Communication%20and%20Interpersonal%20Skills

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Communication and Interpersonal Skills

• Summer Business Institute
• Villanova School of Business

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Overview

• Some key terms
• Models of communication
• Issues in communication
• Improving communication
• Communication and conflict management
• Improving conflict management

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Some Key Terms

• Communication
• Effective (intended message of the sender is the
  same as the interpretation by the receiver) vs.
  efficient (minimum resource usage)
• Sender
• Stimulation motivation
• Message encoding channel
• Receiver
• Frame of reference perception
• Decoding feedback
• Noise

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Models of Communication
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Issues in Communication

• Bad channel choice (written vs. oral)
• Poor word usage
• Sending mixed messages
• Physical distractions
• Status effects can lead to filtering
• Perception issues
• Stereotyping
• Halo effect
• Selective perception (define problems from
  personal point of view accounting)
• Projection (assign personal attributes to others)

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Improving Communication

• Be an active listener
• Give constructive feedback
• Keep lines of communication open
• Use space effectively (proxemics)
• Use technology effectively
• Acquire/increase appreciation for culture and
  diversity

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Good Listening Skills

• Stop talking
• Put person at ease
• Show that you want to listen
• Remove potential distractions
• Empathize
• Dont respond too quickly
• Dont get mad
• Go easy on argument and criticism
• Ask questions paraphrase and restate
• Note all cues
• Stop talking

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Communication and Conflict Management

• Is all conflict bad?
• Substantive vs. emotional conflicts
• Functional vs. dysfunctional conflicts

Accommodation/Smoothing lose/lose
Collaboration/Problem Solving win/win
Degree of Cooperativeness
Compromise - lose/win
Avoidance lose/lose
Competition/Command lose win
Degree of Assertiveness
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Improving Conflict Management

• Recognize importance of norms use as leverage
  point
• Appeal to superordinate goals
• Expand resources available
• Alter human variables (i.e. transfers)
• Alter physical environment
• Use structure
• Use HR reward systems, policies and procedures,
  training

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Learning Points

• Definitions of communication terms, how they fit
  together to describe process
• Issues associated with communication and conflict
  management
• How to improve your existing skills