Interpersonal Communication Essay
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Introduction
- Interpersonal Skills Importance
- Interpersonal Communication Principles
- Communication Barriers
Self-Concept in Interpersonal Communication
There are no secrets that today’s workplaces are not like yesterday’s. With increased physical size and cultural diversity, the given assertion cannot be doubted. Transmitting messages between two coworkers who speak different languages can be a challenge and requires interpersonal skills. In any organization, interpersonal communication forms a basic tool in the workplace. It assures proper coordination of activities and is based on the point of relating with others, which forms a major aspect of relationships, including both personal and business.
In this interpersonal communication essay, you will find a detailed analysis of the term. It is understood as the process of sending and receiving information between two or more people and the understanding of it through the use of symbols or language. Interpersonal relationships are defined as the manner in which one person communicates with another (Xie and Derakhshan, 2021).
People spend most of their time exchanging ideas with others, which shows the importance of interpersonal communication. This interpersonal skills essay will, therefore, define interpersonal communication and examine a number of factors that influence our interpersonal communication. The focus of the paper is based on interpersonal communication at the workplace principle.
There are several types of interpersonal communication, including public speaking, small-group, or dyadic forms of communication. Public speaking involves interacting with a mass of people, while small groups involve interacting with a group of people, not in large numbers. On the other hand, dyadic communication is a form of communication between two people, which may be through sending and receiving letters or a telephone conversation.
Importance of Interpersonal Skills
In order to be competitive in the workplace, a team needs to interact frequently and openly. Team members must communicate with each other irrespective of the distance between themselves since there is advancement in technology, and therefore, this does not matter. The working team must communicate in order to be successful, and if there is no good communication, their goals will never be met (Mellinas, Martin-Fuentes and Ferrer-Rosell, 2023).
The manager or the leader at the workplace should not only always communicate with the members of the team but also be able to check the progress of the work of each individual and the group as a whole. Frequent check-ups by the manager will ensure that the work is done at the proper time and deadlines are met. The leader or manager of the team should use direct communication in order to avoid misinformation at the workplace and also make sure that every member is notified if any changes have occurred.
Studies that have been carried out show that when there is good communication in an organization, there is an increase in productivity and better progress in individual work. This is true because good communication improves the relationship between the manager and the workers, which will boost their morale toward work.
Communication is a fundamental system in organizations around the world. For instance, organizations rely on all forms of communication, from nonverbal to verbal, during their daily running of business duties. An organization may also depend on information being properly encoded or decoded so that the staff can easily understand the message that is intended to be passed out.
It is worth noting that Enron executives used a tremendous amount of time and effort, as well as literally millions of dollars, to make their operations so sophisticated that they were unlikely to be found, let alone understood or punished (Petra and Spieler, 2020). This is a perfect example to demonstrate how important interpersonal communication is because it shows how the complex behavior of the executives led to poor communication with the outside world.
Communication is vital in all departments of an organization. For instance, the workmates may communicate amongst themselves during working hours. Occasionally, communication at the workplace will depend on the entire surroundings, and in case it is a noisy factory, the employees are compelled to use nonverbal modes of communication such as gestures, facial expressions, or the use of signals.
Employees are also expected to communicate with their bosses, and the communication can be either written or verbal. On the other hand, verbal communication may be vital in situations such as communication between the supervisor and employee in order to find out if the assigned work has been done properly, while written communication may become useful if the intended information to be passed out is in large amounts.
Interpersonal Communication: The Key Principles
There are four principles that try to explain the effective means of interpersonal communication. According to these ideas, interpersonal communication is irreversible, difficult, contextual, and unavoidable (Manawadu et al. 2022).
Like a chemical reaction, interpersonal communication does not offer a chance for reversal of what has been uttered. Whenever an individual utters certain words, the effect caused by these utterances will not be forgotten even when the speaker makes corrections.
Interpersonal communication is a complex affair because of the many dimensions required to ensure success. Since there are various ways to communicate, it becomes impossible to choose the proper way of communication.
