Improving Employees’ Interpersonal Communication Competencies: A Qualitative Study

Topic

Discuss about the Effective Business Communication for Improving Employees.

The research article critically analyzed in this report is ‘Improving Employees’ Interpersonal Communication Competencies: A Qualitative Study’. This research study recognizes the relationship between employee engagement and organizational success. The main concepts covered in this article are various business practices, interpersonal communication and corporate training. The research article describes the effects of employee engagement in detail. The variables analyzed in this paper are work performance and multiple factors affecting it such as motivation, job satisfaction and positive attitude. The evolution of communication training program is explored laying emphasis on interpersonal communication (Hynes, 2012).

The main objective of this research study is to recognize relationships by improving competencies in interpersonal communication. This research helps in recognizing or identifying the relationship between employee engagement and business success so that different ways can be used to foster employee well-being (Hynes, 2012). The importance of employee perceptions, motivational factors and emotions shall be helpful in recognizing the effect on work performance of employee. The study aims to encourage the employees based on the research of one US based company for achieving health workplace relationships. The scope of the study covers studying the IT division of the US organization comprising of application workers, network engineers, project leaders, managers and programmers (Hynes, 2012). This research study helps the employees in developing their interpersonal skills which is required in the regular working of the organization. The aim is to describe the communication competencies in a descriptive manner so that the workplace productivity and employee engagement can be increased (Hynes, 2012).

The methodology adopted for conducting this research study is the qualitative approach. Qualitative approach has been adopted for conducting the research study as it explores the answers of questions such as when, what, why, where and how of communication (Taylor, DeVault, & Bogdan, 2015). Further, another justification for conducting the qualitative research is stated as an opportunity for the researchers to analyze the feelings and concerns of the business community. The data was collected over a 14-month period during extensive interviews with a department head, two directors, two instructional designers, and a senior officer (Hynes, 2012). A survey was conducted in the The Center for Professional Excellence at York College of Pennsylvania for 600 employees where the questions were based on entry-level employees (Hynes, 2012).

The organization selected for conducting the study is US based which is large and its annual revenue exceeds US$10 billion. The organization operates in Asia, Europe, North and South America and ranks in the top 200 on Fortune 500 list (Hynes, 2012). The sample size selected for conducting this study is 1300 where the IT field workers were covered (Hynes, 2012). The employees involve network operators, engineers, managers, application developers, programmers and project leaders. 60 managers at the senior level were interviewed for determining the most critical training needs in IT (Hynes, 2012). A survey was conducted for evaluating the training session. The survey was divided into two parts where the first part evaluated the satisfaction ratings of the materials, activities, instructor and activities. Open-ended survey responses are generated from the participants (Hynes, 2012).

Objectives

The main argument highlighted in this research study is that interpersonal communication competencies affects worker’s productivity and engagement level. Interpersonal communication is important at the workplace as the workers cannot work in isolation (Dagger et al., 2013). There is a need for group effort and there are tasks that might need the help of other team members. It is argued that interpersonal relation also affects organizational culture (Leary et al., 2013). Interpersonal communication helps in maximizing efficiency of the organization regarding sales, training, managing and problem solving (Hsu & Chang, 2012). A message can have several meanings. It is argued that poor intercommunication skills can affect organization’s bottom line. Not only for the organizational growth, but interpersonal communication is also affect the employee engagement level (Dong, Seo, & Bartol, 2013). The conflicts arising in the organization can be resolved and hostile situations can be diffused (Zhao, Peng, & Sheard, 2013). Trust and cooperation among employees can be built up through effective interpersonal competencies (Robles, 2012).

The research study conducted by Hynes (2012) has both theoretical and practical implications. The study is most beneficial for the business communication professionals as the methodology chosen covers a large US company (Hynes, 2012). This enables the readers and academicians a valuable activity with the real business examples. The research study suggests that communication training can not only benefit the IT workers, but also the workers belonging to other fields (Hynes, 2012). Another implication is that the theory of interpersonal communication can be beneficial for preparing business reports, writings and presentations in the business field. The third implication of this research study is that the business communication professionals can consider participation in training or consulting activities. The research study helps in recognizing the importance of interpersonal communication which can be used as a tool for relationship building (Cheruvelil et al., 2014).

