The Psychology of Listening: A Concurrent Approach towards Real Perception and Understanding of the Listening Skill from an Organizational Perspective

Abstract

Listening is the most common and imperative type of on-the-job communication. According to Mendelson (1994), “Of the total time spent on communicating, listening takes up 40-50 %; speaking 25-30 %; reading 11-16 %; and writing about 9 %”. Communication skills consist of four skills: Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing (LSRW). This is a common assumption that we are efficient listeners and understand everything that we listen to at once. But truly, we perceive 50% of what a person says. So, listening is the most critical skill among the rest three skills of communication skills. Considerably, listening skill takes a longer time to acquire. One can learn new skills, build strong connections, and well analyze information effectively with the aid of effective listening. It is the author’s profound study on listening skills that results in understanding the four important factors of listening: Need, Concern, Mental ability, and Hushed environment (NCMH Factors). The paper aims to elucidate the fact that these four factors (NCMH) are interrelated in the process of active listening. The study tries to highlight the psychological factors essential to studying listening skills.