Importance of Communicating in Careers - Essay Example

Communicating in Careers (Chapter 11 Interview a person over 45 years old who has a career that interests you. Ask about the joys and frustrations of their career and what a typical day looks like, but also compose a list of questions related to the workplace interpersonal and organizational communication challenges they face. Ask them about how communication makes a difference in their career. Ask them about the climate at their workplace. Compose an entry reflecting on the communication concepts and challenges that came up during the interview.  The person I chose to interview for this exercise is my neighbor Paul McCormick, whom I’ve known for many years. I thought he is the right candidate for he is very friendly and open in his views. I was also interested in how hospitals are run; and Paul’s experience in this domain made him the ideal candidate. Paul is 47 years of age and works as a Human Resources Manager in a private hospital and what follows is the interview I had with him. Q. What were the greatest challenges you’ve met in your career so far? A. That’s an interesting question, for there is no straight-forward answer to it. I’ve risen to the current position as a HR Manager through a lot of hard work and perseverance. I began my career as an office assistant in a private hospital. From those humble beginnings I’ve now risen to a position where I am completely responsible for ensuring proper management of Human Resources in the hospital. It has not been an easy ride. There were times when I seriously doubted my compatibility to the profession. There were phases in which the monotony and drudgery of work got the better of me and I seriously thought of quitting. In this respect, the biggest challenge I faced was finding creative ways of making work interesting. And by successfully managing to do so, I learned to apply creative thinking in other facets of life too, which is again a rewarding experience. Q. How important are communication skills to be a successful HR Manager? A. Very important. Indeed, clear and proper communication is essential in almost all professions, but its role is accentuated in the domain of HR. My responsibility as a HR manager is to communicate the vision and mission statements of the organization to all my subordinates. While textual dispersal of this information in the form of pamphlets and brochures is important, it is equally important to convey such messages in everyday interactions. In my years of experience, I learnt that leading by example is the best way to communicate the core philosophy of the hospital. In the private hospital that I work for presently, this philosophy is to put the interests of the patients ahead of profits. So the accounts department is notified of this priority, and thereby they are a bit lenient in billing patients from poor backgrounds. Q. How do you manage to make team members work in unison? A. I understand the importance of team ethic and try to inculcate it into my team members. There is an inherent contradiction here, for employees join the organization for fulfilling their personal needs, wants and aspirations. It would then be necessary that such personal motives do not overpower the needs of the hospital; and that employees try to synchronize their goals with that of organization’s goals. My job as a HR manager is to help them in this process, by suggesting and showcasing common ground between these two seemingly opposing tendencies. Q. What is the biggest change you’ve seen in communication methods and mediums in the last twenty years? A. There has been a tremendous change in the way communication takes place these days. When I started out, telephones were the cutting edge in communications technology. But so much progress has happened since then. Today, we integrate personal medical records of all patients into an online-database, which can be cross accessed by physicians down the line. Technology has affected the diagnostic and prognostic procedures as well, making the quality of healthcare much improved. Even my job as a HR Manager is facilitated by improvements in technology. For example, all the employees working in the hospital carry a unique employee card (in which a microprocessor is embedded). This card helps automate upkeep of employee rolls. Q. What areas of communication would you like seeing improved in the future? A. There is still scope within the work environment for further improvements. In my department, paper work is largely turned into electronic databases. This is an impressive achievement, for as far back as 10 years, we used to have a big library for patient records and archives. An area of improvement that I would like to see happen is patient awareness of their conditions, treatments and progress. As it is patients have a lot of questions on their mind once they are diagnosed with a particular condition or disease. They try to gather information from doctors and nurses during their consultancy sessions. But this is not sufficient for them. The anxiety and concern caused by their condition makes them pre-occupied with these thoughts. As a way of alleviating this challenge, I would like to see greater communication between patients of same pathological profile, so that they feel more at ease with their treatment and boost their chances of recovery. This is something the medical officers of the hospital will have to look into, for it falls outside of my purview. But still I can see how greater communication between patients can bring relief during their recovery process. Hence, I would like to see this implemented. 2-The Self (Chapter 9+)  What aspect of your self-concept would you like to improve? How might you restructure interactions with others to accomplish this change? Alternately, discuss how intersectionality affects your sense of self. How do the broader systems of which we are a part influence our identity?  One of the most difficult things in life is to make a honest assessment of one’s own shortcomings. While it is difficult, it nevertheless is an exercise worthy of time and effort spent. One aspect of my self-concept that I would love to change is my comfort levels in social situations. I am neither an introverted person, nor an extroverted person. But probably due to my ethnic and religious background, I at times feel aloof and distant from those around me. While this tendency used to be more pronounced during my early days in college, I have now started seeing positive changes in this regard. For example, these days, I am lot more open to socializing with all students (irrespective of their ethnic or religious backgrounds). Wanting to improve my self-concept, I have already come up with a few ideas to restructure my interactions. I realized that participating in college sports is a great way of socializing with others, for during playtime I lose my inhibitions easily. Moreover, the language and rules of sport are much easier to comprehend compared to unique cultural and religious values of the individual. In this way, I see sports as a great unifying factor among people of varied backgrounds. I also gain respect of my opponents by sticking to the rules of the game and adhering to fair-play principles. In other words, I try my best to be a good sport to win over skeptical opponents and team members too. I also realized that developing a healthy sense-of-humor is important for succeeding socially. As a result, I have started watching popular situation comedy series and other humorous programs in order to develop my sense-of-humor. What this exercise does is it shifts my cultural sensibilities toward that of mainstream society. I can already see the benefits of this. Even if I am not able to quip or remark in a funny way on all occasions, the mere attempt to be funny is in itself socially rewarding. People are far more tolerant and encouraging of you when they realize that you are a light-hearted person. On other instances, the mere mention of popular sitcom series names has drawn me friendship. As a way of improving my interactions with my peers, I’ve also started reading leading newspapers every day. People are always impressed when I am up to date with facts and events in the country and the larger world. Moreover, I am now able to appreciate my peers’ culture and heritage much better due to this greater understanding acquired through reading newspapers. I’ve also learned to exercise discretion and politeness in culturally sensitive matters like homosexuality, race, etc. I’ve learnt that I should not go overboard while trying to be funny, for I could easily offend someone’s cherished values or principles. Hence, these are the means and methods through which I endeavor to restructure interactions with others and also improve aspects of my self-concept. So far, they have borne me rewards and I hope to reap more in the future. Read More