The interview conducted in the US organization had indications about the workers benefitting from interpersonal competencies. The results of 2012 survey suggested that the senior managers believe that the new hiring in the company lack professionalism. 34% of the respondents had personal interaction skills, respect and courtesy, 25% had ability to listen and communicate (Hynes, 2012). Further, 21% of the respondents had traits relating to unprofessionalism and poor grammar and interaction skills (Hynes, 2012). The results further imply that the college must inculcate professionalism among the students so that they can have a better business career. It was also found that with better interpersonal skills and competencies, the workplace engagement and emotional well-being was enhanced (Hynes, 2012).

Methodology

The main strength of this research study is that the methodology adopted for conducting the study is qualitative in nature. The researcher has taken adequate time of fourteen months to complete the study and explore the characteristics and variables in details. A sample size of 1300 employees was chosen based on which the research findings were stated. The communication training program is discussed in great detail where the evaluations are made by learning team. Another strength of this research study is that the author has considered fifteen cases related to business communications which provided multiple contexts and perspective to the researchers (Hynes, 2012). A few issues are active learning, context for communication, collaborative nature, inter-culturalism and ethics, contingency and other theories and models. The author has provided various useful examples, both theoretical and pragmatic in nature. Multiple resources such as journals, websites and books are referred which enhance the credibility of research study (Hynes, 2012).

The main weakness of this research study is that it does not consider any long-term metrics for relating the effectiveness of communication training program. The long-term metrics such as employee retention, profitability and improved customer service are not considered as variables in the research study. As the corporate training programs are proprietary in nature, the content and materials is not discussed in details.  Moreover, the research is conducted only in one company for a time period of fourteen months (Hynes, 2012). Therefore, the results obtained from the research cannot be generalized. The research is limited to geographical location and restricts the perception and attitude of employees of other geographical location. Only qualitative research method is employed and no quantitative measure is considered. Therefore, the hypotheses cannot be developed or proved in numerical figures for examining the relationship between interpersonal communication and workforce engagement and performance (Hynes, 2012).

References

Cheruvelil, K., Soranno, P., Weathers, K., Hanson, P., Goring, S., Filstrup, C., & Read, E. (2014). Creating and maintaining high-performing collaborative research teams: the importance of diversity and interpersonal skills. Frontiers In Ecology And The Environment, 12(1), 31-38. https://dx.doi.org/10.1890/130001

Dagger, T., Danaher, P., Sweeney, J., & McColl-Kennedy, J. (2013). Selective Halo Effects Arising From Improving the Interpersonal Skills of Frontline Employees. Journal Of Service Research, 16(4), 488-502. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1094670513481406

Dong, Y., Seo, M., & Bartol, K. (2013). No Pain, No Gain: An Affect-Based Model of Developmental Job Experience and the Buffering Effects of Emotional Intelligence. Academy Of Management Journal, 57(4), 1056-1077. https://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.0687

Hsu, M. & Chang, C. (2012). Examining interpersonal trust as a facilitator and uncertainty as an inhibitor of intra-organisational knowledge sharing. Information Systems Journal, 24(2), 119-142. https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/isj.12000

Hynes, G. (2012). Improving Employees’ Interpersonal Communication Competencies: A Qualitative Study. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(4), 466-475. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1080569912458965

Leary, T., Green, R., Denson, K., Schoenfeld, G., Henley, T., & Langford, H. (2013). The relationship among dysfunctional leadership dispositions, employee engagement, job satisfaction, and burnout. The Psychologist-Manager Journal, 16(2), 112-130. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0094961

Robles, M. M. (2012). Executive perceptions of the top 10 soft skills needed in today’s workplace. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(4), 453-465.

Taylor, S., DeVault, M., & Bogdan, R. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods (4th ed.). Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

Zhao, H., Peng, Z., & Sheard, G. (2013). Workplace ostracism and hospitality employees’ counterproductive work behaviors: The joint moderating effects of proactive personality and political skill. International Journal Of Hospitality Management, 33(1), 219-227. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2012.08.006