PSYCH 153

HUMAN RELATIONS

C. R. D. MILLER

(379039)

M & W 6pm-9: 20pm

QUESTION / ESSAY: (1)

Explain and discuss how to improve personal and organizational communication.

7/9/01

Be it organizational or personal, here are the major two different kinds of communication; Impersonal: one-way communication mainly used for facts, policies, instructions, notes, etc. Interpersonal: Two-way communication i.e. discussions, arguments, open forum, etc.

Before we can improve communication, we must first discuss communication filters. Communication filters are, but not limited to, semantics, emotions, attitudes, role expectations, gender bias, and non-verbal messages. Semantics: the study of the relationship between a word and it’s meaning. Envelope has particular meaning, pretty much everyone knows what an envelope is or would be. Now job satisfaction on the other hand can mean many different things to many different people. This ability of words meaning different things to different people can be a huge problem when communicating. Emotions: strong emotions can limit or prevent people from making good decisions when communicating. Attitudes: are beliefs backed by emotions. They can be a huge barrier when communicating much the same way emotions can be. Role expectations: influence how people expect themselves, and others, to act on the basis of the roles they play (i.e. a manager may talk down to an associate because of “position of power.” An employee may not take a new manager seriously due to the fact that the new manager was promoted within the company and used to work with the employee.) Gender bias: men and women tend to color the messages they receive from people of the opposite gender strictly because of the other person’s gender. Non-verbal messages: “ messages without words.” (i.e. when you make a face that is contradictory to a statement that you just made.) Non-verbal messages can be sent through the use of eye contact, facial expressions, gestures, and personal space. Eye contact: the eyes transmit more information than any other part of the body, and because they do people generally observe some unwritten rules of eye contact. Facial expressions: if you want to identify the inner feelings of another person, you should watch their facial expressions closely. Gestures: how you place your hands, feet, arms, legs, etc. can all be received differently by people, so be careful, you always want to make a good impression. Personal space: research provides evidence that people use the space around them to define relationships, so be careful on how you distance yourself from another when communicating.

You can personally improve impersonal communication by avoiding filters(previous paragraph). An example of what we are talking about, for instance, would be when you have to call a plumber that is late. When you call you find out that the plumber had canceled your appointment, and forgot to contact you. Being upset with the plumber would be an initial reaction along with forming an attitude towards the plumber. Your emotion and attitude come from the role expectation that you had of the plumber being a professional, and in being a professional would have contacted you as soon as they had canceled your appointment. Now when you and the plumber try to solve this problem it will be three times harder to get the information or message across because of these filters that are in place. Try to prepare yourself for any filters that you may encounter, “Hope for the best, plan for the worst.”

You can personally improve interpersonal communication by also avoiding filters and by incorporating a few good practices in every day life; send clear messages: take responsibility for the messages you send and always send clear, concise messages with as little influence from filters as possible. Use words carefully: try not to use abstract words, and use only those words with clear, concise meanings. Use repetition: studies show that being repetitive is an important element in ensuring communication accuracy. Use appropriate timing: timing the delivery of your message will help ensure that it is accepted and acted upon. Develop listening skills: many misunderstandings are do to poor listening, so practice and learn to listen. Active listening: means to take in everything you are hearing with your entire body and then feed back to the person how you feel the message was received by you.

Organizational communication generally flows along formal channels: vertical channels which carry messages between the top executive levels and the lowest level in the organization and horizontal channels carry messages between departments, divisions, managers, or employees on the same organizational level. There are also informal channels, which are usually gossip, or more commonly, “ The grapevine.” The formal channels usually use impersonal communication, and the informal use very interpersonal communication. When using the formal channels of communication, which is usually “one-way” and impersonal communication, try to avoid all filters and send clear concise messages. Also, organizations should encourage an upward flow of communication. Becoming more popular these days are companies that institute some form of interpersonal communication. These companies are setting up company wide meetings, outings, anonymous employee hotlines, surveys, and other forms or forums for employees to voice their opinion without risk of retaliation.

Word Count: 855