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COM 2301, Professional Communication 1

Course Learning Outcomes for Unit II Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to:

2. Develop communication strategies for various cross-cultural workplaces. 2.1 Discuss conflict causers within a workplace setting.

5. Analyze workplace situations for successful professional communication with diverse audiences.

5.1 Recognize how cultural differences may cause workplace conflict.

6. Illustrate appropriate problem-solving skills for effective professional communication. 6.1 Describe communication tools used to resolve conflict in the workplace.

Course/Unit

Learning Outcomes Learning Activity

2.1

Unit Lesson Video Segment: “Conflict Definition” Video Segment: “Conflict Styles” Video Segment: “Skills Required for Conflict Resolution” Video: How Can Having Good Listening Skills Make You a Better

Communicator Video: Ted Talks: Leah Georges – How Generational Stereotypes Hold Us

Back at Work Video Segment: “Behaviors That Elicit Resistance” Video Segment: “Behaviors That Elicit Cooperation” Video Segment: “Overview of Conflict and Resolution” Article: “Ask Your Employees: How Can I Help” Article: “Growing Trust with Your Employees” Article: “Reducing Stress: Suggestions for Healthcare Practitioner’s in ICU

Settings” Article: “Getting the Balance Right: Are Your Soft Skills Losing Your

Organization Money?” Unit II Assignment

5.1, 6.1

Unit Lesson Video Segment: “Conflict Definition” Video Segment: “Conflict Styles” Video Segment: “Skills Required for Conflict Resolution” Video: How Can Having Good Listening Skills Make You a Better

Communicator Video: Ted Talks: Leah Georges – How Generational Stereotypes Hold Us

Back at Work Video Segment: “Behaviors That Elicit Resistance” Video Segment: “Behaviors That Elicit Cooperation” Video Segment: “Overview of Conflict and Resolution” Article: “Ask Your Employees: How Can I Help” Article: “Growing Trust With Your Employees” Article: “Reducing Stress: Suggestions for Healthcare Practitioner’s in ICU

Settings” Unit II Assignment

UNIT II STUDY GUIDE Workplace Relationships

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Required Unit Resources In order to access the following resources, click the links below. Videos The transcripts for these videos can be found by clicking the “Transcript” tab to the right of the videos in the Films on Demand database. ClickView Pty Limited (Producer). (2009). Behaviors that elicit resistance (Segment 5 of 8) [Video]. In

Understanding the nature of conflict. Films on Demand. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=41134&loid=129169

ClickView Pty Limited (Producer). (2009). Behaviors that elicit cooperation (Segment 6 of 8) [Video]. In

Understanding the nature of conflict. Films on Demand. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=41134&loid=129170

ClickView Pty Limited (Producer). (2009). Overview of conflict & resolution (Segment 7 of 8) [Video]. In

Understanding the nature of conflict. Films on Demand. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=41134&loid=129171

Articles Gawade, A., & Patching, A. (2017, September). Getting the balance right: Are your soft skills losing your

organisation money? Building Economist, 38–40. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=126730913&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Gordon, B. L. (2020, November 12). Ask your employees: How can I help? BEEF.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A641327946/ITOF?u=oran95108&sid=ITOF&xid=7b8a248c Johnson, B. (2020, May 27). Growing trust with your employees. Southwest Farm Press.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A625010743/ITOF?u=oran95108&sid=ITOF&xid=beea6e53

Tilwe, K. (2020, December 29). Reducing stress: Suggestions for healthcare practitioner’s in ICU settings. Medgate Today. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A646927537/ITOF?u=oran95108&sid=ITOF&xid=f3c26e02

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Unit Lesson

Overview

This unit will focus on workplace relationships and conflict within these relationships. This unit will also focus on communication tools that can be used to resolve this conflict and reduce workplace stress.

Workplace Relationship Types Think of the many types of relationships you have at work:

• Customer/Client/Patient and Employee • Employee and Employer/Supervisor • Coworker and Coworker

Can you add to this list? Now, think about which type of work relationship you value the most. Is it between you and your coworkers? You and your supervisor? You and the customer? Why is this your most valued work relationship? Now, consider how you maintain these valued relationships? The answer is communication.

Workplace Conflict Causers Those of us with the strongest communication skills have learned that no matter how valued the work relationship is, conflict can challenge that relationship. What can cause workplace conflict? In Unit I, we examined noisemakers, such as

• perception, • self-concept, • language, • nonverbal communication, and • listening.

Unit I also examined communication barriers, including

• physical and organization, • emotional and nonverbal, • cultural and language, and • written.

