1.

0 INTRODUCTION

Simple communication is the process of exchanging thoughts or delivering messages

from the message carrier (communicator) to the recipient (s) for a specific purpose.

Messages sent by the sender to the recipient are either verbal or non-verbal. Verbal

communication is verbal or written communication. Whereas, Non verbal

communication is the most common communication using body language such as hand

movements, facial expressions, headlamps, marks, overlays and so on.

Verbal communication is a form of communication that is written or spoken. This

form of communication requires a language tool whose output is either speech or word

writing. Verbal communication is effective as long as the person interacting understands

the language spoken.

Another more specific definition is that verbal communication is communication

that uses symbolic devices, with rules for combining those symbols, which a community

uses and understands. In this definition he also emphasized that the symbol with this

rule is the simplest form of language.

Non verbal communication is communication that does not use language directly.

Things like a handshake to say goodbye are the simplest examples. Communication does

not have a standard structure like language, but with interpretation and logic, people

can understand the meaning of others without it.

In the modern world, non verbal communication is often used as a reinforcement of

verbal communication. You must have done this before, for example when speaking

your body also moves to clarify what you say in words.

Because they are rarely used, many people find that non verbal communication has

no prominent function. This is certainly not true! Even if you do not use it intentionally,

you can unwittingly use non verbal communication as a complement to verbal

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 communication.

In addition, the function of non verbal communication is to clarify communication

using words. One can sometimes understand more information when it comes to the

combination of verbal and non verbal communication. For example when you tell

someone to be quiet, you say “Be quiet!” While touching the index finger straight to the

lips.

Verbal and non-verbal communication also occurs in organizational communication.

One of them is listening skills which is a very important non-verbal communication.

The journey of an organization cannot escape communication. The importance of

communication in the context of management of an organization has long been

recognized. It is referred to as a 'pulse' because without an effective communication

system, an organization's planning process will not be able to run smoothly and in order

to achieve its stated objectives.

In today's increasingly sophisticated and modern world, good forms of

communication are especially important in an organization that is constantly in touch

with various parties, both internal and external. Communication is also fundamental to

the success and success of an organization in operation, where a successful organization

is an organization that has a good level of communication with its environment.

Communication involves the transfer or dissemination of information from

individuals, groups, and so on. In short, organizational progress depends on the success

rate of group member communication. Thus, if an organization fails to compete, it

indirectly indicates that the members of the organization do not have good

communication with the environment. Therefore, everyone in the organization must

play an important role especially in the area of communication.

2.0 COMMUNICATION NEEDS IN ORGANIZATIONAL MANAGEMENT

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 As mentioned earlier, organizations cannot run away from communication because

effective communication will accelerate the planning journey toward achieving an

organization's goals. All the functions of the elements of the management process will

be linked through communication.

There are many important needs of communication within the organization and can

be stated as follows;

First, communication will help organizations achieve their goals by influencing

employees to change their behaviors, interests and collaborations to work and achieve

organizational goals through verbal, written, mechanical and symbolic means.

Secondly, through communication, organizations will be able to obtain much

needed information such as technology knowledge, job training, finance and so on. It

aims to develop strategies for how to operate efficiently and effectively.

Third, communication is capable of controlling members' behavior in a number of

ways such as memos, to-do lists, circulars, and so on.

Fourth, communication also plays a role in growth and growth by explaining to

employees what actions need to be taken, performance to be demonstrated and steps

to improve performance.

Fifth, formally or not, all work activities require interaction with one another. There

is therefore a need for communication in the performance of their respective tasks in

order to achieve a common goal.

Sixth, in making decisions, meetings and discussions are necessary. The agreed

alternatives from meetings and discussions will be disseminated to all members of the

organization. All of these activities will involve communication.

Seventh, for the purpose of guidance, training and improvement, managers need to

conduct performance appraisals on the quality and style of their employees. Both
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 parties need to know this information for mutual benefit. This can only be done through

communication in order to achieve a goal.

Eighth, communication also plays a role in solving organizational problems. When

tensions arise in the organization, management and employees can work together to

resolve them through dialogue, discussions, meetings and so on. Agreements can only

be obtained after good communication has taken place.

3.0 ORGANIZATION LISTENING THEORY

Generally, communication is defined as the process of exchanging and transferring

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information from one person or one party to another or another. Through

communication, members of the organization exchange information in developing their

respective departments.

