Chapter Overview

For most workers, listening is the most frequent type of communication on the job, occupying more time than speaking, writing, or reading. Effective listening is important for several reasons. First, it aids the organization in carrying out its mission. In addition, effective listening helps individuals to advance in their careers. It provides information that helps them to learn about important happenings in the organization, as well as assisting them in doing their own jobs well. Listening also helps build strong personal relationships. Despite these advantages, most workers are poor listeners for a variety of reasons, physiological, environmental, attitudinal, sociocultural, and educational. Most people have one or two preferred ways of listening that focus on either people, content, action, or time. There are three approaches to listening. The first is passive. The second involves sincere questioning, which differs from several types of counterfeit questioning. Paraphrasing is the third type of listening. Despite their superficial similarity, questioning and paraphrasing are different.

During their careers, people listen to accomplish three different goals. The first involves information seeking. Success in this area comes from avoiding premature judgments, being opportunistic, listening for the speaker's main and supporting ideas, taking notes, and repeating what has been heard soon after hearing it. A second type of listening occurs when the goal is to evaluate the quality of a message. Skill in this area comes from seeking adequate information before forming judgments, considering the speaker's motives, examining the speaker's supporting data, considering the speaker's credentials, and examining emotional appeals dispassionately. Empathic listening involves responding in a way that helps others resolve their problems. Most people rely excessively on one or two of the following styles of empathic listening: advising, analyzing, questioning, supporting, and paraphrasing. Listeners can increase their helpfulness by using a variety of styles instead of just one or two and avoiding judgmental responses.