07
Oct 21

The Importance of Communication Skills

Communication skills are a major component in the everyday life that we live in. According to an article, “Interpersonal skills were defined as the ability to work on teams, teach others, serve customers, lead, negotiate, and work well with people from culturally diverse backgrounds” (Parton, 429). We grew up learning communication skills from family, friends, and teachers and continue to expand our knowledge on communication skills as we get older. Since we are young children we learn through school and family the importance of communication skills. Throughout adolescence, skills are expanded and are expected to be better. Careers as well require everyone to have communication skills that build up their work career. Communication skills are like active listening, respect, friendliness, confidence, public speaking, and many more.

Since childhood, we learn many different communication skills that are a big part of our life. Some communication skills are like respect, friendliness, active listening, confidence, etc. According to the textbook, “Semin (2007) suggests that communication is the most fundamental topic social psychologists can address because it represents the foundation of social life” (Gruman 271). communication is a very important aspect in our life. Going to elementary school we learn to develop communication skills like respect and friendliness. We learn how to respect teachers, students, parents, and any person. For example, as I was a child, my school used to require a course in which we learned the importance of these skills in our daily lives. Respecting a teacher helps a student get good grades and have great communication with teachers and faculty. While students, for example, do not respect a teacher and keep talking over the teacher and not listening, it causes communication to become more difficult with each other. Another communication skill is friendliness in which as we are young we are more innocent and we become friends with other students easily. This skill helps students communicate with each other easily and being able to work with groups. If a student is not liked, he or she might be bullied or no student would want to be friends with him or her.

As we grow older, our communication skills expand and relate to our life even more deeply. We continue to learn different communication skills as we grow older. In college, we learn how to develop confidence, independence, and being open minded. Through specific courses, for example, we learn how to speak properly using the proper language, as well as having proper gestures. I took a communication course last semester where I developed more communication skills and learned how to speak more properly through presentations and group work. Through the presentations I was to express my interest with my words of choice but making sure I used the proper language and gestures while presenting. As well as giving me confidence through the presentation and speaking in front of a class. College also teaches a person how to become independent and be open minded through the different courses that we take. Being open minded helps a person think outside of the box.

College allows us to expand our skills and apply them to our work fields which require us to have certain requirements. For example, if a person wants to work as a translator or a teacher then good language skills are required in order to expand on to other students that are being taught. Another job that requires a skill is like a doctor in which confidence in yourself is important because you have to be confident in yourself to have a procedure done on another person. These skills apply to every career there are with many different communication skills. Study “found 49% of entry-level ads included requirements for basic skills related to communication, including reading, writing, listening, and speaking” (Parton, 430). The most important skill in the work field is body positivity and talking skills (whether verbal or non-verbal). Our gestures in the career field are important to have a positive communication set with others. Connecting to the ideas that we learned through the textbook, we notice the importance of verbal, non-verbal through messages that are being coded and decoded.

Communication skills are the process in which we give information and we receive in return through verbal or non-verbal gestures. These skills are being implied to our life since we are children through family, friends, and schools. As we grow older our skills that we learned, like respect, confidence, friendliness, continue to expand on in our lives. Colleges allow our skills to expand and become more prominent in our daily lives. Our communication skills continue to grow with us and fall in the work fields which help everyone in their communication asset with others. These skills are very important in our daily lives, whether in school, home, work, or anywhere. What are some communication skills that you think are most important to you?

 

References: Gruman, J. A., Schneider, F. W., & Coutts, L. M. (2017). Applied social psychology: Understanding and addressing social and practical problems. SAGE.

Parton, S. R., & Kinnick, K. N. (2005). Workplace communication: What the apprentice teaches about communication skills – Katherine N. Kinnick, Sabrena R. Parton, 2005. Retrieved October 07, 2021, from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1080569905282099?casa_token=00lX3YLPq4EAAAAA%3AwIfxspcDV0JV6h8gZyLd38RJkm9QgyuLSZfX7ftXEbrV4qbc1dlBVCtnS_VyTCqPa_nDD-gw_AVN


05
Oct 14

Workplace Conflict between Departments

Stereotyping in the work place isn’t always about the individual features such as gender or race but sometimes it is as simple as the department you work for within the company. In almost any work environment there is a hierarchy of management and under that, departments. Is one department really that much better than the other, I would think not since all departments are necessary to keep the company running. This idea does seem to escape some upper management views when handling conflicts in the workplace and discrimination can happen.

conflict

This may seem overly exaggerated but it really can be true and the discrimination of either favoring one department or disliking another can take its toll on the employees involved. It is stated that “prejudice is an attitude toward others based solely on group membership” and it’s fairly sad how it can be that easy to judge or worse treat someone based on their group affiliation (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). In corporations there seems to be disconnect between sales type employees and service type employees not just between themselves but also how management can treat them as well. This negative stereotype between departments can lead to conflict which can cause employee dissatisfaction, decreased productivity and turnover which can cost a company in many ways.

There’s no affirmative action or laws to help support you because you work in service versus sales, as it’s an internal conflict between departments that happens in companies every day and no one sees the need to fix it. Some may be even blind to the idea that this discrimination is actually going on because it’s never been pointed out and those who feel it are often afraid to speak up.

blindfold

The theory of relative deprivation can help shed some light on this issue. The theory implies “that a person may feel deprived of some desirable thing” and this conflict can be based when a person has compared themselves against this standard and then assumed to be deprived based on their own perception (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts 2012). This could be the feeling of an inferior department in feeling but maybe not actually as in importance. A perceived idea or feeling is just as real so it can be just as damaging to the morale of personnel.

