Major Stages of Communication - Essay Example

Communication Essay Communication entails the process of relaying information between two or more parties. It involves passing information from one party to another and receiving of feedback from the send message. Communication can take various forms, with the most common form being interpersonal communication. Interpersonal communication entails the process of using feelings, ideas, and thoughts to initiate and develop relationships with other members of the society. Initiating and developing relationships follow three systematic stages. The first stage involves understanding another person’s situation. This enables us to understand the context and perspective from which the other person is speaking. The next step involves responding to the message in an appropriate manner. This entails employing the right tone and emotional expression based on the understanding of the person communicating (Wood 72). After communicating the response in the right manner, the respondent should be able to achieve the objective of communicating. This entails the establishment of a common understanding between the subject parties. Good interpersonal communication skills help in conflict resolution contexts. Interpersonal conflicts arise when people reaches a disagreement over their convictions, beliefs, ideas and desires. Interpersonal conflict can present serious consequences to the parties involved. Therefore, the best solution on resolving a conflict is by employing effective interpersonal communication skills. In reality, conflict leads to emotional stress, hurting feelings and situational disappointments. When any conflict is handled in an unhealthy way, it might result in irreparable damages in social relationships. Therefore, the best method of resolving any conflict is applying some ethical principles while striving to reach a compromise. One of the essential ethical elements during conflict resolution is empathy. Empathy entails putting oneself into another person’s shoes. Thought empathy allows one to understand what another person is saying. Feeling empathy allows someone to acknowledge how another person feels. Therefore, empathy facilitates healthy communication when resolving a conflict. The other ethical element is exploration. Exploration allows one to enquire thoroughly on the other person’s thoughts and feelings. Stroking is also essential during conflict cases. Stroking involves complimenting the person by making respectful and positive opinions about him/her. To resolve a conflict successfully, I align myself to these three ethical aspects, which are empathy, exploration, and stroking. The definition of gender roles and other aspects associated with gender and society depends on an individual’s social background. The beliefs and convictions held by an individual concerning the social roles expected from different genders influences social relationships to a substantial extent. On my part, I expect females to be submissive, and accommodative to different ideas and situations. The other factor that may affect my communication is ethnicity. Ethnicity brings about prejudice and discrimination within the society. Discrimination entails behaviors directed towards people from a different ethnic background while prejudice involves holding irrational and inflexible attitudes towards members of another ethnic group. Prejudice influences communication whereby negative prejudice results in discrimination. Therefore, ethnicity might affect my judgments and decisions during communication in a positive or a negative way. The other factor than influences communication is culture. Culture is comprised of behaviors, beliefs and other social characteristics that define a particular social group. Though people would like to define themselves individually, the society conforms an individual to some set standards of beliefs, values and behavioral norms. These inbred cultural principles in an individual influence his/her relationship with people within a culturally diverse environment. As a result, culture may affect my judgments concerning the accepted code of conduct among individuals in a society. I might end up judging people based on my own standards of cultural principles. In addition, personal experiences play a significant role in determining the result of interpersonal communication. In a context where the listener had been a victim of a case being resolved in a conflict, he/she might be able to arrive at an objective conclusion based on his/her experience. Personal experiences influence how one perceives situations also on the course taken while responding to these situations (Wood 157). Therefore, if my interpersonal experiences are limited, I might end up handling conflict resolutions unsatisfactorily. Communication models are a graphical representation of how information flows during the process of communication. A model keeps track of the message as it moves from the sender to the receiver and back to the sender in the form of feedback. A communication model allows us to acknowledge all the elements of communication by viewing the entire process in a graphical manner. There are different communication models in use. The model employed during communication depends on the nature of the situation where the communication is happening. In this context, the appropriate communication model in conflict resolution could be the ecological model of the communication process. The Ecological Communication Model The ecological model acknowledges the existence of four fundamental elements. These elements include the creators and consumers, whom are the people engaging in communication, and language and media used during communication. In this model, the creators dispatch the message to the consumer via a situational appropriate language and media. According to this ecological model, the consumers formulate a message based on their perspective and understanding of the subject matter. On the other hand, consumers interpret the messages according to their perception and relationship with the