Communication and leadership – Literature
Meeting 1 – Communication, Mindset & Critical Reflection
Watzlawick, P., Beavin, J. H., & Jackson, D. D. (1967). Some tentative axioms of
communication
The impossibility of not communicating
Behavior has not opposite, one cannot not communicate.
‘Communication’ also does not only take place when it is intentional, conscious or successful, when mutual
understanding occurs.
The impossibility of not communicating is a schizophrenic ‘dilemma’, because schizophrenics try not to
communicate.
The content and relationship level of communication
Communication not only conveys information, but at the same time it imposes behavior.
Report aspect of communication conveys information, content of the message
Command aspect of communication what sort of message it is to be taken, the relationship between
communicants. Can be expressed nonverbally.
Metainformation information about information, confusion between the two would lead to a
meaningless result
The punctuation of the sequence of events
The nature of a relationship is contingent upon the punctuation of the communicational sequences
between the communicants.
Stimulus and response between sender and receiver in communication and the order in which this
happens.
Role definitions are only created by the willingness of the people to accept the system of punctuation.
Disagreement about how to punctuate the sequence of event is often the root of relationship struggles.
Digital and analogic communication
Digital communication words and arbitrary signs that are manipulated according to the logical syntax of
language.
Analogic communication virtually a nonverbal communication
These modes exist side by side, but also complement each other in every message.
The content aspect is likely to be conveyed digitally, whereas the relationship aspect is predominantly
analogic in nature
Symmetrical and complementary interaction
Schismogenesis a process of differentiation in the norms of individual behavior resulting from
cumulative interaction between individuals
Complementary interaction one partner’s behavior complements that of the other, forming a different
sort of behavioral Gestalt; characterized by the maximization of difference.
Symmetrical interaction partners tend to mirror each other’s behavior; characterized by equality and
the minimization of difference.
O'Keefe, P. A. (2013). Mindsets and self-evaluation: How beliefs about
intelligence can create a preference for growth over defensiveness
Introduction
Two mindsets related to people’s beliefs about the nature of intelligence – whether it is fixed or malleable
– and have distinct and far-reaching effect on the motivation to achieve and the development of
competencies.
Two beliefs result in different coping strategies in the face of difficulty that, regardless of talent, influence
the tendency to practice and develop competencies.
1
,Theories of intelligence and achievement goals
Two distinct beliefs about the nature of intelligence
1) Entity theory intelligence is fixed and cannot be improved much. They are motivated to pursue goals
that allow them to demonstrate or validate their abilities. They adopt performance goals.
2) Incremental theory believe in the plasticity of intelligence. They tend to pursue goals that support their
belief that intelligence can be improved and focus on learning and the development of abilities. They adopt
learning goals.
Theories of intelligence and the evaluation of competencies
The evaluation of competencies is integral to self-regulation and the search and interpretation of self-
evaluative information is a motivated process.
Three types of self-evaluative motives:
o Self-assessment the goals of accurately diagnosing one’s own ability
Incremental theorists: because they adopt learning goals, they tend to self-assess using self-
referential standards. They self-asses in the service of developing abilities.
Entity theorists: they tend to pursue performance goals and consequently elf-asses in order to
gauge their competencies relative to others. They self-asses in the service of documenting or
validating their abilities.
o Self-improvement the goal of improving one’s abilities; it is motivated by the desire for genuine
improvement.
Incremental theorists: because their goals concern learning and developing abilities, they tend to
seek information and evaluate their abilities in a manner that best serves those goals.
Entity theorists: less inclined to focus on improvement due to their belief in fixed intelligence;
more concerned with what the evaluation will say about their abilities.
o Self-enhancement the goal of achieving or maintaining a positive self-view
Entity theorist tend to engage more in this method of self-evaluation. They also tend to employ
strategies to preemptively cope with the treat of possible or impending failure.
Self-evaluation and preference for growth and defensiveness
Incremental theorists: tendency for self-referential self-assessment and self-improvement, which reflects a
desire for growth.
Entity theorists: self-evaluative motives for normative self-assessment and self-enhancement set the stage
for defensiveness. Focus is not growth, but rather protecting or repairing their self-esteem.
Growth and remediation
Incremental theory: contribute to a preference for information that affords improvement, regardless of
whether failure is anticipated or experienced.
o A threatening situation was mollified by taking action to remedy their poor performance (by upward
comparison).
o Their failure elicited efforts to remedy their performance.
o Showed an increase in attention to the correct answer when failing on a question, because it was an
opportunity to learn.
o More focused on improving their performance rather than assessing how they did compare to others
or avoiding feedback.
o More request of the best possible solution, because it offered information that would help them
improve strategies.
Focus on growth and improvement, also when experiencing setbacks.
Defensiveness
People wish to maintain ‘adaptive adequacy’, they view themselves as moral, efficacious and successful.
However, people encounter threats to these beliefs. To preserve self-consistency, people can alter either
the cognition or the behavior to become more in line with the other.
Entity theory and performance goals lead to defensive strategies in anticipation of failure or after having
experienced setbacks:
2
, o Anticipating failure: entity theorists tend to employ two strategies for protecting their self-esteem
when failure is anticipated. In this way they maintain their sense of appearance of competency by
protecting themselves from feedback that may suggest otherwise:
Self-handicapping the purposeful sabotage of one’s own performance in order to provide an
excuse for an expected failure. Creates a win-win outcome for the self-handicapper: he is
protected if he fails and enhanced if he succeeds.
