Interpersonal Communication And Conflict Negotiation

Discussion

Discuss about the Interpersonal Communication and Conflict Negotiation.

Interpersonal communication possesses a direct influence on the organizational culture. Interpersonal communications play an important role in the business environment of an organization. According to Knapp et al. (2014), the confusion and misunderstandings can be considered as significant factors that can damage the business environment and an ultimate failure of the company within the industry. This particular discourse will discuss the essential factors that affect interpersonal communication. This study will also reveal the consequences of the cultural misunderstandings in the business environment. Employees of the business organization work together for sharing a special kind of bonding in order to deliver their best job performances. The maintenance of proper and adequate interpersonal communications helps the associated stakeholders to reduce and avoid any cultural misunderstandings as it can damage the positivity of the workplace and the business environment. On the other hand, interpersonal communication possesses enough capabilities for making a healthy interpersonal relationship and creating positive ambiance.

As opined by Wood (2015), the concept of culture and interpersonal communication is closely associated with the sensitivity to the cultural differences. The economic condition of a company depends on the basic ability to communicate in an efficient and effective manner across various cultures. However, there is a huge contradiction regarding the influence of technology has made the interpersonal communication easier than the traditional mode of trading. Even the use of internet has made the process of intercultural communication easy as the multinational corporations can collect relevant news related to the business across the world. The perception of self in the interpersonal communication plays a pivotal responsibility for communicating with the rest of the world. The perception of self in interpersonal communication examines and identifies the core relationship in between the fundamental concepts of the communication and the self-identity. It helps to learn about the traits of an adaptive and self-aware communicator. Biocca and Levy (2013) have mentioned that the perception of self in interpersonal communication provides the facts on self-esteem. With the proper interpersonal communication, an individual can explore various paths of improving own communication skill and style in order to deal with other individuals from different cultural background within the workplace. There are different types of perceptions regarding the self in interpersonal communication and this perception possesses several stages. An individual should find out the ultimate consequences of the self-satisfying prophecies in the entire communication process. 

Active Listening

An individual can consist own thoughts and feelings regarding own strengths and weakness. Madianou and Miller (2013) have referred that from the social comparison, own evaluation and interpretation, others images concerning the particular individual and the actual cultural teaching process help to develop the perception of self in interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication suggests the process with which the people exchange relevant information and feelings through verbal and non-verbal messages. Interpersonal communication of an individual involves not only the transmitting process of the messages; however, it also includes the facial expressions, tone of the voice, body languages and gestures. According to Berger (2014), the elements of the interpersonal communication suggest the communicators, messages, context and feedback. The implication of the interpersonal communication includes the process of collecting and providing relevant information. On the other hand, the culture and interpersonal communication influence the behavior and the attitudes of the individuals. With the proper employment of the interpersonal communication, an individual is capable of forming important contacts and to maintain appropriate relationships with the making sense of the world and its notion of experiences. Interpersonal communication also helps to express the personal requirements and there is constant growing of the sense of understanding the requirements of the other associated employees within the organization. Berger (2014) has suggested that interpersonal communication can be considered as irreversible, inescapable and complicated, however, it is necessary for the psychological, relational, environmental, cultural and situational context. In this essay, there will be a discussion on the cultural context, which engages all of the learned rules and behaviors that may affect the process of interaction or communication. It is noteworthy to mention here that the cultural aspects differ from one country to another. Interpersonal communication helps to earn the process of dealing with the individuals from different cultural background (Fussell and Kreuz 2014).

Listening can be understood as the most fundamental component of the interpersonal communication skills. The skill of active listening can be improved and acquired with the practices. There are contradictions related to the active listening process as it is difficult to master and will and it takes patience and time for development. Concentration is the key component of active listening as it involves every sense and notion in order to provide a full attention to the message of the speaker. The listener should be conscious during the decision-making process and there should be capability of the listener for understanding the actual messages of the speaker. Active listening always promotes the non-judgmental and neutral decision. Hewes (2013) has determined that active listening considers the short periods and the patience pauses of the silence during the communication. Active listening always provides scope and opportunities to explore the feelings and thoughts of the message providers. It has been assessed that the procedure of active listening does not focus solely on the speaker and its messages; however, it reveals both the verbal and non-verbal signs of the listening. The non-verbal signs of active listening can be determined by smile, posture, eye contact, and distraction and mirroring.