Listening skills refer to the ability of an employee to listen carefully and to

understand what is being heard in a variety of speech situations such as stories,

directions, conversations, questions, answers, news reports, and discussions. These

listening skills are the most basic oral skills and they occur at the acceptance level.

An employee in an organization who has mastered listening skills should be able to

listen well to what others are saying and understand the meaning and be able to

interpret what is being heard accurately.

According to ILA (1996), listening skills is a process of receiving or understanding the

meaning and response of a conversation or non-conversation to hear something that

involves the process of mind or thought. According to him, there are two effective ways

of communicating, namely, depending on the conversation and the hearing.

Listening is a fundamental and fundamental skill in the communication process.

However, this activity is ignored and not taken seriously by most people.

According to a communication expert, Paul Rankin (1929), 70% of our daily sleep is

used to communicate and 45% is used to hear something. While 30% is used for

conversation or conversation, 16% of your communication time is spent reading and

only 9% of your time is spent writing. Studies conducted by most experts show that

about 85% of our knowledge is acquired through hearing.

While there is an important and growing body of research literature on listening, it

is predominantly focused on interpersonal listening. Meanwhile, in contemporary

industrial and postindustrial societies, organizations play a central role in society and the

lives of citizens. People need to interact on a daily basis with government departments
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 and agencies, corporations, and a plethora of nongovernment and nonprofit

organizations. Despite theorization of the disciplinary practices of public relations and

corporate, organizational, government, and political communication as two-way

communication involving dialogue and engagement with stakeholders and publics, a

transdisciplinary literature review of these fields reveals that little attention is paid to

listening.

Organizational listening cannot be achieved simply by adding a listening tool or

solution, such as automated software applications, listening posts, or a tokenistic ‘have

your say’ page on a Web site. Organizational listening has cultural, procedural, political,

structural, resource, skill, and technological dimensions.

Furthermore, listening is work. Once an architecture of listening is in place,

organizational staff need to undertake the work of listening as well as the work of

speaking – particularly staff involved in communication roles such as organizational

communication, corporate communication, and public relations.

4.0 HOW IT CONTRIBUTE TO AN EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONAL

COMMUNICATION

In today's increasingly sophisticated and modern world, good forms of

6
communication are especially important in an organization that is constantly in touch

with various parties, both internal and external. Communication is also fundamental to

the success and success of an organization in operation, where a successful organization

is an organization that has a good level of communication with its environment.

Communication involves the transfer or dissemination of information from

individuals, groups, and so on. In short, organizational success depends on the success

rate of group member communication. Thus, if an organization fails to compete, it

indirectly indicates that the members of the organization do not have good

communication with the environment. Therefore, everyone in the organization must

play an important role especially in the area of communication.

Communication is the process of sending and receiving information in the form of

symbols and gestures, whether verbal or non-verbal. Communication is a process that

has no beginning and end. It runs continuously without stopping. A communication gives

meaning. Communication, then, is a process by which ideas, values, and attitudes are

transferred and shared by individuals with others.

When we communicate we want to create equality with others. We try to create

what is within us and to find something in common with those involved in the

communication process. Think, believe, social values and convey to others by seeking

this common ground. Communication can also be defined as "a process of exchanging

information and ideas between two or more people to produce the expected response"

or "transmitting information and understanding from one person to another in an

effective way".

One of the most important aspects of communication is listening skills. Listening is

one of the most important activities of children and adults. Barker (1971) conducted a

study on listening skills. As a result of the study, he concluded, in the human condition,
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45% used to listen, 30% talk, 16% read and 9% write. This shows that hearing processes

play an important role in communication especially in organizational communication.

Active listening involves the process of listening with a view to understanding,

remembering, evaluating and criticizing. According to Chuah (1987) listening is a

physiological process that involves the auditory nervous system in the brain but listening

is a more active process, a process involving the field of psychology.

Active listening is not only focused on the use of the ear, but on all senses,

especially visions, through verbal communication.

Listening is the act of using the ear organs alongside the auditory nerves in the

brain. But this must be properly trained in order for the hearing process to work

properly.

Devine (1981) states that listening does not only focus fully but also on the

motivation and physical state of the emotions that influence the hearing process itself.

The process of listening is directly related to the thinking process. Thinking in this

context involves the use of mental processes in inference, results analysis,

generalization, organization and formulation.

