ABSTRACT

This was confirmed by Goby and Lewis (2000) in a study of the insurance industry, where staff at all levels, as well as customers (policyholders), regarded listening as the primary communication skill. Similarly, in a study of 1000 salespeople, Rosenbaum (2001) found that the ability to listen in depth to client needs was a defining characteristic of success. However, Stewart and Cash (2008: 35) reported that surveys of hundreds of companies in the USA ‘reveal that poor listening skills create barriers in all positions from entry level to CEO’. Other recent research has confirmed that many managers are poor listeners, and that this is particularly the case in relation to receptiveness to difficult information being raised by employees. In their review of the area, Barwise and Meehan (2008: 22) argued that a main reason for this is that ‘managers often unwittingly signal that they don’t want to hear bad news – for instance, by changing the subject or avoiding interaction – and subordinates tend to censor themselves’.