Feedback avoidance the desire to avoid feedback and evaluative situations. For instance,
avoid taking another course of the subject they failed to become better.
o Recovering from failure: for entity theorists, failure is an indictment of their low intelligence, which
makes them motivated to repair their self-esteem by self-enhancing.
Self-serving bias the tendency for individuals to attribute their successes to internal,
dispositional factors and to contribute their failures to external, situational factors.
Social comparison when an objective standard is not available, people may compare their
performance with other’s in order to assess their abilities.
Downward social comparison people may prefer to compare or associate with others
who are less competent. Entity theorists chose strategies used by people who had
performed worse, to show they are at least better than someone else.
The mindset of greatness: Growth, not defensiveness
Failure is part of ability development and learning from it is far more adaptive than trying to hide it.
The meaning of talent and practice
Talent implies that abilities are innate, whereas practice implies that abilities can be developed
Entity theorists endorse the notion that success is largely the result of an existing talent. They view their
current talent as most diagnostic of their potential.
Incremental theorist belief in malleable intelligence, belief that practice yields competency (even if they
are already talented. They view effort to be most diagnostic, regardless of their level of talent, and practice
as viable and necessary means of improvement.
People praised for intelligence suggest their innate talent is high; more likely to adopt performance
goals.
People praised for effort (or practice) reinforces the notion that abilities are developed, and that effort
plays an essential role; more likely to adopt learning goals, because their effort is what resulted in their
favorable performance.
Meeting 2 – Nonverbal communication and embodiment
Guerrero, L. K. (2014). Interpersonal functions of nonverbal communication
Introduction
Four primary functions of nonverbal communication during interpersonal interaction:
1. Forming impressions
2. Developing and maintaining relationships
3. Sending messages related to dominance
4. Expressing emotions
Nonverbal communication: Definition and codes
Message perspective nonverbal communication: behaviors other than words that form a socially shared
coding system, are used regularly and interpreted consensually within a speech community and are
typically sent with intent or interpreted as intentional by receivers.
Complementary perspective / process-based approach nonverbal communication: any behaviors that
are sent with intent or interpreted as meaningful by a receiver.
Code channel or systematic means trough which meanings are encoded and decoded.
o Nonverbal codes include kinesics (body movements), proxemics (space), haptics (touch), vocalics
(sounds), appearance and adornment, environmental features and artifacts and chronemics (time).
3
, Forming impressions
Nonverbal communication is important for impression formation (person-perception) a decoding activity
that involves making judgments about a person based on appearance or behavior. They fill in information gabs
by creating a consistent set of perceptions based on external nonverbal cues. They could remain constant or
change rapidly.
Static cues: physical attractiveness
The ‘What-is-beautiful-is-good hypothesis’ people perceive good looking people as possessing an array
of positive internal characteristics.
o Stronger for social attributes than cognitive.
o There is an actual and received relationship between attractiveness and social skills.
The ‘matching hypothesis’ individual tend to pair up with people who are like themselves in terms of
level of physical attractiveness, both in friendships as in romantic relationships.
The ‘What-sounds-beautiful-is-good hypothesis people with attractive voices are rate more favorably;
influences initial impressions.
Dynamic cues
Dynamic cues can modify or add to first impressions based on appearance.
The interaction appearance theory how interaction can modify people’s first impressions about
attractiveness, 4 principles:
1) People tend to believe that an ideal partner should be attractive and a good communicator.
2) People communicate with a lot of individuals, including people whom they don’t consider attractive.
3) When people develop a satisfying relationship with a person who is a good communicator, but not
optimally attractive, their beliefs about what constitutes an ideal partner are challenged.
4) To resolve the inconsistency, they re-evaluate their partner as being more physically attractive.
Positive interaction modified original perceptions of physical attractiveness.
Negative interaction had a stronger modifying effect than positive interaction
Lens model (Brunswik) encoding that displays the sender’s personality > decoding occurs when
receivers make inferences about a sender’s personality based upon the sender’s behavior. Both encoding
and decoding are influence by the context in which communication occurs.
Nonverbal cues make a person appear more agreeable and likable, for instance smiling.
Thin slice impressions when people base initial judgments about a person on a short sample of dynamic
behavior (e.g. facial expressions, posture, voice, gesture).
o Accuracy of thin slice impressions depends on 3 factors:
1) Some senders are more transparent and easier to judge
2) Some people are better decoders of nonverbal information
3) People who are motivated to access someone’s personality are often more accurate
Developing and maintaining relationships
Nonverbal communication also helps people develop, intensify, and maintain their relationship.
Social penetration theory relationships become closer as the breadth, frequency and eventually depth
of self-disclosure increase.
o The level of nonverbal affiliation is also important for getting more comfortable with a person.
Uncertainty reduction theory people feel a need to predict and explain the behavior of others and want
to reduce uncertainty in initial interactions. Nonverbal expressions of affiliation are positively associated
with low levels of uncertainty and high levels of intimacy, reciprocity, similarity and liking.
Positive involvement behaviors
Nonverbal immediacy a set of behaviors that indicate physical and psychological closeness,
approachability, sensory stimulation, interest and interpersonal warmth.
Positive involvement behaviors that commonly reflect both positive affect and involvement.
o Affective cues determine whether immediacy cues are interpreted as reflecting liking and intimacy.
Positive involvement / immediacy is consistent with the importance of reciprocity principles (1) Patterns
of reciprocal positive involvement cues produce intimate interactions and occur in the closes and most
satisfying relationships, and (2) Receivers are most likely to reciprocate to the positive involvement
behaviors of senders who they like.
4