The listening process can be divided into four stages:

a) Listen to the sounds of the language

Individuals hear sounds from external elements that are intentionally created for a

particular purpose. The sound can be heard once it is detected from where it is coming

from. At the beginning of the hearing, only clear and loud sounds can be detected. After

shaking a few times, the whole sound sequence was heard in its entirety. This process is

aimed only at individuals with normal articulation and hearing aids.

b) Understand the sound

A sound that is heard is associated with a specific purpose. When a sound sequence
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is heard and followed by a specific behavior from the speaker, the listener will associate

that behavior with that sound sequence. In other words, the listener will relate the thing

in question, or his or her behavior with the spoken sound. This process that is often

performed will become a habit for the listener.

c) At this stage the listener has mastered the meaning of several sets of sounds. It

can understand the meaning and meaning difference between one sound sequence and

another sound sequence, from one sentence to another word in the same language. For

example, sounds that use high intensity and loudness indicate anger. Sounds that use

weak intonation symbolize spoiling, sadness, sympathy and so on. In short, a good

listener will understand and understand what each phrase is saying. They are not only

able to comprehend but also interpret it.

d) Act on sound

This rating will only be effective once the listener passes through these three levels.

Listener time will make conclusions and decisions. It will do something after the

instruction in the form of a spoken sound sequence.

Listening and empathy are widely considered marks of competent communicators

and leaders. Although overshadowed by speaking, listening and person-focused

organizations that practice empathy are linked to positive organizational cultures.

organizational communication scholars are increasingly concerned with engaging

real world problems with their studies, particularly in the pursuit of more socially just

and ethical ways of organizational life. In these contexts, listening and emotional

openness are required both as a standpoint of engagement with organizational

communication practices and as research ends in and of themselves (Cheney, 2007). In

other words, since empathy and listening are widely considered by general society

marks of a “good” communicators, and “research on social support demonstrates

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listening as one of the most helpful behaviors in times of distress… managing conflict,

promoting intimacy, succeeding as a leader, and creating a client-centered business

model” (Bodie, 2012, p. 120), organizational communication scholars should understand

how the function and practice of empathic listening impacts organizational

development.

Listening is often overshadowed by speaking in communication research and

organizational research in particular. Listening has proven an important skill that

impacts organizational life, including aspects such as job performance and upward

mobility (Sypher, Bostrom, & Seibert, 1989).

Although listening is linked to positive organizational cultures, frequent calls for

research seem to remain unanswered in organizational communication research.

Empathy is also considered a vital trait of communication and leadership in any

organization. Awareness of others’ needs, emotional intelligence, and person-focused

organizations that practice empathy are positively related to job performance and

positive organizational cultures (Gentry, Weber, & Sandri, 2007).

For the organizational context in particular, when both the terms “empathy” and

“organization” were searched, 80 percent of the 38 results that emerged reflected this

same pattern. With growing acknowledgement of the importance of listening and

empathy in organizational communication, understanding where scholarly contributions

currently exist can guide our future exploration and application of empathic listening in

organizational practices.

Gearhart and Bodie (2011, p. 87) emphasize that both empathy and listening are

“multidimensional construct(s)” and “within each of these stages, individuals can be

more or less active and empathic.” Since initially presented in the business world, the

active-empathetic listening scale has been adopted and developed by others in the field
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 of interpersonal communication, most notably Graham D. Bodie and scholars at

Louisiana State University.

Through intensive statistical testing (e.g., Bodie (2011), Gearhart & Bodie (2011),

Pence and Vickery (2012), and Bodie et al. (2013)), interpersonal communication

scholarship has continued the conceptual development of AEL. Listening with empathy

is, however, undeniably beneficial to more communicative environments than

interpersonal relationships alone and may be practiced differently in diverse contexts,

including evolving organizations. As discussed at the outset of this essay, both listening

and empathy are crucial components of positive communication in organizational

culture and contexts.

5.0 CONCLUSION

Effective communication is not just a reflection of the satisfaction that comes with

organizational staff. Claims relating to the effectiveness of organizational

communication will be more valid if proven by its relationship with other organizational
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variables.

One of the important elements in organizational communication research is leader

and member communication or otherwise known as leader-member exchange.

Relationships between harmonious leaders and experts can smooth the organization's

journey and achieve the mission and vision of the organization. Indirectly, effective

communication between leaders and subordinates can determine the success of an

organization through listening theory.

