Effective Communication and Gender Differences in Million Dollar Arm

This report analyzes communication dynamics in the movie 'Million Dollar Arm', focusing on the challenges faced by the protagonist, JB Berstein, in his interactions with Indian individuals. It explores how factors like language barriers, differing mental models, and unfamiliarity with the topic obstructed effective communication, particularly highlighting the impact of cross-cultural differences. The report also examines gender communication differences, contrasting the communication styles of men and women as portrayed in the film, and how these styles influence the effectiveness of communication. Specifically, it compares JB Berstein's communication style to that of Brenda, emphasizing the importance of interpersonal relationships, sensitivity to non-verbal cues, and the ability to consider the feelings and emotions of others. The analysis concludes that women often exhibit more effective communication strategies than men, particularly in cross-cultural contexts.

Running head: ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR AND MANAGEMENT
Organization Behavior and Management
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

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ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR AND MANAGEMENT
Introduction
Communication is an important aspect of our lives. It is unavoidable. It resolves
problems and at times creates some. It completely depends on the channel and method used for
the communication process. The following discussion is on the movie Million Dollar Arm. In
this movie, the protagonist JB Berstein who is a baseball agent visits India. The purpose of his
visit is to look for good new recruits. It is a real life story and the movie shows his journey and
the people he met. The main emphasis of the discussion would be his communication with the
other characters of the movie, Vivek, Amit, Rinku and Amit (Briley, 2015). The communication
process was often disrupted because of the differences JB Berstein and the Boys had.
Discussion
Ans to Q. 1
Effective communication can only happen if there is no obstruction in the process of
communication. Success in each step will lead to the success of communication. The
sender needs to transfer the message to the receiver through an effective channel. In the
movie million-dollar arm, few obstructions lead to failure of communication process. A
number of factors influence the communication effectiveness but the three main factors
that acted as obstruction in the movie Million-dollar Arm. Before focusing on the
factors it is very important to have a good understanding of communication model. The
most commonly used communication model is that of Shannon and Weaver (Bochner,
2013).

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Figure 1: Communication Model (Source: Shockley-Zalabak, 2014).
The sender has the source of information which he needs to deliver to another person, receiver.
As per this model, the sender first transmits the message in encoded form. The message is
encoded in a language. After encoded message is transferred through a channel. The receiver on
the other end decodes the message in a language that is understood by him or her. In the end a
feedback is send by the receiver as sign that the message has been received and understood.
Without the feedback the communication is not complete and the process has to start again
(Carbaugh, 2013).
The factors that influence the effectiveness of Communication are:
a. Carrying the same codebook-
Language is very important aspect of communication. Language is the medium that is used for
expressing emotions, feelings and sharing knowledge. If proper language is not selected then the

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communication fails. The sender needs to know their audience and then select the language
accordingly. In the movie since JB was from America, Amit and Vivek were from India. The
language was a big issue in this case. Vivek and Amit knew English but there were at times
language acted as a barrier while they communicated.
In an instance while JB and Ray were interacting, they referred to the throwing power of Dinesh
and Rinku as Juice. Amit failed to understand the reference here and thought they were
demanding juice.
Gestures- In cross-cultural interaction, gestures often play an important role in effectiveness of
communication. Gestures mean different in different cultures. When people of different cultures
interact their communication is often obstructed by gestures, different people have different
gestures for salutation. An American who is not well aware about the fact might not understand
the folding hands gesture that is used for greeting of saluting people (Bovee, Thill & Raina,
2016).
b. Similar mental models-
People do have different personalities. This makes them have different perception, different point
of views. Many at times the receiver fails to decode the message send because he or she fails to
understand the perspective of the sender. In the movie Million dollar arm, Vivek is a local guide
and Amit is a baseball fanatic, JB. Berstein being a sports agent has a different perspective
towards things. He is more ambitious and money minded. The biggest difference here is that
Amit did not take money for coaching Rinku and Dinesh. It is the difference in the personality
and mental model. JB Berstein is doing everything for money so for Amit to understand
completely JB is very difficult. As far as Vivek is concerned, his mental models are entirely