Interpersonal communication strongly depends on the environment around which the conversation is taking place and the parties communicating. Some of the contexts that interpersonal communication relies on are psychological, situational, relational, environmental, and cultural contexts.
Last, interpersonal interaction is inescapable because people have to communicate, and thus, this fact can never be avoided. Communication does not entail only words but also the use of gestures, facial expressions, and posture. Therefore, this means that people are in constant communication with each other. The primary purpose of these principles is to ensure interpersonal communication becomes an effective means when dealing with a means of development or a given conflict.
However, there are misconceptions (conflicts) resulting from effective interpersonal communication. These misconceptions are brought about during the application of the aforesaid principles of interpersonal interaction. Normally, interpersonal communication is inescapable; therefore, it can result in confusion when they are interpreted in many ways.
To make matters worse, being irreversible means the misconceptions can never be modified in terms of an orderly deliverance of the topic. Misconceptions in effective interpersonal interaction can also be brought about by a lack of knowledge regarding the topic or context that is being discussed. Interpersonal communication can become complicated when there is diversity of languages and the individuals involved cannot understand each other.
Interpersonal Communication Barriers
Physical barriers are one of the main factors that inhibit communication. This may include closed doors of an office, screens that form a barrier, isolated areas for people with different statuses, a large working area for the employees that are isolated from other areas, or restricted areas where unwanted persons are not allowed. The most crucial component in providing coherence to the teams involved has been identified as proximity (Ruiller et al. 2019).
The second barrier to effective interpersonal communication is the perceptual barrier. This barrier involves the fact that people see the world at different levels depending on where they come from or how and where the individual person grew up. Therefore, the perceptual barrier is concerned with our thoughts, assumptions that a person makes, and also how a given individual perceives the information relayed to him/her.
The third barrier is the emotional barrier. Emotional barriers are all about mistrust, suspicion, and fear among the individuals at the workplace. Interpersonal interaction is hindered by emotional barriers because there is no open and free communication between the parties concerned at the workplace, leading to poor relationships.
The fourth barrier to effective interpersonal communication in the workplace is cultural barriers. This comes in when an individual joins a certain group at the workplace; he/she has to behave in the same particular way as the individuals that were already in that group.
Consequently, the individual will adopt the behavior pattern of the group in order to be rewarded through acts of inclusion, recognition, and approval. persons who conform better in a particular group will be afforded mutual interest, whereas persons who do not conform better in a given group will not be straightforward with other individuals, resulting in bad communication (Eisenberg, Post and DiTomaso, 2019).
The fifth barrier to effective interpersonal communication is the language barrier. Language that one needs to become more familiar with may present problems to oneself when attempting to express himself or herself. In today’s world, there are many languages that are used by people; therefore, it presents a problem in choosing the official language to be used in the workplace.
The sixth barrier to effective interpersonal communication is gender barriers. There are major differences in the speech pattern of a man compared to that of a woman. For example, it is estimated that a lady says around 22,000 to 25,000 words per day, whereas a male speaks between 7,000 to 10,000 words per day (Eisenberg, Post and DiTomaso, 2019). It has been found that females talk sooner than boys and use twice as much language as boys at the age of three years (Eisenberg, Post and DiTomaso, 2019).
The seventh barrier to effective communication is interpersonal barriers. This is a result of poor relationships among individuals at the workplace; hence, the parties that are on bad terms might resolve to abstain from meeting and talking to each other. There are six ways that an individual can use to distance himself from others, and they include pastimes, withdrawal, rituals, playing games (seek and hide), closeness, and working.
Last but not least, noise is a barrier to effective interpersonal communication. Noise usually interferes with a person’s concentration; therefore, it hinders proper understanding of the message relayed. For instance, people working in a noisy factory cannot use verbal communication and are compelled to use nonverbal modes of communication such as signals, gestures, and facial expressions.
However, there are other barriers that are recognized but are not as major as the ones discussed above, and they include intentional orientation, indiscrimination, allness, and polarization.
