Listening skills in Face-to-Face service interactions:
An ethnographic approach
REFERENCES OGARNIJ !!!
General overview of topic area
Listening skills are an important part of interpersonal communication. Attentive listening behavior affects the speaker’s feelings of self-worth, and speaker’s image of a listener (attentive listening skills, clark). In context of face-to-face service interactions, those reasons are extended to an extra dimension of Customer Relation Management. Company’s ability to listen to its customers through the customer service agents, will affect the business’s overall performance as the customer that feels ignored, may choose to cease using the service and switch to one, where his, or her worries will be attended to.
An example of insufficient customer care, would be an airline passenger, who has trouble finding a place for a bag, yet the flight attendants, don’t listen to the complaints, as they are busy with their duties. Flight service don’t realize that lack of priority given to a customer will consequently reduce the level of satisfaction with the flight, which will have a negative impact of this customer’s image of the company as a whole.
What is listening?
Listening can be defined as a competence in a broader range of communication skills. Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages that are being sent in the process of conversation. Good listening skills are considered to lead to effective communication, because well understood messages will most likely result in relevant information being sent back to the sender. The sense of understanding created by mutual exchange of messages, that are listened to, may render a desire to build a stronger relationship with the listener.
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... a construct that have multiple dimensions, and its mechanisms have been studied across various areas of knowledge, which may create confusion, because assumptions underlying different theoretical assumptions are often incomplete or ignored. In order to advance our field of knowledge about listening, it is needed to develop and integrate interdisciplinary perspectives of similar paradigms, that would enable us to fully investigate listening and its importance to everyday human interaction.
Proposed future research:
What should theories of listening look like, what sort of terms ought they contain, and what are the specific components of good listening theory?
What is listening in the context of X, and what do we need to know about listening in this context? (elaborate)
Are there new tests of listening that need to be developed to answer specific research questions?
Listening is an important skill that many people take for granted. Listening empathelicay means putting oneself in “someone else’s shoes”. Listening only to get information takes away much of what the speaker is saying, by being able to empathize with someone one is on the same wavelength. In this world, there exist many different cultures and subcultures.
First, one must understand the distinction between hearing and listening. Hearing is simply the reception of sound waves by the ears. This may happen unconsciously, as is usually the case with soft background noise such as the whoosh of air through heating ducts or the distant murmur of an electric clothes dryer. Sometimes hearing is done semi-consciously; for instance, the roar of a piece of construction equipment might momentarily draw one's attention. Conscious hearing, or listening, involves a nearly full degree of mental concentration. A familiar i...
In his essay “How We Listen,” Aaron Copland classifies and divides the listening process into three parts: “the sensuous place, the expressive plane, and the sheerly musical plane” (1074). I believe by this mechanical separation, Copland succeeds in discussing difficult topic, so natural that most people tend to by pass it. He uses analogy and sometimes stresses on certain situation where these planes are abused or become a cause of a problem. The main purpose for Copland to separate the listening process is for the reader to learn and study how they listen. Copland’s success in the clarification mainly because of two methods: (1) Categorizing the listening process in different parts and use an analogy to unite it to bring back the general idea of the listening process and (2) by answering and addressing to problems so the readers will understand and have a different view of the text.
The Importance of Listening for Professional and Personal Relationships Listening is essential for communication, yet is a skill in which most are lacking. Though we are listening constantly, knowing what to listen to requires an enormous amount of discipline and practice, which is vital for communicating effectively. Learning to listen will benefit all relationships from professional to personal and not being able to listen effectively can cause these relationships to deteriorate. “Indeed, although aware of the instrumentality of listening, even trained communicators often fail to listen correctly or at opportune times” (Cline, 2013). In order for all of areas of communication in an individual to flourish, listening must be emphasized.
Listening is defined as having the skill to effectively comprehend the information that is being transmitted by the other party without being distracted, thinking about what your response will be to the speakers’ comments or interrupting the person that is speaking. The effective use of listening skills among leaders and employees is extremely beneficial for every organization. When leaders are able to communicate properly and the employees are listening effectively, the corporations’
In Rane’s article, “Good Listening Skills Make Efficient Business Sense” the author looks at way effective listening is just as important to the communication process as speech. Rane points out there is distinct difference between hearing and listening; hearing is simply “a physical and passive activity, whereas listening is necessarily a mental activity and hence it is active in nature…” (2011, p. 44). While a person can continuously hear what another person is saying, in order for an individual to truly hear what another is saying, they need to be actively engaged in the communication process (Rane, 2011). The article delves in to the significance that listening has throughout a successful business: from a manager’s ability to listen to their
In conclusion, I think we need to master different listening styles to be used in different situation in order to contribute to effective communication strategies and planning.
