mind works faster than our mouths and this imbalance may lead to daydreaming and getting distracted but is also a listening opportunity. This time lag allows for processing of the message, as well as time to take notes. This should not just be limited to academic situations but in many everyday life situations, note taking comes in handy. The sixth law involves assuming the proper stance because the way the body is positioned can affect our emotions. When arms and legs are crossed, your back is slouched and you fail to make eye contact this enhances bored feelings. While assuming an attentive pose actually increases attentiveness and improves listening. The eye level between two individuals is a form of non-verbal communication. When eye level is at par, there is a message of equality. If one’s eye level is higher than the other, it implies that one is superior to the other. The seventh law involves an awareness of one’s filters. Each person has some which they use to exclude what they prefer not to hear. These filters are based on upbringing, culture, or gender. The difference in filters between men and women is the cause of many battles between the sexes. Development of an awareness of these filters, even with no attempt to alter them, can improve listening skills. An illustration is the fact that research has found that women are more detail oriented in conversation while men prefer that these be kept to a minimum. Women tend to value communication for the intimacy evoked while men view it as a more of a data acquisition exercise (Gray, 2004). In order to find the solutions to better listening, it behoves us to attempt to find a definition of it. Scholars have attempted to give a single definition on listening because as they state, we cannot come to an understanding of listening unless we define it first. The International Listening Association (ILA) has held this as its policy since the mid 1990s. They go on to define listening as the attendance, receipt, construction, and reaction to oral messages. Listening theory was deemed to be more important than defining it at the Frankfurt panel discussion of the ILA. This theory stems from perspective and can be defined as a methodical account of phenomena that is interconnected in order to determine why these relationships exist. Listening theory comes in handy when seeking to understand how and why listening occurs in certain ways between certain people on different occasions. Theory therefore exists to act as a channel to detection and elucidation of phenomena (Berger & Chaffee, 1987). The level of precision that a particular theory elucidates determines the recommendations advocated by it (Schutz, 1967). The purpose of listening theory is to assist in the comprehension of society through giving an organisational structure to act as a frame of reference. In order to learn, it is necessary to develop good listening skills and learning a language which occurs through writing and speaking is a case in point. A lot of research has been done on the written word with many researchers concentrating on the concepts of reading and writing. The spoken word though lacks adequate research and it has been continuously stated that systematic investigation needs to be carried out on the role of listening (Mendelsohn, 1998). This lack of research is born of the view that listening skills are a naturally acquired result of exposure to spoken language unlike other skills that are classroom taught (Herron & Sedy, 1991). This thinking has led to very little attention being paid to listening skills in terms of research and teaching materials. Yet unlike in reading, listening concerns the unexpected and characteristically short idea exhibition of spoken language (Vandergrift, 2006). Listening occurs in real time, is transient, and does not afford the listener an opportunity to re-examine the data received. Furthermore the listener has little control over the speed with which speech occurs. This situation is not helped by the general lack of agreement on what defines listening (Witkin, 1990). According to Joiner (1984) the difficulty in defining leadership is because it is a covert activity among other reasons. This is supported by Byrnes (1984) who stated that even though literature on listening has tried to unite the different elements of listening located in different yet related studies, in order to come up with a common baseline with which to give a definition of the same, there has not been sufficient research to come up with concept of listening. This is because listening is a high-complex activity designed to solve problems which can nevertheless be deconstructed into very distinct skill subsets. This difficulty in defining listening according to Coakley and Wolvin (1986) stems from the complicated relationship listening skills share with thinking skills. This is supported by the stress on comprehension in examinations that measure listening skills. Rost (2002) has maintained that this definition difficulty can be traced to the fact that the personal definitions of researchers come from four perspectives; transformative, constructive, collaborative, and receptive whose changeability is subject to the researcher’s theoretical interest in the study they are conducting. This would explain that although a united definition is elusive, many researchers have brought forth definitions based on various perspectives. Some illustrations of these definitions include Purdy (1991) who has termed it as the dynamic process of attending, observing, understanding, recollection, and taking action to the verbal and non-verbal cues given off by