Title: How to Listen at Workplace: Lessons from Ten Mythological Stories
Abstract: IntroductionListening contributes to more than three quarters of what is being learned in schools (Hunsaker, 1990), enables the individuals to strive for long-term goals, helps them build a perspective of the world, and provides them interpretation of life's experiences (Linebarger, 2001). On a given working day, while 33% to 55% of time is spent on listening, the rest 23% to 26% is spent on speaking, 13% to 19% on reading, and 8% on writing, extending to 23% in case of business personnel (Weinrauch and Swanda, 1975; Werner, 1975; and US Department of Labor, 1991). Despite that, listening receives least instruction in school (Coakley and Wolvin, 1997) and negligible training in most universities (Wacker and Hawkins, 1995). However, it is rated as one of the top solicited skills at entry level and for promotions (James, 1992; Hynes and Bhatia, 1996; and Goby and Lewis, 2000).Moreover, it is interesting to note that listening in leadership position and at managerial level becomes highly desirable workplace (Rogers and Rothlisberger, 1952; Sypher, 1984; and Cooper, 1997). Despite knowing this, and spending maximum time on it, why has this skill become a forgotten art in today's workplace? External and internal sources of interferences are some of the reasons which are highlighted in the findings of this paper.Furthermore, while mastering this skill becomes a must for leaders and managers, how, is the next question. Can we find some listening strategies that can lead to building meaningful interpersonal relationships at workplace?Research Objective and ApproachThis paper focuses on highlighting some of the listening skill strategies that can help in increasing trust and building meaningful relationship at workplace. The use of narrative techniques has become popular in social sciences due to its qualitative approach. For this study, the authors, thus, have used narrative technique to unearth and re-examine ten stories from the Indian mythological literature as shown in Table 1 and connect them with the concept of listening in the present workforce context. The attempt here is to connect these 10 stories with the world of business and underscore how interpersonal relationship at workforce can be made cohesive by listening to others, leading to better coordination, persuasion, conflict resolution and effective decision making to achieve personal and organizational goals.The stories have been selected from Indian mythology since Indian managers and leaders are familiar with these stories and can relate with the character very well as per their roles and responsibilities. While these stories fall into the range of different kinds of listening, the purpose here is to make them understand and store in their mind the concept of listening with the help of selected stories so that they can use them as and when required.The stories, as we know, help people to remember concepts and connect them with others in a meaningful way. Hence, stories in this paper are used with a twofold purpose: first, as a narrative technique to highlight how different types of listening have an impact on interpersonal relationship of people, and second, as a strategic training tool to make people understand and engage with each other in a meaningful way at the workplace. In the words of Ian P Griffin1, 'Audiences forget facts, but they remember Once you get past the jargon, the corporate world is an endless source of fascinating stories. Stories here are used with the same focus. The paper begins with a review of literature in the field, and then each story has been narrated as a strategic listening technique, enabling the leaders and managers to understand the concept and then remember them with the help of the explained story. And finally, integration of these stories through implementation in the form of training, deliberate practice and role models to emulate is recommended by the authors. They also highlight the limitations and scope for future research in the field. …
Publication Year: 2017
Publication Date: 2017-03-01
Language: en
Type: article
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