Listening and Interpersonal Communication

Hearing and listening cannot be considered as same thing and in order to be a good and patient listener, an individual should possess much more than letting in the audible stimuli. Often people fail to consider the impish link in between the necessity of the interpersonal communication for making a strong and stable bond with others. On the other hand, Monaghan et al. (2012) have mentioned that listening suggests a learned communication skill. It is often difficult to understand the characteristics of a good listener, however, it can be understood when another person is not listening to the former person. As opined by Hynes (2012), listening is a transactional and dynamic process of receiving the message and responds to the recalling or the other messages from the sender. In the interpersonal communication, an individual usually makes sense of the received messages of another communicator. Listening has been determined as dynamic only because it plays a pivotal role in the interpersonal communication. On the other hand, listening has been concerned as transactional as both the receiver and sender of the message are active agents in the entire process. Some of the critics have criticized the process of listening as a two-way street as it merely reveals the fact that listening is necessary, however, it is insufficient for maintaining the relationships in between the sender and the receiver of the messages. The major four components of the listening process consist of receiving, responding, recalling and rating.

Verbal, nonverbal, emotional and conversational messages are significant for mitigating the consequences of the cultural understandings in the business environment of an origination. It has been evidenced that every individual employs a vast range of the paralinguistic mechanisms and nonverbal messages for expressing own emotion. All of the non-verbal and emotional messages can be concerned the facial gestures, facial expressions, tone of the voice and postures. In today’s competitive business world, the business experts utilize not only the verbal communication, however, concentrates on the non-verbal and emotional messages as it can be determined to interact with the other persons in proper manner. However, there are still contradictions regarding the implication of nonverbal messages as it often fails to reveal the intense emotional state of an individual. As opined by Tzonis et al. (2012), during the crucial decision–making a session, it is next to impossible to communicate with the emotional or non-verbal messages.

On the other hand, the non-verbal communication shows the intentional signals of the emotional condition and reveals the limited value of communication with the help of emotions in this rational world. The interpersonal communication involves much more than the exact meaning of the words than the conveyed messages or the information. A nonverbal message suggests implicit messages, which are expressed through the non-verbal behaviors of an individual. On the other hand, a non-verbal message conveys the fundamental relationship in between two people and provides feedback to the other person. Emotional communication regulates the fundamental glow of the communication process by signaling to other individuals. Manning (2014) has referred that the non-verbal communication is an integral and complex part of the entire communication styles and skills. In most o the cases, the people are unaware of their own non-verbal behavior and fails to understand its necessity in the interpersonal communication for reducing any issues related to the cultural misunderstandings in the business environment. Burnside-Lawry (2012) has suggested that the verbal communication has been proved as an effective interpersonal communication instead of the implication of the non-verbal or the emotional communication process. However, the effective use of non-verbal communication can be learned from the experts as it can develop the communication styles and skills of the individual. The conversational messages involve greeting, phatic communication, such as small talk, establishment of relevant connection for opening channels for further interaction. Conversational messages can be denoted with the sets of conversation, relatively informal type of social interaction.

Nonverbal and Emotional Messages

The consequences of the cultural misunderstandings have a large impact on the individuals and the business operations of an origination. It is essential for the management and higher authority of the company to overcome any kind of issues related to the cultural misunderstanding with employing potential communication skills. In order to mitigate the cultural differences, the management should learn at first the process of dealing with people from various cultural backgrounds. The different cultural background can be determined by completely different mannerisms, gestures, and customs. Cultural misunderstandings also possess the language barriers and the tone of the voice (Weger et al. 2014). For instances, the nations like Germany and America, a business associate interacts in aggressive or assertive tone in order to share their ideas or suggestions. On the other hand, In Japan and China, a person speaks in a soft and passive manner for communication. During the marketing campaign or launching a new product, there may be some problems regarding the cultural misunderstanding because of different cultures. Some cultures possess a strong sense and notion of nationalism for conducting business in other countries in this era of globalization. On the other hand, there are effective recommendations for mitigating issues that evolved from cultural misunderstandings (Wolvin 2013). Technology enables every individual to stay connected with the other and it reduces the cultural misunderstandings in an efficient manner. The video conferencing and the international phone calls help to solve the cultural misunderstandings and the conflicts. From various researches, it has been revealed that to maintain a potential communication with the individuals from different cultures is challenging. The cultures provide individuals with different ways of thinking, hearing, seeing and interpreting the entire world. In this era of globalization, diverse cultures influence collides and mix together. Considering the basic degree of today’s business world, the knowledge and skills of culture and mentality require essential skills to deal business functions. Intercultural contact enhances the potentiality of an individual and helps an organization to continue its business in the international market (Hung and Lin 2013).

Conclusion

This particular study clearly discusses several factors in detailed manner that are responsible for the interpersonal communications. It also outlines the ultimate consequences of the cultural misunderstandings in the business environments. This essay concentrates on the culture and several aspects of the interpersonal communication. At the end of the study, it can be understood that in order to avoid any kind of conflict, it is the best policy for avoiding any political discussion and negative discussion on the cultural aspects. In this study, there is also mention of type of barriers of interpersonal communication, which may influence the performance of an employee and ultimately of the entire business activities of an organization. There are recommendations to mitigate such issues related to the interpersonal communication in a proper manner.

References

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