others. Carroll (1993) calls it a group of activities that entail the capacity of an individual to understand, identify, discriminate, or even disregard. Rubin (1995) conceptualised it as an active process where the listener chooses and construes data emanating from audio-visual cues in order to describe ongoing events and the message being sent by speakers. Like any discipline relying on theoretical constructs, opinion varies on what listening actually entails and what is clear from literature is that more research is needed. Conclusion Covey (1989) tells us that we spend a majority of our time indulging in one mode of communication or another. This implies that a majority of time is spent either listening or speaking or indulging in other forms of communication such as reading or writing. Gray (2004) lets us know that the way in which we communicate differs in terms of gender, upbringing, and culture and the learning seed tells us we have filters that siphon out all the information we do not wish to take in. This implies that listening is a very selective process that requires the active engagement of the listener in order to be carried out effectively. As has been seen from the various definitions touted by various researchers, the word active is extensively used to define listening. It is an active process that requires engagement by the listener in order to take place effectively. One must have a mental awareness of the way in which one listens and with that awareness, be enabled to hear what others are actually saying sometimes in spite of these filters. There are various listening theories that have been proposed but researchers agree that empirical studies are thin on the ground that can comprehensively confirm or deny these theories. The lack of a solid theoretical framework with regard to listening stems from the assumption that listening is a natural process that occurs effortlessly with no input from the individual. This is in spite of a study done that showed 85% of respondents indicating that they were average or poor listeners, with only 5% claiming to be good listeners (Atwater, 1992). There are seven laws according to the learning seed (2007) which account for good listening. These laws are almost common sense, with the premise that practise makes perfect, they exhort us to spend more time listening, attempt to find interest in what the other is saying, avoid putting up barriers to conversation and read between the lines. They also recommend taking notes, adopting an attentive posture and developing an awareness of one’s filters. Stanford University’s study shows us that the way in which we take in information follows a pattern called event segmentation. This study tells us that it is the silence that precedes sound that concentrates the collective attention. While the music played, minds could wander and distraction occur but in the interlude between one musical piece and the next, then the attention was arrested and concentration was absolute (Menon, et.al, 2007). This has implications for listening in general because it is the pauses in between talking that could be useful in bringing back the listener’s full concentration to the conversation. This would also explain why maintaining concentration when listening to a monologue is more difficult than having a conversation or listening to a lecture where there are regular pauses. Other barriers to listening include a lack of interest in the subject matter under discussion, not being sufficiently motivated to participate in the conversation, being tired or distracted. What all these barriers have in common is the absence of the necessary energy that active listening requires. Listening is a mental process that has been linked to comprehensive abilities as is illustrated by tests done to measure it. It requires that the mind be alert and present in the moment in order to be effective. Once this concept has been understood, then it will become easier to design instruments to measure the effectiveness of listening. Currently however, this is still all conjecture as it is not supported by empirical evidence. In an organisational context, the importance of listening especially by managers and leaders is underestimated as an essential tool of leadership. Literature concentrates on the communication of the manager’s ideas to the general staff with numerous journal articles on the relevant body language, non-verbal cues to convey, articulating one’s ideas, and facilitating feedback from others. It is however silent on how to listen to that feedback and encouraging more listening than speaking. This is a failure in management training that needs to be remedied if true success is to be achieved in any venture. References Atwater, E., (1992). I hear you. (Rev. ed.). Pacific Grove, Ca: Walker. Axley, S., (1996). Communication at work: management and the communication intensive organization. Westport, Conn: Quorum. Berger, C. R., & Chaffee, S. H. (1987). The study of communication as a science. In C. R. Berger & S. H. Chaffee (Eds.), Handbook of communication science (pp. 15-19). Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Carroll, J. B. (1993). Human cognitive abilities. A survey of factor analytic studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Covey, S., (1989). The 7 habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon & Schuster Inc. Ford, W. S. Z., Wolvin, A. D., & Chung, S. (2000). Students' self-perceived listening competencies in the basic speech communication course. International Journal of Listening, 14, 1-13. Gray, J. 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