Empathic listening warrants increased attention in organizational communication

for a number of reasons.

First, organizational communication scholars played a foundational role in the initial

exploration of empathy and listening in the field of communication as a whole and could

enjoy the fruit of their labors through continued conceptual development, theoretical

improvement, and practical application within the field itself and in public scholarship as

well.

Second, as attention to empathy and listening grows in the academy, organizational

communication scholars are poised to join and contribute to the conversation in useful

ways through a lens that is distinct from the primary voices attending to empathic

listening today.

Third, as the active-empathic listening scale is currently being advanced

conceptually and empirically in interpersonal communication, it could be adopted again

in the organizational context to be tested in diverse domains that are distinct to its

domain of study—creating new and enriched knowledge between communication

subdivisions.

Finally, although organizational communication has a significant presence within

empathic listening scholarship, this literature review shows that the focus has been
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primarily in health care and educationalsettings. Organizational communication is a rich

and varied discipline including many more contexts than just these! Imagine what

exploration of empathy and listening might accomplish in better understanding non-

profit organizations, international development organizations, hybrid organizations,

digital organizations, and culturally and diverse organizations globally, to name but a

few additional contexts.

Empathic listening can lead to better understanding the challengesthat

organizationsface at each point in history by establishing learning by listening (to the

great diversity ofideologies, cultural norms, social performances, and other human

differences) as a foundational organizational value. Considering the persuasive

arguments for valuing both empathy and listening in any and all contexts, organizations

and organizational communication research stand only to gain in committing more fully

to this conversation. Neither empathy nor listening are givens; both are skills and

competencies that organizations can develop within their individual members and

organizational cultures.

Based on initial findings, leaders that pursue and practice empathic listening

experience more positive organizational cultures and overall organizational

effectiveness. Better understanding of how individual communication reflects and

produces empathic listening within an organization can lead to the creation of tangible

initiatives for promoting desired organizational cultural norms.

Research of intercultural listening competencies may find ways that empathic

listening might be practiced differently among diverse peoples and cultures. Application

of these findings could lead to more effective intercultural organizational relationships

and better multi-organizational collaborations.

Organizations have a unique role to play in the discussion of empathic listening as

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 they can emphasize the way that empathic listening is not simply some trait within an

individual, relationship, or organization to be studied. Instead, embracing a stance of

empathic listening will lead to the constitution of particular social structures in both

organizations and the world in which we live. This could be very good news. If

organizational communication scholars take up the call to greater engagement with the

ethical listening scholarship, they can once again occupy the space they held in the early

1980s when empathetic listening research began. They can be forerunnersin an area

that might impact both their own division of communication, the broader field of

communication as a whole, and the real practices of organizational leaders and

members around the globe.

REFERENCES

Bodie, G. D. (2012). Listening as Positive Communication. In T. Socha & M. Pitts (Eds.), The

positive side of interpersonal communication. New York: Peter Lang.

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Bodie, G. D., Gearhart, C. C., Denham, J. P., & Vickery,A.J.(2013).TheTemporal Stability and

Situational Contingency of Active-Empathic Listening. Western Journal of

Communication, 77(2), 113–138.

Cheney, G. (2007). Organizational Communication Comes Out. Management Communication

Quarterly, 21(1), 80–91.

Gearhart, C. C., & Bodie, G. D. (2011). ActiveEmpathic Listening as a General Social Skill:

Evidence from Bivariate and Canonical Correlations. Communication Reports,

24(2),86–98.

Gentry, W. A., Weber, T. J., & Sandri, G. (2007). Empathy in the Workplace: A Tool for

Effective Leadership (p. 16). Presented at the Society of Industrial Organizational

Psychology Conference, New York: Center for Creative Leadership. Retrieved from

http://www.ccl.org/Leadership/pdf/research/ EmpathyInTheWorkplace.pdf

Pence, M. E., & Vickery, A. J. (2012). The Roles of Personality and Trait Emotional Intelligence

in the Active-Epathic Listening Process: Evidence from Correlational and Regression

Analyses. The International Journal of Listening, 26, 159–174.

Sypher, B. D., Bostrom, R. N., & Seibert, J. H. (1989). Listening, Communication Abilities, and

Success at Work. The Journal of Business Communication, 26(4), 293–303.

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