For this activity, you will explore your understanding of effective listening skills in an organizational setting. You also may be able to use the ideas you develop here in your final project. Before you tackle this exercise, please make sure you have read the Week 5 course materials.
Objective: This question is designed to help you gain insight into your interpersonal communication in the workplace. You also may be able to use material from this activity in your final project.
Background: Please begin this exercise by reading the following information carefully.
Gender communication is a specialized field of study that focuses on the ways we, as gendered beings, communicate. Research on adults’ listening styles by Sargent and Weaver (2003) and others suggests that women use their listening skills to learn about people and to make connections with others, while men listen more for information and to solve intellectual challenges. The findings do not mean women do not engage in content-oriented listening and that men do not engage in people-oriented listening. Men and women clearly engage in both types of listening. However, Sargent and Weaver and other researchers say findings like these indicate that people who identify as women and men generally do, indeed, have different approaches to listening.
Activity:
How might you apply this information about gender differences in listening styles to your communication in the workplace*?
(*Remember, if you are not employed or cannot discuss your workplace, you may draw upon your experiences in another organizational setting in which you are involved, such as a school, church, or community group.)
Reference
Sargent, S. L., & Weaver, J. B. (2003). Listening styles: Sex differences in perceptions of self and others. International Journal of Listening, 17, 5-18.
