Paper: 00, Business Communication
Module: 11, Importance & Types of Listening
QUADRANT-I
1. Module 11: Importance & Types of Listening
2. Learning Outcomes
3. Introduction
4. Importance of Listening
5. Types of Listening 6. Summary
1. Module 11: Importance and Types of Listening
2. Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this module, students will be able to
• Know the importance of listening in personal and professional life.
• Adopt the right type of listening skills for better interpersonal relationship.
3. Introduction:
“God speaks in the silence of the heart. Listening is the beginning of the prayer”
- Mother Teresa
Items Description of Module
Subject Name Management
Paper Name Business Communication
Module Title Importance & Types of Listening
Module Id Module no- 11
Pre-
Requisites
Listening, Importance & Types of Listening
Objectives To understand what listening actually is why it is important in our personal and
professional life.
To learn that which type of listening is better & need to be adopted by an
individual while interacting with friends, peers or boss, or in different environment
or at various life situations.
Keywords Listening, understanding, empathy, active, passive, critical
Listening is the most vital part of communication. If there is no listener there is hardly any point in
speaking. Listening is receiver’s ability to listen to the sender properly and decode the message to
have clear understanding of ideas, thoughts or information, which sender wants to share. If the
receivers fail to understand the message which has been expressed by the sender, they will also fail
in providing a substantial and meaningful response. This wrong feedback is the root cause of many
arguments, misunderstandings, and worries, at personal or professional life.
Listening is a skill that needs to be practised. Ability to listen is the most critical skill required in
managers and leaders. It provides them with all the information they need. Listening enables us to
participate effectively in discussions and other interactions. Unless we listen to the points made or
views expressed by the other participants in a speech, we would not be able to react rightly and to put
forward our views. In nutshell, Listening means art of understanding others; it helps in climbing the
ladder of success and is a great source of wisdom in life.
4. Importance of Listening:
“Give thy ear to all but your tongue to a few”
- The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1.3.71)
Listening is very important part of everyone’s life, as through listening we can comprehend the
language; understand the people around us it may be interacting to customers or with subordinates or
even to the whole world at large. Whether in business or personal life, listening is extremely
important.
The time spent on listening is always substantial. In fact listening is an important everyday means of
gathering information and acquiring knowledge, it is even vital for socializing, for relaxation, for
inspiration, and even for gaining new ideas officially or by listening to friends and peers.
As a student one has to listen to lectures, seminars, presentations, discussions & instructions.
Similarly as a professional listening takes place with boss, colleagues, subordinates within the
organization. Likewise a judge, a psychiatrist, and a physician must possess special competence in
listening.
Stephen Covey identifies listening as one of the seven habits of effective people, therefore if one
wishes to become a successful manager, it is essential to adopt and improve listening skills.
According to Adler, R. et al. (2001) Adults spend an average of 70% of their time engaged in some
sort of communication, of this an average of 45% is spent listening compared to 30% speaking, 16%
reading and 9% writing.
Source: Adler, R., Rosenfeld, L. and Proctor, R. (2001) Interplay: the process of interpersonal
communicating (8th ed.), Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt.
4.1 Importance of Listening at Workplace:
Listening has vast importance not only at a personal level in life but also at workplace. Business
owners of any segment, entrepreneurs, and the employees, who so ever develop attentive listening
skills and encourage this ability for others too, will be the most likely to keep their organizations
progressing.
Listening is a lively process that involves focusing on what is said without allowing erstwhile beliefs
to obstruct the process. It is true that if people would concentrate on listening at work, they will gain
profitable results such as increased productivity, more rapid progress towards target and more
pleasant relationships between co-workers.
The below mentioned are some points which further elaborate importance of listening at workplace:
4.1.1 Knowing your organization
Careful listening to the grapevine helps to know the members of the staff, about the company’s
activities and policies. Therefore, it leads to better understanding of organization, it also facilitates in
predicting what changes are required for growth.