For almost a decade now, the concept has been experiencing increased attention and popularity within practice and research. In the studies, it is becoming clear that perception of the self plays an integral role in life. While there are several perceptions, none holds such importance as self-perception, and hence, much has to be done to ensure that every individual perceives the self in the highest esteem. It is this perception that we get an understanding of who we are and the role that we play as an element within the universe. Self-concept, therefore, is important in interpersonal relationships.
Self-concept is different from self-esteem and self-report. Self-esteem is described as a person’s sense of value and pleasure in oneself, whereas self-report is defined as what a person is ready and able to divulge (Eisenberg, Post and DiTomaso, 2019).
Self-concept is described as a person’s view of himself, and it impacts interpersonal communication at work through a variety of factors, including cultural teaching, social comparison, and a person’s own judgments and comparisons (Javornik et al. 2021).
Self-concept is mainly developed by the way an individual communicates with another. Through socialization at the workplace, an individual gets to know much about his personal attributes.
Self-concept involves scrutinizing one’s ability in terms of personality, one’s career, relevant interpersonal skills, physicality, and life ability. For example, a statement like “I am slow” is an assessment of oneself that leads to self-concept, and in contrast, a statement like “I am sleepy” will not be a self-concept since feeling sleepy is normal and is only a temporary state. An individual’s self-concept changes with time after identifying the possible crisis and then reassessing oneself.
It is worth noting that self-concept is based on the past, present, and future selves. Future selves sum up every self that one can become and what an individual thinks he can make himself given time. The possible futures are a general sum up of reflections defined by fears, what one believes are his threats, what ambitions and expectations he has, and the standards set for the individual.
Self-concept can be well cultivated in an individual during childhood period so that when an individual grows up, he becomes used to himself, and this removes fear and threat when socializing with others.
Interpersonal Relationship Conclusion
In conclusion, interpersonal communication is fundamental in building good relationships at the workplace, which in turn contributes to an increase in productivity. This will lead to better salaries for the workers. Hence, improved living standards and the welfare of the workers will be catered to in an appropriate manner.
Therefore, the principles of interpersonal communication are inevitable. As a result, proper methods should be designed in order to overcome the misconceptions that may result from interpersonal interactions. In addition, the parties involved in interpersonal communication should design ways to overcome the barriers that hinder effective interpersonal communication. If this is managed appropriately, then conflicts will be done away with, making the world a better place to live.
Interpersonal communication will also be enhanced through maintaining and developing self-concept; therefore, it becomes more important to encourage positive virtues that will instill self-concept in an individual. Consequently, vices should be avoided in order to encourage the building of self-concept.
Reference List
Eisenberg, J., Post, C. and DiTomaso, N. (2019) ‘ Team dispersion and performance: The Role of Team Communication and Transformational Leadership ’, Small Group Research, 50 (3), pp. 348–380.
Javornik, A. et al. (2021) ‘ Augmented self – the effects of virtual face augmentation on consumers’ self-concept ’, Journal of Business Research , 130, pp. 170–187.
Manawadu, U.A. et al. (2022) ‘ Theatrical robotic actor developed using the Interpersonal Communication Principles ’, 2022 2nd International Conference on Image Processing and Robotics (ICIPRob) .
Mellinas, J.P., Martin-Fuentes, E. and Ferrer-Rosell, B. (2023) ‘ Why some call the “worst” what most consider the “best”?: An analysis of tourist complaints at The wonders of the world ’, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights .
Petra, S. and Spieler, A.C. (2020) ‘Accounting scandals: Enron, WorldCom, and Global Crossing’, Corporate Fraud Exposed , pp. 343–360.
Ruiller, C. et al. (2019) ‘ “You have got a friend” ’, Team Performance Management: An International Journal , 25(1/2), pp. 2–29.
Xie, F. and Derakhshan, A. (2021) ‘ A conceptual review of positive teacher interpersonal communication behaviors in the instructional context ’, Frontiers in Psychology , 12.
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Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Interpersonal Communication — Reflective Paper on Interpersonal Communication
Reflective Paper on Interpersonal Communication
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Published: Jun 6, 2024
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