creator of the message. This model asserts that messages warrant formulation, and consumption with the help of contextual language. It also acknowledges that the language used must be within the context of the communication. Therefore, this model facilitates personal interaction and understanding during the communication process. Some of the tools I will use during communication to facilitate objective communication include good speaking and listening skills. Proper speaking skills allows effective relay of the intended message to the consumer. The speaking skills include appropriate facial expression, maintaining eye contact, and specking with the right tone. Another efficient tool for communication is the listening skills. Communication theories clearly distinguish the difference between hearing and listening during communication. Hearing entails the ability to perceive sound while listening involves interpreting and understanding what the message source is saying. Good listening skills are necessary for effective communication. Some of the skills I apply during interpersonal communication to acquire a better understanding of a massage include; avoiding the disruption of the speaker, maintaining eye contact, nodding my head and asking appropriate questions (Wood 120). Allowing the speaker to finish speaking gives him/her the chance to express himself/herself fully. Maintaining eye contact builds trust between two communicating individuals while nodding the head signifies attention to the message. I also focus my attention on the non-verbal cues like the facial expressions of the speaker. Facial expression will allow me to read unsaid feelings and thoughts of the speaker. Non-verbal cues play a substantial role in communication during conflict resolutions. These messages are obtained from emotionally driven facial expressions, tones and the intensity of voice. On the receiving end, applying the response non-verbal cues like a calm tone, a concerned facial expression or a reassuring touch can help to relax a tense situation among individuals at conflict. The anticipated barriers during communication may include time, space, and audio distractions. Time applies when it comes to the use of vocabulary in a language. During conflict resolution, care has to be taken to avoid untimely utterances and opinions. Space is the physical distance between the communicating parties. Individuals maintain varying distances depending on the nature of their relationship. Friends stay close while communicating, unlike in an official satiation. Conflict resolution requires close distance between the parties to facilitate the build of trust. With respect to the Pedro and Roxanne case, I am playing the role of Pedro, and I am trying to resolve a conflict between Roxanne and me concerning my smoking habit. Based on my communication styles and skills, I define myself as compromising person in this conflict. I am trying to reach a compromise with Roxanne concerning my smoking habit with the baby. Given that I am not willing to quit my smoking habit, I am able to give up smoking at the comfort of my living room, and take my cigar far from the baby. However, Roxanne does not encourage me to distance myself from the baby even for a moment. I can apply the Pillow method to analyze the progress of our conflict resolution process. At first, I will consider a situation whereby I am right and Roxanne is wrong. After that, I will acknowledge the possibility that Roxanne could be right while I am wrong. This will assist me fathom the issue from my wife’s perspective. The third consideration is that we are both rights and both wrong. This will facilitate the development of a contrast between the opposing opinions. The succeeding stage tends to sugar coat the whole conflict whilst disregarding it as a small matter. The final stage entails acknowledging all the four perspectives and evaluating their strengths and weaknesses. In the context of resolving my smoking habit conflict, we are at the third stage where we are considering a possibility that we could be either right or both wrong. Based on the Pillow method, I will subject the conflict into thorough evaluation using the Pillow steps. Since the strategy should result in a win-win situation, I will consider satisfying the needs of both parties (Wood 129). I will start by considering my opinion on whether I am right or wrong. I will identify the merits and demerits of my opinion and Roxanne’s opinion. After that, I will consider the seriousness of the matter under consideration in the conflict. After critical examination, I will evaluate the entire available alternative and filter it through criteria based on their merits and de-merits. I will then settle at the most suitable option that will achieve a win-win situation. I avoid smoking around the baby while reducing my smoking intake gradually. This will satisfy both Roxanne’s desires of keeping me away from the baby and satisfy my desire to continue smoking. The other situation I could use is to create a compromising situation. This will mean that we will both have to give up some privileges surrounding the conflict. In this case, I can choose to be smoking outside the house while Roxanne will have to allow me to continue with my smoking habit. A win-win conflict resolution result would be suitable in a situation where the solution will satisfy all the involved parties. A win-win resolution follows the line that someone has to embrace the give and take aspect whereby one surrenders something for the other party, and the opposite party has to compensate the other one back. This can apply well in a salary negotiation conflicts between employers and their employees. The employer has to give up the economic value of remunerating the employees and employees have to pay back the employer by improving their performance. This means the employees will have to sacrifice their time by working harder to meet the work place objectives. Reference Wood, Julia. Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters. New York: Cengage Learning, 2012 Read More