4.1.2 Calming complaining employees
Harvey Mackay, a businessman said, “You can win more friends with your ears than with your
mouth”. Very often employees have certain grievances, all that they need is a listener. If a manager or
a leader listens to them patiently their anger will be drained out and it will lead to calmness & peace
of mind.
4.1.3 Formulating better policies:
If a manager listens to his/her subordinates carefully, he/she will know that which policies are
acceptable to all other members and are better suitable for the organizational success. This step may
also accomplish the willing support of employees.
4.1.4 Open door strategy:
Some managers use open door strategy and keep the doors open for employees to walk in and talk. It
leads to better understanding and better upward communication. Sometimes it also happens that their
doors are open but their ears are closed. This bad listening of managers leaves the employees in
distress. Despite of this, if a manager listens patiently, employees will be encouraged to talk, and there
will be free upward communication.
4.1.5 Spotting sensitive areas:
Problems if not resolved could lead to serious disputes. It is important for managers and leaders to
spot the sensitive areas and resolve complaints by finding better solutions to avoid serious disputes.
Mahatma Gandhi as a leader was like an expert therapist, by analyzing the problems he listened
patiently to the grievances of the people, and helped them to live a better life.
4.1.6 Increasing confidence:
People, who listen well and carefully, tend to have better knowledge and clear understanding.
Therefore, they are more confident in day to day activities and even while taking major
decisions.
4.1.7 Forming a bond:
True listening generates respect and trust between speaker and listener. Employees like to
respond to those bosses who they think are listening to them.
4.1.8 Boosting productivity:
Instead of only giving an advice, if a manager listens carefully to the explanation of problems
and start working towards solution, employees will be more dedicated towards work and the
productivity will rise.
4.1.9 Advancing innovations:
If a leader or a manager listens properly to the ideas of people, and motivates them to
implement it instead of controlling or curbing. This technique will show the way of new and
innovative tactics of work. Listening makes employees feel better as it recognizes not only
the value of the employee viewpoint but also the value to the employee of being listened to.
4.1.10 Enhancing accuracy:
Listening in a better way leads to a huge recollection of important facts and issues, resulting
in more accuracy while solving complex issues, with lesser miscommunication and faults.
A wise man once said, “We never learn anything with our mouth open. We can only learn by reading,
by listening, by observing and by doing” (Rega, M.). Thus, the importance of listening is at the core
of communication, it may be anywhere with anyone. In business it is important for a manager to
encourage employees to listen one another in order to build an environment that promotes cooperative
team work and innovative problem solving.
Brown, M. (2004) wrote, that “Listening is a learned behaviour. Just as decoding the written word is
not the same as comprehending its meaning, hearing a sound is not the same as understanding what is
being said”. Proper listening is again very important in making a comfortable environment, to attract
and retain good people in an organization, to develop healthy relationships and for the growth of the
organization.
The consequences of not listening carefully could be disastrous:
Source: Taylor, S. (2006) Communication for Business, Pearson Education ltd
5. Types of Listening
According to Ralph G. Nichols, who is regarded as the father of Listening, “The most basic of all
human needs is to understand and to be understood...The best way to understand people is to listen to
them”. Thus, being listened to, is one of our most basic needs.
But Listening is not a single term which says that listener clearly understood what the speaker
conveyed i.e. it is not necessary that every time there is same understanding of the content. The
response of the listener depends on the way listening. There are some listeners who focus too much on
people, some on technical points and some on other aspects of message. Some are so impatient that
they finish your statement instead of giving time to formulate the ideas and communicate them in
their own easy way. Therefore, recognizing the types of listening is essential, as this understanding
will help mould us as listeners and make us aware which type of listening we should adopt in various
instances of our life.
There may be some particular instance when we have to listen to get information, another can be
while discussing a certain experience, or while listening to a demonstration from a sales agent. For
understanding all these aspects we need different approaches of listening
The major types of listening are discussed below:
5.1 Partial Listening
Partial - the word itself suggest that this type of listening is one sided or incomplete, i.e. when partial
listening takes place people do not listen to the full content, or do not show interest in the message.
