Communication at Work: Discussion, Relational Development, Conflict

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Discussion section
Relational development
Conflict Resolution
Listening Skills as a Part of Conflict Resolution
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

Interpersonal communication represents an important part of organizational behavior and human relations. In this paper, I am going to analyze my interpersonal relations with colleagues because they have a great impact on success of my future job and position in new team. I pay a special attention to these relations because they determine my performance and acceptance of others. From the very beginning, it was really difficult to maintain friendly and positive relations because of personal differences and high turnover rates in the organization

Discussion section

From the very first day of my enjoyment, I assume that communication is a necessary condition for cooperative work to be accomplished, and that technology makes a variety of kinds of communication possible. The work discussed here has examined one function of communication–information exchange. Certainly this is an important function, but it’s probably a good idea for those of us who work in this area to remind ourselves periodically that it is not the only purpose that communication serves and, in many situations, it may not be the most important one. People communicate for a variety of reasons, and a technology that optimizes the efficiency of information exchange may be less than optimal insofar as the other functions are concerned (Littlejohn and Foss 32).

Relational development

In personal communication with colleagues I pay a special attention to eye contact. Non-verbal communication influence unique personal image of the speaker, his cultural and social differences. Eye contact and facial expression help me to establish a contact with another person and express my emotions. I use direct eye contact which reflects honesty and credibility. Eye contact and smile express an open and honest approach. Smiling people are perceived as more intelligent than those who do not smile. In contrast to men, women do not use vigorous hand gestures and greater movement. My gestures and body posture reflect that I am a calm and restrained person. The vocal tone makes people more likely to listen to us. Usually, I use a conversational voice which is more attractive for listeners and allows me to establish a contact with a listener at once. Many men prefer to keep silent while another person is speaking, and use gestures or eye-contact to express my approval or disapproval of his/her words. People are seen as more attractive by listeners if the sender speaks at a more rapid rate. Thus, non-verbal communication depends on context, situations and conversation topics. Space, colors, decorative style and furniture reflect personality of the owner and his unique vision of the world (Miller 22). Exploration is also required when it is not clear to one or both parties what should be done or how to proceed (as is often the case at the outset of a joint endeavor). Finally either tacit or overt negotiation of differences is required before mutual expectations can be formed. The process of developing mutual expectations is further complicated by the reality that often one or both parties do not know what they want at the outset of a working relationship. One’s expectations often do not become clear until after one has had some experience working with another person (West and Turner 72).

Conflict Resolution

Before discussing the issues covered in my work place, it would be good to distinguish the following. It is known that conflicts may be caused by any type of job, but psychologically it is always more difficult to work with people than with papers or machines. Each client or care recipient has his or her own character, opinions and attitudes, which may not correspond with accepted rules. In this case work causes a lot of stress for there is a necessity to get on the right side of every person an employee works with. The conflict resolution techniques help me to avoid conflicts and minimize negative consequences of dissatisfaction. The main techniques are used are listening and assertive communication. I can say that from the point of view of the well-being function, it is a power allocation stage in which the group must resolve political issues of who controls the distribution of work and rewards. This involves the resolution of political issues of interpersonal status, power, and payoff. From the point of view of the member support function, it is a matter of allocation of payoffs and commitments. The individual’s expected contributions to and payoff from the group must be negotiated and renegotiated as projects (and members) come and go. Usually described as the specialized or technical language of a specific profession or group, jargon becomes problematic when it is used outside of its particular community of writers or speakers. Because jargon is the language of the specialist, it can usually be identified by its source, particularly when it is imported from easily recognized professions or fields. In my communication with others, I use jargon because it helps me to explain my thoughts and problems. Still, all the words and expressions are clearly understood by all employees (Wood 41).

The same may be said about counselors whose conflicts at work may result in poor services, psychological exhaustion and even depression. School counselors have to manage a lot during their work days, their duties are multiple and they cannot make mistakes – their decisions are to be right. Thus, the authors, Wood (33) and Miller (36) devoted their study to contemplating the factors which may cause stress in counselors in order to help people of this occupation deal with their problems and perform better even in stressful situations. In their research the authors contemplated three factors, to which conflict was correlated in job. Among them were demographic variables (setting, gender, division level), intrapersonal variables (relationship between the personality of a school counselor and his or her job satisfaction, as well as ego development to name a few), and organizational variables (role conflict and role ambiguity). While we are interested in organizational factors, they can be viewed in more detail. According to Miller (76) questioned administrators stated that their confusion concerning what is expected from them in their job. Consequently, this is the sign of poor communication of counselors’ duties of office. And it is known that when duties are not well-defined, this problem is entitled unclear demands, and may cause serious stress for an employee is unable to perform well because of lack of knowledge as for what is required. But the most significant influence was a result of emotional work – when counselors deal with problems on the basis and with the help of their feelings – in such cases the level of stress is higher, and conflict is almost inevitable (West and Turner 98).