When many of us think about the two words, “hearing,” and, “listening,” we do not really think they are two completely different terms and used differently on a day to day basis. “Hearing is the process, function, or power of perceiving sound; specifically: the special sense by which noises and tones are received as stimuli (merriam-webster,1828).” Listening on the other hand is completely different, “Listening is to hear something with thoughtful attention, to be alert to catch an expected sound (Merriam-Webster, 1828). When we listen, we take in everything that is being said to us either to understand, think deeper, or to respond. For example, when we are in class we tune everything out to listen to our professor so that we get the under
Listening is usually getting mistaken with Hearing. Different from Hearing, which is just a physical process, Listening is much more than processing sound (Downs 2008, pg. 1), it is making sense out of what is heard (Siguaw, Bojanic 2004, pg. 58) . Though Hearing is necessary for Listening, Listening is the key to decide whether the
Listening is an aspect of communication that vital the building of understanding and of a relationship between individuals. Listening can be an active
Listening requires audiences to understand they hearing. (O'Hair, Friedrich, & Dixon, 2015) Listening is regarded as the important way of spoken communication, which requires effort and concentration. Listening is an active process. The purpose of Listening is not only to hear people said, but also it connects the information they know. Listening aims to analyze the people said. Listening is different from hearing. Hearing is regarded as a physiological activity and involuntary process in which sound waves stimulate nerve impulses to the brain. (O'Hair, Friedrich, & Dixon, 2015) Hearing is the aural activities which emphasizes the sounds with one's ears, which requires no conscious effort. Compared to Listening, Hearing is easy to master, we can get the main idea. When we hear people said, we only receive exactly something, however, when we listen something, we can listen clearly people said and describe what we listen in our own way. For example, when we heard the music for the first time, we maybe dislike it, however, when we know the cultural background of music and listen more it, we perhaps like it. From dislike the music to like it, it involves in listening process. Hearing is characterized with receiving the sounds by the ear. Listening is characterized by mixing personal emotion and feedback for the sounds we
Listening can be difficult or challenging no matter who or what situation you may encounter. In this refection I have utilized Baker (1971) and Waston (1995) Listening Style. I chose to use the four distinct styles because it will improve my listening and communication skills in personal and work relationships. After many years of not be able to understand my spouse listening and communication skills, I am now somewhat able to effectively communicate with him. The best way to understand
Those not thoroughly educated in communication tend to confuse the terms “hearing” and “listening.” Although they appear to mean the same thing, utilize the same body part, and are both required for functional communication, there is a great difference between these two actions. Hearing involves the perception of sound using the ears, while listening is based upon giving attention to the sound being perceived. Additionally, because these concepts are different, there are also several different ways of improving hearing and listening. Thus, there are several differences between these two concepts, and it is important to signify these differences in order to practice effective communication.
Listening is one of the most powerful tools of communication and is a process that is used to receive, convey a meaning, and respond to both verbal and nonverbal messages. It is what we choose to do and it requires more work than speaking. Oftentimes, people simply misunderstand the difference between listening and hearing. Hearing is a passive process that takes in sounds and noises and listening is what you choose to do. This selective process includes 5 phases that can be acquired for us to become effective listeners in the future. The 5 phases are attending, understanding, remembering, critically evaluating (listening), and responding. Once the 5 different areas are understood, we will become aware of what needs to change and how we can change them. This will also allow us to improve our listening skills in the workplace, school, at home, etc.
A skill, according the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, is a learned power of doing something competently: a developed aptitude or ability. The skill of listening is a skill that I believe everyone should have but most people lack. Many people do not realize that listening is not merely the act of hearing a sound but of paying close attention to what someone is saying and trying to understand the message that they are trying to relate to you. Most times people say they are listening when in all actuality they are merely hearing you but not even attempting to understand what is being spoken of. The advantages of being a good listener are vast. This skill can positively affect many parts of our everyday life and interaction with people. Nevertheless, it is a skilled that is overlooked in today’s unmindful society. The reason I believe that listening is of such importance is because nowadays people have developed the mentality of “every man for himself.” People are not concerned about their fellows anymore. We are only concerned about our own issues and problems. Listening is a skill that is acquired throughout a lifetime. It is an important virtue when it comes to communication.People should be taught from childhood the importance of learning how to listen. If we realized how much we would benefit from being good listeners, I believe that things would change. Lack of listening skills affects marriages, parents and children, teachers and students, employers and employees, foreign affairs, and the list goes on.