This type of listening is further divided into selective listening, passive listening & discriminative
listening.
5.1.1 Selective Listening:
This is the way where the listening is done partially. People listen to that part of communication
which they really want to listen. They listen primarily for those things with which they agree or feel
are important while filtering out those points which don’t echo. The mind of the listener is wandering
and is not attentive to the message. Selective listening takes place when receiver is not in a position to
concentrate or some other reason which hinders in proper listening.
Types of Listening
Partial Listening
Selective Listening
Passive Listening
Discriminative Listening
Analytical Listening
Content Listening
Comprehensive Listening
Critical Listening
Full Body Listening
Active Listening
Attentive Listening
Visual Listening
Empathatic Listening
5.1.2 Passive Listening:
Silent and patient listening without interfering or participating in a talk is known as passive listening.
The listener is physically present but not participating in the communication process. The message is
not absorbed and the passive listener will not be able to recall the message in future. This type of
listening takes place due to many constraints like tiredness, ill health, lack of interest etc.
Passive listening is merely hearing the words and not the message. It leads to misunderstanding as the
sender would be under the impression that the receiver has grasped the message as intended.
5.1.3 Discriminative Listening:
It is an attempt by the listeners to listen to a particular sound which is important for them and ignores
other sounds. For Example while the teacher in the class is taking attendance at the same time
students are talking to each other, despite of so many sounds in the class room, each student waits for
his/her name to be announced for attendance as they are required to respond for their presence.
Discriminative listening may also be “identifying sounds/ voices, and making distinctions within
those sounds, such as distinguishing emotionally loaded words, or hearing fear or pain in the voice”
(Bentley, S., 1998) and responding accordingly. As words do not always communicate true feelings,
the way they are said, or the way the speaker acts may be the key to understand the true or intended
meaning.
5.2 Analytical Listening:
The word “analytical” is defined as “using or skilled in using analysis”. Analytical listening offers fast
and simple way to feedback. People use this listening skill when they want to critically evaluate the
message, or need to extract some information, or required to highlight the content. These uses of
analytical listening are discussed below:
5.2.1 Critical Listening:
When a listener requires specific information from the entire speech or an external speaker is invited
to share the message, one has to critically analyse the content in order to make best use of it.
Therefore, the task is to actively scrutinize the reliability, clarity and accuracy of that particular
information only.
For example when a sales person describes about his company’s product and only discusses its
benefits, or might deliver positive feelings of that product and at the same time try to associate
negative feelings with what the competitor has to offer. At this point the listener should be cautious
and need not to take decisions on the basis of immediate feelings, but rather take time before
concluding or before taking any actions. One needs to analyze and evaluate the message in order to
determine whether to accept or reject it.
5.2.2 Comprehensive Listening:
This involves understanding of the complete substance conveyed by the speaker. The problem is that
many people often interpret the same conversation in different ways, depending on their individual
and social backgrounds. The value of this type of listening is that the listener needs to remember the
matter. It is useful when the purpose is to extract information from the speaker. Mostly this skill is
used in classrooms by students and even at the workplace, when we listen to understand new practices
or procedures for better performance.
In order to properly use comprehensive listening and to gain understanding the listener first needs
suitable vocabulary and language proficiency. Using overly difficult language or technical
terminology, therefore, can be a barrier to comprehensive listening. The ultimate goal of
comprehensive listening is to understand the message the speaker is communicating.
5.2.3 Content Listening:
It describes a situation when one has to pay attention to the content for receiving some information
like highlights of your organization or learning some technical or creative aspects. While getting
information it would not be good on the listener’s part to challenge the speaker. The focus in this type
of listening should be on gathering information, rather than making judgement. Taking notes and
asking questions is important to make the listening interactive.
5.3 Full Body Listening:
It is to listen not only with your ears but by keeping full body in a listening mode. Full body listening
is very important and is required to adapt in day to day activities. This type of listening can be done
by keeping mind & heart open, by openly using the five senses of body, and even by building an open
posture while interacting. The components of full body listening are active listening, attentive
listening, visual listening & empathetic listening.