Listening Skills as a Part of Conflict Resolution

Among other factors, I pay a special attention to listening and time spent on communication. Listening management has to be paid serious attention, and it is evident that strict time frames for performing certain tasks as well as possessing enough time for each task (without time pressures). And it is necessary to mention as well, that delay in performing the duties may be a result of communication load – too much information for one person to process and make use of (Miller, 98). Consequently, managers are supposed to pay more attention to the tasks they give and to the formulation of the duties in order for the employees to understand well what is required, to manage their duties well and progress in their performance but not lag behind the schedule and feel stressed because of it (Littlejohn and Foss 69).

It is evident that there are many factors which may cause stress at workplace, poor communication of duties and a lot of tasks to be accomplished among them. But it is an emotional state and attitude of counselors which may result in higher levels of conflict in their job. Thus (and this conclusion may be applicable to other professions as well), coping with their stress and emotions may help counselors avoid conflict situations. But this requires special training. They contemplate employees’ performance and their attitudes towards their work from the angle of different ways of communication in their organizations. According to the authors (West and Turner 33) there exist three communication-related outcomes which influence employees’ performance and results of their operation: these are communication load, interdepartmental communication, and job satisfaction. All these three factors were discussed with employees and associated with their experiences at work in distinct periods of time.

At work, roles and role expectations are part of the context of all social interaction, but they are even more pervasive and are more explicitly defined in working relationships, particularly when they occur within or across organizational hierarchies. From my work experience, I can say that most working relationships develop between people by virtue of their roles. In this respect, people begin with an institutionalized role relationship, often before they have begun to develop an actual working relationship. A second consequence of roles in hierarchical organizations is that the distribution of power in working relationships tends to be far clearer and more asymmetric than in relationships of a purely social and voluntary nature. Asymmetry in power has a negative effect on self (Wood 102). These processes occur at both tacit and overt levels of behavior. It also requires considerable internal subjective work by each party, involving attributional processes, the formation and revision of individual expectations, and evaluative processes of the type described by social exchange theorists. To work actively toward developing shared expectations therefore requires a clear communication of initial expectations, where possible, and the exploration and testing of any difference in expectations.

The morning meetings have been very effective in clarifying initial expectations, developing a basis of trust, and accelerating the process by which initial mutual expectations are agreed upon. Experience with these interventions suggests, however, that subsequent meetings are needed after six to eight months to deal with issues that neither party could anticipate at the outset. The development of mutual expectations is an extended process. Concrete differentiation of these expectations takes time and requires interpersonal work. As for the development of influence and trust, one-time interventions are insufficient (Severin and Tankard 82).

Conclusion

From my personal experience, I can say that effective communication is a complicated process which requires skills and knowledge. People are ready to work better and to respond to the supervisors’ requirements in a more productive way if they understand that the attitudes towards them are positive and that managers are open for communication. Communication is a very important factor for employees’ to be satisfied with their jobs. Communication can have different manifestations – from directions as for the duties to relational communication between employees or employees and leaders, as well as defensive communication, and employers and managers have to do their best not only to communicate well with employees but to offer them proper training to be ready for stressful situations in order to be able to cope with them and avoid conflict situations.

Works Cited

Littlejohn, Stephen. W., Foss, Karen. A. Theories of Human Communication. Wadsworth Publishing; 9 edition, 2007.

Miller, Katherine. Communication Theories: Perspectives, Processes, and Contexts. McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences; 2 edition, 2004.

Severin, Werner. Joseph., Tankard, James. W. Communication Theories: Origins, Methods and Uses in the Mass Media. Allyn & Bacon; 5 edition, 2000.

West, Richard. L., Turner, Lynn. H. Introducing Communication Theory: Analysis and Application. McGraw-Hill Humanities/ Social Sciences/ Languages; 3 edition, 2006.

Wood, Julia.T. Interpersonal Communications. Wadsworth Publishing, 2003.

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