This type of discrimination leads to department conflict and the “lack of cooperation between work groups is a major problem in organizations” but how to help improve this conflict and move forward (Katcher, 2014). Katcher mentions some suggestions that might be worth bringing up in your place of business such as an employee satisfaction survey, rewarding cooperation between departments or even just recognizing the problem (2014). An idea I set forth in my business is having joint meetings with a representative from every department to voice all department’s concerns and trying to address the issues at hand as one unit instead of separately. Also when we make improvements to a process we take employees from all departments to get different points of view to help understand each other.

What it comes down to is it can be a really easy problem to solve and get rid of the department discrimination but calling attention to it in the first place may prove difficult. Those who feel deprived may not want to speak up and others may not want things to change. In my opinion for a company to really thrive this type of discrimination really has to be eliminated because without everyone’s cooperation it’s just pieces of a puzzle and no one can see the big picture. Most have the same goal but different ways we are asked to achieve it in a business but if we really could all be on the same team just think of the difference in our work place.

Team Of 8 Blue People Holding Up Connected Pieces To A Colorful

References:

Katcher, Bruce L., (2014). Improving the Workplace: The Difference between Heaven and Hell. Discovery Surveys, Inc. The Discovery Consulting Group, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014 from https://www.discoverysurveys.com/articles/itw-109.html

Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (Second ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 

 


28
Sep 14

What Work Should Really Be: Work Engagement

Companies are always searching for ways to become more profitable and increase productivity, but at what cost? There are many issues that result in overworked and stressed out workers that can lead to health issues and other problems such as depression and alcohol abuse. A more recent concept to help battle this type of burnout is work engagement, which can be described as workers “who approach their work with energy, dedication, and focus” (Association for Psychological Science, 2011). So how can work engagement help?

The goal of empowering your employees with work engagement is to give them the sense of purpose and fulfillment in their job. When an employee feels engaged in the work place they tend to produce more and be more innovated while taking initiative to help improve the work environment and the service and/or product they are working for. Arnold Bakker (2014) mentions that “research has revealed that engaged employees are highly energetic, self-efficacious individuals who exercise influence over events that affect their lives,” this can be beneficial not only for the company but also the employee (Bakker, 2014). If employees are willing to go the extra mile and feel satisfied in their work place no matter their position then one may guess their livelihood may be more satisifying as well. If you were happy and enthusiastic about your work that would carry over into your everyday life, and when you feel better about yourself you tend to make better decision in your life.

These choices can lead to healthier lifestyles and more active as well which can lead to less time sick. With less time being sick means you are out of office less and go to the doctor less, a win win for reducing cost in healthcare and increasing productivity in companies. So many illnesses are stress related and a main trigger of stress is work. Since the majority of people work at least at some time in the life it would seem like a great place to start would be in the workplace. The best way to improve the overall health and well-being of a population is promote healthier lifestyles and prevention of stress and illness (Schneider, Gruman & Coutts, 2012). A model to back up the support for work engagement is the theory of planned behavior or more importantly perceived behavioral control, where a person believes they have a certain amount of control or influence over their behavior and this is an important element in employee engagement.

When employees feel like they have control over their work and are a part of something bigger they tend to give more. And when an employer gives the same energy back the mutual effect is a bonus for both sides. After reviewing some of the top companies to work for Google is up on top a lot, but why? Maybe it’s they give their employees the freedom to choose when they work, incredible perks and stimulating work environments, and also a say what happens in the company, while these kind of things may not be able to be offered from other companies the point is that they may hold “the future of workplace leadership” (Crowley, 2013).

This type of intervention in the work place could affect the population is such a positive manner. Not only is it studied in health psychology but also in positive psychology, work engagement can be a powerful tool for the future of people’s life quality. “Employees’ own personal resources- such as self as self-esteem and optimism- also contribute to work engagement” so imagine if this influence could start in the work place where almost everyone goes on a daily basis (Association for Psychological Science, 2011). That really is an inspiring thought to think that everyone could enjoy going to work and stop dreading Monday’s, I only hope that more companies will start adapting this type of thinking for society as whole, for we might all benefit in our daily lives as well as a population.

 

References

Association for Psychological Science. (2011, July 20). Work engagement, job satisfaction, and    productivity: They’re a virtuous cycle. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 27, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110720142459.htm

Bakker, Arnold. (2014). Work engagement. Retrieved September 26,2014 from             http://www.arnoldbakker.com/workengagement.php

Bakker, Arnold & Leiter, Michael. (2010). Work Engagement: A handbook of essential theory and research. Psychology Press 2010. Retrieved September 27, 2014 from http://www.media.routledgeweb.com/pp/common/sample-chapter/9781841697369.pdf

Crowley, Mark C. (2013, March 21). Not A Happy Accident: How Google Deliberately Designs    Workplace Satisfaction. Fast Company Inc, Mansueto Ventures, LLC 2014. Retrieved  September 28, 2014 from http://www.fastcompany.com/3007268/where-are-they- now/not-happy-accident-how- google-deliberately-designs-workplace-satisfaction

Schneider, F.W., Gruman, J.A., & Coutts, L.M. (2012). Applied Social Psychology:           Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems (Second ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

 


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