5.3.1 Active Listening:
Source: Tripathi, A. (2014) “Empathy and Ego Drive : A right blend helps to achieve Sales Goal”,
available online at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/empathy-ego-drive-right-mixture-tripathi
Complete involvement of the listener in speaker. He/ She make the conscious efforts to listen
attentively, decode the message and use it through properly participating. “Active listening is a
process in which a listener receives messages, processes them, and responds so as to encourage
further communication”(Alessandra, Wexler & Barrara , 1987).
Here the listener not only listens to the words but also understands the body language too, even shows
regard for the speaker, concentrates on what is being conveyed and in a way helps speaker to
meaningfully deliver the message. It also includes suggestions by the listener, and speaker is provided
by the space to agree or disagree with the suggestions. This type of listening is required at the time of
discussions & interview process when it is important to recall comprehend and response to the
message. Colombo (2004) said, “Active listening is like a willingness to dig even deeper when only a
small silver of treasure is visible and the rest is buried under a pile of trash”.
Source: Sharples, J. “The Japanese Symbol for listening” available online at http://www.s-
group.co.uk/home/listening-japanese-pictogram/
5.3.2 Attentive Listening:
It means, being fully aware of speakers; what they are saying; how they are saying it, i.e. the tone,
pitch of voice, what they are doing, i.e. gestures, movements, postures, etc., and receiving and
interpreting the message they are sending (Bentley, 1993). Attentive listeners have relational goals
like giving a positive impression, advancing the relationship, or demonstrating care. It is difficult and
very tiring to maintain a state of attentive listening.
5.3.3 Visual listening:
This kind of listening is used when words are strange. It generally happens when we do not
understand the language, as it may be a foreign language. Visual listening also takes place when the
message is unspoken, here the messages are understood through body movement, facial expressions,
gestures, and especially with eye contacts.
Visual listening may also be the next step in online reputation management. Visual listening is the
practice of observing and tracking images and attracting customers by using creative logos with
perfect colour combinations.
Visual listening opens up a world of image-centric conversation, and, with it, a world of possibilities
for engaging customers more perfectly and efficiently.
5.3.4 Empathetic listening:
Source: http://www.slideshare.net/johnavedissian/empathetic-listening-13dec-2045
Empathy means to ‘Put your foot in another’s shoe’, i.e. to keep yourself at other persons place to
understand and realize the feeling of the speaker. Raman & Singh(2006) said, “Empathic listener is
able to go into the world of another- to see as others sees, hear as other hears, and feel as the other
feels”. The purpose is to give a patient listening to a friend or an acquaintance and allow him to talk
through a problem. It involves comprehending what kind of mental state the speaker is at the time of
conversation. There may be some personal issues, or overloading at workplace or something else, an
empathetic listener will analyze the situation and respond accordingly. Brownell (1990) have
considered it to be an antecedent, in that empathetic people tend to be good listeners.
6. Summary
Listening is one of those soft skills which are essential in our day to day life; it may be with family,
friends, colleague or boss. A proper listening is important for understanding a message in a right way.
Three major types of listening are discussed here i.e., Partial Listening, Analytical Listening and Full
body listening. Partial Listening consist: selective listening, passive listening & discriminative
listening. Critical listening, comprehensive listening and content listening comes under Analytical
listening and the components of full body listening are active listening, attentive listening, visual
listening and empathetic listening.
Of these the most important is full body listening as it requires active and empathetic listening skills
with greater self-control and discipline.
Sometimes we just listen partially to a message, like selecting something which interests us, or being
passive where no interaction takes place. Therefore, many times we are not able to work efficiently
because of the half knowledge through partial listening. Thus it is required to have not only analytical
but full body listening i.e., to understand and comprehend the message with full feelings and actions.
Listening as a skill can be practised and improved. A better listening will help us to be a better friend,
relative, employee, employer, subordinate and in all a better human being.