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Finally, we explored communication principles, including

• unavoidable, • irreversible, • symbolic, and • learned.

Workplace conflict can arise when the receiver is prevented from receiving the message as the sender intended; no matter if that sender or receiver is a coworker, patient, customer, or supervisor. These noisemakers, barriers, and principles can prevent the communication process from even taking place not only at home but also at work. To learn more about conflict, watch this “Conflict Definition” video segment. The transcript for this video can be found by clicking the “Transcript” tab to the right of the video in the Films on Demand database. Noisemakers, barriers, and principles are conflict causers. However, with our workplaces growing ever more diversified, culture can also be a conflict causer. Culture is even listed as a communication barrier. Moreover, culture can also affect how we perceive our world and ourselves, how we speak (verbally or nonverbally), and how we listen—or not listen. For example, if your company has ever transferred you or if you are in the military and were assigned to a new post, you may have experienced culture shock. You may have had to learn not only your new state or country’s cultural norms but also your new workplace’s cultural norms. How did this effect your workplace communication? Did conflict arise? It is not only a new workplace but also those we work with who can create conflict. Leah Georges notes in her TEDTalk (TED, 2019) that today’s workplaces can have five generations working together—or attempting to work successfully together. How can working in a group with members ranging from ages 18 to 70 create conflict? Do we have certain stereotypes of each generation? Watch the video TEDTalks: Leah Georges—How Generational Stereotypes Hold Us Back at Work. The transcript for this video can be found by clicking the “Transcript” tab to the right of the video in the Films on Demand database. We cannot avoid our workplaces, but we can learn how culture causes conflict. By learning, the messages we send have a greater chance of being received as we, the sender, intended.

Conflict Styles At work, we often must work together in groups, teams, or divisions. Many times, working together can begin peacefully. Note the attentiveness and willingness to listen shown by the group’s eye contact and body language in the image below. This team is looking at and turning, if needed, towards the group member who is speaking.

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(Fizkes, n.d.)

Then conflict begins, and soon, working together looks more like this. In the image below, conflict seems to have stopped all effective communication.

(Dragoscondrea, n.d.)

For easier analysis of the photograph above, let’s title the image Group in Conflict, and give each group member a name:

• Man Tossing Paper: Dennis • Woman in Blazer: Annabella • Woman in Sweater: Pam

While working with this group, perhaps you would, like Dennis, grow so frustrated that you toss papers into the air. In contrast, like Annabella, you would ignore Dennis and focus on the report in your hand, or, like Pam, your facial expression would show your exasperation for Dennis. How does this nonverbal communication reveal each group members’ conflict style?

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The five conflict styles are

• competitive, • avoidant, • collaborative, • accommodative, and • compromising.

In this image, is Dennis being competitive, wanting to win an argument or prove his point? Is Annabella avoidant, not willing to acknowledge the conflict (only her report)? Is Pam, although apparently annoyed by Dennis, perhaps willing to compromise? To discover which conflict style you prefer, watch the “Conflict Styles” video segment. The transcript for this video can be found by clicking the “Transcript” tab to the right of the video in the Films on Demand database. Resolving workplace conflict can be challenging because, just like Dennis, Annabella, and Pam, our coworkers, supervisors, customers, or clients all have different conflict styles. However, the ability to identify each style can be the first step in resolving the conflict.

Resolving Workplace Conflict The ability to identify conflict styles is the first step in resolving the conflict. The next step in resolving workplace conflict can be simply stated (however, not easily taken) as practicing behaviors that result in cooperation not resistance. When working in a group, keep in mind the purpose and the goal of the group. Will your actions or words lead the group to achieve this goal? Will you inspire cooperation like Pam, or will your actions and words cause resistance, like Dennis, thus causing conflict? In the video segment “Skills Required for Conflict Resolution”, listening is noted as arguably the most important skill in resolving conflict (ClickView Pty Limited, 2009). The transcript for this video can be found by clicking the “Transcript” tab to the right of the video in the Films on Demand database.

Conflict Resolution Tools Two tools that work together to resolve conflict are active listening and perception checking. Active listening can be defined in two words: paying attention. Turn off your cell phone, keep eye contact with the group member speaking, turn on your camera during your virtual meetings (others seeing if you are paying attention can prevent you from multi-tasking), and ask questions. Perception checking includes active listening in its three-step process.