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different from that JB and Amit because he is a local guide. Initially he would persuade everyone
to take his services (Kinloch & Metge, 2014). He might have not understood the motive behind
JB’s travel to India. It was after the motive was explained to him he was able to guide JB
accordingly.
c. Familiarity with the message topic-
One of the most important reasons for failure of communication can be unfamiliarity with the
message topic. Conversing to a person who has no idea about the topic might leave him or her
clueless. The message hence send to him related to that topic would be just waste of time. Vivek
do not have idea about baseball so talking or explain him things related to baseball would be
difficult. The communication in such case would fail in most of the cases.
The three factors often obstructed the communication of Vivek, JB and Amit in the start of their
journey. They faced problems because they were strangers and once they got along it was no
longer a problem. The factor that was the main reason for failure of effective communication was
cross-cultural barriers. JB Berstein found it difficult to adjust with Indians.
Ans to Q.3
Men and Women have different communication styles. The differences in their communication
style often determine the effectiveness of communication. Men see interaction more like, power,
status and functionality.
The features of the communication style of Men are :
 Report talk- Usually when Men talk their style is reporting. The conversation is mostly
informative. They give information to the sender mostly when they want to communicate.

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 Men are very quick at giving advices. Their conversation contains many suggestions for
others.
 Men try to dominate the conversation. Since they see conversations as power they are
generally commanding when they communicate to people.
 Apologize very less- Men apologizes very less while they are in conversation
 Less sensitive to verbal cues- Men are not much sensitive to verbal cues.
 Men focus on facts, reasons and logics (Briley, 2015).
Features of communication style of Women
 For women interpersonal relations are more important
 Women talk to build interpersonal relations. The purpose of communication of women is
to either gain information or gain rapport in their conversations with other people.
 Women focus more on feelings and emotions.
 Women never give direct advices, command or requests. They indirectly give suggestions
 Women are sensitive to non verbal cues. They consider the non-verbal cues that are sent
by the person they are in conversation.
 They have a flexible conversation style. They communicate keeping in mind the other
person or persons involved in communication.
 Women apologize more often (Burgoon, Guerrero & Floyd, 2016)
The differences above play a very important role in effective communication. The features
women have are common to all women including Brenda. JB Berstein failed in focusing into
things like emotions and feelings. Brenda on the other hand considered the importance of
feelings and emotions of Dinesh, Rinku and Amit. She tried her best to make them comfortable

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with herself. JB Berstein might often be impatient and lose temper on Amit, Rinku and Dinesh.
While Brenda was quite patient and did not lose her temper on the three. Women are more polite
in their conversation that was evident in the movie. Brenda considered that sending message is
just the beginning of the conversation. She made sure that her actual messages reaches and they
are able to decode the message. She focused on feedback as well. While JB Berstein, was mostly
informative. He seldom cared about feedback thus creating miscommunication. In one instance,
JB takes the boys to the party where they get drunk and become sick. JB had important deal with
Popo, the organizer of the party. Leaving the deal, he had to drive back the boys back to home
(Chaney & Martin, 2013). He was very angry as Popo signed the deal with JB’s competitors. He
lost his temper on the boys. Later when Brenda calmed him down he apologized to the boys.
Brenda said that he should not treat the boys like business deals. The way JB lost his temper
made it very clear that he had very less concern towards the feelings and emotions of other
people. On the other hand Brenda knew that harsh words and showing anger on the boys might
have made them sad and hence she told JB that he was wrong. JB had shown some of the
features of the communication style of Men that were discussed above. JB was commanding,
often lost temper, failed to take verbal cues and often, he was very practical and cared less about
the feelings of others. Brenda also showed the characteristics that have been mentioned above.
She is polite, humble and sensitive towards the feelings of others (Kimbrough et al., 2013).
Conclusion
The movie Million Dollar arm shows the barriers in communication that often occur
when people from different cultures interact. Communicating with someone from a different
cultural background is indeed challenging. This movie is based on real life story. The movie
successfully showed what challenges the real characters might have faced. From the discussion

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on the movie two most important things can be concluded. First, language, mental setup and
knowledge about the topic are three factors that hindered the communication process in the
movie. Cross-cultural differences were the major reason for miscommunication. Second, Gender
communication differences affect the effectiveness of communication. The movie showed that
Women are more effective in communication then Men. Women mainly focus on interpersonal
relationship and therefore in this movie the communication style of Brenda was more effective.

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References
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Briley, R. (2015). Million Dollar Arm by Tom McCarthy. NINE: A Journal of Baseball History
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Burgoon, J. K., Guerrero, L. K., & Floyd, K. (2016). Nonverbal communication. Routledge.
Carbaugh, D. (2013). Cultural communication and intercultural contact. Routledge.
Chaney, L., & Martin, J. (2013). Intercultural business communication. Pearson Higher Ed.
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