Interpersonal communication - Essay Example

In the given scenario there is an interpersonal communication happening between a supervisor and two employees. In the discussion, the participants are professionals working in an advertising agency where Marie is placed as a director, Steve and Jane are working as a manager, and Paul is a part of a different department. The verbal exchange between the three persons i.e. Marie, Jane and Steve is a part of the interpersonal communication. The discussion starts with a pleasant morning exchange of greetings at the office between Marie and Jane.

Jane who is a manager, wanted to discuss about a competitor firm and their poaching of a developmental director. Jane thought it to be a positive step for the competitor firm. Jane proposed to get them as their potential client to make a positive impact on their own business. Jane also proposed to get the company as their new agent. Here, in the conversation the ‘Politeness Theory’, proposed by Goffman, is being used. The theory is called as the theory of face, as it explores the communication among power relations, social distance relations; solidarity and also the seriousness that is required for the issue in discussion are evident in the conversation (Holmes & Stubbe, “Doing Disagreement at Work a sociolinguistic Approach”).

In the discussion, there is a disagreement evident to the proposal of Jane from Marie’s end. As Marie observes that Jane already has other important business dealings in hand so she would not be able to take risk of letting Jane go ahead with the proposed deal. So, there is a disagreement between the director and the subordinate. Jane did agree to Marie’s concern but showed Marie some recent statistics and also showed very able persuasion and negotiation skills to convince Marie to let her go ahead with the proposal.

Marie thought of assigning the task that Jane had, to Steve, another manager in the advertising agency.