Communication at Work - Book Report/Review Example

Communication at Work Introduction Communication is the process of transmission of ideas and thoughts among several actors existing in the current scenario. This act of communication does not only involve vocals or speech but communication can also be carried out through the use of gestures and postures. Since it is known that the five fingers on one hand do not possess the same size, so, no two individuals can have the same communication style. As Duck (1999) explains, without any consideration of age, sex, tribal identification, civilization, traditions, financial and social discriminations and precincts on earth, interpersonal relationships possess unmatchable growth insinuation for the human beings. While one individual communicates with others, he represents various factors associated with him. His culture and rituals, his religion, the work atmosphere he belongs to, the social status and the attitudes towards the genders are all such factors that are responsible for making his communication either successful or if not proper, the outcomes can be unfavorable as well. As every individual is a different communicator from the other, the entire features of communication also differ. Taking my own example as a communicator and comparing it with the communication behavior of a class fellow of mine, more than many differences would arise. Interpersonal Differences We both are students of a university and tend to achieve good grades as well as earn a good reputation in all aspects of our academic as well as co-curricular activities. The attitudes and modes of behaviors practiced by both of us are different in numerous ways. The cultural patterns hold a great importance in the interpersonal communication. One feature among the cultural patterns is Eye contact. Eye contact is a feature that is valued and is considered of significant importance among all cultures. Muslim culture and Asian countries demand the girls to avoid the eye contact. Initially this practice used to be adopted and implemented quite thoroughly, but, with the changing standards of the society, people have raised their attitudes and tend to be much modernized than they were before. While communicating with the opposite gender, I usually avoid making an eye contact because this actually makes me experience some sort of discomfort. I have suffered quite a lot of problems due to this incapability of mine to keep an eye contact with the person I am communicating with. My friend however tends to keep an eye contact and this is how she is able to create the impact of a forceful and an effective communication. The differences in status are also an important feature that distinguishes two or more human beings during their interpersonal communication. The fewer amount of people lets us know about the people in a better way and if the status of the people in conversation are same, it is a much private and comprehensive talk as mentioned by Leila Frances Monaghan and Jane E. Goodman (2007). Both of us belong to the middle class families and even then the behaviors adopted by both of us are different in many ways. But at our educational institute, we both have an equal and parallel status. While considering about work, I m more conscious and I take more tension as compared to her. She takes the work stress quite effectively and knows how to cope up with the work load in a proper way so that the goal might get accomplished. The feeling of continuous stress makes my work to experience long delays while her work usually finishes in time. The communication styles that we both possess are also dissimilar in many ways. Whilst communicating with the opposite genders, she usually gets frank while I possess a reserved nature. I prefer communicating in a reserved manner and I talk to the point only, but she believes in tackling to the opposite genders in an extremely tranquil manner. Comparison of Situations and behavior Starting from the cultural patterns, Eye contact is the first issue. While attending the lectures at university, I am not able to keep and maintain an eye contact with the teacher giving the lecture. Contrary to me, my class fellow is quite able to understand the teacher's words as she has the capability of keeping an eye contact with the lecturer. I start looking down somewhere but I can't look directly into the lecturer's eyes. This makes my thoughts to wander somewhere and I from time to time get messed up with the material of the lecture. Our status in the university is of a student and this is the reason that both of us possess an equal privilege at the institute. The factor of Status does not influence my life in any hard way, so I can say that the status factor is not involved in causing any irritation or suffering in my routine experience. While talking and meeting face to face with the opposite gender, my communication style is quite reserved. Quite opposite to me, my fellow's behavior and communication style with the opposite gender is quite frank and easy to go with. She handles the opposite gender with quite an easy approach and knows how to tackle the people in an open and candid manner. We both have quite opposite nature from each other and this is how we tend to attain the goals of together. The mood and temper that she possesses are quite easy to be exaggerated and that is why the reason of being crude exists within several situations. However, my communication component is calmness and confidence in the verbal communication. Analysis of Situation through an Example Although both of us are quite dissimilar with respect to our behaviors but still working together is an activity that really makes us feel at home during all kinds of tasks. Hinde (1979) describes that the successive interactions are strongly affected by the initial communication with early associates. The analysis of such situations through examples is given below: During attending lectures, I try to keep an eye contact with the lecturer of opposite gender, but usually I find myself unable to do this. As taking a lecture yesterday, I got completely lost in the lecture of algorithms due to my inability of maintaining an eye contact with the teacher. My class fellow understood the entire lecture quite well and was quite satisfied after the class was over. Also talking about a meeting held the day after tomorrow, I was quite in capable in keeping an eye contact with my colleagues. This gave them a feeling of my being rude to them. I was able to notice the coldness in their behavior after this in the meeting towards myself. Oppositely, my class fellow possesses the guts to deal with all the colleagues with opposite genders with quite a proficiency and ability. So she is quite able to deal with all the matters associated to the opposite gender. Need for the communication issues to be resolved Since both of us are on the same level of communication and all the routine and daily essentials of communication are quite common. The basic goal for both of us is to achieve the maximum credit and attain a good percentage in the final degree. We both tend to fulfill the gaps that exist as a barrier towards our goal. I consider it as my duty to deal with the issues that are associated to the presentation part as well as dealing with the same gender mates. So by complete and proper coordination, we are able to give each other some margin and lead a successful step towards the achievement of our respective goal. Conclusion Although both of us experience some of the major problems in our attitudes and the moods go quite often in the opposite directions, but still the assurance of some flexibility and margins to each other enables us to work more efficiently. My continuous stress and tensions are quite easily handled by her and she now knows how to reduce stress in my nature. The strategy that we have devised is that I am supposed to increase my confidence level towards the communication with the opposite gender. Also collectively we have devised that my class fellow should try to control her temperament. Also we have decided to develop a mutual behavior that might accompany all the essential needs of a successful interpersonal communication. The features that lack in my personality would be adopted by me and the features that need to be added into my class fellow's character would be adopted by her through the mutual understanding and a combined discussion. Through this surety, we mutually believe that our relationship would be positively affected. Also the achievement of our goal would become approachable and achievable. References Duck, S. (1999). Relating to others. 2nd ed. Milton Keynes, UK: Open University Press. Haslett, B. (1987). Communication, strategic action in context. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Assoc. Hinde, R.A. (1979). Towards Understanding Relationships. New York: Academic Press. Monaghan, L., & Goodman, J. E. (2006). A cultural approach to interpersonal communication: essential readings. 1st ed. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Rohner, R. P., & Khaleque, A. (2002). Parental acceptance-rejection and life-span development: A Universalist perspective. Unit 11/ Chapter 4. USA: University of Connecticut. Read More