Step 1: Description: Description of noticed behavior Step 2: Interpretation: Two possible interpretations of the noticed behavior Step 3: Clarification: Asking a question Note how each step requires us to pay attention or actively listening to our coworker, supervisor, or customer so that we can describe their behavior, interpret that behavior, and ask a clarifying question. Looking again at our Group in Conflict image and using our two tools (active listening and perception checking), perhaps this group’s conflict could have been avoided if Annabella paid attention earlier to Dennis. Could she feel or see his frustration growing? Could Dennis have asked more questions about the project to

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avoid becoming frustrated? Perhaps Pam could have then noticed that Annabella was not paying attention and interpreted that as she had important information in her report that would help the group achieve their goal and that they should listen to her. To become better workplace communicators, one must perception check and listen. For further information, watch the video How Can Having Good Listening Skills Make You a Better Communicator? The transcript for this video can be found by clicking the “Transcript” tab to the right of the video in the Films on Demand database. Being a better communicator creates benefits in the workplace. Johnson (2020) notes that having strong communication builds trust. Having trust in your coworkers can either prevent conflict or resolve conflict. If our Group in Conflict members all trusted each other, they already know that they can work together because they would listen and pay attention to each other’s ideas, thus, preventing conflict. If the Group in Conflict did have a conflict, because they have strong communication skills, they can trust that they will compromise and collaboratively resolve any conflict.

Our workplace can be a factor of our stress.

(Khommai, n.d.)

Stress Management at Work Workplaces are inherently stressful. Too many meetings, face-to-face or virtual, piling up projects with looming deadlines, or an endless line of customers all create stress. Add in miscommunication as well as conflict and performance reviews, and your workplace can become one giant ball of stress. Reducing work stress has become a popular topic with the idea of work-life balance as a solution for work stress. For many of us, striving for a work-life balance may mean scheduling 10-minute stretch and breathing breaks throughout our workday. For others this may mean finding a career with flexible hours or the option to work remotely. However, work-life balance often falls on the employee to develop their own stress management. Employers can help relieve employee stress. Employers should remember that their employees spend as much or more time at work as they do at home (Gordon, 2020). Building a strong workplace relationship, as previously noted, relies on trust. Employers can build trust by taking the stress out of performance reviews. Offering constructive feedback and two-way reviews where both the employee and employer discuss strengths, challenges, problems, and solutions can reduce stress (Gordon, 2020). In some fields, such as health care, where patient death can be a part of each day, employers can offer grief sessions or specialized stress reduction training to their employees such as cognitive behavioral training (Tilwe, 2020).

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Perhaps both employers and employees can also reduce stress by asking a simple question, “How can I help?” This question shows that you care. We must also realize that it is okay to ask for help. Many workplaces offer free counseling to their employees. If there is trust established in that workplace, employees will feel safe to ask for this help. If we do not ask for and receive help, we may end up unintentionally throwing that stress ball at our workplace stress causers.

Summary In Unit I, we established the fundamentals of communication and began putting our professional communication puzzle together. In this unit, we continued building our puzzle by focusing on workplace relationships including conflict causers, conflict resolution, and stress management.

References ClickView Pty Limited (Producer). (2009). Skills required for conflict resolution (Segment 4 of 8) [Video]. In

Understanding the nature of conflict. Films on Demand. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=41134&loid=129168

Dragoscondrea. (n.d.). ID 215305845 [Photograph]. Dreamstime. https://www.dreamstime.com/angry-

business-man-screaming-diverse-colleagues-throwing-away-documents-angry-business-man-screaming-diverse-colleagues-image215305845

Fizkes. (n.d.). ID 194872335 [Photograph]. Dreamstime. https://www.dreamstime.com/focused-mixed-race-

business-people-listening-to-african-american-colleague-focused-mixed-race-business-people-different-ages-image194872335

Gordon, B. L. (2020, November 12). Ask your employees: How can I help? BEEF.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A641327946/ITOF?u=oran95108&sid=ITOF&xid=7b8a248c Johnson, B. (2020, May 27). Growing trust with your employees. Southwest Farm Press.

https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A625010743/ITOF?u=oran95108&sid=ITOF&xid=beea6e53

Khommai, P. (n.d.). ID 106009207 [Photograph]. Dreamstime. https://www.dreamstime.com/engineers-either-strained-stressed-out-working-hard-engineers-either-strained-stressed-out-working-hard-image106009207

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TED (Producer). (2019). TED Talks: Leah Georges–How generational stereotypes hold us back at work [Video]. Films on Demand. https://libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/login?auth=CAS&url=https://fod.infobase.com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?wID=273866&xtid=209777

Tilwe, K. (2020, December 29). Reducing stress: Suggestions for healthcare practitioner’s in ICU settings.

Medgate Today. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A646927537/ITOF?u=oran95108&sid=ITOF&xid=f3c26e02